A Young Woman's Heart

"Xiaoxiao—Xiaoji says he likes you—!"

Mo Xueyao immediately raised her voice.

However, her shout went unnoticed by the students behind her.

Everyone was completely relaxed at this moment; many people would never be this boisterous under normal circumstances.

Only on this deserted beach can people relax so much and unleash their hidden selves.

"Pfft, hahaha—" The laughter sounded somewhat familiar, but upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Mr. Xue's. Then, he was seen being shoved hard onto the sand by the enraged Lu Chengyuan.

"Great, Xiaoxue!"

"What happened? What happened?" Mo Xueyao quickly got up, feeling like she had missed a good show.

Li Wanyan, who had been watching from that side, replied softly, "Mr. Xue stole half of the last piece of yellow melon and ate it."

"Pfft, really?" Mo Xueyao looked incredulous. "Is Xiaoxue really this mischievous?"

"Just now, Lu Chengyuan said that boys should be gentlemen like Mr. Xue, and then he joined the watermelon grabbing team himself."

"Huh? This really does have a bit of Xiaoxue's humor."

"What's so funny?" Li Wanyan asked, puzzled.

“Humor that goes against the grain,” Mo Xueyao chuckled. “Or rather, humor that defies common sense and is full of creativity.”

……

Chapter Nineteen: The Beach at Night

When I was in Hangzhou, I could see stars in the sky, but they were nowhere near as dazzling as this.

Looking up, it's as if you've draped yourself in a galaxy, and you could grab dozens or even hundreds of stars with a casual reach.

There is no light pollution from the city, nor is there any environmental damage.

This is a pure land far removed from the hustle and bustle of the mortal world.

Only in such a place can you see such a beautiful starry sky.

The sound of the ocean waves echoed the faint chirping of crickets coming from the forest, like a symphony that never stopped.

Hua Yinyin's thighs were more comfortable to use as a pillow than Li Wanyan's, probably because they were softer and less firm.

A faint milky scent emanated from her, mixed with the aroma she picked up from the barbecue earlier.

"I can't believe Xiaoxue is that kind of person!" Lu Chengyuan said angrily. Anyone who didn't know better would think he had done something outrageous.

However, in reality, he only grabbed a piece of watermelon.

"Isn't my watermelon-stealing skill pretty good?" Mr. Xue asked with a hint of teasing.

"Tsk, you took it and devoured the watermelon in a second... You really are something else..."

"That's what a master is like!" Gao Yuan flattered from the side.

"Xiaoxue doesn't usually seem like this."

“You have to be a little more lively sometimes,” Mr. Xue replied with a light laugh. “Have you always thought I was a very serious person?”

"Most of the time, although not very serious, it's still quite proper, right?" Lu Chengyuan tilted her head.

Mo Xueyao's black dress was already covered in sand, but the others were in much worse shape. It's almost impossible to play at the beach without getting your clothes dirty.

Ye Banxia tugged at the belt of her overalls with a 'clack clack': "In everyone's eyes, Mr. Xue should always be the gentleman type, who rarely competes with girls or anything like that."

"No," Mr. Xue said, somewhat bewildered. "I just feel that there's not much to fight for in many things."

"Huh—?"

“Yeah, Xiaoxue doesn’t compete with us boys for things either.” Gao Yuan nodded in agreement.

“It’s not really a good thing for a man to be a gentleman to a woman,” Mr. Xue said seriously. “Because it means he sees women as a vulnerable group, and being modest is just a way of expressing his magnanimity and pity.”

"Aren't girls the vulnerable ones?" Lu Chengyuan glanced at him sideways.

However, this time it wasn't Mr. Xue who answered her, but Cha Li, who was adding firewood to the fire: "Wrong, wrong. If women want to be equal to men, they shouldn't put themselves in the position of the weak, let alone enjoy equal rights and the care of the weak at the same time."

“Yes.” Mr. Xue nodded. “I have always treated both men and women equally. This is the kind of gender equality that should exist in the new era.”

"Gender equality? Is that even possible?" Lu Chengyuan pursed her lips.

“Perhaps, it’s really unlikely.” Ye Wen leaned on Qiu Yi’s shoulder. “The reality is that either men or women are dominant. To achieve perfect equality, men and women would have to be physiologically identical.”

Thinking about it carefully, it seems to make sense. After all, if everyone is the same gender, then equality will naturally be achieved.

The equality mentioned here does not include inequality arising from identity or status; it only refers to gender equality.

"Wenwen, do you remember when we were little? There was a big group of people at the beach, just like this."

"Hmm... I remember, it was around the time the villa was newly built, right? And we invited a lot of villagers from the neighborhood to celebrate." Ye Wen stroked her chin. "Ah, right, there's a local tradition of playing a game of strength and skill around a bonfire at night."

"How do we play?" Li Hongran asked, intrigued.

“That’s right, um… Come on, Qiu Yi, let me give you a demonstration.”

"Oh." Qiu Yi had drunk two bottles of beer and seemed a little tipsy. He stood up unsteadily, spread his legs slightly apart, and then used the toe of his right foot to touch Ye Wen's toe.

"Stand like this, then clasp your hands together, and apply force to your opponent. If your opponent loses their balance and can't stand up, you win," Ye Wen explained.

"Ah, this feels a bit like strength and balance training?" Li Hongran stood up eagerly. "Anyone want to try it with me?"

"If you can just use brute force to push someone to victory, who would want to play with you..." Lu Chengyuan was speechless.

“I’ll do it!” Aya Akimoto, who was also very tall, volunteered and stood up.

Although their fingers were intertwined, there was no hint of ambiguity between them; instead, there was a strong sense of rivalry between them.

With the lower body not allowed to move, only the upper body could be swayed, but the actual scene looked a bit like two old ladies arguing at the entrance of the market—pushing and shoving each other.

Despite her height advantage, Aya Akimoto ultimately lost out, as Li Hongran's muscular physique was not just for show.

Of everyone present, there was probably no one who could defeat Li Hongran.

So this guy was simply left aside, while the others enthusiastically tried it out on each other.

"Xiao Ji, come and give it a try." Mr. Xue called out to Duanmu Ji, who was about the same size as him, perhaps noticing that he had always been on the periphery and unable to integrate into the group.

Even Huang Yuxi, who is only unable to speak, still gets to chat with people through the whiteboard quite often.

At first, everyone followed the rules seriously, but as the game progressed, things went awry, and the pushing and shoving even turned into wrestling.

Gao Yuan and Lü Bolun rolled around on the beach several times, their bodies and hair covered in golden sand.

"Oh my~" Ye Wen squinted her eyes with a touch of nostalgia, rested her head on Shui Zhishi's lap, and put her legs in Qiu Yi's arms. "It's been such a long, long time since this place has been this lively."

"Yes, it's been a very long time."

"very nice."

"What's so good?"

"Hmm... It's good to be alive."

"Pfft, what is Wenwen saying?"

"I'm thinking about high school life."

"Shouldn't it be 'Youth is wonderful'?"

"All."

After playing around for a while, people got a little tired and gradually the fireside quieted down. They gathered in twos and threes, chatting quietly about all sorts of things.

It covers celebrity gossip, national affairs, and even history and culture...

Mo Xueyao didn't join the conversation; she just lay there on Hua Yinyin's fair thighs, while Hua Yinyin quietly gazed at the distant sea.

The sea under the starry sky is deep blue, full of mystery. It seems that as soon as you step into the sea, there will be a creature bigger than a tall building opening its bloody maw.

This was the first time Mo Xueyao had discovered that the light emitted by the stars at night wasn't just white, but also included other colors, such as purple and blue...

However, most of them are quite faint, so you need a clear sky and to look very carefully to spot them.

When you gaze at the starry sky for a long time, you feel as if you are rotating with the Milky Way, as if you are already in the boundless universe.

"What is Yinyin looking at?" Mo Xueyao's gaze was already focused on the starry sky.

"The distance beyond the sea surface is pitch black, and the seabed beneath that black surface is also pitch black. What lies in the deepest part of the sea?"

"There might be some prehistoric creatures that have not yet been discovered."

"The giant beasts of the sea—they really fill me with curiosity." Hua Yinyin brushed a strand of hair from her sideburns that was stuck to her face.

"The ocean depths are ultimately just on Earth. What I'm more curious about is what lies deep in the starry sky, what's beyond the universe, and whether aliens actually exist."

"Maybe the moon is actually a giant spaceship."

"So Chang'e is the driver?" Mo Xueyao asked jokingly.

"Wu Gang is in charge of the core power supply."

"Is Jade Rabbit the main operating system?"

"Mmm~!" Hua Yinyin nodded vigorously, and then she asked, "Little Yaoyao, if you were given the following choices, which one would you choose?"

Which options?

"One is to become a millionaire, another is to live forever but still grow old, and the last is to stay young forever but still die of old age."

"A multi-millionaire, right?"

"Huh? Little Yaoyao didn't choose the last two?"

"So what do you choose?"

"If I had to choose, I would definitely choose to stay young forever! That way I'll look young even when I'm old."

“How old are you…” Mo Xueyao stretched out her arm and scratched Hua Yinyin’s chin. “You think so much. It’s good to be rich. You can do a lot of things with money. What’s the use of just being young?”

"Alas."