A Young Woman's Heart

"It's okay. I start work at 8:30 anyway, as long as I can get home before 11:00, it's fine," Tian Tingchan said calmly.

For some reason, Zhou Yong felt a little uneasy and restless.

For a fleeting moment, he even thought about spending his life with Tian Tingchan.

But his reason ultimately prevailed over this impulse.

Because he felt that he didn't truly like her, but only that she was pretty, had a good personality, and was the girl he was closest to. When people feel that they don't have better options in the future, they always want to hold on to what they have now and not let it slip away.

Zhou Yong felt that this was roughly how he felt at that moment.

Because he was very clear about how low his 'bottom line' was, he even thought that as long as a girl who was reasonably good-looking confessed her feelings to him, he would definitely agree to date her.

Unfortunately, no girl has ever confessed her feelings to him since he was a child.

He had actually tried to take the initiative, but although he expressed himself tactfully, he still sensed the rejection he was receiving.

Therefore, he became increasingly passive.

He might keep a certain distance from a girl until she speaks up, to show that he has no interest in her.

It wasn't to avoid bothering others, but simply to preserve a shred of dignity for myself.

"A woman three years older than her husband is like holding a gold brick." The middle-aged woman next to him was chatting with her friend, but only this sentence entered Zhou Yong's mind.

The surrounding noises seem to be selectively heard by the brain.

He couldn't help but think about the age difference between himself and Tian Tingchan. Although the gap was huge, it was only the difference between high school and college, roughly three or four years...

It doesn't seem to be that much different.

Recently, haven't "older woman/younger man" relationships become quite popular?

Zhou Yong couldn't help but let his imagination run wild.

If you don't take any initiative, then you can just fantasize about it in your mind, right?

Zhou Yong usually uses this method to comfort himself.

Sometimes, just thinking about it makes me happy.

He is always easily satisfied.

None of the buses at the downtown bus stops have seats available, and some are so crowded that people can't even squeeze in.

After finally getting to the edge of the city, when I transferred to a bus heading to the suburbs, there were finally plenty of seats to choose from.

Tian Tingchan found a spot and sat down wearily. She had already been standing all day, and then she had stood on the bus for half an hour, swaying from side to side with the crowded people. It was not a pleasant experience at all.

Zhou Yong deliberately chose a seat in front of her and calmly looked out the window. In the reflection of the windowpane, Tian Tingchan had fallen asleep against the back of her chair not long after she sat down. A warm breeze blew in from outside the window, making her hair a little messy.

Her brows were slightly furrowed, as if she wasn't lying comfortably. Zhou Yong looked at her sleeping face and couldn't help but yawn, but he still forced himself to look at the scenery outside the window to avoid actually falling asleep.

Otherwise, no one would even know if you missed your stop.

Zhou Yong squinted and quietly spent the rest of the journey. Before arriving at the platform, he stood up and gently called out to Tian Tingchan, "Brother Chan, Brother Chan, wake up."

"Hmm...?" Tian Tingchan wasn't sleeping soundly. She opened her eyes groggily, still looking sleepy.

"arrive."

"Oh." She nodded and stood up unsteadily.

After getting off the bus, there was still a long way to go—crossing several roads and then walking onto a country gravel road, with newly planted rice seedlings on both sides and some rapeseed flowers that had just been harvested piled up by the roadside.

Frogs croaked in the field, their calls like drumbeats in a cicada song.

For a long stretch of road, the cicadas didn't make a sound, as if they hadn't fully woken up from their sleep and were yawning constantly.

Only when the container house at the end of the path came closer did she finally speak: "Is this the house that your club designed?"

“Yes…we made a lot of the furniture ourselves, haha—” Zhou Yong couldn’t help but laugh when he said this. “It feels really good to make things by hand and then see them put to use.”

"Hmm, it's a pretty design."

"Well, I mainly do odd jobs."

"Pfft." Tian Tingchan couldn't help but lower her head slightly and cover her mouth to laugh. "Then why are you so smug?"

"No matter what, even if they didn't achieve great things, they still put in a lot of effort..."

"very nice."

"What's so good?"

"It's so good to have such a pure heart."

"Ha..." Zhou Yong felt that he wasn't being praised, but he still agreed and pushed open the gate to go inside.

The yard was kept very clean and tidy, and it didn't feel overgrown with weeds as I had imagined.

Remembering Gao Yuan's words, Zhou Yong looked around and found the rabbit cage against the wall. Presumably to prevent the sun from shining directly on it, a small shed made of cardboard had been built on top of it.

There were still some leftover hay in the cage, but the main food seemed to have been eaten up, and the water bowl was empty, I don’t know if it evaporated or was drunk up.

"Hmm... let it out for some fresh air, then feed it something. Put the food under the workbench next to the fence..." Zhou Yong muttered, stood up and looked around, then found the workbench not far away.

"I'll release it," said Tian Tingchan.

"Okay, don't let it run too far."

"Rabbits that have been raised for a while generally don't run away." Tian Tingchan smiled and slowly opened the rabbit cage. The black rabbit inside sniffed around, seemingly hesitant about whether to come out.

The hole was a bit too small for it, but it still managed to squeeze through with some difficulty.

After emerging from the fence, it hopped and skipped to the edge and began eating the weeds through the gaps in the fence.

When it eats grass, its cheeks puff out, making it look especially cute.

—If you ignore the fact that it eats and poops at the same time…

Fortunately, this is a yard, outdoors, so it won't get too dirty, and it's easy to clean.

It's definitely better to have a yard if you want to keep pets.

Zhou Yong came over with a package of dried vegetables, which the Mo sisters had dried themselves and used as their main food.

"Suck, suck, suck." Zhou Yong smacked his lips and lured it over with a dried cabbage leaf.

The rabbit raised its head and sniffed, then slowly turned around, brought its head close to the leafy greens he offered, smelled them for a while, and then opened its three-lobed mouth without hesitation and took a bite.

"Haha, feeding rabbits is quite fun."

"After a while, you'll get tired of it and just leave it there to eat by itself." Tian Tingchan chuckled, pinching the black rabbit's ear. "What's its name?"

"I think it's called 'dark chocolate,' if I remember correctly," Zhou Yong replied uncertainly. "By the way, how much should I eat?"

"A rabbit this big should only need a handful of food."

"A handful..."

"Hmm, I'll go to the river and fetch some water; it seems thirsty."

"oh oh!"

Then, Tian Tingchan picked up the stainless steel rabbit bowl, went to the riverbank, scooped up a large bowl of water, and walked back to the yard.

"I feel that living here is quite nice."

"It's pretty good, but there are a lot of mosquitoes..." Zhou Yong said, slapping his thigh where there were already several red bumps.

"There are always gains and losses," Tian Tingchan smiled. "Zhou Yong, do you like keeping pets?"

"Well, I'd like to keep one if I had a yard, but if not, I'd rather not. I feel like a home is a place for people to live, and keeping a pet would just make a mess of it."

"It's a rather traditional concept, but in highly developed countries, many people like to keep pets, cats or dogs, in matchbox-sized houses, and if they're dogs, they prefer small ones."

"Oh, I've heard about teacup dogs? Smaller than cats, they can squeeze into a cardboard box? Are those dogs really real?"

"Yes, but they are very expensive."

"Then you might as well raise a mongrel dog; it's tall, handsome, and smart."

"It's very troublesome to keep this kind of dog in the city."

“Then don’t keep one…” Zhou Yong scratched his cheek. “It feels like in such a small environment, the pet itself wouldn’t be comfortable.”

"Um……"

"Ah, it's drinking water! It really is thirsty!" Zhou Yong watched the rabbit drink excitedly. "Ha, its tongue is pink!"

"Did you go home after feeding them?" Tian Tingchan got a little tired from squatting, so she stood up and leaned against the fence.

"Well, let it roam around in the yard a bit more, run around and wander around, otherwise it's too pitiful to just put it back in the cage right away."

Tian Tingchan smiled and nodded: "Okay."

……

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Three People Per Room

Bread and biscuits were just afternoon snacks; in the evening, perhaps because they were a bit tired of the barbecue the day before, more than half of the people agreed to eat something lighter.

So Mizuki Shi prepared a classic medieval or Renaissance-era European dinner.

—Vegetable soup, toast, potatoes, and some jam.

Of course, it's not that monotonous; in addition to that, there's also sashimi and bacon.

After dinner, it was getting late, so everyone went back to their rooms to wash up.

Of course, I wasn't going to sleep right away, but I was most likely going to lie down in bed.

Lu Chengyuan, Ye Banxia, ​​and Cha Li shared a room, making it particularly lively.

There's a saying that goes, "Three women make a drama." When three girls get together, it's like they have endless topics to talk about.

Eating together, living together, and even showering together are always the things that bring people closer together.

"Wow—it's too crowded—" Lu Chengyuan screamed happily as she watched Cha Li slide into the water like a mermaid.

"Splash—" A lot of water was drained from the bathtub at once. Three people were crammed into the not-so-large bathtub, making it quite crowded and almost impossible to move.