A Young Woman's Heart

"Yaoyao, we've arrived." Just like waking up in the morning, it was Li Wanyan who reminded her when she arrived at the station.

"Huh?"

Mo Xueyao got out of the car in a daze, then suddenly slapped her forehead: "Oh no, I'm late!"

"Cough pfft..." Li Wanyan couldn't help but cover her mouth to suppress a laugh. "Did you sleep like a madwoman?"

"Uh-oh—what are we here for again?"

"Get your summer homework."

When they arrived at the classroom, they discovered that the person in charge of distributing the homework was not their homeroom teacher, but Su Yuqing, a teacher from the medical office.

"Huh, why is it Teacher Su here?"

"Your homeroom teacher and other teachers have to go out, so we teachers of the elective subjects are here to fill in..."

Are medical staff who don't teach classes considered as non-subject teachers?

Mo Xueyao had this question in her mind, but she didn't ask it aloud, after all, she had that much emotional intelligence.

Since it was a humanities class, the summer homework they received was naturally humanities-related.

Needless to say, Chinese, math, and English are the three main subjects, but even politics, history, and geography have summer homework assignments, and quite a lot of them.

Some of these are things we've never learned before; does this mean we need to preview them in advance?

Mo Xueyao casually flipped through the math summer homework that had been handed out—these were all test papers, and the difficulty seemed to have indeed decreased a bit compared to before?

Or is it just her imagination?

In short, she had to take all these assignments home to do. She didn't look at them carefully and just held them in her arms.

Having prepared in advance, Li Wanyan took out a cloth bag and packed both of their summer homework, carefully dividing it into two separate portions.

To avoid confusion and a mess later on.

"Let's go straight back to the fruit shop? We can do our homework there," Mo Xueyao suggested. "Or we could go to the library to do it, but either way, we should go home to drop off our homework first, and while we're at it, we can return the books we left at the shop and find some new ones to read."

"Ah."

Most of the time, Li Wanyan would not object to Mo Xueyao's suggestions.

This is the first time I've been to a fruit shop since returning to Hangzhou.

Although it's only been half a month, it feels like I haven't been inside for a long time. When I walked into the store and smelled the fragrance of flowers and fruits, I even felt a sense of novelty.

She carried the cloth bag in her hand and habitually pushed open the door to the small room.

"Eek—hmm?" There was an indescribable smell inside, seemingly left by a strange adult man, with a slightly peculiar stench.

It sounds like foot odor?

Or does it smell like sweat?

Mo Xueyao fanned herself and turned to yell at her mother, "Mom—why does this room smell so bad!"

"What are you doing going into the room? That's where another uncle lives now, didn't I tell you?"

"Huh? Did I already say that?"

"I already said that," Li Wanyan replied this time.

"Ugh, so annoying."

"Have you had breakfast yet?" Mother started bringing up this very common topic again.

"I've eaten, I've eaten." Mo Xueyao said impatiently, "Then I can't stay in this small room anymore."

"Then go home. It's hot in the shop anyway."

"Tsk... Oh right, I should go check out Nora's place. I remember she has air conditioning." Mo Xueyao snapped her fingers. "Yeah, I'm going to soak up some air conditioning! I'm off!"

"What's wrong? Aren't you going to eat lunch?"

"I'm not eating anymore!" Mo Xueyao excitedly pulled Li Wanyan towards the store exit. "Speaking of which, it's been a long time since I've seen Nora. Is she at work yet?"

"I don't know." Li Wanyan was dragged out of the fruit shop like that—she had just been about to sit down.

"This child is full of energy," the mother said, shaking her head.

"Isn't that great?" the father laughed.

"Still acting like a mischievous monkey. When will you be as mature as Yan Yan?"

"Haha—if Xiaoyao were as composed as Wanyan, she wouldn't be herself! Everyone has their own personality, why do you always try to stifle other people's individuality? Is it interesting to be the same all the time?"

“I can’t argue with you. You only graduated from junior high school, you’re an educated person,” the mother retorted sarcastically, leaving the father speechless.

……

Chapter 74 Doing Summer Homework at Nora's House

The one who opened the door was Nora, the red-haired woman.

The room was filled with cold air, making Mo Xueyao wonder if she had walked into a freezer.

Nora, however, was only wearing a tank top and shorts, and there was a large bowl of shaved ice on the table. She was eating it with relish while looking at a book for beginners in Chinese.

The television was on, making the one-person house feel less lonely.

"Welcome, welcome!" Nora shouted in broken Chinese.

"Have you been at home the whole time?" Mo Xueyao blurted out in Chinese, then quickly added a question in case the other woman didn't understand.

"It's okay, try to speak to me in Chinese. I've been learning Chinese recently." Nora said this with great difficulty, making one wonder if she had a speech impediment.

Would you like some shaved ice?

"Huh? Shaved ice?" Mo Xueyao asked.

"Um, this." Nora, afraid that she wouldn't understand, quickly pointed to what she was eating.

This is banana milk shaved ice. The shaved ice isn't very smooth; it seems to have been hand-shaved.

There was some clear liquid drizzled on it. She leaned closer to sniff and smelled a hint of alcohol.

Okay... they even added vodka...

"Would you like some, Xiaoyao? Vodka shaved ice?" Nora asked with a beaming smile, sensing that Xiaoyao was interested in her shaved ice, as if she had finally been understood by someone from a strange city.

"I would be even happier if it were cola..."

"Then let's have Coke!"

Nora was very hospitable. She asked Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan to sit down, and then went to the kitchen. She took out the ice cubes that had been frozen in the refrigerator and put them into a simple ice shaver. The shaved ice was poured into a large bowl and divided into two bowls. Then she poured milk, mashed bananas, and some red bean paste on top, and of course, she didn't forget Mo Xueyao's favorite Coca-Cola.

The shaved ice was strange; the granules were large and not very fine, but it had a very rugged Russian feel to it.

I don't know if it's Nora's own personality or just the local customs.

It is not advisable to stereotype the people of a country in a certain way; it can only be said that Nora is a typical example that conforms to the mainstream impression.

Are you teaching yourself Chinese?

"Well, it's for work. At the very least, it has to meet the requirements for daily communication." Nora scooped up a large mouthful of smoothie, which smelled of vodka, making one wonder if she was drunk, and at the same time, whether she could continue studying while drunk.

"Okay~ we've come to visit you, and we'll also help you with your summer homework, since your house has air conditioning." Mo Xueyao smiled shyly.

"Yes, no problem, you're welcome anytime!" Nora nodded vigorously. "I'll study first, and we'll do something else this afternoon."

"it is good."

“If you don’t understand anything in Chinese, you can ask us,” Li Wanyan said softly.

"Of course, I won't stand on ceremony!" Nora laughed loudly, then leaned on her chest and continued reading her introductory Chinese textbook, while also making notes in a notebook beside her. Mo Xueyao couldn't tell if she was writing in Chinese, Russian, or English.

In short, it looks crooked and twisted, like an earthworm that has crawled to the ground and been dried by the sun.

Like old friends, they didn't say much when they met and quickly fell silent.

This atmosphere didn't feel awkward at all; on the contrary, it felt very harmonious.

For a moment, apart from the cool air from the air conditioner, the only sounds in the room were the rustling of turning pages and the swishing of writing.

Of course, you can also occasionally hear the sound of shaved ice being chewed.

The cola-flavored shaved ice... well, it wasn't as delicious as I imagined. It tasted like drinking watered-down cola.

It would be even better if the smoothie itself was made from frozen cola.

Mo Xueyao pondered whether she should suggest to Nora that she freeze the cola into ice cubes and then make shaved ice. That would definitely taste good—although she had never tried it before, she instinctively felt that it wouldn't be bad.

However, she ultimately didn't speak, as she felt embarrassed to disturb Nora seeing how seriously she was studying.

Coming to someone else's house to use their air conditioning is already a disturbance; it's not good to push your luck any further.

Although the two had exchanged letters many times, they had not met in person much. Although they felt that the other would be a very good friend in the future, their feelings had not yet reached that point.

Li Wanyan started by doing the math homework, which required more thought.

Mo Xueyao, however, chose a history assignment that was relatively simple for her.

For history enthusiasts, even doing history fill-in-the-blank questions can be inexplicably interesting, as if they are filling in the missing gaps in history.

Nora quickly finished her shaved ice. She smelled strongly of alcohol and her face was flushed, but instead of being cute, she exuded a dangerous aura.

"Are you drunk, Nora?" Mo Xueyao asked nervously.

"No, but I'm finding it hard to study anymore. The more I look, the sleepier I get... The words are dancing in my head like little people." Nora rubbed her temples and closed the book. "Phew, excuse me, Haruka, could you get me a Coke?"

“No problem.” Mo Xueyao replied in English and quickly stood up. Nora could still communicate in English, which meant she wasn’t too drunk.

Nora seemed to have gotten a lot more energetic after taking a few sips of Coke. How could Coke help with hangovers?

The TV is showing the news right now. It's not a rebroadcast; it's just for people who have free time in the morning. It's called 'Daytime News'.

But in reality, the news broadcasts are mostly yesterday's news, and it's rare for them to broadcast today's news.

"At 10 p.m. on the 16th, a sixth-grade boy who was walking home alone from a tutoring class mysteriously disappeared. Because there are no surveillance cameras on the route where he went missing, the police are still searching for clues." The female anchor calmly narrated this news.

It's not uncommon for children to go missing on the streets at night.