A Young Woman's Heart

Mo Xueyao took the change and popsicle and couldn't wait to take a bite.

Besides the coolness of the ice itself, there is also a minty and herbal tea coolness, and you can also faintly smell a herbal aroma.

People who aren't used to the taste might find it smells like a bamboo mat.

Actually, no, it's just that the smell of the mat is somewhat similar to the smell of herbs.

"Hurry up and get to her house, or it'll melt." Mo Xueyao urged Li Wanyan as she took one of the sticks. She was now holding two sticks, one of which was Nora's.

"Nora—" Mo Xueyao shouted from outside the courtyard, then, with an ice pop in her mouth, she ran quickly to the front door and pounded on it with her other hand.

"Coming, coming!" Nora's Chinese seemed to have improved a lot. She opened the door with a smile and saw Mo Xueyao handing her an ice pop.

"Here you go! I bought this on the way. Try it. It's a very Chinese-style popsicle. You probably haven't tasted anything like it in Russia."

"Oh, this one? Did you buy it from that vendor?"

"Yes, you've already eaten?"

Nora smiled and took the popsicle, stuffing it into her mouth without licking it. Instead, she bit off half of it. Compared to licking the popsicle, she seemed to prefer biting it directly. Did she think it was more chewy that way?

“I bought all the popsicles from his two styrofoam boxes last week. They were cheap, and there’s a fridge here.” Nora proudly opened her fridge. “They’re almost gone! I’m thinking of going to the supermarket to buy something else to try.”

"Oh, how many are in one box?"

"I forgot, they gave me a discount back then, so it cost me ten yuan in total."

"So many!" Mo Xueyao had no idea that the styrofoam box was that big.

But upon closer reflection, it's not surprising that he bought both boxes of foam.

There were a few left in the refrigerator. Since they weren't packaged, Nora had put them in a bowl. Now there was only one bowl left, with four or five sticks in it.

That means Nora ate almost a hundred popsicles in a week.

"Nora, aren't you afraid of getting diarrhea from eating so much?" Mo Xueyao asked in English.

“No need to worry!” Nora replied in Chinese, “Russians eat popsicles just like you eat meals! By the way, communicating in Chinese… I’ve been practicing my Chinese lately.”

"Yes, I can tell, it's already very fluent."

"Really?" Nora hugged Mo Xueyao happily. "Thank you for the compliment!"

"Ah, don't be so excited..." Mo Xueyao almost suffocated from her breasts. After pushing her away, she took several breaths to recover.

"I wasn't very excited?" Nora herself didn't seem to feel that way at all.

"Alright, are we getting ready to go?" Li Wanyan interrupted their conversation. She had been standing there like she was invisible the whole time.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Wanyan, hello!"

"Hello." Li Wanyan nodded politely, her gaze lingering on Nora's chest for a few more moments.

"It's so hot, are we really going to West Lake?" Mo Xueyao felt that the plan could be changed.

"Because it's hot, there are fewer people, so we need to go out and have some fun, so let's go!" Nora said "so" several times in a row, but she had just gotten up and was wearing pajamas. She still needed to wash up before going out.

However, her washing speed was comparable to Mo Xueyao's; she finished everything in five minutes, didn't need to put on makeup, and left home directly after putting on her outdoor clothes.

The three of them didn't take the bus, but rather very generously hailed a taxi—of course, Nora paid for it.

West Lake wasn't particularly crowded despite the high temperatures, but that's only relatively speaking.

Many tourists from other parts of the country or from abroad come here and tour in groups.

In fact, Mo Xueyao had visited West Lake many times, but only a few times had she bought tickets to enter.

But in her opinion, there was nothing special about this place; it was just the same old stuff no matter how you looked at it.

After all, I grew up here and don't really care about this place anymore.

She was still more concerned about the blazing sun overhead...

"Let's go to the tea room!"

"Huh?" Mo Xueyao was taken aback. "Aren't we supposed to be strolling around West Lake?"

"Yes, let's go in, to the tea room inside!"

"That's very expensive..."

"It's okay," Nora blinked. "It's on me."

"I know... but it's really expensive," she reminded her again helplessly.

Nora, who was full of confidence, did indeed turn pale after taking a look around inside.

The menu in the tea room here is simply daunting. A cup of Longjing tea costs more than 300 yuan. Although it comes with some side dishes, it's not worth it at all.

After searching around several times, I finally found a self-service tea room in a quiet corner inside.

Calling it a tea room is an understatement; it's more like a buffet restaurant, using tea as a mere gimmick.

The requirement is that you must order a cup of tea, and then you can take as many snacks and side dishes as you like.

The biggest advantage is that tea and snacks are unlimited.

The cheapest cup of herbal tea was eighty-eight yuan, which was finally a price Nora could accept—although Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan still thought it was expensive.

Since there were only three of us, we sat in the smallest private room. Although it was designed in an antique style, it still had air conditioning.

This relieved Mo Xueyao.

"Did poets of the past write their poems in such an environment?" Nora took a sip of hot tea. "It feels very evocative."

"Really?" Mo Xueyao, a native Chinese, didn't feel anything special. "It's just so-so. The design isn't very antique; it just has some ancient elements added... Besides, if tea had been that expensive before, most people definitely wouldn't have been able to afford to come in."

Tea shops used to be similar to grocery stores today, except that grocery stores sell drinks, while tea shops sell tea and side dishes such as peanuts and fennel beans.

If you really want to experience what it's like to live like people in ancient times, you should find a roadside tea stall, order two cups of cheap herbal tea, and a plate of cold dishes.

"It's really hot here." Nora fanned herself; the air conditioning had just been turned on, so it didn't feel cool yet.

"It might not have been that hot in ancient times; it only became hot in modern times."

"It's like being in the desert."

"That's probably how it is for you..." Mo Xueyao stood up with a smile. "Let's go get some snacks, otherwise we'll just waste so much money."

“Okay, but actually, Moscow does have summer too,” Nora said, pushing open the door and turning her head.

"Huh? There's summer there?"

"Of course! It can be around 30 degrees Celsius even in summer!"

"That can only be considered summer in a rough sense..."

……

Chapter 119 Let's Talk About Recent Events

A tea room is essentially a place for chatting.

Even if we set up the location at KFC, it would be perfectly fine.

The only requirements are that the location be clean and tidy, and at most, quiet.

"Nora, how have you been lately? Have you found a job yet?" Mo Xueyao took a small bite of the cream cake and was so sweet that she drank several mouthfuls of tea.

Although the price wasn't cheap, the cake still had a cheap, artificial flavoring taste, like cheap cream.

Here, compared to these Western-style pastries, the Chinese-style cakes taste better.

Of course, stir-fries taste even better, such as stir-fried rice noodles and stir-fried noodles.

The problem is, these are also the cheapest foods.

Even if you eat until you're stuffed, there's absolutely no way you'd get back a third of the tea fee.

After all, outside, two yuan is already a lot of fried noodles or something. Even someone with Mo Xueyao's father's appetite would only eat about two yuan's worth at most.

"I've found it. It's the company that my teacher introduced me to."

"Oh, are you tired? I heard that designers often have to work all night or something." Mo Xueyao picked up a shrimp from Li Wanyan's plate and stuffed it into her mouth, asking indistinctly.

“No design was done,” Nora sighed.

"Huh? You didn't do any design work? What did you do then?"

"model."

"Ah... a model." Mo Xueyao looked her up and down, "She does fit quite well..."

Nora took beef tenderloin, which looked like it was frozen.

She picked up a piece and chewed it slowly until she swallowed it before speaking: "I don't like this kind of work. I'm not just a decoration! Why make me do such a boring job? I was actually quite good at design in school. Even doing simple house renovations would be better than this. Of course, I would prefer to design bridges or railways or something."

"So, why did we make you a model? This isn't your major, is it?"

“Because there’s a shortage of Russian women… well, beautiful women.” Nora said this with a hint of pride, but quickly became dejected. “Although it’s easy, it feels like I’m just coasting along, with no room for advancement.”

"It's alright, let's just start doing it and see how things go," Mo Xueyao reassured her. "Otherwise, your living expenses won't be stable, will they?"

“Well, I’ll keep doing this for now. If I really can’t stand it, I’ll change jobs.” Nora nodded. “Even switching to a small renovation company would be much better than this.”

"By the way, does Nora have any plans to find a boyfriend?" Mo Xueyao suddenly asked in a gossipy manner. Mainly because a Russian beauty like her must have no shortage of men who like her, right?

If someone were to confess their feelings to her, she wonders if she would accept them.

I've heard that Russian women are quite outgoing—but that's just a stereotype, since everyone's personality is different.

So Mo Xueyao only asked the first question and didn't say the rest.

"Boyfriend? Let's talk about that later." Nora shook her head. "I don't have any thoughts on that for now."

"Really? You look down on Chinese men?"

"It's alright, it's not that I don't like it, um... it's just that most of them don't suit my taste." Nora pointed with her spoon at the cake Mo Xueyao had brought. "Is it good?"

"It's not tasty, too greasy. Why doesn't it suit your taste?"

Nora cut a small piece of Mo Xueyao's cake with a spoon and put it on her plate. Before eating, she explained, "It feels too stingy, not generous enough. Hmm... how should I put it? In Chinese, it's probably called... being fussy?"

“Oh, I think I understand what you mean. But most men in the South have this kind of personality. Their advantage is that they are gentle with their wives, and they rarely beat their wives.” Although Mo Xueyao is of mixed race, she grew up in the South and her habits are all from there, so she couldn’t help but defend Southern men.