A Young Woman's Heart

"I told her to go home first."

"That's true, it's a day when everyone should go home and reunite with their families," the father said with a wistful smile, seemingly thinking of his own parents.

Besides stir-fried greens, there's also boiled taro, which is already very soft. You can put it in rice and add some soy sauce and lard to mix with the rice.

"What is this? Water chestnut?"

"Yes, this is the perfect time to eat this." The mother peeled one open and popped it into her mouth. "Mmm, it tastes very good."

"So there's no meat tonight...?"

"Haha, I'm not eating meat tonight!"

"Huh? Mom is a Buddhist, but Dad, you're not."

"It's not okay to eat vegetarian for just one day. If you eat meat every day, you might turn into a pig."

"Ah, meat is an essential source of protein for the human body!"

The last dish was served, and to Mo Xueyao's disappointment, it was still not meat, but boiled edamame.

"How can we eat this? There's no food to go with rice."

"Of course we have taro rice."

"It doesn't taste like meat!" Mo Xueyao insisted on eating meat.

"How about some braised meat sauce, with a little bit of minced meat? That should be fine, right?"

"Barely acceptable..."

Our family seems to be struggling financially again lately. Well, there are so many things we need to spend money on.

Mo Xueyao only acted a little willfully and did not continue.

"Come on, this is the osmanthus wine we brewed last year. It's Mid-Autumn Festival, let's each have a cup!"

"Speaking of which, it seems the osmanthus flowers haven't bloomed yet this year." Mo Xueyao picked up a glass of osmanthus wine. "Wanyan, would you like a glass too?"

"They probably opened a bit late." Her father poured Li Wanyan a small glass. "Come on, Wanyan, have some too. This has very little alcohol, it's delicious!"

"..." Li Wanyan looked at the wine glass in front of her and nodded helplessly.

She doesn't drink most of the time, but it wouldn't be good to spoil everyone's fun this time.

Hangzhou has many osmanthus trees, and every autumn when they bloom, the whole city is filled with their sweet fragrance.

Although the osmanthus flowers are all very small, their fragrance is exceptionally strong, which is quite disproportionate to their size.

Every year when the osmanthus flowers are almost gone, my mother would pick some to make wine, which she would then open the bottle the following year.

For example, the wine we drink this year is from last year.

As the liquor flowed down my throat, I first tasted a faint sweetness, followed by a slightly spicy aftertaste.

It carries the weight of a whole year, as if telling the story of last year.

“It’s been a year already…” Mo Xueyao muttered wistfully, looking at the full moon and taking another sip of wine. “How fast time flies.”

Those experiences seem like they happened just yesterday. The fear and anxiety I felt after being discharged from the hospital after surgery haven't subsided yet, but it's already been a year.

Mo Xueyao felt that she still hadn't fully adapted to life as a girl.

Many times, she still instinctively thought she was a boy.

"Ha, good wine! Don't just drink, have some snacks to go with it. These edamame are absolutely perfect with wine!"

"You're just going to eat it like this?"

"You can dip it in some vinegar and soy sauce, see, it tastes absolutely delicious."

Li Wanyan ate a bean and took a sip of wine, a slight blush appearing on her face.

The dim streetlights cast their glow on the asphalt road, reflecting the bright moonlight in the sky.

……

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Letters from Mother and Daughter

The Mid-Autumn Festival is supposed to be a time for family reunion, but for prisoners in jail, it is a luxury.

Of course, many of the women in this women's prison are mothers.

Some people, like Pan Jiexiang, were forced to break the law and were imprisoned here.

But not all of them were as lucky as her, having the principal of Yukong High School arrange a lawyer for her...

Life is a long journey, and three years may not seem like a long time, but it can feel like an ordeal when you're actually in it.

She could only relieve her worries by working a lot every day.

She didn't spend much money in prison, and although the wages were very low, she still managed to save up little by little.

She wanted to save enough money for her daughter to go to university.

At the very least, it should be enough to pay for the first academic year's tuition.

However, as things stand now, it seems we are still far from achieving that.

It was already 9 p.m., the lights-out time for this women's prison.

As someone Mo Kong specifically requested to be taken care of, the prison treated her very well. Not only did she have her own room, but if she only turned on a desk lamp when the lights were out, the patrolling prison guards would turn a blind eye and pretend they didn't see it.

Only at times like this did she finally have time to open the letter she received at noon and see what was written inside.

The letters were in two parts: one was written by the homeroom teacher, Ye Wen, and the other by Li Wanyan.

Next to it was a box of exquisitely packaged single Cantonese mooncakes.

"Mom, this letter should arrive around the Mid-Autumn Festival. I wonder if the moon will be as round as it is here when you read it?"

Pan Jiexiang was taken aback when she read Li Wanyan's opening, because she rarely said such romantic things, which seemed to be different from the daughter she remembered.

“You’ve grown up…” Pan Jiexiang felt her eyes welling up with tears. She couldn’t help but raise her hand to wipe them away, then she drew back the curtains and looked out the window.

Looking at the bright full moon in the sky from inside the prison seems to make it even more beautiful, perhaps because that moon carries a sense of the outside world and a feeling of freedom.

"I bought the mooncakes in advance. You probably still prefer the mixed nut flavor, right?"

"Five-nut flavor?" Pan Jiexiang picked up the mooncake box and glanced at it. It really was five-nut flavor. She couldn't help but laugh out loud, then remained silent for a while before wiping away her tears.

When she was little, she always bought mooncakes with five kinds of nuts.

Li Wanyan doesn't really like this flavor, but she still eats it. She just always asks why we buy this flavor.

Pan Jiexiang always answered that she liked this flavor.

However, in reality, there are always many discounted five-nut mooncakes on sale...

The main reason for buying it was that it was cheap, which would at least give that poor family a little bit of the feeling of celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival.

"I'm very happy living here; it feels like another home."

"Yaoyao has always taken good care of me."

"Our class recently formed a band..."

The letter was actually quite long, but Pan Jiexiang, who read it all in one go, felt it was very short.

The other letter from Ye Wen mainly reported on Li Wanyan's recent situation, so that she could rest assured.

In ancient times, transportation and communication were underdeveloped.

Besides sending letters, people can only express their longing for each other through something else.

For example, the full moon hanging high in the sky.

Perhaps in the eyes of the ancients, it was just like a modern computer monitor; when they looked at it with longing, they could almost see the other person's face and voice.

The last sentence of Li Wanyan's letter was: "Mom, if the weather is good on the Mid-Autumn Festival, I will admire the moon at night. You should see it too; the moon will be very beautiful that night."

These were simple words, without any fancy language, but they warmed Pan Jiexiang's heart.

She turned off the lamp, leaned on the windowsill, and gazed at the moon in the sky, just as she would gaze at Li Wanyan.

……

Mo Xueyao climbed up the ladder to the roof of the fruit shop. It had been a long time since she had been up there since the start of the semester.

The seeds that were planted have long since sprouted and are now showing their vigorous vitality.

"Ah, it's grown so big already?" Mo Xueyao curiously poked at a white radish leaf with her finger. The leaf looked very thick, obviously well cared for by her mother.

"Wow, is this what you grew?" Lu Chengyuan, who had also come to admire the moon that evening, looked at the vegetables growing in the wooden crates in the dim light of the streetlights below. "They're all so cute!"

"Cute?" This was the first time Mo Xueyao had heard someone describe vegetables like that, but looking at it closely, it seemed that it wasn't a bad thing to say that way.

"Yaoyao, there's a long bench here."

"Ah, there's a bench to sit on. Did Mom bring it up?" Mo Xueyao wiped the bench with her hand to make sure it was dust-free before plopping down on it.

Because I didn't lift up my skirt to put it underneath, but sat down directly, my buttocks felt a little cool.

Li Wanyan glanced at her helplessly, then lifted her skirt before sitting down.

"Isn't Cheng Yuan going home to take a shower tonight?"

"I've decided to live at the hotel from now on! Humph, if I can't go home from school with you guys, then I'll go to school with you guys!" Lu Chengyuan placed her hands on the long bench, leaned back slightly, and swung her legs gently, looking exceptionally relaxed.

"Hey—is your little room big?"

"My little room over there... um... should I go take a look later?"

“Okay.” Mo Xueyao nodded and shared the mooncakes with the two of them. “Grandma Jin gave them to us. She said they were abalone flavored.”

"Huh, it smells like abalone? It's quite fishy..."

"I don't know, I've never tried it before. I'll give it a try." Mo Xueyao tore open the packaging and took a big bite, chewing it continuously.

"How did it go?" Lu Chengyuan asked, a mixture of nervousness and anticipation.

"Hmm...are you alright?"

"I'll give it a try too!"