A Young Woman's Heart

The sanitation worker gave him a friendly smile, and he explained, "There are no trash cans around here."

"Hmm, it seems like we'll need to install a few more here soon."

“That’s good.” Mr. Xue didn’t linger, because the green light had already turned on.

Crossing this road leaves all the noise behind.

He held a sesame seed cake and a fried dough stick in one hand and his water cup in the other, but deliberately did not follow the rule of eating one bite of food and one bite of tofu pudding. Instead, he ate as he pleased, sometimes taking two bites, sometimes three bites, and sometimes taking a big bite.

The journey to the school is still quite long, probably taking another hour.

He crossed several streets and arrived at another morning market.

Here, he added a cup of sweet tofu pudding and saw that the sky was already rippling with light.

The city, which had been pitch black just moments before, finally showed signs of awakening.

The pale sky quickly regained its crimson hue, as if fresh blood had been boiled and was churning there.

The red sky didn't last long before it turned as blue as the sea again.

The whole world began to turn white.

The streetlights followed his footsteps, going out one by one, making him look like a messenger bidding farewell to the night.

Next, we approached the area of ​​Yukong High School. There were no side paths to take here; they were all wide roads covered with fallen leaves.

The sanitation workers were working hard when the sound of brooms swishing across the ground came from the ground. A car sped by, and the wind it created blew the newly piled-up fallen leaves everywhere, which drew a few muttered complaints from the sanitation workers. But after cursing, they still had to sweep the fallen leaves back up.

Let's just hope that no other car will drive by so fast before they're loaded onto the truck.

The last fifteen minutes seemed longer than the previous ones, because there wasn't a single shop in sight, and sometimes not even a car drove by. He was the only one on the road in the morning, enjoying the desolate scenery.

The wind swirled the fallen leaves, tossing them high into the air before gently setting them down again...

A little girl of seven or eight years old stood nervously in front of the dark green mailbox. After looking around for a while, she carefully put the letter in.

When she turned around, she was suddenly surprised to realize that there was someone standing next to her.

She was so frightened that she ran away as fast as she could, almost falling over.

Mr. Xue gently shook his head, glanced into the mailbox, and noticed that the nearest letter did not have a stamp on it.

Clearly, this is a letter that cannot be sent.

The naive girl might think that as long as she put it in the mailbox, she could get away with it even without a stamp.

For this reason, she seemed to have deliberately gotten up very early.

Mr. Xue smiled, paused to think for a while, and finally left without doing anything.

"Wow wow wow!"

A ferocious stray dog ​​shattered the tranquility of the street, and a pregnant-looking cat darted out from around the corner.

"Woof woof woof!!" The mother cat's paw seemed to be injured, which made it unable to climb very well or run fast enough, so it was constantly being chased by the dog.

Mr. Xue took a few steps in that direction, letting the mother cat dart past, while he stood in front of the vicious dog.

"Woof woof!" The other party raised its head and glared fiercely at Mr. Xue, as if it wanted to tear him apart as well.

But as time went on, its gaze couldn't help but turn elsewhere, and its tail began to wag reluctantly.

It took a half step back and looked at the mother cat who hadn't run far before getting tired and lying down to rest on the lawn.

Mr. Xue took a sausage out of his bag, tore it off, broke it in half, and tossed it to the sausage.

The latter sniffed warily, then bit into the sausage and ran away without looking back.

The mother cat, who had been watching from a distance, also got half a piece. She sniffed it carefully, then, without bothering to run away, lay down on the ground and started gnawing on it.

Mr. Xue didn't deliberately approach it, but walked straight ahead as if he hadn't seen anything happening at all.

The clock tower of Yukong High School can now be faintly seen, and it emits a soft echo, signifying that the hour has come again.

The clock tower looked close, but it still took about ten minutes to actually reach it.

It felt like returning to the city from the suburbs. The newly opened shops at the school gate and the busy snack stalls not far away filled the place with a lively atmosphere.

"Oh, good morning, what would you like to buy?" The shopkeeper was busy setting out the goods, but only glanced back at him before going back to his work.

"I'll buy a sausage."

"It's inside, take it yourself."

Mr. Xue put the sausage back into his backpack and bought a pack of small magnets to play with in his hand.

The security guard at the gate was eating fried noodles he had just bought. Perhaps he had put too much chili in them, because his face was not only oily but he was also sweating profusely.

"Hey, you're here! Good morning! Ouch, haha—" He drank a few mouthfuls of cold water after being burned by the spiciness, and then he felt a little better.

"Good morning." Mr. Xue smiled and nodded, but instead of going directly into the teaching building, he walked to a corner of the campus. In front of him was the psychological counseling center, and behind him was the infirmary.

On a tree branch, a black cat was lazily lying down, its tail hanging down like a fishhook, swaying gently.

Mr. Xue quietly reached out his hand, but the tail seemed to have eyes and dodged away.

After several attempts, the black cat finally noticed something was wrong. It turned its head and looked down, its eerie green pupils scrutinizing him from above.

"Meow~" Then, the black cat jumped down from the tree.

Mr. Xue took out the sausage he had just received and handed it to him.

The latter deftly tore open the casing with its mouth and claws, and then slowly began to chew it.

It is described as "chewing" because it eats very slowly, completely unlike the stray cats outside, and looks much more elegant.

The black cat finished the sausage, which was quite expensive because it actually contained meat, and then swept the ground with its tail with satisfaction.

Mr. Xue pointed to the remaining sausage casings on the ground, then to the trash can next to him. The latter immediately understood, picked up the plastic casing, and threw it into the trash can.

Mr. Xue smiled and gave it a thumbs up.

"Meow~" The black cat leaped up the tree again, this time even higher. Even if Mr. Xue tiptoed or climbed up the tree, he could no longer touch its tail.

Although the gently swaying tail looked as if it was deliberately provoking others.

"Meow—" the black cat meowed impatiently, like an owner telling a guest that it was time to go to sleep.

Mr. Xue nodded, as if he understood.

He turned and left the big tree. Su Yuqing, who had arrived at work early, walked towards him and nodded slightly.

This time, he finally reached the classroom door.

The sound of classical music playing from a cassette player could be heard coming from inside.

As soon as he entered, Mo Xueyao greeted him: "Oh, Xueyao, you're here! You're the third one here again today! Why are you always the third one...?"

"It's a coincidence."

"But this is too accurate!"

Perhaps it was a coincidence within the calculation.

……

Chapter Fifty-Seven is not about to begin, but about to end.

Friday, July 29, 2000.

A golden sun shines brightly against the azure sky, and a white cloud drifts like a lone sail on a blue sea.

The National Day holiday is approaching, but first I have to pass tomorrow's monthly exam.

The students were in a relaxed mood, after all, they were already used to monthly exams.

If you really do poorly on a quiz like this, it's not a big problem to just have your parents sign your name and get away with it. Teachers usually won't look at it carefully, or even if they do, they won't care much.

We only check parental signatures for important notices or exam requirements.

The second period of Chinese class in the morning had just ended when the broadcast of eye exercises started again.

"First step: Massage the Tianying acupoint."

"Close your eyes and do the eye exercises properly." Ye Wen closed her textbook and glanced at the students below. "Liu Xiaowei, don't open your eyes. Who does eye exercises with their eyes open? Eye exercises are for protecting your eyes, not for others."

Li Wanyan, who stood up to survey the class, patted Chen Cheng, who was squinting and peeking, and said, "Close your eyes."

"Tsk." Chen Cheng clicked his tongue and closed his eyes, but after Li Wanyan walked over, he secretly opened them again, as if playing hide-and-seek.

However, he did not notice Mr. Xue, who was watching all of this.

Every time we do eye exercises, the class monitor and deputy class monitor have to get up and patrol.

Li Wanyan usually does it again after finishing, but Mr. Xue is not so sure—whether he does it or not probably depends on his mood.

There are also personnel checking at the entrance, and students from different classes will be rotated every week. This time it's Class 3 of Grade 11, and I heard that next time it will be Mo Xueyao's class.

"Do it well, or our class will lose points," Mr. Xue said to Chen Cheng in a low voice.

"Oh—" Chen Cheng pursed his lips, and this time he really closed his eyes and did the exercises properly.

"Gao Yuan—!" Li Wanyan raised her voice and pinched his ear without any politeness. "Don't wink."

"I didn't..."

His response was a slap on the back.

Even with her eyes closed, Mo Xueyao could imagine the situation in the class right now, with those few clowns trying their best to make others laugh.

She wondered what kind of funny face Gao Yuan would make, and after imagining it in her mind, she couldn't help but laugh out loud.

As the music gradually softens, it means the eye exercises are almost over.

"The fourth step is to press the temples and gently scrape around the eye sockets."

Mo Xueyao's favorite section is this one because it makes her eyes feel very comfortable, and the acupoints on her temples are easy to find, which can also have a refreshing effect.

The five-minute eye exercise session finally ended, and a group of boys stood up abruptly and ran outside.

The girls started going to the restroom together or buying snacks at the convenience store downstairs.

Girls generally have more pocket money than boys...