A Young Woman's Heart

The lights here were so dim that it was difficult to write on the whiteboard, not to mention that he simply didn't have the strength to pick up a pen and write.

Sanhua Tongjue reached out her hand and touched his forehead with the back of her hand. After a long while, she whispered, "You don't have a fever?"

Seeing that Huang Yuxi did not answer, she handed over her thermos: "There's some miso soup I made myself inside, would you like some?"

Huang Yuxi glanced at her, then slowly raised her hands, but almost dropped the thermos.

Sanhua Tongjue quickly took the cup back, rolled her eyes, opened the lid, poured the soup into the thermos, and brought it to Huang Yuxi's lips.

The latter took a small sip, and the warm, slightly salty miso soup flowed into his mouth, easing the bitterness on his tongue.

Unable to speak, Huang Yuxi could only express her gratitude with her eyes.

Sanhua Tongjue gently brought her legs together, and then very patiently fed him soup little by little. She fed him two lids of soup in a row, and only put them away when he shook his head to indicate that he didn't need any more.

"Is it good?"

"Mmm." Huang Yuxi felt a warm sensation in his stomach, much better than before. He took out his little whiteboard from his pocket and wrote on it, "Thank you, I feel much better now."

"So, what's wrong? Is it so painful? It's like a girl having her period." Sanhua Tongjue was almost touching Huang Yuxi at this moment, and they could feel each other's warm breath.

He turned slightly to the side, a little shy, and looked away, preventing the two from actually getting close.

"I might be a bit allergic to alcohol. All the guys drank beer tonight, and I had a few sips too."

She looked at it several times in the dim light, taking longer than usual to see it clearly: "Isn't this going too far?"

"well enough……"

"What? You can't drink alcohol. Why are you drinking? What if something happens?" Sanhua Tongjue squeezed to the side again, her smooth and round right leg now pressed directly against Huang Yuxi's left leg. They could vaguely feel each other's pulse.

"Everyone's already had a drink...we can't spoil the fun."

“It’s okay, it’s okay, you don’t have to… be in a group… fit in…” Sanhua Tongjue tried hard to find a suitable adjective, “Just be yourself, don’t always think about what other people think! What do their happiness or unhappiness have to do with you?

Perhaps because she felt a bit of empathy, Mika Tongjue's fluency in speaking Chinese improved considerably, and her speaking speed also became somewhat rapid.

"Hmm..." He blushed slightly and avoided the other person's gaze, nodding slightly before his eyes fell back on the entrance of the convenience store.

Zhou Yong was still nowhere to be seen.

This made Huang Yuxi a little anxious.

Are you waiting for someone?

"Um……"

"friend?"

"Um……"

"Eh~"

What followed was a long silence.

The two seemed to have fallen asleep, and time was given to the beautiful night and the clear, melodious chirping of insects.

Everything in the world seemed to be frozen in time.

Just as Sanhua Tongjue was about to say something, she suddenly noticed that Huang Yuxi leaned back slightly, as if she wanted to lean into her arms.

This surprised and delighted her, and she instinctively reached out and hugged him.

But when I saw his tightly closed eyes, I understood.

It turned out he really had fallen asleep; the whiteboard and marker he was holding fell onto the stone bricks on the ground.

This left her somewhat at a loss for what to do.

"Xiao Xi...?" she called softly. The latter's eyelashes trembled slightly, but she ultimately did not open her eyes.

Zhou Yong quietly slipped out from behind the cedar tree next to him, carrying a small bag containing different kinds of snacks.

"Shh—" Zhou Yong made a shushing gesture and walked to the two of them. "Do you want me to help carry him back? Or... can you do it yourself?"

"Me...to come?"

"Hmm, this is a great opportunity," Zhou Yong chuckled. Of course, he wasn't stupid, and besides, it was obvious to even an idiot that Sanhua Tongjue had feelings for Huang Yuxi.

"Eh--?"

"Shh, keep your voice down, do you need help? Can you carry him by yourself?"

"Hmm... I should be able to... I'm actually quite strong."

"Really?" Although Huang Yuxi is very petite, Sanhua Tongjue is a girl after all, and it would probably be difficult to carry her all the way back to the apartment.

Zhou Yong was a little worried. After Sanhua Tongjue picked him up in her arms, she followed him at a distance until she entered the apartment building where the teachers lived.

The teachers lived on the lower floors, while Huang Yuxi was assigned to live on the top floor.

Sanhua Tongjue searched Huang Yuxi's pocket for a long time before finally finding a key with the number '507' on it.

She carried him upstairs, then used her key to open the door and went inside, placing him on the large bed in the master bedroom with a slightly flushed face.

The rooms here are all furnished with only one double bed, making them much more spacious than the student bedrooms.

At this moment, Zhou Yong was standing downstairs. Although Huang Yuxi's room had the curtains drawn, he could still vaguely see her figure.

"Tsk tsk." He clicked his tongue. "Are all Japanese girls this proactive?"

Then, even thicker curtains were drawn, and now not even a shadow could be seen.

Zhou Yong had many guesses about what would happen next, but upon closer reflection, it was ultimately something that had nothing to do with him.

If I had to say anything, I'd say I acted as a matchmaker this time.

A gentleman helps others achieve their goals. Although Zhou Yong is an ordinary person in many ways, he is at least an upright and honest gentleman. Seeing that Huang Yuxi can have a girlfriend makes him especially happy.

After all, there were rumors in the class and even the grade that Huang Yuxi from Class 2 didn't like girls but liked boys.

His charming and adorable appearance makes it hard not to have impure thoughts.

If he really does have a girlfriend now, these rumors will probably fall apart on their own, right?

Hmm... come to think of it, is it really a rumor?

Zhou Yong muttered to himself, then shook the plastic bag in his hand and couldn't help but sigh, "Ah, the night is so beautiful tonight..."

"Hey, what are you sighing about?" Li Hongran laughed and patted his shoulder. "Going to buy snacks, huh?"

"Yes, where did you all run off to just now?"

"Hehe... I'm off to scout out the terrain."

"what?"

"You'll find out tomorrow night," Li Hongran said mysteriously, as the other boys behind her ran over and surrounded Zhou Yong.

"Hey, what did you buy? Share some."

"Gotcha! You're not allowed upstairs without a designated spot!"

"What? We bought it to share with everyone," Zhou Yong laughed and scolded. "But you bunch of bastards, you ran off without me, that's not fair! I'm not sharing with you today!"

"Brother Zhou, my admiration for you..."

"Go away, don't even try!"

The boys laughed and cursed as they playfully 'fought' each other, but eventually went upstairs together.

As for the joke about not being allowed upstairs if you don't get your snacks, that was just a joke.

……

Chapter Seventy-One: Cute Boys

October 2, 2000, which was the fifth day of the ninth lunar month.

A bright crescent moon hung high in the sky, as if it had hooked the invisible ropes binding the stars onto its curved hooks and let them fall down.

Huang Yuxi's clothes had been completely changed, and the clothes she had taken off had been hand-washed and hung out to dry in the living room.

The clothes hanging there were a bit wrinkled, and upon closer inspection, you could even see some residual foam on them. Clearly, the person who did the laundry was very inexperienced and had just finished it without much thought.

He was frowning slightly, as if he was still enduring pain in his sleep, and a few beads of sweat rolled down his face.

There was a glass half-filled with water on the bedside table, as if in case he got thirsty and couldn't find any water to drink.

The water in the glass actually came from a mineral water bottle—the bottle was placed on the floor next to the bed, and there was still more than half left.

"Um...uh..." He wanted to say something in his dream, but it seemed that even in his dream, he couldn't utter a single word.

Then, he gripped the blankets tightly and shrank back further, leaving only half of his forehead exposed, making his expression impossible to see.

As soon as Sanhua Tongjue reached the bottom of the stairs, she couldn't help but glance up at the top.

"Hey, Sanhua Tongjue, what are you doing here? Don't you have a room to sleep in?" Qiu Yi asked abruptly, startling her so much that she immediately put her hands behind her back and looked ahead in a panic.

"what happened?"

"N-nothing...I just...Zhou...went the wrong way...yes!"

"Oh……"

"Well, teacher, I'm leaving now."

"it is good……"

Qiu Yi watched Sanhua Tongjue leave, muttering something indistinctly, completely ignoring the matter.

But her face had already turned somewhat pale.

Let alone in this country, even in Japan, if a high school student is found coming out of the room of a boy who has never announced that he is her boyfriend, she could be the subject of gossip!

The mountain breeze blowing across the lake brushed against her face, gradually cooling her burning cheeks.

But the scene from earlier still kept replaying in her mind.

My cheeks, which had just cooled down, started to burn again.

"So cute..." she muttered to herself, biting her lip, completely lost in her strange fantasies.

As she walked to the innermost apartment building, she glanced once more at Huang Yuxi's window and heard melodious music coming from upstairs.