A Young Woman's Heart

"Arigato!" Sanhua Tongjue turned around gratefully and saw that the owner holding the hoe was Huang Yuxi. However, he was actually very scared. At this moment, his head was turned away, his eyes were closed and he was patting wildly. His body was leaning back slightly, as if he was ready to run away at any time.

"Xiao Xi, thank you." Sanhua Tongjue patted his body, startling the latter so much that he almost fell to the ground.

"Well……"

"Sorry, are you alright?"

"Hmm..." Huang Yuxi wanted to take out her whiteboard, but found that it had fallen on the ground and was covered with some dust. It would need to be cleaned before it could be used, so she could only nod helplessly.

He can make sounds, but he can't actually speak; he can only say interjections like "uh-huh" and "ah-ah".

"Uncle, once we've turned the soil, can we plant vegetables?" Gao Yuan wiped the sweat from his forehead. Although he didn't look very strong, he was actually quite physically capable, being one of the few boys still using a large hoe to plow the land.

Many others took the small hoes that the girls used and went to slack off.

"Of course not. We have to wait a week until all the fertilizers are properly mixed before we can sow the seeds."

"Farming is really troublesome..."

"It's troublesome, and you don't even make any money," the uncle said with a self-deprecating laugh. "There are fewer and fewer young people willing to farm these days."

"Of course, after all, the effort and reward are disproportionate," Gao Yuan replied matter-of-factly. "Although it's tiring in the city, at least the salary is higher."

"But if no one farms, what good will a high salary do? Where will we eat? Food will be even more expensive then, so we'll have to go back to farming."

"We'll see when that time comes." Gao Yuan ruffled his hair into a tangled mess, sweat dripping down his face. "Phew... I probably won't choose this until I have other options."

"Sigh, they've forgotten their roots..."

“Well, this is just an objective fact, isn’t it?” Zhou Yong said from the side. “People are always driven by self-interest. Back then, the Chinese chose to farm because farming was more stable, unlike nomadic peoples who didn’t know where their next meal would come from… It’s all about self-interest.”

"Haha, alright, I can't argue with you high achievers," the uncle laughed. "Let's get back to work, this field is only half an acre."

"Half an acre? That feels like a lot..."

A class of students spent the entire morning turning over half an acre of soil, and some of them didn't even want to work anymore in the afternoon because they were too tired.

Mo Xueyao thought it was alright; after all, it was much more interesting than military training.

There are still some weeds on the wasteland, which of course need to be pulled out completely. They can be buried underground as fertilizer for the next crop.

Time always flies when you're working, and by the time Mo Xueyao was drenched in sweat, lunch had been delivered.

Today was an hour earlier than yesterday, so it seems the school's original plan yesterday wasn't to have cornbread.

Today's lunch was multigrain steamed buns, including corn, black rice, and millet, three of each.

The steamed buns weren't as substantial as yesterday's, but at least there were more of them. Plus, the boys could ask the girls for their leftover steamed buns, so after sharing the food, it was enough for them.

Most importantly, there's meat for lunch today—one cured chicken leg for everyone.

This is something that many people are tired of eating in the school cafeteria, but here it has become a delicacy. Even Wang Jiale, who doesn't usually like to eat cured chicken legs, ate it all without wasting a single bite.

Indeed, you only learn to cherish something after you've lost it.

Without comparison, students wouldn't know how comfortable their living conditions are in the city.

In contrast, the instructor's meals were quite ordinary. He ate a lunchbox he brought from home, which contained only rice and dried plum vegetables without any meat in a small aluminum lunchbox.

Huang Yuxi handed him the cured chicken leg that she hadn't taken out of the bag to eat yet. The uncle was stunned for a moment, then smiled and patted his head: "Haha, little girl, you eat it yourself. I'm used to it. You guys still need to eat some meat to grow up."

"Pfft." Wang Jiale covered her mouth and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Sanhua Tongjue looked at Huang Yuxi and handed hers to him.

Actually, she wasn't picky about food, so it wasn't that she didn't like it that she gave it to him.

I just feel that no matter how much he looks like a girl, he is still a boy, so he must eat more than a girl.

She doesn't eat much; one steamed bun is enough to fill her up.

"Hmm...?"

"You ate it."

"……Um……"

"Or maybe we can each have half?" Sanhua Tongjue suddenly came up with a compromise.

"Hmm...?" Huang Yuxi seemed to be thinking about how to cut the cured chicken leg in half.

The two men had already walked away, leaving only the uncle holding the cured chicken leg, unsure whether he should eat it or not.

He swallowed hard, but ultimately decided to pick up the chicken leg and start eating it.

"I'll take a bite, you take a bite, how about it?" Sanhua Tongjue lowered her voice excitedly. She deliberately led Huang Yuxi to a corner hidden by stones so that they could enjoy their time alone.

"…!" Huang Yuxi shook her head, her face flushed, but Sanhua Tongjue had already made up her mind. She took a small bite of the cured chicken leg, chewed slowly, and handed the chicken leg back. "Eat it, I don't mind."

"Hmm..." His flushed little face hesitated for a long time before he finally took a small bite on the back of the chicken leg, trying his best not to touch Sanhua Tongjue's teeth marks.

But as you eat more and less, there's less and less meat, so you inevitably end up touching the places she's bitten.

Meanwhile, Sanhua Tongjue had finished eating and was watching Huang Yuxi eat the remaining chicken leg with great interest.

At that moment, he looked like a timid little kitten, taking a bite and then glancing up at her.

Neither of them actually ate from the parts the other had eaten from, so in the end, although there was still a little meat left on the chicken leg, it had to be thrown away.

Of course, Huang Yuxi can eat it if she wants...

Sanhua Tongjue held this expectation.

But in the end, he was too embarrassed to finish eating it and regretfully tossed it to the big yellow dog that came over to scavenge for the bone.

"Here." A clean, slightly scented wet wipe was handed to him. The owner of the hand smiled at him, and the autumn-colored countryside seemed to pale in comparison.

He carefully took the tissue and wiped his mouth, while Sanhua Tongjue, sitting next to him, quietly poked the back of his hand with her finger and then placed her palm on it.

Huang Yuxi's face was so red it was almost dripping with water. He lowered his head slightly and didn't move for a long time, as if he was so shy that his brain had shut down.

……

Chapter Seventy-Four: The Legend of the Seven-Colored Carp

This chapter pays homage to the story of the seven-colored koi in "The Parallel World of Quiet".

……

There is actually a lunch break after lunch.

After all, this is the time of day when the sun is strongest, and if you insist on working all day, you could get sunburned.

Yesterday was an unexpected event, but everything is back on track today.

The students sat by the cool lake, laughing and playing, while teachers watched over them to prevent anyone from falling into the water.

Of course, some students also gathered around the instructors, listening to them tell simple rural stories.

Mo Xueyao sat near her uncle, secretly dipped her bare feet into the water, and watched as several translucent little fish swirled around her feet, nibbling at the dead skin.

It felt itchy, but surprisingly it felt very comfortable.

However, compared to nibbling on her toes, the little fish seemed to prefer nibbling on Li Hongran's feet.

There were really a lot of small fish around his feet; it looked like you could scoop up a whole bowl of them with a net.

It seems that Xiaoyu isn't very interested in pretty girls.

"Tsk, Li Hongran has so many fish over there." Hua Yinyin took off her shoes, not to be outdone, but she didn't attract many fish either. "I'm not convinced, why should I?"

"Hahaha." Uncle couldn't help but burst into laughter. "That's because he has athlete's foot, and his feet are probably peeling, so the fish like to circle around him. The reason there are no fish around you is because your skin is too good, with little dead skin, so of course there's not much to eat."

"Eh—?" Mo Xueyao's face flushed slightly, but she couldn't help feeling smug inside.

"Hey students over there, don't put your feet in the lake! It's dangerous. Stay away from the shore and don't get too close!" the PE teacher on patrol shouted. Some students still refused to pull their feet out, so he went to each of them and spoke to them one by one.

Mo Xueyao wisely withdrew her small feet and squeezed closer to Hua Yinyin—mainly to hide in the shade of the tree.

Several green dragonflies flew low overhead, creating tiny ripples as they skimmed the water's surface.

The full lake water gently lapped against the shore, the water level rising and falling, looking like a chest rising and falling as it breathes.

If you looked down from above, you would see that the students had already formed a large circle around the lake. The noise did not disturb the birds in the sky; instead, they circled around and observed the ground, as if they were curiously listening to what the humans were talking about.

However, don't get your hopes up too high.

For example, Zhou Yong, who had bird droppings on his head, would definitely not find the sight beautiful.

He now wished he could pluck that damned bird off and braise it—preferably using the lake water and the earthen stove over there.

"Hahaha—" Gao Yuan burst into laughter, rolling around on the ground, while the others joined in mocking his luck.

Zhou Yong decided to go all the way and wiped the bird droppings off his head, preparing to smear them on the people who were mocking him.

No one dared to laugh anymore. Everyone held back their laughter as they watched him hurriedly run away to wash his hair. Only when they were sure he was really far away did they burst into laughter again.

"These guys are really awful..." Mo Xueyao couldn't stand it anymore.

"Aren't all boys like this?" Hua Yinyin seemed to understand boys better than she did.

"Even so, I'm not happy at all as the person involved... Sigh, but if these guys could read between the lines, they wouldn't be like them."

“Girls like to read people's expressions, so they like to scheme and plot against each other even more,” Cha Li said, leaning against Lu Chengyuan. “So, there are always two sides, good and bad.”

However, the students in Class Two are mostly kind-hearted. If they accidentally hurt someone, it was just an unintentional mistake.

"Uncle," Mr. Xue didn't join in the boys' mockery of Zhou Yong's bad luck, but asked with a hint of curiosity, "Does this lake have a name?"

“Name? This lake doesn’t really have a name. In our local dialect, we just call it Clear Water Lake. It’s probably not an official name.” The uncle grinned, his rough face making his smile seem very simple and honest. “There’s a legend about this lake. It probably dates back to… the Republic of China era. I heard my grandfather tell it.”

"What legend is it?" The students, including Mo Xueyao, gathered around curiously.

She was mentally prepared; it would mostly be supernatural stories about gods and ghosts, and who knows, maybe someone had even drowned in the lake.

But if we're really talking about dead people, how many places on land that people walk on regularly haven't had dead people buried?

If wandering ghosts and spirits really exist, then during the War of Resistance Against Japan, they should have been used as the vanguard, or at the very least, they should have helped slow down the invaders.

However, they never actually appeared.

This also proves that ghosts and such do not exist; otherwise, those officers who slaughtered so many people should have been tormented to death by vengeful spirits long ago.

Therefore, Mo Xueyao herself is not afraid of ghosts; she is just curious about these mysterious legends.