A Young Woman's Heart

But she didn't want to talk about it, and no one dared to ask.

Wang Jiale tried to lighten the mood: "Well, it's rare for Yinyin to be serious, so let her be serious for a little longer! By the way, do you know what the other classes are performing?"

Mo Xueyao took a deep breath, because the air had almost solidified, making her feel somewhat suffocated.

"What?" she asked absentmindedly and perfunctorily.

"I know one!" Mo Zhuyou's cheerful voice dispelled the awkwardness from before. "I heard that a class is going to do a girl group dance, which means they'll be dressed in revealing clothes and then dance a very sexy dance together."

"Huh? The boys are definitely going to cheer." Mo Xueyao clicked her tongue.

"Yeah, I heard that some boys even went to peek at them during rehearsals!"

"Eek—" Wang Jiale drawled, glancing at Hua Yinyin. Seeing that she didn't respond, he continued, "It seems like another class is going to perform The Little Match Girl."

"How tacky!" Mo Xueyao glanced at Hua Yinyin subconsciously. "It couldn't possibly be more creative than what we saw at the New Year's Day cultural performance last time, could it?"

"That's not necessarily true. Oh, right, there's one more thing. Class 1 is performing a skit. It's Class 1 of the second year of high school next door."

"A skit? It'll probably be one of those Spring Festival Gala programs, so unoriginal." Mo Xueyao shook her head slightly, raising her voice a little. "Our class's is so much better; no other class has anything like this!"

"Yes, definitely, after all, it was written by Yinyin. She often gets first place in the whole school in Chinese." Lu Chengyuan raised her chin at Hua Yinyin. "Right, Yinyin?"

Hua Yinyin glanced at her but did not answer.

Mo Xueyao even thought she was sick, but she didn't look weak at all.

When everyone finished eating and left together, Hua Yinyin was the last one to arrive. When she returned to the classroom, she was nowhere to be found.

"Could it be that Yinyin hates us now?" Wang Jiale sat on his desk, propped himself up with his hands, leaned back slightly, and asked Mo Xueyao, who was squatting in front of the desk organizing the drawers.

"No way?"

"But I get the feeling she seems to dislike us?"

"Maybe he's just in a bad mood today, or something happened at home? Or maybe he's really thinking about the plot?"

"The last one is the least likely!" Wang Jiale waved his hand with a smile. "Well—it should be ready by tomorrow."

"Definitely, to be honest, it's really hard to get used to seeing Yin Yin like this..." Mo Xueyao's voice softened as Hua Yin Yin had already entered the classroom.

She glanced at Mo Xueyao slightly, then sat down, tucked her little hands into her sleeves, and took a nap.

Wang Jiale moved his butt onto Mo Xueyao's table, leaned against the windowsill, and wrote the three big characters "Hua Yinyin" on the fogged glass window, followed by several hearts.

There seemed to be some grease left on her fingers, and the fingerprints left on the glass window faintly emitted a few colored lights under the light of the chandelier.

Hua Yinyin's unusual behavior today has led many to speculate about her situation, and the speculations have become increasingly exaggerated. Some even said that something bad had happened to her family, that they were going bankrupt, or that her father and mother had jumped off a building...

The further the rumor went, the more certain it became, as if it were already a fact.

Today, Hua Yinyin is probably receiving so much attention from so many people for the first time.

However, she herself seemed completely oblivious, remaining as quiet as ever, as if she had changed her personality overnight and was no longer as lively and mischievous as before.

The ringing of the school bell also signifies the end of the day.

As Mo Xueyao listened to the ringing bell, her gaze pierced through the chalk dust floating in the air and landed on Li Wanyan.

"Wanyan—it seems like no one wants to go to the band room today, so let's go home after we finish cleaning?"

"Mm." Taking advantage of the fact that no one else was looking at her, Li Wanyan smiled slightly at Mo Xueyao. It was a genuine smile, not just a simple upturn of the corners of her mouth; even her eyes curved into a smile.

The laughter came so suddenly that Mo Xueyao even thought it was her imagination for a moment.

Why did Li Wanyan suddenly start laughing like that?

Before she could think it through, she suddenly felt someone hug her from behind, and then a noisy but familiar voice rang out: "Little Yaoyao~!"

"...Gin-gin?"

"Yes, Yaoyao, let's go home together today!"

"Uh... what's going on?"

"What?! What's going on?!"

"Hey you, what's wrong with you? You suddenly returned to normal? Did you finally come back from your escapade?"

"Hmph, didn't Xiaoyao keep telling me to be normal? I've been normal all day, and now you guys think it's not good?"

Mo Xueyao pretended to be angry and grabbed Hua Yinyin's small hand with her other hand, raising her left eyebrow slightly: "What? I wish you were normal every day."

She emphasized the word "normal" very heavily.

"Oh dear, actually I couldn't hold it in anymore... Pretending to be serious is so tiring!" Hua Yinyin giggled, stuffing her hands into Mo Xueyao's pockets, resting her chin on her shoulder, and rubbing her face against it. "Hehe, little Yaoyao clearly likes me like this~"

Mo Xueyao didn't say anything, but suppressed a laugh and bumped her head with her brow bone.

……

Chapter 219 A...Last Will and Testament

Friday, July 15, 2000.

Classes are suspended for the entire day today.

Because the weather forecast said there would be heavy snow.

Mo Xueyao slept until noon before getting up, but the world outside the window still looked like it was six in the morning.

She wrapped the blanket around herself and curled up, her toes accidentally sticking out from under the blanket and touching the wall. The icy touch made her feel like she had just touched an ice cube from the refrigerator; it was freezing cold.

"Snoring—" she mumbled something unintelligible, as if trying to motivate herself to get out of bed, but she only curled up more like a boiled shrimp.

Winters in southern cities are particularly difficult for ordinary people in this era.

In the countryside, at least there's ashes from the stove or warmth from the hearth. But in the city, without air conditioning, you'd probably feel your eyeballs freezing just by opening your eyes.

"Ugh..." Mo Xueyao swayed back and forth on the bed like a turtle that had fallen flat on its back, but she couldn't escape the 'binding' of the blankets.

The dust on the windowsill was blown down by the wind generated by her shaking, covering an ant that had already frozen to death.

"Get up." Li Wanyan's voice came from the bedside. Mo Xueyao opened her eyes with difficulty, feeling as if her long eyelashes were about to be frozen.

"Wanyan, um... what time is it?" Mo Xueyao yawned, but was choked by the cold air she inhaled and coughed a few times. "Cough cough... so cold, so cold, even the air is so cold."

Li Wanyan sat on the floor, leaning against the bed, with a pile of miscellaneous items spread out beside her, which she was sorting out in a neat and orderly fashion.

"It's twelve o'clock." Li Wanyan raised her eyelids and glanced at her sideways. "Are you cold?"

"It's freezing! Even the blankets aren't warm..." Mo Xueyao said, shivering, leaning her whole body against Li Wanyan's shoulder. "What are you doing?"

As she said this, she used her courageous hand, which had just reached out from under the covers, to brush away the strands of hair that were tickling her cheeks.

"I'm organizing some old things," Li Wanyan replied, opening a miniature ledger. Page after page was filled with all sorts of numbers and neat, albeit somewhat messy, handwriting.

Mo Xueyao curiously moved closer, like a giant sea cucumber without arms and legs.

Li Wanyan touched the back of her head with her long hair to the side and leaned her body closer to her.

The ledger contained only trivial things, such as what was bought and how much was spent that day. It wasn't even a diary entry—because it contained no reflections from the recorder or any description of what happened that day.

The account books also show that Li Wanyan's family used to be very frugal in terms of clothing, food, housing, and transportation.

Eggplant: 0.2

"Cabbage: 0.15"

Minced meat: 2

All the data is so concise and clear.

At first, Li Wanyan flipped through the pages slowly, but later she started flipping through them very quickly.

The last page was torn by a ballpoint pen, and the paper was crumpled. In the lower left corner, there were some words that had become blurred due to water, and the rest were illegible. Only the words "daughter" were clearly visible.

Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan's cheeks were almost touching. They both tried to turn their heads, but they bumped into each other at the same time.

Li Wanyan closed the ledger and stacked it aside with the other books. Seemingly noticing her curiosity, she tilted her head slightly and explained, "When I left home, I took some things that my mother left behind."

"So those clothes too?" Mo Xueyao gestured with her eyes to the few pieces of clothing spread out on the ground.

"Hmm... in case I run out of clothes, I can wear hers for now."

From a practical point of view, Li Wanyan looked away from Mo Xueyao and instead picked up the dress and shook it.

This was a summer dress that looked like sheer fabric, but when the fabric brushed against Mo Xueyao's face, she realized that the material was actually quite rough—it probably felt a lot like curtains.

"This was made by my mother from curtain fabric. When I was in elementary school, my family lived near a curtain factory, and the trash cans next to it would often throw away scraps of unused curtain fabric." Li Wanyan folded the clothes neatly and couldn't help but gently rub them against her cheek.

Then she turned her head in a bit of a panic, and only breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Mo Xueyao was not looking in her direction.

The clothes smelled of her mother, which made her feel especially at ease.

"Was Wanyan initially keeping them as keepsakes?" Mo Xueyao leaned on her shoulder again, her hair falling all the way to her chest. In this snowy weather, when they were so close, they could clearly hear each other's heartbeats.

"Ah."

"Well, it's not as bad as you think, right?" She said unconsciously, pressing her teeth against Li Wanyan's shoulder, before realizing that this was Hua Yinyin's favorite little gesture.

Li Wanyan nodded slightly, her toes, clad in pantyhose, twitched, and she bent her ankle to slip on the cotton slippers next to her.

"Aren't you cold sitting on the ground?"

"Fortunately."

Li Wanyan then sorted through another photo album. The cover of the album must have been taken when her mother was young. Color photos were not yet common at that time, so it was black and white.

Even the black and white photos have yellowed, and the woman in the photos is holding a bunch of chrysanthemums. Even in black and white, one can still imagine how vibrant they were back then.

When I opened the photo album, most of it was empty.

Moreover, the intervals between photos are quite large. Sometimes Mo Xueyao thinks there are no more photos, but after Li Wanyan flips through a few pages, another photo will appear.

The photo includes Li Wanyan, her mother, and various other people, but her father is conspicuously absent.

"Which one is your dad?" Mo Xueyao asked inquiringly, her brows furrowed—her neck was sticking out from under the covers, as if she no longer felt how cold the air outside was.

"He's not here."

"Huh?"

“These were all taken secretly by my mother.”