A Young Woman's Heart

There were only two days left in the year 2000, but the city streets remained largely unchanged, not even as lively as during Christmas. After all, for the people of this country, the Gregorian New Year was not considered a true New Year.

The dawn light, like the sun's gaze, quietly parted a beam and stared intently at Mo Xueyao, who was leaning against the window.

The library was a little more crowded on Saturday than on weekdays. All the seats were taken, and people were sitting or standing everywhere reading.

Everyone consciously tried their best not to make any noise, so much so that the only sound was the cleaning staff mopping the floor repeatedly.

Li Wanyan didn't come with her because New Year's Day was approaching and the school had many things to prepare. As the class monitor of Class 2, Grade 11, she was naturally asked by Ye Wen to help.

Mo Xueyao came with her, so they went into the library together.

If you're not in a rush, finding books can be a very fun part.

Perhaps this is similar to shopping and selecting goods, the only difference being that there are no annoying salespeople here, nor the boss's gaze fixed on your back.

Mo Xueyao can freely roam the sea of ​​books. When she sees a book title that interests her, she will pick it up and flip through a few pages. If she doesn't like it, she will put it back.

There are countless books in human history, and those placed in libraries are already among the best.

But the reason why masters are called masters is because they are the best of the best...

In fact, even Mo Xueyao could see the poor writing in most of the books.

After reading too many so-called literary works, she also felt that those books were nothing special, and the authors were particularly pretentious, which made her feel uncomfortable.

What she disliked reading the most was probably that kind of "scar literature."

In the modern fiction section, there are relatively more lighthearted and enjoyable novels. However, most people still want to emulate literary masters and insist on giving their works some kind of meaning or connotation. As a result, they end up with a poor imitation, which feels forced and awkward to read.

Sometimes the author even asks the reader what lesson they learned from the story, which makes you want to slap the author twice.

Mo Xueyao stepped out into the sunlight and scanned the entire row of bookshelves, suddenly spotting an 'interesting' novel.

Its title is very long, which is very eye-catching among a bunch of short titles. However, the title is a bit long for the sake of being long. When you open it, it is indeed just a gimmick. The story inside is very clichéd and boring. Compared with most of the novels next to it, it is just a different book with a different title. The content inside is even worse.

After much deliberation, she finally picked up a copy of Lao She's "Rickshaw Boy." In fact, she would read it every time she came, but she would put it back after flipping through a few pages.

It wasn't that the writing was bad, but rather that the suffocating oppression made it difficult for her to continue reading.

Living in this era, it's actually hard for her to imagine such a life.

This time, she decided to calm down and read the book carefully.

She stroked the somewhat rough book cover as she walked towards the window where sunlight streamed in—she didn't like crowded places, so she had to walk around several times before finally finding a less crowded spot with plenty of sunlight.

The person sitting on the ground with newspapers under their knees is Yu Shu, who lives next door.

Mo Xueyao was excited and wanted to shout her name, but then she remembered that this was a library, so she swallowed what she wanted to say, quietly walked to her side, and gently patted her shoulder.

Even so, Yu Shu was so frightened that she trembled all over and almost bumped her head into the floor-to-ceiling glass window behind her.

"Shh—" Mo Xueyao made a shushing gesture, sat down next to her and asked in a low voice, "What a coincidence, Yu Shu."

Yu Shu took off the earphone from her left ear, tilted her head to look at her, and said, "Xiao Yao, you're here to read too? You startled me just now..."

"Who knew you were such a coward? Hey, you're listening to music? Where's the cassette player?" Mo Xueyao asked curiously. "Is it some kind of mini cassette player?"

"Hmm, it's only a little bigger than a cassette tape." Yu Shu was as happy as a child sharing a toy with a friend. She pulled the cassette player, which was barely bigger than her palm, out of her shirt pocket. "Xiao Yao, do you want to listen?"

"What song?" Mo Xueyao asked, but she had already put the earphone that Yu Shu had taken off into her right ear. "Ah, the earphone cord is a bit short..."

"Then, then come closer..." Yu Shu said softly, her voice barely audible, as she carefully leaned against Mo Xueyao. "This, this is that... this cassette tape I bought. It's a piano piece, and the album is called 'River of Time'..."

"The river of time..." Mo Xueyao let the melody of the music echo in her mind, then opened the book and slowly read on.

Lao She's writing is always very simple and unadorned, without any obscure characters, making it easy to read and understand, unlike Lu Xun's novels which are difficult to pronounce.

This makes for a better reading experience, because you don't have to read a sentence several times to understand its meaning. You can read it in one go naturally, just like listening to an elder tell a story from the past.

With a slightly flushed face, Yu Shu would occasionally glance at Mo Xueyao out of the corner of her eye, but the latter was focused on her book and didn't notice her at all.

Mo Xueyao still couldn't finish watching it this time; she couldn't bear to watch any longer after reading half of it.

The sun outside the window has risen to its zenith and will soon begin to set.

"I wonder if Wanyan is done with her work yet." She muttered, closing the book and standing up with a 'whoosh'.

However, a 'thud' sounded immediately beside her, and then Yu Shu's head tilted to the side. She endured the pain and covered her right ear, while the headphones and tape player fell to the ground.

"Ah..." Mo Xueyao hurriedly squatted down, "I forgot I was wearing headphones, Yu Shu, are you alright?"

"Ouch, it hurts..."

"I'm so sorry..." Mo Xueyao peeked at her right ear through her fingers, "Thank goodness...there's no bleeding..."

Tears welled up in Yu Shu's eyes as she grabbed the window frame, trying to get up, but her foot slipped, and she lost her balance and fell forward.

Mo Xueyao quickly caught her, but the latter's forehead bumped directly into her chest, making her feel suffocated for a moment.

Perhaps because it is still developing, there was even a piercing pain there.

"Hiss—" She couldn't help but take two steps back.

"Um..." Yu Shu looked up a little embarrassedly. The pain from before had lessened considerably. She grabbed Mo Xueyao's shoulder with one hand and suddenly brought her face close. "The earphone... broke..."

"Ahem... I forgot, I'm so sorry!" Mo Xueyao said awkwardly in a low voice.

"N-nothing..." Yu Shu took the broken earphone off her left ear. "Xiao Yao, want to go have lunch?"

"Well, I'm going to check on Wanyan while I'm at it." Mo Xueyao scratched her cheek. "By the way, where did you buy your headphones? I'll buy you a new pair..."

"It's okay, this one is old, I have another one at home."

"Oh—" Mo Xueyao didn't say anything more, but she still planned to buy her a new one as compensation. "Ahem, it seems we're disturbing others. Shall we go outside?"

"Hmm..." Yu Shu bent down and picked up the tape recorder and broken earphones from the ground, stuffing them into her pocket.

Mo Xueyao asked with some concern, "Let's go out and try the tape recorder later to see if it works. Please make sure it doesn't break..."

If it breaks, she'll have to compensate her with her own—Mo Xueyao thought to herself.

"Ah."

Fortunately, the cassette player simply slipped out of my pocket. I was sitting on the ground, which wasn't very high off, so it wasn't damaged. The only thing I lost was a pair of headphones.

"Whoa!" Just as Mo Xueyao breathed a sigh of relief, she was suddenly patted on the back, which startled her and Yu Shu.

"Who is it? Shen Kelin...what do you want!"

"Hey, you're not with that girl you're always hanging out with? What's up, got a new crush?" Shen Kelin asked, arms crossed.

Mo Xueyao looked at her with droopy eyelids: "Who is that girl you're talking about who's always with me? Is it Yinyin or Wanyan?"

"Hmm... are there that many?"

"Tsk."

"So, who is this little vixen who stole my Xiaoyao?" Shen Kelin joked.

"Hey, what vixen?!"

Yu Shu took a timid half-step back: "Y-hello..."

The three of them were standing at the school gate. Mo Xueyao was about to go in, while Shen Kelin was coming out. She must have been called in to help with something today—perhaps it was rehearsals for hosting the New Year's Day cultural performance.

"Ah, Wanyan, you're out. Are you done with work?"

"We have to go this afternoon." Li Wanyan shook her head and walked to Mo Xueyao's side. "Let's go have lunch first."

"Okay." Mo Xueyao pulled Yu Shu along. "Yu Shu, why don't you come too?"

"Okay, sure..."

"Bye-bye, you big vixen!" Mo Xueyao stuck out her soft, pink tongue at Shen Kelin and deliberately raised her eyebrows. "Let's go."

"Can I freeload a meal?" Shen Kelin asked shamelessly.

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

"I'm going back to school this afternoon anyway, so I might as well eat with you guys."

"We ate at home."

"Meeting the parents early? No problem!"

"Hey, Shen Kelin, you're still as irresponsible as ever..." Although she has become much more womanly than before, her personality remains unchanged.

"Let's go together." Li Wanyan nodded. It seemed that she had talked to her before at school. Perhaps the help she was going to give today was related to Shen Kelin's hosting?

"What's wrong? Do you think I stole your 'gentle words'?" Shen Kelin asked with a light laugh.

"Tch—I was just curious how you two met."

"Hey, I'll let you in on a little secret, we were elementary school classmates!"

"What a small world..."

"The main problem is that this city is too small," Shen Kelin said with a hearty laugh, putting her arm around Mo Xueyao's shoulder.

……

Chapter 242 Mr. Xue, the Gangster Boss?

This is a park that is about to be abandoned, next to a construction site with a lot of clanging and banging. The park will be rebuilt as a supporting facility for the new community.

The park is planted with many bamboos. In winter, the surface of the bamboos seems to have a slight white tinge. There is a stone table in the bamboo forest, and the stone bench next to it is broken and lies in pieces on the muddy ground.

Newspapers were spread on the dirty ground, and a group of young people dressed in tattered clothes with messy dyed hair sat on the ground—there were probably twenty or thirty of them at a glance.

Mr. Xue, dressed neatly, seemed out of place among them, but he sat cross-legged in front of everyone, his back straight, while the others listened respectfully.

"You must learn, but not be arrogant. You must not look down on others. As a great man once said, such an attitude of looking down on others is unscientific. When you walk down the street, you should not appear haughty, nor should you look down on others just because they look down on you..."

These words might be annoying to a proper high school student, but these delinquents listened intently.

This wasn't the first time Mr. Xue had brought them here to speak, and in fact, it wasn't him who asked to come; rather, they invited him to talk about these matters.

“But we’re already in such a bad school, and the teachers practically give up on us in class. Do we really need to study hard?” A young delinquent raised his hand very seriously.

"This is certainly necessary. First, we need to make one thing clear..."

Mr. Xue began explaining again, answering other people's questions as he went along, and everyone seemed to genuinely respect him.