A Young Woman's Heart

"Alright, that's all for today. I hope everyone won't give up on themselves. Remember, we are still young. When our country was in its most perilous time, our predecessors didn't give up on themselves, so what right do we have to give up on ourselves? We can use our own efforts to change the current situation and make this country better. One person might not be able to do it, but what about millions of people?"

"Sir!" Just as Mr. Xue stood up, a young thug with green hair also stood up. He asked somewhat embarrassedly, "Wouldn't it be better if we cut our hair and dyed it back to black?"

"Hehe, it doesn't necessarily have to be done that way. Outward appearance doesn't affect your inner spirit. When you feel that you no longer need to rely on these things to prove what you want to prove in your heart, you will naturally go and dye your hair back."

"Oh... thank you, sir!"

"You're welcome. Alright, among the rest of you, is there anyone who still doesn't understand the textbook material? Feel free to ask me." Mr. Xue smiled and raised his voice, and immediately several people gathered around with their math and English books.

"It's too dark in here, let's go outside and take a look."

“But…we…” The thugs seemed hesitant.

"It's okay, don't worry about what others think."

So most of the thugs dispersed, while a small portion followed Mr. Xue out of the bamboo forest and gathered around a wooden bench in the abandoned park.

Someone complained to him, "Oh, sir, the English teacher at our school is really bad, and his own pronunciation isn't even standard..."

"Sir, I've never understood why this problem needs to be solved this way. Could you explain it to me?"

"Okay, okay, don't rush, one at a time..."

……

"I wonder what lunch is today. I hope it's not like last time, with buckwheat porridge or something. It's not tasty at all, and it's not filling. It even makes me feel nauseous if I eat too much..." Mo Xueyao muttered to herself. The other three walked beside her, while a construction site was busy laying the foundation.

"Thump, thump, thump." The sound of the pile driver at the construction site can always be heard from afar, like the heartbeat of the city.

"Xiaoyao, is there any follow-up on what we talked about before about your dad buying a fake phone?" Yu Shu asked softly, her gaze falling on the jingling bell on Mo Xueyao's ankle.

"My mom went to the police station, but they said the amount was too small and they wouldn't file a case..."

"Hey, what do we do then?"

There's nothing we can do about it.

"What's wrong?" Shen Kelin tightened her grip on Mo Xueyao's neck and asked curiously.

"My dad got scammed when he bought a phone that day. Um... Before he bought it, the phone was working perfectly fine. After he sold it to us, he said he had to remove his SIM card. After removing it, we found that it wouldn't turn on. When we took it all apart, there was no circuit board inside, just a metal plate."

"Huh? What happened? Did he secretly remove the original circuit board?"

"How could that be? The time was very short." Mo Xueyao rolled her eyes. "I asked Xiaoxue, and she said it was probably switched. They had prepared a model phone beforehand, and then, while pretending to remove the SIM card, they switched the phone with the model phone..."

"Don't you all do transactions face-to-face?"

"Yeah, but I never expected it! And when I called back later, it said the phone was switched off." Mo Xueyao still felt a pang of heartache when she talked about it. "Six hundred yuan! I should have asked my dad to add three or four hundred yuan and buy me a phone from a proper mobile phone store... Now I'll never have a phone for the rest of my high school years, sigh."

"Pfft, you can actually be fooled by that?"

“The key is that my dad believed it, so you know, those people who use their hometown connection to build relationships are all untrustworthy!” Mo Xueyao pouted. “That guy is very thin and small, I think he’s probably not from the North at all, maybe he’s just faking his accent.”

The four chatted as they passed the entrance to the abandoned park. Yu Shu glanced inside and instinctively moved closer to Mo Xueyao.

The latter looked inside curiously and saw seven or eight thugs with dyed green and yellow hair gathered around a wooden bench, doing something unknown.

Mo Xueyao originally didn't want to cause trouble and was about to leave, but after taking a few steps, she saw the person sitting inside through the gaps in the crowd: "Hey, isn't that Mr. Xue?!"

“Xiaoxue?” Li Wanyan stopped in her tracks. “I’ll go to the school and call the teacher.”

"Hmm—no need, I'll go up and try." Mo Xueyao thought about how she was always addressed as 'Young Miss' by the local thugs, and thought that they might know her father. Then she could use her father's name to get rid of them and stop bullying Mr. Xue.

Li Wanyan hesitated slightly, then nodded gently and followed her inside.

"Is it a group of thugs robbing us?" Shen Kelin put her hands behind her head, grinned, and said, "Interesting, I'll go take a look."

"Huh? Huh?" Yu Shu was left standing outside, unsure whether she should go in or not.

While she hesitated, Mo Xueyao had already walked up behind the thugs.

"Hey!" Mo Xueyao leaned closer to them and shouted. When they all turned to look at her, she coughed twice leisurely. "You guys, don't bully our school's students, didn't we say that before? Or are you not... from that vocational school?"

"Hey, it's Miss!" One of the thugs recognized her, and the others greeted her jokingly.

Mo Xueyao secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Shen Kelin, standing beside her, playfully nudged her arm: "Huh? I didn't expect that, Xiaoyao, you're still a 'young lady'? Is your dad a gang leader?"

“My dad isn’t.” Mo Xueyao rolled her eyes, looking at the group of thugs with a gentle expression. “So, what are you all doing surrounding him?”

"Him?" The group hadn't quite grasped what she meant yet. Only one person, after a moment of stunned silence, realized what was going on. "Do you mean Mr.?"

"Yeah, what are you all doing surrounding Mr. Xue? Are you trying to rob him?" Mo Xueyao asked, hands on her hips, adopting a bit of a bossy demeanor.

"Sir... is equivalent to our teacher."

"Teacher?" Mo Xueyao was dumbfounded. She turned her head slightly and saw the textbooks on the bench, as well as some hooligans holding paper, pens and workbooks, as if they had been writing something on them just now.

"Cough! No way?"

"That's right," Mr. Xue nodded with a smile, "I'm tutoring them."

"Damn..." Mo Xueyao couldn't help but exclaim under her breath, "Are you guys not just petty thugs, but just playing role-playing games?"

"Hahaha—" Many thugs laughed, but they didn't explain themselves. They just stood tall and proud, their faces radiating a sunny confidence.

"It's good that you're alright... So, Xiaoxue, have you eaten yet?"

"not yet."

"Oh right, sir hasn't had lunch yet, let's not keep him any longer."

"Yes, Mr. Xue's friends have all come." These people really acted like Mr. Xue's students, very consciously making way for each other.

"No rush." ​​Mr. Xue shook his head, but the others stopped asking and insisted that Mr. Xue eat first before coming.

"Man is made of iron, food is made of steel, isn't that what you said, sir!"

"Yeah, we need to grab something to eat too. We'll wait for you here later!"

"Yes, yes, yes!" The thugs nodded in agreement.

"Alright then." Mr. Xue smiled and stood up from his chair. "I'll go get some food and come back later."

Mo Xueyao stared blankly as Mr. Xue walked up to her, as if watching a movie, before she came to her senses: "That's really... too exaggerated. By the way, Xueyao, since we're going to have lunch anyway, why don't you come to my house for lunch?"

"Does your mother cook that much food?" Shen Kelin asked curiously, "and we didn't tell her in advance."

"It's alright, it's alright, you can come to my family's noodle shop! By the way, do you guys want to come?" Mo Xueyao looked at the group of thugs, "Hmm... I can make an exception and give you all a 20% discount today!"

"I want to go, I want to go, haha, it's Mo's Noodle Shop, right?"

"correct."

"Actually, I've always wanted to go eat there, but I was afraid of scaring the little girl inside."

"A little girl? Is that Lianlian? It's alright, it's alright, come with me today!"

"Not bad, Xiaoyao, you can even get business from petty thugs?" Shen Kelin said mischievously, ruffling Mo Xueyao's hair.

"Tsk, don't mess up my hair—"

……

Chapter 243 The Golden Son-in-Law

"Mom! Cook more dishes today, I'm bringing my classmates over!" Mo Xueyao shouted as soon as she entered the store. Business was booming, and there seemed to be no seats left.

"Why didn't you say so earlier?" the mother replied irritably, but when she turned around, she saw Mr. Xue's fair and clean face.

Mr. Xue is a very 'clean' boy, not only because he takes good care of himself, but also because he has fair skin and pure eyes. He is probably the kind of boy that women of all ages, from three to eighty, would like.

And it won't make men feel disgusted.

Although he doesn't grow a beard, he doesn't appear effeminate; instead, he exudes a righteous and warm aura like the rising sun.

What's special is that his lips looked like they were wearing lipstick, which perfectly complemented the fact that his two rows of teeth were as white as flawless seashells.

"Hello, Auntie." Mr. Xue greeted her with a smile, and even amidst the crackling sound of frying oil, his voice, neither too loud nor too soft, remained perfectly clear.

When Mo Xueyao walked to his side, Yang Xiaoyu's eyes suddenly lit up, as if they were glowing.

Mo Xueyao was completely unaware that the dark gold color in her hair was increasing. She scratched her cheek and chuckled awkwardly, "Well, today was an unexpected situation. By the way, is there enough food?"

The mother shifted her gaze back to her oil-splattered pot, her tone seemingly much gentler than before: "It's definitely not enough, how many of you are there?"

"Hmm—Yu Shu, Shen Kelin, and Xiao Xue." Mo Xueyao counted on her fingers, "It's just three more people."

"There isn't enough rice, and it's too late to cook any more now. Go to the steamed bun shop over at the market and buy some steamed buns."

How many do you want to buy?

"Just buy six or seven."

"Oh! Tsk, it's so far..." Mo Xueyao then realized how far it was from here to the market. It would take about fifteen or sixteen minutes to walk there, and half an hour round trip.

"Why don't you just ride your dad's electric scooter?"

"Oh right—" This electric scooter is actually used by my mother, but her driving skills are really bad. She seems to have fallen a few times recently, and the front of the scooter is already a bit deformed.

—Mo Xueyao never cared about her mother's condition after falling off her bicycle; in her mind, her mother seemed unlikely to get hurt easily.

Or rather, sometimes she simply doesn't think about it that way.

Mr. Xue, who was standing to the side, smiled and said, "Shall I go?"

"No need, no need!" the mother and Mo Xueyao said in unison.

Mr. Xue didn't insist, and simply walked quietly back to the shop entrance.

The shop was so busy today that the tables and chairs couldn't be placed at the entrance. Yu Shu conscientiously helped Li Wanyan move the tables and chairs to the back of the fruit shop. The downside of this location was that it didn't get much sunlight and there were a lot of mosquitoes in the summer, but it wasn't a problem in the winter.

The electric scooter took less than five minutes to make the round trip, and Mo Xueyao brought back the steamed buns.

"Sorry, the table is a bit small, please make do with yourselves." The mother brought all the dishes to the small table, and because there were three more people, she specially cooked three extra dishes.

Father probably won't be able to eat on time today because there are a lot of customers in the restaurant, many of whom made reservations in advance, and Father will have to write them down with pen and paper.

After cooking, my mother only ate a couple of bites, seemingly without even tasting the food, before going to the restaurant to entertain guests.

The food on the table was still steaming, and the oil from the wok that had just been used to stir-fry the vegetables was casually placed on the stove. When the cold wind blew, the remaining oil inside quickly solidified.

"Here, steamed buns and rice, take whatever you want." Mo Xueyao casually picked up a steamed bun and put it in her bowl. Compared to rice, she definitely preferred this.

Today's meal was exceptionally lavish; the table was piled high with dishes, leaving no room even for rice bowls.