A Young Woman's Heart

"Touch...touch!"

"No, it's dirty, you can't touch it."

The calico cat, which had stopped, glanced sideways at the little guy who was wobbling and chasing after it. Seemingly finding him no threat, it remained lying in place until the little boy's hand was almost touching it, at which point it darted away again—and this time it was nowhere to be found.

Mo Xueyao watched the disappointed little boy with great interest, and suddenly felt like going home to touch the brittle candy properly.

I remember having a wish when I was a child: to have a cat at home so I could pet it every day.

A fluffy cat nestled in her lap, letting her pet it all she wanted... just thinking about it was wonderful.

However, after she got her own cat, she stopped petting it as much, especially after the initial novelty wore off.

Sometimes Su Tang would come up to her and stick its tail up like an antenna, wanting her to touch it, but Mo Xueyao was too lazy to do it and would even find it dirty.

Indeed, those who possess things are always fearless.

"Ding-a-ling—" The bicycle behind her rang its bell loudly, and Mo Xueyao felt her body sway as Li Wanyan pulled her to the side of the road.

"Don't stand in the middle of the road!" the woman on the bicycle shouted. Even though she had already ridden some distance, her voice still carried from afar. "It's dangerous!"

"I have four yuan left." Mo Xueyao felt the four coins in her pocket and decided to keep them for herself. "Wanyan, would you like to buy something?"

"No," Li Wanyan shook her head. "Don't waste money."

"Well, it's nothing, I just told my mom I was going to a nice barbershop, five yuan each..." Mo Xueyao glanced back, and in the distance was a small alley leading into an urban village, where people were always going in and out. Suddenly, she seemed to grab onto something and nodded vigorously, "Right! Let's go there, I remember there's a little shop inside that has a lottery, four yuan for ten chances! I wonder if they've got any new stuff yet? I once won a dinosaur egg there, the kind that can transform!"

When toys are mentioned, Mo Xueyao's eyes light up, as if she hasn't grown up yet.

Following her gaze, Li Wanyan looked at the alley she had only returned to alone once after leaving, and nodded gently after a long while.

……

Chapter Twenty: Lottery

The sunlight in the sky was a pale white.

But if you look closely, you'll find that you can't see the sun.

With the Spring Festival approaching, the weather has not gotten colder; on the contrary, it has become warmer.

So much so that even the breeze blowing in our faces felt a little cool.

Having just gotten a haircut, Mo Xueyao felt lightheaded, as if her body didn't belong to her—she had never felt so light before.

Her toes touched the ground, and the ground bounced like a spring, making her move forward, just like when she was a child, with a fifty-cent coin she found on the street in her pocket, sharing such joy with her friends.

Yellow Road—that's how Mo Xueyao always remembered it when she was a child.

However, when I grew up and learned to read, I realized that the road sign actually said "Wangma Road". The reason I remembered it that way before was only because of my mother's very poor Mandarin accent.

Wangma Road separates two worlds.

On one side is a relatively new residential area—Desheng East Village; on the other side is a cluster of unnamed farmer's houses.

In more official terms, they are called urban villages.

Interestingly, there's only one supermarket and a few scattered shops on the side near the residential area, but across the street next to the farmers' houses—which are actually shops using the ground floor of the farmers' houses as storefronts—there are shops that fill the entire street.

The sunlight was still a pale white, but Mo Xueyao felt cool and even rolled up her sleeves. However, after seeing Li Wanyan's gaze, she awkwardly rolled them back up.

Unlike residential communities, where there are several designated entrances, farmers' houses are accessed through alleyways, and there are always various ways to get in.

Although there was a spacious entrance, Mo Xueyao, as a child, always preferred to sneak into those alleys—every time she did so, she would imagine herself as a ninja or a detective or something.

Children are easily inspired; even if they do something small, they feel like the protagonist in a movie.

So much so that Mo Xueyao felt a sense of novelty walking on this "main road" that adults often took.

There's a hole in the wall over there, and no one has fixed it yet. Some children are crawling around in and out of there—just like she did when she was a child.

The urban villages remain the same, with almost no changes.

Next to the house of the 'landlord' with a row of peasant houses, the big yellow dog that he kept was still there—because it had two patches of white fur on its eyes, Mo Xueyao and her friends called it 'White Eyebrows' back then.

White Eyebrows is still as noisy as ever. It always barks at people from afar, but once you get close, it will wag its tail and come up to you with a shameless grin.

Over time, the people here got used to it and generally knew that this yellow dog, who hadn't been raised by its mother, probably used loud barking as a way of expressing friendliness.

Not far inside, you can see a large boiler room.

People often come here to get hot water, it only costs five cents a time—I don't know if the price has gone up recently.

Anyway, sometimes when Mo Xueyao's water was cut off at home, she would come here to fetch water, as if the water here would never stop.

There was always boiling water bubbling away, and the big chimney on top was always emitting white smoke, which was especially noticeable in winter.

Mo Xueyao continued walking inside. In the maze-like urban village, there were always a few shabby-looking general stores.

Its existence means that when people living here need something, they don't have to go to the supermarket; they can simply go downstairs and turn the corner to buy what they need.

When she was little, she loved to run around and made many friends whose names she couldn't recall. They would bring her here to play—it was like an adventure in the forest, where she could always find something new and exciting.

It's amazing how, back then, everyone addressed each other as "Hey," but every time someone said "Hey," we could understand who they were calling.

Like an animal, it can distinguish different tones of the same word.

Back then, when people called her, they would draw out the word "hey" a little longer. Some mischievous girls even liked to add a bit of up-and-down movement, like they were singing.

As Mo Xueyao sighed that nothing had changed, Li Wanyan beside her showed a similar expression. Finally, she couldn't help but stop in front of a low house.

"What's wrong?" Mo Xueyao turned around in confusion and walked back to her side. After a moment of stunned silence, the memories deep in her mind, like foam boards that had been submerged in water, suddenly surfaced. "Ah—right, Wanyan, do you remember something I told you? It was in second grade, oh no, I was in first grade and she was in second grade, and we played shuttlecock here—hmm, this place is really small."

Mo Xueyao walked up to the one-story house, circled it, and pointed to a narrow alleyway that hardly anyone used to pass by, saying, "Oh right, this is it. Hmm... I guess I thought it was spacious when I was a kid. Uh, I thought it was really spacious, but now I realize it's actually a very narrow alley."

Li Wanyan couldn't help but raise her head after hearing Mo Xueyao's words.

The light in the sky was a pale white, but the wind that blew carried a hint of warmth—of course, in winter, its temperature should be described as brisk.

"I remember kicking the shuttlecock all the way to the top." Mo Xueyao pointed to the roof of the one-story house, where the tiles were broken and dilapidated, making one wonder if the house often leaked.

She was still trying to find the shuttlecock, but after so many years, even if it had never been taken down, it had probably been blown away by the wind long ago—even if it was stuck on, it would probably only be a copper coin base left, and you could not see anything from this angle.

"She was in second grade back then, and I thought she was already quite old. Actually, we're probably only a year apart in age," Mo Xueyao said with a smile, her eyes narrowed. "I wonder where she is now?"

“Perhaps she is right beside you.” Li Wanyan pursed her lips, recalling that windy, rainy day.

The shuttlecock was blown off the roof, but all that remained was a stubborn feather and a rusty copper coin base.

She remembered herself at that time, standing by the window in the room, watching the copper coin base roll 'slippery' and fall into the sewer.

And that feather, its whereabouts are unknown.

They are definitely gone forever, but fortunately, there are still people who remember that they once existed.

Looking through the dusty windows, I saw that the place had been turned into a warehouse, filled with all sorts of random things, and it looked like no one had lived there for a long time.

After some twists and turns, the two finally arrived at their destination.

This is a small grocery store.

They sell cheap cigarettes and snacks inside.

Finding authentic snacks here is harder than striking gold.

However, for children who haven't tasted the flavor of authentic snacks, these are enough; at least they're enough to satisfy their cravings and are cheap enough.

The boss is an old man—he was an old man when I was in elementary school, and he's still an old man now, with a messy white beard, seemingly unchanged.

Li Wanyan stopped a short distance away and took several seconds to walk up to the grocery store.

Aluminum cans and plastic bags were rolling around on the ground, just like before.

She doesn't really like it here.

She had overheard their conversation when her father bought cigarettes here.

At that time, my father said that it was right for a man to hit a woman, because it was necessary to "discipline" her.

The grocery store owner agreed with this assessment.

However, to Mo Xueyao, he was just a kind old man who often gave small gifts to the children.

"boss!"

"Oh, what brings such a pretty young lady here?" The boss slowly raised his head, as if in slow motion, and casually took off his reading glasses.

However, in addition to presbyopia, he was also nearsighted, and the light here was a bit dim, so he couldn't see Mo Xueyao's pupil color clearly. But he could only see the general outline of her facial features, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.

"Is there a lottery? You mean the one where you draw boxes?"

"You've been here before?"

"I used to come here often when I was a child."

"Hehe, girls change so much as they grow up, I can't even recognize them! The ugly duckling has turned into a swan." The old man said with a smile, lifting a cardboard box onto the cashier's counter. "Here, these are them."

How much does one cost now?

"That'll cost 50 cents."

"Didn't they used to be four yuan for ten?"

"Hey, you're a regular customer, huh? Haha, here's ten for four dollars! But you can't sell them like that next time, because this stuff is getting more and more expensive. If you keep selling them like that, I'll lose money."

"Hehe, thank you, boss!" Mo Xueyao smiled politely and obediently, as if she had gotten a good deal, and then started picking through the cardboard boxes.

The boxes are all the same, with colorful geometric patterns printed on the outside. You can't tell what's inside just by shaking them.

She used to think that heavier things were always better, until she saw someone pull a smooth, round pebble out of it...

Mo Xueyao paid four yuan without hesitation and took out ten small boxes from the box.

Then they opened them one by one in front of the boss.

There were snacks that looked like they were about to expire, a rubber band, and a ballpoint pen...

"Ah, this is it." After Mo Xueyao poured out the chocolate candies that looked like small pebbles, she discovered a small piece of paper hidden inside.

Once you peel off the paper, you can see the awards inside.

"First prize!" she exclaimed in surprise.

"You're in luck." The shopkeeper laughed and took out a game console that could play Tetris and Snake—it was in a red and white box and came with two AA batteries.