A Young Woman's Heart

"No need!" Mo Xueyao proudly raised her little face. "I have a gun!"

So she rushed upstairs, put the game console away, opened the box, stuffed the box of BB pellets into her jacket pocket, and went downstairs with the beautiful pistol.

"Want to go out and have some fun?" Li Wanyan asked, tilting her head slightly as she looked at Mo Xueyao.

"Let's go bird hunting! Wanyan, are you going?"

“Shooting birds…is not a good idea.” Li Wanyan shook her head.

"It's okay to kill one or two!"

"Haha, but actually birds aren't easy to hunt these days, or we could go shoot canned food instead!" Bao Cheng shook the slingshot in his pocket. "I'll call everyone over, we can have a competition, how about a dollar per round?"

"I don't like gambling..." Mo Xueyao touched the few coins in her pocket, "Hmm... But, it wouldn't be bad to gamble once in a while?"

As a result, the bird-shooting activity turned into a can-shooting competition.

The location was just behind Mo Xueyao's maternal grandmother's house—in a wooded area that was only a few steps away.

The woods were filled with orange trees, and were bordered by ditches or low hills on three sides, with only one way in.

Bao Cheng ran to call people, and soon everyone arrived one after another.

Standing on the path outside the ditch, Ah Guang shouted into it, "Hey—are you fighting in there?"

"Yeah, come here quickly!" Mo Xueyao waved excitedly. She had already raised her toy gun, aimed it at him, and then pulled the trigger, startling him. "Pfft, hahaha, you're still such a coward! I didn't even load any bullets!"

"Damn, that's dangerous!" Ah Guang raised his middle finger and stylishly cursed 'f.u.c.k.', then stood in front of the ditch, knees slightly bent, arms swinging back and forth. "Taking a detour is too much trouble, I'll just jump over here!"

"Hey, you'd better be careful not to fall into the ditch!" Although Mo Xueyao expressed her concern, she couldn't wait to see him fall into the ditch.

"Tch, I'm a professional..." Before A-Guang could finish speaking, he lost his balance by the ditch and fell into it.

"Pfft, 'professional' indeed, hahaha..." Mo Xueyao laughed so hard she could hardly breathe. "Hey, are you sure you can do it? Can you even climb up here?"

"Damn it..." A-Guang, his lower body completely covered in mud, struggled to climb out of the ditch, looking like a wild boar that had just rolled in the mud. "What bad luck..."

"No way, Guang, how can you be so bad at this?!" Bao Cheng mocked loudly without any restraint. "You fell into such a small ditch?"

"Hahaha, what are you doing, A-Guang?" The others laughed along, and some even reached out to pull him up.

But without a doubt, this kid needs to go back and take a shower.

His face was filled with an expression of 'pain'. Of course, he couldn't be in pain because he wanted to take a bath, because his new five-story house had its own private bathroom, and people from the village would occasionally go to his house to take a hot bath.

His only source of pain was losing face in front of pretty girls.

Even though he's already married, men still care about their image...

The crowd watched him walk away in a disheveled state.

"Alright, alright, forget about that kid." Bao Cheng waved his hand with a smile. "Come on, the loser has to pay up! Hey, I'm going to make a fortune today!"

"Stop bragging, kid," the others joked. "It's been years since you've played with a slingshot."

"Exactly, when it comes to skill level, I'm still the better one!"

A group of grown men who seemed to enjoy showing off in front of the girls.

When we were little, boys always played with boys. If a girl joined in, she would make a few teasing remarks and scare the other boy away.

But as they grow up, it's the other way around—they can't wait to play with girls.

Playing with guns is a boy's dream.

Although it's a toy gun, it's quite realistic and feels pretty good to hold.

The action of taking the magazine out and putting it back in, in particular, gives people a strange sense of pleasure.

"Come on, come on, Coke cans are one cent each, Sprite cans are two cents each! Two people, two people, let's compete! Come on, come on." Bao Cheng waved to Mo Xueyao, "Let's try it out first, each of us bets one dollar. If you win, you can take my dollar bet. Others can also bet on who will win—you have to bet before the game starts!"

"Any odds?" someone immediately shouted. This guy was definitely an expert.

"Since there's no bookmaker, where do the odds come from? It just means the winning side gets to split all the money the losing side bet!"

"What's the point of that!"

"Forget it, let's just make do! It's not like we're going to a casino to gamble."

It was all just a fun activity, and after discussing it for a while, everyone stopped worrying about it.

However, this also creates a loophole, because if everyone votes for the same person, then even if they lose, there's no loss...

"Wait, what if when you place your bets, no one on the other side places a bet, and the person who didn't place a bet wins? Then the money has to go to the winner!"

"also!"

"Start! Start! Start!"

Mo Xueyao nodded eagerly and placed a dollar in the hand of Li Wanyan, who was acting as the referee.

The latter took out two yuan from his pocket and said casually, "I'll bet two yuan on Yaoyao."

"Wow, so confident!" Others also placed their bets—although they had been losing money on Bao Cheng earlier, they were now betting on him.

"Hmph, underestimate me, just you wait!" Mo Xueyao wrinkled her cute little nose, giving them a look that said she was going to surprise them, and struck a very professional pose...

Then, it missed.

The plastic bullets were so light that they would easily bounce off into other objects if the wind blew them away.

Moreover, its range is not far, and it is not even as useful as a slingshot.

"The next shot will definitely hit!" Mo Xueyao gritted her teeth and fired another shot, but still missed—she didn't even know where it went.

After using up all ten bullets, the cans that were lying there remained motionless. Then a strong gust of wind blew in, knocking one of the cans to the ground.

"Hahaha... cough, then I'll count it as one point for you!" Bao Cheng couldn't help but laugh.

"Yes, yes!" The others chimed in.

Mo Xueyao glared at him resentfully: "Tch, what if you don't hit a single one?"

"That's impossible!"

In the end, Bao Cheng knocked down five cans in the front row and got five points.

—And he even deliberately stepped back a distance, making Mo Xueyao even more embarrassed.

"Tsk!"

Including Li Wanyan's, the two of them lost a total of three yuan.

Although it wasn't much, I still felt a little annoyed.

This handgun looks cool, but it's all style and no substance...

"Oh dear, I thought you were hiding your true strength. Thank goodness, haha—" After winning, Bao Cheng couldn't help but tease her, as if he found the slight anger on Mo Xueyao's face particularly endearing.

Reality isn't a novel; if you can't hit a target, you still can't hit it. You can't become a perfect shot just because of a burst of idealistic emotion.

After all, she had never practiced it, and had barely even tried it a few times. That seemingly professional posture was something she learned from movies and TV shows...

A gust of wind blew, and a few snowflakes fell from the orange tree beside them. The laughter of the older children also carried away on the wind.

……

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Fireworks by the Sea

Even on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the sounds of fireworks and firecrackers could be heard everywhere.

In front of the seaside villas in the small city lies an endless stretch of pristine beach.

The forest behind seemed to isolate this place from the outside world, like an undisturbed paradise.

Aisha sat on the beach with her slightly wavy black hair loose and her bare white feet exposed.

Her feet were covered with a few grains of sand, and her pink toes looked even more translucent in the sunlight.

Although the Spring Equinox has not yet arrived, the weather in this small city today is full of springtime vibes, with flowers budding and branches sprouting new buds ahead of time...

Aisha didn't seem to be afraid of the cold. She was only wearing a light purple dress with the sleeves slightly covering her palms, revealing only a few slender fingers.

"Bang—pop—bang—" Even sitting on such a quiet beach, you can still hear the sounds of fireworks coming from the nearby villages and city.

The sun was too bright today, so we could only hear the sound of fireworks but not see them bloom—at most, we could see something explode and then dissipate into the air like water vapor.

For Ashley, it was actually a magical experience.

In the place where she used to live, at least 300 out of 365 days a year, you could hear that 'crackling' sound.

However, it wasn't a festival celebration, nor was it a fireworks display.

It means that a gunfight has taken place.

Sometimes the sounds were far away, accompanied by the deafening roar of bombs and the sound of houses collapsing.

Sometimes the sound was very close, and at those times she would hide under her bed and wait quietly and patiently for the gunshots to stop or fade away.

This is actually quite common, and hearing such sounds doesn't scare people. But when you see those people holding guns and others falling down like harvested rice, an instinctive fear still surges into your heart.

The same sound can evoke completely different feelings in different countries.

Because here, the crackling sound is a celebration of the festival, not the scythe of death reaping lives.

Not far away, Su Yuqing carefully leaned over and tried several times with a lighter before finally managing to light the fuse.

Then she panicked and covered her ears, momentarily forgetting to run away.

Wearing a black trench coat, Mo Kong scooped her up in his arms and took a few steps back unhurriedly.

"Whoosh—bang—pop—!" Fireworks burst into bloom in the sky right before our eyes.

Even at such a close distance, it's still not very clear.

Its faint light is no match for the sun.

"Oh, the sun is really nice today!" Qiu Yi said, wearing a long-sleeved beach outfit, as she put on her sunglasses. Ye Wen next to her spread out a beach chair, but Tian Yin, wearing a fox ear headband, plopped down on it.

"Tianyin—get up, if you want a seat, go get it yourself!" Ye Wen said, hands on her hips, slightly annoyed.

"It can fit two people lying down, right?"

"Get up!" Ye Wen pinched her little face, and the latter pouted and could only obediently get up.