A Young Woman's Heart

"I wish to taste the delicacies of this prosperous age; go and bring them to me."

"..." The old Taoist priest hesitated for a full half minute before finally glaring at her. "You brat, you still dare to pretend to be possessed by a goddess? Too bad, you can fool others but you can't fool me!"

"Huh..." Mo Xueyao coughed lightly, then playfully stuck out her tongue. "How did you know?"

“How could a goddess speak like that? Besides, during the War of Resistance Against Japan, I was a Party member, and Party members don’t believe in God…”

"Hey! Isn't it inappropriate for you to say that in that outfit?"

"This is just a custom, and in a sense, it's also for maintaining stability. These superstitious practices will be abolished sooner or later."

Faced with this fake Taoist who looked like a real one, Mo Xueyao was speechless for a moment: "Aren't you afraid that the gods will punish you after you die?"

"Haha." The old Taoist priest couldn't help but stroke his beard and laugh. "How many masters does the Jade Emperor have?"

"You must be General Zhang Zongchang?" she asked with a joking smile.

Li Wanyan, who was standing to the side, seemed to understand what kind of joke she was making.

"Oh, even the little girl knows that?"

"I've read some crooked histories occasionally." Mo Xueyao's sapphire-like eyes darted around again, deciding to change tactics. "Grandpa Taoist priest~ I'm hungry, can I have something to eat? Steamed buns are fine too..."

"No, it's customary," the old Taoist priest replied firmly.

"Hey, aren't you an atheist?!"

"Rules are rules, and superstition is superstition; the two are not the same."

Mo Xueyao was speechless for a moment, unable to utter a single word for a long time.

As expected, she didn't get to eat anything that day.

Although I was just sitting, fine beads of sweat still trickled down my forehead under the bright sun.

Clothes will inevitably have some sweat on them. Don't assume that a girl's sweat is clean; if you don't wash it, it will still get moldy...

Sitting in the back, Mo Xueyao did indeed acquire a bit of the aura of a goddess—because she was so hungry, she could only let her thoughts drift away, and her eyes became somewhat unfocused, which made her appear somewhat 'divine' to the people below.

As the sunset, the same color as tomatoes, slowly descended, Mo Xueyao felt even hungrier.

If she had just a simple tomato and egg stir-fry, she could easily eat several bowls of it right now.

Just thinking about the sour and sweet taste of that dish made her mouth water.

The last rays of the setting sun shone on her face.

Mo Xueyao finally fell asleep, exhausted and sleepy.

And the crowd gradually dispersed during this long day.

The goddess's slumber also signifies that she has finally ceased to possess her current body and chosen to leave—after all, superstitious matters can always be explained...

The starry sky once again enveloped the land, and the orange-yellow crescent moon hung high in the sky. Li Wanyan gently patted Mo Xueyao's back, and the latter woke up in a daze. She was startled when she saw her 'ghost face' mask!

"Hmm, ah...it's evening...?"

"Ah."

"Phew, I can finally go home..."

"Ah."

Li Wanyan nodded gently and helped Mo Xueyao, whose legs were numb from sitting, down from the sedan chair.

There are still some children whose curiosity hasn't been extinguished waiting for this moment.

Just before entering the side room of the Taoist temple, Li Wanyan gently removed her mask, shook her head slightly, and her long, black hair swayed gently.

The children had barely opened their eyes and hadn't even had a chance to see her clearly when she disappeared from their sight.

"She's such a beautiful older sister!"

"Who said that? I clearly saw that her face was full of teeth!"

"How is that possible?"

"Really, I really saw it!"

"I saw it too!"

As the children spoke, these words became increasingly fantastical, eventually becoming even more exaggerated than the image on the mask.

Mo Xueyao changed back into her own clothes and removed her makeup in the side room of the Taoist temple. She immediately felt much more relaxed. After coming out through the side door, she threw herself into Li Wanyan's arms: "Ahhh... Wanyan—I'm so tired!!"

Li Wanyan slightly raised the corners of her mouth, a hint of a smile in her eyes: "Are you hungry?"

"I'm not hungry anymore, uh... ahh..." she said, letting out a big yawn, pushing Li Wanyan away, and looking up at the cool, bright moon. "I just really want to sleep. I want to take a shower now and then go to sleep right away..."

"Why don't we just sleep here?" the old Taoist priest asked, looking somewhat weary.

Is it convenient?

"Of course it's convenient. This was specially prepared for the goddess... hehe."

"Then I'll sleep with Wanyan. Oh, right, I need to wash up! Especially wash my feet, preferably soak them. I feel like my feet are covered in sweat, and if I just crawl into bed, the blankets will definitely smell bad!"

In the end, Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan still didn't eat anything—even though they had felt hungry before, they now felt incredibly fulfilled.

It was as if it had been filled with air.

Taking off your clothes is like shedding the fatigue of the day.

Playing the roles of a goddess and a near-divine guard is no easy task.

Mo Xueyao felt her face stiffen, perhaps because she had maintained that elegant smile for too long?

The side room was on the third floor of the Taoist temple, which was practically the top floor for the temple.

The bed was right by the window, and through the old window divided into several sections by wooden slats, you could see the brilliant starry sky outside.

When the first goddess lay on this bed hundreds of years ago, the starry sky she saw must have been exactly the same as what Mo Xueyao sees now, right?

Perhaps back then, the 'goddess' was still lying alone on this bed.

In this quiet mountain where even the crowing of roosters and the barking of dogs cannot be heard, would she hum a song on an empty stomach to dispel the silence of the night?

Her voice was perhaps ethereal yet husky...

What kind of songs did she hum back then?

Is it praising the greatness of the gods, or is it longing for the emotions that belong to mortals?

The first goddess was not chosen randomly, but rather she went through many hardships before being given the title of 'goddess'.

It is said that she was partly responsible for the construction of the Taoist temple at that time.

As Mo Xueyao was thinking this, she suddenly saw two stars in the sky that looked blue.

She was about to speak to Li Wanyan beside her when she found herself wandering in an endless galaxy.

This means that she had fallen asleep without realizing it.

However, in this dream, she could clearly understand that she was just dreaming.

In this dream without any plot, she fell into deep thought again.

If people are unaware that they are dreaming while they are dreaming, then how can we prove that people are not dreaming when they are supposedly 'awake'?

Perhaps death is simply the moment when we wake up from a dream?

Perhaps when she wakes up tomorrow, she'll find herself still in that summer between junior high and senior high, still a boy, being scolded by her mother, pulling back the covers...

In the sweltering summer heat, I happily played video games again—no stomachache, nothing happened…

She suddenly felt a little afraid to imagine what that life would be like.

If she were given the choice to change at that moment, she might still hesitate.

She seemed to have gotten used to life as a girl...

……

Chapter Forty-Five: The Roadblock

Life is like a poem.

Some people write ancient poems, some write doggerel, and some write modern poems that are like dividing a single sentence into several paragraphs.

If Mo Xueyao were to describe her life, she would say it's a combination of doggerel and classical poetry.

However, more often than not, doggerel is more imbued with a worldly flavor.

On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the mountain village was much quieter, and there were fewer and fewer vehicles coming and going.

Mo Xueyao's van was still covered with a few snowflakes, and even with people coming and going around it, the sparrows perched on the roof remained undisturbed.

The New Year's goods brought with us have already been unloaded. What's being loaded now are local specialties brought back to Hangzhou from my maternal grandmother's house.

There were baskets and baskets of oranges, as well as enormous pumpkins and cabbages that you could never buy in city markets...

Cured pork and sausages are indispensable.

Just like an equivalent exchange in business, we come with a full load and leave with a full load.

Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan sat in the same seats they had come in, and the car windows were rolled down slightly.

Outside the window was a group of relatives and friends, some I knew and some I didn't, and even the old Taoist priest was mixed in among them.

"Come visit often!"

"Yaoyao, do you recognize me?"

The mix of local dialect and standard Mandarin gave Mo Xueyao a headache.

The father and mother had been chatting with relatives for almost half an hour. The van shook so much that Mo Xueyao's chubby little face trembled, but it didn't move forward more than a few steps.

"Are you done yet..." she urged several times before her mother waved her hand reluctantly, bidding farewell to the relatives and friends closest to the window.

"Okay, okay, we'll come back later..."

"Oh, be careful on the road!"

Mo Xueyao slowly rolled up the car window, indicating that she was about to leave.