A Young Woman's Heart

"Outrageous." Li Wanyan covered her forehead and commented helplessly.

"Huh, Hua Yinyin, you're here too...?" Mr. Xue was much less shocked.

"Oh, Xiaoxue is back this year." Hua Yinyin said with an expression that said she already knew. "You should call her 'older sister'."

"elder sister?"

“That’s right, that’s right, good boy~” Hua Yinyin, who was shorter than Mo Xueyao, gently stroked Mr. Xue’s head like a big sister.

"Wait, what's going on?"

"Nothing much happened, all three of us are relatives."

“Us?” Mo Xue pointed to herself. “Theoretically speaking, Mr. Xue and I are not related. This is just my godmother’s hometown.”

"Hmph, you're wrong, little Yaoyao~ You must not have seen the family tree."

"Huh?"

As an outsider, Li Wanyan took a sip of her hot tea and began to read with great interest.

“First, there’s Xiaoxue and me. We share the same maternal grandmother, and our mothers both have the surname Wang. I was born in February, and he was born in May, so he has to call me older sister.” Hua Yinyin pointed to herself, and then to Mo Xueyao. “At first, I wasn’t quite sure, but after seeing Xiaoyao’s generational inheritance, I’m certain!”

"I?"

“Yes, blue eyes. Theoretically, I could have them too, but I didn’t inherit them.” Hua Yinyin blinked, seemingly a little regretful. “I still have black eyes… Xiaoyao and I share the same great-grandfather, but I’m from a collateral branch, not a direct line.”

The so-called direct line that Hua Yinyin mentioned refers to the lineage that has always been passed down by sons, while the collateral line refers to the children born to daughters of a certain direct line.

"Huh?" Mo Xueyao was completely dumbfounded.

"Simply put, I am the daughter of my great-grandfather's daughter's son."

"I don't understand at all." Mo Xueyao nodded blankly.

"Well... you should call my grandmother 'Great-Aunt,' and you should call my father 'Uncle,' so I'm your cousin. Of course, we're more than three generations apart, so we're not that close."

"I have this strange feeling that everyone in the world is related to me," Mo Xueyao said, touching her nose in a daze.

“Theoretically speaking, we are all relatives, but that goes back to who knows how many generations ago,” Hua Yinyin said, then called out to the middle-aged man behind her who was about the same height as Mo Xueyao’s father, but a little fatter, “Dad, come and acknowledge your niece!”

"What a coincidence! If it's my niece... then... where is her father?"

“My dad is over there…” Mo Xueyao weakly pointed to her father who was playing cards.

"Cousin!" Hua Yinyin's father rushed over as if they were old friends and hugged the clueless and bewildered Mo Wenli.

"What?" Mo Wenli put down his cards. "There are people here who can call me cousin?"

“Cousin, I’m Mo Lihua’s son. Although we’ve never met, we are indeed cousins!” Hua Yinyin’s father punched Mo Wenli’s shoulder hard. “My name is Hua Jiankai. You’re probably going to Moscow too, right?”

"Yes...you too?" Just like Mo Xueyao before, Mo Wenli was completely taken aback by this round of kinship talk.

"Yes, you'll definitely remember when my mom comes." Hanami stepped aside, revealing an elderly woman with white hair who looked quite energetic. She had the air of a European woman, and although she was old, you could still vaguely see how beautiful she had been in her youth.

"Ah...!" Mo Wenli looked the other woman up and down, and finally remembered her appearance when she was young. "Auntie!"

"Hey, Ali, it's been so long since we last met."

"Yes, it's been so long, far too long..."

"Honestly, you're being so petty about not going home just because of that."

"Cough... I'm just... busy."

"Sigh, let's make up for those things properly during this reunion."

"Ahem... Xiaoyao, Xiaoyao, come here quickly." Mo Wenli quickly changed the subject, "Come here and call her Auntie."

Finally snapping out of her daze, Mo Xueyao hurriedly walked over and greeted her somewhat shyly, "Hello, Auntie..."

Family, relatives, and titles—all of these things made her dizzy and confused.

But I really didn't expect the world to be so small. Mr. Xue is fine, since he's not a real relative, but Hua Yinyin is a real relative with some blood relation.

"Hehe, now you know why I always come to play with you, right?" Hua Yinyin whispered mischievously in Mo Xueyao's ear, "Teasing your own cousin is super fun!"

"Stop calling me 'cousin' like that... Why do I feel like you should call me 'older cousin'?"

"Eh? Hmm... Hmm..." Hua Yinyin also fell into deep thought.

"Forget it, let's just call each other that normally," Mo Xueyao said, her head aching. "I hate figuring out these kinds of family terms..."

"Well, calling me 'Little Yaoyao' really sounds the best. Come here, let me hug you~"

"Go play somewhere else..." Mo Xueyao was speechless.

It goes without saying that Hua Yinyin will definitely be going to Moscow with them this time.

After all, this is his 100th birthday.

Whether they are direct or collateral relatives, as long as they are within five degrees of kinship, they will all receive it.

This may be the last time this large family will reunite.

After that, we went our separate ways and probably won't have any contact anymore.

Of course, there could be some unexpected developments, such as his relationship with Hua Yinyin perhaps becoming closer.

After all, there's the connection of being classmates at school.

A journey with Hua Yinyin...

Mo Xueyao suddenly felt that the journey had become gloomy.

If Hua Yinyin were here, it would never feel wonderful.

Her intimate harassment was absolutely terrifying; it gave me goosebumps!

Mo Xueyao was troubled by the fact that her family was too large.

Little did she know that Li Wanyan was envious of her.

Hua Yinyin's maternal grandmother's family is quite a large family. Many people came back for the Chinese New Year this year, mostly married daughters, but only one son came back.

"How many daughters did your grandmother give birth to?" Mo Xueyao asked as she returned to the stone table, now with only one more child, Hua Yinyin, clinging to her side.

"It seems she had seven or eight daughters in total," Mr. Xue said, unsure, as it was his first time visiting his maternal grandmother's house.

“It’s eight.” Hua Yinyin seemed to come back often, so she gave a very accurate number: “Eight daughters and one son.”

Mo Xueyao clicked her tongue: "That's too exaggerated... to have so many children."

"It seems that my maternal grandmother was the fourth woman to give birth to a son, and she wanted another son, but she kept having daughters, so she stopped having children."

Thinking about it carefully, it must have been quite an achievement for such an only son to grow up surrounded by his older and younger sisters.

If someone doesn't have an older or younger brother in their family, it's already a miracle if they can grow up to have a personality like a normal man.

She turned her head and saw her father and Hua Yinyin's father, who was her...uncle or...maternal uncle?

Never mind, I can't figure it out. Anyway, these two grown men are smoking and chatting in the corner right now. They've only met a short time ago, but they're already acting like best buddies.

If you didn't know better, you might think they've been best friends for ten years!

And from time to time, it would let out exaggerated, lewd laughter.

Although I don't want to describe my father like this, he is really despicable.

I have no idea what those two were talking about.

I don't even need to think about it to know that it will definitely be some terrible topics, right?

Most of them are about women.

"There's still a long time before dinner," Mr. Xue said, taking a board game box from his bag. "How about we play some games first?"

“Sure,” Mo Xueyao nodded happily.

This is a board game set entirely in English; it must be imported from abroad.

However, everyone here speaks good English, so understanding the rules and card descriptions shouldn't be a problem.

"Hey, wait a minute, are you treating me like I'm not human?! My English isn't that good!" Hua Yinyin slammed her fist on the table and yelled, "I can only understand a portion of the vocabulary!"

"Hmph, serves you right for not studying properly." Mo Xueyao glanced at her sideways.

"Waaah, little Yao Yao, please translate it for me~" Hua Yinyin's expression changed instantly, and she hugged Mo Xueyao's arm and rubbed against her.

“Being coquettish won’t work.” Mo Xueyao said with a cold expression.

Mr. Xue patted Hua Yinyin on the shoulder and said, "Alright, let me translate the rules and some card descriptions for you. It's actually very simple, you'll understand it quickly."

"Eek—I want Little Yao Yao to teach me!"

"Let's ignore her and just the three of us have fun." Mo Xueyao chose to simply ignore her.

"Damn it!" Hua Yinyin suddenly pounced forward and bit Mo Xueyao's earlobe. "Little Yaoyao is bullying me!"

"Stop, stop fooling around!" Mo Xueyao's face flushed red instantly, and Hua Yinyin gently bit her earlobe with her teeth, a strange feeling welling up in her heart.

"Alright, Hua Yinyin, stop fooling around." Mr. Xue pulled her away, both amused and exasperated.

"Hmph, this is compensation. Alright, Xiaoxue, teach me now." Hua Yinyin wiped her mouth with satisfaction and said smugly.

"Ugh, how disgusting." Mo Xueyao used a disgusted expression to cover up the subtle feeling that had just welled up in her heart, and pulled out a napkin to vigorously wipe the drool off her earlobe.

……

Chapter 45 Snowpiercer (Part 1)

It's 11 p.m.

The group finally boarded the 019 train bound for Moscow.

It takes about two days to travel within China alone.

Based on the dates, they wouldn't be able to enter Russian territory until the morning of the third day.

Since Beijing is the starting station, the train was relatively empty. Perhaps because it was an international train, there weren't many noisy children in the carriages; it was mostly filled with adults.