A Young Woman's Heart

However, today I only need to go to the supermarket to buy some groceries, so there's no rush at all.

The beginning of the two thousand years ago was a peaceful day.

There was no plague, no war, and no turmoil.

Everyone walking down the street seemed to be enjoying the warm sunshine.

People who have lived in peace for too long will always want to seek out various kinds of excitement, but in the end, it's just wishful thinking.

Just like someone who enjoys reading apocalyptic novels, if they actually see the end of the world and those disasters happen around them, they will yearn for the peaceful days they once had.

But upon closer examination, China has only enjoyed peace for a few decades.

However, wars have not completely ceased in the world; various wars, large and small, continue to occur around the globe.

The longer peace lasts, the more people will grow to hate this unchanging lifestyle.

But they may not realize that it is precisely because of the comfort of their lives that they want to seek so-called excitement.

It's well past the eighth day of the lunar new year, and the family selling fried skewers downstairs from Mo Xueyao's house has started doing business again at the park entrance.

The small cart was filled with all sorts of skewers, as well as stinky tofu and fried dough balls being fried in a wok.

"Hey, it's been so long since I've seen your family during the New Year!" The uncle selling fried skewers waved to the mother walking in front, then looked at Mo Xueyao walking behind, "Xiaoyao, want a skewer of stinky tofu?"

"Ah, Uncle." Mo Xueyao scratched her head, feeling embarrassed to ask for more with her parents around. "Never mind... I just ate, I'm not hungry."

The father, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, strolled slowly behind: "Why aren't you resting a little longer? You're out doing business so early?"

"Haha, you need to eat, right?" the uncle said with a smile, taking out his cigarette case to offer his father a Hongtashan cigarette, but his father handed him a Liqun cigarette instead.

How's business?

"It's alright. I heard you opened a fruit shop?"

"Haha, yes, we'll open tomorrow."

"Oh, so you're a big boss now."

"No, no," the father waved his hand modestly. "It's just a small business."

"You've struck it rich, so you have to treat us!" The old man selling fried skewers naturally handed over a skewer of fried stinky tofu. "Here, this batch of stinky tofu tastes especially good, have a taste."

"how much is it?"

"Neighbor next door, why are you even talking about such a small amount of money? Are you trying to embarrass me?" The uncle pretended to be angry, then beckoned to Mo Xueyao, "Come on, Xiaoyao, have a skewer—"

"I really don't need it." Mo Xueyao pretended that she would never take things from others for free, although in reality, when her parents were not around, she would usually accept the fried skewers that her uncle gave her when she passed by.

I remember when I was in elementary school, she would deliberately walk past the snack cart several times just to get some fried skewers.

After all, for Mo Xueyao, who had never received any pocket money since childhood but had a sweet tooth, this was probably the only chance she could get some snacks for free.

The father had no habit of taking advantage of others. He shoved a five-yuan bill into the other person's small drawer where they kept their money: "These should all be five cents a string, right? You can pick ten strings at random."

"Hey, why are you still giving me money? What's wrong with you?"

"Of course, of course, there's no reason to eat for free." The father pushed away the money that the other person was trying to stuff into his mouth, and beckoned to Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan, "Come on, Xiaoyao and Wanyan, come and choose for yourselves!"

Mo Xueyao had absolutely no interest in getting involved in the polite formalities between adults.

She wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth, ordered a few skewers of fried pork tenderloin, and knowing that Li Wanyan might be embarrassed to order for herself, she ordered the exact same serving for her as well.

"Hey, who's this little girl? Your niece?"

“My goddaughter,” the father introduced. “You can just call her Wanyan, haha. What do you think? Isn’t she pretty?”

"Hmm, not bad, she seems like a good girl, haha—speaking of which, your Xiaoyao is finally willing to be a proper girl! I thought she would still be a tomboy with short hair when she went to high school!"

"Heh, haha—kids will grow up eventually, and when they grow up they'll be pretty, right?" the father said, spouting nonsense.

Mo Xueyao rolled her eyes, secretly admiring her father's ability to lie without batting an eye.

Are all successful business people really thick-skinned?

After some back and forth, they accepted the five yuan, but sold Mo Xueyao's family twice as much stuff, basically at cost price.

The journey to the supermarket was no longer boring. Although I had already eaten lunch, my stomach felt like it was divided into several parts. As long as I wasn't stuffed, I could always fill it up a little more.

It's well past the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, and there are far fewer people buying large quantities of food.

In fact, most people have already started going back to work as usual, and the supermarket is not crowded, so you can leisurely choose what you want.

In China, the winter vacation is usually divided by the Lantern Festival. After the Lantern Festival, most schools will start the new semester.

As a result, supermarkets are filled with billboards and posters advertising the 'back-to-school season'.

All sorts of stationery that students can use, or anything that is even remotely related to students, will be sold at a discount.

Although it's called a discount, the price isn't actually that much lower, but because of the spending threshold, it's still a bit cheaper than usual.

The closest supermarket to Mo Xueyao's home is Tesco.

Just walk out of the main gate of the community and cross the road, and you'll arrive.

There's a KFC downstairs from the supermarket. There's a wooden bench outside, and on nice days you can often see a couple sitting there, each holding an ice cream cone, kissing and cuddling.

The lobby on the first floor has been rented out by various merchants who take advantage of the mall to sell clothes, jewelry, and other items.

Tesco supermarket itself only has two floors.

It is divided into a non-food area and a food area, and it is not very large.

But the place is packed with all sorts of things, and you could easily spend a long time browsing it.

Entering the supermarket via the escalator, the first pile of goods at the front is filled with all kinds of stationery, and behind that are some books on sale.

Sometimes in the summer, when she wants to cool off but is too lazy to go to the library, Mo Xueyao will come here to read.

However, the books here haven't been updated in a long time, and it's always the same few books. The new books are all well-packaged, so at least Mo Xueyao wouldn't feel comfortable just opening them to satisfy her selfish need to read for free.

Of course, I sometimes browse around when I come to the supermarket, and if I find a new book that someone has already opened, I'll pick it up and take a look.

She glanced at the books on the shelf; it was still the same set of unsolved mysteries of the world. She had read it so many times that she was not only tired of it, but she had even found some patterns and loopholes in it.

Sometimes I even wonder if some of these so-called unsolved mysteries are simply fabricated.

"Yaoyao and Yanyan are about to start school, shouldn't we buy them some stationery?" her mother said affectionately, but Mo Xueyao was still not used to such reduplicated words, especially when her mother said it in that middle-aged woman's coquettish accent, which gave her goosebumps.

“It’s okay, I have enough stationery.” Li Wanyan shook her head. “My English teacher gave me a very good fountain pen. I can use it forever as long as I change the ink.”

"Is there enough ink?"

"That's enough."

"Let's buy some, they're on sale anyway," the mother said, heading straight for the stationery section.

“Yes, and fountain pens don’t dry out easily. We should buy some ballpoint pens that dry out quickly. If they run out of ink, we can just replace the refill. It’s convenient,” Mo Xueyao said, pulling Li Wanyan inside.

The stationery section has all kinds of stationery, some of which are more like toys with stationery functions than stationery.

A ruler that can navigate a maze is nothing new; there are even rulers that can be used to play Tetris.

Of course, it's not the electronic kind, it's a physical Tetris. There's a button; pressing it pops a block out from the back. You can rotate it to adjust its position and fit the blocks together. Once all the blocks are filled, you can flip it over and continue playing.

Mo Xueyao even saw a pen with a calculator built into it. It was thicker than a regular pen, but the design was so novel that she couldn't help but look at it again and again.

Of course, buying it is unnecessary. Firstly, it's expensive, and secondly, she has no need to improve her calculation efficiency through such cheating.

As she strolled around, she found herself drifting away from her family and heading into the toy section.

Even a boy who is almost an adult—or rather, a former boy—finds it hard to resist the allure of the toy section.

Although they are all domestically produced toys and not exactly cheap, it's still nice to look at them for fun.

There are all kinds of remote control cars, even expensive remote control airplanes, and all kinds of transforming toys.

Of course, there are also those domestically produced Gundam model kits that are of unknown origin, whether they are pirated or officially licensed.

Even the domestically produced ones cost eighty or ninety yuan a box, and because she was worried that she wouldn't be able to afford them, Mo Xueyao never dared to even think about buying a box.

"Does Xiaoyao really like these things?" Li Wanyan appeared behind her at some point and asked softly.

"Ah, cough cough... I came to see what new toys have arrived." Mo Xueyao chuckled and scratched her head. "What are you doing here?"

"Your godparents can't find you, so I'll help them look for you."

"Oh... I see. It's okay. Anyway, they're shopping very slowly, so I can keep looking around for a while longer." Mo Xueyao looked like she knew everything.

Which one do you like the most?

"Ah, of course it's... that remote-controlled airplane, but it's also the most expensive, over five hundred yuan." Mo Xueyao clicked her tongue.

"Um……"

……

Chapter Sixty-Six: The Electronic Keyboard in the Supermarket (Part Two)

"Xiaoyao, looking at toys again? How old are you?" The mother pushed the shopping cart in from another direction, followed by the father who was looking at a Swiss Army knife.

My father is also a military enthusiast and likes to collect military-related items, even though most Swiss Army knives sold outside are civilian versions and the quality isn't very good...

"Ali, you're buying this useless stuff again."

“Why isn’t it useful? It might come in handy someday.” The father tossed the military knife into the shopping cart, then his eyes lit up. “Hey, I never knew before, this supermarket sells electronic keyboards.”

"Of course," Mo Xueyao rolled her eyes at him. "Don't I often come here and randomly press a few buttons?"

As she spoke, she walked around to the not-so-large electronic keyboard shelf and pressed a key on the keyboard.

"So, what do you think? Do you want it?"

"Huh?" Mo Xueyao didn't immediately realize whether her father was joking or serious. "What do you mean?"

“I mean, do you want one? If you do, why don’t we buy one? You and Wanyan can both use it,” the father said with a smile. “Didn’t your great-grandfather give you a big red envelope before? You can use that money to buy an electronic keyboard.”

"Come on," Mo Xueyao said with drooping eyelids. "Why waste this money? Wouldn't it be better to buy something else with a thousand-plus yuan? You could even buy an air conditioner with that money, which is better than an electronic keyboard, right? If you want to listen to music, you can have a cassette player."

Normally, it's her parents who advise Mo Xueyao not to spend money recklessly, or her mother who tells her father not to buy useless things.

But today, even Mother sided with Father: "Hmm, why don't we just buy one? It'll be good for cultivating some artistic talent... what was it again?"