A Young Woman's Heart

"Yay! Long live the sister!"

"Don't move, don't move, or the bike will flip over." Mo Xiaoxiao said helplessly, then pushed off with her foot and rode forward the instant the green light appeared.

As she approached the school, she turned onto a side road to get there faster, saving about three to five minutes.

She skillfully navigated the city's maze when suddenly an electric scooter darted out from around a corner. She only had time to apply the brakes before the reckless scooter struck her front wheel.

A loud crash rang out, making everyone's heart skip a beat, and both vehicles overturned and fell to the ground.

The last small piece of fried rice dumpling in Mo Zhuyou's hand, the most prized part at the pointed end, flew out of her grasp.

The plastic bag hanging on her wrist slipped to the side, but luckily the vegetable bag inside didn't fall out.

The contents of the bicycle basket were scattered all over the ground. Mo Xiaoxiao's glass was broken in half, and her breakfast—a sesame seed cake and fried dough sticks—fell directly into the nearby garbage heap.

Although she didn't directly hit anyone, the impact still left Mo Xiaoxiao a little dazed. Mo Zhuyou, on the other hand, was the first to get up and nervously grabbed her sister's hand: "Sister, are you alright?"

"Hmm... I'm alright." Mo Xiaoxiao gave a forced smile and slowly got up from the ground.

"Damn it, aren't you watching where you're going?" The rider of the electric scooter was a young man in his thirties. He squatted down to inspect his scooter. "Damn it, you smashed my windshield!"

Upon hearing this, Mo Zhuyou looked at the electric scooter and noticed that the plastic windshield used to block the lower part was missing several corners, and the broken part was now lying quietly on the ground.

"I'm sorry." Mo Xiaoxiao rubbed her elbow, which was a little sore from the fall, and forced a smile.

The man, however, went even further, pointing at his electric scooter and spitting as he said, "This thing is beyond repair, how are you going to compensate me!"

"...We, we don't have much money either."

"Then a hundred it is! Hurry up and give it to me, don't waste my time!"

Mo Xiaoxiao hesitated, seemingly considering whether to spend money to avoid further trouble.

Mo Zhuyou gripped her sister's arm tightly, wanting to yell at her, but instead she was so angry that she couldn't help but burst into tears, crying out, "You, you... shameless! You were the one who bumped into us!"

"Who told you not to stop at the intersection?"

"Shameless!" Mo Zhuyou shouted, but she couldn't come up with any logical rebuttal, and she couldn't even utter a few curse words.

Her tear-streaked face made her seem harmless, and even if she said a few curses, they would have no effect.

"That's really the guilty party accusing you first." Just then, a deep male voice came from behind the two of them. The younger sister subconsciously turned her head and saw Li Hongran, who was carrying a basketball under her arm, walking up to them unhurriedly. "I saw it all. You were the one who didn't look where you were going when you turned and bumped into them. According to traffic rules, you should yield to oncoming traffic when turning. If this weren't a narrow alley, you would have been driving against the flow of traffic!"

The tall Li Hongran immediately made the two sisters feel safe, and also softened the previously arrogant man.

"Heh, well, no matter what, they were at fault for bumping into each other, right?"

"You're the one in the wrong, you should pay compensation." Li Hongran stood in front of Mo Xiaoxiao, only thirty centimeters away from the young man. He lowered his head and looked down at her, saying, "Don't be so shameless, understand? You bullied a girl until she cried. You're so old, you've really wasted your life!"

The two sisters never expected that Li Hongran could be so sharp when she started cursing.

"Tch, I can't be bothered arguing with a kid like you." The young man picked up his electric scooter and prepared to leave. "I'll let it go this time; consider it an act of charity!"

"Pah!" Mo Zhuyou spat at him angrily.

"Stop right there! You've done something wrong and you still don't know how to repent. Now you want to run away?"

"What?" The young man glared angrily at Li Hongran. "Want to start a fight?"

"Sure." Li Hongran appeared quite nonchalant. Although the other person was much older than him, he was also much bigger.

Although they don't fight much, it's simply unacceptable for a basketball player to lack strength.

"Damn it, are you looking for death?" The young man felt he had lost face, and finally lost his temper. He grabbed the U-lock from the bicycle basket and threw it at Li Hongran.

The latter grabbed his arm firmly and then punched him in the chest.

"You're asking for it, aren't you?" Li Hongran said half-jokingly, her tone somewhat resembling Gao Yuan's. Could it be that close classmates 'infect' each other with their habits?

"You little brat, you've got guts! Just you wait, if you've got the guts, never show your face in this area again, or I'll beat you every time I see you!"

The young man jumped onto the electric scooter and sped away.

This time, Li Hongran did not stop her.

"What a scumbag..."

"Hmph, this jerk, he made a mistake and then blames others!" Mo Zhuyou said, wiping away tears from the corners of her eyes. She seemed to have a condition where she couldn't help but cry when she was nervous.

Or rather... a habit?

"And...and...I...I can't eat my breakfast, and my sister's either..." She tried to calm herself down, but she sobbed even harder. As she spoke, she picked up the vegetable bag from the ground, threw away the plastic bag, stuffed the clean bun into her mouth, and almost choked on it again.

"Alright, alright, Youyou, it's okay." Mo Xiaoxiao patted Mo Zhuyou's back reassuringly. "It's just a breakfast that doesn't cost much, we can just buy another one."

"But, it's all... all earned by us... through hard work... not a single penny, not a single cent... can't be wasted... sob..."

"Ahem!" Li Hongran turned around, scratched her head awkwardly, and didn't know how to comfort the other party. "How about... I treat you to breakfast? I haven't eaten either. There's a pretty good wonton stall near the school gate that's open every day. Shall we go there?"

"I didn't mean... I didn't mean it was because of wasted money!!" Mo Zhuyou waved her hands, sobbing as she tried to explain, but she couldn't finish her sentence for a long time.

"I know, I know, you're feeling wronged and upset, right?" Li Hongran gave an awkward smile. "By the way, your bicycle seems to be broken too. The entire front wheel is twisted, and the front metal is bent out of shape..."

"It's going to cost so much money again... to buy a car... Waaah... I'm going to kill him!" Mo Zhuyou shouted angrily while wiping away her tears.

"It's okay, it's okay. Anyway, this bicycle is too old. We can just buy a new one later. We still have a lot of savings."

"That's...something I'll need...something I'll need later! My...KFC!!"

"Pfft, I'll buy a car, and I'll eat KFC too."

"Then...then it's...wasteful...!"

"KFC?" Li Hongran patted her pockets. Although she was a little short on cash, she still felt that as a man, she should take care of women. "I'll treat you another day?"

"I said, no, it's just because of money!"

"what……"

"I'm so sorry, my sister just does this when she's emotional." Mo Xiaoxiao gently patted her back. "Relax, relax, it's okay. It's not far from school, let's walk there."

"Yes, that's right. When we get to the school gate, I'll treat you to wontons! Two bowls each is no problem!" Li Hongran laughed heartily, hoping to cheer Mo Zhuyou up.

"Where's the bicycle?" Mo Zhuyou stared at the bicycle and muttered to herself, "It can be sold for money even as scrap metal."

"I'll help you move it to the school, and then you can sell it to the uncle who comes to collect recyclables every few days."

"Thank you for your trouble." Mo Xiao smiled at Li Hongran and said sincerely.

"Haha, it's no big deal!"

……

Chapter 117 Buying a Stolen Car (Part 1)

The brush of time has written another number in the long river of history, and the date has come to March 7th.

Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan arrived at school early as usual.

Li Wanyan was called away by her homeroom teacher, who had arrived at school earlier, to do some work. Apparently, she was asked to help input the handwritten test paper into the computer and then print it out.

Not only was she called over, but Mr. Xue was also summoned, each responsible for different tasks.

After all, one is the class monitor and the other is the vice class monitor.

Mo Xueyao, as the publicity committee member, was happy to have some free time. Of course, it wasn't particularly easy either, because when she glanced back at the blackboard bulletin board, it was still from last month. At the end of this month, she would have to check the new blackboard bulletin board again, and a quarter of March had already passed...

"I need to clean the blackboard at the back first, then think about what to draw," Mo Xueyao said listlessly, listening to the news broadcast from the cassette player that was being used as a radio.

This month's blackboard bulletin theme is "Springtime," which is a relatively open-ended theme.

But perhaps it's precisely because they're so open-minded that they're unsure what direction to take.

"Today, the Second Global Knowledge Conference, themed 'Building a Knowledge Society,' opened in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. The conference focuses on three main issues: how to ensure that citizens of all countries have equal access to information and communication technologies; how to identify strategies to help individuals and social groups improve their lives; and how to make new technologies more effective, transparent, and participatory management tools."

These international news reports always seem to use very formulaic expressions, which can easily make people sleepy. At this moment, Mo Xueyao couldn't help but let out a big yawn.

When she closed her eyes and opened them again, she found that there were already seven or eight more students in the classroom, and it was just past seven o'clock.

There are still fifty minutes left before it's considered late. There aren't many people yet; most students arrive at school around 7:30, which is a fairly standard time.

"Hi, Xiaoyao!" she thought, when a lively shout came from the classroom door. Wang Jiale was standing at the door, holding a sesame ball and eating it as she walked.

"Huh, are we going to be late?" Mo Xueyao asked in surprise.

"What what what!" Wang Jiale stomped her foot angrily. "My appearance means I'm going to be late!"

"The clock is pointing to 7:10... Hmm... Is the clock broken?" Mo Xueyao muttered, stroking her chin.

"Hmph, you're asking for it!" Wang Jiale stormed over angrily, placing her schoolbag on her seat. For this round-faced girl who was often late, she usually finished her homework at home. Rather than copying homework, she preferred to finish it at night and then stay in bed a little longer in the morning.

Mo Xueyao finally stopped teasing, turned off the cassette tape that had been playing for half an hour, stuffed it back into the drawer, and asked, "Why are you up so early today?"

"My dad got the time wrong, and I thought I was going to be late!" Wang Jiale said, puffing out his cheeks, looking like a cute little hamster.

Mo Xueyao finally noticed that her hairstyle seemed more messy than usual today.

And it seems like you usually wear pigtails, but today you only had time to tie a single ponytail because you were in a rush to leave?

It seems to be crooked...

"Are you wearing a side ponytail?" Mo Xueyao asked casually.

Because at this moment, Wang Jiale's hairstyle looked like a 'double ponytail' without the other ponytail.

"Hmph, it's good to try something new every now and then," Wang Jiale said stubbornly. "The sesame balls my dad bought were awful. There's one more, Xiaoyao, do you want some?"

"what……"

"It would be a waste if I couldn't eat it, and it would taste bad if it got cold."

"Hmm...we can't waste food." Mo Xueyao took the opportunity to accept it. "Is it filled with red bean paste?"

"No, this sesame ball is the worst. It only has white sugar in it, they don't even put red bean paste in it, and the taste is terrible!" Wang Jiale stuffed the last bit of sesame ball in her hand into her mouth. "If it weren't right downstairs from home, my dad wouldn't have gone out to buy it this morning."

"I think it's alright." Mo Xueyao took a small bite and didn't find it too bad.

"Then you can finish eating." Wang Jiale shrugged nonchalantly and leaned closer to her mysteriously. "I had a nightmare yesterday. I dreamt that the image of myself in the mirror crawled out."

"……Then what."

"Then they tried to drag me into the mirror, and I woke up in fright." Wang Jiale casually rested her chin on Mo Xueyao's shoulder, a habit they had developed when they were deskmates. "Xiaoyao, do you think ghosts really exist?"

"Anyway, I don't believe it." Mo Xueyao is an atheist who has never believed in gods or Buddhas since childhood. She even has a strong sense of rebellion against religion and is somewhat resistant to them. "Even if they really appear in front of me, I can definitely use scientific methods to prove the reason for their existence. Maybe it's a magnetic field, or maybe it's some kind of unknown particle or something."