A Young Woman's Heart

In short, it finally quieted down, letting Uncle Bear scrub its dirty fur.

The dog was completely covered in foam, with only its eyes, nose, and mouth showing, making it look like a toy dog.

After washing and rinsing off the foam, I could finally see its original color.

It has white and yellow fur, long and slightly curly, and from a distance, it looks like a mop head...

Its fur was so long that it covered a large part of its eyes.

Uncle Xiong didn't pause at all; he took out a large pair of pruning shears and started cutting.

Those scissors are way too big! They're more like shears for sheep... they're actually using them to shear dog fur.

"Click, click, click."

"Alright, that's refreshing now." Uncle Xiong patted Dou Dou, who had become a short-haired dog, and the latter wagged its tail happily, gently sniffing his fingers.

"Come here, I'll feed you some sausage later. Xiaoyao, come over here too, I'll get you an ice cream."

"Hmm... I guess I won't need the ice cream..."

"It's alright, it's alright, they're all about to expire anyway." Uncle Xiong said, walking to a one-story warehouse and then using a key to unlock the tightly locked iron gate.

The cold air inside immediately rushed out.

This was the first time in Mo Xueyao's life that she had ever seen a cold storage room where people could play basketball...

……

Chapter 165 A Bucket of Häagen-Dazs

Häagen-Dazs, an expensive ice cream brand.

For Mo Xueyao, who usually only affords salt popsicles or small puddings, this was something she had only heard of but never actually seen.

However, in this cold storage, Häagen-Dazs ice cream is piled up in buckets, and ordinary ice cream looks like cheap rice.

Even the smallest one is as big as a regular tabletop trash can.

If Mo Xueyao were to wrap her arms around it, even with all her might, she could only barely manage to touch the tips of her fingers together.

Although it was already a fairly warm spring, the cold storage was still as cold as winter.

No, winters in Hangzhou aren't even that cold; to be precise, they're as cold as winters in Russia.

"Huff, it's so cold..." Mo Xueyao, who had followed in, looked around and breathed softly.

"Haha, we usually wear cotton-padded coats when we're checking the goods inside," Uncle Xiong laughed as he walked to the table in the corner.

On the table were several ice cream tubs, each as wide as Mo Xueyao's soup bowls but much deeper.

The colors are different, seemingly representing different flavors.

"What flavor do you like?" Uncle Xiong rummaged through the pile of ice cream tubs. "Chocolate, strawberry, blueberry... which one do you want?"

"That's a lot, I probably can't finish it all by myself..." She didn't answer immediately, but asked with some concern, afraid of wasting it, and also feeling that she had only helped with such a small thing and shouldn't receive such a generous 'reward'.

A small bowl of ice cream is enough, especially since this is Häagen-Dazs, which supposedly costs ten yuan per scoop.

"Haha, you want to finish it all by yourself? That's too greedy! The ice cream here is all this size. If you can't finish it, just put it in the fridge. Don't you have a fridge at home?"

"Yes, there are, but they are only refrigerated, not frozen."

"Then let's share it with the others," Uncle Xiong replied without hesitation.

"Hmm... then... a flavor that most people wouldn't mind, right?"

"Original flavor?" Uncle Xiong said, picking up a purple ice cream tub that looked like it should be blueberry flavored, but in fact it was original flavor.

"Then I'll have the original flavor, thank you Uncle Xiong," Mo Xueyao said politely.

"It's okay, this stuff expires this month anyway, and it'll have to be destroyed even if we don't eat it, so it's fine as long as you don't mind."

"What's there to mind? It's not expired anyway." Mo Xueyao shook her head vigorously. "I'm the one who benefited."

"Haha, Mr. Mo's daughter is really interesting. She talks like a little adult. When I was your age, I would want to eat anything edible without any hesitation!" Uncle Xiong laughed and handed the Häagen-Dazs ice cream bucket to Mo Xueyao. "Come and visit me and Dou Dou when you have time. I'm here all day long."

"Does Uncle Xiong live here?"

"Of course, I'm a warehouse manager." Uncle Xiong smiled and pointed upstairs. "I live on the second floor. I don't really have much to do every day, I'm quite idle."

"Okay..." Mo Xueyao replied politely, without refusing, "Then I'll go back first?"

"Okay, you know where the entrance is, right?"

"I know, I know, just go straight." Mo Xueyao wasn't so bad at directions that she could get lost like that.

"Okay, bye-bye!" Uncle Xiong said goodbye to her, using the very fashionable 'bye-bye' instead of the ordinary 'see you later'.

Yes, in this day and age, "bye-bye" is still an English import with a strong Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan flavor.

Mo Xueyao happily carried the ice cream and ran all the way to the fruit shop. The afternoon sun was still intense, and Su Tang was lazily lying under the stool, hiding from the sun, occasionally swatting away the husky that wanted to come over to join in the fun.

However, in such warm weather, the husky wasn't very energetic and came over to tease Sutang, purely out of curiosity.

"Wanyan!" Mo Xueyao shouted excitedly at her, "Ta-da! Look what good things I brought back!"

"Ice cream." Li Wanyan glanced at it casually, knowing the answer without even having to guess.

"Let's eat together, I definitely can't finish it all by myself!" Mo Xueyao skipped into the store, put the ice cream on the table, and turned around without hesitation to shout, "Mom, give me two bowls!"

"You didn't invite me to eat ice cream? You only invited Yan Yan to eat with you. I've spoiled you for nothing," Mo Xueyao's mother teased.

"Tch, I didn't know you guys wanted to eat this. Anyway, there's so much, so take it if you want. You'd better eat it quickly, or it'll melt." Mo Xueyao grumbled as she forcefully ripped open the lid of the ice cream.

The mother took three bowls from the small cupboard and handed them to Mo Xueyao: "Take these and fill a bowl with ice cream and take it to Zhuang Lianlian."

"Oh right, and her too." Mo Xueyao nodded immediately. If she had remembered just now, she would have done the same.

No matter how much Zhuang Lianlian tried to hide it, most of her neighbors now knew that her right leg was a very realistic prosthetic leg.

Whether it's because there are ultimately more good people in the world, or because good people naturally attract other good people, everyone still cares about Zhuang Lianlian quite a bit and doesn't discriminate against her. However, this excessive sympathy sometimes makes Zhuang Lianlian feel very uncomfortable.

Mo Xueyao specially filled a large bowl for her, then crossed the street to deliver it to Zhuang Lianlian, who was minding the shop next door.

As she became more and more familiar with everything at the grocery store, Grandma Jin started coming to the store later and later, sometimes not even during the day, only coming in the evening to take over and finish up.

This is, of course, also a manifestation of trust in Zhuang Lianlian.

"Zhuang Lianlian!" Mo Xueyao walked into the store carrying ice cream and saw her spreading out an account book and calculating the accounts, as if she was figuring out how to reasonably help Grandma Jin avoid more taxes.

"Hmm... Hmm? Mo Xueyao, what's wrong?" Zhuang Lianlian looked up, still somewhat lost in thought from her calculations.

"Here, ice cream." Before she could speak, Mo Xueyao added, "Don't be shy, I have a big one left, just enough for me and Wanyan to finish."

Zhuang Lianlian brushed a strand of hair from her forehead and smiled, "Okay, thank you."

"It's alright, it's alright. It's only right to think of friends when there's good food," Mo Xueyao waved her hand.

"By the way, is the husky with you guys?"

“Yes, that’s right.” Mo Xueyao nodded. “Your husky keeps coming over to play, you should take it out for a walk once in a while—when Grandma Jin is here.”

"I will. By the way, when it goes out later, can you bring it here with you?"

"No problem." Mo Xueyao made a snapping motion with her fingers, but unfortunately, it didn't snap.

When she returned to the fruit shop, she found that the ice cream had already been divided up, her parents had taken some, and there was a large bowl left for her.

Furthermore, some chopped apples and bananas were placed in the bowl, turning it into fruit ice cream.

"Hey, who cut the fruit?"

“Of course it’s your old man.” The father stuffed a big bite of ice cream into his mouth, eating in the exact same way Mo Xueyao used to. “That’s how you get a balanced diet.”

"How come you've become just like Mom?" Mo Xueyao teased, picked up a spoon, scooped up a big mouthful of ice cream, and happily stuffed it into her mouth.

When she moved a chair outside to bask in the sun, the husky immediately came over and wouldn't leave no matter how she tried to shoo it away. It seemed to want to bury its head in the bowl to taste what the ice cream tasted like.

Su Tang immediately squeezed over, looking at Mo Xueyao with great curiosity, and licked the back of her hand in a coquettish manner, wanting to share some of the taste.

"Hey, stop crowding around me! Wanyan's eating too!" Mo Xueyao helplessly raised her bowl. "I'm not giving any to either of you!"

“It’s best not to feed them.” Li Wanyan glanced back. “I read in a book that dogs and cats can’t eat ice cream.”

"It's too cold, it'll give me diarrhea?"

"Probably," Li Wanyan replied uncertainly. At that moment, she was sitting at the table, leisurely reading Mao Zedong's Selected Works while eating ice cream.

Although summer hasn't arrived yet, the warm sun shining on her body made Mo Xueyao sweat profusely, giving her a vague sense of summer.

The warmth and happiness of a family is actually quite simple.

The black and white TV signal was bad again. My father patted the TV hard and fiddled with the antenna on the back. The blurry picture became clear again.

The weather forecast from this morning is being replayed right now.

"Haven's been sunny for several days in a row, making everyone feel like summer is just around the corner, right? But this is only a temporary warming up. The temperature will start to drop again soon. Starting tomorrow, cold air will arrive in Hangzhou, bringing with it continuous rainy weather..."

“It’s going to rain with thunder tomorrow.” Father said, swaying back and forth in his rattan chair. “When we were kids in the countryside, we could go up the mountain to dig bamboo shoots all the time around this time of year. Hey, there were so many bamboo shoots at this time of year. You could just dig one up and you’d find one. In about a month, hairy bamboo shoots would start to grow. Hairy bamboo shoots are really big. Some can even be a meter long, and some are thicker than a person’s waist.”

"Yes, Yaoyao has never dug bamboo shoots herself, has she?" the mother said with a smile, lost in memories of the past.

"I grew up in the city, of course I've never dug them up. By the way, do bamboo shoots that big really exist? I've never seen one before."

"Haha, that's because what you see are all processed ingredients. Besides, bamboo shoots are actually the least tasty kind of bamboo shoot. If they're not processed, your tongue will feel astringent and numb after a few bites." Father licked his lips. "But in the days when we didn't have much to eat, they were the easiest 'snack' to get. We would dig them up, peel them, wash them, and then roast them. Sometimes when we couldn't finish them, we would wastefully throw them into the ground. Anyway, there were so many bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest that they weren't worth anything."

……

Chapter 166 Radio Guest

"Whoosh—" The dark clouds that had been gathering strength in the sky for half a day finally poured out all the rain.

The warmth accumulated from the sunny days of the past few days has been completely washed away, but it's not as cold as winter.

Even with the window open and the wind blowing, it feels cool rather than cold.