A Young Woman's Heart

"Little brat, you think you're getting a loss? Don't come begging me to scrub your back when you grow up."

“If that were the case, I would definitely be insane,” Duanmu Ji said with certainty.

"Tsk tsk, what an arrogant little brat." Duanmu Bi smacked his forehead hard with her backhand.

……

"Sister, dinner's ready," Duanmu Ji said as he walked to her side.

"Oh? Dinner's ready?"

Duanmu Ji said helplessly, "I've called you several times."

"Tsk, I was thinking about something from the past, so I probably didn't hear it."

"I'm thinking about boring things again."

"What do you mean by boring things? Honestly, Xiao Ji was cuter when he was little. It's only been a few years, how come he's become so uncute?"

“I’ve never been cute,” Duanmu Ji retorted.

"Who said that? You used to be clingy and cute, and you especially loved chatting with me. Look at you now, you don't even want to talk to your sister anymore. Next semester you'll be a junior in high school, then a senior, and then college. Will you just stop talking to me then?"

"It's your fault for always being so terrible." Duanmu Ji pouted.

"Haven't I always been like this?"

"They used to be a little more restrained..."

"Really?" Duanmu Bi tapped Duanmu Ji's head with the handle of her chopsticks. "Do you want to take a bath with your sister after dinner?"

"I refuse."

"Tch, what a tasteless guy."

"How old am I? Why would I still take a bath with you? Are you still not getting married, sister?"

"What does it matter? We used to bathe together when we were little, didn't we? When I first brought you home, you always wanted to bathe with me. Back then, um... I think you were only ten years old?"

“If you get a boyfriend in the future…” Duanmu Ji covered his forehead, not daring to think about it further, “I’m afraid he’ll beat me to death one day.”

"Why? Even if you have a boyfriend, it's not like the three of you can't shower together."

"Sis, you're getting worse and worse."

……

Chapter 315 Dragon Boat Festival (Part 1)

Time is the fastest and slowest, the longest and shortest, the most commonplace and the most precious, the most easily overlooked and the most easily regretted thing in the world.

— Maxim Gorky

After Labor Day, there aren't many holidays left before summer vacation, and there aren't any holidays with time off at all.

Today is June 6th, which is the Gregorian calendar date for this year's Dragon Boat Festival.

As a traditional festival, the Dragon Boat Festival is not much different from any other day, except that there are slightly more people buying zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) at the breakfast shops than usual.

Mo Xueyao's breakfast today was also zongzi (sticky rice dumplings). She bought the deep-fried kind, which had no filling but tasted very good. However, she couldn't eat too many, or it would become greasy.

"Slurp—" She took a deep breath and drank the last sip of the bag of soy milk clean, the whole bag 'deflated' as the air was sucked out.

Mo Xueyao, who was about to get up to throw out the trash, saw Li Wanyan stand up to do so, so she quickly called out to her and said without any politeness, "Ah, Wanyan! Could you throw this out for me while you're at it?"

"Okay." Li Wanyan took the breakfast wrapper from Mo Xueyao's desk and threw it into the large trash can at the back of the classroom.

Although it was still early, only a little past six o'clock, the sunlight was already quite bright.

However, the sun was hiding behind the clouds, only peeking out halfway, making it look somewhat hazy.

"Xiao Yao~! Good morning!" Wang Jiale arrived at school early, which was rare for her.

Without a second thought, Mo Xueyao picked up the notebook from the table: "Chemistry, right? Here."

"What? Why does Xiaoyao always think I arrive at school early just to copy homework?!" Wang Jiale shouted in dissatisfaction and walked to Mo Xueyao's side.

"So you're not going to copy it today?"

"Uh... I was just checking the answers~" Wang Jiale shamelessly took the chemistry workbook from Mo Xueyao's hand.

"Your excuses are completely unoriginal..." Mo Xueyao shook her head helplessly.

Every morning, she and Li Wanyan would be the first to arrive at school, and watching her classmates walk into the classroom one by one had become a very familiar thing for Mo Xueyao.

She could even remember what time most of her classmates usually arrived at school, and what homework most people wanted to copy when they came to her.

Because the final exam is the placement exam, once you are assigned to the humanities class, you will no longer take either of the two science courses, while the science class will have an additional chemistry course.

Since liberal arts students will no longer have to attend science classes, they have naturally become lax in their studies, and more and more students are copying homework from both science subjects.

The reason math wasn't included is because even if you're in a humanities class, you still have math classes.

Just thinking about this gives many students who don't excel in science a headache.

Of the whole class, Mr. Xue was probably the only one who didn't care whether he was in the arts or sciences class, since he was good at all of them.

Even Mo Xueyao has her strengths and weaknesses. While she excels in physics and chemistry, she still falls short compared to her Chinese and English.

For example, in physics and Chinese, assuming the full score is 100, Mo Xueyao can score 94 in Chinese, which is the hardest subject to get, but can only score 90 in physics.

Don't underestimate the difference here; four points is enough to widen the gap in rankings by several places.

"Xiaoxue, can I borrow it for a bit?" Mo Xueyao rested her chin on her hand and looked at Mr. Xue, who was fiddling with a humanoid robot.

This remote-controlled humanoid robot was the first one he brought today, although it wasn't quite what Mo Xueyao had imagined.

He was far from handsome; he looked quite clumsy, with both his arms and legs appearing very thick.

“Okay.” Mr. Xue smiled and handed her the remote control without any hesitation.

This remote control appears to be a modified racing car remote control—actually, it's just a shell with most of the internal components replaced.

Why is it so big?

“We’ve tried our best to shrink the circuit boards and other components,” Mr. Xue said, stroking his chin. “But it’s too difficult to make a bipedal robot maintain its balance algorithmically, so we can only add external accessories that can be used for balancing.”

"He doesn't look handsome enough."

"Practical things are mostly rather rough around the edges," Mr. Xue chuckled.

Mo Xueyao pursed her lips, placed the robot on her desk, and tried operating it a few times with the remote control: "I thought it would be a robot like Gundam."

"Gundam?"

"Oh, right, Xiaoxue, have you seen it?"

"Of course I've seen it, but that design is the most unreasonable among humanoid mechs because it looks very fragile. On the contrary, the villain's Zaku mech looks more practical."

"Come to think of it, the one Xiaoxue made looks a bit like the Zaku, except it doesn't have a single eye."

"Because there are no cameras installed yet, it's still being tested." Mr. Xue pointed to the remote control in Mo Xueyao's hand. "The left one controls the legs, and the right one controls the hands. Up and down is to raise and lower, and left and right are to control which direction the left and right hands move together."

"Can't they be controlled separately?"

“Not yet.” Mr. Xue shook his head. “And I’m also thinking about how to arrange the remote controls if it’s designed that way.”

What does this button do?

"It allows you to use your arms to do pull-ups, but you need to hold onto something firmly."

"Is it possible to control your fingers to grip things firmly?"

"Not yet," Mr. Xue said with a wry smile. "So I'm thinking about whether to design the two hands as hooks for easy use first."

"It still looks quite rudimentary."

"Well, for now, it's just a humanoid remote-controlled toy." Mr. Xue rested his chin on his hand, examining Mo Xueyao.

"Huh? Why are you looking at me like that?" Mo Xueyao's face inexplicably turned slightly red.

"No, I was watching how you operate the remote control to check if it's convenient and easy to use," Mr. Xue explained with a smile. His eyes were clear, and his tone was very honest, leaving no room for doubt that he was making excuses.

Mo Xueyao placed the robot on the ground and manipulated it to move forward or backward. She found that the robot was really clumsy and not nearly as agile as the mechanical spider from last time.

Moreover, his balance is not very good. If he bumps into something, he is likely to fall. If he tries to climb something, he is also likely to tumble down.

"Hmm, humanoid robots don't seem very practical." Mo Xueyao subconsciously touched the beauty mark on her collarbone. "If we're really going to militarize them, we definitely won't choose humanoid robots."

“Well, unless we can make the robots very realistic for espionage,” Mr. Xue nodded. “Otherwise, all-terrain robots like mechanical spiders are more useful.”

It wasn't quite what she had imagined, which left Mo Xueyao slightly disappointed. She returned the remote control to Mr. Xue, saying, "The gap between ideal and reality is really huge."

“But without ideals, many things will never be realized in reality.” Mr. Xue put the robot back on his table and fiddled with it, seemingly adjusting something. “Although humanoid robots seem to have no future at the moment, they might come in very useful in the future. Technology rarely develops explosively; most of the time, we have to accumulate experience first.”

"Hmm... Xiaoxue likes machines so much—although I like them too, I'm not interested in making them myself because it's just too much trouble..."

"Everyone has different hobbies."

So, are you planning to go to the science track?

"It doesn't matter to me which class I'm in," Mr. Xue smiled.

"Ah, then come with us to the humanities class, hehe, that's not bad either, at least we'll have another familiar classmate."

"Little Yaoyao~" Hua Yinyin darted from the classroom door to her side with a "whoosh," "Damn it, you were chatting with Xiaoxue!"

"Hey, what's with that tone, like you've caught your husband cheating?"

"Husband? Little Yaoyao likes to be the dominant one? I don't mind, but I think Little Yaoyao is more suited to be the wife?"

"No one will think you're mute if you don't speak." Mo Xueyao rolled her eyes.

"Little Yaoyao, today is the Dragon Boat Festival!"

"Hmm, what's wrong with the Dragon Boat Festival?" Mo Xueyao said, taking out an extra fried rice dumpling she had deliberately bought from her pocket. "Here, this is for you."

"Hey, Yaoyao actually gave me a gift! That's so sweet~"

"Don't overthink it, it's just a return gift—the Children's Day present from last time."

"Little Yaoyao is just saying one thing and meaning another. She clearly likes me a lot, otherwise why wouldn't she give me to someone else?"