A Young Woman's Heart

Li Wanyan acted as their translator, enabling them to have a pleasant conversation.

"Dad, can't you communicate with Nora in Russian?"

"My Russian is very poor; I only know some common words."

"You can't keep having Wanyan act as your translator forever, can you?"

"What? I borrowed your 'child bride' from your father, are you jealous, you little rascal?" the father teased with a loud laugh.

"Tsk." Mo Xueyao clicked her tongue.

"I'm going to look for a place to rent later, and I'll come back to you guys after I've settled down," Nora said with a smile, her long red hair flowing.

"Won't you stay for lunch?" Mo Xueyao asked, trying to persuade her to stay.

"Hmm, no need, I'll go and do what I need to do first."

"Okay, it would be best to find a rental near my house, that way it will be more convenient to meet up."

“Let’s go with Nora,” Li Wanyan suggested. “She’s new here and doesn’t know anyone.”

"Oh, that makes sense. Nora, let's go with you, so you don't get scammed."

Okay, then.

This was the first time Mo Xueyao had ever been to someone else's rented house, and it was a very novel experience for her.

"Why is Yaoyao so excited?" Li Wanyan asked, glancing sideways.

"Yeah, because renting a place feels like the first step to independence. Living away from your parents, renting alone, or living with someone you love—it sounds so romantic, doesn't it?"

"It's not that simple." Li Wanyan shook her head helplessly. "Once you rent your own place, you'll start worrying about the rent being too expensive."

“Ah, that’s true, but if you have money, you don’t have to worry about that…” Mo Xueyao muttered.

Nora went to a real estate agency that specializes in finding rental housing for foreigners. For some reason, there were relatively more Russians there.

Even in just one branch in Hangzhou, there are young college students who can speak Russian.

As long as you have a passport and visa, renting a house is not a problem. However, since the time on the passport is limited, the contract is usually written according to the passport's expiration date.

Unless there are special requirements, even if it's a waste of money, the room should be reserved so that you can rent it again after you get a new visa.

There's no need to worry about that, because the contract can be renewed later.

Normally, people are unwilling to rent to foreigners because they don't stay for very long. However, this is an exception in China, where it seems that renting a house to foreigners is a prestigious thing.

Aside from a few landlords who might raise prices, most landlords not only won't increase the price, but will even lower it to rent to foreign friends.

Although Nora was indeed her friend, this somewhat flattering and ingratiating attitude still made her feel a little embarrassed.

They went to look at houses back and forth until 3 p.m. before finally finding one that Nora was satisfied with.

It's not too far from Mo Xueyao's house, only about a fifteen-minute bike ride away.

The house is on the first floor, and Nora likes it because it has a private yard where she can tend to flowers and plants, and even keep some pets.

The house wasn't that big, but it was spacious enough. Two bedrooms and a living room were actually a bit too much for her to live alone.

"Are you sure you want to live in such a big house by yourself?" Mo Xueyao asked, puzzled. "I think the one-bedroom apartment I had before was enough, right? The rent was cheaper, and it was located in a busy area."

"Okay, this is fine! The rent isn't too expensive, and I really like it here! You can keep the extra room for Xiaoyao when she comes to visit! Or, you can bring your friends over for a party when you have time, I like a lively atmosphere!" Nora laughed heartily, putting her arm around Mo Xueyao's shoulder.

"Eh—? Never mind, whatever you want... as long as you think it's okay."

This shows that Nora's family must be well-off, otherwise she would never be so wasteful. After all, Nora doesn't seem like the kind of person who would be extravagant even if her family is poor.

Let's go have lunch!

"Oh, now that you mention it, I just remembered that I haven't eaten breakfast or lunch, and my stomach is starting to hurt from hunger..."

……

Chapter 324 The Daily Life of a Russian Girl

Sunday, July 11, 2000.

It's the last day of the week, which means the end of the semester is just around the corner for students.

It's only around the end of the semester that even weekends feel like an ordeal.

Whether they had good grades or bad grades, most of them were looking forward to the end of the final exams so that they could enjoy a two-month summer vacation.

As soon as she got up in the early morning, Mo Xueyao took out the ice water that she had put in the refrigerator the night before and took a big gulp. She was considered to have gotten up early today—for a weekend.

Even at seven o'clock, the sun overhead was still quite dazzling and bright.

On a scorching hot morning like this, getting up and drinking a sip of ice water is incredibly refreshing—at least that's what Mo Xueyao thinks right now.

She added some sugar, and you could even taste a hint of minty sweetness in it.

"Perfect natural cola!" She burped contentedly and went into the bathroom.

"Thud." However, as soon as the door was pushed open, the lower half of the already rotten wooden door finally succumbed to the weight of time and fell down. With a little force, the broken wooden board could be broken in two.

Of course, it's also obvious that the workmanship of this yellowed wooden door is really poor. It's not solid wood, and it's not even made of spliced ​​planks. The core part inside is a bunch of compacted wood chips and scraps. It might even be worse—it's probably peanut shell fragments!

"What's wrong?" Li Wanyan brought both bowls of porridge to the table and let them cool down a bit. After all, it was summer, and everyone preferred slightly cooled porridge rather than the scalding hot porridge of winter.

"The bottom half of the wooden door fell off." Mo Xueyao scratched her head. "What a lousy wooden door... about a third of the bottom half of the wood fell off."

Li Wanyan walked to the bathroom door and took a look, and found that quite a few parts had indeed fallen down.

There's no need to look down to see inside anymore; a slight side glance is enough to see everything inside.

The door's function has finally changed from simply blocking the view and preventing water from splashing out to—only blocking some of the water from splashing out and still not completely obstructing the view...

"This door is already ten years old... isn't it a bit too soon for it to die of old age?" Mo Xueyao muttered, shaking the wooden door.

"If it shakes any more, it will fall completely."

"The moisture-proofing in the bathroom is really bad..." Mo Xueyao sighed. "Never mind, I'll talk to Dad about it later."

"Does Godfather know how to fix it?" Li Wanyan asked.

"Hmm... I don't know. It seems like he knows a little bit about everything. Even if he can't fix it, he should be able to... install a new door, right?" Mo Xueyao replied while picking up her toothbrush cup.

"It's so humid... even the toothbrush cup is moldy..." Mo Xueyao covered her forehead in exasperation. "The mirror is cracking more and more. It feels like everything in this house needs to be replaced! How cheap were the materials that Mom and Dad used when they renovated the house?!"

Li Wanyan smiled helplessly.

After washing up, Mo Xueyao and Li Wanyan had breakfast together.

She doesn't plan to go to the fruit shop today because she spent most of yesterday looking at houses with Nora, so she didn't do much homework—although she did some on Friday, there are still some unfinished ones, like her Chinese weekly journal.

Recently, in an attempt to be lazy, she simply submitted her "Su Tang Diary" as her weekly journal entry and even received comments from her teacher.

Ye Wen seemed to like it quite a bit and didn't mind that she submitted this kind of fantasy-style diary as her weekly journal.

After all, if you really want to write a weekly journal, there's not much to write about in a mundane daily life!

After a week, most of what happened were just trivial matters.

"Hello, Dad?" Although she wasn't going to the fruit shop, she still needed to tell her father about the broken wooden door. Mo Xueyao picked up the landline and dialed the fruit shop's number. "Hello, hello, hello?"

"Meow—" came Su Tang's meow from the other end of the phone.

"Huh? Crispy candy?"

"Meow—" It was still Su Tang's voice, and no one else answered.

Mo Xueyao heard her mother explaining the prices of fruit to others, and she also heard her father enthusiastically promoting fruit baskets...

In other words, both parents were busy, and Sutang answered the phone?

A strange image flashed through Mo Xueyao's mind.

A cat answering the phone... was it just a coincidence that it pressed the speakerphone button?

"Meow meow—meow—" Su Tang cried out anxiously, finally attracting her mother's attention.

"Hello? Hello? Is this Yaoyao? Sutang actually answered the phone just now."

"It was just a coincidence that I pressed the speakerphone button..." Mo Xueyao replied casually. "Mom, the bottom third of the wooden board on the bathroom door has fallen down."

"How did it fall down?"

"Need I say more? It's too damp, it's rotten."

"It must be because you opened and closed the door too hard. I've told you so many times that you must be careful when you do things."

"What?! That thing was in such a state, how can you blame me for it falling down?!" Mo Xueyao shouted indignantly. "Can't you be reasonable, Mom?!"

"Haha—don't blame Xiaoyao, I felt it was about to fall off when I woke up this morning. I estimated it would fall off completely in a few more days at most. I was thinking of getting some nails to fix it tonight, but I didn't expect it to fall off."

"It's all because you went gambling back then, which made us unable to afford renovations and ended up buying such a lousy door." The mother blamed the father again.

"Ugh, why do you always bring up old grievances? Seriously, are all women like this?"

"What do you mean 'that's how it is'? You seem to have a lot of experience with this. Do you have another woman on the side?"

"Haha—" The sound of guests laughing could be heard over the phone.

"Sigh, when it comes to business, we can just buy a door and install it later." The father shook his head helplessly. "I'm telling you, we need to renovate our house sometime soon."

Where would you like to live after the renovation?

"That's true. Never mind, we'll talk about it later. Besides, we don't have much money. It's better to return this money to A-Liang first."

"Hey, Yaoyao? So you're not coming today?"

How did Mom know?

“You called instead of coming over, so I knew you weren’t coming. After all, I’m your mother!”

"Well, I'm staying home to do my homework and relax today," Mo Xueyao chuckled awkwardly. "I'm not going over there."

"Okay, then you and Yan Yan can cook lunch and dinner together. Don't always let Yan Yan do it. Can you be more proactive when you're doing things? Yan Yan always does all the work while you just lie there and slack off."

"Hehe... I know, I know!" Mo Xueyao shouted somewhat guiltily, "I'm hanging up!"

After saying that, she hung up the phone without waiting for her mother to say anything more.