A Young Woman's Heart

"Are the prices the same?" the older sister asked.

"The savory ones are big meat dumplings, one yuan, and the sweet ones are red bean paste dumplings, eight mao."

"Then let's go with the sweet one."

"Okay, black rice cake and sweet rice dumpling, that'll be 1.6 yuan in total."

"One dollar and fifty cents is fine, it's too much trouble to ask for more than one cent," the older sister said habitually when bargaining.

"That really won't work. It's a small business; every penny counts." The boss shook his head.

My sister was just trying to see if she could bargain, hoping to save as much as she could, even if it was just a penny.

The sisters saved up for many of their living expenses little by little in this way.

"Don't you want something to drink? Soy milk? Soy beverage?"

"No need." The older sister shook her head. When buying breakfast outside, she and her younger sister never bought drinks. If they felt thirsty, they would just drink water. "By the way, could you peel the zongzi for me?"

I'd rather use the money I would have spent on soy milk or soy beverage to buy more food.

"No problem," the shopkeeper replied, deftly peeling off the bamboo leaves and then putting the rice dumpling into a plastic bag, handing it to Mo Xiaoxiao.

"Hoo hoo, the black rice cake is delicious~" The little sister was really enjoying it, taking bites of the black rice cake little by little. When she was halfway through eating it, the bus finally arrived.

A considerable number of people had already gathered on the platform.

"Hurry up, little sister, stop eating, let's go up and grab seats!" The older sister grabbed her younger sister's hand and started squeezing onto the bus.

After finally squeezing onto the platform, I ran to the back. Luckily, there were seven or eight empty seats in the back, two of which were adjacent, so I could sit together.

But the passengers who followed weren't so lucky.

Most people ended up having to stand.

Actually, this bus has quite a few seats because it's a two-section bus.

From the outside, it looks like two buses put together, or a small train without tracks.

Inside, you can see that the connection between the two carriages is a turntable-like device.

Sometimes the front of the car has already turned the corner, but the rear part hasn't yet.

Driving this kind of vehicle really tests the driver's skills; otherwise, the following carriage might accidentally crash into something.

"Isn't five days of military training too short?" Mo Zhuyou gently swung her legs, happily eating black rice cake, and muttered with her head tilted slightly.

"What? You want to practice more?"

"It's not that, it's just... it's quite a rare experience to live with so many classmates, isn't it?"

"Does your younger sister really enjoy the camp experience?"

"Yes, because it's very lively!"

"Well……"

"Tsk, sister, don't always feel like you haven't done anything right. The car accident wasn't your fault. Besides, I think it's pretty good that the two of us depend on each other."

"Phew...if only back then..."

"Alright, alright, let's stop talking about this. Military training should be a fun thing! Like in junior high, we can chat at night!"

"In junior high, we mainly learned agriculture," my sister said, rubbing her eyes. "Military training isn't as easy as you think. Even though it's only five days, we definitely won't have the energy to chat at night, otherwise, how will we get up the next day?"

"We can definitely chat for a little while, right?" the younger sister said, already looking forward to it. "I wonder where we'll be doing military training?"

As they were talking, the car jolted, causing the small piece of black rice cake in her hand to fall to the ground. After getting covered in dust, it was obviously inedible.

"Ah!" the younger sister cried out in anguish, "My black rice cake..."

"It's okay, it's okay, we've almost finished eating anyway," her sister comforted her, patting her shoulder.

"That's not the point...! Waaah..." The younger sister's voice was trembling with tears, "This costs money... It's such a waste... I'm so sad..."

"It's just a little bit, it's not worth much~ It's okay~"

"We worked hard for a month doing part-time jobs, and together we only earned eight hundred yuan. After deducting four hundred yuan for rent, we only had four hundred yuan left for daily expenses, food, clothing, and other occasional large expenses..." The younger sister wiped her eyes as if she had thought of something sad, "There was still such a big chunk left..."

"It's okay~ It's not a big piece, just a small piece. I'll buy you another one after we get off the bus."

"I told you it's not about this!" Mo Zhuyou pouted, sulking to herself. But for some reason, the more she thought about it, the sadder she became, and finally, tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.

Mo Xiaoxiao suppressed the comforting smile on her face, gently blocked the suitcase with her foot to prevent it from sliding to other places, and then gently hugged Mo Zhuyou from behind.

"It's alright, little sister."

"I know... I just think it's... a waste..."

"It's only a few cents."

"That's money too."

"Look around on the ground, you might find 50 cents, then you'll have made your money back."

"Tch, there's no such thing as a free lunch... I... I'm just blaming myself..." Mo Zhuyou's voice was somewhat muffled.

"Pfft, it's nothing, it's nothing." Her sister's words of comfort seemed to always be just this one sentence.

My sister's mood only improved slightly when we were about to get off the bus.

There was still some distance between the station and the school, so the two of them slowly walked, dragging their suitcases.

"Hmm, sister, that person in front of us, their back view looks a bit like our school principal?"

"is it?"

"Yes, shall we go ahead and take a look?"

"Forget it, it would be awkward if it was just a stranger on the street. Let's just follow behind slowly."

"Oh……"

The two sisters briefly missed each other at the corner, and by the time they passed the corner, the person who looked like the principal had already distanced himself from them.

Just then, my sister's eyes lit up, and she suddenly squatted down and picked up a hundred-yuan bill from the ground.

"This! Sister, is it true?!"

"It seems to be true... Hey, wait, it might have been dropped by the person in front." Mo Xiaoxiao quickly chased after him with the banknotes in hand, while Mo Zhuyou behind her looked dejected, as if she had missed a chance to make a fortune.

“Um…sir…? Is this the money you dropped?” Mo Xiaoxiao handed over the fairly new banknote.

"No." The other person didn't turn their head, but only glanced at it out of the corner of their eye, then pulled up the mask covering half of their face and answered.

"Oh... okay..."

A hundred-dollar bill.

Who should we entrust this to?

Mo Zhuyou suggested keeping it for herself, but Mo Xiaoxiao decided to wait for the owner to come. After more than twenty minutes, when no one came, she finally felt more at ease and accepted it.

"Yay, great, one hundred yuan!" Mo Zhuyou was completely no longer as dejected as she was on the bus.

The man who had been walking ahead of the two sisters took off his mask after turning the corner, looked up at the sky, and smiled gently.

Wang Jiale, who was running past, slowed down and greeted him in a panic, "Ah, hello Principal!"

"Hmm." The headmaster nodded gently with a smile. "Good morning."

……

Chapter Forty-Eight: The Military Training Bus

"Hey, Xiaoyao~" Wang Jiale nudged Mo Xueyao, "Are you spacing out again?"

"I wasn't daydreaming... I was just letting my mind wander," Mo Xueyao replied in a refined manner, turning her head slightly to look at Wang Jiale. "What's wrong? What unlucky thing do you want to share today?"

"Hey! What do you mean by 'bad luck'? Am I unlucky every day?" Wang Jiale pouted in dissatisfaction.

"Uh...who knows?" Mo Xueyao shrugged and answered with a light laugh.

For someone like her who didn't used to have much contact with girls, it's quite amazing that she can chat with girls so easily now.

However, many things are not as difficult as you realize once you've done them.

It's just like interacting with other girls.

Whether they are cute or beautiful, they are all human beings, and most of them are just ordinary people. There is no need to keep them on a pedestal or to elevate them to a high position.

If you treat them with a normal attitude, you'll find that these girls are all very interesting little sprites.

Of course, girls show a completely different side when they are with boys.

Calling it pretentious isn't quite right; it's more accurate to say that they hide their true feelings.

Take Wang Jiale for example.

When she's around boys, she usually doesn't talk much and seems quite shy.

But when she's with girls, she's far more lively than that.

"Hi~ Good morning~" Mo Xiaoxiao greeted Mo Xueyao and Wang Jiale with her usual smile. Her dimples were deep and sweet, and seeing her smile always made people feel better.

"Hmph, Xiaoxiao arrived later than me today!" Wang Jiale puffed out her chest proudly.

"Something came up on the way and I was delayed." Mo Xiaoxiao gently touched the slightly curly and dry ends of her hair. "Shouldn't we be getting ready to leave soon?"

"Yes, yes!" Wang Jiale was eagerly anticipating the trip, as if she were going on a picnic rather than military training.

Most of the students arrived earlier than usual today, each carrying a suitcase.

The students' faces were beaming with smiles as they chatted about their experiences during military training in junior high school.

Surprisingly, quite a few boys felt that five days of military training was far too short and not enough.

I really hope they can still say that after they start military training.

At exactly eight o'clock, all the students had arrived. The homeroom teacher, Ye Wen, also appeared at the classroom door at the right time. She clapped her hands vigorously and said loudly, "Alright! Everyone, come out and line up. We're getting ready to board the bus!"

Just then, the wind dispersed some of the white clouds in the sky, allowing the golden sun to peek out and shower its brilliant light upon the earth, making everyone feel warm all over.