White cabs are galloping down the highway, country music is playing on a loop, and the windows are open and a scorching wind blows in, bringing the scorching temperature of the southern hemisphere February sunshine.
Along the way, you can almost only see low dwellings, vegetation and trees along the road, and large tracts of idyllic village-style scenery. Only in the places close to the city center, there is a little modern atmosphere. The streets are empty and people and cars are rare.
Eventually the taxi stopped in front of a four or five-story building. The driver took the fifty-dollar bill handed over by Chi Yan and muttered to find some change for him: "Don't take such a large denomination for a taxi in the future, it will be difficult to find."
Chi Yan got out of the car and stood in front of his future dormitory building with a backpack, a box and a handful of coins that he had recovered. Even 50-cent coins are rare in China, and he suddenly got such a large amount of coins. It made him a little uncomfortable, and he didn't even know where to put it.
While collecting the change, he looked at the dark red building in front of him. The building must have been a certain age, and it looks a little old from the outside, making the dark red color look a bit like blood that has dried up.
He took a breath, pulled the box and walked in. The glass doors automatically opened to both sides. The inside of the building looked newer than the outside, and it was obviously renovated.
Chi Yan was lucky. After registering and going upstairs with the room card, he met a Chinese boy in the elevator. The boy's name is Jiang Tian, and he came here because he participated in a "2+2" project in the school. This project is a foreign partner school for his sophomore and junior year, and his senior year will return to the school to prepare for graduation. Therefore, although he is currently working with Chi Yan is also a junior in high school, but she has been here for a year and is familiar with all aspects.
Chi Yan's room was on the fourth floor, and Jiang Tian lived on the third floor, but he took the initiative to help Chi Yan carry things to his room and clean up the house with him.
"Every floor has a public kitchen, you can cook by yourself, as well as bathrooms, laundry, etc., you can enter by swiping the room card; but to be honest, the location of your room is not good, the upper floor is the activity room, and the fifth floor is the public space. , Foreign students like to have a party in the activity room. It is held almost every weekend, and it is very noisy. But there is no way, fortunately, the time usually does not exceed twelve o'clock. Other problems, such as buying daily necessities, going to school You can come to me for check-in and office card payment, and I can take you there. Anyway, the official class will start next week, and there is nothing to do recently."
"Okay, thank you." Chi Yan couldn't wait to ask one of the questions he cared about most, "How do you usually eat? Do you want to... do it yourself?"
Jiang Tian nodded: "Yes, do it yourself."
He looked at Chi Yan's expression: "Or go out to buy and eat, but the cheapest meal costs about ten dollars, and the taste is not very good, and it is not good to eat, so it is better to cook by yourself. There is a small restaurant nearby. The burger shop sells hamburgers, pizza, fish and chips. The hamburger is not small and only sells for more than seven dollars. His pizza is also good, it is like a pasta pie with grilled meat, onions and cheese. Baked, the small portion only sells for about ten dollars, enough for a day. However, those foods are too oily and too caloric to eat every day. Occasionally, if you don’t have time to cook, it’s good to go there to buy and eat. There are also many schools selling Food place, but the taste and portion are average, and nothing too delicious. In comparison, I think the subway is quite good.”
"I should still have to learn to cook by myself." Chi Yan covered her head in distress, embarrassed to tell a friend she just met that she couldn't even start a fire, and that she never beat an egg at home.
Although going out to exchange countries will give him a considerable scholarship and will pay for the round-trip airfare, but he spends more than a thousand dollars every month for accommodation here - a month's accommodation cost is more than four years in the country. There are many. In addition, there are cheap canteens in their schools. You can eat well for no more than fifteen yuan per meal. Even if the canteen is tired of eating, there are all kinds of takeaways... At this time, you can especially appreciate the socialist university. the superiority. He himself is still studying and has no income. He is embarrassed to ask his parents for too much money, so he has to learn to plan carefully. Learning to cook seems to be a must.
In order to make it easier for him to bring only the clothes and laptop he needs to wear, bedding, kitchen utensils and various daily necessities all need to be repurchased. He also has to go to the school to apply for a student card, go to the bank to open an account, and apply for a local phone card and transportation card. … and so on.
Fortunately, Jiang Tian was there, and he took Chi Yan to organize the dinner in accordance with the order of priorities in the afternoon, and also showed him the way to the school and the central business district. As a thank you, Chi Yan invited him to eat at a Malaysian restaurant in the city center after shopping.
The place is recommended by Jiang Tian. It is relatively good and cheap. A meal only costs more than 20 dollars, but the weight of vegetables and meat is relatively sufficient. Chi Yan's portion is curry chicken and curry shrimp, which tastes pretty good, and it's cheaper than a la carte Chinese restaurants.
Thanks to Jiang Tian's guidance, I basically finished all the things I needed to do in the afternoon, leaving only the bank card and some odds and ends that I didn't buy.
During the school season, there are many bankers in the school, and it takes a long time to queue up. Chi Yan went to organize the next day by himself. By the way, we settled lunch and dinner at Subway and a fried chicken restaurant in the school.
When he returned to the dormitory at night, he met neighbors who lived next door to the left and right.
He lives in room 407. On the left, room 406 is a black-haired boy named Alex. He is over 1.8 meters tall, with very white skin, but he smiles brightly; on the right, room 408 is a man named Emily. A girl with soft blonde hair. From the outside, both of them are clearly Western.
The dormitory here is an application system, and reapply every academic year or semester, and many students will change dormitories or move out to rent their own houses. Emily had just moved in. After talking with them for a while, she went back to pack her things. She also made an appointment to have dinner with her friends.
"So you only arrived yesterday?" Alex looked at him and said, "Sophies has a lot of fun places, I have a car, I can take you there. Do you like parties? We also have a lot of interesting parties. ."
In any case, people who are warm and cheerful in real life are more likely to win the favor of others, and it is not a bad thing to have a neighbor who is easy to get along with. Chi Yan thanked the other party and chatted casually for a few more words before saying goodbye to each other and going back to the house.
The third day turned out to be a rare cloudy day, the clouds blocked the sun, and the color of the trees appeared dull, which is relatively rare in February.
Chi Yan was a little tired from running around two days ago. He didn't get up until ten o'clock this morning. He took the car to the nearby supermarket to carefully select and buy the vegetables and meat that he might eat these days, and took it to the kitchen.
To be honest, he didn't know what he would do, so he bought a box of eggs, a piece of packaged beef, half a cabbage, and two tomatoes. At least these are the most common things and should not be difficult to cook. On the first day, Jiang Tian took the sugar, salt, soy sauce and other seasonings to the Chinese supermarket to buy them. Although he had a mess in his head, he didn't know how to use these chemical reagents, but at least there was no shortage of them.
There are two kitchens on each floor, with two communal large refrigerators and a freezer, and everyone has a lockable place in the refrigerator. Chi Yan's refrigerator is located in the kitchen on the left. The kitchen is surrounded by cabinets and a sink, and there are two rows of six stoves in the middle.
Chi Yan took out the newly bought pot and put it on the stove, and carefully turned on the fire. He decided to start with the simplest fried rice.
He steamed a bowl of rice in the microwave, shredded half a cabbage, sliced a tomato, cracked an egg, and tossed the rest of the tomato, half a cabbage, and beef that he didn't know how to make. In the fridge - he thought that he might be able to make a tomato brisket when he got better at cooking.
Chi Yan checked the Internet for a fried rice tutorial. Follow the steps above to pour the oil first, then pour the steamed rice into it, and then add the chopped cabbage, tomatoes and eggs.
The tutorial said eggs and chopped green onion, but he felt he had to add some vegetables. The freshly steamed rice seemed a little too wet, but it didn't hurt. So far so good, all he needs to do is toss it with a spatula and fry it with a pinch of salt.
Two minutes later, Chi Yan was stunned as the tomato soup came out, as did the cabbage, and the pot was completely a wet red, red and white mass.
With a twitchy expression on his face, he took out his mobile phone, but in desperation he could only ask Jiang Tian for help.
After a while, Jiang Tian came up from the third floor, staring blankly at Chi Yan's pot: "...What is this?"
Fortunately, Chi Yan also knew how to turn off the fire first.
"Fried rice. Put tomatoes, cabbage, and an egg." Tian pitifully saw that he didn't even have any meat for a meal - because he didn't know what to do.
"Your rice is too wet, and the cabbage itself is prone to water. If you want to go to the stew, it is better to go through it at least once beforehand, right?"
Jiang Tian couldn't bear to look at the pot: "Chi Yan... Do you still want to eat this?"
"Probably can't eat it." Chi Yan looked at the pot, and he felt a little distressed about his egg. The free-range eggs he bought were much more expensive than caged eggs.
"It doesn't matter, I can just taste the burger from the burger shop you mentioned." He said to his friend with a wry smile.
Jiang Tian nodded and described the location of the burger shop to him again: "I've finished eating, or I can help you. But there's nothing wrong with this, everyone has something they're not good at, I believe Yourself, your future wife will be very virtuous."
Jiang Tian helped him clean up the mess in the kitchen, and then the two said goodbye. Jiang Tian went back to the third floor, Chi Yan went back to the house, grabbed his wallet, and went straight to the burger shop Jiang Tian mentioned.
The burger shop said that it was going to go out a street soon, and there was no other place selling food on the street where their dormitory was located. He began to miss the large and small restaurants that can be seen everywhere in the imperial capital, and even those blue and yellow takeaway riders. In contrast, here is simply called the capitalist modernization of the new countryside.
The burger shop Jiang Tian mentioned is hidden at the back of the street, with a very small front and only three or four counters. There is no place for customers to rest, so it does not provide dine-in and can only be taken out, which looks a bit crude.
There are some fried foods on the counter, with golden warm lights on them; a square oil pan at the back is still working, giving a different warm and warm feeling.
At this time, there was a customer standing in the small storefront.
It was a middle-aged man with gray hair. He was wearing a white shirt with black trousers underneath. What was striking was that he also wore a gray checkered vest over the shirt—this season this It's kind of weird to dress like this for the occasion.
He also had a dark gold pocket watch hanging on his chest, and the skin on his bare neck and side face was very pale, not like the normal complexion of an ordinary Caucasian, but rather like a morbid pallor. His leather shoes are clean and his standing is elegant, reminding Chi Yan of the traditional western gentleman in the movie.
His whole person was out of tune with this burger shop, so Chi Yan couldn't help but look at him a few more times.
The man also noticed his gaze, turned his head, nodded and smiled politely at him. After paying, he took his things and left. Chi Yan moved to the left, making way for the other party to go out.
A black car is heard on the left corner outside the door.
The man hurried to the front of the car, first opened the rear door, bent over and handed things in, and then circled back to the front driver's seat to open the door. That stooping motion made him look humble and respectful.
Chi Yan was a little curious, so she couldn't help staring at it, not even realizing whether her behavior was disrespectful.
The moment the man opened the back seat door and handed things over, Chi Yan saw the silhouette of the man sitting vaguely in the back seat. It should be a man, because although it was only for a moment, he also saw a pale and slender hand sticking out from it - slender but broad and powerful, with well-defined joints, full of strength.
That's unlikely to be a lady's hand.
There seemed to be something on his fingers, which blinded him for a moment.
Chi Yan blinked, and when he opened his eyes again, the black car had disappeared from the street corner.