Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When Tao Lulu heard the young man’s words, her eyes lit up right away. Surprised, she made a guess, “You’ve gone to university and studied linguistics?”
“No, I study biology,” Zhang Lisheng replied.
“Biology? Um, biomedicine is very popular nowadays. Oh yeah, Mountain Worm, what university are you studying at?”
“Stanford.”
“What?” The girl, who had been curling her tongue while speaking in Mandarin, revealed her dialect in surprise.
“Stanford.”
“You’re studying at Stanford University?” Tao Lulu’s mouth hung agape in shock. “Isn’t that a world renowned famous university? H-How did you get in there? Oh, that’s right? You usually have to apply into a university in the US right? Ah whatever, how did you get in there anyway?”
“How did I get in there?” Zhang Lisheng scratched his head. “Well, I just came across a good teacher in high school, who, later on, has co-authored a journal paper with me which allowed me to admit to Stanford. What about you, village girl? Are you working or studying in a university now?”
“I’m also studying in a university now but of course, my university is not as great as yours. Still, it’s not bad, I’m taking history in Beijing Normal University. Now, my name is Tao Lulu, you may call me Tao Lulu, Lulu, or even Sister Tao! But never call me village girl again!”
“Alright, Sister Tao!” When Zhang Lisheng was still in China, he was constantly being forced by his father to feed poisonous insects with his blood and was always in a state where he wished he was better off dead. How could he possibly have the state of mind to even care about which university was good? After he arrived in the US, he could care less about the university rankings in China so of course he would not know just how good this Beijing Normal University could be. He merely nodded his head and praised, “Beijing Normal University? Not bad! Not bad! It’s not worse than Stanford!”
“Ah, I know you’re consoling me. Yeah I know it’s very amazing that you can get into a famous university but I wonder whether you’re telling the truth or lying!” The girl glared at him.
Upon seeing Tao Lulu’s irritated expression under the moonlight, the young man became absentminded as he recalled the bitter night a few years ago. That time, it was exactly at this door of the old house that the can of chicken soup sent by the girl warmed his almost frozen body and mind.
After becoming silent for a while, Zhang Lisheng shook his head and said with a wry smile, “How is that possible? Even if I can dominate an entire world, I wouldn’t find it to be amazing in front of you.”
“Dominate an entire world? What a weird analogy!” Tao Lulu was struck dumb for a while. When she saw the young man’s sincere look, an inexplicable warmth washed over her heart. “Don’t sweet talk me now. Hurry up and go take the tablewares that my dad sent to you just now to me. I still need to send them back in a hurry so that we can use it.”
“Oh how could I forget about this. Wait for a while, I’ll go inside and pack up now,” Zhang Lisheng said and hurriedly ran into the hall to pack the tablewares on the wooden table into the bamboo basket, before returning to the door to hand the bamboo basket to Tao Lulu.
The girl did not take the bamboo basket but said with curled lips instead, “It’s so heavy! Can’t you send it back to my house for me?”
“I can, b-but I’m a Father. I’m worried that…wouldn’t it be too unlucky for me to enter your house?”
Tao Lulu glared at Zhang Lisheng for a while before sighing. “Zhang Lisheng, are you really studying in Stanford? You still talk about ‘Master’ now? Oh my, how can this brain of yours still be so superstitious?!”
“Newton also believed that this universe was created by God. Now that there are so many foreign worlds appearing, are these all superstitious too?” Zhang Lisheng refuted in a low voice but he took the bamboo basket and walked out of the door before turning around to close the wooden door.
“Religion and superstition are not the same thing! Besides, what relationship is there between the emergence of foreign worlds in the world and being superstitious? You’re arguing with baseless grounds! Ah forget it, since you feel that it’s not good for you to enter my house, you can just send it right up to the door. I can take the bamboo basket inside myself,” the girl replied and led the young man in the direction to her house.
On the way, Tao Lulu hesitated for a while before suddenly saying, “Mountain Worm, I have a few classmates and friends over our Qu County for a visit so I’ll be going for the campfire party tonight. We’ll have barbecue and so on, so why don’t you come together?”
“Sister, didn’t you already send me food? I won’t go anymore.”
“Can’t you just eat the food that I sent as supper instead?” The girl snapped unhappily. “Mountain Worm, why are you still so introverted after staying in the US for the past few years? isn’t it good getting to know more people?”
“Good! Good! I’ll go then! I’ll go!” When Zhang Lisheng saw that Tao Lulu had become angry, he shrugged and said.
The girl nodded but did not say anything. She led the young man to the door of her house and after taking over the bamboo basket and entering the house, she brought with him nine young people, four men and five women, who were laughing with each other as they walked out.
“Lulu, you can sing and dance since we’ve decided to stay in and rest the entire day tomorrow, you must perform a traditional dance and sing a folk song for us to…” Among the nine people, an ordinary looking young man who looked particularly high spirits walked out of the door chuckling as he said. When he abruptly saw Zhang Lisheng, who was standing still quietly under the moonlight, he choked on his words and was taken aback by astonishment.
Tao Lulu who was by the side quickly said, “Don’t be afraid, Li Cheng. He’s my fellow villager, Zhang Lisheng, who grew up with me since childhood. He has also just returned for summer vacation and will be joining us for the campfire tonight. Lisheng, this is Li Cheng, a sophomore in the English Department of Beijing Normal University; this is Luxiao, my classmate; this is Hu Xiaoran, my best friend who shares the same dorm with me…”
The girl pointed at her classmates and friends slowly introducing them one by one to Zhang Lisheng. Although the young man could care less about it, he still maintained a full smile and greeted them one by one. “Good evening, Brother Lu; good evening, Sister Hu…”
His accent was strange and his weird look of having slightly sparse and short hedgehog-like hair made him inexplicably look comical, very laughable.
However, for the sake of Tao Lulu, those young men and women could only suppress their laughter in their hearts. One of them, the Beijing Normal University student named Li Cheng, whispered mockingly in the ears of Lu Xiao who shared the same class with Tao Lulu, “Xiao Zi, your love rival is really amazing! Listen to that accent, that temperament of his. He really wins you by a hundred times you know…”
In return, he obtained a forceful punch by his friend who was holding back his laughter.
It was until when Tao Lulu was introducing a tall burly man who had a full beard who looked as though he was in thirties that this person suddenly burst out laughing loudly. Pointing a finger at Zhang Lisheng’s nose, he said, “Lisheng, lad! Do you still remember me? Xiong Zhuangming! That Xiong Zhuangming on the Amazon River.”
Zhang Lisheng was dumbstruck. Only then that he finally carefully studied the tall burly man in front of him. Baffled, he replied, “B-Brother Xiong? H-How coincidental is this? To think that I can actually meet you here! You look a lot younger than before.”
“This is called ‘as luck would have it’! My dad kept refusing to allow me to go out so in the end, I could only study my postgraduate here in China. I was very irritated so I just formed a group on the internet to come out to distract myself. But, aren’t you an American Chinese? How did you end up growing up together with Lulu instead? Oh, wait, I know! This is your hometown and you only went to US after you found your mother?”
Zhang Lisheng smiled and nodded.
“How is it bro? Is life in the US the past two years comfortable? What happened to the two hot beautiful girls in the end? Did anything happen after that?”
“Ah, erm… You mean Tina and Trish?” For no reason, Zhang Lisheng suddenly felt a little panicked, prompting him to stutter. “Well, didn’t I tell you before? We’re very good friends and now we’re still very good friends with each other…”
“Big Xiong, you know Lisheng?” Xiong Zhuangming’s words made Tao Lulu frown. With a faint smile, she looked at Zhang Lisheng but asked Xiong Zhuangming instead.
“Know him? Of course I do! Not only that, we’re quite close too! Two years ago, when I followed my father to transport wood in the Amazon, I came across Lisheng and several young people from the US who were burning wood, asking for help beside the Amazon River. When I went up to them to see whether they were okay, I found out that this fella here was really daring. To think he actually went to trek the Amazon jungle with a group of friends of his. In the end, they came across a flash flood and their native tour guide was washed away but they were lucky to have survived. However, three of his companions had eaten some poisonous fruits and had become stupid. In the end, it was only Brother Zhang, the only man left, who took care of the entire situation all by himself. He led two super beautiful women and survived the jungle by sheer force for a few days…”
“Brother Xiong, the reason I went to the Amazon that time was not for a leisure tour but was for a biological scientific field research instead. Even though I still could not be said as a true biologist at that time, but, did you know, I went to the Amazon to collect ‘research materials’, not for a sightseeing tour. In the end, it’s exactly because of the soft-shelled beetle that I found in that Amazon trip that allowed me to co-author a journal paper with my teacher and allowed me to skip grades to be accepted by Stanford!” Zhang Lisheng interrupted Xiong Zhuangming’s words.
“Oh, you’ve entered Stanford? You’re amazing, bro! It has more credibility than my Tsinghua University! Sigh! Actually I also wanted to study abroad and I could also have gone to a prestigious school. But I just couldn’t get a full scholarship and I didn’t want to work part time in a foreign country. Without my dad’s support, everything is in vain,” Xiong Zhuang Ming sighed and said.
Upon seeing his sorrowful look, a petite cute-looking girl by the side patted Xiong Zhuangming’s belly gently and said with a sweet smile, “Stop sighing, Brother Xiong. Let’s talk again at the bonfire party alright? I’ve purposely starved myself so that I can have a huge piece of barbecued meat later.”
“Ah, let’s not delay a girl from eating. I’ve sinned! I’ve sinned! Let’s go! Let’s go! Let us go and start barbecuing immediately!” Xiong Zhuangming chuckled and walked along the mountain road to the village entrance.
On the road, when Xiong Zhuangming still wanted to chat with Zhang Lisheng, that cute petite girl would pull his ear and whisper a few sentences, making this bold and humorous yet simple-minded burly man to seemingly dawn in realization abruptly.
After that, he looked at Zhang Lisheng apologetically and just shut his mouth up without saying anything more along the way.
The bonfire in the threshing ground had already ignited. A whole fat sheep and pig that were cut open after being peeled and washed cleanly, with its white meat exposed, were pierced through with iron bars. They were then sprinkled with rich spices and were smeared with oil using long iron brushes, before being barbecued on the fire, emitting a delicious smell that was unforgettable.
It was only in the evening, but there were many noisy tourists around the fire already. Fortunately, there was still plenty of vacant space around.
Zhang Lisheng accompanied Tao Lulu and the others to the village entrance before sitting down on the floor, listening to the villagers singing some folk songs. After a moment of silence, he mocked, “A whole pig and sheep? Who would be willing to do that last time except during new year time?”
“The village has also become rich now. Basically, every household earns two to three hundred thousand yuan a year now so everybody would be willing to sacrifice several pigs and sheeps now, not to mention that this barbecue is not free either. But of course, no matter what, we still can’t compare to your US at all! To think that you could just go to Amazon whenever you want, and what again? For scientific research purposes? You’ve just left Guawo Village a few days and you really become capable right away after you migrated huh?”
