Chapter 208: Fellow Countryman
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As a private university, the environment of Stanford’s dormitory was based on the fee. Unfortunately, due to the reason that the graduate dormitory was not strictly regulated, Zhang Lisheng could not make any inquiries about the prices or the situation according to Lili’s request. On top of that, the rich freshmen had already vacated all of the good rooms for the graduate and undergraduate students.
For this reason, the only type of room he could stay in was double rooms. These were the types of rooms that had no living room. Due to the fact that there is still a lot of these types of rooms available, the university had already directly given him one.
As it was impossible for him to drop out of Stanford with such a ridiculous reason as ‘unwilling to live on campus’, as well as him trying to look at the bright side, adding this with the fact that perhaps the Stanford University would soon obtain permission to build a biological laboratory in the Shrimp World No. 2 and he could then leave with a fair reason, the young man finally chose to compromise.
However, after completing his admission process and had his dormitory allocated, his expression became grave when he left the Student Management Office.
Walking through the shady corridor, Steven did not know how to comfort his student, aka money tree, beside him. After both of them left the office building, they entered the car and shuttled all over the campus, all the way to an ordinary university apartment in Stanford.
This was an old six-and-a-half-story building surrounded by green lawns that had its exterior walls painted in milky white and beige. Looking at the distribution of windows from the tree-lined road outside of the building and the environment inside, its environment should be at a first-class standard at the very least. This is, of course, according to the standard of a university dormitory.
“Lisheng, actually, the superior accommodation conditions in Stanford is among the best in all universities in the US...” After getting off the car, Steven pointed to the apartment building not far away. He then made a pertinent evaluation. However, when he saw that Zhang Lisheng’s expression still showed no sign of turning better, he shook his head and said, “But of course, you have your own opinion. It’s impossible for this building to give you both indoor and outdoor swimming pools as well. All right, I need to go back to the lab so take a good rest these two days to adapt to your college life. Remember to buy a bicycle first! If you drive, the time spent on finding a parking lot would sometimes take longer than walking. Finally, I’ll give you one last advice, child. Wealth and influence may help you get the most out of this world, but it doesn’t make you a good biologist. There are still many things for you to learn. I’ll see you again!”
“I understand, Professor. See you!” Zhang Lisheng’s expression changed as he nodded solemnly while waving his hand at Steven. Then, he walked to the front hall of the apartment building to show the dormitory manager his new chest badge and walked into the dormitory.
The corridor in the building was very spacious. With one glance, he could see innumerable new students who had just entered Stanford walking around the corridor as they were making new friends with each other. Even so, the corridor only appeared to be slightly crowded.
Empty-handed, Zhang Lisheng glanced left and right at the room number with a blank expression as he shuttled through the crowd of excited young people. Finally, he came to a stop in front of a room door written with A011.
He knocked on the door gently for a few times. When he realized that the door was opened, he pushed the door and entered. Right away, he saw a short Caucasian boy tidying his bed. Upon seeing him enter, that boy quickly reached out a hand and said nervously imitating an adult manner, “Hey buddy! I’m Jerry Katven from San Francisco.”
“Zhang Lisheng, from New York.” Zhang Lisheng looked around his dormitory.
The room was about 30 square meters in size, with two wooden beds with bedside tables on all sides. A computer desk was placed on the wall near the wooden bed and beside it was a large closet. Beside the closet was a bathroom.
historical
The environment was not too bad, so his expression relaxed a little as he shook hands with his new roommate. “We’re roommates for the next few years.”
“Oh! Oh! Oh my God! You’ll live here in this room? You’re my roommate! B-But why didn’t you bring anything with you? I thought you were here to just say hello...” Upon hearing the young man’s words, Jerry showed an unexpectedly strong reaction before breathing a sigh of relief as he exclaimed, “Thank goodness! I’ve been afraid that my new roommate would be a brawny man! You know, that kind... t-that kind...”
When Zhang Lisheng saw this boy’s look of incoherence, he suddenly thought of his first meeting with George. Flashing a friendly smile, he said, “You don’t have to worry about that anymore, Jerry. I’m a chill dude.”
“I can tell just by looking at you, buddy! I can tell that you’re a very...” While Jerry was cheering, someone suddenly opened the door. Three to four young people wearing T-shirts ran into the room, one of the tall and strong young men who was handsome but had a face full of freckles suddenly hugged Zhang Lisheng’s new roommate and asked in eagerness, “Jerry! Have you finished unpacking? The girls in the friendship meeting are waiting for us already!”
“I-I haven’t finished unpacking yet...”
“Unpack later when we get back, buddy! You don’t want to give up the first chance of getting a girlfriend in the university because you want to put a few pairs of stinky socks in the closet, right?” The tall and strong young man looked at Zhang Lisheng who was by the side. “Are you coming as well, buddy? This is a friendship meeting of half of the floor of this building!”
“Thank you, but I still need to go buy a bicycle and go to the library. I’ll pass,” Zhang Lisheng smiled and politely refused.
“The hell? Buying a bicycle and then going to the library? It’s your first day in the university today! Even though Stanford’s library is always full of nerds all the time, there’s no...”
“There are always exceptions.” Zhang Lisheng merely said a sentence to stop the tall and strong young man from talking before turning around to enter the bathroom.
“Oh, what an unsociable weirdo!” The tall and strong young man looked at Zhang Lisheng’s disappearing back and muttered to himself, before pulling Jerry and a few of his friends out of the room.
Zhang Lisheng washed away the fatigue of the long journey and walked out of the bathroom fresh. When he saw that the room was completely vacated, he smiled speechlessly and walked out of the room as well.
After he walked out of the apartment building, he took out his phone and opened the map of Stanford University. However, no matter how he searched over it, he could not see any store, so he had no choice but stop one of the cyclists on the road and asked, “Sir, may I know where I could buy a bicycle?”
“Sir? Do I look like a ‘sir’ to you? Junior Brother, it’s not so brilliant of you to make small talk to me in that manner.” The cyclist who was wearing loose sportswear put down a foot on the ground and took off a pair of sunglasses, tousling the neat black short hair before speaking in a nice female voice.
It was a very rude offense to mistake the gender of a woman in the US, whether intentionally or unintentionally. When the young man saw the beautiful facial features of the short-haired cyclist, he quickly apologized, “I’m sorry, miss. I’m very sorry! I-I couldn’t find anything when I was looking at the map just now, so I stopped you right away and mistaken you f-for a...”
“Man.” The girl blurted the word that Zhang Lisheng was too embarrassed to say. “I’ve never seen any new student at Stanford who calls anybody by ‘Sir’ or ‘Miss’. Don’t tell me that you’re an international student, you Chinese?”
“I’m indeed Chinese.” Zhang Lisheng was stunned for a moment before nodding his head. “But I’m not an international student...”
“Which part of China are you from? Beijing or Shenzhen?” The girl used Mandarin excitedly to stop him from continuing speaking.
“I’m a native of Sichuan.”
“Oh! You may be the first person from Sichuan to study as an undergraduate at Stanford! I’m from Beijing!” The girl said with a smile. “Although we’re far away from China, we’re from the same hometown now that we’re in the US! Hop on the bike, I’ll bring you to look for a bicycle.”
“E-Er about that... There’s no need to, big sis. You just have to tell me the place, and I’ll go by myself.”
“Hop on now, fellow countryman! You’ve already called me ‘big sis’ so how can I, as your sister, just let you be by yourself? Hurry up!” The girl pulled Zhang Lisheng’s arm with her might and forcefully pulled him onto the back seat of the bicycle.
The young man felt that his shirt might be torn apart if he resisted it forcefully, so he could only say “Thank you then, big sis.” before riding on the back seat of the bicycle.
The girl chuckled and joked—”You don’t have to thank me for my name is Lei Fen!”—before slamming down hard on the pedal and rushed forward.
(T/N: The name ‘Lei Feng’ here is a joke, not the girl’s real name. Lei Feng is a communist legend, aka hero, in China. He was a soldier in the People’s Liberation Army. After his death, he was characterized as a selfless and modest person devoted to the Communist Party, Mao Zedong, and the people of China.)
It was approaching afternoon now. The hot period of the early autumn had already passed. Sitting in the back seat of the beautiful girl’s bicycle while enjoying the cool breeze and pleasant scenery at both sides of the road, anybody would have become carefree and began to make small talk, but from the beginning till the end, Zhang Lisheng remained silent, all the way until the girl took the initiative to ask, “What’s your name, fellow countryman?”
Only then that he asked back, “Zhang Lisheng. How about you, big sis?”
“I’m Guo Caiying. Which block of the dorm are you living in?” Upon seeing the young man’s inarticulate look, the girl chuckled and asked again. Just like that, the two of them conversed for a while with one asking while the other one answering for some time before the girl finally brought Zhang Lisheng to a four-story British building surrounded by lawn flowers and stopped the bike.
“Big sis, there’s a store selling bicycles here?” Zhang Lisheng could see that the people making their way in and out of the building were all young girls carrying thick books or laptops so he asked in confusion.
“Of course not! Didn’t I tell you that I’m bringing you to ‘look for a bicycle’?” Guo Caiying replied while taking out her phone to make a call. “Chuhe, I came across a fellow countryman who came from Sichuan, and the way he talks is very amusing! He even stopped me thinking that I was a guy to ask me where can he get a bicycle. After giving it some thought, I remember Old Wang has already graduated. Isn’t his white bicycle left behind? That’s why I brought him to see you. You haven’t dealt with that bike yet, right?”
“No. Wait a minute, I’ll go out now!” A quiet female voice resonated from the other side of the phone before the call was hung up.
“It’s done, Lisheng. You’ll have a bike to ride very soon.”
“Er wait a minute, big sis! I want to buy a bike. How can I just randomly use somebody else’s...”
“You don’t have to be shy. Haven’t you heard the phrase ‘when two fellow townsmen come across each other, their eyes will be brimmed with tears’? It’s only a bicycle and on top of that, it’s left behind by our senior who has graduated and returned to China. Even though the bike is well-maintained, since its second-hand, the price of it is less than 100 USD. It’d be expensive if you get a new bike...” Guo Caiying smiled sweetly and stopped Zhang Lisheng’s excuse.
“Caiying, the bike is here.” Right at this moment, a tall young girl whose hair sprawled behind her shoulders and her eyes red and swollen pushed a milky white mid-ancient racing bike out of the apartment building and came to the front of the girl directly.
When Guo Caiying saw the low-spirited look of her friend and her eyes that had swollen up like peach, her smiling expression immediately changed as she asked nervously, “Chuhe, what’s wrong?”