Brainoid

Qi Min almost made Anton angry, and then she realized that he was not the kind of ABC she thought was born from Chinese immigrants to the United States and the locals - the kind who even if they are suspected of being "not Chinese" (also the same) suspected of being "not American"), but they still have parents, and orphans are really orphans without parents, which is of course very fatal.

However, she did not fully understand at the time how Anton could be an orphan, and a Chinese orphan who grew up in the United States.

Qi Min knows that every year many Americans adopt orphans from all over the world - this is probably mainly because the cost of adopting orphans in underdeveloped areas is lower - but for adopted orphans, the people who adopt them are also the same as their parents. equal to. And objectively speaking, it is rare to adopt a boy from China through formal channels, because in underdeveloped areas where babies are abandoned, the proportion of abandoned female babies is much higher than that of male babies.

But she only thinks about these questions in her own mind and never expresses them on the surface. Qi Min himself is not interested in this kind of gossip, and the Bolsheviks are the least particular about their origins, and the theory of blood is extremely reactionary.

After she broke up with Anton on bad terms, she went to WhatsApp him again one day later and asked him if he wanted to have dinner together—no, if he wanted to study together.

Anton was delivering food when he received the message. He hit "OK" out of habit, but thinking about Qi Min's incredibly rude attitude, he couldn't help but feel a little angry, so he didn't reply.

However, after a while, Qi Min actually called him: "Hey, do you want to have dinner together tonight - and then read "Das Kapital"?"

"You can eat by yourself and read Das Kapital by yourself." Anton said deliberately, "And you can even read the Chinese version, but I can't understand it anyway."

"I can't believe you are still angry?" Qi Min's tone sounded surprised, "Then should I apologize to you? Because I really didn't know before. If you need it, I can even give you You buy a gift."

If someone else - like his friend Carlos - had spoken to him like that, Anton would probably have lost his temper by now. But Qi Min's tone sounded so sincere that he began to suspect that she just didn't speak English well or had something wrong with her head.

"You don't have to apologize to me." Anton replied. In addition to feeling uncomfortable, he still wanted to test whether Qi Min was so rude just because of the language problem.

Unexpectedly, Qi Min responded: "Oh, it's great that you think so. I also don't think I need to apologize to you -" Anton almost didn't hang up the phone at this time, but then she said, "-because This is not something you need to feel sorry for. I mean, how are your parents? What does it have to do with you now? We eat and study together. Is there anything in this that is related to your origin? "

She spoke so naturally that Anton couldn't tell whether she really thought that or was acting out to comfort him. But even if it's the latter, it means that Qi Min's emotional intelligence is still sufficient... Is that a good thing?

"You're right, maybe I'm overthinking it." Anton then said, "But what you did the day before yesterday was really rude... Even if we are friends, I suggest you don't talk like that to those Americans. "

To be honest, Qi Min just asked casually. He didn't understand where she was being rude, so he just said: "Of course. I would only talk about this kind of topic to Chinese people. After all, those Americans have different cultures."

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Qi Min gave Anton the enamel cup she had left in the laboratory for drinking water. The cup had a portrait of Mao and "Serve the People" printed on it.

Of course, the gift was not just to apologize, but mainly to thank him for allowing her to spend so many meals. Although Qi Min also paid for half of the ingredients, she also knew that the labor cost was actually much higher than the cost of the food. .

Anton said that he recognized the characters on the cup. Qi Min, who probably knew how good he was at recognizing Chinese characters, asked deliberately: "Okay, then what characters are you thinking about?"

As a Bolshevik, Qi Min felt that he should still know this sentence. However, "wu" in simplified and traditional Chinese is different. She actually dug a hole here.

However, the sentence Anton read almost made Qi Min angry: "Isn't this just 'taking medicine for the people'?"

Qi Min held back his laughter for a long time and had to ask: "Why do you need to 'take medicine'? Haven't you heard of 'serving the people'?"

"I've heard of it, but the word isn't 'service', right?" Anton was a little confused, "The previous owner of our restaurant hung a Chinese character in the lounge, which means 'serve the people'. That word definitely doesn't mean 'service'." It’s written like this.”

"This is the traditional Chinese written by Mao, it's just different from the simplified Chinese." Qi Min asked with a smile, "And why do you think this word is 'medicine'?"

Anton looked at the words on the cup carefully, and then said with some hesitation: "It doesn't seem to be 'medicine'. I just remember that the handwriting for 'medicine' has about this many strokes, and it looks similar."

If Anton's spoken Chinese level can reach the level of simple communication, then his ability to recognize Chinese characters is Qi Min's "source of happiness." She encountered many difficulties in experiments, and her scientific research level was not as good as that of her colleagues. However, she was able to make up for it with Anton's Chinese proficiency. Comparing her Chinese proficiency with Anton's was the only way she could quickly gain confidence - who could let him claim to be a pure Chinese, but he could barely read Chinese characters.

Anton watched Qi Min laughing there "gloatingly", and knew in his heart that he should be angry when faced with the ridicule, but his ability to empathize made him unable to help but laugh along with Qi Min when he saw it, and eventually became himself. Laugh at yourself. Sometimes you can't be angry even if you want to be angry. It's really... the same thing that makes you want to be angry but can't be angry.

After Qi Min laughed enough, he still told him how to write the real word "medicine", and also "popularized science" about the rules of radicals in Chinese characters.

Later, when reading "Das Kapital", Anton also asked how to say and write words such as "capital", "profit", "means of production" and "proletariat" in Chinese. Qi Min told him that in fact these words are not used very frequently in the Chinese context, but Anton claimed that he would read the original version of "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" in the future, so he repeatedly asked Qi Min to teach him Chinese.

For ordinary Bolshevik comrades, Qi Min definitely didn't have the patience to be a one-on-one primary school tutor, but she couldn't resist Anton being so good-looking, so she agreed as soon as her head got hot.

For at least a month after that, "taking medicine for the people" became a joke for Qi Min to tease Anton. Even if Anton wanted to be angry, there was nothing he could do about Qi Min laughing while saying "take medicine", so he had to wait until she got tired of playing jokes.