Brainoid

Apart from Hua Ruiming's incident, the work in the laboratory is progressing smoothly.

Fortunately, when Qi Min was woken up by the sound of the garbage recycling truck downstairs in the early morning, she opened her laptop to look at the production of full-size brain-like bodies, and saw that Anton had called her on Skype. invite.

Qi Min picked up the answer and glanced at the time in the lower right corner, which was just after six o'clock: "What's wrong, calling in the middle of the night?"

"It's so late at night, it's almost seven o'clock at your place." Anton said, "The visa application has been completed."

"The apartment has also been withdrawn?" Qi Min asked.

"If you refund, you have to pay last month's rent." Anton then asked, "Do you have money on hand now?"

"Yes..." Qi Min did some calculations and found out that the funds for the key projects he applied for had come down, so he had quite a lot of money on hand. "I'll wait...when the bank opens, I'll exchange the currency first and then call you. Ten thousand That should be enough, right?”

"Ten thousand...that's one thousand four hundred - what's the exchange rate?" Anton calculated.

"I mean ten thousand dollars." Qi Min corrected him.

There was silence for a while, and then Anton asked in surprise: "Ten thousand dollars? Where did you get so much money?"

His reaction made Qi Min feel proud. Before, she was so poor that she was worse than a food delivery person, but now she can finally have some dignity.

"The project funds I applied for have been released." Qi Min explained in a showy manner.

However, Anton said: "Are you... embezzling public funds?"

"What embezzlement of public funds? There is also labor fee in the project funds, okay?" Qi Min pretended to be X but failed, and couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, "I worked so hard to write project documents and conduct experiments, so I have to get some compensation, right? "

"When you were studying for a Ph.D., your monthly salary was just over a thousand, didn't you do the same thing?" Anton asked suspiciously, "Or have you become a PETITE BOURGEOSIE now?"

"What BOURGEOSIE? That's because you were severely exploited when you were studying for a Ph.D., and now you can finally get a reasonable salary." Qi Min said deliberately, "You have been exploited under capitalism for too long, and you have begun to doubt whether you can get a normal salary. They are ordinary workers, right?"

"It's nonsense, it's nothing." Anton is very decisive when it comes to such ideological issues.

Although he no longer remembers his experience before being abducted to the United States, he identifies himself as a pure Chinese and a communist because of the teachings he received from the Chinese restaurant owner. Before Mimi's accident, Anton was very supportive of Qi Min's graduation and taking them back to the "real motherland".

"Then you can withdraw the money when the time comes and pay the rent quickly." Qi Min said into the microphone of the headset, "I have to sleep a little longer...and in addition to the rent, you pay back part of the money first, and the rest I’ll think of a solution when the time comes.”

"Repaying the money... Actually, we can just forget about it." Anton lowered his voice and said, "We have all left this damn place. Even if I don't pay back, they can't find me."

Only then did Qi Min remember that Anton, a guy with no fixed assets at all, definitely didn't get a loan from a bank when he scraped together the money for Mimi's medical treatment in Canada. He most likely asked someone to borrow the money privately, and the promised interest rate was probably not low—it was equivalent to some kind of usury. The society at the bottom of the United States is very chaotic, and there are plenty of ways to make money when you need it urgently.

"I'd better find a way to pay it back." Qi Min couldn't help but say, "If nothing else, I might have to go there for a meeting by then. I might only be able to pay back a few hundred yuan more in interest now, but if a year later... …”

"You are really... what is that word called? 'Fearless worries'." Anton commented unhappily, "It's the money I borrowed, and no one will ask for it. And if I can leave here, I will live forever." Won't come back again."

Qi Min couldn't help but wonder how he could grow up so alone, with his style of not paying back the money he owed and always having trouble with others. This may be the attitude of a loser: anyway, you are at the bottom, and there are many people around you who are losers and garbage. When you get along with them, just treat them as NPCs.

"Okay, it's up to you." Qi Min said helplessly, "But when you bring Mimi here, remember to pack your luggage and everything else. Bring everything you need to bring, and we won't miss the two. Money for shipping.”

However, Anton said: "I have sold everything I can." Then he immediately added, "Of course they were all sold at no less than 70% of the original price, and most of them were sold to my former boss. "

"Okay...let's do it..." Qi Min thought that he must have done something to buy and sell by force.

Qi Min knew that Anton had always hated the current owner who took over the restaurant after the previous owner left. It was this guy from Southeast Asia who changed the high-end restaurant that originally served authentic Chinese food into the nondescript fast food restaurant it is now. However, the fast food restaurant is still making more money than before selling those shabby American Chinese food-obviously relying on takeaways such as Anton's. The hard-earned money earned by employees continues to expand the delivery range and has to travel further routes every day.

But he also looks down on current Chinese restaurant owners. In Anton's eyes, the current boss is just a BOURGEOSIE who is full of copper odor and does not understand what real food is. He has no love for his business or work. He only cares about the numbers that represent profits. He is completely a person whose brain has been controlled by capital and has lost himself. If it weren't for someone to pay the rent and someone to support Mimi, Qi Min's salary from studying for a Ph.D. wouldn't be enough, otherwise Anton would have quit working long ago.

Therefore, Qi Min felt that it was entirely possible for Anton to cheat his former boss before they said goodbye, but she would not call the boiled broccoli with a little bit of Korean hot sauce bought in an Asian supermarket "" Chinese food” black-hearted businessman has any sympathy. Not only did he ruin Anton's life ideal of becoming a chef, he also seriously tarnished the image of Chinese food in the local area.

——

After talking to Anton, Qi Min reluctantly slept for another hour. Then I got up, dressed and washed, went to the bank to exchange currency before I transferred the money to Anton, and then bought weekend tickets for him and Mimi.

Qi Min sent the ticket information to Anton from his mailbox, and received a reply in less than half a minute: "Why three days later? Where will we stay during these three days?"

Qi Min replied: "It's convenient for me to pick you up on weekends. You can work it out with the landlord about accommodation."

Anton didn't reply immediately, and Qi Min guessed that he might have Googled the meaning of "accommodating". There is no problem with Anton's spoken Chinese, but it is difficult to speak written Chinese.

After a while, Anton replied: "It doesn't matter if you stay a few more days."

That is, last month's rent has just been paid, and we have already lived here for more than half a month. Of course it doesn't matter if we stay for a few more days. Qi Min looked at her phone and couldn't help but smile. What kind of life was she living in the United States? Being shameless and owing money and rent was something she never dared to think about when she was an undergraduate.

This is actually the so-called class difference. Qi Min belongs to the middle class in China. However, in the United States, due to his low income from studying for a Ph.D., his living standard cannot reach the middle class and he falls into the next class... Different classes have many ways of looking at and dealing with things. Big difference.

Also: This article can be roughly divided into two timelines: [Experimental Progress] and [Plot]. I have been busy with a lot of experimental progress before, but now there will be a few chapters that follow the plot. Readers can take what they need... (Actually, I will write a little about daily life. I feel like it’s a little useless to hint at how terrible biology is, and to allude to reality.)