At this time, the boss realized the arrival of a new customer and proceeded to enthusiastically inquire what he would like to eat.
Chi Yan could only revert his attention from the black car to the menu above the counter. After looking through the menu, he chose the most basic beef hamburger. He pondered and brought fish and chips too.
The hamburger could be kept until night and be reheated in the microwave oven. In this way, even his dinner was settled. At least he would be able to continue delaying the matters of learning how to cook until tomorrow.
For the rest of the day, Chi Yan was lost in his thoughts. He couldn’t help thinking of the strange man he met in the hamburger joint as well as the hand he had caught a glimpse of. He even dreamed of it at night.
He dreamed that the pale hand was caressing his body bit by bit, the sensation was so distinct that he could even feel its palm lines. That hand’s middle finger was wearing something, but he couldn’t see it clearly. Likewise, he didn’t get to see the owner’s appearance clearly. The only thing he was aware of was how his body was getting weak from this provocation, such that he even took the initiative to cross his hands over the other party’s neck and send sweet and alluring kisses to lure the man to kiss himself back… Then he heard himself making a sound, gently calling out to the man…
Chi Yan was beaded with sweat and immediately roused from his dream.
In fact, it wasn’t surprising for him to have this kind of dream at his age, and it also was necessary for him to feel embarrassed. However, the partner in his dream was a man who only showed one of his hands, he even weakly clung to him and called him “husband”… Now, this definitely wasn’t quite right.
At least in the past twenty years, he had been brought up properly and was purged of desire. He had never had such an extravagant but depraving wet dream.
Chi Yan was simply so scared that he wanted to make an overseas call to his parents to lament. Son is unfilial. On his third day of arriving at a capitalist society, he was about to give his virginity to an invisible man of the rotten capitalism in his dream… But he was only thinking about it. He definitely wouldn’t put it into action.
Besides, it was four o’clock in the morning right now, but it was two o’clock in the middle of the night in his home country. If he really dared to call home at this time, his parents would probably be scared to death first. They would then beat him up after knowing that there was nothing serious going on. Even if they weren’t able to catch him now, they would remember the account and wait for him to return.
Chi Yan sat up and wiped the sweat on his forehead. He picked up the empty cup on the table, opened the door, and headed to the kitchen to get some water.
As he passed the mirror in front of the door, he looked and saw what he looked like at this time— his eyes were dazed and slightly teary, there was also a red halo on his face.
“…” Chi Yan closed his eyes tightly and shook his head. He took the cup, pushed open the door and went to the kitchen. His legs were still weak. He secretly spat at himself— that was nothing but a dream, why did he look like he had been doted on? This was too frustrating.
Chi Yan drank two large cups of cold water in the kitchen before he finally calmed down. He put the cup back to the bedroom and went to the bathroom across his room.
This floor had five washrooms and five bathrooms that were located in the middle. Two were for men, two were for women, and the last one was mixed. The layout was basically the same. There would be a sink, a urinal in the washroom but there wasn’t any window, so once the door was locked, it would be a complete private space.
Chi Yan turned the tap on the sink to wash his hands and his face to make himself awake. He still remembered how he looked so weak in the mirror that it was just simply undoable.
The clear water flew out of the metal faucet and into the sink, but it couldn’t follow the flow. Instead, it piled up in the sink as if the water pipe had been blocked by something. At the same time, some liquid began to flow upward from the drain, but it was not the pure and colorless clear water, but silks of thin red liquid that was curling around.
Chi Yan didn’t bother about it at first, because in the past, the water in his school sometimes turned red or yellow due to rust and some other reasons.
But he soon realized that something was wrong— the liquid smelled slightly fishy. It was similar to the smell of blood, but it wasn’t as thick as it was. If he had to say, it was more like blood that had been diluted by water.
More and more red liquids were coming out from the drain, mixing with the clear water in the sink.
Chi Yan dared not stay any longer, he hurriedly closed the tap and ran back to his room. He didn’t make a fuss about it either. As a newcomer, he didn’t want to create any disturbance. Besides, it was in the middle of the night, most people were sleeping. Likewise, he also didn’t know who could he report this incident to.
Each room also had a hand basin for daily cleaning. After hesitating for a while, he tried to turn on the tap of his hand basin.
Clear water flowed out of the pool and discharged smoothly toward the drain at the bottom of the basin.
He breathed a sigh of relief. He couldn’t even judge whether the scene he had witnessed just now was true or was it just an illusion caused by his dizziness from his spring dream.
The time displayed on the mobile phone was 4:30 in the morning. Looking out of the window, the sky in the distance was white. The dormitory building faced the street, so occasional passing vehicles could be seen in front of the window— everything was so peaceful and normal.
Chi Yan threw himself on the bed, turned off the bedside lamp and closed his eyes.
Things should be fine by tomorrow morning.
This time, that hand and the owner did not appear in his dream.
The next day was sunny, and the smell of grass and trees permeated the air. The sun was too warm in the summer, so he had to put on a thick layer of sunscreen, as well as a baseball cap and sunglasses when he went out.
The bathroom he went to last night was the closest to his room, which was just across his room and also the one Chi Yan used the most. When he went back in the morning, he found that the sink had been unclogged.
Everything was normal and no one mentioned anything about it.
Chi Yan couldn’t tell whether the strange sight he saw last night was his illusion or just an ordinary sewer blockage incident— maybe it was just a clumsy schoolmate who clogged the sewer with those bloody fresh beef chunks sold in the supermarket, although this kind of conjecture was also very unlikely.
But some of the raw beef sold in this supermarket without packaging did have a lot of blood. Maybe because it was fresher, it was more suitable to fry beef steak? Chi Yan never bought food or cooked in his home country. He had no experience in this field, so he could only make guesses. Jiang Tian also said that the pork in the supermarkets here was smelled more than that in China. It seemed that the reason was that there was no bloodletting when they were slaughtered.
Chi Yan did not spend too many thoughts on these things and was soon anticipating today’s itinerary.
Sophus was a city built after having conceptual planning. The whole city seemed neat and regulated, but it had a small land area and a few scenic spots that one could go to. Jiang Tian and Chi Yan made an appointment to go out for lunch together before heading to several art museums and other museums that they were interested in. When it was night, they went back and Chi Yan was taught by Jian Tian on how to make some simple meals.
They traveled back and forth by bus. The bus here wouldn’t stop at all stops. When they see that they were reaching their stop, they had to wave in advance, and when they were getting off, they also had to press the bus button to signal the driver. All the buses had seat vacancies regardless of the hour.
Chi Yan sat on the bus and looked at the distant scenery through the window. The sky was so blue and the sun was shining brightly, but few people were seen. There were only green meadows, undulating mountain shapes, and low buildings, most of them were small houses with one or two floors, and apartment buildings with more than ten floors were almost non-existence. There were many vegetations around. On the right side of the road was a large forest surrounded by a green lake, and every hill along the route was like a forest park.
Jiang Tian told him that he might encounter kangaroos if he went for a hike. If he lowered his body, spread out his hands and approached them from the front, they would not run. Instead, they would stand there and let you touch them. They wouldn’t hop away until they were tired of being touched.
When Chi Yan heard this, he was a little moved.
This place wasn’t like a modern city in the 21st century at all, but more in line with an imagination of the rural but poetic life in literary works.
In the evening, under the supervision of Jiang Tian, Chi Yan finally successfully fried his first fried rice with eggs. At last, he was self-sufficient to feed himself. Jiang Tian made braised chicken wings in cola and served them on a plate to share with him— After staying here for so many days, he finally got to eat a decent Chinese dish. Chi Yan was almost closed to crying.
“Braised chicken wings in cola are one of the easiest dishes to make, and it is hard to make it taste bad. Compared with other meat, chicken wings in supermarkets are also cheaper. You can try to make them.”
It clearly sounded very difficult just from the name of the dish. Chi Yan nodded with tears in his eyes.
As the rooms were close to each other, Alex and Emily’s fridge was also located here, so they also used this kitchen frequently.
Chi Yan could often see Alex and his friends together. They were a group of tall and fit young people with mixed genders. Chi Yan also saw them go out in groups in the middle of the night, or take alcohol together to the roof on the fifth floor to drink and chat.
According to Jiang Tian, although such young people weren’t uncommon, there were also many students who were immersed in the laboratory, library, gym, and their life and studies were very standard and progressive.
“But class hasn’t started yet. Two more days and they should be expending a lot of energy on their studies.” Jiang Tian explained.
Emily was often alone, occasionally baking cakes or cookies with her female friends. Today, she made pasta, and Jiang Tian gave her a chicken wing made by himself. She also served two small portions of her food to Chi Yan and Jiang Tian. The supermarket often sold all kinds of spaghetti and macaroni. After buying it, all one needed to do was to cook it and add some sauces and the dish would be done, so it was a common food often made by the students here. For some people, Jiang Tan who often started the fire and flipped the ladle to cook was as magical as him performing magic tricks.
“I used kangaroo meat today.” Emily pointed to her sticky pasta and explained.
Chi Yan hadn’t eaten kangaroo meat, nor had he noticed any of them in the supermarket before. However, his Qin and Han history teacher said that in fact, people in the Qin and Han Dynasties could eat all kinds of animals and plants that could be seen, including those they saw in the water without receiving any interdiction. However, after thousands of years of evolution, the climate and environment of inland areas changed a lot, and the corresponding eating habits also changed tremendously. Gradually, birds, snakes, insects, and other ingredients left the dining table, so did many cooking methods. However, the climate and environment in the southernmost regions, such as Guangdong Province, hadn’t changed for thousands of years, so many food traditions have been preserved, such as eating raw fish, eating snakes, and roasting. It could be said that Lingnan and Guangdong were actually the living fossils of Chinese food traditions.
So as a Chinese descendant, how could he be afraid to eat kangaroo meat?
He put a chopstick into his mouth, then raised his head and politely replied, “Thank you, it’s delicious.”
In fact, he didn’t taste any kangaroo meat. On one hand, it was all the tiny pieces of meat mixed in the noodles. On the other hand, the taste of the pasta was really strange and terrible. It was an indescribable sourness, and Emily actually ate her cooking for two years. Chi Yan couldn’t imagine how they survived. They not only survived but also studied and took exams… It’s admirable.
It was also possible that he and these western students had fundamental differences in the taste composition.
Now he felt that his fried rice was rather delicious.
——————
Two days later, school officially began. Chi Yan was also gradually adapting to the life here.
The kitchen was a good social environment. When cooking, he and his neighbors on the fourth floor gradually got familiar with each other. His cooking skills had also improved. At least he could stir fry shredded potatoes now.
It was on Friday. Alex was making steak while Chi Yan was cutting potatoes. The two chatted about school.
“My steak is ready. Would you like to try it?”
“No, thank you.” After tasting Emily’s pasta, he didn’t dare to try the cooking skills of these neighbors. Besides, Alex was fond of practically uncooked steak, so he really couldn’t challenge that.
He seemed to have brought humiliation to his ancestors from the Qin and Han Dynasties.
Chi Yan was lost in thoughts and accidentally cut his index finger.
The knife was very sharp. Although it was only a small hole, dark red blood still came out instantly.