Brainoid

Qi Min thought Americans were easier at first, but later he discovered that there might be several Yelena differences between Anton and EASY.

Although Anton would ask her out to play, the play was limited to picnics on weekends, and he brought a large basket of prepared food. Qi Min couldn't help but see these kung pao chicken, boiled shrimp slices, fried hairtail, golden sea crabs, shredded apples... and even mustard dumplings, a local dish that many Chinese people consider to be "dark cuisine" It creates a sense of time travel.

Anton saw that she seemed "curious" about the box of mustard, so he asked: "Can you eat mustard?"

"Yes... it shouldn't be too spicy, right?" Qi Min picked up the chopsticks, added a cabbage leaf soaked in mustard, and took a small sip while being prepared to have his taste buds poisoned. He was surprised to find that the taste was... He is right - even quite right.

She swallowed the small mouthful of mustard and looked up to see Anton handing over the cup.

Oh, Coke. At one moment she even thought it was Douzhier.

"Is this a dish from your restaurant? It feels pretty good." Qi Min asked.

"No, I made this myself." Anton explained, "Our restaurant used to be a normal Chinese restaurant. It was only after the original owner transferred the restaurant to a Southeast Asian guy that it became the fast food it is now. of."

"That's such a pity." Qi Min sighed casually.

"Yeah, what a pity." Anton said softly.

Compared with the changes in the Chinese restaurant, Qi Min is still more interested in his craft: "You can cook so many dishes, why don't you become a chef?"

"Where can I be a chef?" Anton said calmly, "There is no real Chinese restaurant in this shabby place."

Objectively speaking, apart from real Chinese people, "real" Chinese restaurants probably don't have much other audience. For example, the tastes of those old Chinese people are actually different from those of today's Chinese people. Moreover, there are not even many old Chinese people in this place.

"Does it have to be in a real Chinese restaurant?" Qi Min couldn't help but ask, "You can also be a chef in a Chinese fast food restaurant."

"Fast food restaurants don't need so many chefs." Anton simply replied.

"Isn't it okay to do something else?" Qi Min then asked. She doesn't understand that a rare beauty like him, even if he is of Asian descent, may not be able to make a living from it - Americans have a lot of spare money, and you can make money even if you become an Internet celebrity.

Unexpectedly, Anton asked this question: "Then why don't you do something else? I heard that graduate students in biology have the lowest salary. Why don't you study CS?"

Wow, that's pretty cool. But at least he made Qi Min understand that just as she was willing to study biology, Anton was also willing to continue working in the Chinese restaurant. What's more, the salary of delivering food is enough to survive, and the United States is not as involution as East Asia.

But Anton, who said these words, realized that something was wrong first and apologized quickly: "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said such things."

"It doesn't matter. It is a fact that the salary of biology graduate students is low." Qi Min said with a smile, "I can't even bear to buy food here. This is the most sumptuous meal I have seen in a month."

Anton's face turned red. He lowered his head and seemed to have finally remembered something. He picked up the rice box and handed it to her: "Is the mustard spicy? Eat some rice."

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Since Anton was the only source of authentic Chinese food she could find at present, Qi Min decided to go to his place for more meals even if he was considered to be thick-skinned. But her face was not abnormally thick-skinned, and she had to share at least half of the cost of the ingredients, so she would ask Anton to go to the Asian supermarket to buy food together from time to time, and then cook in the apartment he rented (looking at him) meal.

But while shopping for groceries, Qi Min watched Anton's shopping cart getting more and more loaded, and still couldn't help feeling aching: "Do you want to buy so much? Asparagus is so expensive. There are already several green vegetables. I don't want to buy this one." OK?"

"Is it expensive?" Anton was a little confused, "Asparagus is more expensive than those vegetables, right?"

"Do you call this 'a little bit'..." Qi Min said half truthfully and half jokingly, "It's only been two weeks this month, and I've already spent more on food than last month. I'm so poor."

"That's so miserable. I'd better buy less." Anton sighed sincerely, but still raised a question, "But the salary of a graduate student shouldn't be that low, right?"

"It's definitely less, but it's not impossible to survive." Qi Min said helplessly, "But the rent is too high, so we can only cut down our living expenses."

The rent is indeed high. As someone who also rents a house, Anton also said with emotion: "The rent is really high, and my main expenses are also on the rent. There is no way, the proletariat will be exploited twice."

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The high rent is objective, but what Anton didn't expect was that Qi Min's high rent was completely different from what he imagined.

He originally thought that Qi Min rented a nearby and large apartment for the convenience of going to school and not wanting to lower his living standard. The rent would indeed be very high. But he didn't expect that when he went to deliver Qi Minla's documents to his house at night, he saw that the apartment she rented was also in a shabby old community. Not only was it small, but it also looked like it was decades old. .

"You just...live here?" Anton looked around at the messy and crowded scene and couldn't help but sigh.

"Yes." Qi Min was a little embarrassed. With her strict living habits, she couldn't bear to look at her in the apartment where she lived alone, but she still had to argue with reason, "The space is too small, so this is the only way."

"It's not close to your school, right? Why can't you rent a bigger one?" Anton asked in surprise.

"The salary is not enough." Qi Min's reason is also very simple.

Only then did Anton really realize how low the salary of graduate students was—or, more accurately, only in those other majors, the salaries of graduate students were particularly low.

For others, studying for a doctoral degree can be a career, but in some majors, studying for a doctoral degree can only make a living. Basic research, this in itself is the so-called "power generation with love".

"But the space is already very small, so we can't just put things there casually. Here..." Anton felt hard to say, but couldn't help but say, "It looks like a doghouse."

"Ah, my colleague Yelena said the same." Qi Min responded with a smile.

"She's so right." Anton looked at the pile of clutter on the sofa and shook his head helplessly.

What he didn't know was that these words would be his only recognition of Qi Min's friend Yelena in the past six years.