【24】There are always people offering her an olive branch with a clear price tag
Sunrise seemed to happen in a flash, unlike sunset, which has a long sunset before it and a lingering afterglow after it. As the crimson sun crested the horizon, the sky quickly filled with light, and daylight suddenly arrived. Liang Zhiyao found herself never quite gazing at Tan Xu. She usually made eye contact with people, especially after studying abroad, where direct eye contact had become a tacit courtesy, something everyone preferred. But they were always talking about something, and she found it difficult to focus on the act of looking. So, while their eyes were aligned, they weren't focused. But now, it was different. Neither of them was talking, so she could focus her full attention on their gaze. She noticed that Tan Xu had long, slightly curved, peach-shaped eyes, which might explain his often indifferent and aggressive gaze. But now, the lake in his eyes was remarkably calm, without any sense of flowing beauty, but rather a sense of paradoxical stillness. Looking into his eyes, she felt a sense of peace within herself. The prolonged, almost polite, stare-down was interrupted by a rustling sound. They both turned to see a squirrel, a common sight in rural America. It had likely strayed into the backyard by mistake, but within seconds, realizing it had trespassed, it leaped out, its movements adorably halting, like a frame-dropping video animation. "Want to go back?" she suddenly said, cup in hand, standing up. "It's too cold outside." Tan Xu glanced at her and also picked up the coffee pot: "Okay." Compared to Friday, when they hurriedly checked in on the highway before rushing back to their online classes, Saturday's schedule was much more relaxed. They drove to the trailhead of a popular hiking trail, which looped through the mountains and forests for over a dozen miles, reaching a different viewpoint at the end before returning. The route, once again surrounded by colorful maple trees, offered no sign of boredom. There was only one awkward moment—neither Cheng Yan nor Liu Siyan were particularly shy, and since they were in the thick of their love, surrounded by beautiful scenery, it felt like their passive ability to embrace and kiss could be triggered at any moment. Last night's "interrogation" of their ex was probably just some kind of fun, but today they were so intimate, oblivious to the world around them. This made Liang Zhiyao feel like a low-health soldier timidly avoiding a boss on the map. He didn't know whether to ignore it or politely avoid it.
Sunrise seems to be just a matter of a moment, unlike sunset which has a long sunset as a prelude and the afterglow of the evening glow as a suffix. After the red sun climbs over the horizon, the sky light quickly covers the surroundings and it is daytime in an instant.
Liang Zhiyao found that she seemed to have never looked at Tan Xu carefully - she usually did not avoid eye contact when talking to people, especially after going abroad to study, looking directly into the eyes had changed from a communication habit with different preferences to a default courtesy that had to be followed.
But every time they were talking about something, and it was actually difficult for her to concentrate on the action of "looking" while they were talking, so although her eyes were in the same place, they were not focused.
But now it was different. No one was talking, so she could focus all her attention on her gaze. She found that Tan Xu had a pair of long, slightly curved peach blossom eyes, which might be why he always looked careless and his eyes were aggressive.
But at this moment, the lake in his eyes was very calm, without any sense of graceful flow, but rather a kind of calmness full of contradictions. When looking into his eyes, my heart seemed to feel calm too.
This eye contact, which lasted a bit beyond the scope of politeness, was interrupted by a rustling sound. They turned their heads at the same time and found that it was a squirrel that can be seen everywhere in American towns.
It must have accidentally entered the backyard of this house. After a few seconds, it realized that it had entered someone else's territory and jumped out quickly. Its escape movement was like a video animation with dropped frames, which was a bit cute.
"Do you want to go back?" She suddenly stood up with the cup in her hand. "It's too cold outside."
Tan Xu glanced at her and picked up the coffee pot: "Okay."
Compared to Friday's hurried highway check-in before rushing back to their online classes, Saturday's schedule was much more relaxed. They drove to the trailhead of a popular hiking trail, which looped through the mountains and forests for over a dozen miles, reaching a viewpoint at the end before returning. The trail was again surrounded by colorful maple trees, making it a pleasant experience.
There was only one thing that was quite embarrassing - since neither Cheng Yan nor Liu Siyan were shy people, and they were in the midst of a passionate love affair and surrounded by beautiful scenery, it seemed as if their passive skills of hugging and kissing would be triggered at any time.
Last night's "interrogation" of his ex was probably just some kind of fun, and today they were so close that they acted as if no one was around, making Liang Zhiyao feel like a low-health soldier trembling in fear as he dodged a boss on the map. He didn't know whether to turn a blind eye or politely avoid it.
Once, when she was looking for a shooting angle, she saw this couple walk right into the frame. In the picture magnified several times, their kiss had the texture of an idol drama - the kind that could only be broadcast when the environment was relaxed more than ten years ago, and it was quite explicit. She was so shocked that the camera almost slipped from her hands.
Tan Xu witnessed the whole process from behind her and chuckled: "If I were you, I would just press the shutter and take a picture. As long as you are not embarrassed by this kind of thing, others will be embarrassed."
She condemned this gloating behavior: "I finally understand why you insisted on dragging another person into this."
"You can't stand this?" he said calmly. "Actually, they're pretty good. At least we didn't hear any strange noises last night. I moved out to live alone because I had an American roommate who brought girls home every week. And the wooden house had poor sound insulation...that was unbearable."
He spoke bluntly, his words were full of sarcasm, and his expression was casual and unconcerned. He was completely different from the Tan Xu who had talked to her about the origin of his name in the morning.
After walking for almost two hours, they encountered a European backpacker on a long-term camping trip in the mountains. He had been living in a tent for two weeks, spending his days reading in the morning and sketching with his drawing board in the afternoon. After a brief conversation in English, he volunteered to take a group photo for the four of them. He then traded his compressed biscuits for a bag of puffed food, thanking them profusely and saying he hadn't tasted snacks in a long time.
This reminded Liang Zhiyao of a trip she and Ye Xin had taken together to another city last year. Similarly, in the remote mountains, they found an elderly American man living with his two cats in an abandoned Boeing 727. He was a humble, humorous, white-haired man with a slender build, unusual for an American.
It was a hidden guide she accidentally found on the Internet - just walk along the path beside the road for 20 minutes to find the plane, and knock on the cabin door in the afternoon, the old man will come out of his "home" and take the tourists who enter this place on a wonderful room tour like a museum guide, and even let them get into the cockpit of the plane to take pictures.
For a moment, she felt that this might be the meaning of traveling: once you discover that there are so many unexpected lifestyles in the world, you will suddenly feel that the daily trivialities you were entangled with before are no longer so important, and there is no need to be so anxious and troubled.
Just thinking it is one thing, but being able to do it is another.
Traveling is a short escape from life. After it ends, you have to return to the original reality, which will inevitably cause withdrawal reactions and make people more depressed.
More starkly, escaping reality isn't free; it requires money. On the way, she asked Liu Siyan about the price of her Airbnb, added the gas cost, and calculated the total, then transferred the money to Tan Xu's bank account.
But he quickly forwarded it back, and I received a question mark on WeChat.
"Why not? Road Trip money," she typed.
But he replied: "Pick someone up at the last minute is not the same as making an appointment in advance, so your share will be on me."
"Let's put it one way or the other." She turned again.
He ignored her and transferred the money back once again, saying forcefully and concisely: "I'll owe you the money for now."
She didn't know how to reply.
A few more messages popped up on WeChat. It was a group chat. Liang Zhiyao was stunned after seeing it.
It was a group chat with four people called "No Bug Duck." While she didn't have close friends in the computer science department like Ye Xin did, she did have a few familiar Chinese classmates. These three had collaborated on a group project in a freshman major course. The WeChat group had continued after the course ended, and they'd occasionally meet for dinner or share rides to the supermarket.
In addition to her, there were two boys and one girl in the group. The three of them had a good relationship with Lin Jiayue. Since the beginning of this semester, as rumors gradually fermented, the group suddenly became silent for a long time, and no one spoke anymore.
For that human-computer interaction group assignment, the three of them formed a team right away, subtly excluding Liang Zhiyao, which led to her subsequent teaming up with Tan Xu and Jeffrey.
At this time, the group chat became active again. Several people were talking about another machine learning course that required them to do a group assignment of four people. They all expressed their trust in each other's abilities and reliability and expressed their willingness to work together.
Liang Zhiyao hesitated for a moment, but still sent an OK emoticon in the group.
After sending the message, the girl quickly sent her a private message in a small window.
Grace: "Zhiyao, I'm sorry. I want to apologize to you. Everyone thought the rumors were true before, and they were close to Jiayue. It was only after that submission and the follow-up last week that we learned the truth. We are all reflecting on it! I hope you won't be angry."
Liang Zhiyao: "It's okay, good luck on the group assignment."
She originally thought that she would have some temper - for example, secretly resentful in her heart, they had worked together before, and knew her way around things, so why didn't she trust her at that time.
Surprisingly, she didn't. She felt very calm, even more understanding and forgiving than she felt wronged. Perhaps the series of unexpected events had indeed made her heart stronger than before, akin to desensitization therapy.
Compared to this, the biggest problem that is currently bothering her still has no progress.
They returned as planned on Saturday night. The good news was that the energy company completed the emergency repairs ahead of schedule and power supply was restored to the entire city before it was delayed until Sunday.
The bad news is that after everything returned to normal, Liang Zhiyao still did not receive any updates on his job search.
At the end of get off work on Monday, there were neither internship interview invitations nor other part-time opportunities sent by the Student Center in my mailbox. After refreshing it repeatedly, there was still silence.
Although she knew that Americans were inefficient, she would be lying if she said she didn't feel anxious and frustrated. All these negative emotions suddenly erupted and reached their peak when she received a text message reminding her to pay her rent.
She had a video call with her parents and felt that they looked much older in the video than the last time they met.
Because she was doing a summer internship this summer and also had to save the high cost of airfare, the last time she returned to China was last Christmas. Roughly speaking, it has been almost ten months.
Perhaps material conditions truly nourish people. Since losing the security of savings and a stable income, her parents seem to have experienced a dramatic aging process. They went from being frequently praised for their youthfulness to being noticeably older in just a few months. The camera magnified this change, making her feel even more powerless.
After hanging up the phone, Liang Zhiyao found a friend request from a stranger popped up on WeChat.
There are about 100 to 200 Chinese students in each undergraduate class at their school, most of whom are in a large group of 500 people. This friend request was added from the group, with the message attached: "Hello, senior, I'm William, a freshman in CS."
Occasionally, junior students from the same major would add seniors to the group chat to ask about course selection and internships, so Liang Zhiyao accepted the friend request without much hesitation. However, he did not expect that after the addition was successful, the other party would actually call him directly.
Caught off guard, she wanted to hang up but hurriedly clicked answer and the call was connected.
"Hello, senior sister. I'm sorry for calling you so presumptuously," a young male voice came from the phone. "It's just that it's really not convenient to communicate by typing..."
He paused, looking a little embarrassed. Liang Zhiyao asked, puzzled, "Who are you? We don't seem to know each other."
"I just enrolled in September. I've only met you at the Computer Science Department's welcome party, and we didn't talk much back then." His tone seemed a little awkward. "But I heard you have excellent grades, and your GPA is always in the top 2% of your major. I really admire you, so I wanted to get to know you—"
Liang Zhiyao was even more confused. If she hadn't just clicked on this person's WeChat profile picture and confirmed that she did have some impression of this face, she would have suspected that this was some new type of pig-killing scam.
After all, whether the other party wants to chat up or ask about academic issues, making a voice call without any prior context seems too abrupt.
"If you don't have anything specific to say, I'm hanging up."
"No, no, no, sorry, I got a little off topic," William said in a flustered voice. "Actually... Mid-term is only a week away. Senior, are you interested in a part-time job to earn some extra money?"
"……What's the meaning?"
"I didn't expect the CS courses at our school to be so hardcore. It's a bit difficult to learn, especially the two courses that require coding exams. I'm really worried about failing the midterm..." He paused for a moment. "But fortunately, many exams are conducted online. Although there are window monitoring, as long as I submit the code within the specified time, it's fine, so..."
"You don't want to find someone to take the exam for you, do you?" Liang Zhiyao asked directly.
"Uh, no... Of course you could say that," the other person replied incoherently. "I know you have good grades and often serve as a teaching assistant. These exams should be easy for you. Of course, I will make sure to provide adequate compensation. Mid-term is $1,000, and final can be calculated as $1,500."
When talking about the amount, he paused for a few seconds: "These are the market prices I roughly understand. If you are not satisfied, we can discuss it again."
Liang Zhiyao didn't say anything, and there was an awkward silence in the voice connection for several seconds.
Seeing she didn't respond, William added more eagerly, "If...if we can cooperate long-term, we can actually negotiate the total price by semester. Besides exams, I basically have several coding assignments to hand in every month, which is also quite a headache..."
"Why are you looking for me? Just because I have good grades?" she interrupted.
"Well..." The person on the other end of the phone was a little embarrassed, as if he didn't know how to put it. "I heard that you're short of money recently. If you agree, I can pay you your salary for each semester in advance."
After hearing this, Liang Zhiyao was finally enlightened.
It turned out that she had never been able to escape this vicious circle - when they met by chance in the billiard hall, Tan Xu wanted to pay her to be a sparring partner; when she was working in the coffee shop, Lin Jiayue also wanted to "reward" her with tips; until now, there are actually people who are willing to pay a high price to hire her as a ghostwriter.
I don't know whether I should jokingly lament that my market is so good, and there are always people offering her olive branches with clearly marked prices in various ways?
After the events of the previous week, Liang Zhiyao suddenly realized that, aside from her closest friends and family, most people probably didn't care what had caused her such a predicament. Regardless of the outrageous rumor, what everyone was really talking about was perhaps the sudden drop from great heights to the bottom, like watching a soap opera or listening to gossip: the ups and downs were what made it interesting.
What's more, some people may even have a sudden inspiration while watching the fun and discover the value of gossip to themselves - such as the junior student on the phone at this moment.
She had long known that gray industries such as substitute teaching and taking exams for others were emerging one after another in the international student community, especially in hard-core majors like computer science. Occasionally, some playboys who didn't care much about studying would follow the trend and apply for popular programs, but found that they were likely to fail the courses and not be able to graduate, so they cleverly used the large living expenses given by their parents to "invest in GPA."
Even their large group of 500 international students would occasionally have a strange account sneak in and fill the screen with advertisements for substitute classes, exams, and essay writing, making it difficult to guard against them.
However, most people are reluctant to seek help from seniors at the same school. After all, if caught, they will be charged with academic misconduct and may even be expelled. Most students who can attend a four-year private university in the United States come from wealthy families and are unlikely to take such a risk for a few thousand dollars.
Therefore, in most cases, these people can only find a random gunman in the market. Although they are worried about the uneven quality, there is no better way.
She thought sarcastically that being able to align the supply and demand of the two people to such a granular level at a time like this showed that this junior named William had an exceptionally sharp vision.
"Senior...are you still listening?" the other party asked cautiously, "Are you interested?"
Author's Note
Reversible light path
author
07-21
After entering v, I will still update every Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday. If a chapter has few words, I will add more as appropriate.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
