Chapter 229 Debate
The landlady arrived in time, and Eric was not in any serious trouble after escaping danger.
Perhaps the experience between life and death made him think a lot, and people began to come in and out of his long-sealed laboratory.
Although Zhang Wei still had no interaction with Eric, he helped Zhang Wei to get things from the laboratory several times. Of course, he did not take them to himself, but sent them directly to Zhang Wei's laboratory.
Zhang Wei didn't say anything. She knew that this was Eric's way of expressing his apology. She didn't plan to have any more interactions with him, so she just let him go.
But Professor Laura was obviously in a much better mood. When Zhang Wei informed her that she would stay in China for a while, Professor Laura readily agreed and told her to have fun and not to rush back.
Paris did not go with her as he had some things to deal with, so he would go two days later. It just so happened that Zhang Wei was not free in the previous few days. The meeting was held in a university, so they stayed in a place arranged by the organizing committee for the previous few days, including food and accommodation.
After getting on the plane, Zhang Wei saw familiar faces again. However, when she communicated with the flight attendant in Chinese, the flight attendant's service attitude was not as enthusiastic as when she and her seniors communicated in English.
She knew that things would not go as smoothly as she imagined, and it turned out that she was being treated differently.
This did not dampen Zhang Wei's enthusiasm for returning to China. What was important was that she set foot on Chinese soil again, not on these irrelevant people and things.
The organizing committee arranged for them to be picked up at the airport by two college students. Along the way, the two students were reciting a Hong Kong tourism introduction in English, and everyone was obviously not interested.
Professor Laura then chatted with Zhang Wei:
"Vera, have you been here before?"
Zhang Wei shook his head: "No, I just heard of it."
"Although you say you are Chinese, you have never been to China?"
"Not really. I left China when I was about six years old and lived in New York City. I still have a deep impression of China."
“Is this place like your hometown?”
Zhang Wei looked at the narrow, winding city roads and the densely packed buildings on both sides of the roads, shook his head and said:
"Apart from the people being the same, the city layout is very different. It's more crowded here, while the city I remember as home was more spacious and tidier."
Zhang Wei couldn't help but think of Jiangcheng where she used to live. It was a city that combined classical architecture with modern facilities and was clean and tidy.
However, it was clear that Zhang Wei's words had displeased the two local university students. One of the female students interrupted rudely:
"I don't know which village in mainland China you're from. How can a cosmopolitan city like Hong Kong be inferior to a little, unheard-of place in mainland China?"
Zhang Wei didn't want to argue with the Chinese in front of outsiders. She saw the boy trying to stop the girl, but the girl still looked at Zhang Wei unconvinced.
Zhang Wei then spoke in Chinese, "First, as a receptionist assigned by the organizer, you interrupted without being invited. This is extremely unprofessional. Secondly, you haven't been to the place I mentioned, so how can you casually comment on it as a little-known place you've never heard of?"
"I think I have the freedom to express my own opinions without being criticized or blamed by irrelevant people."
Unexpectedly, this girl was even more shameless than Zhang Wei had imagined. She directly said in English provocatively:
"Sorry, I don't understand. I only understand English."
Zhang Wei was so angry that she laughed. It was obvious that she could understand everything, but she could only use simple grammar in English, and she was still pretending.
Professor Laura frowned when she saw that the reception was not friendly and shouted:
"Vera, what's wrong?"
"It's okay, Professor. I have a different opinion from the receptionist, so I want to refute her."
After Zhang Wei finished speaking to the professor, he turned to the girl and said in English:
"The saddest thing about people is that they don't recognize their own situation. They stand on their own land but refuse to acknowledge where they came from. If you have any backbone, you should immigrate quickly and get the nationality you want on your passport, instead of telling lies that you can't even convince yourself of."
"I really don't understand. A son doesn't think his mother is ugly. You are so hypocritical!"
The always straightforward senior immediately spoke after hearing Zhang Wei's words.
Zhang Wei didn't even look at the girl again, and immediately gave everyone a brief introduction to Hong Kong's history as a colonizer and the events and time of its return.
When everyone showed an expression of realization, they looked at the girl with sympathy, as if they were looking at an ignorant child.
The girl didn't dare to say anything after receiving the boy's stern warning, but her expression was still very unconvinced.
Zhang Wei, however, leisurely introduced to everyone the names of some shops they passed by, some of which sold food and some sold daily necessities. Everyone listened with great interest and was not affected by what had just happened.
The car drove into the school, and they had to report to the organizing committee first. The girls received a bunch of access tags and were looking through them, but it seemed they couldn't find what they were looking for, so they had to distribute the access tags to them according to their names together with the boys.
Zhang Wei was the last to be called out: "Where is Dr. Wilson?"
"It's me," Zhang Wei raised his hand.
The girl handed the access card to Zhang Wei with an ugly expression, but couldn't help saying:
"You are not Chinese at all! Why are you targeting me?"
“No, I’m Chinese!”
"Your last name—"
"I have Chinese blood flowing in my body. I am Chinese. It has nothing to do with where I am from or what my last name is."
Then when she was helping Zhang Wei check in, she saw Zhang Wei took out the passport of Country A, and her face became numb. This probably became an unsolved problem for her during this period of time. With her thinking, she could not understand the simple patriotic enthusiasm of a Chinese.
In the next few days, Zhang Wei and her team changed their receptionist. The boy was still there, but he was replaced by another girl who was very polite and courteous, and could switch between Chinese and English fluently.
Zhang Wei doesn't like to complain, and when faced with a conflict, she always confronts it directly and doesn't like to do things in a roundabout way.
It might have something to do with what Professor Laura said to her friends when she was chatting, that the reception staff here were a bit impolite, or maybe she herself felt it was really embarrassing to see Zhang Wei.
In addition, this meeting was quite successful because there were many experts participating. Zhang Wei also learned about other new research ideas of other experts and gained a lot.
Just as the meeting was drawing to a close, Paris finally arrived.
Professor Laura readily let her go out to pick someone up, and asked Zhang Wei to have a good "date". Zhang Wei felt helpless in the face of the professor's teasing. She and Paris were considered to be the closest friends, and a gathering of old friends could not be considered a date.
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