1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 358: Really learning a foreign language?
Jiang Xian woke up in the morning feeling groggy. Looking at the artificial fiber ceiling and chemical fiber carpet, he felt nauseous and a little uncomfortable.

The work of revising the text is very difficult.

Although the core of the story is there.

But there are many details to consider in Jiang Xian's Chinese version of "Life of Pi".

"Jiang Xian, go buy some stamps." Wang Anyi knocked on the door and greeted him.

"coming."

He quickly dressed and went out with Wang Anyi.

"Your mother isn't going?"

"I'll just tell her I'm going." Wang Anyi frowned and said, "I don't need her to follow me. It will be troublesome then."

"."

Jiang Xian was too lazy to mediate the conflict between mother and daughter.

He followed Wang Anyi on the University of Iowa bus to the city center.

There weren't many people at the post office, but there was a queue, with two people at the back.

From time to time, a car drove by. It was a small station wagon with a small compartment behind the driver's seat. The door was open and male and female students were lying in all directions inside, with their long white legs hanging outside the compartment.

Jiang Xian noticed the look in Wang Anyi's eyes and did not hide his gaze towards the car. He said seriously:

"Today is Friday, the weekend, and the students are all driving out for an outing."

After leaving the post office, they strolled around the city center for a while before taking a taxi back. As soon as they got off the car, they heard a shout.

"Wang! Jiang!"

A white man with curly hair ran over enthusiastically.

Jiang Xian had an impression of him. His name was Edwin, and he was the manager of the "writing project".

He drove to the airport to pick them up. As soon as he saw Wang Anyi, he enthusiastically wanted to give her a kiss, which scared Wang Anyi so much that he hid far away.

Of course, this is a cultural difference in etiquette.

Edwin is a very enthusiastic and passionate person. Jiang Xian and Wang Anyi both have a very good impression of him.

"There's a party for all the writers tonight," said Edwin.

"Why is there another party?" Wang Anyi wondered.

"Americans are like this. They have an inexplicable feeling for parties and never get tired of having them every day," Jiang Xian explained.

The location was still Nie Hualing's home, and many people came, filling up the living room and balcony.

Phil, the writer of the Israel X series, continued to display his Jewish trait of being a loner, chattering on and on about topics that no one else was interested in at all.

Jiang Xian sat on the sofa, thinking about when to leave. He was still in a hurry to write the manuscript.

"Jiang, why are you sitting here so quietly?"

At this time, a blonde woman who could be described as "curvy" sat down next to him, holding a wine glass in her hand, with a blurry look and a hint of ambiguity in her eyes.

"."

Jiang Xian quickly recalled what Chen Ruoxi had told him a few days ago: "Recently, a nasty sexually transmitted disease has appeared among Tongxing Lian."

Oh, you must be careful!

"Beverly."

Jiang Xian called her name, "We Chinese are not used to this kind of scene."

"Really? I think it's just you. Don't you think Wang has integrated well?"

Jiang Xian followed Beverly's gaze.

Sure enough, Wang Anyi was dancing with great enthusiasm at this moment.

"How old are you?" Beverly asked.

Fortunately, the question was asked in English, otherwise Jiang Xian would probably think that this girl was teasing him.

"It's not polite to ask about age," he replied.

"Haha."

Beverly smiled and apologized to Jiang Xian, "I'm sorry, I just rarely see a young face like yours. You know, last year you Chinese sent Mr. Wang Meng."

"You know him?"

"We often write letters."

Beverly blinked and put her finger on her lips. "He asked me in the letter to look after you for him. I saw you sitting here alone. You need someone to take care of you."

"."

Jiang Xian thanked Wang Meng in his heart.

He changed the subject, "Are you two friends?"

"No."

Beverly gave Jiang Xian a mysterious smile.

Jiang Xian swallowed his saliva.

Hiss.

Teacher Wang, ah, Teacher Wang.

You wouldn't make this kind of mistake in the United States, would you?

"I'm his English teacher and he learns English from me." Beverly paused and then explained.

"I see."

Jiang Xian suddenly realized, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel suspicious.

Learn English?
Is the English you are learning serious?
Just as he was about to ask a few gossipy questions, Beverly asked before him:

"Jiang, do you want to know how the two of us learned English?"

".Can I not know?"

Jiang Xian was really afraid that if he knew too much, he would be silenced by Teacher Wang. After all, Teacher Wang was now his leader and superior.

"Haha."

Beverly laughed, her body shaking. "Don't get me wrong, Wang and I usually study English for two hours and then drink for two hours."

"."

Jiang Xian thought, Wang Meng is such a romantic person, doing this kind of thing is indeed his style.

The annoying Phil was already drunk at this time, saying annoying things everywhere. Looking at Beverly and Jiang Xian, he walked over here.

"Hey, Jiang!"

"Fei'er, you should sit over there." Jiang Xian said.

"why?"

"I want you to stay away from me when you throw up."

"Haha."

Beverly laughed.

Fei'er put down her glass drunkenly, "I'm not going anywhere. If anyone should leave, it should be you Chinese writers. You have no right to be here."

"Wow."

Beverly looked at Jiang Xian with a playful look on her face and handed him her wine glass. "Jiang, you can pour the wine in the glass on his face. I will pretend that I didn't see it, and this idiot won't remember it either."

Jiang Xian shrugged. "Who cares what a drunkard says? I'm not the first person he has said tonight that I'm not qualified to participate in the writing project."

"ST."

Fei'er drunkenly said a name at this time, "String, this Chinese writer is the one who is truly qualified to come to the United States."

"Who is String?" Beverly asked the white women next to her in confusion.

Someone soon remembered.

"He is the author of Letter from an Unknown Woman and The Moon and Sixpence. He is very mysterious. We only know that he is a Chinese writer."

"Letter from an Unknown Woman? That novel is so famous."

"Yes, I remember that this novel topped the list of the New York Times' top ten most popular novels in the United States for more than three months."

"At that time, I thought this novel could win the Pulitzer Prize, but I didn't expect it to be written by a Chinese."

"." There was constant discussion all around.

Fei'er said to herself with an intoxicated look on her face:

“No one knows how to portray women better than String. His words are like a hand gently touching my heart, perfectly controlling my every emotion.

None of you deserve to be here, only he, String, the best writer in China deserves to be here."

"."

Jiang Xian sat there without saying a word.

Look at Fei'er stretching out her arms and worshiping the air.

He had planned to sneak out from some corner and give Fei'er a meal of dragon fruit or something while she was drunk.

I didn't expect this guy to have such a strong desire to survive.

Although it was an unexpected result.

"Jiang, do you know the ST he mentioned? Is he a very famous writer in your country?" Beverly asked Jiang Xian curiously.

"Okay."

Jiang Xian answered vaguely.

He couldn't tell Beverly that the string she was curious about was Jiang himself.

When we returned to the apartment, all the children in the family had already gone to bed.

Jiang Xian tiptoed to the toilet, then went into the studio, turned on the desk lamp, filled his pen with ink, and continued writing.

In the original book, there is a zoo in Pi's home. The animals in the zoo and the protagonist's interaction with the animals are a core element of the story.

If Jiang Xian wants to make changes, the part about animals and zoos cannot be deleted.

It is said that the capital city has had a zoo for a long time.

In 1904, a German circus came to Beijing to continue its animal performances. After watching the performance, Empress Dowager Cixi became very interested in these rare animals, so she ordered that a zoo should be built in Beijing and named "Wanshengyuan".

This "Ten Thousand Animals Garden" was planned to be built in 1906. Later, when the "Five Ministers went abroad" for inspection, Minister Duan Fang bought a batch of rare animals from Germany, totaling about 59 cages, in order to please the Empress Dowager.

Well, it cost 3 taels of silver.

After these animals were transported to the capital, they were all placed in the "Wansheng Garden".

Later, the Qing Dynasty was overthrown, and the "Wanshengyuan" was opened to the public. Of course, an entrance fee was required, which was eight copper coins, and half the price for children.

This is the earliest zoo in China and the predecessor of the current Beijing Zoo.

A few days passed in a flash, and Jiang Xian basically stayed in the studio writing.

During this period, Beverly visited him several times. When she heard that Jiang Xian was working, she felt embarrassed to disturb him, so she gave them some homemade sausages.

"Jiang Xian, Jiang Xian!"

That day, Nie Hualing found Jiang Xian in his "Mayflower" apartment.

"Ms. Nie, why are you here?"

The whole family was quite surprised and surprised by Nie Hualing's arrival.

"Have you eaten? I have made some porridge, fermented bean curd and Beijing winter vegetables." Rao Yuemei greeted.

They are still more accustomed to Chinese food. Zhu Lin has recently been particularly fond of spicy food. In order to cater to Zhu Lin's appetite, I have been cooking Chinese food at home using American ingredients every day.

"Oh, it's really sweet and delicious." Nie Hualing took a bite and was quite pleasantly surprised.

"Ms. Nie, what's wrong?" Jiang Xian walked out from behind the cabinet and asked.

"It's what you asked me to do before." Nie Hualing said.

Jiang Xian immediately realized that it was the house that he had asked Nie Hualing to inquire about before, and now it was found.

"Please sit down and talk slowly."

"Here's the thing."

Nie Hualing took a sip of water and then told Jiang Xian that the International Writing Program had two staff members, who were international students who came to the United States from Taiwan and Hong Kong in the early 70s. One was named Lu Jiaxing and the other was named Tan Jia.

Now Lu Jiaxing works as a clerk in a university, while Tan Jia gave up pursuing a doctorate degree for the sake of her children and family.

"This is a typical Chinese woman. She is usually gentle and polite, and speaks in a low voice. We all praise her for being virtuous and gentle," said Nie Hualing.

Jiang Xian also had an impression of these two people. It was indeed as Nie Hualing said, they were a very nice couple.

"Is the house you found for me theirs?"

"Correct."

Nie Hualing nodded and said that Lu Jiaxing and his wife had now gotten rid of their working situation and bought a house.

When I bought it, it was worth about 50,000 or 60,000 yuan.

Not long ago, they asked someone to estimate it, and it is now worth 150,000 or 160,000 yuan, which has tripled.

All the women in the family were surprised when they heard this.

“Oh my, house prices in the United States are rising so fast?”

“It’s so much more expensive than before. Can Americans afford housing?”

"Those who didn't buy a house in the past few years must be regretting it to death."

Rao Yuemei also proposed an idea, "If you have money, you can buy a few houses in the United States and wait for them to appreciate in value, which is much better than keeping the money in the bank."

"."

Jiang Xian covered his head.

Flipping houses in the United States?

What’s the difference between this and digging a trainload of coal from Heilongjiang and selling it in Datong, Shanxi?
"Mr. Lu Jiaxing said that if you want to rent it, that's fine. You can rent it out first."

"Shall we go over and take a look at the house?" Jiang Xian said.

"Okay."

Nie Hualing called Lu Jiaxing, and the group set out from the "Mayflower" Apartment and stopped in front of a villa on the hillside behind the apartment.

"Ms. Nie Hualing, Mr. Jiang Xian!"

Lu Jiaxing greeted him from a distance.

"Please come in, please come in."

Under the guidance of Lu Jiaxing, Jiang Xian looked around the house. It had a yard, a large living room, two bedrooms, a swimming pool, and a large storage room.

"I just expanded this storage room recently," said Lu Jiaxing.

His purpose of expansion was naturally to sell the house.

"Why do you want to sell it?" Jiang Xian asked.

"I want to sell it and go back to take a look," said Lu Jiaxing.

He is from Shandong. He studied computer science in college, but he is interested in literature as a hobby. He once wrote a poem called "Iceland":
"When people ask me what Iceland is like, I always say that it is like the moon, as desolate as the moon, with cold hills everywhere and surrounded by an ocean that never warms up all year round."

The last stanza is ".I can't leave here, Iceland is my home."

After Lu Jiaxing finished his passionate recitation, he finally explained that although he was writing about Iceland, his emotions were actually connected to Shandong.

"How much do you plan to rent it to us?" Jiang Xian asked.

When renting a house in the United States, there is a "fair market rent" standard set by the government.

Ever since Reagan came to power, the United States has begun to actively address the housing problem of low-income families.

Reagan specifically revised the terms to raise the rent standards that tenants had to pay while lowering the government's "fair market rent" standard.

"One thousand five hundred US dollars." Lu Jiaxing gave a number.

"It's too expensive." Jiang Xian said.

At present, the monthly income of an American is about 2000 US dollars, and 1500 US dollars is basically two-thirds of an American's salary.

"This price is already in line with market standards." Lu Jiaxing said awkwardly.

"OK then."

Jiang Xian nodded, not dwelling on the price.

Just when everyone thought the price had been agreed upon, Jiang Xian suddenly said:
"What if I buy it?"

"How much do you want to sell this house for?"

(End of this chapter)