America: I came here to study, not to show mercy.

Chapter 277 Indian Characteristics
It's not Sophie.

Li Xiaoen suddenly snapped out of his daze, looked down at the girl's long black hair in his arms, and the last bit of fantasy in his heart was shattered.

His heart started pounding, and when he heard the other person make a few indistinct groans, his whole body froze, and he quickly closed his eyes.

Lying on her side, she felt a warm, broad chest against her back, and a reassuring scent filled her nostrils. Amelia let out a few soft moans of comfort before slowly opening her eyes, her hazy consciousness gradually returning.

"..."

Suddenly sitting up in bed, Amelia opened her eyes wide and stared in surprise at the chest of Lee Shawn, who had been under her pillow. A blush quickly rose on her fair cheeks, and she hurriedly scrambled to get off the bed.

The ground beneath her feet felt soft and fluffy. Looking down, she realized it was the blanket she had covered herself with the night before. She quickly bent down, picked it up, and tossed it to the sofa by the bay window.

Then, she ran into the washroom in a few quick steps.

Li Xiaoen only opened his eyes when he heard the sound of running water coming from inside. He stared blankly at the ceiling above him, his mind completely blank.

I slept well last night, and we each had our own blanket, so how did we end up hugging each other?
Based on past experience, he shouldn't make a fuss when he's asleep, otherwise the fact that he's been used as a sleeping mat for soufflé wouldn't hold true.

Could it be that Amelia took the initiative?

As this thought flashed through his mind, Li Xiaoen's expression turned strange, and he shook his head repeatedly.

He intended to continue pretending to be asleep, closing his eyes and dozing off for a long time, but Amelia didn't come out of the bathroom. So, Sean Lee got up, changed his clothes, and took out his phone to reply to the messages from the previous night.

After an unknown amount of time, the bathroom door finally opened, and Li Xiaoen turned his head to look over.

The two exchanged a glance, and Amelia quickly moved away, walking briskly to the wardrobe, her back to Sean Lee, and reached for her suitcase.

Shrugging, Li Xiaoen didn't say anything more, got up and went into the washroom.

After tidying up a bit, it was 8:30 in the morning. Li Xiaoen led Amelia downstairs to the hotel's buffet restaurant.

“Sean, Amelia…”

Just as they caught a whiff of a rich aroma, a call came from a corner of the restaurant. The two looked in the direction of the voice and saw Professor Phyllis and his friend Avika already sitting there drinking coffee.

"It's still early. I was planning to go upstairs to call you later, but I didn't expect you to come down early together."

With a smile on his face, Professor Phyllis looked at the two of them with a mischievous grin.

Li Xiaoen did not answer immediately. His gaze inadvertently swept over the clothes on Professor Phyllis and the other person, which were the same as yesterday's. He couldn't help but feel something in his heart. Amelia, who was beside him, spoke first.

"No, we just happened to leave at the same time and bumped into each other and came down together."

"is it?"

Yes! Without a doubt!

Faced with Professor Phyllis's attitude, Amelia was clearly getting anxious. She nodded in affirmation, as if she still felt it wasn't convincing enough, and turned to look at Sean Lee.

Your anxious appearance only makes it seem like you're trying to hide something.

Li Xiaoen rolled his eyes, inwardly complaining, but simply shrugged indifferently at the three people looking at him.

"Having arrived in India, a place where we knew no one, our only companions were each other. So, we had to travel together, didn't we?"

After saying that, Li Xiaoen nodded to the waiter who brought the coffee, took a sip, and then picked up a pastry that the two of them had taken earlier and put it in his mouth.

"Yes, no wonder he has gained so many fans online and his entrepreneurial venture is going so well."

Avika smiled and nodded repeatedly, taking over the conversation.

Only then did Amelia hurriedly sit down in the chair, which made the two people opposite her exchange a glance and burst into laughter.

"Alright, let's go upstairs and tidy up first, we won't disturb you any longer."

Seeing that Amelia's ears were getting redder, Professor Phyllis felt sorry for her student, took Avika's hand, stood up, said goodbye, and left.

"Oh, right, we're meeting at 9:30 to go to the company we're partnering with. Don't wander off."

After walking a few steps, Professor Phyllis finally remembered the important matter of the day. He called out to them, then turned a corner and disappeared completely from their sight.

“Miss Nerd, I seriously suspect that you blush if more or less people are looking at you.”

Turning back, Li Xiaoen looked helplessly at Amelia, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu about her.

She adheres to rules to an almost rigid degree, strictly disciplining herself and even disapproving of others breaking them. She is outspoken and cannot keep secrets, easily becoming agitated after just a few words in an argument. She also blushes shyly if many people are watching her.

In China, wouldn't this be the epitome of a well-behaved, innocent, and reserved good student?
In America, this would be considered a nerd who lacks social charm and is unpopular.

He suddenly felt that Amelia was born in the wrong place; if she were in China, she would definitely be very popular.

"Shut up!"

Amelia glared at her, her cheeks puffed up in anger, as if she was still not satisfied. She raised her hand as if to hit her, "And don't call me a nerd..."

“Even with the person I hate the most, I never say anything bad about them without reason. So why do you act like this? Is it wrong for me to describe your behavior and give a reasonable and appropriate summary?”

With a smile, Li Xiaoen brought up Amelia's previous scolding words and returned them to her.

"Sean..."

Gritting her teeth, Amelia clenched her fists, but ultimately didn't bring them down. She gave a soft snort, stood up from her chair, and strode towards the food area.

"Amelia, remember to get me two ears of corn and a sausage, thank you."

"Don't think about it!"

Turning around, Amelia glanced back at her.

Unable to suppress a chuckle, Li Xiaoen took a deep breath, leaned back in his chair, and yawned.

He only landed in India late last night. Is he still jet-lagged?

Thinking to himself, Li Xiaoen picked up his coffee and took a sip, beginning to reminisce about the busy but somewhat leisurely school life of the previous semester.

Amelia returned quickly with the food, just as Lee Shawn had expected; the corn and sausages he had called for were among them.

"Thank you, beautiful lady."

Li Xiaoen tilted his head and thanked him. Before the other party could respond, he picked up a fork, stuck a piece of corn on it, and handed it over.

"Hey, who said this was for you? This is what I wanted to eat..."

Amelia looked up from her plate, glaring indignantly.

“But I already said thank you.” Li Xiaoen calmly took a bite of the sweet jade.

"shameless……"

After a quick breakfast and some time sitting, it was 9:15 when Professor Phyllis and his companion returned to the restaurant.

The three, accompanied by Avika, arrived at a car factory outside of New Delhi.

Fortunately, the car company's management team is still American. Although there were a few senior Indian executives accompanying them, the signing of the contract was somewhat bumpy, but overall it went smoothly and basically achieved the expected goals.

When Li Xiaoen personally guided the engineers in debugging the software, the whole process was full of ups and downs.

"Why isn't the machine responding? Could there be a problem with your software?"

During the initial debugging and start-up of the simulated vehicle intelligent driving, several Indian engineers, who had been following closely behind and holding up their phones, immediately questioned the machine's lack of response.

Li Xiaoen was speechless. He was extremely confident in his code and asked them to check the hardware, but they didn't cooperate. So he had to find Amelia, who had been watching from the sidelines. With Amelia's help, he finally found out the cause of the problem—there was a problem with the power supply.

Then, the group was taken to the server room, where thousands of wires were tangled together, making it impossible to identify the corresponding power supply lines.

Left with no other choice, I had to disconnect the known power supply line and connect it to the device...

"The hardware specifications seem to be the same as the rated value, so even if there's a larger margin of error, it should still be usable, right?"

"I think the software's feedback self-checking logic is redundant. Considering how quickly the machine can react, could we remove it?"

"The simulated autonomous driving crashed into a wall. It might just be an error or a matter of probability. Shall we start over?"

"..."

When the three of them came out of the car company, they looked at each other and could see the weariness and helplessness in each other's eyes.

So this is what's unique to India?
Having endured hours of torment, Li Xiaoen was too exhausted to complain and looked at Professor Phyllis with a meaningful gaze.

"According to the contract, they paid 40 percent of the money in advance, and the remaining money would be returned in installments from the profits of subsequent sales. I now have serious doubts about whether they will actually be able to make a profit later."

"Oh, yes."

As if remembering something, Li Xiaon exclaimed with a wry smile, "Contracts don't seem to work well in India either, Professor Phyllis, what about our forty percent of the money..."

"Do not worry."

At this moment, Professor Phyllis did not intend to refute or explain. He forced a smile and comforted her, "The parent company of this car company is still in the United States. If all else fails, we can sue that parent company in the United States."

"Yes, civilized people are more reassuring."

Li Xiaoen nodded. He then realized that his previous remarks when he was arguing with Sufi and the other girls about America's rogue behavior in the international community seemed far too simplistic now. Compared to India, it was nothing.

When this topic came up, the three of them finally showed a helpless smile, chatting and joking with each other as they left the company parking lot. Avika, who was Indian, also overheard their conversation.

To Li Xiaoen's surprise, Avika didn't seem to want to refute or explain; he just gave a helpless smile.

It wasn't until she was inside the car, and under Professor Phyllis's questioning, that she recounted the current situation and its reasons.

Following the example set by those at the top, it became commonplace for businesses to breach contracts and act shamelessly. Under the organization of the national government machinery, the same practice was observed in massive foreign bidding projects, with companies resorting to unscrupulous delays and even withholding substantial sums of money from foreign-invested enterprises.

It seems that a large company in China has also suffered the same brutal and ruthless looting.

Li Xiaoen suddenly remembered the popular science video he had seen online before.

Having given prior notice, the vehicle dropped off Li Xiaoen and Amelia in a bustling downtown area and then headed back towards the high-rise buildings in the city center.

Pedestrians hurried past the row of shops near the road. As soon as Li Xiaoen and his companion got out of the car, they immediately attracted a lot of stares, most of whom were men with rather dark skin.

"Sean..."

Actually, what Li Xiaoen said this morning wasn't quite right. Now, with so many people staring at her, Amelia felt a little flustered and moved closer to the young man, grabbing his arm tightly.

"Everyone says that you should go with Professor Phyllis and the others to the safer and more orderly downtown high-rises."

Li Xiaoen looked helplessly at Amelia, and with a kind and comforting gesture, reached out and took the girl's soft, boneless little hand.

"I only know you and Professor Phyllis here. Professor Phyllis needs to be alone with her friends, how could I disturb them?"

Enveloped by the young man's warm hand, Amelia's heart skipped a beat before she slowly recovered, giving him a disdainful look.

"You know it all?"

"I'm not blind!"

Amelia gave him a playful glare, then turned back to look at the road ahead. "Besides," she said, "Professor Phyllis never tries to hide anything in the lab."

"Ok."

Li Xiaoen nodded and led the girl along the shops lining the road.

There were hardly any women on the entire street. Even when they did see a few, they were wearing heavy skirts and headscarves, covering their entire bodies completely. This was different from the high-caste girls like Dia that Li Xiaon had seen in the city center.

On one hand, people enjoy the fruits of modernization, civilization, and openness; on the other hand, they remain stuck in rigid and backward religious dogmatism. It's as if these are two different worlds, yet they are only ten kilometers apart in this city.

I suddenly remembered that in America, just one street apart can be the difference between order and chaos.

This world is truly diverse and full of surprises, yet it is also worth exploring.

Li Xiaoen took a deep breath and suddenly realized something.

"Amelia, should we go in through those alleys?"

Li Xiaoen smiled and pointed to the narrow alley between the two shops, which could only accommodate one No. 3 bus at a time.

Shopping in shops along the main road offers a wide view and numerous vehicles and even police passing by, so safety is assured. However, once you enter a narrow alley, the risk level drops dramatically.

"Go in?"

Amelia paused for a moment, looked up at the young man, and her heart began to race with anxiety again.

"Ah."

Li Xiaoen smiled and nodded, looking down at Amelia, waiting for her response.

His hand was suddenly gripped even tighter. Just as he was wondering what was going on, he heard the girl look up and say something that was both expectant and apprehensive.

"Sean, can I entrust myself to you?"

(End of this chapter)