My hometown is far away in Moscow.

Chapter 99 The Book of Changes

"Is that so?" Sergei smiled and said, "I'm all ears."

The character "易" in Chinese means "simple" or "easy," but it also represents the most complex aspects of Chinese history and culture.

"Oh? Your surname is both Chinese and foreign; your given name is both simple and complicated?" The old professor tilted his head with interest. "Interesting."

"Yes, please look." Hu Yi then wrote a large "易" (Yi) character on the paper: "This character, the top part is the sun, and the bottom part, although the shape has changed, is actually the moon. The sun and moon represent masculine and feminine respectively."

"Oh? Then what is used to represent neutrality?"

"Neutral?" Hu Yi scratched his head: "The Russian word has the concept of neutrality, but in Chinese culture, Yin and Yang are everything, and everything in the world is either Yin or Yang."

"Understood, please continue."

"There is a very, very famous book in ancient China, named after the 'Yi' (易), which we call—we call it—the Book of Yi." Hu Yi racked his brains to recall his understanding of the Book of Changes: "This book is from a very, very early period in China—um—let me think. It can be said to be one of the sources of Chinese culture."

"Oh!" Sergei exclaimed, slightly surprised. "Really? China has a very long history. You're saying this book can be considered its cultural origin?"

"Yes. As far as I know, this book appeared much earlier than ancient Greece."

"Wow! That's amazing!" Sergei exclaimed with awe. "What's the main content of this book?"

"The content—it's all-encompassing, I can't quite put my finger on it, but ancient Chinese emperors and thinkers all studied it." Hu Yi tilted his head back, deep in thought. "It probably includes content related to astronomy and divination."

"Ancient mystical divination?" Sergei smiled slightly. "I understand—you mean your name, 'Yi,' is taken from this book?"

"You could say that it shares the same character as the title of this book." Hu Yi finally got back to the point: "So, you see, according to Chinese cultural understanding, my name—throughout history and across cultures, from heaven to earth, from the sun to the moon, from yin to yang—is such a powerful name!"

"That's right. According to your explanation, it is indeed a wonderful name."

"That's right." Hu Yi said with a wry smile, "To be honest, I used to be very proud of my name."

But to my surprise, such a beautiful name is actually a swear word in Russian. Dear Professor Sergei, I've been in Moscow for three years, and I can never show my real name to foreigners. Can you understand my pain?

Although it was just an impromptu performance for the exam, the truth became more real than the fiction. Thinking that many of his foreign friends still only thought his name was Anton, Hu Yi couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness and helplessness.

"Well, regarding this matter—I am truly sorry." Sergei relaxed his eyelids slightly. "But to be honest, you really know how to exaggerate."

Hu Yi was taken aback. Seeing that Sergei had a smile on his face and didn't seem to be blaming him, he smiled slyly as well: "I forgot to tell you earlier, but my surname also has another meaning: talking nonsense, talking gibberish, basically it means being able to spout nonsense."

Sergei laughed heartily a few times, a rare occurrence for him, then lowered his head and pondered, "Well, what you're saying isn't really related to what I learned in class, but it sounded pretty good, and it helped me understand some Chinese language and culture. Although I don't know if what you said is entirely true, I'll give you 4 points this time, considering how well you can ramble on."

"Okay." Hu Yi was overjoyed and quickly suppressed his excitement, smiling, "Thank you."

Sergei scribbled a few words and handed the grade book back to Hu Yi: "Although you often talk nonsense in class, I still hope that you can come to my class as often as possible in the future."

"I will." Hu Yi bowed slightly to Sergei, then turned and went out, smiling at Uga: "Please, it's your turn."

Although Hu Yi managed to persuade the old professor by talking nonsense, Sergei's exam was not actually that easy; Uga and several others in the same class failed.

Meanwhile, in the journalism major, Zhou Dali also struggled, only managing to get 3 points thanks to his decent attendance, while Li Baoqing unsurprisingly failed.

To make matters worse, due to prolonged and extensive absences, Li Baoqing failed most of his other subjects as well. Last semester, he mostly failed less important elective subjects, but this time he failed even core subjects like Russian.

Hu Yi successfully finished all his exams in his freshman year, bought his plane ticket in advance, and was just waiting for his round-trip visa to be issued so he could go back to China for summer vacation.

This is Hu Yi's first time back in China since arriving at ANU two years ago. Recalling the various hardships and setbacks of the past two years, Hu Yi couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion.

However, all the experiences were meaningful; at least he grew and made a considerable amount of money. Hu Yi contentedly summarized his day, then went into the bathroom to wash a huge pile of clothes, planning to go out later to buy some gifts for relatives and friends back home.

Just as they were about to hang up the clothes, Li Baoqing pushed open the door and walked in, standing at the bathroom door with his head drooping: "Old Hu."

"Oh?" Hu Yi looked at the dejected Li Baoqing and grinned crookedly, "Look at you, so listless. What happened? Did someone cook you?"

Li Baoqing slung his backpack over his shoulder and said, "The school expelled me."

"What? What did you say?!" Hu Yi straightened up in a daze, forgetting to wring out the clothes he was holding, water droplets dripping onto the ground.

"I'm fired." Li Baoqing shuffled into the bedroom, pulled up a chair, sat down, lit a cigarette, and took a deep drag.

Hu Yi threw the clothes back into the bathtub, dried his hands, and followed him into the room: "Why? Did you fail the exam? Didn't they let you retake it?"

"No," Li Baoqing said blankly, staring at the rising smoke. "The department said I missed too many classes and won't give me a chance to retake the exam."

"real?!"

Why would I lie to you about something like this?

Hu Yi froze for a full ten seconds, then suddenly glared at him and roared, "Didn't I fucking tell you to pay attention in class! At least let the teacher see you sitting in the classroom! You idiot, you just wouldn't listen! Now you're finished, aren't you?!"

"Yeah, we're doomed." Li Baoqing turned his face slightly away and said in a low voice, "There's no use saying anything now."

"What do we do now?" Hu Yi wanted to give him a good scolding, but seeing his dejected look, he knew that scolding him wouldn't solve the problem, so he decided to save his energy.

"I don't know." Li Baoqing's eyes were lifeless.

The two of them, one standing and one sitting, stared at each other blankly for a long time. Hu Yi reached out and took out his phone: "Ask Wang Shen. He's familiar with those people at school, and he's also a journalism major."

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