American comic: From Beijing with Love, starting with a mutant.

Zhou Xingxing capped his pen and stuffed the follow-up record form into his suitcase.

As Harry was wondering if the Regent Hotel had a branch here, he grabbed his arm.

"Brother Zhou! You can't leave today! You finally made it here, and the captain said tonight we'll have an extra meal at the food stalls in town!" Harry said in a thick Henan accent, making Zhou Xingxing's head throb.

"An extra meal? Public funds?" Old Zhou's eyes lit up, then his smile vanished.

"Just so you know, you won't charge me for meals, right? I have a small appetite, I only eat half a bowl of rice per meal, and I don't go to gatherings that cost more than ten yuan. If it's a split bill, I'll just buy a standing ticket back to Beijing right now."

"How could that be! You're a big leader from the bureau, the captain said this meal will be paid for by the team!" Harry grinned, revealing his white teeth.

"Come on, come on, before we eat, I'll take you to the kitchen. Aunt Wang said she's waiting for me to try the preserved egg and cucumber salad today!"

Smashed cucumber with preserved egg?

What is a "century egg"?

As Stephen Chow was being pulled along, he watched as the American lad expertly nodded and offered cigarettes to an elderly man wearing a helmet who was passing by, occasionally asking, "What's going on?" He began to have some doubts.

He's only been here a few days!

I walked into the canteen. Several middle-aged women wearing white aprons were looking worried around several large vats.

"Oh my, Little Ha's here!" Aunt Wang, who was plump and large, strode up to greet him.

"Take a look at this jar of freshly pickled cabbage. How does it taste? It just feels like it's missing something."

Harry stepped forward, took a disposable spoon, dipped it into the sauerkraut jar, put it in his mouth, smacked his lips twice, and squinted his eyes.

"Aunt Wang, the salt content in this jar of sauerkraut is 0.02% too high, and the nitrite peak hasn't been reached yet. If you lower the fermentation temperature by two more degrees, it will be perfect!"

"Oh! Great! Auntie will go adjust the temperature right away!" Aunt Wang slapped her thigh and grinned.

Depend on!

This is like using the X gene in pickled vegetables?!

As darkness fell, the lights came on at the town's food stalls.

The water conservancy engineering team booked three large round tables.

On the table were braised pig's trotters, cucumber salad with preserved eggs, stir-fried pork intestines, and several large plates of sizzling, oily roasted lamb skewers.

As a "high-ranking leader from the bureau," Stephen Chow was placed in the center position at the main table.

On the left is Captain Lao Yan, and on the right is Harry.

"Come, come, Director Zhou! We're just a poor, remote village, we don't have much to offer, but this drink is a toast on behalf of the whole team!"

Captain Yan picked up a glass filled with 53-proof liquor.

"Cheers!" Captain Yan tilted his head back and ate it straight down without even frowning.

Zhou Xingxing looked at the empty glass and swallowed.

Are all these people from the Central Plains drinking this wildly?

If you're really into someone, you'll down the whole thing in one gulp; if you're just having a shallow sip, you'll probably just be licking it. That's practically asking for a stomach ulcer!

But this is a meal paid for with public funds, so we can't lose in terms of prestige!

Old Zhou activated his qigong, circulating his true qi throughout his body, preparing to force the alcohol out of his fingertips.

"Great! Yan Gong, you're so generous! We're all brothers, we've got it all in the drinks!"

Stephen Chow picked up the glass and downed it in one gulp. He didn't change his expression as the liquor went down his throat, but the liquor was quietly dripping from his fingertips behind his back.

The Six Meridian Divine Sword's Art of Forcing Alcohol to Drink!

I'm not afraid of anyone! The advantage lies with me!

"Brother Zhou! This toast is for you!" Before Stephen Chow could catch his breath, Harry next to him picked up his glass.

"If it weren't for you, I'd still be stuck in that basement as a waste. I'll do it, do whatever you want!"

He gulped down a full glass of baijiu without even burping.

Looking into Harry's clear eyes, Stephen Chow was speechless.

You American, you don't learn the good things, but you've mastered the drinking culture!

What's this called?

This is what it means to question your fellow countryman, understand your fellow countryman, and become a fellow countryman!

"Alright! I'll drink with you to your heart's content today!" Stephen Chow picked up his glass and continued drinking.

Anyway, with my qigong protecting me, I'm immune to a thousand cups of alcohol. Tonight, I'll show you what a drinking god really is!

An hour and a half later.

Empty wine bottles were piled up like a small mountain on the table, and several technicians slipped under the table.

Captain Yan, his face flushed, slurred his words as he boasted to Old Li at the next table about a piece of pig's head meat.

Harry, however, remained unfazed, complaining that the cup wasn't enough and opting for a large bowl instead.

"Brother Zhou, one more time! Our bond is unbreakable, let's drink until we bleed!"

Zhou Xingxing's vision was blurry, and he saw three double images of Harry, his head buzzing.

He looked down at his fingers behind his back.

The speed at which they forced the drinks couldn't keep up with the speed at which they drank!

How is this possible?!

He is none other than Ling Lingqi!

Profound inner strength!

How could I let a blond kid outdrink me?

Stephen Chow, slurring his words, pointed at Harry and said, "You little brat... is your liver made of iron?!"

Harry scratched his head, looking bewildered.

"I don't know either. This stuff tastes just like plain water, but it makes my stomach a little bloated. I just went to pee three times."

Tasteless?

Bloating?

pee?!

A bolt of lightning struck Stephen Chow's alcohol-filled brain.

Aquatic adaptation!

This kid's body structure allows him to survive in high-pressure underwater environments and rapidly metabolize water and chemical toxins!

What is the chemical nature of alcohol? It's ethanol!

To him, this stuff was literally just water! And the kind of wastewater that could be filtered out by his organs!

This metabolic rate is faster than a flush toilet in a sewer!

Damn! I was careless!

The clown is me!

Stephen Chow felt a sudden dizziness, as if the whole world was spinning and jumping around. He closed his eyes.

The plastic stool seemed to have grown legs and tilted directly to the side.

"thump!"

The master of forcing alcohol collapsed to the ground.

"Brother Zhou! Brother Zhou, what's wrong? Are you trying to scam me?"

Zhou Xingxing's last conscious thought was of Harry's worried face and the old captain's loud laughter.

"Haha! Director Zhou, you still need to work on your drinking capacity, Greyhound!"

……

Noon the next day.

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains and shone on Stephen Chow's face.

"Hiss~" Zhou Xingxing rubbed his head and sat up straight in bed, his stomach churning and his mouth dry.

He fumbled for his phone on the bedside table, squinting at the time on the screen.

12:30 PM.

Stephen Chow was stunned for two seconds, his brain slowly turning.

12:30...

What time is the train?

"Holy crap!" Stephen Chow jumped off the bed and started rummaging through his suit pockets.

The train ticket, which was supposed to be checked at eight o'clock in the morning, lay at the bottom of my pocket.

This was his hard-earned money, paid out of his own pocket!

That stingy Wang Pangzi would never reimburse him for a train ticket he missed due to personal reasons!

"Harry Kane!" Stephen Chow roared through gritted teeth, "I'll never forgive you! Give me my money back!!!"

Harry, who was about to knock on the door with a steaming bowl of hot and spicy soup in his hand, was so startled that he almost spilled the soup on the ground.

"Is Brother Zhou... being grumpy when he wakes up?" Harry scratched his head, looking innocent.

"Leaders in big cities just have big tempers."

"Brother Zhou, I'm coming in! Aunt Wang specially made you a hangover soup, a spicy soup with double the amount of pepper. Drink it while it's hot!"