aircannonsinc Chapter 57 Zhou Dali's New Home
Chapter 57 Zhou Dali's New Home
Chapter 57 Zhou Dali's New Home
"Old Hu is right," Li Baoqing said, reluctantly. "You just said it yourself, those are all worthless things. You wouldn't spend much money buying them yourself. Why insist on eating at the restaurant? Anything involving 'stealing' is dishonorable and tarnishes the reputation of us Chinese, doesn't it?"
"What do you mean by stealing? What do you mean by stealing? It's just a carrot!" Old Wei said, feeling a bit aggrieved. "Do you know how rich this restaurant owner is? His wife flies abroad every week to buy clothes, either to Milan or Paris. Do you think she cares about something like this?"
The kitchen receives hundreds of pounds of vegetables at a time. What's the big deal about eating a cucumber or carrot? What are you all so concerned about?
"Yes, yes," Hu Yi said with an embarrassed smile. "I wasn't worried about the boss, I was just saying, don't do evil even if it's insignificant."
"You're all young, what do you know? Back home, I have elderly parents and young children to support. My parents are getting old, my wife doesn't work, and my child will be starting middle school next year. The whole family depends on me! I left my family and home to work here, and I have to rent a place to live, save money to support my family, and pay for my child's schooling. Do you think it's easy for me?" Old Wei turned his head away indignantly. "Besides, look at this kitchen! The head chef earns nearly three thousand a month, and the other chefs earn around two thousand. I'm in charge of both preparing the dishes and cooking, and I only get a little over a thousand a month! What's wrong with eating a cucumber every now and then?"
What's wrong?!
"How much?!" Hu Yi was slightly taken aback, while Li Baoqing blurted out, "What?! What did you say? Nearly three thousand?! Around two thousand? Only a little over a thousand? Are you talking about US dollars?"
"Nonsense! What else could it be but dollars? Rubles, perhaps?"
Hu and Li stood there dumbfounded, their surprise no less than when they had just learned that Lao Wei was a distant relative of Bill Gates and a sworn brother of Li Ka-shing.
In their formative years, newspapers often used the term "ten-thousand-yuan household" to describe extremely wealthy people. Although this standard has gradually become obsolete, a monthly salary of over ten thousand yuan is still extremely rare in their hometown. The two found it hard to imagine that cooks, who were looked down upon in their home country, could easily earn over ten thousand yuan a month in Moscow.
Hu Yi took a deep breath: "We're working ourselves to the bone, practically suffering from lumbar muscle strain, and we only make two hundred dollars a month, while they can earn two or three thousand?!"
Old Wei scoffed: "So you two don't know anything. This is called money controlling servants, skill controlling professionals, understand? They have the skills, of course they can earn that kind of money. You two are at best apprentices, you haven't even mastered chopping vegetables yet, and you're already making a lot of money at two hundred a month."
Li Baoqing slapped his thigh: "Damn it! If I had known this would happen, I would have been better off learning to be a chef back home to make money! What kind of education was that?!"
The two of them talked back and forth, deeply moved. Old Wei, panting heavily for a while, turned and went back to the kitchen.
Li Baoqing stared blankly at Lao Wei's retreating figure: "Huh? Is he angry?"
Hu Yi remained silent, secretly regretting that he had brought up the subject earlier. Just as he was wondering what to do, Old Wei came out with a smile, holding a cucumber in each hand and offering them to the two of them: "How about one?"
Hu Yi chuckled, shook his head, and put his hands in his pockets. Seeing the expectant look on Old Wei's face, Li Baoqing reached out and took the cucumber: "Damn it! I'll have one with you!"
After completing their three-month term, Hu Yi and Li Baoqing resigned from their jobs at the Huanghai Hotel to focus on their studies and prepare for the exams. They devoted very little energy to their studies during this period. Fortunately, the preparatory exams weren't too difficult. Hu Yi had built a solid foundation the previous semester, and being quite articulate, he had a good reputation with his teachers, so he achieved excellent results without much effort.
Li Baoqing's situation was somewhat unsatisfactory; his report card was filled with scores of 3, but he still managed to pass all his exams without major problems. Zhou Dali also graduated smoothly, and the trio of repeaters successfully entered higher education, finally relieving themselves of a long-standing burden.
After a few days of relaxing, Hu Yi and Li Baoqing planned to find another job during the summer vacation to earn some money, while Zhou Dali began planning to move out of the dormitory and rent a place to live.
Although Hu and Li felt somewhat reluctant, they fully understood his decision: they were still haunted by the theft and had been on tenterhooks every time they went out together for the past six months, fearing that thieves would strike again. Moreover, living in a dormitory without a private bathroom was really inconvenient. Although they could choose to move into a high-rise student apartment with ensuite bathrooms after officially enrolling in the department, the facilities and environment were still relatively poor. If their financial situation allowed, renting a place would be more comfortable.
Renting a place in Moscow isn't difficult, but finding one that's ideal in every way is not. Zhou Dali spent several days searching through various Chinese newspapers and magazines without any results. Finally, a friend helped him find a studio apartment in a high-rise building not far away. Zhou Dali was very satisfied after seeing it, paid the rent on the spot, packed his bags, and moved into his new place early the next morning with the help of Hu Yi and Li Baoqing.
The apartment is very close to the student dormitories of the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), just over a kilometer away as the crow flies. It only takes a few minutes by taxi and no more than fifteen minutes on foot.
"Wow, the view from the top floor is really great." Hu Yi stood by the window and looked into the distance. "Wow, I can see our dormitory. Oh, that's Building 10, right? Yes, and it should be Building 11 next to it."
Li Baoqing walked around the house and exclaimed in admiration, "This house is really nice, spacious and clean, and the kitchen and bathroom are also big enough."
Hu Yi stared at Zhou Dali with a mischievous grin: "You must be lonely staying here by yourself. Why don't you find a girl to live with you?"
"No way, my dad would hang me up and beat me if he found out." Zhou Dali shook his head like a rattle drum: "Tomorrow I'll go buy some household items and a TV, so you can watch the Chinese team play in the World Cup."
"Why are you watching the Chinese team? They've already lost two games and are eliminated!" Hu Yi looked around and asked, "Does this house have internet access?"
"Sure, it has a network port." Zhou Dali slapped his thigh. "Hey Lao Hu, aren't you pretty good with computers? Come with me to build a machine sometime!"
"No problem, that's a piece of cake!" Hu Yi hadn't touched a computer in a long time and was itching to get back to it, so he said impatiently, "Why wait until another day? We have nothing to do anyway, let's go now!"
Without further ado, the three headed straight to the computer market after lunch. Hu Yi had bought a monitor here before with Yan Zhiwen, so he was familiar with the layout and didn't need to be too picky about assembling a computer; he just needed to choose the brand and model of the components within a reasonable price range. Zhou Dali had a generous budget, so he bought whatever Hu Yi recommended, and quickly assembled a computer with a fairly decent configuration.
They went to school to get a Chinese Windows system disk from a classmate and also borrowed a hard drive full of movies and TV shows. The three of them excitedly returned to Zhou Dali's house, installed the system on the computer, and sat around the screen drinking beverages and smoking, watching TV series with great interest.
During their time in Russia, they rarely had the opportunity to watch Chinese films and television shows. The 40GB hard drive they borrowed was filled with all sorts of movies and TV shows, and the three of them found it like a long-awaited rain after a drought. They thoroughly enjoyed watching "Lu Bu and Diao Chan".
Having watched five episodes in a row, the room was filled with smoke. Zhou Dali opened the doors and windows to ventilate the room. He had just sat down when he saw a dark-skinned middle-aged man standing in the doorway, peering inside. Having probably heard the Chinese dialogue from the TV series, the man greeted him with a smile, "Wait, are you new here?"
"Yes, I just arrived today," Zhou Dali said with a smile.
"You're students, right? I'm here to do business, I live next door." The burly black man was very outgoing; seeing the computer on the table, he walked right into the room. "Wow! Did you bring this computer from China?"
"No," Zhou Dali shook his head, "I just bought it today."
"Wow, that's great! Watching TV is so convenient." The burly black man stared enviously at the bulky, old-fashioned monitor and exclaimed repeatedly, "Where can I buy one? How much does it cost?"
"These cost a total of over a thousand dollars in the computer market."
The burly man nodded, stood with his hands behind his back, and watched TV with them for a while. Then he took out cigarettes, offered them to the three of them, and said with a smile, "We've been wanting to get a couple of these for a while now. Could you help us out?"
Zhou Dali blinked: "I don't understand, he helped me with the matching." He pointed at Hu Yi as he spoke.
Hu Yi stared intently at the screen and casually agreed, "Okay, I'll make a list for you." He then took out a pen and paper, listed the model numbers of all the components in Zhou Dali's computer, and handed it to the burly man: "Just buy this configuration, the same as his."
The burly man took the form, glanced at it, frowned, and scratched his head. "What—what is this nonsense? I can't understand a word of it. Could you please come with us?"
Hu Yi hesitated for a moment, then remained silent. The burly man smiled ingratiatingly and said, "We don't know this place, and we don't speak Russian very well. We're afraid of being fooled, so we'd feel safer going with a fellow countryman. We're neighbors, can you help us out?"
Seeing that Hu Yi was still hesitant and silent, Zhou Dali said to the burly man, "He doesn't live here. He's just here to help me set up a computer. He'll leave in a bit."
"Oh! Hey, it's a misunderstanding." The burly man looked at Hu Yi with a sudden realization, grinning. "You do this kind of thing? No problem, just pay me what I owe. How much do you charge?"
Li Baoqing realized he had misunderstood the situation and was about to explain when Hu Yi raised his head and said, "It costs 1,000 rubles to assemble one computer, so for two... you can give me 1,500! It's a one-stop service, including providing multiple suggested configurations based on your needs, accompanying you to the computer market to purchase all the parts, assembling the machines, installing the operating system, and debugging the equipment. If needed, we can also help you connect multiple computers to the same local area network."
The burly man was indeed completely clueless about computers, but Hu Yi sounded quite knowledgeable, so he smiled and readily agreed, "Okay, when shall we go?"
Hu Yi raised his wrist to check the time: "Today won't work, the market's already closed, and we need to go home for dinner. How about I come see you tomorrow?"
The burly man nodded repeatedly, set a time with Hu Yi, and turned to leave. Hu Yi and Li Baoqing then said goodbye to Zhou Dali and prepared to go home. As they stepped into the elevator, Li Baoqing smacked his lips silently. Seeing his hesitant and unhappy expression, Hu Yi asked curiously, "What's wrong?"