Lian Jisheng, whose full name is Helen Lee Richardson, was born in Jeneret in Iberia County, Louisiana, a typical southern town known as the "sugar town" with sugar cane plantations and sugar industry. Although she herself has a warm and cheerful personality, as a southerner, there will always be a conservative and stubborn side. If another patron had recommended a young man to be a teacher at the school, she would have refused without even thinking about it, but a request from the Rida family was something she could not easily refuse.

Lian Jisheng's father, Francis Richardson, had a wife before marrying Lian Jisheng's mother, Becia Ridda, who was the daughter of the Rida family. Her father is Wilkinsonshire, Mississippi, judge Moses Ridda, and the father of Moses and Shanghai, William Ridda, is a half-brother - Moses and William's father, William Hogson Ridda, nicknamed "Edinburgh Red Face", first married a Jewish girl in the United States and gave birth to Moses and other three offspring, and then returned to Scotland to give birth to William and their six children.

Although Lian Jisheng's father, Francis, was a large estate owner and was elected to the state legislature of Louisiana, the southern estate economy basically came to an end after the Civil War. Mississippi, because of its hometown of Confederate President Davis, was the state most devastated by the war, and the Rida family was also in a slump. The reason why these two families did not decline completely like other old families in the south was precisely because of the continuous financial support from the eastern branch of the Rida family. Even the Bayside Manor, where the Richardson family currently lives, relied on these funds to survive.

Lian Jisheng looked at the eloquent young man in front of her, he was so good-looking, so that he didn't need temperament, intelligence, knowledge, or conversation to set off at all, and he could make people feel fascinated just by his appearance, so that she felt that she shouldn't even use the handsome meaning of elegant form, graceful demeanor, and bodybuilding, but could only use the word beautiful, because he was purely good-looking. The presence of such a man in a girls' school was a mortal danger, so at first, she almost did not hesitate to veto him from the bottom of her heart, even at the risk of causing Rida to be unhappy.

However, in the following conversation, she found that the other party's wisdom was even far greater than his appearance, with broad thinking, quick thinking, and extensive knowledge that completely embarrassed her. Lian Jisheng originally thought that she was no worse than any man, but some of the other party's views and ideas made her feel the difference in rank thoroughly, the kind of broadened horizons when looking at problems, and the kind of whimsical but logical way of thinking, which she definitely couldn't make up for through her acquired study and hard work.

And what made her admire even more was the other person's eyes, which were full of confidence, and only those who never doubted that what they said were wrong would have such eyes, sincere and focused, without a trace of hesitation and hesitation, but not fanatical, but clear and transparent into the hearts of people, which she had only seen in some very devout missionaries before.

It made her a little embarrassed about the conversation that followed, and it seemed too out of place and a little too philistine.

"You must try these chocolate hazelnut biscuits, and this Miss Margaret, which may not look very good, but they are really delicious."

They had moved to a small round table under the fireplace, sipping afternoon tea and talking to each other, like old friends who had not seen each other for many years.

Seeing that the other party had elegantly finished the biscuit and Miss Margaret, and then added an extra muffin and a cheese savory biscuit, she finally made up her mind and said:

"Well, on the issue of salary, Mr. Gao Yi, I know that the annual salary of male middle school teachers in the United States has reached $1,800, but if you are paid at this salary level, it will be beyond our budget. You know, our female teachers here only get a third of this money, and I don't have the experience to pay male teachers, and the old Chinese gentleman I mentioned to you about teaching Mandarin only gets twelve yuan a month, so—"

She looked at the other party's eyes as clear as two pools of lake water, and secretly increased the salary she had just calculated in her heart, "One hundred yuan a month, what do you think, Mr. Gao Yi?" ”

The clear water rippled and calmed again.

"Thank you very much, Ms. Richardson, you know this has helped me a lot, I was almost bankrupt for my father's funeral, so I needed this job urgently."

"Of course, Mr. Gao Yi, I'm very happy to be able to help you." Lian Jisheng patted his hands and folded them on his chest, but there was still a problem to be solved, "There is another small problem, Mr. Gao Yi, I know that according to the rules, we should provide you with a dormitory, but since we are all female teachers - although the grooms and janitors are men, they are strictly isolated from the outside and can only live on the stable, where the accommodation conditions are very poor, if you let you live with those grooms......"

"Lady Richardson, please forgive me for interrupting you, but you don't need to worry about my accommodation, I can take care of this myself."

"But as far as I know, a decent hotel rent is very expensive, and it may drain your salary, and if you rent a house, you have to pay taxes, hire people, and the cost is very large." Regarding the accommodation problem, even Jisheng felt quite embarrassed, she had added all the money she could to her salary, so that if she wanted to subsidize the rent, she would have to exceed the budget.

"I can stay in a Chinese hotel, in fact my father and I have been living in such a hotel for a long time, and they take good care of us."

"Oh, really, that's great, so I don't need to worry about it anymore?"

"Of course, rest assured."

"So we're done?"

"Yes, we make a deal!"

Seeing that the other party stretched out his hand after laughing, even Jisheng stretched out his hand to shake him.

"By the way, Ms. Richardson, can you give me a tour of the lab? I would like to take a look at the equipment so that I can start preparing for the lecture. ”

"Of course, why don't you let me take you around the school right now, so you can get acquainted with the environment."

"It would be great if that could be done, thank you very much, Ms. Richardson."

After the two stood up, Lian Jisheng noticed that the other party seemed to hesitate slightly, and then spoke:

"One more thing, Ms. Richardson, I don't know if I can make an advance on my salary, you know I'm barely penniless right now, and I owe some funeral expenses that I haven't repaid."

"Oh, look at me, I should have thought of it, yes, no problem, I can advance a portion of your salary." Saying that, she thought about the spare money she could use, "In this way, I have exactly 200 yuan to use here, and I will advance you to two months' salary, do you think this is okay, is it enough to pay off the funeral expenses?" ”

"Enough is enough, thank you, ma'am! You've saved me in a hurry! ”

"Alright, then let's go to Mrs. Smith and ask her to prepare the check, and then I'll take you around campus."