Chapter 10: Hartford

Stern said it would take about a week to get east by train from San Francisco.

In the first few days, Chen Zeyu was still fresh and curious about this most primitive train, but after a long time, it didn't matter, after all, there were many more advanced train power systems in his mind, and these were just a small thing.

But the Ah Ming and Ah Liang brothers on the other side are still amazed. These two little brothers are also the leaders of the younger generation among his uncle's thousands of armed men, and I heard Ah Liang boast that he is quite good at marksmanship. However, because I have been staying in Nanyang, although I can speak English and Spanish fluently, I still haven't seen many things.

I forgot to introduce, this Ah Liang's full name is Li Xiaoliang, and the other Ah Ming is his elder brother, called Li Xiaoming, the names were obtained by his uncle for them, both of them were originally abducted and trafficked to Nanyang when they were young, and they have been following their uncle since they were rescued by their uncle. Don't look at the two of them who are usually silent, in fact, they both have their own specialties, Ah Ming not only shoots well, but also learns kung fu from the housekeeper uncle Huang Xixiang and cooks very well, Ah Liang In addition to a beautiful flying knife stunt, I heard that there is also a unique skill in mechanical repair. In addition, both are fluent in American English and Spanish. In modern times, I wouldn't be a bodyguard or something.

Originally, my uncle wanted to let him bring more servants over, but he refused, although times have changed, but some things will not change.

In the 21st century, Spain has long become a marginal country, but in this world, there are still many Spanish colonies in the world, with these two guys, if Chen Zeyu is fine, he will follow the A Liang brothers to learn two Spanish sentences.

With the rhythmic sound of the train, the mountains, fields, and trees on both sides of the tracks all flashed like lightning. There are also many tunnels passing through the way, and every time they pass through these artificial caves, the women on the train always show off their voices.

There is no fixed meal time on the train, and passengers are allowed to get off the train and go to the platform during the arrival of a fixed stop.

“twentyminutes!”

Every time the car stops, the workers on the train will loudly report a time, that is, the time when the train stays, there are many shops outside the platform, most of them sell food, and the variety is also very complete, beef, mutton and even steamed buns, but the taste is really not flattering. Chen Zeyu and the four of them are usually solved by Ah Liang and them when they go down to bring some food and come up in the car.

On the morning of November 12, 1885, Chen Zeyu's train finally arrived at the final station, Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, USA.

After a brief breakfast, the group of four set off from the platform.

Hop aboard the tram and soon you'll be at Hartford Secondary School, not far from the station.

American middle schools are different from later generations of China, there are many places where junior high school and high school are connected, not to mention that there are not so many concepts now, a smart child, after graduating from primary school, only need to spend three or four years to graduate from middle school, think about the Chinese education system in later generations, it is really speechless.

Stern sent Chen Zeyu to the primary school attached to Hartford Middle School to go through the enrollment procedures, and received textbooks and other things, because it is a private school, the tuition is not cheap, but these are nothing for the Chen chaebol. Later, Stern took the three of them to the villa that Stern bought in downtown Hartford, with two floors and a yard. It's not far from the school, but only two or three blocks away, and there's a tram passing by. Chen Zeyu tidied up his room and followed Stern to meet the neighbors nearby.

After everything was done, Chen Zeyu and Brother Amin and Ah Liang bid farewell to Stern, who helped him a lot.

Leaving aside the touching scene, after putting Uncle Stern on the train, the three of them returned to the cottage on Quereth Street.

At noon, Ah Ming finally missed his cooking skills, of course, he made Western food, but compared with ordinary European and American housewives, Ah Ming made more varieties, Chen Zeyu suspected that his uncle asked him to come with him for today.

After lunch, Chen Zeyu proposed to go around the street.

Naturally, the two brothers would not have any objections,

Hartford is not only a beautiful city, but also a thriving business city, with a prominent location between Boston to the east, Pittsburgh to the west, New York Harbor to the south, and Quebec to the north.

As a result, many banks and the earliest insurance companies have set up their headquarters in the city, and various commercial companies in the city, such as the woolen industry and the precision instrument industry, have developed rapidly. There may not be as many high-rise buildings as in New York and San Francisco, but the commercial density is much higher than people expect.

The trio, two large and one small, went from the neighborhood to the city center, and from the city center to the Connecticut River, and at this time Hartford's business was already quite prosperous, and the Armin and Liang brothers blinked. As for Chen Zeyu, there was only more sighing in his heart.

Whenever I see the thriving scene in the United States, I am infected by its vigorous atmosphere on the one hand, but I feel a deep sense of emptiness on the other hand, and I don't know when the Chinese land on the other side of the world will reach this level.

Shaking these thoughts out of his head, Chen Zeyu found that the three of them were surrounded by many onlookers, and called out two dazzling "bodyguards" to return to the villa.

At night, Ah Ming is still in charge, but he is cooking Chinese food, but there is no rice, and the three of them will eat bread with relish.

After eating, they washed and went to bed. The Ah Ming and Ah Liang brothers each slept in two rooms on the first floor, while Chen Zeyu naturally slept in the master bedroom on the second floor.

The next day, just after five o'clock, Chen Zeyu got up early and came downstairs, where the brothers Amin and Aliang were already boxing in the yard. I told them that I was going out for a run, and in the end, it immediately became three of us going out to exercise together.

The three of them ran around the block, and when they got home, it was nearly half past six. Chen Zeyu asked the maid to boil some hot water and took a hot shower in the bathroom. After breakfast, I was ready to go out, but this time the problem came again.

Ah Ming and the two said that they must follow him to escort him to school, but Chen Zeyu felt that this was very stupid, and in the end there was no way, under the shocked gaze of the two, Chen Zeyu pinched an iron pipe on the guardrail at the door into a hand shape on the spot, and then both of them were convinced, and the young master of his own family didn't need protection at all after a long time.

………

In this way, Chen Zeyu came to school early alone with his schoolbag.

This school, founded by the early immigrants themselves, looks so unpretentious that Chen Zeyu can feel the breath of history from it.

It was the same office yesterday, and a teacher was waiting there early. Chen Zeyu politely said hello, and after that, the self-proclaimed Josh. Boleyn's teacher led him to a third-grade classroom.

The reason why it is the third grade is because Chen Zeyu can already use English proficiently, and the first and second grades are just learning some spelling and vocabulary. When the teacher of the test yesterday saw that the Chinese child in front of him could talk to him about the history of ancient Rome, the idea of asking him to act as an agent for the school's secondary school history class even popped up in his head.

At this time, there was no class, the classroom space was quite large, but there were only about 20 students in a class, and the children were chasing and fighting one by one, or lying on the table and dozing off. When they saw someone coming, they sat up one by one.

Chen Zeyu smiled at this familiar scene, and the students below were also very curious when they saw the teacher leading a yellow-skinned child in, and their eyes widened, staring at Chen Zeyu one by one.

In fact, as early as a few months ago, there were rumors in Hartford School that a Chinese boy would go to school here.

Just today, the legendary Chinese boy really arrived.

Josh took Chen Zeyu's little hand and gave an introduction to everyone in the first row, and then encouraged Chen Zeyu to introduce himself in front of the others. Chen Zeyu naturally did not have stage fright in front of a group of little children, and generously introduced him in fluent English.

During this period, a little bit of the geographical history of China and the United States was involved, and all the little children present were calmed down at once.

After that, the first class was Josh's math class.

Although it was very naïve, Chen Zeyu was still very interested in listening.

During the course, Josh also asked Chen Zeyu a few questions, and Chen Zeyu gave the answers as soon as possible. This surprised Josh because the questions he asked were meant to give the students some time to think......

After class, the students in the class expressed a warm welcome to Chen Zeyu in their own way.

It wasn't until much later that Chen Zeyu's classmate Emily. Witherspoon described it this way when he recalled his impressions of the first day he saw the teenager Chen Zeyu.

"There's not a single person who isn't shocked when they see Ben for the first time, because... Because hee hee is so different, hee-hee, well, you have to admit that Ben is really beautiful, don't laugh at me. Contrary to what we expected, he didn't have pigtails at that time, but that didn't quench our curiosity. Oh my God, he's so handsome. Ben is a very gentle man who wears his trademark smile all day long. He doesn't seem to be too lively, though, and while he's always been the best pitcher in his grade on the baseball field, he doesn't often participate in our kids' play and banter ......"