"Sir!"

"Sir!"

Shujie woke up suddenly, breathing with a hiss.

"Sir, here we are."

Shujie rubbed his eyes at the taxi driver's call. When he came to his senses, he looked at his watch. More than two hours have passed. Outside the window, an orange-yellow building sits in front of it, with its golden dome quaint yet elegant.

"It's finally here," Shujie pushed the car door, picked up his backpack and got out of the car. As far as he could see, the clear blue sky was full of greenery, and there were straight street trees everywhere. On the grass ahead, several squirrels were playing excitedly, and swans chirped from time to time in the distance.

"Is this the University of Notre Dame?" Shujie stood in this place he had dreamed of, but there was no trace of excitement in his heart.

"Sir! Your baggage. The driver interrupted Shujie's thoughts. In the blink of an eye, the two huge suitcases had been piled up on the sidewalk by the driver. Fare! Shujie took out the money and handed it to the driver, then stood there dumbfounded, at a loss.

"Oh, the Chemistry Building!" After a while, Shujie suddenly came to his senses and realized that the address he had given to the driver was the main building of the school, and he should report to the chemistry department. "What should I do?" He remembered that the letter of acceptance had an outline of the Chemistry Building on its letterhead and a campus map on the back that was supposed to show the location of the Chemistry Building. Thinking of this, he looked up and suddenly saw that the taxi driver was still standing in front of him, and his eyes seemed to suggest something.

"In the United States, you have to tip when you take a taxi." Shujie's ears rang with Teacher Han's voice. So, he hurriedly took out another 20 yuan and stuffed it into the driver's hand.

The taxi ran away, and Shujie dragged his luggage and began to follow the map. But even if he couldn't read the street signs, he couldn't distinguish between east and west, north and south, and it was extremely difficult to find them. After looking for a while, Shujie suddenly saw a group of students dancing on the grass in front of a small white building.

"Ask?" Shujie struggled for a while, but he was still afraid that he wouldn't understand, so he didn't dare to ask for directions. So, he picked up the map again and studied it. "Xiao Bailou should be here?" Shujie's finger slid across the map: "Maybe you should go right first, then left, go straight... Try your luck. ”

Ten minutes later, Shujie stood in front of a castle-like building with the acceptance letter in hand. The three-story building is a three-story building with red bricks and green tiles, with three spires arranged in a staggered manner in each direction, exactly like the outline on the letterhead. Between the two towers on the right is a shield-shaped doorway with a tall dark brown wooden door in a Catholic style.

"Damn! My blind cat actually found the dead mouse. Shujie stepped forward and pushed it, and the door of the chemistry building opened. He struggled to carry his luggage down the stairs one by one. Before Shujie could take a breath, the door slowly closed automatically. For a moment, the corridor was dim. "Where's the department's office?" Shujie had no clue, so he had to raise his legs and continue to walk forward.

Without taking three or four steps, Shujie suddenly saw an A4-sized piece of white paper pasted on the first door on the right-hand side. There are still three intelligible square words engraved on the door panel above the white paper, but in the center of the white paper is handwritten: O-F-F-I-C-E.

The moment he saw these five English letters, Shujie's nose was sour. Along the way, he was already exhausted. If the office of the chemistry department is on the second floor, you might as well find a piece of tofu and kill it. "There's no one in the aisle anyway, so there shouldn't be any problem with leaving large luggage outside the door." Shujie hurriedly cut his hair, and then knocked on the door of the department's office.

"Please come in!" The door opened automatically, and a greeting came from Chinese inside.

Behind the desk by the window, a chubby white woman got up and greeted Shujie. She looked to be in her forties, with curly, ear-length blonde hair that accentuated a kind smiling face. Behind her stood an Asian boy. This person is neatly dressed, his figure is straight, and the smile behind the gold-rimmed glasses is a little familiar.

"Hello, I... It's Erin, the secret... Book. The woman stammered to introduce herself in Chinese.

"She can actually speak Chinese other than 'hello'," Shujie was shocked, but he was more glad in his heart: "Although Irene's Chinese is incredibly blunt, it is much better than that incomprehensible nonsense." ”

"You, Mr. Hu." Erin continued: "This Wei classmate is also from China, last year. Hopefully he can help... Sorry, my Chinese is at an end. She then turned to the Asian boy and resumed speaking in a language that Shujie didn't understand.

Why don't they speak English? Shujie held the admission document in his hand and stood at his desk stupidly.

Erin finally finished speaking. She opened the drawer and took out a few forms and handed them to Wei, then took a handful of documents from Shujie's hand, turned around and left. But Shujie looked at Classmate Wei's eyes and was speechless for a long time.

"When I first arrived, everyone was like that." After a long time, the Chinese classmate finally broke the silence: "My name is Wei Yang, from the Department of History. ”

"Department of History!" Shujie suddenly gave a cold war: "Isn't this the Department of Chemistry?" ”

"That's right." Wei Yang replied: "The Graduate School temporarily informed the Chinese Student Union that a new student is coming today, and asked me to help, hoping to use my experience last year to help you settle down as soon as possible." ”

"There are no other Chinese men in the chemistry department..."Shujie blurted out doubts.

"Of course." Wei Yang laughed: "But you're not a girl." ”

"Girls?"

"Haha, if you were a girl, there would have been a lot of senior brothers from the chemistry department rushing to drive to Chicago to pick you up."

"What about the boys?"

"Then I'm sorry. Only I, the president of the student council, came to pick you up from the chemistry department's office. ”

"What do you mean?"

"I haven't bought a car yet. The country is vast and sparsely populated, and you can't go there without a car, and you can't do anything. ”

"Oh," Shujie finally understood what Wei Yang meant, but the confusion in his heart did not diminish at all: "Why did Erin go?" What did you say to her? I don't understand a word. ”

"She said the photocopier in the office was broken and she had to go to the library to copy your documents." Wei Yang explained.

"And what did you say? Isn't English spoken in the United States? ”

"The old crooks of the New West told you, right?"

"Teacher Han Ming?"

"Of course it's him! That's what I found out when I came. Wei Yang said indignantly: "This bastard can say anything for money, and he believes that we international students dare not expose his lies for the sake of the face of our parents." ”

"Face?" From getting off the plane to now, Shujie's brain has been in an extreme shock, and he has not had a chance to think so much.

"That's right. Mi Guo is not what Han Ming told us at all. ”

"You also learned English in the New West?"

"Where else can I go? As a result, I had to learn the language again when I arrived in the United States. Wei Yang's voice suddenly became a little more sour: "Do you know? How many times have I wanted to tell my parents the truth, but when I think of how proud they look at me, I can't open my mouth. ”

"yes," Shujie thought about it, how could his parents not be like this. He still remembers the college entrance banquet held by his father when he was admitted to Jingnan University. This time I was in a hurry to go abroad, and I didn't have the opportunity to let my father do it, but my father notified all his relatives by phone. If his old man knew that studying in the United States was actually a scam, Shujie would not dare to imagine the consequences. "That's right!" He suddenly realized the most important point of his confusion, and hurriedly asked Wei Yang: "Since Mi Guo doesn't speak English, what language do they speak?" ”

"What they said was—" Before Wei Yang's words were finished, the female secretary Erin had already pushed open the door and hurried back. She returned Shujie's identity document to him, and without waiting for Shujie to reply, she chatted with Wei Yang again. I don't know why, Wei Yang nodded frequently and apologized. After the conversation, Erin returned to her desk and began to look at the computer, while Wei Yang pulled Shujie to another desk.

"What's going on?" Shujie was puzzled by this.

"Today is Labor Day in the United States, and the school is closed." Wei Yang explained: "We were talking just now and forgot to fill out the form. Erin spends her own time waiting for you in the department. Hurry up and fill out the form! ”

"Okay, Senior Wei." Shujie suddenly realized: "No wonder there are no people on campus, no wonder there are people marching on the streets in Chicago." ”

"Just call me Wei Yang, passport." Wei Yang replied, and at the same time opened the admission form to be filled. Shujie looked at it, and it was full of that kind of square characters, and he understood why Erin wanted Wei Yang to help, so he hurriedly handed over his passport to Wei Yang. At this time, he suddenly remembered something, so he apologized to Wei Yang repeatedly: "I'm sorry, I just asked you just now, and I didn't bother to introduce myself." My surname is Hu and my name is Shujie. ”

"It's okay, Shujie. When I first arrived, I was shocked to be like this. Just get used to it. Wei Yang opened his passport, lowered his head, and filled out the form with that weird character word by word. Fill in, fill in, Wei Yang came to Shujie's undergraduate diploma again, and said in surprise: "Huh! You are from the 98th class of Jingnan. Me too. ”

"Yes, I entered the school in '94. How I don't remember seeing you. ”

"Do you know Yaojun? I remember he studied chemistry. ”

"How don't you know. He and I share a dorm. How did you meet him? ”

"Yao Jun and I are piano friends, and it seems that I have even played the guitar in his dormitory." Wei Yang scratched his head.

"That's right," Shujie patted his thigh: "No wonder I saw you a little familiar just now." "Fangcai's senior is actually an alumnus of his own level. Even in the United States, the world is really small.

The admission form is completed. Wei Yang handed it to Erin, and leaned down on the desk to help her fill out the 'school audit' part. With a crack on Erin's keyboard, all the formalities were done. Wei Yang took a red and blue booklet from Erin and stuffed it into Shujie's hand. Shujie knew that this was the last link, so he hurriedly stepped forward. Across the desk, Erin also stood up. She shook Shujie's hand and said in Chinese, "Welcome to the University of Notre Dame!" ”

Tonight, Shujie wants to make do with Wei Yang first. After the faculty and staff go to work tomorrow, the school will be able to arrange a dormitory for Shujie. But with Wei Yang's help, that large amount of luggage was also much easier. The two of them walked out of the chemistry building with a large box.

As soon as I went out, there was a burst of passionate music in front of me. Shujie looked up and saw that the group of people who were dancing in front of the small white building had already arrived in front of the chemistry building. This group of people is not very old, and they should all be undergraduates. They were men and women, black and white, all dressed in red and blue. Even more strange is that each person has a pamphlet in his right hand. One of the people at the head carried a tape recorder on his shoulder. Under his direction, the students danced and shouted, "Bu-shi-ton-lin-yo-yi-jay-kang!" ”

"How familiar is this sentence?" Shujie asked Wei Yang in confusion: "What slogan are they shouting?" ”

"The meaning of this slogan is," Wei Yang put his mouth to Shujie's ear and whispered, "President Bush will always be healthy!" ”

"President Bush?" Shujie was shocked. This slogan, which I have heard many times, and the portrait on the exchange building, many clues have been strung together little by little: "George W. Bush is the president of the United States." How is this possible? He instinctively asked Wei Yang: "Isn't the current president of the United States Klinton?" ”

"Who?"

"K. Linton, Bill M. K. Linton. ”

"I haven't heard of it."

"Lewinsky?"

"What chicken?"

Hearing this, the world suddenly lost color, the crowd lost its voice, and Shu Jieche was completely confused.

"Oh my God!

"Could this be the legendary parallel universe?

"No, I have to go back!" But he had no idea how to return to his own universe.

"Shujie! Shujie! ”

A loud shout brought Shujie back to reality.

"Shujie! Are you okay? Wei Yang's face appeared in front of him. In the background, the students are still dancing.

Suddenly, Shujie recalled the topic he hadn't finished talking to Wei Yang in the department's office just now. He lunged forward, grabbed Wei Yang's shoulders tightly, and asked eagerly, "What exactly are they talking about?" What words! ”