Qi Min almost annoyed Anton, only to realize that he was not the ABC born to Chinese immigrants to the United States and locals as she thought - the kind that even if he is suspected of being "not Chinese" (and also suspected of being "not American"), he also has parents, and orphans are really orphans without parents, which is of course very fatal.

But she didn't fully understand how Anton could be an orphan, and a Chinese orphan who grew up in the United States.

Qi Min knows that many Americans adopt orphans from all over the world every year — probably mainly because of the lower cost of adopting orphans in less developed areas — but for the orphans who are adopted, the people who adopt them are also the same as their parents. And objectively speaking, it is rare to adopt boys from China through formal routes, because the proportion of female babies abandoned in less developed areas is much higher than that of male babies.

But these kinds of doubts are just thinking about them in her heart, and they never show them on the surface. Qi Min himself was not interested in this kind of gossip, and the Bolsheviks were the least particular about their origins, and the theory of descent was extremely reactionary.

After she broke up with Anton, she WhatsApp him again a day later and asked him if he wanted to eat together—no, if he wanted to read together.

Anton was delivering food when he received the message, and he habitually typed "OK", but thinking of Qi Min's incredibly rude attitude, he couldn't help but feel a little angry, so he didn't reply.

However, after a while, Qi Min actually called him: "Hey, let's have dinner together tonight - and then read "Capital"?" ”

"You can eat by yourself and read Capital by yourself." Anton said deliberately, "And even you can read the Chinese version, I can't read it anyway." ”

"I can't believe it, you're still angry?" Qi Min's tone sounded really surprised, "Then should I apologize to you?" Because I really didn't know before. I can even buy you a gift if you need it. ”

If someone else, such as his friend Carlos, spoke to him like that, Anton would probably be angry by now. But Qi Min's tone sounded so sincere that he began to suspect that she was just not speaking English well, or that she had a problem with her head.

"You don't have to apologize to me." Anton replied. In addition to feeling uncomfortable, he still wanted to test whether Qi Min was so rude just because of the language problem.

Who knew that Qi Min continued: "Oh, it's great that you can think so." I don't think I need to apologize to you—" Anton almost hung up at this point, but she then said, "because that's not something to be sorry for." I mean, what about your parents, what does it have to do with you now? Let's eat and read together, is there anything related to our origin? ”

She said it so naturally that Anton couldn't hear if she really thought that, or if she was acting out to comfort him. However, even the latter means that Qi Min's emotional intelligence is still enough...... That's a good thing, too?

"You're right, maybe I'm thinking too much." Anton then said, "But you were really rude the day before yesterday...... It's okay if we're friends, but I'd advise you not to talk like that to the Yankees. ”

To be honest, Qi Min just asked casually, and didn't understand where she was rude, so he just said, "Of course." I will only tell the Chinese about this kind of topic, those Americans are culturally different after all. ”

————————————187

Qi Min gave Anton the enamel cup she had left in the laboratory to drink, with a Mao image and "Serve the People" printed on it.

Of course, the gift was not just to apologize, but mainly to thank him for allowing her to eat so many meals - although Qi Min also paid half of the money for the ingredients, she also knew that the labor cost was actually much higher than the cost of food.

Anton said that he knew the words on this cup, and probably knew how well he recognized Chinese characters, Qi Min deliberately asked: "Okay, then what kind of words are you reading?" ”

As a Bolshevik, Qi Min felt that he should still know this sentence. However, the "business" of simplified and traditional Chinese is different, and she actually dug a hole here.

However, the sentence that Anton read almost didn't make Qi Min spray: "Isn't this just 'taking medicine for the people'?" ”

Qi Min endured it for a long time before he couldn't hold back his laughter, and had to ask, "Why do you want to 'take medicine'?" Haven't you heard of 'serving the people'? ”

"I've heard of it, but it's not a word for business, is it?" Anton was a little confused, "The former owner of our restaurant hung a Chinese character in the lounge, which is 'serve the people', and that is definitely not the way it is written. ”

"This is the traditional Chinese written by Mao, which is different from the simplified Chinese." Qi Min smiled again and asked, "And why do you think this word is 'medicine'?" ”

Anton looked at the words on the cup seriously, and then said with some hesitation: "It doesn't seem to be 'medicine'." I just remember that the 'medicine' handwriting also had about so many strokes, and it looked pretty much the same. ”

If Anton's level of spoken Chinese can still reach the level of simple communication, then his level of recognition of Chinese characters is Qi Min's "source of happiness". She encountered many difficulties in experiments, and her scientific research level was not as good as that of various colleagues, but she was able to make up for Anton's Chinese proficiency. Compared with Anton's Chinese level, the only place where she can quickly grow her confidence - who made him claim to be a pure Chinese, but he knows all the words.

Anton watched Qi Min laughing "gloating" there, knowing in his heart that he should be angry in the face of ridicule, but his ability to empathize made him laugh with Qi Min when he saw him, and finally became laughing at himself. Sometimes you can't get angry if you want to, it's really ...... The same thing that you want to be angry but can't do.

Qi Min laughed enough, but still told him how to write the real word "medicine", and by the way, his conscience "popularized" the law of Chinese character radicals.

Later, when reading Capital, Anton also asked how to say and write the words "capital", "profit", "means of production", and "proletariat" in Chinese. Qi Min told him that in fact, these words are not used very often in the Chinese context, but Anton claimed that he would read the original "Mao Xuan" in the future, so he repeatedly asked Qi Min to teach him Chinese.

For ordinary Bolshevik comrades, Qi Min definitely didn't have the patience to be a one-on-one primary school tutor, but she couldn't stand Anton's good looks, so she agreed as soon as her head was hot.

For at least a month after that, "taking medicine for the people" became a meme for Qi Min to ridicule Anton. Even if Anton wanted to be angry, he couldn't help Qi Min laugh while saying "take medicine", so he had to wait until she was tired of playing by herself.