Qi Min thought that Americans were easier at first, but later found out that Anton and EASY might be several miles away from Yelena.

Although Anton would ask her out to play, it was limited to going out for a picnic on the weekend and bringing a large basket of prepared food. Qi Min saw these kung pao chickens, boiled shrimp segments, fried hairtail fish, golden sea crabs, and shredded apples...... There is even a local dish called "dark cuisine" such as wasabi duner, which is considered by many Chinese, and it can't help but create a sense of time travel.

Anton saw that she seemed to be "curious" about the box of mustard, so he asked, "Can you eat mustard?" ”

"Yes...... Shouldn't it be too spicy, right? Qi Min picked up the chopsticks, added a cabbage leaf soaked in mustard, tasted it on the premise of being prepared for the taste to be poisoned, and was surprised to find that the taste was positive—and even quite positive.

She swallowed the small mouthful of mustard and looked up to see Anton handing over the cup.

Oh, Coke. For a moment, she even thought it was bean juice.

"Is this your restaurant's dish? It feels pretty good. Qi Min asked.

"No, I did it myself." Anton explains, "Our restaurant used to be a normal Chinese restaurant, but after the original owner sold the restaurant to a Southeast Asian Yankee, it became the fast food it is now. ”

"That's a shame." Qi Min sighed casually.

"yes, that's a shame." Anton said softly.

Compared with the changes in Chinese restaurants, Qi Min is still more interested in his craft: "You can cook so many dishes, why don't you become a chef?" ”

"Where do you become a chef?" Anton said lightly, "There is no real Chinese restaurant in this place at all." ”

Objectively speaking, apart from real Chinese, there are probably not many other audiences for "real" Chinese restaurants. For example, the tastes of those old Chinese are actually different from the current Chinese, and there are not even many old Chinese in this place.

"Does it have to be in a real Chinese restaurant?" Zheng Rui couldn't help asking, "You can also be a chef in a Chinese fast food restaurant." ”

"Fast food restaurants don't need that many chefs." Anton just replied.

"Why don't you do something else?" Zheng Rui then asked. She doesn't understand that a rare beauty like him, even if she has Asian ancestry, may not be able to rely on this to eat - Americans have a lot of spare money, even if they are Internet celebrities, they can make money.

Who knew that for this question, Anton asked rhetorically: "Then can't you do something else?" I've heard that biology graduate students are the lowest paid, so why don't you go and study CS? ”

Hey, that's pretty rushing. But he finally made Qi Min understand, just like she is willing to study biology, Anton is also willing to continue to work in Chinese restaurants on his own. What's more, the wages of food delivery are enough to live, and the United States is not as involuted as East Asia.

But Anton, who said this, realized that something was wrong first, and quickly apologized: "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said such things." ”

"It's okay, it's also a fact that biology graduate students are paid low." Qi Min said with a smile, "I can't even buy food here, this is the most sumptuous meal I've seen in a month." ”

Anton's face flushed, he lowered his head and seemed to finally remember something, picked up the box of rice and handed it to her: "Is wasabi spicy?" You eat some rice. "Worry-free Chinese network

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Since Anton is the only source of authentic Chinese food she can find so far, Qi Min decides to go to him for a few more meals, even if he is considered to be thick-skinned. But her skin is not abnormally thick, and she has to share at least half of the cost of the ingredients, so she asks Anton to go to the Asian supermarket from time to time to buy groceries, and then cook in his rented apartment (watching him).

It's just that when he was shopping for groceries, Qi Min watched Anton's shopping cart fill more and more, and he still couldn't help but feel pain: "How much do you want to buy so much?" Asparagus is so expensive, there are already several greens, it's okay not to buy this, right? ”

"Is it expensive?" Anton was a little confused, "Asparagus is a little more expensive than those dishes, right?" ”

"Do you call this a 'little bit'......" Qi Min said half-truthfully, half-jokingly, "It's only been two weeks this month, and I've spent more on food than I did last month." I'm so poor. ”

"That's miserable, let's buy less." Anton sighed with genuine feelings, but still raised questions, "But the salary of graduate students should not be so small, right?" ”

"Less is definitely less, but it's not that you can't live." Qi Min said helplessly, "But the rent is too high, so I can only compress the cost of living." ”

Rents are really high. As a person who also rents a house, Anton also said with emotion: "The rent is really high, and my main expenses are also on the rent." There is no way, the proletariat will be exploited twice. ”

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The high rent is objective, but what Anton didn't expect was that Qi Min's high rent was not the same thing as he imagined.

He originally thought that Qi Min rented a nearby and large apartment for the convenience of going to school and didn't want to reduce his living standard, so the rent would indeed be very high. Unexpectedly, when he went to deliver Qi Minla's documents at his house at night, he saw that the apartment she rented was also in a dilapidated old community, which was not only small in size but also looked decades old.

"You're ...... Live here? Anton looked around at the chaotic and crowded scene around him, and couldn't help but sigh.

"yes." Qi Min was a little embarrassed, with her such a reluctant living habit, it was indeed unbearable to look at her in the apartment where she lived alone, but she still had to fight for it on the basis of reason, "The space is too small, so it can only be like this." ”

"It's not close to your school, is it? Why can't you rent a bigger one? Anton asked in surprise.

"The salary is not enough." Qi Min's reason is also very simple.

That's when Anton really realized how low graduate pay was — or, more accurately, only in those other majors, graduate pay was particularly low.

Others can study for a doctorate as a career, but some majors can only barely make a living as a doctoral student. Basic research, which in itself is called "generating electricity with love".

"But there's already a small space, so you can't just put things in it so casually. ...... here," Anton couldn't help but say, "It looks like a kennel." ”

"Ah, my colleague Yelena said the same." Qi Min responded with a smile.

"She's so right." Anton looked at the pile of clutter on the sofa and shook his head helplessly.

What he didn't know was that this sentence would be the only time he identified with Qi Min's friend Yelena in the next six years.