The Haunted

The white taxi is galloping on the road, country music is playing in the car, and the hot wind blows in when the windows are opened, bringing the hot temperature of the February sunshine in the southern hemisphere.

Along the way, you can almost only see low-rise residential buildings and roadside vegetation and trees, and large areas of pastoral village-style scenery. Only in places close to the city center can there be a little modern atmosphere.The streets are deserted, with few people or cars.

Finally, the taxi stopped in front of a four or five-story building.The driver took the fifty-knife bill from Chi Yan, and muttered to find the change for him: "Don't take such a large denomination for taxis in the future, it will be very difficult to change."

Chi Yan got out of the car, and stood in front of his future dormitory building with a backpack and a box in his hand, holding a handful of change. In China, even fifty cents coins are rare now, and he suddenly got such a large handful of coins. It made him a little uncomfortable, and he didn't even know where to put it.

While collecting the change, he looked at the dark red building in front of him.The building should have been old for a certain period of time, and it looked a little old from the outside, making the dark red color look a bit like dried blood.

He took a breath, pulled the suitcase and walked in. The glass doors automatically opened to both sides. The inside of the building looked newer than the outside, obviously renovated.

Chi Yan was lucky, when he went upstairs with his room card after registration, he met a Chinese boy in the elevator.The boy’s name is Jiang Tian, ​​and he came here because he participated in a "2+2" project of the school. He studied in a partner school abroad in his sophomore and junior years, and returned to our school to prepare for graduation after his senior year. So although he is now with Chi Yan is also a third-year student, but he has already been here for a year, and he is very familiar with all aspects.

Chi Yan's room was on the fourth floor, and Jiang Tian lived on the third floor, but he offered to help Chi Yan carry things to his room, and he cleaned up the house with him.

"There is a public kitchen on each floor, where you can cook for yourself, as well as bathrooms, laundry, etc., and you can enter by swiping the room card; but to be honest, the location of your room is not good, the upstairs is the activity room, and the fifth floor is the public space , foreign students like to have a party in the activity room, almost every weekend, very noisy. But there is no way, fortunately, the time is usually no more than twelve o'clock. What other problems, such as buying daily necessities, going to school You can come to me for registration, office card, etc., and I can take you there, anyway, the formal class will start next week, and there is nothing to do recently."

"Okay, thank you." Chi Yan couldn't wait to ask the question he was most concerned about, "How do you usually eat? Do you...do it yourself?"

Jiang Tian nodded: "Yes, do it yourself."

He looked at Chi Yan's expression: "Or go out and buy food, but the cheapest meal costs about ten knives, and the taste is not very good, it's not good to eat, it's better to cook by yourself. There is a small restaurant nearby The burger shop sells hamburgers, pizza, fish and chips, etc. The hamburger is not small and only sells for more than seven dollars. His pizza is also okay, it is like a bread pie, wrapped with barbecue, onion and cheese Baked, the small portion only sells for about ten knives, enough to last for a day. But those foods have too much oil and calories, so it’s definitely not enough to eat every day. It’s not bad to buy and eat there occasionally if you don’t have time to cook. The school also sells a lot A place for food, but the taste and portion are average, and there is nothing too delicious. In comparison, I actually think Subway is pretty good.”

"I should still learn to cook by myself." Chi Yan covered his head in distress, he didn't have the nerve to tell the friends he just met that he couldn't even turn on a fire, and he didn't even crack an egg when he was at home.

Although he will be given a not-so-small scholarship when he comes out to exchange countries and will pay for round-trip air tickets, but he will spend more than 1000 dollars a month for accommodation here-a month’s accommodation fee is more than four years in China. There are many.Moreover, there is a cheap canteen in their school, where you can eat well for less than 15 yuan per meal. Even if you get tired of eating in the canteen, there are all kinds of takeaways... Only at this time can I especially appreciate the socialist university superiority.He himself is still studying and has no income. If he is too embarrassed to ask his parents for too much money, he has to learn how to budget carefully. Learning how to cook seems to be necessary.

In order to make it easier for him to come here, he only brought the clothes he needed to wear and his laptop. All bedding, kitchen utensils, and various daily necessities needed to be repurchased. He also had to go to the school to apply for a student card, go to the bank to open an account, and apply for a local phone card and transportation card. ...all sorts of things.

Fortunately, Jiang Tian was there, and in the afternoon, he took Chi Yan with him in order of priority, and also showed him the way to school and the central business district.As a thank you, Chi Yan invited him to dinner at a Malaysian restaurant in the city center after shopping.

The place is recommended by Jiang Tian, ​​relatively speaking, it is relatively cheap, a meal only costs more than 20 knives, but the portions of vegetables and meat are relatively large.Chi Yan's order was curry chicken and curry shrimp, which tasted pretty good, and it was cheaper than a la carte Chinese restaurants.

Thanks to Jiang Tian's advice and guidance, Chi Yan basically finished what he needed to do in the afternoon, except for the bank card and some odds and ends to buy.

During the school season, there were a lot of bankers in the school, and it took a long time to line up. Chi Yan went to do it by himself the next day. By the way, he settled for lunch and dinner at the Subway and a fried chicken restaurant in the school.

When returning to the dormitory at night, he met neighbors who lived on the left and next door to the right.

He lives in room 407. In room 406 on the left is a black-haired boy named Alex, who is over 1.8 meters tall, with fair skin and a sunny smile; in room 408 on the right is a woman named Emily. Child, with soft blond hair.Both of them are of obvious Western race in appearance.

The dormitory here is an application system, and re-apply every academic year or semester, and many students will change dormitories or move out to rent a house by themselves.Emily also just moved in. After talking with them for a while, she went back to pack her things. She also made an appointment with her friends for dinner.

"So you just arrived yesterday?" Alex looked at him and said, "There are many interesting places in Sophie. I have a car and I can take you there. Do you like parties? We also have many interesting parties .”

In any case, in real life, enthusiastic and cheerful people are more likely to win the favor of others, and having a friendly neighbor is not a bad thing.Chi Yan thanked each other, and chatted casually for a few more words before saying goodbye and going back to their rooms.

The third day turned out to be a rare cloudy day, with clouds covering the sun and the color of the trees looking dull, which is relatively rare in February.

Chi Yan was a bit tired from running around for the past two days, so he didn't get up until ten o'clock this morning, took a car to a nearby supermarket, carefully selected and purchased the vegetables and meat that he might eat these days, and carried them to the kitchen.

To be honest, he didn't know what he would do, so he bought a box of eggs, a piece of packaged beef, half a cabbage, and two tomatoes. At least these things were the most common and shouldn't be difficult to cook.Jiang Tian took sugar, salt, soy sauce and other seasonings to a Chinese supermarket to buy on the first day. Although his mind was a mess and he didn't know how to use these chemical reagents, at least they were not lacking.

There are two kitchens on each floor. There are two public refrigerators and a freezer in the kitchen. Everyone has their own place in the refrigerator that can be locked.Chi Yan's refrigerator is located in the kitchen on the left. The kitchen is surrounded by cabinets and a sink, and there are two rows of six stoves in the middle.

Chi Yan took out a newly bought pot and put it on the stove, carefully turned on the fire.He decided to start with the simplest fried rice.

He steamed a bowl of rice in the microwave, shredded half a cabbage, sliced ​​a tomato, cracked an egg, and threw the rest of the tomato, half a cabbage and the beef that he didn’t know what to do with. Put it in the refrigerator—he thought that when his cooking skills improved, he might be able to make a tomato beef brisket.

Chi Yan looked up a fried rice tutorial on the Internet. According to the above steps, first pour the oil, then pour the steamed rice in, and then add the chopped cabbage, tomatoes and eggs.

The tutorial said to add eggs and green onions, but he felt he had to add some vegetables.The freshly steamed rice seemed a bit too soggy, but it didn't hurt.So far so good, he just needs to turn it over with a spatula and add some salt.

Two minutes later, Chi Yan stared dumbfounded at the soup coming out of the tomatoes and cabbage, and the pot was completely wet with red, red and white.

He took out his mobile phone with a twitching face, but in desperation he had no choice but to ask Jiang Tian for help.

After a while, Jiang Tian came up from the third floor, staring at Chi Yan's pot in a daze: "...What is this?"

Fortunately, Chi Yan knew how to turn off the fire first.

"Fried rice. Put tomatoes, cabbage, and an egg." Poor God saw that his meal didn't even have any meat—because he didn't know what to do.

"Your rice is too wet, and the cabbage itself is prone to water. If you want to put it into the stew, you should at least go through it beforehand, right?"

Jiang Tian couldn't bear to look at this pot of food: "Chi Yan...do you still want to eat this?"

"It's probably not edible." Chi Yan looked at the pot, feeling sorry for his egg. The free-range eggs he bought were much more expensive than cage-raised eggs.

"It's okay, I can just try the burger from the burger shop you mentioned." He said to his friend with a wry smile.

Jiang Tian nodded, and described the location of the hamburger restaurant to him again: "I have already finished eating, or I can help you. But there is nothing wrong with this, everyone has things they are not good at, I believe Myself, your future wife will be very virtuous."

Jiang Tian helped him clean up the mess in the kitchen, and then the two bid farewell, Jiang Tian went back to the third floor, Chi Yan went back to the house to pick up his wallet and went straight to the burger restaurant that Jiang Tian mentioned.

The hamburger restaurant said it was going to walk a street away, but there was no other place selling food on the street where their dormitory was located. He began to miss the large and small restaurants that can be seen everywhere in the imperial capital, and even those blue and yellow takeaway riders , In contrast, this place can be called a new capitalist modernized countryside.

The hamburger restaurant that Jiang Tian mentioned was hidden in the back of the street, with a small frontage, only three or four counters, and no place for customers to rest, so they didn’t serve dine-in and could only take out, which looked a little crude.

There are some fried foods on the counter, with a golden warm light on it; a square oil pan behind is still working, giving people a different kind of oily and warm feeling.

At this time, there was still a customer standing in the small storefront.

It was a middle-aged man with gray hair. He was wearing a white shirt and black trousers. What was striking was that he was wearing a gray checkered vest outside the shirt—this season Dressing like this on this occasion is really a bit strange.

There is also a dark gold pocket watch hanging on his chest. The skin on the exposed neck and side face is very white, not like the normal skin color of ordinary Caucasians, but a kind of sickly pale.His leather shoes are clean and his posture is elegant, which reminds Chi Yan of the western traditional gentleman in the movie.

He was totally out of place with this burger restaurant, so Chi Yan couldn't help but look at him a few more times.

The man also noticed his gaze, turned his head, nodded and smiled politely at him, and left with his things after paying.Chi Yan moved to the left to make way for the other party.

A black car is heard outside the door on the left corner.

The man walked to the front of the car in a hurry, first opened the rear door and bent down to pass the things in, then went back to the front driver's seat and opened the door.That stooping motion made him look humble and respectful.

Chi Yan was a little curious, so he couldn't help but keep staring at him, not even realizing whether his behavior was impolite.

The moment that person opened the back seat door to pass something, Chi Yan saw the faint silhouette of that person sitting on the back seat.It should be a man, because although it was only for a moment, he also saw a pale and slender hand stretched out from it - slender but broad and powerful, with well-defined joints and full of strength.

That was unlikely to be a lady's hand.

There seemed to be something on his fingers, which dazzled his eyes for a moment.

Chi Yan blinked, and when he opened his eyes again to look, the black car had disappeared from the corner of the street.