woman wearing irish linen shirt

Miss Pender is rich.

I probably have such an impression.Because among my college classmates, everyone who dared to study liberal arts, without exception, had some family background; let alone those who dared to study literature at the graduate level. After all, Qu Zhizhi was the only international student, and she was indeed The family is well off.

In addition, Miss Pan De has her own car, which is a luxury car.

...and it's a luxury car with a manual transmission.

I realized she was rich.

But I didn't realize that Miss Pender was so rich.

Lao Huang laughed and patted me: "What's wrong? You're frozen!"

"No, I just..." I touched the back of my neck, "I thought she earned more."

"How much can she earn as a partner? 100 million a year?" The boss also laughed, I think I must be very funny now, "That is not a person who can be an inspirational role model for us, you have set the wrong goal. Don't be discouraged, Yao, the level I have reached now, when you reach my age, I think it will not be a problem for you."

I forced a smile: "Landed housing is already an ambitious enough goal, I'm afraid I can't reach it."

"Find a partner who will approach the goal with you." Lao Huang winked his eyes.

"That's true." The boss crossed his arms and patted his own arm. "If you are interested in a while, I would like to introduce a friend to you. Do you want to see the photo first?"

"I don't go on blind dates, you know that, Rudra. But thank you anyway." I smiled and shook my head.The muddy water brought by the dog on the boss has completely dried up, and it is terribly hot today.

When Lao Huang heard what I said, he didn't break the stage, he just smiled meaningfully from the side.

—I'm not saying she can't be rich, or that she doesn't look like a rich person.I don't dislike my date being poor, nor do I resent getting close to a super rich man.

But I really didn't expect that - when I was eating at Dempsey Hill that day, Miss Pender, like me, complained about the mineral water imported from Greece for ten yuan a bottle?

I remember she also mentioned that the mineral water in the supermarket only costs [-] cents.I drink several brands of mineral water on a regular basis, and the price of [-]ml ranges from one yuan, which is a little more luxurious than hers.

And the day before yesterday, we were supposed to go to Sentosa.The landed houses that foreigners are eligible to buy are all over there—couldn’t her friend who lent us the villa be herself?

I still feel hot on the forehead, the sun is too poisonous.

No, why do rich people drink mineral water that costs [-] cents?

There was movement on the porch, and the children came out with ingredients.The chihuahua was the first creature present to react, and immediately rushed to the boss's wife. The children laughed, and the yard was instantly filled with pure joy and the dog's sharp barking.

"I ate a pack of your snacks." I helped Katya put the marinated meat on a high place for later use, "I was too hungry when I came here today."

"Is it delicious?" She didn't seem very angry, she looked at me with dark eyes.

So cute - totally different from the boss.

"Not bad, your taste is very similar to mine."

"That means your taste is very similar to mine, not the other way around," Katya said. "I still have two packs. You can take it with you if you like."

She has a wonderful mixture of cool and innocent when she speaks, and I must have been more awkward than her when I first entered adolescence, at least not able to speak to adults as a child.I couldn't help but smile, bowed slightly, and looked at her eye level: "Thank you. But I have a salary, so I can buy it myself."

"I also want to get a salary." She crossed her arms, "By the way, Yao, I'm learning "Etude in F Minor". Would you like to come and listen to it for me later?"

I agree right away.

When she saw me nodding, her expectant eyes immediately turned into a smile, revealing the metal brackets on her teeth.Katya might be a little embarrassed, but she shut her mouth tightly again.

I almost laughed out loud, but I was afraid of hurting her, so I finally pretended to be her drink and went to the refrigerator to pick out a bottle of mineral water.I took them all for her, and it was not good for the other children to ignore them, so I turned over four more cans of juice: now they are full of beer.

So buying drinks can't be left to Lao Huang.Only he and the boss were present drinking beer.

I walked away for a while for no reason.

She said she hated beer.

"Auntie!" Lao Huang's eldest son came out of nowhere, "What are you laughing at?"

"Laugh when you're happy." I felt a headache when I heard the voice, so I patted his head.

"Katya's father told you to come over." He followed me with his hands behind his back, and after only a while, he was already sweating and his face was flushed.Lao Huang's youngest son is even more wild, now he is chasing each other with a ball and Chihuahua...

I looked at my sister-in-law.She had already begun to struggle with the computer.

right.It's my turn to look after them this afternoon...

"Why are you sighing?" Lao Huang's eldest son said.But after he asked the question, he seemed to have forgotten what he was talking about just now, and his thoughts jumped elsewhere: "Today we played VR tennis, and I won the first place."

"Did you have fun?"

"So-so. I like more mentally challenging activities," he said coolly.

Really, one of the duo who got me complained a solid three times for messing around in the house after only a week at my house, now telling me he likes brain-testing activities?

I try to keep my facial expression as smooth as possible: "Really? What projects are you passionate about recently?"

""Crusader Kings 2"." He said immediately, "Just now we watched Katya's mother play for two hours, and I think it is very suitable for me."

The eldest son also echoed: "Is my mother amazing?"

I refrained from glancing at the client who forced the child to watch her play a game of strategy.The eldest's wife is also helping near the barbecue grill at the moment. I don't know how she feels when she hears the children's heated discussions.

When Internet cafes first became popular, we also opened one in our family courtyard.In my memory, there is indeed a picture of going to the Internet cafe with a few neighbors’ children when I went back to the summer vacation. I have no idea whether the game I was watching at that time was "Red Alert" or "Age of Empires". It was a young man who rode a bicycle from nearby. He was full of ambition at that time, as if what he cared about was not the magnificent game world itself, but the insignificant elementary school audience around him.

But the strategic depth of "Crusader Kings 2" cannot be compared with the games at that time. How did these children understand it?Besides Kajia, the eldest son of the Huang family is only nine years old.

"Boy." Katya crossed her arms, made a nasal sound next to me, and slowly shook her head.

I looked at her, and at the risk of being despised, I whispered, "Do you still want to continue playing this afternoon?"

"I do not know."

"Me neither." The boys looked at each other.

"I can continue playing." The boss's wife suddenly said, "I haven't got the 'Integrated Carolingian' yet."

"1066 script?"

She nodded: "You can relax with them in the afternoon. Leave the children to me."

Before I had time to say anything, Lao Huang's eldest son asked, "Auntie, can you play?"

I shook my head: "I know a little about its predecessor."

Lao Huang's eyes widened: "You know how to play games?"

I took a breath. "You're talking like I'm some kind of caveman. Of course I can play games."

Lao Huang was stunned for a moment, and his expression immediately became smooth again: "No, you must have some purpose."

"My purpose is to relax, thank you." I secretly startled.Lao Huang's intuition is sometimes so sharp that it is terrifying.

I'm definitely not going to tell the truth, that would be too embarrassing.

"Learning history by playing games" sounds like an excuse, even if I tell you the truth, Lao Huang will not believe it.With so many children here today, I can't talk about it—otherwise I should be a debate material for some family meeting.

But it doesn't hurt to talk to your kids about the benefits of this type of play.There is never a shortage of diehard fans of in-depth strategy games. I took out my phone, searched for jokes I had read before, and checked the English translation of some words, and said, "Have you ever heard of Roman jokes?"

"What kind?" Unexpectedly, Katya took the lead, "Walking into a bar alone?"

That's an American joke.

I smiled: "Listen well? An infantryman, a cavalryman, a cavalryman from Vadarutai, a soldier from the Varangian guards, and a soldier from the Janissaries have an appointment to drink, and the infantrymen are late .”

They just learned these words in the game this morning, and they are very familiar with them.

"The infantry said: 'Your Majesty ordered us to go back and stand firm, and then charge at full speed.' The armored cavalry said, what is full speed?" I looked at Katya. She should still be watching seriously today, and now she is already smiling.

I went on to say: "Vada Ruitai's horse archers said, what is persistence?

"The Varangian guard said, what is an order?

"Finally, the soldiers of the Imperial Guard said," I said, "what is Your Majesty?"

The children didn't know how much they understood, and they laughed together.The boss's wife obviously understood these stalks, and she laughed hard; the boss also laughed, and the most rare thing is that the old Huang and his wife also joined the scene, maybe because my tone of "what is your majesty" is really funny.

After laughing for a while, Lao Huang's eldest son asked me, "Why did the Guards say that?"

"Well, what is the name of the supreme head of the Roman Empire, do you know?"

"emperor?"

"You can say that. But at that time, people used the name 'Augustus' more often." I tried to use simple words, "Augustus is generally elected by the Senate, and the Praetorian Guard exists to protect Augustus Yes, but the system didn't work very well in the late Roman Empire because the Senate didn't have a fist and Augustus didn't have a fist hard enough.

"At the most exaggerated time, the Senate elected four Augustus a year, but they were all killed. Under such circumstances, how can you say that the Praetorian Guards know what 'Your Majesty' is?"

"Then who is His Majesty?" He asked a question that exceeded my expectations.

I took the children to sit next to me, thought about it, and said, "It should be Diocletian. He used to be the head of the Imperial Guards, but later he couldn't get used to Augustus changing around all day long, so he decided to do it himself." Made this 'Your Majesty'. And he was originally a commoner, his father was a former slave."

"Wow."

"Then he is very powerful?"

"Very powerful." I nodded. "After him, who will be the next Augustus will be decided by the Senate instead of the current Augustus."

"Who did he choose?"

"He selected several people. These people later refused to listen to anyone else, and one of them had the hardest fist and became the Byzantine Empire."

"Oh!" The youngest son of the eldest stood up, "The country that mother fought today!"

"You said it is very close to perfect!" I admired myself for being able to describe "eight poles" as "very close to perfect", but after all, this is not the time for self-promotion, I continued, "Well, I was thinking , The warring country you see in the game today should be the Holy Roman Empire. Byzantium is on the far right, and you have to run a lot of units to see it."

"Isn't Byzantium Rome?"

Here it goes, my nightmare studying for the SAT World History.

I said, "If 'Rome' means the Rome we were talking about, Byzantium is more like it—more like one of its hands."

"Is the Holy Roman Empire one of its feet?"

"The Holy Roman Empire is a pork sausage made of its feet," I said.

Several boys stared wide-eyed: "Why?"

I took a breath: "Because there are a lot of pork sausages in Germany."

After me, Katya completely diverted the topic: "Have you ever been to Germany?"

"I went to school there for a year."

"But what does that have to do with Germany?" Lao Huang's youngest son still refused to let me go.

"Do you know where Rome is?" I looked at him.

This question was still too difficult for a child who had just entered kindergarten, and he looked to his brother for help.

Lao Huang's eldest son said very confidently: "In Italy."

As expected of Huang Xiuwen's son, he has a new way of thinking about solving problems.

In the end, it was the boss who rescued me from the pile of children.The food has been distributed on the plate in advance, and I got some chicken, onions, and a small amount of leeks—the leeks were brought by Lao Huang and the others, and they were the only consolation I got during this barbecue.

Of course, I would not ask why there is no beef.I still know they don't eat beef.

"You've made a bad start," said the boss's wife. "We're all going to prepare for the popularization of the history of the Roman Empire."

I laughed: "If the children are interested, they will check it out by themselves."

"Is that why you have accumulated so many lame metaphors?" Lao Huang swallowed the leeks, "Because you are interested?"

"My metaphors are very good." I ignored him at all, looked at my sister-in-law and said, "My compatriots can prove it."

"Yao's Chinese metaphors are much better than the English ones." She didn't know whether she was helping me or Lao Huang, "but overall they are very appropriate, but some need to think about it for a while."

Old Huang was obviously not convinced, put down his plate, and pointed his chin at me with his hands: "Tell me, what did you say about the pork sausage just now?"

"What do you mean?" I frowned slightly, "Let me think of a few more metaphors?"

"Yes. You can try to use metaphors that Chinese people can understand, or you can try to use metaphors that Indian people can easily understand." Lao Huang shook his head, "This is not what you are best at."

"I'm good at everything." I said it again. "Everything."

The boss and the children had similar expressions, looking at me with... awkward eyes.

Like watching a Chihuahua.

The Chihuahua is tired, and now he is lying on his stomach in the shade and sticking out his tongue.I opened my mouth and said: "The Roman Empire is the Ming Dynasty, Byzantium is a bit like the Southern Ming Dynasty, and the Holy Roman Empire is the 'Taiping Kingdom' that claimed to have inherited the Ming Dynasty—this is a fiction, and it was not like this in history."

The sister-in-law raised her eyebrows: "It's very precise."

"What is the Taiping Kingdom?" Lao Huang asked.

I don't know how to translate "Kingdom of Heaven" well, so I used "Kingdom", which is harmless.I just said: "I made it up. I can't think of Southeast Asia, can I skip it?"

Old Huang shrugged.

Seeing me looking over, the boss smiled slightly and said, "I don't think you may know the story of "Veda", but if it is an Indian historical allusion after the thirteenth century, I may not be able to understand it."

Both he and his wife were born in Singapore, and the eldest has never even been to India.

This is a bit troublesome. Before that, the written records in India were quite limited.I didn't know much about it at first, and I learned the history of the Mughal Empire by surprise this month.

After thinking about it for two seconds but no results, I simply took a moment and said: "Assuming that the Roman Empire is Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland under Henry VIII is understood as a part of it, then Northern Ireland is Byzantium, and the Holy Roman Empire is a bit Like the Republic of Ireland now."

Of course, this is from a British point of view.Standing on the side of Ireland, the metaphor is turned upside down.

The boss nodded slightly: "It's easy to understand."

"Is it easy to understand?" Lao Huang looked over.It was evident that he was dissatisfied with both comparisons.

I asked, "Pork sausage doesn't sound convincing to you?"

Old Huang paused, took a breath: "Okay."

He may feel uncomfortable with being reduced to the same level as the children, but he has nothing to say.

The boss took a sip of beer: "Actually, Xiuwen——Yao's ability to talk about historical topics with people from various backgrounds is a great advantage for her. The same cultural foundation is very important for building a sense of intimacy. Some People would say that Indians like to cuddle together no matter where they are, and look at the racial ratio of public officials in Singapore. The proportion of Chinese is also unusually high, isn’t it? In fact, these have a lot to do with culture. Consciously or subconsciously, people always He likes to be close to people who have a topic with him.”

"Thanks," I whispered, "I've done my homework on this."

Lao Huang also nodded: "Yao is very powerful."

"If you have time, I think you can consider learning Mandarin." The boss glanced at me and looked at Huang, "This can be of great help to technical work, and, for non-technical work, Mandarin is also a It is very important. You have natural conditions in this regard, and you must try to grasp it."

Lao Huang thoughtfully, still nodded slightly, and said, "It's very inspiring. I'll think about it, thank you."

The boss turned to me and said: "During the few private contacts, Sonia also left me with an impression very similar to you. Of course, you are more active and sharp, which also has something to do with your positions. "

I don't know why, when I heard "position", my cheeks felt a little hot.Maybe the midday sun was too strong.

He analyzed a few more words about Miss Pan De's handling style: "...I believe that the conversation between you will make both of you feel that you are a match. It is never wrong to be vigilant against her."

I restrained and responded: "She is indeed well-informed, and we can even communicate with each other on many in-depth humanistic topics."

The boss was dumbfounded: "Of course, she is 'Pander'."

His wife laughed when she heard this.My intuition was some kind of Hindi joke, but Lao Huang and the others didn't understand it, so I don't need to pretend to understand it here.

"The surname of an Indian, you can tell what the family does when you hear it, do you know this?" The boss patiently explained to us, "For example, my surname means 'the person who drives the chariot'."

I nodded, traditional Indian surnames are directly related to the caste system.Of course, this is a sensitive topic, and Indians don't talk much among themselves, let alone with foreigners.

"'Pande' translated from Sanskrit means 'scholar', someone who is proficient in the four Vedas." Old Daoist, "So basically you can assume that she knows everything."

I hesitated and said tentatively, "But Rudra, you don't seem to have any experience as a combatant?"

He moved his beard and laughed: "But my grandfather has. Up to my father, almost everyone in our family has made a living in related industries. Do you understand what I'm talking about?"

not understand.

That's Sanskrit.Isn't Sanskrit almost extinct?