Chapter 3 3. Because I'm talking to you

Our conversation that day ended there.Believe that I can't write a single word wrong, because my first meeting with Danny Haig has been repeated in my mind countless times. Of course, the scene of the second day is also vivid. Sophie arrived in the afternoon. The makeup artist helped her with her hair and the beautician did her nails.She looked at me in the mirror, and said to everyone: "We've been working together for a month, and you don't know her? I don't either. By the way, what's your name?" "I don't have a French name. I'm Chinese and my surname is Qi." I also looked at her in the mirror.

"Are you a student?" It was strange that she suddenly became curious about me.I am still me, what attracted her? "Student, do a summer job here." In my hand is the folder containing all her lyrics and scores in this play, and I subconsciously hold it upright in front of my chest, like a shield to protect myself. "What kind of conditions did you sign in the contract with the troupe?" she asked, "How much is the salary?" "Three hundred euros a week," I said, "three thousand nine hundred euros for thirteen weeks until September."

"That sounds good." Sophie raised her eyebrows, pulled her hand away from the beautician, and swung it aside. Her personal assistant put the check in her hand. I watched her every move, watched her fill in the numbers on a check, sign her name, and then tear it off with a stab, shaking me: "Here is five thousand euros, you take it and go to Spain to play." One lap, the new semester is still early, don't waste your summer vacation here." It turned out she was going to fire me. I don't quite understand it, but my self-esteem tells me that it doesn't matter why.

I walked over from my seat and took the little flag-like check from her hand. She didn't give it to me the first time, but only took it out the second time.She took a sip of water from the beautiful bottle she had received yesterday on her dresser, then looked at me and smiled.The process only lasted a few seconds, and the expressions in the world were nothing more than that. I took the check in my hand and slowly unfolded it.Without looking up, I said to the actress who paid five thousand euros by hand: "I'm a foreigner, and I'm sensitive to every unfamiliar word. You say 'waste', I'm not here to waste my time, I think To work and earn some money to pay for next semester's tuition, but I can't show you a joke because of this."

Instead of tearing up the check and throwing it in her face like in the movie, I just put it next to that beautiful water bottle. I turned away from Madam Sophie's dressing room with its six huge diamond-shaped mirrors.My head is in a mess, but I have to forget the five thousand euros that flashed before my eyes. I have to quickly raise tuition and living expenses for the next semester, and I have to find another job as soon as possible. mother makes a phone call. Counting the time difference of six hours, I made this call, and it was not ten o'clock at night on her side.The phone rang five times and was answered, luckily it was my mother herself.

I said, "I need some money, can you send some to my last account?" She pondered for a while: "How much?" "I need another ten thousand euros." "I don't have so many at the moment." She said, "But I will try my best. I will try my best to make it up for you." I said "thank you" and didn't put down the phone right away.She said over there: "How are you doing?" It's all polite, if I live well, will I call her to ask for the tuition? I said, "It's not bad, my roommate made dumplings for me yesterday."

"It's better to call often, I'm worried about you." "Hmm." I thought about it, "I start school in September." "...I understand what you mean, before that, I will raise money for you." I got out of the phone booth, bought French fries for two euros, and sat on a chair on the embankment. The bell of the church on the hillside announced the hour, four o'clock in the afternoon.As I ate my first meal of the day, I thought: Can I turn the clock back?I am not greedy, I just want to see how I will be next summer, whether I am still frowning to make up for a tuition fee.

Xiao Duo's friend Xiao Pei actually found me a job washing dishes in a restaurant in Hong Kong within three days.I was a little surprised: he found someone to teach Zheng Jie a lesson, and took care of Xiaoduo and me's work. Is he really just an international student like us? Xiaoduo knocked on my head while smoking a cigarette: "You are the only one who has so many questions! You are so curious, go be a detective." I grabbed her hand: "You smoke more and more, what are you doing? Where do you get so much Chinese cigarettes?" "I tell you, don't say it outside."

"Well, I won't say." "Xiao Pei is in this business. Someone transports cigarettes from Paris to Lyon, and he sells them to Chinese who don't like foreign cigarettes." "It's not reselling apples," I said. "It's illegal." "So please don't tell anyone." I can't criticize this supernatural little Pei, I don't even have the pride to draw a line with him.Because of him, I received preferential treatment as soon as I went to this Hong Kong restaurant. After washing dishes for two days, the boss found that I could speak French quite clearly, so he asked me to work as a waiter in front.On a weekend in August, Xiao Pei brought Xiao Duo to our restaurant for dinner. Seeing that I could walk like flying with three plates in one hand, he gave me a thumbs up.

We are such a type of international students. Of course, not all international students are like this. The boy who always booked table eight would ask a different babe every week.His purple sports car is parked outside, he wears famous T-shirts with very obscure logos, he only speaks French when he orders food, I almost thought he was French, but he taught the girls he brought to speak Spoken Chinese. The owner's daughter is studying medicine in Geneva. Every weekend, when there are many customers, she will drive her car back to the store to help.She is the waiter in front like us, but after all, she has a different status, so she doesn't talk to us very much.One day when I was carrying red wine out of the wine cellar, I heard her say to the phone in French: "Don't say any more, I will give birth to this child myself."

Of course, there are also young Chinese women who come to eat in the store.There may be all kinds of foreigners around them, they order expensive wine and food, some of them are comfortable, some are decadent, some are a little complacent, and some are more foreigners than foreigners. I spent the rest of the summer there.At the end of August, the boss settled the summer salary for me, and I got a total of 2,400 euros. There is still no remittance from China, and my tuition fees for the next semester are still unpaid. I could no longer call my mother to urge my mother, so I was thinking about what kind of excuse I would prepare to the school, asking them to allow me to attend class first and pay the fee later. I worry about this matter, and I will lose sleep all night.I was alone in the hot night with my eyes open and sweating profusely. A few stray cats stayed in the yard at some point, and no matter how late the prostitute came back, she would imitate their calls to tease her.Their voices drilled into my head, and I wondered in a daze: How much money would this happy whore make? It was still September, the time when the prickly fruit on the chestnut trees turned from green to brown, and school started.This semester has a different kind of excitement: two forums were held successively; the Minister of Education and several French academicians from the school were present; and a new venue built with donations from old alumni opened.The school is full of flowers and flowers, thriving - all to celebrate the school's bicentenary. I hope these festive events make the clerks of the accounting and finance department ignore a student who has not paid the fee—me.But everyone performed their duties, and the system of the elite school was flawless. I was called to the International Center by a kind phone call, and I was greeted by a teacher who could speak Chinese. "We noticed..." he said, "that you have not paid your registration fee for this semester. Generally, we expect students to complete all registration procedures for the next year in May each year, and you were in September last year. Just paid the full fee, so I was wondering, are you having some... um, procedural troubles? If so, you know, the school is there to help students apply for the Lyon credit student loan, don't you What procedures do we need to issue?" His well-thought-out Chinese still took my brains a bit, but I still understood that they wanted me to pay the tuition fees as soon as possible, and urged me to apply for a loan to repay the debt owed to them.But what bank would lend money to a nineteen-year-old Chinese girl?She has no father in China, she has no relatives or respectable friends in France, and she lives in the dark and dirty old quarter of Lyon. "I don't have any procedural problems," I said. "It's just that my money hasn't arrived yet, but they will, and I'll pay my tuition as soon as possible." "The problem is that all procedures must be completed before September 15th. If it is overdue...Of course, it is impossible for us to invite an outstanding student out of the classroom. But, miss, if it is more than September 15th, you Will not be able to get papers in any of the professor's exams," he said. This gentleman's surname was Ferre, which means "iron-cast."Mr. Tie has been speaking Chinese, trying to be as tactful as possible, but it is enough to understand: After September 15th, if you don’t pay the fee, please leave me. "I'll pay my tuition by then," I said again. Coming out of the International Center, I walked through the greenhouse full of tropical plants to the teaching building and waited for the next class.The phone was buzzing and vibrating in the schoolbag on my shoulder. I reached in with one hand to take out the phone, but couldn't find it for a long time.Suddenly, a boy came towards me and held out the lighter in front of me. The cute little thing inlaid with green glass was flicked by the boy's thumb, and the blue flame jumped out.The boy said, "Looking for a fire, aren't you?" I looked up at him: "I don't smoke." "I know." He smiled, "I just want to find an opportunity to ask you, how do you arrange your class schedule for yourself this semester?" I looked at this wealthy classmate with some surprise. We studied microeconomics in the same class for a semester. He didn't even say a few words to me. Why did he suddenly become interested in me?My next thought was: If I slept with him, would he ask his dad to pay for my tuition? "Where are you going?" I asked him.I stroked my hair and smiled. "Go to the Roland Center for a report," he said. "I'm going too," I said. "Then let's go together." He also laughed, very confident in his charm. I followed behind him, looked over his shoulder, and saw the sunshine in September shining on the lawn outside the greenhouse. There were classmates sitting there reading books, carefree boys and girls in groups of twos and threes.I was sweating again, and my palms were wet.I've never followed a member of the opposite sex like this, with a dirty and clumsy thought. How do those women who are more than capable do it?How did they deftly seize the little braid of opportunity? A group of people passed by, and after I walked a few steps, someone shouted from behind: "Hello!" When the French say "hello", it is pronounced as "嘿啦", with a long stress and a long lag behind, which always has some ambiguous affection in it. As God bears witness, I have secretly reviewed this voice countless times. I turned around and Danny Hagrid was in front.He let his companion go first, came over by himself, and stopped at an arm's length from me. I hate myself for being too tired and daydreaming on sunny days. "You study here?" he asked. I nodded, not looking at his face, my eyes were on a button on his chest and the light blond hair on his arms. "I didn't see you again after that," he said. "Where?" I asked. "The Opera, Sophie's," he said. "Because I was fired," I said. "Oh..." he paused, "No wonder. But why? Because you slept during her rehearsal?" When he said this, his tone was light and narrow, as if he was asking a friend's daughter: Why were you punished to stand?Did you trade daddy's boots for nougat? But that's not the case.The truth is, the woman he adores has humiliated me with her beauty and wealth. The sun in the greenhouse was so hot that I was about to sweat again, only this time in my eyes.I sniffled, looked up, looked into his blue, lake-like eyes and said, "Because, it's because I was talking to you." He looked at me, speechless for a moment. I knew I had made a mistake, and suddenly regretted it, and said, "I'm leaving, my classmates are waiting for me outside." I left the greenhouse and went outside. The boy was waiting for me. He asked me, "Is that your friend?" I lowered my head and took a few steps: "Not really, no, no." "You're a special girl," he said behind me, sounding jovial.He was always like that, with his eyebrows raised and raised, and his beautiful eyes were full of vitality, "They made a bet to see if I could ask you out." I stopped and looked back at him: "Is that why you talked to me?" "Don't be so sensitive, I don't mean anything malicious." He said, "Besides, you are cute. During the summer vacation, my father went to China for a meeting, and I let him go. When I see a girl with braids, I will think of you." I am indeed sensitive, but I also know that he is not malicious.Malice is on my mind, I was thinking about his money just now.But now, when I leave the greenhouse full of tropical plants, that thought is gone.Now he is an ordinary classmate, young and rich. There are many such people here, and I am a minority here. I saw Danny Hagrid again three days later. His waterworks invited my professor to lead some students to visit.We met at Lyon's train station early in the morning, and then took the one and a half hour train to Chambery via Grenoble. Autumn is getting stronger, and the green forests on the Alps are dotted with yellow or red leaves, and big ocher-red birds fly low against the mountains.The train winds its way through the valley through wet trestles and tunnels. The professor came up to me and said, "Your paper was well written last term." I sat up straight and nodded slightly to him: "I haven't thanked you for giving me such a high score." "A hard-working kid is always popular with professors." He won the prize.My philosophy of class is different from others. I have calculated the tuition fee into every minute. How dare I miss class or do not study hard? A classmate asked the professor, "Is this Mr. Hager a graduate of our school?" "Not a graduate," said the professor, "just a generous benefactor, and the new network center is his big deal. . . . "Hagrid Water has become popular recently. Have you done your homework? When you meet Danny Hagrid, what questions do you want to ask him? When you visit his waterworks, what knowledge do you want to discover?" "How to do homework? I can't find any information about him anywhere. This person seems to be an old nobleman who suddenly resurrected. Did he spend the first half of his life in his own spring?" a boy joked. I looked out the double-decker window, at the majestic mountains and the flashing waterfall, and thought: Is he living in his spring?This may not sound impossible.It's just that it must be a warm spring, like his eyes and voice. However, my secret emotions and longings were almost in vain that day. When we arrived in Chambery by train, a light rain had just passed by.The Hager company car was waiting for us at the gate of the train station and took us through this steamy town.Driving eastward for about ten minutes, I finally saw the source of the fog: Lake Berge showed a dark blue under the gray sky, reflecting the kitten tooth mountain on the opposite side.The water vapor rises quietly from the lake and forms large clouds on the dark green mountainside.There are no fishermen, no boats, no lights, no passing birds. The sound of the waves is regular and dignified, repeating the rhythm that has never changed for thousands of years. They constitute a solemn and solemn picture. The car bypassed Lake Berger, went up the mountain road, and walked higher and higher in the clouds. After passing the 1,800-meter boundary marker and driving horizontally for two or three kilometers, we finally arrived at the base camp of Haigshui. After four steps of sanitation and disinfection, we visitors are guided by an engineer to visit the collection, filtration, osmotic disinfection and bottling workshop of Haige water.Hear their stories about how the purest and richest source of water in all of Europe is collected, processed and packaged to be marketed around the world as mineral water, purified water, cosmetic and medical industrial water.During the process, someone wanted to take pictures and asked the guide if he could. He spread his hands and smiled: "Mr. Hagrid said, you can do whatever you want here." I said, "Can I have a look at the source of the water? I mean, the spring of Hagrid's water." "Oh." The engineer made a funny expression on his face, "This is beyond the scope of my authority. The place is guarded by military police. Except for every generation of Hagrid, it is impossible for anyone to approach it." "Each bottle of water sells for nearly four euros, which is twice the price of similar products. Can it be regarded as a kind of publicity and hype?" The young students' questions are always a bit too direct, even rash. Mr. Engineer didn't answer right away, he took out a bottle of finished mineral water, opened it, took a sip, and then showed us the Hager water in a bottle like a sand clock in his hand: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most Ok - water! What is water? Water is life, it is health, better water is a stronger body, longer life, four euros buys the best water in Europe, can this also be seen as hype? " After a hearty lunch, we were led to visit the company's museum and saw every bottle of Hagrid water and every generation of Hagrid, initially some portraits, and then the photos changed from black and white to color. Group photo, really prominent.But there is no picture of Danny Hagrid here. At around two o'clock in the afternoon, the visit ends.The team going back is no longer as organized as it was when we came here: the professor is going to visit an old friend who lives here; a few classmates want to travel another hour to Geneva for a weekend; After shopping around, I still bought a ticket back to Lyon. In the evening, it started to rain again, and the shops, bars, tobacco shops, and coffee shops near the train station lit up with neon lights, and the lights cast a soft and fuzzy halo in the rain, and the city suddenly appeared at dusk. It becomes fairy-tale cute in the drizzle.I stopped at the door of a toy store and looked at Cinderella inside. The prince knelt down and tried a crystal slipper for her. Danny Hagrid's car stopped at some point. In the window, his shadow folded behind me. Please forgive me for being overwhelmed and carried away. If it wasn't when I was lonely, every time I met him on a narrow road, how could I love him so much?