Siheyuan: If you ruin the reputation of the whole courtyard, I will move out

The first floor is mainly distributed with living room and kitchen, and there is a small room that is not rented out yet. All household appliances are shared, water and electricity bills are shared equally, and the food in the refrigerator is marked with their respective owners to prevent mixing and eating. Susan also reminded Zhang Yu many small things to pay attention to in life, such as the electric water heater needs to store hot water and should be turned off in time after use to avoid wasting hot water.

During the chat, Zhang Yu learned that running a boarding house was not Susan's long-term job. Her husband passed away early, and she raised her children alone with great difficulty. After her children got married and moved out, she applied for early retirement and used the extra space in her home to run a boarding house business. The annual rental income was about 40,000 US dollars, which was enough to support her daily expenses.

This enthusiastic woman talked nonstop, and although Zhang Yu thought she was quite eloquent, he was not bored. Susan looked only in her forties, but in fact she was close to 53 years old. She was well maintained among white people and still looked young.

After viewing the house and informing them of the arrangements, Susan urged Zhang Yu to pack his luggage. Hu Dawei drove away and said he would come back the next morning to take Zhang Yu to school to complete the registration. It was not until eight o'clock in the evening that the luggage was completely packed. Because his parents were working in China at the time, he did not call back to report immediately, but just left a message to convey that he was safe.

Zhang Yu took his toiletries to the bathroom on the second floor. As soon as he opened the door, a cloud of mist came towards him. In the smoke, he vaguely saw a graceful figure standing under the shower head.

Instantly, a scream echoed throughout the second floor: "Ah!"

As soon as he walked into the bathroom, Zhang Yu understood what was happening - there was obviously someone taking a shower inside, the steam was so thick. After opening the door, he vaguely saw the figure in the bathroom, but only a small part of it was visible behind the thick shower curtain.

Zhang Yu had sharp eyes, and he could appreciate the seductive figure even through tiny gaps. At the same time, the lady who was taking a shower also noticed that the bathroom door was open, and then she caught a glimpse of Zhang Yu standing at the door through the gap in the curtain.

"Ah!" The scream rang out again, and the woman hurriedly rolled up the shower curtain, even though the sound had already echoed throughout the building.

I quickly closed the door and prepared to leave, but I saw Susan hurried over to ask. "What's going on? I thought I heard a scream just now, is there something wrong?" When she asked, Park Seung-ki, a Korean boy living in the attic, heard the noise and hurried downstairs.

Park Seung-gi looked at Zhang Yu in front of the door and shrank back involuntarily. Zhang Yu quickly explained to Susan, "It's okay, I just forgot that someone was using the bathroom." As he spoke, he held a toothbrush and other toiletries in his hand.

At this time, Susan realized the possible misunderstanding. "Fei Fei forgot to lock the door again!" she said, as if she had understood the whole situation.

During the conversation, the bathroom door suddenly opened and a woman in a bathrobe came out. She was about 20 years old, with an Asian face, and should be the tenant of the room opposite Zhang Yu - Zhang Yang's roommate Feifei.

"Don't you know that someone is using the bathroom?" The woman came out and immediately questioned Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu was a little unhappy. "I thought there was no one inside because your bathtub door was not closed." He replied, "I thought you were bathing with the door open, so I didn't notice there were other people inside."

To avoid the situation from getting worse, Susan believed that Zhang Yu did not make a mistake intentionally, so she explained: "Feifei, he is the new Jack and he doesn't know the rules here. Zhang Yu did not mean to be presumptuous." Then she turned to Feifei and said: "We are all Chinese, Feifei, we should understand each other."

Hearing this, Feifei felt a little aggrieved. “Even if he just arrived, he can’t just barge in like this! He almost saw through me.” she said.

Hearing this, Zhang Yu raised his eyebrows and smiled: "The door was not locked at the time, I thought no one was there, and then I found out that you were taking a shower. I closed the door immediately and didn't see it."

However, the woman firmly retorted: "I wouldn't be so careless as to fail to lock the door. It was clearly locked." She shouted angrily.

Susan persuaded her: "Fei Fei, calm down. Look, the door lock may be broken. Try it." She tried and found that the lock was indeed broken, and the door opened as soon as she pulled it.

Susan continued, "That's right, the door lock was broken and Jack mistakenly thought that no one was using it. Feifei, please don't be angry about this anymore." She tried to reconcile.

Facing Susan's statement, Feifei, wearing her bathrobe, still felt indignant and felt that her female dignity was violated. "I am just a woman, how could a strange man see me like this?" She was full of dissatisfaction.

At this moment, Henry Zhang said apologetically: “I’m sorry, I will knock on the door before entering the bathroom next time.”

Feifei got even angrier after hearing this: Your apology was clearly perfunctory and there was no sincere guilt on your face at all.

Seeing this, Susan hurriedly hugged her and comforted her: "You can use the bathroom in my room in the future. Boys can use the bathroom on the second floor first, and girls can use the one in my room. This can avoid embarrassment." Then she looked at Zhang Yu again, with dissatisfaction in her eyes.

Zhang Yu, who didn't care about it, said, "Then I'll go in and take a shower first." After that, he went straight into the bathroom and closed the door.

"Susan, look at his attitude!" the woman said angrily.

Susan was also quite distressed. She thought it was not a big deal as there were so many naked people on the beach!

So she comforted him: "Fei Fei, Zhang Yu just came and hasn't formed the habit yet. I'll talk to him later." At the same time, she glanced at Park Seung-gi who was watching from the side: "Don't make trouble and don't make Fei Fei angry."

Zhang Yu was bathing by himself, not paying much attention to the commotion outside. At this moment, he thought that the girl just now might be Wu Fei, who might become his wife in the future. After all, she looked exactly like the one in the TV series, although Wu Fei herself was younger and more lovely.

To him, although Wu Fei was his wife, he didn't have to have her. After taking a shower, he found that Susan and Wu Fei had left, so he returned to his room to adjust to the time difference and prepare to go to sleep. He flipped over his phone and saw a text message from his mother Zhao Meilan, reminding him to study hard and hoping that he would save money as soon as possible to go home and improve the family's financial situation.

The Su family was not wealthy, mainly because they had many children. Su Daqiang was the administrator of a middle school library, and Zhao Meilan was the manager of the hospital nursing department. Their salaries were only enough to support the three of them, and they were under considerable financial pressure.

In Zhao Meili's heart, her younger brother is her priority. She has been generous in supporting her cousin Zhang's family financially over the years, including sponsoring Su Mingzhe's study abroad. This time, in order to pay for the expensive tuition and living expenses, Su Mingzhe and his wife did their best to support them, and even sold their property to raise the required amount.

At Stanford University, the tuition for the academic year is shockingly high, about $40,000 per year. Zhao Meili's prepared funds can only cover one year's expenses. Su Mingzhe originally planned to use his excellent grades and actively apply for scholarships to reduce the pressure of tuition and solve living expenses.

But getting a scholarship to Stanford is not easy, only the top academic elites can get it. This is the third-ranked academic institution in the world, and every student who enters is a top student among top students. It is no small matter to compete for the top spot among so many talented students.

At this moment, Zhang Yu's mind was not on his studies, but on how to make money. Because he was in a foreign country and was not familiar with the local conditions, the road to making money seemed particularly tortuous. Finally, he made a decision to ask Hu David about studying while working tomorrow.

However, what Zhang Yu did not expect was that Wu Fei in the room opposite him tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep tonight. He felt aggrieved at the thought that his shame was seen by a man. Especially since he was in a foreign country, it became extremely difficult for him to find someone to talk to.

The next day, Wu Fei opened the door with obvious dark circles under his eyes and happened to run into that hateful man. "Good morning." Zhang Yu greeted politely.

"Hmph!" Wu Fei responded coldly, ignoring Zhang Yu, raised his chin and walked straight to Susan's door, leaving Zhang Yu with a resolute back. Zhang Yu didn't care much about all this, and then went to the public bathroom and carefully checked the lock - he didn't check it carefully last night, but now he can see that it seems to have been damaged by human beings.

"Someone broke the handle." Zhang Yu squatted down and pondered beside the door lock, rubbing his chin with his fingers. At this time, Park Seung-gi from the top floor came over and asked if the bathroom was finished.

"I'm done, you continue." Zhang Yu picked up his personal belongings and returned to the room. He glanced around and then walked to the kitchen. At this time, Susan and Wu Fei were already eating. Their breakfasts were very different: Susan chose a typical breakfast, a combination of fried eggs, grilled meat and orange juice; Wu Fei simply made a cup of oatmeal porridge.

Susan reminded them that Jack (Zhang Yu) needed to go shopping today. "There's a Walmart about four miles west, and you can take the bus there," she said.

Wu Fei looked unhappy: "Fei Fei, I remember you also want to go to the supermarket to shop, do you want to go with Jack?" Wu Fei was obviously dissatisfied and found an excuse to shirk.

"I suddenly have a class today." Wu Fei said coldly, obviously unwilling to go with Zhang Yu. Zhang Yu knew that Wu Fei was making excuses to refuse, so he didn't say anything more: "I can find a place."

Susan poured Zhang Yu a glass of milk, which was one of the shared foods in the house. The vast grasslands of America made milk cheaper than mineral water, so she had an ample supply without any restrictions.

Not long after Zhang Yu finished drinking the milk, Hu Dawei drove up and directly opened the door outside the kitchen to greet them. "Good morning, guys!" He greeted everyone happily.

Susan responded in a friendly manner. Wu Fei seemed to know Hu David a little bit, and he was not interested in saying hello. Looking at the tired Wu Fei, Hu David asked: "What's wrong with Feifei today? You look a little listless?" Then, Susan told him everything that happened in the bathroom yesterday.

Upon learning that the door lock was damaged, David Hu offered to repair it, "Don't worry, I'll get the toolbox to fix it." With his enthusiasm and determination, he prepared to go upstairs to repair it.

Susan smiled and said, "I don't pay you."

Hu David smiled heartily and said, "Just a breakfast."

Susan smiled and nodded in agreement, and also prepared one for Zhang Yu.

After expressing his thanks, Zhang Yu went upstairs with Hu David.

"I didn't expect you could repair door locks?" Zhang Yu asked Hu David.

“It’s expensive to hire professionals to fix trivial matters here, so if there is anything broken in the house, I just do it myself,” Hu David replied, squatting down to check the door lock, showing a surprised expression when he found that the latch was broken.

"Even you can see that the door lock was deliberately damaged." He closed the bathroom door and reminded Zhang Yu: "We all live under the same roof. If there are any problems, we should be open and aboveboard and not damage things without reason."

Zhang Yu couldn't help but smile: "You think I would break the door lock? Come on, I've only been here for two days."

David Hu recalled the misunderstanding just now and realized that there was indeed no reason for Zhang Yu to do this.

Zhang Yu said slowly, "There were three people living in this room before we came here. Wu Fei was the victim, and you, Susan, are the owner. Who do you think broke the door lock?"

Hu David's eyes lit up, then he shook his head and sighed, "I should have known that those sticks were unreliable."

"Isn't Park Seung-gi the person the agency found for you?" Zhang Yu interrupted.

"No, he is an international student at Stanford, but he was not the agent I contacted. He came here on his own after seeing the rental information Susan posted on the school bulletin board." David Hu explained.

After hearing this, Zhang Yu suddenly realized.

"Don't take it to heart. I can find a chance to talk to Susan alone and try to get that guy to leave." David Hu warned.

Zhang Yu nodded in agreement and no longer cared about the matter.

The two of them worked on it for a while and confirmed that the door lock could not be repaired quickly and needed to be re-locked. Then they went downstairs to communicate with Susan.

"When I send Jack home this afternoon, I'll stop by the hardware store to buy a new lock and install it for you." David Hu glanced at Park Seung-gi who was eating breakfast in front of him and said to Susan, "Be careful when using the bathroom."

"Thank you. I'll pay you when I get back and look at the bill," Susan responded, while David Hu said as he enjoyed his breakfast.

Susan also prepared a Chinese-style breakfast for Zhang Yu, but Zhang Yu was not used to it and missed the taste of Beijing's soy milk and fried dough sticks even more.

After breakfast, Zhang Yu took the initiative to help wash the dishes before going to school with Hu David. Because Wu Fei had classes in the morning, Hu David also took her with him.

David Hu did not interfere too much with Park Seung-gi because Zhang Yu noticed that he was riding a bicycle away.

Susan's house is located near Stanford University, only a ten-minute walk from the school, making it an ideal school district residence.

However, the Stanford campus is huge, and David Hu took several minutes to find the Academic Affairs Center. On the way, he dropped Wu Fei off at the door of a teaching building.

Hu Dawei parked the car with ease, and then took Zhang Yu to go through the registration procedures and get the course schedule. The tuition fee had been prepaid by Hu Dawei, which saved Zhang Yu some procedures.

After everything was done, it was already 11 a.m. Zhang Yu proposed to treat Hu Dawei to a meal to express his gratitude. "Why not eat in the school cafeteria? The prices here are very high, and eating out will cost a lot. Besides, we can also take this opportunity to visit the campus." Hu Dawei suggested with a smile.

Zhang Yu thought about the amount of money in his wallet and decided to choose the cafeteria.

There are 9 cafeterias in Stanford, and David Hu led Zhang Yu to the nearest one.

Zhang Yu also found that the cafeteria here adopts a self-service mode, with breakfast at $8, lunch at $12, and dinner at $14. All prices are calculated in US dollars.

The lunch cost for two people is 24 US dollars, which is about yuan in RMB, which is not considered a discount in the cafeteria.

Thinking about how he could have a full meal for only ten yuan in China, Zhang Yu realized that the 500,000 yuan living expenses would soon be used up.

At this time, he had the idea of ​​studying part-time. "David, do you know if there are any job opportunities nearby?" Zhang Yu asked while eating.

"You want to earn a living by doing odd jobs?" Hu Dawei didn't seem surprised by Zhang Yu's words. He said calmly: "International students have limited employment channels. It's better to focus more on studies and strive for scholarships."

Zhang Yu took a sip of water and replied, "My family is not wealthy. My parents sent me to study abroad with great difficulty. In order to raise tuition, we sold a house. I hope to earn some money in the short term and buy a house back home."

Hu Dawei heard this and sighed: "To be honest! In the United States, it is really difficult for international students to work part-time. Your study visa is not a work visa, and it does not easily allow students to work at will."

Zhang Yu also knew some inside information. There were not many job opportunities for international students in China, and the various rules and regulations were strict. They were generally limited to places within the school, such as canteens and supermarkets, and the positions were scarce.

The regulations for working outside of school are even more complicated, often requiring relevant professional work experience and strict approval from the school. The procedures are cumbersome, and unless you have particularly rare talents, it is difficult to be hired by a company.

Zhao Meilan and Su Daqiang were obviously unaware of this and thought Mingzhe could easily find a good job and send money home regularly.

Hu Dawei continued, "The positions in the school have already been taken up by everyone, so you should give up this idea. I may be able to help you keep an eye out for off-campus jobs, but they are actually illegal jobs with low wages and great risks. If the school finds out, you will not only be expelled, but may even be deported. You should weigh the pros and cons carefully."

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Yu said firmly: "Don't worry, you can help me find it, and I will bear the risks myself."

Hu Dawei sighed helplessly: "Okay, I'll find a way. Do you have any special expertise?"

When asked about his specialties, Zhang Yu was at a loss for words. Should he honestly say that he was good at business?

Looking at the food on the plate, he thought: "I am good at cooking, especially Sichuan cuisine and Tan style dishes."