Chapter 150: Connections Are Everywhere

  Eagerly, An followed Jessica into the classroom. The several little heads in the classroom saw Jerry holding two mountain lions and immediately became excited, all surrounding Jerry, chattering and petting the little mountain lions' heads. The two little guys were uncomfortable with so many small hands touching them, plus Jerry's hold wasn't very comfortable either, so they started twisting their bodies trying to get down.

  Jessica clapped her hands and said, "Alright, kids, go back to your seats. Later on, each of you can hold one for a while, hurry up." The little ones then returned to their respective seats.

  He led the way to the podium and introduced, "This is Mr. Ju'an from China, please welcome him to talk about Chinese culture." After finishing speaking, he took the lead in applauding, and the few little ghosts below also followed suit with their small hands, but their eyes were all on Xiaoshan Lion brothers, which made them seem less enthusiastic.

  Ju An walked up to the podium, opened his notebook, and projected the pictures he had prepared onto the screen. He began to speak: "Hello everyone, I'm Ju An from China. You can just call me An. Now, let's start with my introduction of China." He started with the Forbidden City, following the order he had arranged earlier. After a while, he found that the kids weren't very interested in the imperial palace or Peking Opera, so he skipped to the last part and talked about the giant panda and golden monkey, which finally drew their attention away from the mountain lion brothers.

  After talking for over ten minutes, Jessica finally finished and led the applause. Then she said to the little devils: "Now everyone can ask Mr. Ju'an questions." As soon as she finished speaking, several chubby little hands shot up with a rustling sound.

  Jessica said to a little ghost head: "Irena, you ask first".

  Then the little girl named Irina said, "Sir, do your two little lions eat meat?" Listening to this, Ju An felt a bit depressed. He replied to the little guy, "Hmm! The two little mountain lions are carnivores and just ate not long ago. They used to drink milk before."

  Following a group of little monsters, everyone asked a question, only one question was related to Ju An's lecture, and Ju An couldn't answer it. One of the little monsters asked Ju An: "Why is there a black circle next to the giant panda's eyes?" Ju An broke out in cold sweat, thinking to himself: How would you know why the national treasure has black eye circles? Fortunately, Jessica helped Ju An out and told the little monster that baby pandas are born with black eye circles.

  The questioning was over, and Jessica was relieved. She helped put the two small things from Jerry's arms on the table. Then Jessica led a group of little monsters in line, each hugging Hans and Jinbao, while Little Jerry stood beside them like a little adult, instructing the other little monsters how to hug the mountain lions, unaware that his way of holding them made Hans and Jinbao very uncomfortable.

  The last few little monsters sat in a circle, surrounding Jing Bao and Hans in the middle. The two little guys had just escaped from the clutches of the many demons. In no time at all, they started to tussle with each other, biting each other's ears and tails, performing for the audience in the middle. A circle of little monsters watched with relish, occasionally clapping their hands and calling out the names of the two brothers, hoping they would come over to their side. They played like this until class was dismissed.

  After class, it was time to go home. Jerry said goodbye to a group of kids and returned to the car with Teddy, Wu Song, and Shan Shi. Jerry handed two small things over to Teddy in the car and bid farewell to Wu Song and Shan Shi. Finally, he waved goodbye to Diana and Ju An before boarding the school bus to head home.

  Ding An jumped onto the car and drove out of school. Diana held Hans and Jinbao in her arms, stroking them while asking: "How was it? Was the lecture smooth?"

  "Let's not mention it, the attention of these little guys is basically on these two, what I said was basically unheard, white preparation for so long, in the end, it was still the panda that attracted the attention of the little guys for a few minutes, if not, I would have become a self-talking person on the podium, next time when we come again, we must not bring these guys, too stealing the spotlight."

  Diana burst out laughing: "Who made you less cute than my little treasures? Tell me, isn't that so?" After saying that, she raised the precious thing in her hand and kissed it forcefully several times.

  Looking at the so-called little treasures that need to consume several catties of meat every day, Ju An shook his head and continued driving.

  Diana was asked casually: "The kids are out of school so early, what time is it? Are they going back to herd sheep?"

  While teasing the two little ones in her arms, Diana replied: "Nowadays kids just play when they go to school, what can they do? It's all about letting them make friends and learn some knowledge along the way. They won't get busy until high school, wasn't it like that when you were a kid?"

  "Back then, I didn't get home from school until late every day. At night, I still had to do my homework, write characters, and memorize texts."

  "When do Chinese kids have time to play?" Diana asked curiously.

  "Ha ha, I don't know about others, but I have time. For example, when the teacher assigns us to write something three times, I just hold three pens in my hand and write them all at once. That way, I only need to write it once. Every day after school, I go out and play with my friends until dark, and then I come home all dirty. When it's time for bed, I realize I haven't done my homework, so I start rushing to finish it. Sometimes I'm too tired, so I wait until the next morning and copy from someone else at school."

  Diana laughed and said: "You're really different from the Chinese kids I imagined, you're a naughty boy, your teacher must be very headache".

  "Where's the difference, they all have black hair and eyes." Ju An said casually: "My teacher was very strict, a 50-year-old old lady who was very kind and gentle, she liked us naughty students very much and had great patience. When we were in third grade, she retired, many children cried." Ju An said with some nostalgia.

  Diana said, "She's a good teacher. In my high school class, there was a Chinese kid who did really well in his studies and started taking some college courses at that time. We didn't like playing with him because we thought he was too smart and also not very talkative. Our physics teacher liked him a lot, but people like that in high school are often ostracized and called bookworms."

  "Poor kid, can't even get a girlfriend in college, always buried in books," Ju An said with a smile.

  Diana waved her hand and said, "You're wrong about this. Nowadays, smart girls in college all look for boyfriends who are bookworms. Those guys who are just talk and have a good appearance aren't as good as the bookworms after graduation. Many bookworms can get into big companies right after graduating, with stable and good income, and they can buy houses within a few years. They also enjoy great benefits from their companies. One of my roommates in college was pretty, but she dated a guy who was not only short but also stupid. Many girls would mock her boyfriend behind her back. Those popular guys on the school team, except for those who came from wealthy families, couldn't compare to the bookworms after graduation. Their income was basically only half of what the bookworms made. So, during tough economic times, the future is bright for the bookworms."

  After hearing this, Ju An patted the steering wheel and said: "I came here too late. At that time, I was also studying hard in school, it was really a diligent student, after listening to you, I should have come here earlier, maybe I could have been loved by a campus belle."

  With a snort, Diana burst out laughing: "Don't talk nonsense, the teacher asked you to write a few more characters, and you can use several pens to write them. I don't believe that in college you were very hardworking. Maybe you're just the kind of person who relies on their parents to get by, and every day at school is spent thinking about how to win girls' hearts."

  "Huh? So universities here also have connections? I thought American universities were all about meritocracy." Yu An said casually while looking at the road.

  "There are so many unfair things, not to mention my ordinary university, even Harvard, MIT, Yale and other Ivy League schools have a large number of students with connections, such as board members, sons and daughters of major donors, etc. They're all driving luxury cars to school everywhere. In recent years, Chinese students generally have a lot of money. When I was in college, I met a girl from China who had over ten designer handbags. We were amazed. Not long after she arrived, she bought a villa near the school and we even had a party at her villa. No wonder people say that the future center of the world is in China, they really have money."

  "Nowadays, most people who can come to the US to study are from wealthy and influential families, so you think Chinese people have money. In fact, most Chinese people don't have much money and live a plain life. The kids from rich families all came to the US, Europe, or Canada."

  Diana smiled and asked: "Then how did you end up here and even bought a ranch, are you also the child of a wealthy family?"

  "My parents were just ordinary workers, at that time an old friend of mine left me a few oil paintings, so I came to the US for appraisal. After appraising them, it turned out they were worth quite a bit of money. Adding my own savings from China where I liked horse riding, after selling two oil paintings, I finally had enough money to buy a ranch. Before bringing those paintings to the US, including my savings, I didn't have more than $7,000 on me."

  "You're really lucky then. Didn't your friend tell you the value of these paintings at that time? Is your friend still around?" Diana asked, looking at Ju An.

  "When I received the painting, he had already passed away." Ju An shook his head.