Chapter 8

Zhu Youxiang suppressed her excitement and asked, "May I ask, Mr. Xu, which dynasty rules your country? Who is the current emperor? And what is the current era name?"

"Our dynasty? Oh, our country is the People's Republic, we don't have an emperor, and the current era is the year 2014 AD."

The girl was taken aback: "No emperor? How can that be? Without an emperor, wouldn't the country fall into chaos?" Then she nodded and smiled, "However, without a ruler or a father, it is indeed a land of barbarians. The sages were not wrong in their assessment." In her reserved smile, there was a hint of arrogance, and the way she looked at Xu Yan was filled with inexplicable pride and disdain.

This girl was truly bizarre, and Xu Yan had already given up on trying to communicate with her. He casually flipped through a few channels with the remote, but there was nothing interesting to watch, so he decided to watch a DVD. He casually flipped through the cabinet and found a few pirated blockbuster movies he had bought from the computer market last time. He randomly picked one, which turned out to be the fourth installment of "Transformers."

He turned back to Zhu Youxiang and asked, "Miss Zhu, have you seen 'Transformers 4' yet?"

Zhu Youxiang shook her head: "Transformers? What is this?"

"This is the latest American sci-fi movie. There isn't a dubbed version yet, so we can only watch it with Chinese subtitles. Miss Zhu, can you read the words?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Xu Yan wished he could slap himself—although this girl seemed a bit odd, it wasn't right to casually assume she was illiterate.

Sure enough, upon hearing Xu Yan's words, Zhu Youxiang's expression changed slightly, but she didn't get angry. She smiled faintly, her demeanor calm and composed: "I apologize for making Mr. Xu laugh. I have been studying the Dao since I was young, and I haven't delved deeply into the classics. However, I remember reading 'The Classic of Filial Piety,' 'The Great Learning,' 'The Book of Women,' and I have studied 'The Analects,' 'Mencius,' and 'The Doctrine of the Mean.' As for 'The Book of Songs,' 'The Book of History,' 'The Book of Rites,' 'The Book of Changes,' 'The Book of Rites of Zhou,' and 'The Spring and Autumn Annals,' I can only say I have a slight familiarity with them—my knowledge of literature is quite shallow, and if I were to meet a learned scholar, I would naturally admit my inferiority."

Zhu Youxiang's words were ostensibly humble but actually boastful, and they were laced with subtle sarcasm—how dare a native of a barbarian land question the knowledge of a noble from the Celestial Empire?

Unfortunately, Zhu Youxiang's carefully planned performance was wasted on Xu Yan, who simply couldn't understand what she was saying. Hearing her list a bunch of ancient book titles, which sounded impressive, he nodded casually: "Oh, Miss Zhu, you can read, that's great! Let's watch the movie then~"

Zhu Youxiang: "......"

"Transformers 4" began, but soon Xu Yan regretted choosing this movie. From the start, Zhu Youxiang kept chattering in his ear, asking all sorts of random questions without stopping.

"Mr. Xu, those blue-eyed and blonde people, aren't they the same as the 'Semu' people mentioned in ancient texts? I didn't know there were still Semu people in your land."

"Those people? They are Americans..."

"Huh? They are clearly Semu people, why are they called Americans? Mr. Xu, what is America?"

"......Watch the movie, watch the movie! You'll understand as it goes on."

After another five minutes, Zhu Youxiang began to grumble: "Mr. Xu, look at those shameless Semu women, dressed so provocatively, and flirting with men... Oh, she's even doing that with a man on the street... The Semu barbarians are truly barbarians! The Semu women are shameless, I can't bear to watch!"

Xu Yan glanced at Zhu Youxiang—her face was flushed, her eyes gleaming with excitement. She said she couldn't bear to watch, but she remained seated on the sofa, showing no intention of getting up to avoid the scene.

Xu Yan pursed his lips, thinking, "You're such a hypocrite, aren't you?"

After more than an hour, the movie entered its climax. The Autobots and Decepticons began their intense battle, with fighter jets, lasers, and missiles flying everywhere. The human army engaged in a fierce battle with the Transformers, the city turned into ruins, mountains were flattened, and the intense sound and light effects made the entire room vibrate—anyone who has seen the Transformers series would feel the same way, the U.S. military in the movie is exaggerated to the extreme, able to fight with the Transformers who came from across the universe, and even gain the upper hand for a while!

From the start of the battle, Zhu Youxiang stopped asking questions. She sat motionless on the sofa, her eyes fixed on the TV screen, her mouth mumbling, "Such power, even a Golden Core cultivator wouldn't be much different..."

"Heaven, the barbarians have such destructive treasures, truly terrifying!"

......

Xu Yan didn't want to pay attention to her, but Zhu Youxiang's constant muttering was unbearable. He couldn't help but ask, "Miss Zhu, what are you saying?"

Hearing Xu Yan's voice, Zhu Youxiang turned around—Xu Yan was startled to see that in just a few minutes, the girl's face had turned pale, as if she had been greatly frightened.

She forced a smile at Xu Yan: "Mr. Xu, it's nothing—just, I have a question I want to ask you: Is this so-called America also a country in your land?"

"America? Of course, America is definitely a country on our Earth."

"Earth? What is Earth?"

"Earth—uh, Earth is the name we give to our world..."

"I see—Zhu Youxiang said cleverly: 'So, your 'Earth' is like our 'Nine Provinces' or 'All Under Heaven.' Then, may I ask, how many countries are there in your land?"

"I haven't counted, but I've heard there are over a hundred countries on Earth—how many exactly, I can't remember."

"Over a hundred countries!!" Zhu Youxiang's eyes were filled with shock and fear, her voice trembling: "And the America you mentioned earlier..."

Xu Yan said casually, "Of course, it's one of those over a hundred countries!"

Zhu Youxiang and her companions were stunned.

From then on, the world was completely silent—until the end of the movie, Zhu Youxiang remained expressionless, her lips tightly pursed, her demeanor as solemn as if she were attending a memorial service. Xu Yan thought she might have some problem and turned to look at her several times.

When the movie ended, Xu Yan looked at the wall clock; it was almost eleven, and he felt a bit sleepy: "Miss Zhu, it's late, aren't you going to rest?"

Zhu Youxiang's expression was wooden, and after a while, she nodded slightly and said softly, "It's fine, I'm not sleepy, I don't want to go to bed yet. Mr. Xu, you go to rest first. If it doesn't bother you, I want to stay here and watch... uh, watch the TV. Is that okay?"

"Ha ha, if you want to watch TV, go ahead, just turn the volume down so the neighbors don't complain—though it's late, watching ads isn't very interesting. Here, I have a few more DVDs; if you're interested, you can play them yourself."

Xu Yan taught Zhu Youxiang how to use the TV and DVD player. She was very smart and understood after watching him use it once. Xu Yan then took a few more DVDs from the box and gave them to her, all of which were recently popular movies. He yawned, said "good night," and went to his bedroom to sleep.

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The next day was Saturday, and Xu Yan slept until around eight in the morning. He brushed his teeth and washed his face in the bathroom of his room, and then went out to the living room, greeting the girl: "Hi, good morning!"

Hearing Xu Yan's voice, Zhu Youxiang's body trembled. She turned around and forced a smile at Xu Yan: "Mr. Xu, good morning."

The TV was still playing "Transformers." Xu Yan went over and touched it; the TV and DVD player were hot to the touch. He frowned: "Miss Zhu, did you stay up all night watching this?"

The girl forced a smile and said lightly, "It's fine, I'm not sleepy." Although she was smiling, she seemed very anxious and preoccupied.

"Your face looks terrible... What's wrong?"

Zhu Youxiang looked at the TV screen, then at Xu Yan, hesitated, and finally shook her head: "Nothing's wrong."

Xu Yan stared at her for a moment and asked tentatively, "Is there something wrong at home?"

"I appreciate your concern, but since I arrived here, I haven't been in touch with my family—please rest assured, I'm fine."

Xu Yan frowned: Last night, they had chatted before going to bed, but after a good night's sleep, she looked like a wilted eggplant. No matter how he looked at her, the girl didn't seem "fine," but since she said so, he couldn't press the issue.

"That's good. If you need any help, let me know—uh, I might not be able to help much, but I'm a local and know the area well, so I might be of some use."

"Thank you, Mr. Xu. Please rest assured, I'm fine."

"That's good. By the way, do you want breakfast? I'll go buy some baozi and soy milk for you."

Zhu Youxiang nodded slowly, still looking worried. Xu Yan couldn't do anything about it and turned to the door. He bought double portions of baozi and soy milk from a breakfast shop downstairs and brought them up. During breakfast, the girl didn't say a word, her brows furrowed as if she were thinking about something very important.

After finishing breakfast, Xu Yan was about to clear the dishes when Zhu Youxiang stopped him. The girl hesitated, as if making a big decision, and said slowly, "Mr. Xu, there's something I want to ask you..."

Xu Yan's first thought was that the girl wanted to borrow money, because every time the fatso ran out of living expenses at the end of the month and came to him for a free meal, he had the same expression. But he quickly realized: What am I thinking? She has so many gold ingots in her sleeves that they could crush you. This real-life rich and beautiful girl wouldn't ask you for money.

There are always some idiots who like to shout about equality, but such beautiful words are just like flatulence. In Xu Yan's view, inequality is the truth of the world. If Zhu Youxiang were not a beauty but a burly man, or if she were not rich but a beggar, would he have let her stay at his place so easily? Would he not fear being stabbed and robbed in the middle of the night?

So people like the rich and dislike the poor, not necessarily out of greed, but for a sense of security—when have you ever heard of a millionaire robbing someone?

"Mr. Xu, Mr. Xu?"

"Oh, it's nothing—go ahead, what do you need help with?"

"I want to ask about America—the America you showed me in the movie last night... How many troops do they have?"

No matter how rich Xu Yan's imagination was, he couldn't have guessed that after hesitating for so long, she would ask such an out-of-place question. He was speechless: "How many troops does America have? What does that have to do with us? Why are you suddenly asking this?"

Zhu Youxiang carefully observed him. Seeing his surprised expression, she quickly said, "Mr. Xu, don't worry. If it's a secret, just pretend I didn't ask."

Xu Yan was at a loss: "What kind of secret is this? Wait a moment."

He went back to his bedroom, turned on his computer, and looked it up online. He came out and told Zhu Youxiang, "According to Baidu, the total U.S. military strength is 1.46 million, with 500,000 in the Army, 350,000 in the Navy, 350,000 in the Air Force, and 180,000 in the Marine Corps. The U.S. Army is divided into ten combat divisions and four independent brigades and armored cavalry regiments; the Navy is organized into five fleets, with twelve aircraft carrier battle groups, eleven amphibious ready groups, 59 attack submarines, 111 warships, and ten carrier air wings; the Air Force is organized into 20 air wings, each with about 74 aircraft; the Marine Corps is organized into three divisions and three service support groups, equipped with three air wings—uh, that's all the data I could find. Why are you asking this?"

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