A can of beer didn’t stay long in the bloodstream, as one walked in the winter campus where tranquility set the main tone. A basketball lay abandoned under the hoop, and Zhou Ziang hooked it lightly with his toe, sending it bouncing up effortlessly.
Warming up, dribbling, leaping for a layup, scoring – a series of fluid motions ward up all his muscles, his hair damp with sweat.
After arriving in the United States, Zhou Ziang’s age had beco a rather conspicuous label. To avoid attracting too much attention, he had not joined the school’s basketball team.
The Cloud Ascension Technique allowed Zhou Ziang to jump to incredible heights at will. Even Dan Qiao, the current hotshot of the North Arican Basketball League, would be out of his depth facing him.
A couple walked toward the basketball court; they looked to be in the throes of romance. Zhou Ziang made one final shot into the hoop, his breath still steady, but the cold air he exhaled had turned clear.
"Mitchell, do we really need to do this? Isn’t it a bit unfair," the man in the couple spoke with a slightly stiff accent; surprisingly, although they had been speaking in English earlier, upon catching sight of a figure on the court, they imdiately switched to Chinese – suggesting their conversation was ant to be secret.
"Hao, what’s unfair about that. It’s not like I’m asking you to do anything bad, just to take a look at his research results. I’m doing this for our future," Mitchell’s Chinese was not very fluent. She had a Chinese face, but judging from her accent, she was likely an international student from Japan or South Korea.
Their conversation paused until the figure on the basketball court had walked two to three hundred ters away before resuming.
They thought this distance was safe, not knowing that Zhou Ziang’s hearing was much sharper than the average person’s. If he wished, the trees next to the basketball court and the withered grass under the couple’s feet could serve as his ears.
"Are you sure the news is real, that the results of this experint will be adopted by ngshan Company and used in agricultural expansion?" Zheng Hao had broken away from the group of international students to spend so intimate ti with his new girlfriend Mitchell, who had brought him staggering news after having had the Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner.
Dr. Shangsel’s research institute had just been acquired by ngshan Company, the largest agricultural biotech firm in the United States, and the internal researchers would be transferred to beco official staff of ngshan Company. Zheng Hao ca from a wealthy family, and a re green card couldn’t sway him, but an offer from a top international biotech company was a different matter.
"That paper was finished yesterday, Yao Feng treasures it deeply and has always kept it in his nightstand. But tonight, he’s probably watching the Spring Festival Gala with a bunch of undergraduate international students. It’s an opportunity," Zheng Hao embraced his girlfriend tightly, whispering and flirting with her.
The basketball on the court shone faintly under the dim street lamps.
Zheng Hao and Mitchell reached the graduate student apartnts where international students were sitting on the ground in groups of two or three. Not enough sofas in the apartnt and not minding the cold, many simply spread newspapers on the floor, relying on the comic sketches and crosstalk on TV to keep warm. The graduate apartnts were joined together, with three rooms and a large living room, kitchen, and bathroom. Everyone’s bedroom was private, and the hospitable Yao Feng was not in the living room but popping popcorn in the kitchen.
"Senior Brother Zheng, you’re back?" Zheng Hao nodded casually and walked upstairs with his girlfriend. With Mitchell as a lookout, Zheng Hao snuck into Yao Feng’s bedroom, and then made an excuse to take Mitchell ho and left the apartnt.
"It’s done, I’ll take the materials back to look at them," Mitchell pouted and gave her boyfriend a kiss on the face.
Behind them, the research student apartnt stood on the eve of Chinese New Year’s Day, with Zheng Hao’s room window open to the winter breeze. In the kitchen, the scent of butter popcorn lingered; Yao Feng was cutting fruits brought by Zhou Ziang, chatting about how this junior was quite interesting – he didn’t show up earlier, only appearing with fruits close to the end of the Spring Festival Gala.
Mitchell bade her boyfriend farewell and eagerly returned to the apartnt, calling her groupmate Helen to review the papers together. As they opened the envelope containing the papers, the two female students were stupefied – instead of any papers, there were only a few white sheets.
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