My hometown is far away in Moscow.

019 The Troubles of a Poor Student

Hu Yi looked in the mirror and saw that his head looked like a freshly mowed lawn, with each hair standing up and slightly uneven, looking fluffy, just like Sakuragi Hanamichi in "Slam Dunk" after he had just shaved his head.

He had never had such a short haircut before and felt extremely awkward, but he still smiled and nodded: "Okay, it's fine."

Yu Feifei then called Li Baoqing over to take a look. Li Baoqing pressed the pen handle against his lips and said, "I think it's not bad. It's much better than having a rake hanging under the helmet like before."

Hu Yi came out of the bathroom after washing his hair. Yu Feifei had just swept the hair off the floor and looked up at him, muttering to herself, "It's alright, short hair makes you look more energetic. But the top is still a bit uneven. It would be better if you had electric clippers. Let it be like this for now, and I'll fix it for you when it grows longer." With that, she picked up her things and turned to leave.

Li Baoqing quickly called out to her, "Hey, Feifei, don't rush off. Tell me about Russian verb conjugations. I'm completely confused in class and can't do my homework."

Yu Feifei agreed, pulled up a chair and sat down next to Li Baoqing, and began to patiently tutor him. Li Baoqing frowned and scratched his head, clearly struggling to learn.

For most Chinese people, Russian is a difficult and obscure language, not only challenging to read and write, but also burdened by a complex and fragmented array of grammatical rules. In contrast, English grammar appears remarkably relaxed and is closer to the expressive logic of Chinese.

The difficulty for Chinese people learning English is memorizing vocabulary, which is why English teaching almost always emphasizes memorizing words—as long as the vocabulary is sufficient and the tenses are correct when speaking, everything else is not a problem, and there are not too many complicated and strict rules.

Russian is quite different. While vocabulary is important, if grammatical rules are not followed and words are simply piled up randomly, it will not only be difficult to understand, but it can also easily lead to serious ambiguity.

The first thing to master when learning Russian is its complex basic grammar: verb conjugations, noun declensions, combined with different persons, tenses, and various strange and unusual usages, making it unpredictable and leaving beginners completely bewildered. However, the situation differs depending on the specific individuals involved.

Yu Feifei has been a good student since childhood. The good study habits she has developed over the years have given her a strong ability to learn on her own. Every day after class, she would take the initiative to review what she had learned that day and then try to preview the next part of the course.

Although she found it a little difficult at first, she studied very hard. Her roommate, Dam, was an excellent government-sponsored student. The two communicated in Russian in the dormitory, studied and made progress together. Yu Feifei not only quickly caught up with the class's teaching progress, but also developed strong classroom communication skills.

Perhaps due to his overdeveloped motor skills, Li Baoqing's brain language center is significantly weaker than that of ordinary people. In the past, writing essays in elementary and middle school was like constipation, and he could hardly pass English. Now, learning Russian is almost killing him, as he can't understand what the teacher is saying at all.

As the saying goes, if you fall behind at one step, you'll fall behind at every step. Now, Li Baoqing can only stare blankly at the teacher during class, and his learning over the past month has been very limited. Back in his dormitory, he spends all his time with fellow Chinese, such as Hu Yi, and rarely has the opportunity to speak Russian. When buying things, he stands in front of the counter pointing and gesturing, and he absolutely cannot understand the prices when paying, so he has to ask the other person to put the numbers on the calculator.

Hu Yi possesses some linguistic talent. Although his high school studies were almost entirely neglected, his English foundation built in elementary and middle school was passable. His various hobbies unrelated to academics also helped cultivate good language logic and a good sense of language, putting him in a much better position than Li Baoqing. Even if he initially only partially understood the lessons in class, he could at least grasp the main points of the grammar rules and barely keep up with the teacher's train of thought.

Unfortunately, language sense is something that can't be explained in words. Hu Yi found it difficult to use his abstract insights to help the slow-witted Li Baoqing. He could only rely on Yu Feifei to force him to memorize the rules in the book.

From that day on, Yu Feifei was frequently invited to tutor Li Baoqing, and Hu Yi would occasionally listen in to reinforce his own understanding and memory. Yu Feifei was very responsible and had rich experience in helping struggling students, but unfortunately, Li Baoqing was too poor at learning and could never grasp the essentials, leaving her at a loss.

A month passed, and the end of the year was fast approaching. Li Baoqing's studies showed some improvement, while Hu Yi, who had been auditing the classes, had absorbed much of the difficult and important points from the lessons. His Russian had improved significantly, and he appeared quite confident when communicating with others. He carried a pocket-sized Russian-Chinese dictionary with him when he went out, and could even hold a simple conversation with people by gesturing. At least attending classes and shopping were no problem for him.

However, Hu Yi's smugness didn't last long. The new economics courses that started at the end of the year required a lot of math knowledge, and now it was his turn to stare blankly at the teacher. Although he had a solid foundation in algebra and geometry from junior high school, high school math was a complete blank for him. He couldn't understand it even when it was explained in Chinese, and Russian instruction was like reading gibberish.

This incident dealt a heavy blow to Hu Yi. Learning science is a gradual process that requires a solid foundation to continue. For a slacker like him to think he could fill in the gaps in his high school math knowledge through self-study in a short period was nothing short of a pipe dream. Yu Feifei was also burdened by the new curriculum and had little energy to help him. Besides, math wasn't like Russian grammar, which could be explained in a few words.

Hu Yi was at a loss, lamenting that it was too late to regret not studying hard in high school. He could only blame himself for not thinking things through before coming to school: "Damn it, I only knew that the engineering department required math, and I deliberately avoided it. I didn't expect that the economics department would also have to learn this crap."

"How can economics be separated from mathematics? You've suffered because you're uncultured," Li Baoqing said earnestly. Hu Yi was a poor student, but he read a lot of random books, accumulating a bellyful of all sorts of miscellaneous knowledge, which he would show off whenever he had free time, while also mocking Li Baoqing's lack of education. Now that Li Baoqing had finally seized the opportunity to retort, he naturally wanted to deliver a few sarcastic remarks.

"Get lost." Hu Yi's response was simple and direct.

Li Baoqing chuckled: "Hey, actually I'm not much better than you. I can recognize most of the formulas and symbols, but I can't understand what the teacher is saying."

Hu Yi sat on the table, put his feet up on the chair, lit a cigarette, and sighed, "You can still laugh? It's only the first semester of preparatory school, and you already can't understand the teacher's lectures. The final exams are in a few days, what are we going to do?"

These words made Li Baoqing feel melancholy. He stared at the chair at Hu Yi's feet for a long time, then muttered, "Sigh, it's not just the two of us. I think most of the Chinese students are struggling with their studies. Even Fei Fei isn't having an easy time." As he spoke, he got up from the bed and stretched. "By the way, Brother Tao said he'd take us to the big market in a few days."

Hu Yi waved his hand dismissively: "The big market? I heard that place is dirty and chaotic, what's so fun about it?"

"Doesn't the big market have a lot of domestic specialties? The dried goods and seasonings we brought by train are almost gone. Next week is New Year's Day, followed by the Spring Festival. I want to go and buy some things to stock up. Oh, and I'll also buy a bottle of Lao Gan Ma chili sauce."

"Lao Gan Ma? That's something I'd like to get a bottle of. You go with him, and when you get back, we'll split the cost 50/50."

"Aren't you going?" Li Baoqing swallowed hard. "I heard they sell fried dough sticks at the market in the morning."

"Fried dough sticks?! Really?" Hu Yi's eyes lit up instantly, all his worries about not understanding the lesson vanishing in a flash: "Okay, I'll go too!"