The Oblivious Straight Guy

"You international students in the preparatory program haven't studied Russian before, have you? So how is your Russian so good? And why didn't you apply directly for first year? At your level, there's no need to stay in the preparatory program."

Angelina asked in astonishment.

Although they had only spoken for a few minutes, Wang Ye's Russian was remarkably fluent, with standard pronunciation and no errors in grammar or word choice.

His level was obviously very high!

It was completely beyond what a preparatory student should have been capable of, which was why Angelina was so surprised.

With Wang Ye's ability, he could have enrolled directly in the first year.

"My paperwork for studying abroad was delayed, so it was too late to start first year. I'm taking half a year of preparatory courses as a transition, and it'll also help me get used to life here. As for why my Russian is so good..."

Wang Ye told her the same story he had told the elderly dorm manager.

He had no more reasonable explanation than that.

Sure enough, it worked quite well. Angelina also smiled and called him "tovarish"!

As the cigarette was nearly finished, Wang Ye seemed to suddenly remember something and asked, "Can you tell me your phone number?"

Angelina seemed a little hesitant, so Wang Ye hurriedly explained, "Oh, it's like this. You know my Russian is already good enough to pass the preparatory graduation exam. So I might not come to class every day. I want to take this time to properly look around Moscow. The museums here are quite famous, and I'd like to see them. If there's anything going on at school, we can communicate by phone."

Back home, if you told a teacher you planned to skip class, you'd basically be asking for death...

But here, especially since it was a preparatory program, Angelina did not think there was anything wrong with it.

Still, she seemed somewhat troubled. After hesitating for a moment, she said to Wang Ye, "I've only just started working, so I haven't bought a mobile phone yet. I'll give you my office and dorm numbers. Call the office if it's during class hours, and call my dorm in the evenings or on weekends."

It was clear that Angelina was not doing very well financially either.

Teachers probably did not earn much. People's Friendship University was already one of the better-funded universities in Russia, and its teachers received relatively better pay.

But even so, a preparatory teacher like Angelina who had just started working probably earned no more than three hundred dollars a month.

That was only because People's Friendship University enrolled many international students and had relatively deep pockets!

It was said that some less prestigious schools could barely recruit any international students, and their preparatory teachers earned only around fifteen hundred rubles, or fifty dollars...

Ten years had passed since the country's dissolution, but Russia had yet to recover. The entire nation was still waiting to be rebuilt.

Many ordinary people lived truly difficult lives. University teachers, researchers, civil servants, and others all received very low pay.

Over by the preparatory building at People's Friendship University, there was a male teacher who came to work every day carrying a huge sports backpack, stuffed full.

It was not because he liked sports or had packed athletic gear inside.

After work, he had to set up a stall near the metro station to sell shoes!

That sports backpack was filled with shoes wholesale from the big market...

So it was perfectly normal that Angelina had not bought a mobile phone. To her, perhaps a phone was not a necessity, nor something she could afford just yet.

Wang Ye nodded in understanding, took out his phone, and saved Angelina's office and dorm numbers.

Angelina was a single teacher, and her family did not seem to live in Moscow. She lived in a dorm assigned by the university—Building 13 in the dormitory complex, the high-rise dorm building.

Thus, Wang Ye's life as an international student officially began.

He quickly adapted to life here. How could he not? He had lived here for seven or eight years in his previous life...

Life at school was rather boring, especially since it was January, the coldest time of the year in Russia.

Although classes ended around two every afternoon, there was not really enough time to go out and have fun.

For one thing, it was not very safe. For another, it got dark extremely early here. The sky began to dim at around four, and by five or six, it was completely dark.

On top of that, the weather outside was cold enough to freeze someone to death, so no one felt like leaving the dorm.

Every day was just the dorm and the preparatory building, back and forth between the same two places.

On the morning of the first weekend after school started, Wang Ye was sleeping in when he suddenly received a call.

Still bleary-eyed, he picked up the phone beside his pillow and saw that it was Nalan Yaqi.

Why was she calling him?

Wang Ye frowned, but he still answered.

"Hello, Wang Ye, are you busy today?" Nalan Yaqi's voice came through the phone.

"No. What could I possibly have to do on the weekend?" Wang Ye said lazily.

"Then do you want to go see Red Square? And the famous Kremlin?" Nalan Yaqi's tone was full of temptation.

Perhaps anyone else would definitely have wanted to go.

But honestly, Wang Ye had no idea how many times he had visited Red Square. He was long tired of looking at it!

In this freezing weather, why spend half the day trudging out to look at that shabby little square? He would rather stay in the dorm and sleep in!

So Wang Ye flatly refused. "No."

Nalan Yaqi seemed to freeze for a moment. She had not expected Wang Ye to refuse so decisively.

When she came back to herself, she said with a hint of embarrassed anger, "Are you a lazy pig? You're a grown man, yet you stay cooped up in the dorm all day. What can you ever accomplish like that? Let me put it this way: my roommates and I agreed to go to Red Square together. There's a huge underground mall there. Do you want to come with us?"

Of course Wang Ye knew the underground mall she was talking about.

It had been built right beside Red Square, and it was entirely underground!

It was considered Moscow's most upscale shopping mall at the time, bar none. Even the nearby GUM Department Store, which called itself "Europe's largest shopping mall," could not compare with it.

High-end meant high prices. It mostly sold luxury brands, and there was no way Wang Ye could afford anything with the little money in his pocket...

So he shook his head repeatedly, said he did not want to go, and hung up before Nalan Yaqi could say anything else.

In a room on the fifth floor on the other side of the same dorm building, Nalan Yaqi stared at her phone in shock. The screen showed that the call had ended.

She had never expected Wang Ye to hang up on her!

She had taken the initiative to invite him out, yet was Wang Ye's head made of wood or something...

What an oblivious straight guy!

So utterly unromantic!

Fuming, she put on her coat and headed out with her roommate. Right outside, she ran into Zhang Ke—the short, long-haired boy Wang Ye had beaten up.

When Zhang Ke saw Nalan Yaqi, his eyes lit up. He quickly came over and asked, "Hey, Princess Qi, are you heading out? Where to? I happen to be free. Let's go together."

Nalan Yaqi shot him a disgusted sideways glance and said irritably, "A few of us girls are going out. What's it got to do with you? Go somewhere else!"

With that, she pulled her roommate away.

Watching Nalan Yaqi's graceful figure disappear into the distance, Zhang Ke's expression turned somewhat ugly...