Chapter 76: Chapter 76: Fat Buddies
Asking for help is also a learned skill, not to mention someone you don't even know. So he continued where Li Jia had left off, talking about eating chestnuts.
'Eating chestnuts is also good. Back home, they are called iron crops along with persimmons and dates, and can replace grain. Chestnuts are also rich in various minerals and vitamins, especially vitamin C, which is higher than that in tomatoes and more than ten times higher than that in apples. Vitamin C is especially good for you girls. Absorbing more of it will make your skin fairer.'
'Really?' Li Jia touched her face, 'You gave such a smooth sales pitch for such a long time. How many times did you practice?'
'It's really not an advertisement. Our hometown is a big chestnut county, and we have known about the properties of chestnuts since we were young. You can look it up if you don't believe me.' Feng Yiping looked aggrieved.
'Haha, I believe you,' she said, knowing a little about the effects of chestnuts.
Li Jia looked at Feng Yiping happily eating meat in large bites, a little envious, 'If you eat like that, how come you don't gain weight?'
'You're not fat either,' Feng Yiping said, looking at her, "why worry about it?'
'Haha, Feng Xiaodi, you really know how to talk. I know myself, since I've been so idle over the summer, I've gained at least three pounds!'
'When I was young, conditions were poor, not to mention meat, even oil was eaten sparingly. At the time, everyone around me was worried about being too thin. Now, everyone is worried about being too fat. So, the world really changes too quickly.'
'You're quite good at summarising," Li Jia said with a smile.
'I'm used to it. In Chinese class, I always summarise the central idea,' Feng Yiping continued, "and I've researched it. Many people have the same worry as you. There are records of it. The earliest one is Wang Wei from the Tang Dynasty. In one of his poems, he wrote, "Every time there's a big holiday, I gain three pounds,'' Feng Yiping said seriously.
Li Jia didn't understand at first and wanted to argue back, thinking that the poem clearly didn't say that. After thinking about it for a while, she understood, laughed, and clapped her hands in glee, attracting the attention of everyone around her.
There was nothing she could do. People nowadays have not been exposed to various types of humour, so their sense of humour is really low.
Feng Yiping quite likes this kind of personality: straightforward, not pretentious. He decides to strike while the iron is hot.
'Sister, actually I have something else I'd like to trouble you with,' although saying this next, it's a bit of a quick fix, but Feng Yiping doesn't have any other options right now.
'Oh, go ahead,' Li Jia is now very happy. If just now when she brought Feng Yiping in, it was just that she didn't want to refuse, now it has risen to the point where she doesn't dislike this person.
'I'd like to go to the library to read some books. Is that possible?'
'Oh, that,' Li Jia mused, 'the reading room on the third floor and the periodicals room on the fourth floor are both open now. What area are you interested in? It's definitely not easy to get into the periodicals room, you need a library card. You need a library card to use the reading room as well, but I can think of a way around that.'
'I haven't really decided yet what area I'm interested in. I mainly want to see what a university library looks like and broaden my horizons. Also, I want to learn some knowledge about finance.'
'Finance, right? Just a minute,'
'Gao Zhiyi, come here for a second,' Li Jia waved at a bespectacled, chubby guy at the table by the door.
'He's a classmate from high school. He's in the finance department. Ask him.'
'Just a classmate?' Feng Yiping had a general idea of Li Jia's character, so he cracked a little joke.
'What do you think? You say you're small, but how come your thoughts are so complicated?'
The guy talked to a few of his classmates, then came over with a bowl in his hand. He was casually dressed, wearing a white T-shirt, a pair of large underpants and slippers.
'Introduce some people. This is a young guy I met today,' said Li Jia, looking at Feng Yiping. He only knew his surname Feng, but didn't know his first name.
'Feng Yiping,' Feng Yiping paused and introduced himself to the fat guy, "Hello, senior!'
'Haha, the word senior has a bit of meaning. Just hearing you call me that makes me feel old. Oh, you have some good food here," his attention immediately shifted to Feng Yiping's lunchbox of meat.
'Help yourself, don't be shy,' Feng Yiping moved the lunchbox towards him, 'then I won't be shy!' As he spoke, he picked up a piece of spare rib.
Feng Yiping understood that this guy was really not a glutton. He was really fat, and the fatter he got, the more he could eat, and the more he wanted to eat. These actions were purely subconscious.
'Don't just eat,' Li Jia hit his hand, "Feng Yiping wants to go to the library and read some books on finance. What do you recommend?'
'Oh, you know about finance?" Gao Zhiyi had oil all over his mouth from eating. "What grade are you in?" he asked Feng Yiping.
'I'm in the second year of junior high school,'
'Only in the second year, so you haven't studied high school math, have you?'
He had studied it, but had forgotten it all. 'No, I haven't,' Feng Yiping had to say.
'Well, what about English? Gao Zhiyi asked next.
'English, just simple conversation,' Feng Yiping was a little shocked, but he still answered honestly.
'I see,' Gao Zhiyi was a little embarrassed. He didn't know much about advanced mathematics and his English was poor, so he really couldn't recommend him. But he had already eaten other people's food, and Li Jia was still watching.
'What do you want to learn?'
Feng Yiping organised his thoughts a little, 'I want to understand some basic concepts in finance, such as currency, foreign exchange, stocks, futures, etc., and if possible, I also want to understand how these work in concrete practice.'
'I see,' Feng Yiping's words were a little cryptic, but Gao Zhiyi immediately grasped the main point, 'You mainly want to understand how to speculate in stocks, foreign exchange, futures and various indices, right?'
'Yes,' Feng Yiping smiled innocently.
'The young man is careful, but not cautious,' Gao Zhiyi looked at him a little surprised, "then you don't need to go to the library, there aren't many books you can read there now, I'll give you my textbook, Monetary Finance, you can have a look first." Gao Zhiyi managed to eat and talk at the same time.
'Okay, thanks!' Having a textbook is of course good, university textbooks are always better than the popular science books in bookstores.
'Have you taken any notes? If you have, give them to him,' Li Jia added from the side.
'No problem, I'll go get it for you later.' Gao Zhiyi is really a fat guy with a good appetite. Even Feng Yiping, who considers himself a good eater, is not as good as him. In just a short while, while talking, he finished most of the meat and still seemed to be quite satisfied. What a man!
However, the results were very good, exceeding Feng Yiping's expectations. When he left school, not only was his lunch box full again, but he also had two more books under his arm. Gao Zhiyi also gave him a copy of Investment.