276 All Alone in a Foreign Land (1/2)
Chapter 276: All Alone in a Foreign Land
Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
During the period when he studied in England, Meng Li felt the taste of loneliness.
It was true that physically and biologically, he was not alone. During the days, he was at school with teachers and classmates. In the evenings, his host family was very warm and considerate. But there was no place better than home, his real home. Wandering about in a foreign land, breathing the air of a foreign country, eating the food of a foreign country, and hearing the language of a foreign country all made Meng Li feel like a fish out of water.
Before he left China, he was ambitious. He decided that after completing his academic program in England, he would try his best to find a job there and would not return to China. Was there anything good about his home country? Food safety issues, air quality issues, and some persistently unresolved social chaos... However, when he did go abroad, he began to miss the things that he once abhorred—no matter how poor the air quality was, he was familiar with the air; no matter how severe the food safety concern was, at least the food was delicious; as for social chaos, why did it have anything to do with him?
He wasn’t the only one that was unable to adapt to the environment. Among his fellow classmates that went to England at the same time with him, several of them lost themselves because of sudden changes in the environment.
His host family was very warm to him. Although he never found his way to blend in, he had to admit that the family was very warm and hospitable, and they did not treat him as an outsider. It’s just that he shackled himself and always felt alienated, suspecting they were judging him with strange looks.
There was a puppy at the host family. He didn’t pay much attention at first, because pet keeping was so common among families abroad. In addition, he couldn’t recognize the breed of the dog, for he never saw such a breed in China. After inquiring the host family, he learnt that its name was Julie, and it was a Cocker Spaniel.
The host family was just so nice. They might have sensed that Meng Li was a little unhappy, and they assigned him a task—taking Julie for a walk outside twice a day, in the morning and in the evening.
This task was easy but time-consuming. Cocker Spaniels were hounds, which were more active and energetic than ordinary breeds of dogs. Each walk took a long time, and he must shoulder the responsibility of picking up its feces.
Meng Li had never raised a dog before. He was not expecting to get one, but he didn’t reject the idea either. He just hated walking in the streets and suddenly stepping on dogs’ feces. Only after living in the small town in England did he know that, because of the large population of dog-keepers, the situation of rampant spreading of dogs’ feces in England was not much better than in his home country.
Julie looked just like this one in the showcase. They both had a pair of large, round brown eyes, and their clear-cut cheeks made them look like serious old philosophers when they were not barking. Meng Li often forgot that Julie was actually a young female dog; he always called it ”Old Chu”.
Cocker Spaniels have very long fur, are very active and like burrowing. That’s why when he took Julie out for a walk, its fur would be hooked by grass and thorns, and then it would sob painfully. When Meng Li helped untie its tangled furs, it would happily lick his hand in gratitude, and then it quickly forgot the pain and went on burrowing among the grass.
At first, Meng Li only walked the dog near the host family, but gradually he went farther and farther, sometimes even going all the way to the outskirts of the town. As days went by, residents along the route started to recognize him and they would greet him. Occasionally, some people would catch up with him and walked their dogs with him.
Days passed plainly liked that and nothing memorable happened until the end of his studies. After graduation, he changed his mind and decided to return to his motherland, which was not perfect yet very familiar to him. The night before boarding the plane, the host family had a lively farewell party for him on the lawn in their backyard, and many residents of the town, whom he knew or had never met before, came to attend the party.
He prepared a lot of presents, hugged and thanked the family members one by one, and said goodbye to Julie. Julie probably didn’t know that he was about to leave. It just bit the bottom of his trouser leg to drag him out, urging him that it was time to go out for a walk. He patted its head, pulled out the trouser leg from its mouth, and said goodbye to it in Chinese so that it wouldn’t understand what he had said. Julie stopped badgering him, it just glanced at him and then ran away to play with the other dogs brought by the guests.
The next morning, he got up very early to catch his flight at an airport in a big city. He quietly dragged his luggage out of the house, took a taxi and left.