I was 19 years old, my third year in France. I studied French for a year at a language school in Lyon, then at a chain of private business schools across Europe. In the first year I went in, I paid only the tuition fee, and almost all the money in my pocket.

The same house is called Cecilia, a Beijing girl three years older than me, who came to Lyon two years earlier. My choice of study always made her feel a little strange, and she often talked to me about this truth with her tongue: "Eighty percent of international students come to France?" Not because public universities here are free? You said that you got yourself an aristocratic business school in the first year, and your cost is too big, right? ”

I concentrate on reading, and when she educates me, let her educate. I have nothing to explain. There are two great things in the world: putting other people's money in your own pocket, and putting your own thoughts in other people's heads. I was in a hurry, and the book in my hand, priced at 93 euros, was from the library, and I could only borrow it for three days, and I paid late.

She sat next to me with her ass, as if she was thinking enough to distract me: "You said, you said, if you go to business school, you have all the supporting facilities." You look at your bike, you look at this house where we live, is this the house of the students of the aristocratic school? ”

We live in the old town of Lyon, on the left bank of the Rhône. It is a four-story building with a patio and a sign at the door, where a famous man in history lived - he died in 1742. This centuries-old building must have been renovated, the exterior walls are painted pink, the slender windows are tender yellow, and the appearance looks like the face of an old woman, and goosebumps can be seen no matter how you apply it. The muscles and bones are not good, the gate and the spiral staircase, touching and stepping on it will sound, as if there is a little burden will cry pain; As soon as it was cloudy, the Rhône fogged up, mist poured into the atrium of the old building, the stone floor, the handrail railing, and the abandoned fountain were wet, and the smell of the sewers was brought up. I don't know when I started to get the impression that the landlady was always shouting upstairs in this weather: "Chinese, pay the rent!" ”

Cecilia snapped his fingers in front of my eyes: "Qi Hui, you are fake and deep at a young age. ”

I pushed her hand away: "I'm going to have an exam next week, please spare me, I'll finish reading this paragraph." Wait a minute, I'll make vermicelli soup for you. ”

She smiled and said: "I only tell you one thing, the landlord probably wants to raise the house price, she wants to drive us away, everything is up to me to deal with, ask you anything, you say you don't know." ”

At this time, someone knocked on the door outside, and it didn't sound like the landlord. We both became alert and didn't speak for a moment, until the man outside said in a southern accent, "Cecilia, it's me." ”

When she heard this, she smiled, jumped to open the door, walked to the door and said to me: "Hey, Huihui, please make more fan soup." ”

I nodded and waved my hand at her: "Yes, as long as your movement is not too big." ”

That must be her new boyfriend. With each change, Cecilia is like a happy white rabbit. But she also has her own principles in this regard: she never looks for foreigners.

This day is not a lucky day for Cecilia. The southern boy just entered her room, and soon after the two of them talked, the door of our suite was knocked again, I stopped writing, and they stopped talking, separated by a wall, three people listened with their ears pricked up as just now, until the person outside said: "Cecilia, open the door quickly, it's me!" ”

The person who came was Jack, a fellow villager in Beijing who had just broken up with her, and his temper was called a bad one, and his character was worse than his temper. He was caught splitting his legs by Cecilia and was in bed with a Thai girl, Cecilia fired him last week, who would have thought that he would find him again today.

We opened our doors at the same time, and I looked at Cecilia and her new boyfriend, and the two of them also looked at me.

One thing I can give Cecilia a ticket: you don't care how quickly she changes, but she never splits. But the current situation is too ugly, just because she changed too quickly, and now she is simply catching up with the next family before she is dismissed.

Cecilia first waved at me, and then asked the southern boy to come to my side.

I frowned and refused, then fell silent.

The boy looked at us in amazement, then obeyed the arrangement and paced beside me.

The three of us silently reached a tacit agreement: Cecilia was still single, and the boy became my "boyfriend".

Jack came in and shouted: "Cecilia, we can't just finish playing like this." ”

Cecilia said: "Why can't you? ”

"You put... And also...... Give it back. ”

I went back to my room, sat on the bed, couldn't read the book, and scrambled into my ear. Jack and Cecilia Jin calculated to the point of being outrageous, and gradually I understood that he was actually not here to save Cecilia, he was here to collect debts.

The Southern boys stood in my doorway, next to my bike, all the while listening to them theorize outside.

He wasn't tall, he had a sapphire blue shirt, a very expensive brand, which I knew because a boy in our class wore it – he had changed two Ferraris. I am not surprised that this luxury item appears in this unamazing international student, many international students have such consumption habits: they can not eat well, live badly, but skip class to work, but do not hesitate to use the money given by their parents or earn themselves to buy exquisite and gorgeous luxury goods. French goods seem to have this evil magic.

But I don't hate him. He has a quiet face.

I whispered to him, "Don't listen to him." Cecilia didn't want his money, she also lent him a lot. He came to collect debts now, and he didn't mention how Cecilia took care of him when he was sick. ”

He kept looking at me as I spoke. He didn't say anything, as if he hadn't heard.

Cecilia outside let Jack talk nonsense for a while, and finally said: "How do you know, I will pay today?" I sell clothes to my boss these days and earn a lot of commissions. You see...... ......”

She was counting bills in front of him, boom, boom, the nice sound of euro bills.

But suddenly she had a seizure, and she almost jumped up and said, "Merde, Jack, what are you?" Do you dare to touch my money? You don't look in the mirror to see what virtues you have. You come to me to settle accounts with me, are you a grandfather? You get out of here for me. If you delay me for one more second, I will immediately call the police. I told the gendarmerie about you helping people fake invitations! ”

My scalp felt numb when I heard it, but I immediately left my room, and I stood next to Cecilia to confront Jack.

He let Cecilia hit the point at once, and immediately decided to change lines to fight, he pointed to the southern boy and said: "Just now, I wanted to say, why do you still have a man here?" Who the is this? ”

It's time for me to speak.

The more nervous I was, the slower I spoke, and I slowly said to him: "Jack, this is my friend, you take back your ''." ”

Cecilia came up and pushed him: "You roll, did you hear me?" You roll. ”

If he sincerely doesn't leave, Lai is here, sparing us two girls, and he can't push away such a big guy. But the others had already lost the battle, and left cursing. Cecilia and I sat on the kitchen chair like a fight, and did not move for a long time.

The boy found our glass of water and poured each of us a glass of water. He asked Cecilia: "What is this person's name?" ”

"Jack. Cecilia said.

Then he asked me, "What about you?" ”

"I'm an unrelated person." I say.

I can't study, I don't have time to cook myself a bowl of hot vermicelli soup for dinner, and I'm now hungry and have to ride my bike for more than an hour to Carrefour to work.

How do I say "it's okay"?

But it's better than her carrying everything alone. Chinese students are the least united, but without great unity, there must be a little friendship. How else will we survive?

I have to go. I grabbed my satchel and helmet and carried my bike downstairs.

This is a job of doing inventory at the drink counter. 12.5 hours a week, 12 euros per hour, all to do is regularly count the drinks bought on the shelves and notify colleagues to restock them.

Before I started, when I took a shower, I was thinking about one thing: Summer vacation is coming, what will I do after that? I can't just do this one job. If I can find a job in a restaurant to do the best, it will be more stable and earn more. I saved money for an academic year, and I'm still a lot short of tuition for the next semester. I've got to work harder.

I took a bath, changed my clothes, and put on a yellow vest. I carefully combed my hair in the mirror, strands by strands, the ends, the roots, dried, combed, I tied into a twisted braid, leaving no trace on the outside. The braid is tied with black velvet and draped over the shoulders.

A new product came to the mineral water counter.

The one-liter "Haige Water" was repackaged: the bottle in the shape of a sand clock with a thin waist was a foggy white package, and upon closer inspection, it was all patterned with snowflakes and bubbles; The bottle has blue text on the body, the upper half is JPG, the name of the fashion master Jean Paulo Gautier, and the lower half is the water brand "Hagrid". I took it in my hand and looked at it, I couldn't put it down, the same colorless and odorless mineral water, the packaging was changed, and suddenly it became a work of art.

This elegant and beautiful "Haige Water" sells for more than three euros, and the unit price is more than twice that of "Evian" or even "Bardot", but people who buy it flock to it. That night, within three hours, we replenished the goods five times.

The next morning, the professor gave a lecture on "The embodiment of human behavior symbols on commodity packaging". During the group discussion, I took out this example and brought pictures from the Internet to show the students in the same group.

They blinked, surprised in their hearts, and did not say it.

I know what they were surprised by, the three people in my group, the father of two boys, one of the famous bankers in Zurich

"What kind of behavior symbol is this?" A boy said.

"Control." I said, "The bottle is designed so that it's most convenient for people to hold it." ”

"Like a woman's waist." Another boy blurted out.

The wool roll girl giggled.

"Or time." I say.

The wool roll suddenly remembered something, buried his head in his Gucci shoulder pocket for a long time, finally took out a gossip magazine, turned to the page he wanted, pointed to the boy who said "woman's waist" and said: "I think he is right." ”

They have been classmates for a year, and they don't know who each other's last names are.

She showed me the page of the magazine: Jean Paul Gauthier was beside Danis Haiguerre, the heir to Hagridwater's family.

He was an Alpine in his thirties, with blonde hair and blue eyes—the color of the sun. He looked at the camera, smiled slightly, and a light line appeared on his lips.

He looked gentle.

This is the owner of Hagrid Water.

"Really handsome, isn't it?" Wool Roll said to me, "And the attitude and temperament are very good, and I don't look like a playboy." ”

I'll look at her.

Wool Roll shook his head and made a regretful expression: "He has been with so many women, who knows how many anonymous collections there are?" So I concluded that the design of the water bottle JPG was to cater to this man's life philosophy: mastering the woman's waist. ”

Her natural analysis made the other two boys laugh, and watching them do this made me almost break down. Who would be so idiotic as to engrave a bad mark on their own products? I don't pay a lot of tuition every year to have fun with them.

My bad temper rose again, and I slowly said to them: "The professor will wait for our discussion report, who will do it?" You? You? Or you? Either we break up and analyze new cases. ”

They raised their eyebrows nonchalantly, not minding my dissatisfaction.

A tolerant and pleasant character needs capital to cultivate too much, and I don't have that capital.

After class, the wool roll was picked up by her boyfriend. The magazine was thrown on the desk. I hesitated, but decided to recycle it.

On the tram home, I leaned against the railing to see the page with Danis Haiguerre. He was so good-looking, his hair, his eyes, the corners of his lips and his smile, so gentle and romantic.

The tram passes by the square. The herd of pigeons was driven up, and I looked out, the light of the setting sun in early summer shining on my face.