"All right then!" Miss Xu Xiaoyan’s mind was already clouded by the prospect of victory, and she readily agreed. "It’s a deal, no taking it back!"
"Promise not to take it back!" Laughed Yan Fei, wickedly, starting to think about what request to make next.
"Hey... where are you headed? Weren’t you going towards the Yellow River? You need to take a turn!" She patted him on the shoulder, bringing him back to reality from his deep thoughts.
"Oh! I was just thinking about what request to make!"
"As if you’ve already won." She scorned him. "Don’t bother taking a turn, this road goes straight through as well. It’s roughly the same distance."
As they walked, Yan Fei voiced his surprise, "How come there’s a greenhouse for vegetables in the middle of the city? What’s the purpose of it?"
"Those are the experimental fields of the Agricultural University." The maiden explained. "This whole area used to be experimental fields, but as the city’s population increased, they started building buildings here. I reckon the fields will be removed soon too."
"In that case, let’s go in and take a look! Let’s see how they grow their crops and I can learn something."
"Would they let us in?" The young lady, more serious now, completely forgot about their bet.
"No problem, there are students inside. We can just pretend to be students from the Agricultural University and blend in."
"Okay!" She agreed, and they locked their bicycles and confidently followed a few students inside.
She felt a bit guilty, "Won’t they recognize us?"
"What’s there to fear? Nobody’s checking. Let’s just go in!" Yan Fei, having overheard the students’ conversations, knew that this was a practical class, with several classes all at once. With so many students, the two of them blending in would garner no attention.
It wasn’t yet time for class, and the students were arriving in groups, casually scattering around the fields, observing and discussing amongst themselves. Yan Fei noticed everyone had notebooks and pens, so he reached into his bag and took out two stapled notepads and two pens.
"Yan Xiaofei, you’re quite well-prepared huh?" The maiden, accepting the notebook, gave him a praising gesture with her hand.
Yan Fei, with his excellent hearing, whispered to her, "We’re now students of the Agricultural Resources and Environment major, studying soil improvement. Oh! Shall we grab a handful of soil to appear more professional...?"
Just as she was about to commend him for being quite convincing, she heard his nonsensical chatter and turned her head away, afraid that he might do something strange again.
The more she acted this way, the more Yan Fei found it amusing! He walked behind her and muttered solemnly, "Soil improvement, turning bad soil good, simply speaking, means more manure. With these tomatoes, you can tell there’s not enough manure, they’re so small. Are these a breed intended to mimic jujubes when ripe?"
Unable to control her laughter and annoyance, she retorted, "Didn’t you come to learn something? Instead, you’re just running your mouth. The tomatoes are not small!"
Yan Fei, acting knowledgeable, said arrogantly, "You need to broaden your horizons, fellow student! Don’t just concentrate on the tomatoes in front of you, but also think about the tomatoes you’ve eaten before, are they the same size as these? Any farmer can grow tomatoes of this size, so what’s the Agricultural University doing with these large experimental fields?"
She gave it some thought and found it to be true. She was about to agree when she realized, "You’re such a pig! Those are normally grown tomatoes; these are counter-seasonal. The fact that they’re this large is impressive."
Yan Fei confidently strutted ahead, muttering, "You have to be ambitious, fellow student! Just look at these watermelons, are they growing Horse Bubbles or watermelons?"
The ’Horse Bubbles’ he mentioned is a weed commonly found in fields, nick-named ’Horse Bubble Melon’. The fruit it yields looks similar to a watermelon except it’s much smaller, about the size of a thumb.
As she was familiar with ’Horse Bubble Melon’, she could no longer hold back and gave him a couple of good twists, "Can’t you just listen to what others are saying rather than goofing around? If you don’t act your age, I’ll leave!"
"I am listening!" Yan Fei retorted. "Can’t you see my ears are pricked?"
"You’re still fooling around!" She was furious. "Show me your droopy ears! Are you a dog whose ears can stand up?"
"Ok, ok! I’ll shut up." Yan Fei saw that she was genuinely getting angry and quickly shut up.
After looking around, he suddenly spotted a group of students on the opposite side led by a man, and quickly lowered his head, "We’re in trouble. Let’s go!"
She was perplexed, "What’s wrong?"
"Quickly, let’s go. Let’s go look somewhere else and get out of here." Yan Fei urged.
"What’s going on?" She asked, starting to look around.
"Don’t look, don’t look, what if someone recognizes you? Let’s leave first." Yan Fei urged her to leave.
An older man from amidst the crowd spotted the two of them, instantly leaving the students and sprinting towards them.
While running, he shouted, "Wait, wait!"
Upon raising her head, Miss Xu Xiaoyan realized why Yan Fei wanted to leave.
This old man was none other than the person they had encountered at the antique store who wanted to buy the silver coins from them.
With students all around and him calling out to them, there was no chance of running away.
As the old man approached, Yan Fei with a puzzled look asked, "Professor He, hello, did you need something?"
"Do you know me?" Old He seemed puzzled. "Are you also students of the Agricultural Resources and Environment major? I don’t recall seeing you before."
"We’re from the Agricultural Science major, we had no class this afternoon so we thought we’d join you for your practical class. I’m quite interested in soil improvement. Learning more now could come handy after graduation." Yan Fei quickly changed their majors — such are the benefits of having good hearing, standing still yet hears everything, listening to exactly what you want at will.
Standing next to him, Miss Xu Xiaoyan was taken by surprise.
"Ah! Learning more always helps. In fact, all agricultural subjects complement each other, with soil being the most fundamental. No matter what your major is, knowing more about related subjects will never go to waste." Professor He nodded, returning back to his senses. "Wait, Agricultural Science students also attend classes here? But why don’t I remember seeing you? What year are you in?"