Dong Qiangqiang's Story of Leaving Germany

Chapter 1080. Unintentional

The landlord couldn't guess what Dong Qiangqiang was thinking, so he naturally changed the topic.

With the hard work of the landlord who enjoys a slow-paced rural life, the yard has long been transformed into a veritable garden-style small farm and small orchard. When the weather is good, there is always plenty of sunshine in the yard, welcoming new visitors every moment.

Hard-working bees can be seen everywhere, foraging in the flowers and vegetable gardens, collecting fresh water from the pond, and then flying further afield to explore the flora on the surrounding hills. Birds in the garden fly under the eaves, collecting nesting materials and insects from the spider-web-like rose bushes that climb the outer wall of the house. Chickens, ducks and geese are inspired by the sunshine and green, and the kitchen countertops are covered with colors that Dong Qiangqiang has seen and has not seen before. Light pink, cyan, white, light brown, light brown and light gray eggs are placed together, exuding a cute and lovely smell.

The water in the pond becomes clearer, the lotus flowers are beautiful, the goldfish are fat, the fish are playing on the lotus leaves in the east, the fish are playing on the lotus leaves in the west, the fish are playing on the lotus leaves in the south, and the fish are playing on the lotus leaves in the north.

A pond of beautiful flowers and fish not only gave full spiritual enjoyment to the landlord who worked in the vegetable garden every day, but also attracted the attention of neighbors. After word spread, the neighbors who rarely visited the landlord's yard except during holidays began to run to the landlord's yard every now and then. Although no one mentioned the pond, they all stayed by the pond longer without exception.

Finally, one day, the most curious neighbor among the many neighbors, who had also suggested that the landlord drive away Dong Qiangqiang from the SARS area, walked through the fence and into the yard. She first praised the landlord's pond for being unique. Just a pond made the whole yard lively and lively, refreshing and giving people a sense of comfort to return to nature, which is quite the essence of German garden aesthetics. Then she asked the landlord which local garden company did the design and how the process was. She also wanted to find a prescription and have one for her yard. Otherwise, there would be only a few dry trees in her yard besides flowers and vegetables. It would be boring to look at it over time, and she couldn't feel any vitality when standing in the yard. According to her observation, since the landlord dug a pond, there were fewer birds landing in the yards of the surrounding neighbors, and even the crows that everyone disliked came and all ran to the landlord's house.

The landlord, who usually had only nodding acquaintances with her neighbors, now realized that although almost all of her neighbors had large yards, she was the only one who dug a pond in the yard.

The landlord was so flattered that she smiled like a flower and told the truth immediately. Except for the vegetable garden and the compost in the vegetable garden, almost all the things in the yard were cleaned up by the Chinese boy from the SARS area who lived in her home. The landlord, who guessed her neighbor's thoughts, was cautious when introducing the whole process. She only emphasized that she had neither touched nor given any orders throughout the process. From design to construction to the purchase of raw materials such as water pumps, lotus seedlings and fish seedlings, all were handled by Dong Qiangqiang herself. She was very satisfied with the final result, but never mentioned how much she spent in total.

As expected, after these words were spoken, the neighbors who were prejudiced against Dong Qiangqiang suddenly lost their temper and finally found an excuse to leave.

Although none of the neighbors had ever dealt with Dong Qiangqiang, there were still a few people who were naturally hostile to him. So after hearing that Dong Qiangqiang could do everything by himself, someone asked the landlord if he could dig a bigger pond if he could get an excavator. A few people were more direct and asked the landlord how much it cost and how long it would take to achieve the current effect.

The landlord said that she had to ask Dong Qiangqiang about this, because he usually went out early and came back late, spent every day at the university, and was very hardworking. That's why the neighbor asked her to help find out the story.

After hearing the whole story, Dong Qiangqiang couldn't help but sigh. He thought that he had listened to Lao Bai's advice when digging the pond. He didn't have any extravagant expectations at first. He just wanted to repay the landlord for his care for him. However, he never thought that he would accidentally build a pond model room. It was really a blessing in disguise.

He knew that this was a part-time job introduced by the landlord. After thinking for a moment, he discussed with the landlord that the situation of each yard was different. If they pursued beauty and harmony, they must consider the proportional relationship between the pond and the yard and the layout of plants in the existing yard. The bigger the pond, the more beautiful it was. Therefore, it was impossible to give a standardized solution. They could only design for each household and then quote a price based on the design to see if the other party could accept it.

Although the landlord was optimistic about Dong Qiangqiang's design and execution, he was not without concerns. He was mainly afraid that Dong Qiangqiang would ask for too much, so he was frank and pointed out that most of the neighbors were elderly people of the same age as her. Although Germans are generally good at doing things, if the price is right, everyone would want to spend money to buy something that saves trouble and effort. Therefore, as long as the price is not too exaggerated, the old neighbors should not be particularly picky or make irresponsible comments. On the other hand, this is also a moment to show Dong Qiangqiang's personal ability. Although he does not need to bring him closer to his neighbors by quoting a low price, it can at least reduce the potential hostility around him, and it can also earn some reputation for the Chinese, so it is worth a try.

Dong Qiangqiang understood everything the landlord was thinking and immediately expressed his willingness to check the neighbor's yard with the landlord on the weekend. He would also communicate with the landlord before coming up with a plan to ensure that the fees were fair and would not make things difficult for her. However, relatively speaking, money was not the most troublesome issue. It was that his studies were the top priority now and he had exams in August, so he could only work on weekends. If he worked independently, the construction period might be very long, but if the fee was right, he could also ask a few classmates to help him speed up the completion.

The landlord was satisfied with Dong Qiangqiang's interpersonal skills and immediately promised that she would help coordinate the work cycle. As for the odd jobs, as long as they did not violate German law, Dong Qiangqiang could handle them herself. There was no need to tell the neighbors too much about the details. No one cared about the process, only the results.

With more contact with foreigners, especially the landlord and other foreign college students, Dong Qiangqiang not only gained knowledge, but also increased his self-confidence. He became more and more daring to speak out and express his own opinions (whether it is right or not is another matter). He remembered the expectations Du Lan had placed on him before: since he was already in a German university, he should not always be confined to the small circle of Chinese people, but should try to interact with foreign students as much as possible. This is not to worship foreigners, but to learn from them in order to defeat them.

In the past, Dong Qiangqiang was embarrassed to think for himself when he didn’t understand something during CFA training classes. When he really couldn’t figure it out and wanted to ask questions, the teacher had already left and never kept the class after class. Now, if he doesn’t understand something, he asks right away without any shyness. He is more proactive than when he was in German universities. The main reason is that he has adjusted his mindset: I’ve spent money, so there’s nothing shameful about asking if I don’t understand.

The change in his mindset helped him gradually understand a lot of the half-understood knowledge he had learned by himself before, and he began to systematically learn how to read the financial reports of US listed companies. CFA Level 1 requires ten exams, and all trainers are Americans. The lectures are humorous, easy to understand, and they throw out recent examples from time to time. Dong Qiangqiang's notebook can be filled up in almost three weeks, and the recorder is full every time. He can always gain something by listening to the lectures for a week.