Chapter 187 Ideology

Yelena recently discovered that Qi Min often doesn't have dinner in the school cafeteria.

"Min, are you on a diet? Or does the food cooked by Americans taste too bad?" Yelena asked her before going out to the cafeteria.

"No, I just have an appointment tonight." Qi Min said happily while processing the data.

"You've started dating too? I'm glad to hear it." Yelena raised her eyebrows.

"We can't talk about a date." Qi Min just smoothed his hair and said, "I met a local Bolshevik, so I went to dinner and read Das Kapital - do you want to join us?"

(Note: “Bolsheviks” here refers to the Left [Harmony] faction, the same below)

"Local?" Yelena asked in surprise, then shrugged, "Forget it, Americans are all Trotskyists, and they probably look down on us CCCP veterans."

Qi Min was about to say that the name of her new Bolshevik was quite CCCP-style, but when she thought about a person who spoke English and considered himself Chinese, even if the origin of the name was Eastern European, it didn't seem to mean anything. Besides, reading "Das Kapital" is incidental to her key knowledge. It would probably be embarrassing if Yelena went to eat Chinese food with them.

"Okay then, you go and eat." Qi Min waved to her, "I'll finish the work and try to get off work early."

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Facts have proved that it is impossible for Qi Min to get off work early. Thanks to the junk notebook she has been using for six years, it takes more than ten seconds to open each file. No matter how fast she operates, time is still wasted opening files.

So she didn't go to the Asian supermarket with Anton today - after all, she was taking him to read "Das Kapital" as an excuse, and she couldn't order whatever she wanted.

Arriving at Anton's tidy apartment, Qi Min lamented for the nth time that there was a difference between treating the house as a home and living in a dormitory.

Anton was cooking at this time, and it seemed that he got off work later than usual today. Qi Min sat on the sofa for a while and saw a stack of bills on the coffee table. Among them, she saw a bill from a labor union: "Oh, you also joined the labor union. Chinese fast food restaurants also have labor unions?"

"No, so I joined the union of another chain of fast food restaurants." Anton came out of the kitchen and wiped his hands with a wet towel, "After the original boss left, I persuaded everyone who stayed to join the union. "

"The membership fee is not that much." Qi Min put down the bill and stood up from the sofa. "The question is, is it useful to join this kind of union? They shouldn't have time to negotiate with minority self-employed people for a few members. ?”

“It is not realistic to negotiate for a salary increase, but at least it can save people from losing their jobs.” Anton said with some helplessness, “The union has all kinds of troubles, but this is an insurance mechanism liberalized by capitalist society for the proletariat. But on the other hand, trade unions are also a powerful means of dispelling the revolutionary nature of the proletariat.”

"For ordinary people, it is more important to survive." Qi Min sighed with emotion.

"Seriously, Min, why don't you find a part-time job at school and join the school's labor union?" Anton suddenly mentioned, "Even if the salary of graduate students cannot be increased, you may be able to get a better one." medical insurance."

Qi Min thought about it. In fact, she had heard of people doing this, but finding a part-time job was too troublesome: "I may not have time...and my current medical insurance is almost enough."

"When is the medical insurance still enough?" Anton said in surprise, "Are you afraid that you have never been sick? Oh, that's right, you may have never been sick here. Many people think it is too expensive. Go see a doctor, and a minor illness will turn into a serious illness in the end.”

"But I can go back to China for medical treatment." Qi Min explained nonchalantly.

This answer predictably made Anton silent for two seconds, and then he said in a joking tone: "I also hope that I can 'return to China' to see a doctor."

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But probably thanks to choosing the right union, Anton's income has always been stable. And he is not like those "Americans" who consume ahead of time and remember every account clearly. Just like traditional Asians, he ensures that he is in balance at all times, so he can take Chinese fast food. He lives a seemingly decent life with the income of a store delivery boy.

Perhaps "like a traditional Asian" doesn't mean much. Considering that Anton is someone who plans to read "Das Kapital" in his spare time, he should be much less affected by consumerism than the average ABC.

But as for Qi Min's reason for visiting other people's homes, it's not so much reading "Das Kapital" as it is a miniature version of the Marxist-Leninist theory seminar group. What surprised Qi Min was that Anton had actually read some original works and updated theoretical articles other than "Das Kapital", which was at least better than many keyboard political enthusiasts who claimed to be left-leaning online. In other words, the reason why he decided to read "Das Kapital" only now was because of his natural fear of long books and felt that he needed someone to carry him.

"Actually, I don't quite understand. In the past, you read Ma En's other articles with others? Participating in seminar groups or something like that?" Qi Min asked curiously.

"When I was in high school, I had a friend who was Hispanic... and I used to read these books with him," Anton explained.

"Oh..." Qi Min actually doesn't know clearly what Latinos, Jews, etc. are and what are the ideological differences between them and ordinary Americans, "What about him now?"

"He went to New York after graduating from high school and wanted to make some money there." Anton replied, his tone seemed to disapprove of this decision, "High risk and high reward, I hope he can really make money."

"New York is a big city." As someone who grew up in a city with a population more than twice that of New York, Qi Min superficially praised, "But I'm a little curious. Your preference for this theory should come from Family education? Because I think the overall ideology of people here is still right-wing."

Anton frowned and glanced at her, but Qi Min didn't seem to understand his expression at all.

"Do you think I have such a thing as 'family education'?" Anton said a little angrily, "I find that you are strangely impolite sometimes."

"Oh? I'm very sorry." Qi Min was a little embarrassed, "I thought you - no, I thought all young people in the United States were like this, becoming financially independent after graduation." But she also tried to make up for it. To save his image, "Maybe my definition of 'family education' is not very accurate. In fact, I just want to ask if this is some kind of inheritance from parents?"

"So you did it on purpose?" Anton put down the book and looked at her in disbelief.

"What am I? What did you do on purpose?" Qi Min didn't understand.

Anton took a deep breath, looked at her very unhappy and said, "As a student of biology, do you think that ideology can be transmitted through genetic material?"

"No..." Qi Min still didn't quite understand.

"So why are you making fun of me here?" Anton asked angrily, "I am an orphan, and I am not a real Chinese, so it is incredible that I read Marx and Engels, right?"

Qi Min when he was young → annoying

Anton in his youth→Glass Heart