From Xia Xiaolan’s tone, it seemed money wasn’t an issue.

Did this Chinese girl understand how much litigation costs in America?

“Connie, Mr. and Mrs. Franklin are here!”

The assistant gently knocked to remind her of the clients who had an appointment with Wen Manni. She could only hurriedly end the call: “If you’d like to retain our services, you can come to our law firm to discuss details. The address is on my business card.”

Wen Manni was genuinely busy.

This gave Xia Xiaolan confidence. A lawyer without real ability wouldn’t be this busy.

“Looks like I’ll have to make a trip to New York City!”

Han Jin and the others had previously invited Xia Xiaolan to meet in New York over the weekend, but she had declined, saying the journey was too far.

She truly did think it was far.

But it depended on what the trip was for.

Making the trip for Han Jin and the others wasn’t worth it, but for Grandmother Yu’s matter, even ten trips would be worthwhile! Xia Xiaolan didn’t make promises lightly, but once she committed to something, she would certainly do her best to follow through.

Grandmother Yu knew how to win people’s hearts even better – she had given Xia Xiaolan the small building at Commercial City’s Er-Qi Square early on. With such trust placed in her, how could Xia Xiaolan not give it her all?

Xia Xiaolan decided to go to New York City next weekend.

She had many things to do this week. Compared to dealing with the demon king Professor McCarthy, familiarizing herself with New York state traffic rules and applying for a driver’s license at the DMV was quite simple.

Xia Xiaolan already knew how to drive, and American cars were like Chinese ones – both left-hand drive!

With the steering wheel on the same side, Xia Xiaolan found it quite natural to drive. To get her license, she needed to take a written test at the DMV, and after passing that, she would take a road test.

The road test wasn’t divided into subjects like in future China… it was truly just a “road test” – the examiner would sit in the passenger seat while the applicant drove directly on the road.

Whether one could drive and follow traffic rules would be immediately apparent.

“This seems quite simple…”

Hu Ying had Xia Xiaolan practice driving: “It’s not simple! If the speed limit is 60 miles per hour and you only drive 50, that’s obstructing traffic and disrespecting the cars behind you. The examiner will fail you!”

This was a cultural difference.

In her previous life, Xia Xiaolan was used to driving in China, where exceeding the speed limit meant point deductions and fines. Wasn’t it normal to drive at 50 in a 60 zone?

If Hu Ying hadn’t reminded her, she probably would have failed the road test without even realizing why.

It seemed she needed more driving practice!

However, the written test wasn’t a big problem. Xia Xiaolan bought practice test books to study, and for a Chinese student who had survived the gauntlet of college entrance exams, these questions weren’t difficult at all.

“Professor McCarthy’s assignment requirements are ten-star difficulty, while the New York DMV written test is only one star.”

Before Professor McCarthy’s third homework check, Xia Xiaolan went to take the written driver’s license test.

Having lived two lives and taken countless exams, this was her first truly “unsupervised” test.

They gave you the test paper, relied entirely on honesty, and didn’t even limit the time… Were all Americans this trustworthy and self-disciplined? Not necessarily – another reason was that the consequences of being caught cheating were severe: many years or a lifetime ban from testing. Besides, the driver’s license written test wasn’t difficult – it wasn’t worth risking everything for this exam!

Xia Xiaolan passed the written test smoothly.

She would have three chances to take the road test within the next year.

Xia Xiaolan went ahead and scheduled the earliest available test date.

Ithaca wasn’t a big town – if Cornell University weren’t here, it would be even quieter.

However, there were still watch stores, and Xia Xiaolan wasn’t picky about styles.

Here, $100 could buy a very nice watch – shipped to China, it would sell for at least a thousand yuan!

Seeing that Xia Xiaolan had finally replaced her watch, Hu Ying felt relieved. She had privately discussed with Professor Wen about possibly giving Xia Xiaolan a new watch but worried it might make her feel uncomfortable.

It seemed they didn’t need to worry about Xia Xiaolan’s financial situation or her habit of frequently buying daily necessities to bring home.

Should they stop her from buying things?

That would only make Xia Xiaolan feel uncomfortable living in the Wen household.

Xia Xiaolan naturally didn’t know about Hu Ying and Professor Wen’s thoughts, didn’t know how carefully they considered everything, and worried about hurting her self-esteem.

Originally strangers who had to live together because of the Mao Kangshan connection, they all needed to adapt to each other.

While Xia Xiaolan was adapting to American life, Professor Wen and his wife were also adapting to having a Chinese girl in their home!

…

“Now that you’ve passed the written test, are you going to buy a car?”

Daisy wore gloves while waiting for the cement to dry and be removed from the mold.

This was their new assignment, one that Xia Xiaolan was involved in. After days of working together, the study group – Daisy, Richard, and their third member – had gone from initially ignoring Xia Xiaolan to gradually trusting her.

What won them over wasn’t wild creativity, but her ability to consistently pinpoint practical problems.

After cramming last semester’s construction materials knowledge, Xia Xiaolan could help them find the root of problems… OK, Chinese people were good at math, calculating these formulas was as natural as breathing to them, but Daisy always had a feeling that Xia Xiaolan’s tone was too certain, as if she hadn’t calculated these answers but had actually encountered these problems in real life!

Was that possible?

Chinese people couldn’t be that crazy, right? Letting undergraduates get hands-on practice?

If Daisy had asked this question, Xia Xiaolan certainly wouldn’t have admitted it – are Chinese people this crazy? No country in the world was this crazy!

Of course, if an architecture student happened to be a real estate developer themselves, that was a different story altogether.

Xia Xiaolan finished the final calculations and called Richard and Lyle over to look:

“Our calculations are correct. This time we won’t let Professor McCarthy catch us off guard. Being nervous is completely useless… Oh, Daisy, I might buy a used car. It’s too inconvenient without one.”

Ithaca was built on rolling hills, with Cornell University at the highest point. Riding a bicycle up and down from Professor Wen’s house was a real test of Xia Xiaolan’s endurance.

She also needed her car to go to New York.

Ithaca had daily round-trip buses to New York, but the timing wasn’t very convenient.

All four members of the study group had become red-eyed rabbits from lack of sleep. If they didn’t pass this time, Richard and the others would truly go crazy.

In the blink of an eye, it was time for the demon king’s descent to earth once again.

Tap, tap, tap.

The classroom was filled with sympathetic glances.

Xia Xiaolan’s group of four wasn’t fighting alone – last time, another group had also faced their third attempt.

Professor McCarthy entered the classroom. “Let me see if anyone will get a D today. Chuck, would you bring up your group’s work? And the exchange student from China – I hope your luck is better!”

Get a D?

Getting one D from Professor McCarthy meant you were destined for a D at the end of the semester.

An almost impossible deficit to overcome… At Cornell University, major course grades had to be C or above – getting a D meant having to retake the course. And retaking meant falling into McCarthy’s hands again, didn’t it?

— A nightmarish endless cycle!