Flagstaff is a Western American town. Geographically, it is located in Northern Arizona, along the southern edges of the Colorado Plateau. To the west, one can find the city of Las Vegas, and if one travels east, they would soon see the famous Grand Canyons.
America, Arizona, the Grand Canyons, and Las Vegas, these four names are probably quite familiar to most Chinese, but for the city of Flagstaff located in their midst, most would not be able to find it as not many people knew of its existence.
Half a year ago, Li Du also did not know of Flagstaff, that is until he came here for his studies.
Flagstaff did not have much of a reputation in either China nor America, but it is still home to many Universities such as Arizona University and the American University in Flagstaff.
The school that Li Du is studying at is called the National University in Flagstaff, a name which only has a single word difference compared to American University in Flagstaff; the quality difference, however, could only be described as that of the difference between heaven and earth.
American University in Flagstaff is an affiliated campus of American University. With a great reputation as a private funded University, it provides degrees for undergrad, specialized, and other foundation level studies.
As for the National University in Flagstaff? It is really just a diploma mill that Li Du was fooled into attending for his Master's degree.
As a result, barely half a year had passed since he paid his tuition when the school was closed for an investigation. By then, the school's board and other employees in the recruitment department who had heard of the news beforehand had long since fled, leaving behind a bunch of international students who were summarily driven out of the campus by the police.
Li Du is one of the lucky few who had his own apartment. Because the school's dorms were too crowded and chaotic, he did not stay there but instead found his own lodging off campus. It was thanks to that at the moment, Li Du at least still have a place to live while many of his schoolmates were currently drifting on the streets.
Beyond that, his situation was not much better than his classmates. It was already the end of the month, and his rent was almost due. If he cannot pay them on time, then he could only accept his fate on the streets.
However, the thing was, he's broke!
Of course, he could ask to borrow money from friends and family in China, but that depended on his status as a student studying in America.
But with the school closed for the investigation, the plan for his Masters was pretty much wasted, so how could he still have the face to ask for money from his parents? As for his classmates, his pride prevented him from asking in the first place.
As he sat in front of the small house with a frown on his face, the pine doors behind him were pushed open by a girl with golden blonde hair. "Hey Li, you're here?"
This girl, whose name was Hannah Fox, was his landlord. The house, co-owned by Hannah and her brother Hans Fox, was the inheritance that her parents left behind when they passed away in a car crash.
However, Hans, who claimed that he's "busy with big business," and only come back once in a blue moon, so Hannah rented out the open room for some extra income.
Hearing the call, Li Du got up and replied, "Oh, yeah, Hannah, is there something you need?"
The girl shrugged as she smiled, displaying a dimple on her beautiful face. "I was just cleaning the fridge earlier and found these bottles of beer, they are definitely left behind by that Hans. I remembered that you enjoy wheat beer, so how about finishing it?"
In her hands were half a dozen of beer bottles in their common cardboard package with the logo of Budweiser.
Seeing this beer, Li Du also let out a small grin. The apartment only has a small fridge which he used daily, so where did this beer come from?
In addition, considering Hans's love for alcohol, if there indeed were beer in the fridge, then he definitely wouldn't leave it behind; that guy was addicted to this stuff.
A better guess was that this beer was bought by Hannah as a form of consolation. Ever since hearing that his school was closed for the investigation, Hannah had repeatedly tried to comfort him, making him very touched.
The only thing was, Hannah's methods were indeed few in number; other than the occasional gift of inspirational books, her only other method was a couple of beers.
This American girl had previously learned a bit of Chinese culture, or more specifically, the saying that "one night of drinking can resolve a thousand worries." From this saying, she thought that Chinese people, would could let go of all their worries after a night of drinking, so she would often buy him a couple bottles of beer.
As for Li Du, he really cherished his friendship with Hannah, so he could only accept Hannah's gift and owe her a favor since he knew that in the American culture, some gifts cannot be refused. Otherwise, it would be a sign of rejecting the others offer of friendship.
After taking the box, Hannah smiled and began to walk away, but before leaving, she left behind one last sentence, "There are many problems in life, but it is nevertheless beautiful."
After repeating this American saying a few times, Li Du opened the package for a bottle of beer.
However, just as he opened the box, an amber-like crystal fell out with a 'Pam' before striking the floor.
This crystal was about the size of his thumb, and as it struck the concrete floor relative hard, a few cracks could be seen on its surface.
The reason why he guessed that it was an amber was that the crystal has a tinge of yellow, and contained a small creature inside, very similar to the amber that he had once seen in class back in grade six.
At that time, they were learning from a passage named "Amber," so his Chinese teacher had brought an amber to class.
As he began reminiscing about the past, he remembered that his teacher had mentioned that amber crystals that contained small insects inside were precious.
It was thus regrettable that this amber had already cracked, otherwise, if he could sell it, then it would have at least provided a few months of living fees.
As the crystal had fallen on the ground very hard, when he picked it up, it fell apart, revealing the purple insect found within.
The bug had the shape of a grasshopper, about 2 centimeters in length; it had an eccentric appearance and had compounded eyes like the grasshopper. However, on its belly, there were only two legs with weird markings and no wings on its back. All in all, it looked to be very clumsy.
As Li Du had never seen this kind of insect before, he picked it up to take a better look.
Just at this moment, a surprising thing happened; the bug's claws twitched and seemingly had its vitality restored as it struggled to break free from his fingers.
He had not even realized what had just happened when the little bug jumped onto his hand and lowered its head. And just like that, it slowly drove into his palm!
Seeing this, Li Du was so scared that he had almost peed his pants.
An amber-encased insect resurrecting was already very scary, but this bug had taken it a step further by driving itself into his skin, leaving behind a tattoo-like mark.
Letting out a scream, he stumbled into the house while shouting, "Hannah, quickly call 911! Help, a bug had driven itself into my hand!"
Perhaps his scream had seemed genuinely miserable, so Hannah immediately appeared with a terrified expression. "What? What bug?"
Li Du showed her his hand. "This, this bug in my palm!"
Hannah's expression immediately changed to bewilderment, "The bug in your palm? What bug in your palm?"
Not only was there a bug, but that bug was even moving. It seemed unwilling also after it drove itself into Li Du's palm, and began struggling to get out again, leaving half of its body poking out of his skin.
Li Du pointed to the bug that was trying to get out and replied in a terrified voice, "This, this purple bug, can you not see it?"
Hannah's expression immediately turned even more terrified than Li Du's before slowly backing away. "Li, I know that it is hard for you to accept the closing of your school, but I've always thought that you were a warrior, a very tough individual…"
Li Du immediately interrupted her, "I understand what you mean, you think that I've lost my mind! But Hannah, I haven't! It's only the closing of my school, that won't cause me to go crazy…"
"Sh*t, this bug is trying to crawl out again!"
Just as he shouted, the bug slowly crawled out of his skin before jumping onto the floor; using its two legs as support, it began to walk like a human.
Thankfully, there was a drain right by the location that it landed. As the little bug walked carelessly in its direction, it quickly fell into the opening.
Seeing this, Li Du felt a wave of relief. "Ah good, the bug fell down the drain."
Suddenly, a thought popped into his mind, what's down the drain? Wouldn't it be wastewater that could quickly drown the bug?
However, just as he thought of this, an even more unbelievable event occurred.