Chapter 83: Giving Foreigners a Little Shock

Chapter 83: Chapter 83: Giving Foreigners a Little Shock

Alexander hastily introduced himself. "My name is Alexander, and I’m from Austria. As you can see, I’m filming a video. I’m a professional travel vlogger, and my videos are updated on YouTube and TikTok. Do you mind being on camera?"

No wonder his accent sounded neither British nor American. Austria was quite famous for its art, being home to the musical hall of Vienna, after all. Of course, a certain rejected art student was also very famous. However, unlike the Austrian he knew of who sported a small mustache, Alexander had a full beard and was slightly balding. If he were a bit fatter, he would be a textbook greasy, middle-aged white guy.

Chen Jingle nodded. "As long as your video is fair and objective, and you aren’t intentionally smearing our country, I have no problem with it."

Alexander laughed. "Don’t worry, I’m not the BBC or CNN. My lens will truthfully record everything I see."

He showed Chen Jingle his YouTube and TikTok accounts. The view counts were average. Judging from the videos and titles, there were indeed no gloomy underworld filters or malicious topic directions. Instead, because he had said quite a few positive things, he had been attacked by some people in the comments section.

"I hope so," Chen Jingle smiled noncommittally. He had scrolled past many foreign travel vloggers but didn’t recognize this one, so it was hard to judge. Adhering to the idea that visitors are guests, he asked politely, "Would you like to come in and sit for a while?" According to local customs, standing at the door talking to someone without inviting them inside was considered very rude.

"Oh, thank you so much! The sun is really beating down today."

This foreigner certainly didn’t hold back.

There was a pergola set up in the courtyard of Chen Jingle’s home. He brought out a small coffee table and two low stools, then carried out his snacks, fruit, and teapot.

"Your house is absolutely beautiful." Alexander’s eyes were full of awe after entering the yard.

The most eye-catching feature was naturally the main villa itself. He had seen it from afar. Its exterior design was much more stylish and luxurious than the neighboring houses. Although the interior wasn’t overly opulent, the French cream-style decor was quite pleasing to the eye. In Europe, the average middle-class family couldn’t afford to live in a villa-like house such as this one. The annual property tax on such a large home would be a rather heavy burden, so the middle class typically lived in apartments. The market price for apartments was relatively stable and they were easier to trade.

What surprised him was that the young man in front of him had planted many beautiful flowers in the yard and kept a slightly chubby but very cute little cat.

"Oh my God, this kind of life is truly enviable!"

This was clearly the countryside, but it was completely different from the countryside in Europe. Rural areas in Europe were generally very quiet and deserted. Here, it was a totally different story; the market he had just passed by was incredibly bustling. Once inside the village, groups of people sitting together and chatting could be seen everywhere.

Faced with Alexander’s praise, Chen Jingle merely offered a faint smile. "It’s a style that became popular in recent years, but it might be outdated in a few more. Care for some tea?" He took out a tin of tea leaves.

"Thank you!"

A major reason why Alexander loved this country so much was that the people were very warm and friendly. He had visited four times in total and had been to many cities. The vast majority of his experiences scored over a 90 out of 100, something incomparable to other countries. He asked curiously, "What kind of tea is this?"

"Oolong tea, Phoenix Dancong," Chen Jingle replied casually. In truth, he didn’t know much about tea; he just bought whatever his friends recommended as long as it tasted good.

"Phone Nix Dan Cong?"

"It’s Phoe-nix-Dan-cong!"

"..."

Alexander practiced the pronunciation of those four syllables on his own and asked what it meant. Chen Jingle had to explain that this tea was produced in a place called Phoenix Mountain and was once a tribute tea drunk by the Emperor of the imperial court.

Upon hearing that it was for the Emperor, Alexander immediately felt a sense of profound respect. Even if his history was a bit rusty, he knew that the Emperor of the East was on the exact same level as the Roman Emperor.

After the tea was brewed, Chen Jingle poured a cup for his guest first. There were no flashy tea ceremony techniques involved; if asked, he would simply say he didn’t know how.

Smelling the faint fragrance of the tea, Alexander was immediately amazed. He took a careful sip and was even more astonished, letting out several continuous "Wows" and "Nices."

Perfect. It fit Chen Jingle’s stereotype of foreigners to a tee. These country bumpkins had never tasted high-grade tea. Truly premium tea never even made it out of the country; it was entirely bought up by the wealthy domestically. Ordinary foreigners were only fit to drink Lipton’s chopped-up greenbelt leaves. Even budget drink chains like Mixue wouldn’t use Lipton!

With fragrant Oolong tea paired with small cookies, Alexander expressed that this trip hadn’t been in vain.

Chen Jingle was rather curious. "Why did you come to Jiangbei instead of going to a big city? And you even came all the way out to the countryside."

Alexander looked helpless. "Many people on YouTube don’t believe your country is really this prosperous. They think I’ve taken money from your government to speak well of you, so they demanded I film some places that look underdeveloped."

Chen Jingle couldn’t help but laugh. He had seen this kind of situation online as well, and it seemed to have happened more than once. The funny part was those foreign vloggers who deliberately dug into the nooks and crannies of hutong alleys, thinking they had finally found a slum. Little did they know that those were courtyard houses within the Second Ring Road. It seemed he needed to say something to shatter the fragile egos of domestic self-loathers and foreign simpletons alike.

So, facing the camera, Chen Jingle said, "I understand. After all, the average education level abroad is worrisome. Many people can’t even do addition and subtraction within a hundred, so you can’t expect them to have much for brains. Anyone who knows even slightly how to break out of the Western media’s information cocoon knows what kind of country Dongda is."

Alexander nearly lost his composure. "Even so, aren’t you afraid of angering them by saying that?"

"Afraid of what? At most, they’ll curse a few times in your comment section. It’s not like they can crawl through the internet cable to hit me. If they want to confront me in real life, they first have to afford the plane ticket." Chen Jingle couldn’t care less.

Alexander couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Afterward, he praised, "Your language and logical skills are very impressive."

Even if he were a fool, he would know that the young man in front of him possessed English proficiency far beyond just "knowing a little." If someone claimed it was his native language, people would believe it. Besides, he wasn’t a fool to begin with.

Chen Jingle just smiled faintly. "Actually, I’m just an ordinary rural farmer who was lucky enough to receive a higher university education."

What the fuck?!

Alexander’s eyes widened in disbelief. "Are you kidding me, man?" He had guessed what the young man’s identity might be—a wealthy second-generation heir or a self-made successful entrepreneur. He never expected the other party to claim to be just a farmer. Give him a break, that was impossible!

Chen Jingle threw his hands up. "It’s nothing, really. My college entrance exam score only ranked fortieth thousand in our province, and the school I got into was just average. Every year, our country has millions of people who are better than me or just like me. There are also millions more who are slightly worse than me."

"You mean to say there are millions of people with high education and high literacy like you?"

"That’s millions every year. Add in those who are a bit worse than me, and it’s over ten million." Chen Jingle smiled and continued, "According to our country’s seventh national census, the current population with a university degree in the country is 210 million. You can look up these statistics on the official website. Anyone can."

"Oh my God!"

This number clearly made Alexander’s head spin. Although he knew this country was powerful, he hadn’t realized it was powerful to this extent.

million people! What kind of concept was that? Fucking Austria didn’t even have ten million people! Shit, bro!

"I finally understand why you guys can develop so fast," Alexander said, his face full of shock. Though he had some understanding of the country, he had never researched this. He couldn’t even imagine how much of a stir this video would cause once it was posted.

No one had ever talked about this topic before; almost everyone focused on Dongda’s economic size, urban scale, technological development, and military strength. Yet education was clearly the vital source of talent! The entire population of Europe was over 700 million, but they wouldn’t dare claim to have 200 million citizens with university degrees. Excluding England and France and the Nordic countries, the higher education level in other developed nations was below thirty percent, and in Southern Europe and Eastern Europe, it was even less than twenty percent. And this was with a massive influx of high-quality immigrants.

Looking back at Dongda—a non-immigrant country, a developing country—they had managed to grind their higher education population ratio up to fifteen percent. This was absolutely insane.

Motherfucker!

Alexander felt his mouth go dry and drank his tea vigorously, gaining a clear understanding of the concept of a global superpower for the first time.

Chen Jingle, on the other hand, chuckled inwardly. This was what he had always wanted to do: project outward, no matter what it was he was projecting. Whether it was culture or fear. In the whole world, only their people spoke of being gentle, righteous, courteous, frugal, and yielding; of being modest gentlemen with impeccable manners. Everyone else revered the law of the jungle. Therefore, when they said you were a threat, you’d better actually be one.

Right at that moment, an old 125cc motorcycle stopped outside Chen Jingle’s house. A middle-aged man with a receding hairline killed the engine and hopped off with fluid, practiced movements.

"Jingle!" he shouted loudly.

Chen Jingle stood up. "Uncle Xian, what can I do for you?" Uncle Xian was the current village chief and had a decent reputation.

Chen Zhenxian’s gaze landed on Alexander. "Nothing, it’s not a big deal. I just heard someone say a foreigner showed up at your place..."

Chen Jingle quickly waved his hand. "He didn’t come specifically for me. He was just passing by and chatted with me for a bit. I saw it was too sunny to keep standing at the door, so I invited him in for a cup of tea."

Uncle Xian was taken aback. "Oh, I see. What does he do?"

"He’s a travel vlogger who shoots videos, like those people on TikTok who travel everywhere, except he posts on foreign platforms," Chen Jingle said, pointing at the camera nearby.

"Oh, got it!" Uncle Xian suddenly understood. Feeling a bit awkward in front of the camera, he gave a stiff smile, revealing teeth stained yellow and black from smoking water pipes. However, he leaned in and whispered to Chen Jingle, "I was just worried it might be a spy or something. They were just talking about it on the news a while ago, and I even got a text reminder on my phone."

Chen Jingle didn’t laugh; instead, he nodded seriously. "True, you can’t go wrong with being careful."

"As long as you understand." Uncle Xian chuckled and patted his shoulder.