Reincarnation: From Opressed Missy to Campus Belle

For two weeks Lu Zhaolin stayed in Boston and made sure that An Xiulan was settled there and after that he left or one could say that she sent him away. They had a teary farewell at the airport. An entire month passed in Boston and An Xiulan was now almost used to the new country and new city. Although it was hard to make friends there, she made few. And two of them were Robby and Rachel. They were twins like her and Lu Xuan and their dynamics would always remind her of her twin brother. But she had to say that she was thankful that Lu Xuan was smarter than Robby emotionally. 

“One day, my brother will end up in jail, “Rachel said. “Thankfully he is studying law and can save his ass.”

An Xiulan could understand what Rachel meant by her words. Robby indeed talked about all kinds of nonsense. When she first met him, she did not find him much pleasing as he sounded very mean to her and it was only later she got to know that he was a kid with low EQ and he had no idea how to carry out a conversation. She even saw him as a mean American kid in the class who bullied the international students. Rachel had always been a sensible and nice girl since the beginning. Whenever Robby would be mean to anyone, Rachel would be the first to smack him. When Rachel extended a hand of friendship, she did not refuse even though the former’s brother did not leave a favourable impression on her. 

But she was glad that she gave these kids a chance at friendship. Now, these three were nearly inseparable in college. Sometimes, we find friendships with the most unexpected people at the most unexpected times. This was what happened with An Xiulan. She was very glad that she crossed her boundary and tried to be pen-minded when coming to friendships. It was hard being friends with people who come from different languages, cultures, backgrounds and everything. No matter how good people can be we often try to find friendships with people who we thought were similar to us as they would understand our issues more clearly which might not be true all the time. 

“Robby, where were you?” Rachel asked her brother. It was a little weird that he had been missing since the morning. He did not even attend the first class. They came to college together but then he disappeared somewhere. When she called him, he told her that he had something important to do and thus he could not attend the class. The girls could not understand what could be so important that he was ready to leave the class for that. 

“Oh, there is a rumour that we have a handsome Asian guy on campus. I went to see him, “Robby answered as he took a seat next to them. If there was one thing that was his weakness, it was curiosity for knowledge. The knowledge could be anything. He did not discriminate between any kind of knowledge. He was someone who would have all sorts of information from the first years students’ activities to the last year one. He was someone who would keep himself up to date with the happenings in the college. He knew who was hooking up with who in the entire university. He also knew among the first years who was serious about their new romance and who was just having fun here. Not just this, he would tell An Xiulan about all the guys who had interest in her and who were trying to get a chance to talk to her even when she was oblivious of everyone around her. There were some guys who even installed We-chat and Weibo to follow her. When they got to know that she was a famous celebrity back home, the girls also started following her and Robby was the person who would tell her who was genuine and who was mean behind her back with his special curiosity and investigation skills. 

“Why do you go to see him?” Lana, another classmate asked. Lana was American-Japanese and she was another Asian kid in the class but she was not an international student as she was born and raised here.

 “Why not?” He asked in return. 

“Are you perhaps interested in boys?” Lana teased him. 

“I am exploring my sexuality, “Robby said with a shrug. “I never had sex. Why don’t you help me? I can try everything to know where I belong.”

An Xiulan who was quietly drinking her iced tea sputtered all over him. Suddenly, she broke into a fit of cough as Rachel began patting her back. 

Rachel looked at everyone on the table and said, “How many times have I told you to not talk like this in front of her?”

They lowered their heads and murmured, “We forgot.”

This was the biggest cultural shock that An Xiulan had received when she had come to this country a few months back. If the old An Xiulan was here, she would not be surprised or her reaction would not be like this but she had taken over someone’s body. Even though she had memories of that body, it still took her time to get adjusted to such things. She had spent three years in China and she had gotten used to the culture and practices of that country. 

Sex was a topic that even the grown-ups were shy to talk about and she was merely an eighteen years old girl. How would she know so much about this thing? Of course, she knew a little but she did not know that much. When kids here talk so openly about it, she feels awkward and shy. She was not even comfortable using that word openly. 

Robby laughed, “We forgot that our Chinese babe is not used to such explicit conversation.”

That’s why An Xiulan said that he had a very low EQ. If he said this to some other girls in street, he would certainly get beaten by them. If she knew that he was not bad at heart, he just had a very bad manner of talking. The stupid boy! 

“Robby!” Rachel once again scolded him. 

Robby did not stop. He got comfortable on his chair and leaning, he asked An Xiulan, “Is it true that they don’t have sex education classes in their country?”

Robby was one of those kids who had a lot of superstitions about Asian people and since he was curious about those so-called superstitions about these people, he would spend extra time to ask the most offensive questions that in his vocabulary were unframed and raw. That was what he was doing right now. 

“Why don’t you go there and find out?” Lana asked him. 

Robby dismissed her and asked An Xiulan, “I want to know from our Chinese babe.”

“You will never learn.” 

“I am just being honest, “Robby scoffed. 

“Well, sometimes honesty can be bad, “Lana commented. 

“We are lawyers and honesty doesn’t take anyone to the ladders of success, “Robby commented. 

Lana commented, “First of all, we are not lawyers yet. And secondly, you can’t talk like that. We all have different principles that our family instill in us. My family instilled honesty in mine.”

“What do I do? My father ran away from his responsibilities and dumped us on our mother, “Robby shrugged. “Thankfully, she hinged our rich stepfather or we will be on streets, right Rach?”

Rachel just shook her head and sighed. She could not do anything about this boy. 

There were many cultural shocks that An Xiulan received when she came to this country and the biggest was how casually people talk about everything here. She did not know if she should be happy that their society was closed off about these things or otherwise. 

“Anyways, about the new Asian handsome boy…”

“The one you want to date?” Lana asked. 

“I haven’t explored my sexuality yet but I can try from him or any girl. But I think I am into Asian babes. I have to research more on this matter…”

Robby continued with his chattering like usual without giving anyone a chance. 

When the topic deviated from sex, An Xiulan felt relieved. She did not wish to talk about that topic as it made her super uncomfortable most of the time. Rachel and Lana would usually not do anything to invade her personal space but Robby was well Robby… 

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A/N: By all means, Robby is an annoying character but there are so many annoying characters in our lives. Have you ever noticed how we come across all sorts of people in college/university? It’s like it is the hub of all weird people. I came across so many and now that I know what their personality is like, I run from them as soon as I see them. They will not leave once they start talking and I am too nice to ask them to fuck off! 

If you are soft-spoken, unable to say no, and thinking too much before kinda person, you will face what I do all the time when I meet people like Robby.