America: A Prodigy of Stereotypes

“Interesting…” Li Qun was somewhat speechless.

Li Qun made a pot of cola chicken wings. The chicken wings were poured into a plate and were devoured as soon as they cooled down slightly.

“It’s really simple, let me try.” Dr. Otto volunteered, and Liqun gave up his position to let Dr. Otto operate it.

Dr. Otto prepared a pot of cola chicken wings in just over ten minutes. The cola chicken wings he made tasted almost exactly the same as the pot that Li Qun had made earlier. Dr. Otto did not have any sudden flashes of inspiration during the process.

The adults were making cola chicken wings pot by pot in the kitchen, while the underage kids, including Fritz, were devouring them pot by pot.

A hundred pairs of chicken wings and drumettes are nothing at a party of dozens of people; the only limit to the rate at which chicken wings are consumed is the rate at which they are taken out of the pot.

This time, everyone got to eat cola chicken wings, and everyone learned the recipe for cola chicken wings.

"What a boring party, there's nothing to do, all we can do is make chicken wings in the kitchen," Li Qun complained to Peter.

“I don’t know what else we can do at the party?” Peter said.

Harry stared intently at the girls in the school's cheerleading squad. Peter followed Harry's gaze, but only glanced at them once or twice before looking away; he wasn't as bold as Harry in staring for long.

“Leon, Peter, would you like to come to my room and see some good stuff?” Flash whispered in their ears.

"What good stuff?" Li Qun asked.

"Isn't this a bit inappropriate?" Peter thought to himself.

"You'll see when you see it."

Flash cleared a path, leading Li Qun and Peter upstairs. In Flash's room, his friends were playing video games.

"This is the good stuff you were talking about?"

Li Qun glanced at the Famicom in Flash's room.

"It was just a game console." Peter was relieved.

"It's all your fault, Flash! You've got me killed!"

On the CRT TV screen, Flash's friends were playing Contra in two-player mode. The simple graphics and rough music made it impossible to stop playing.

"The room is already overflowing, Flash!"

“If you die, then it’s my turn! Peter, here you go!”

Seven or eight people gathered around to watch Flash and Peter play Contra, and even those who weren't playing themselves were thoroughly enjoying the show.

"Peter, how could you be so stupid? You died so quickly! Give the controller to Leon!"

Peter got up from next to the television and let Li Qun take over the control.

"Contra, let me try that thing to see if it still works..."

The character controlled by Flash died, and Li Qun returned to the title screen. He pressed "up, up, down, down, left, right, right, B, A, B" on the controller. After restarting the game, it showed that they had 30 lives.

"Huh? Leon, what did you do? How do you have thirty lives?"

"Don't you all know? This is a Contra cheat code."

Li Qun was being watched with adoration by Frye and his companions.

“Teach us quickly!” Flash shouted.

"Do it this way..."

"Not only can it summon thirty lives, but it can also select levels..."

In normal gameplay, each character only has 3 lives, and one or two lives can be lost if you're not careful. The 30 lives excited the boys in the room.

“Let’s start with the first level!” Flash shouted.

Still in two-player mode, for Flash, with three lives, the limit he could play was the third level. With 30 lives, he made it to the fourth level, breaking his previous limit.

“I’ll try it by myself,” Li Qun said.

Flash put down the controller and let Li Qun play the game alone in single-player mode with 30 lives.

The first level was cleared quickly, the second level was easy, the third level made Flash and his team tense, the fourth level everyone stared intently at the screen, the fifth level someone took out their phone to take a picture... Li Qun reached the final level, the eighth level.

“He died, almost.” Li Qun put down the handle.

"Whoa whoa whoa~!!!" The screams of Fleisch and his companions almost lifted the roof off.

Chapter 80 Reading Comprehension

What are you shouting about?

“Gwen, look, Li Qun has reached level eight!” Peter said to Gwen.

The enthusiastic cheers coming from the second-floor room attracted the attention of the others downstairs.

With school teachers present, the students at the party could do nothing but chat and eat. Bored to the point of explosion, the students were curious about what was happening upstairs.

"One more round, Lyon!"

"Try again, you'll definitely be able to beat it!"

"Is this game difficult?" Gwen asked.

"Difficult? It's incredibly difficult! Even if you had thirty lives, you'd probably die on the fourth level!"

“Let me try,” Gwen said.

Li Qun entered the cheat code for thirty lives and handed the controller to Gwen. The boys on the school team looked at Gwen with disdain, waiting to laugh at her mercilessly after she had lost all thirty lives.

Gwen had never played Contra on the NES, but she had played many arcade games and had extensive arcade experience. After losing two lives, Gwen became familiar with the controls of the little character.

Thirty lives allowed Gwen to survive until the fifth level.

"The fifth level, barely passable." Flash's smile faded.

“This is a side-scrolling shooter, it requires game comprehension. Flash, you can’t just control the character like you’re playing rugby and charge forward recklessly,” Gwen said, putting down the controller and turning to Flash.

“Of course, who would blindly rush forward?” Flash said irritably.

"Let's play a different game."

"Other games aren't very good, Contra is still the most fun."

Flash and his friends continued their Contra challenge, while Liqun, unable to bear the smell in the room, went to the backyard with Gwen and Peter.

In the backyard, Harry was chatting and laughing with the cheerleading girls. If it weren't for his father Norman Osborn forbidding him from having a girlfriend before adulthood, Harry would be surrounded by two girls right now.

"Peter, over here!"

Harry raised his hand, and Mary Jane saw Peter smile at him.

“Peter, you go ahead, I need to get some fresh air.” Li Qun patted Peter’s shoulder gently.

“How about we both retreat first? I’m feeling a bit unwell too,” Gwen said to Li Qun.

"Are you leaving now?" Peter turned to look at Li Qun and Gwen.

"Don't you still have Harry and Mary Jane with you?"

“Gwen wanted to go home first, so I took her home,” Li Qun said.

"Then you guys go first."

Coincidentally, while Lillian and Gwen were saying goodbye to Mr. Harrison, Frye's father, Dr. Otto and his wife, Ms. Rosie, were also saying goodbye to Mr. Harrison.

Li Qun and Gwen followed Dr. Otto and Ms. Rosie out of the Frye house.

“I’ll give you a ride,” Dr. Otto kindly said to Li Qun and Gwen.

“Dr. Otto, it might not be on my way. Gwen’s house is in the east, and I live in the north,” Li Qun said.

“Just think of it as a drive around.” Ms. Rosie smiled at Dr. Otto, who smiled and nodded to Li Qun.

Once in Dr. Otto's car, Li Qun and Gwen sat somewhat awkwardly in the back seat.

"Are you two boyfriend and girlfriend?" Ms. Rosie asked curiously.

"No."

"Do not."

Both Li Qun and Gwen shook their heads.

"You two must be very good friends."

The two nodded together.

"Lyon, was your review of Animal Farm entirely based on your own thoughts and feelings?" Ms. Rosie asked.

"Is there a problem, ma'am?" Li Qun's heart tightened.

“I just didn’t expect you to have such a profound understanding of that book, and to be able to connect it to the current situation,” Ms. Rosie said.

"What did he write?" Dr. Otto asked curiously.

"Otto, you haven't read Animal Farm, have you?"

“I haven’t read it,” Dr. Otto replied.

“You should find some time to finish reading Animal Farm first. It’s not a lot of content; you can finish it in an afternoon,” Ms. Rosie said to Dr. Otto.

"What insights did he write down?" Otto asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Considering the author's writing background, the story of Animal Farm uses allegory to reflect..."

"But that's not all. Lyon himself realized that this allegory is still very relevant today."

"The strongest horse on the farm was ruthlessly sold to the slaughterhouse by the pigs after it was injured and rendered unable to work..." Luo Xi recounted.

“Now I understand.” Otto smiled.

“Leon discovered that all the animals in Animal Farm could be found around us, and all the events that happened on the farm were happening around us, which scared me too.” Rosie glanced at Li Qun in the back row.

“Let’s not talk about these things anymore; it’s just making people angry,” Dr. Otto said.

“If Lyon hadn’t pointed it out, I wouldn’t have realized it even now,” Ms. Rosie said.

“It makes sense to include this book in the recommended reading list for senior students,” Li Qun said.

“Other students are different from you; they don’t realize they’re in the story of Animal Farm,” Ms. Rosie said, shaking her head.

Ms. Rosie's English classes have a very cheerful atmosphere. Almost no student dislikes her classes, and every student feels happy in her class.