Chapter 414

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Protagonist:

Chai Mi

Liu San, who had settled in next door, came over and knocked: "Going? I know an old shop nearby, authentic taste."

The four left the Guest House, following Liu San into a bustling little alleyway.

The restaurant's storefront was small, but inside it was deafeningly loud, packed tight.

"Four bowls of stewed offal! Large pieces of flatbread!" Liu San ordered expertly.

Soon, four coarse porcelain bowls bigger than faces were brought up. In the dark brown thick soup, soft-stewed large intestines, lung, fried tofu puffs, and unleavened flatbread chunks crowded together, sprinkled with bright green cilantro bits and garlic paste.

Chai Xiu poked curiously with her chopsticks: "Th-this... what is all this?"

Liu San took a big sip of soup first, exhaled: "Authentic! Taste quick, this is what the Capital City common folk eat."

Chai Mi picked up a piece of fatty intestine with chopsticks, blew on it, and put it in her mouth.

Chai Xiu copied her sister, eating the flatbread in small bites, scalded so she kept exhaling sharply.

The restaurant was steaming hot, voices deafening.

After eating their fill, Liu San called for the bill. The waiter came over with a greasy little notebook, rattling off the calculation: "Four bowls of stewed offal, one plate of smashed cucumber, one plate of peanuts, total one hundred thirty-eight yuan."

"What?!" Song Qiushui nearly jumped off her stool: "Holy shit! Is this highway robbery... this fucking legal robbery!"

Liu San grinned: "Outside is like this. This is the real outside."

Afterwards Chai Mi paid.

Out of the restaurant, Song Qiushui was still marveling: "This place, I get it now, everything's expensive, just don't know if marrying a wife is expensive too!"

Chai Mi smiled: "Depends on the person. Marrying a wife here, might run into a few Princesses."

The afternoon sun was just right, Liu San proposed: "Still early, take you to a few gardens for a stroll? Come to the Capital City and don't see the imperial gardens, might as well not have come."

"Sure!" Chai Xiu was the first to agree.

So they took a bus to the Summer Palace first.

Then went to the Old Summer Palace.

Finally went to Beihai Park.

Song Qiushui stared at a candied hawthorn stall, unable to walk away: "Chai Mi, Xiu'er, want candied hawthorn? Look at that bright red, so delightful!"

Asked the price, five yuan a skewer.

Song Qiushui clicked her tongue again: "Whoa! If I came to the Capital City to sell candied hawthorn, I'd get rich!" But still paid and bought three skewers.

The rock sugar haws were large and red, one bite crunchy crisp, sour-sweet and icy cold.

Chai Xiu ate until her eyes narrowed into slits.

"This day, truly an eye-opener."

Chai Mi also sighed: "When in Rome. Here really everything's expensive. Though I think those vegetable prices are even more expensive."

Later in the evening, Chai Mi and the others also strolled the night market around Nanluoguxiang, but things were especially expensive, Chai Mi picked a few small cloth dolls and a few nice outfits for Chai Xiu.

Also specially bought a set of clothes each for Liu San and Song Qiushui.

Finally spent over two hundred more, bought a leather jacket, planning to give to Chai Youqing to wear.

As for mother Su Wan, Chai Mi spent over eight hundred on a red fox fur coat.

Afterwards the group returned to sleep.

Sky still pitch dark, guessing just past four, Chai Mi woke.

The hard board bed poked her waist and back stiff, the city's hum outside the window penetrated everywhere, a completely different matter from the village's utter silence.

In this current era, soundproofing is very poor, car noise really so loud people can't sleep.

"Can't sleep." Chai Xiu rubbed her eyes and sat up. "Sleeping in this city, the noise is really loud."

Rustling from the next bed, Song Qiushui turned over, voice resentful: "Spent two hundred just to sleep in this, fuck his grandpa! Next time I enter the capital, I'll bring my own quilt, I'll fucking sleep on the curb, still better than sleeping in this place."

Barely dawn.

"All up, go out find water wash faces, pad stomachs, go to market early, fewer people see clearly."

The three rustled into clothes. Chai Mi went next door to knock on Liu San's door.

Door opened quickly, Liu San with a cigarette in his mouth, full of energy: "Woke just right, alley entrance has a breakfast shop, decades old, authentic."

Cold wind poured in, all four shrank their necks in unison.

Alley streetlights dim yellow, air had coal smoke smell and an indescribable nose-stinging smell.

This is actually chemical factory smell, this era's Capital City, surrounding enterprises especially many, pollution also very serious, so air quality, just so-so.

Breakfast shop steaming hot, under dim yellow bulbs already sat a few people. Chubby lady boss's Capital accent ringing: "How many? Eat what?"

Liu San familiar as can be: "Four bowls of fermented mung bean juice, fried rings and fried dough sticks as you see fit."

Chai Mi curious: "Fermented mung bean juice? What taste?"

"Hey, old BJ flavor! You taste and you'll know!"

Lady boss nimbly brought up four bowls of gray-green, sour-stinking reeking gruel, paired with fried rings and fried dough sticks.

Song Qiushui leaned in to sniff, immediately leaned back: "Whoa! This smell! A slop bucket fermented three days isn't this pungent!"

Chai Xiu pinching her nose: "Sister, can this be drunk?"

Chai Mi also smelled that smell, frowned.

Liu San slurped a big mouthful, chewing fried ring: "Tsk, just this kick! Refreshing!"

Song Qiushui refusing to believe, pinched nose, closed eyes, sucked a small sip.

"Pfft—!" She sprayed it out directly, her face turning green, beating her chest and stamping her feet: "Ugh... what the hell is this thing! Sour and spoiled and bitter! Our pigs won't even eat this slop! Quick! Water! Rinse my mouth!"

Chai Xiu licked her tongue tip, immediately spitting "Peh peh peh": "Bitter! Astringent! Too awful to drink, Sister!"

Chai Mi completely gave up trying.

Liu San laughed: "Haha, not used to eating it? This is their local specialty here."

Chai Mi pursed her lips, a specialty is nothing more than what the group eating this thing at the time promoted; if you asked Puyi, Puyi would still say the specialty here is the Manchu-Han Imperial Feast.

"Forget it, Third Brother! This blessing we can't enjoy! Boss! Switch to steamed buns! Meat or vegetarian both fine! Another four bowls of sorghum flour porridge! Take this stuff away quick!"

The boss lady smiled and took away the fermented mung bean drink, replacing it with steaming hot steamed buns and porridge.

The few of them wolfed it down, finally suppressing that sour spoiled smell.

"Finally alive again." Song Qiushui gnawed on a steamed bun, "Capital city people have such weird tastes! Spending money to suffer!"

Chai Mi ate quickly: "Alright, hurry up, do serious business."

Around four-thirty, they squeezed onto the early shift bus, that kind of trolleybus, the especially long kind of vehicle.

Inside the carriage people pressed against people, smells mixed together.

Swaying for nearly an hour, they finally reached the South City Big Market Liu San mentioned — Xinfadi.

Before even entering the gate, they were stunned.

Good heavens!

The sky just turning pale, the whole market like boiling porridge. Endless trucks, tricycles packed full to the brim, vegetable and fruit piles like small mountains in the truck beds. Voices, megaphone sounds, haggling cries, hawking calls blended into a roaring din, ears buzzing.

"My god! So many people and vehicles!"

Song Qiushui also stared dumbfounded: "Oh my! A hundred times more crowded than our county fair! How many vegetables must there be!"

Liu San protected them as they squeezed inside: "Stay close!"

The vegetable section was even more eye-opening.

"Boss, how do you sell the tomatoes?" Chai Mi pointed at a basket of big red ones and asked.

The lean stall owner didn't even raise his head: "Eight fifty a catty! Premium sand-flesh! Guaranteed sweet!"

"Eight fifty?! That's three bucks more expensive than five-flower pork!"

Chai Mi's heart jumped wildly, but her face stayed calm: "Boss, can you give a discount if I buy more?"

The stall owner only then raised his head to size them up, pursed his lips: "Eldest Sister, look at this quality! In the dead of winter being able to eat it at all is not bad! Precious in the warm greenhouses! Eight fifty, not a cent less! Even at this price they're snatched up, take it or leave it!"

Sure enough, people next to them immediately squeezed over: "Give me eighty catties! Quick!" The stall owner ignored her, nimbly weighing on the scale.

Turned to the cucumber stall. Top flowers with thorns, fresh and glistening.

"Cucumbers?"

"Seven twenty!" The stall owner crisp.

"Beans?"

"Eight!" Another stall shouted.

"Green peppers?"

"Nine!"

One round of asking later, all off-season greenhouse vegetables were seven-plus, ten to twenty times more expensive than back home in winter! Buyers still not few, peddlers buying tens of catties at a time, weighing and paying and moving goods, movements flying fast.

But also one cent one cent goods, good quality expensive, average quality much cheaper.

Liu San said in a low voice: "See? It's just this simple. Big truck comes, peddler goes. As long as your persimmons are red enough, big enough, good enough, afraid of no one wanting them? Just afraid you can't supply enough!"

Chai Xiu watched baskets of tomatoes being bought away, asked softly: "Sister, our persimmons, can they also sell this expensive in the future?"

Chai Mi's eyes shone bright, nodded vigorously: "Can! As long as we grow them even better than these, definitely can!"

Song Qiushui counted on her fingers, mouth babbling calculations: "Eight fifty a catty... our one greenhouse... heavens... how much would that earn..." Calculating and calculating she laughed out loud, slapped Chai Mi's shoulder hard, "Chai Mi! This trip too worth it! Back home must treat those persimmons like ancestors! Watering fertilizing not a bit can be sloppy!"

Leaving the noisy wholesale market, the sun was higher. Several people followed Liu San's directions, took a vehicle again to a few larger state-owned non-staple food stores and newly opened self-selection malls.

One step inside, bright and spacious! Shelves row after row, things take yourself, checkout at the door.

Clean, lots of people.

Straight to the vegetable section. One look at price tags, several people stunned again.

Tomatoes, stacked neatly, label: 12.8 yuan/catty.

Cucumbers: 9.5 yuan/catty.

Beans: 11.2 yuan/catty.

Premium green peppers: 13.5 yuan/catty!

This is only early winter! Still over a month until New Year!

Chai Mi took a deep breath, looking at the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds in the supermarket and the staggering price tags on the shelves, nodded hard: "Mhm mhm, this really isn't the same world as our old home."

Evening Chai Mi treated everyone to a hot pot meal.

One hot pot meal eaten until bodies warm all over, bellies round and full, several people also got a taste of being city people.

Song Qiushui and Liu San two bottles of beer down, talk increased too, chatting about market observations, looking forward to greenhouse persimmon future, until shopkeeper reminded closing time, several people reluctantly left.

Early morning past three, Chai Mi went to check out.

Afterwards Chai Mi and Chai Xiu Song Qiushui dressed and went to call Liu San.

Four people wrapped clothes tight, merged into the sparse early morning capital city crowds.

Closer to Tiananmen Square, more people, a black mass, also a big group of foreigners, everyone walking quickly in silence... after all Chai Mi couldn't understand what foreigners were saying either...

All my own fault for not studying English well back then, English only scored nine points...

Chai Mi even heard someone say "Hello", seemed like she couldn't quite understand that either.

Hah what...

Hala shao ba...

But this time it was just to watch the flag-raising.

The flag-raising ceremony ended, and the crowd began to surge.

In an instant, many people holding cameras appeared on the square, calling out: "Take a photo for a keepsake! Tiananmen keepsake!"

Chai Mi pulled her younger sister and said to that master: "Shoot! Take a group photo of the four of us. Afterward, each person a solo shot, then a few shots of each other in pairs." She turned her head to Chai Xiu and Song Qiushui: "Coming here once is not easy, leave a memento."

The four stood in front of the Tiananmen Gate Tower. Chai Xiu was both nervous and curious, standing stiffly following the photographer master's direction, eyes staring wide and round at that pitch-black lens.

Afterward, a few people took photos solo or in pairs again.

Chai Mi also deliberately hugged Chai Xiu for a shot, then took a group photo with Song Qiushui.

While waiting the few minutes for the photos to be developed, Chai Xiu sat on pins and needles.

When she got the photos, she carefully cradled them in her hands.

"Xiu, like taking photos?" Chai Mi asked.

"Mhm! So amazing!" Chai Xiu nodded vigorously.

"Come, Elder Sister will buy you one." Chai Mi said, pulling her younger sister toward the Wangfujing direction, where there were large department stores.

"Ah? Buy what?" Chai Xiu hadn't reacted yet.

Song Qiushui followed, asking quietly: "No, Eldest Sister, you wouldn't be wanting to buy that... camera, would you? That thing is precious!"

Liu San also nodded: "Yeah, Chai Mi, that plaything is professional gear, expensive not to mention, still have to buy film, develop photos, troublesome."

Chai Mi's steps didn't stop: "Afraid of what trouble? Once learned, it's not troublesome."

Entered the department store's camera counter, the dazzling array of cameras made one's eyes swim.

Chai Mi's target was clear, directly asking the salesperson: "Comrade, which camera is good to use, want the most portable kind."

The salesperson sized up the few of them's clothing, a bit hesitant, but still pointed at a black, square, with a fairly large lens camera: "This is the newly arrived Japanese Sony D11, fully automatic, don't need to adjust so many parameters, good imaging, most suitable for your home use. Just the price..."

"How much?" Chai Mi asked straightforwardly.

"Two thousand eight hundred yuan." The salesperson quoted the price.

"Two... two thousand eight?!" Song Qiushui nearly jumped up: "Holy shit! Back home marrying a wife is just a few hundred yuan, two thousand eight could marry several wives."

Chai Xiu was even more scared her face went white, she grabbed Chai Mi's arm, voice carrying a sob: "Elder Sister! Don't! Too expensive! Two thousand eight! How many twenty-yuan photos is that! I don't want it, just looking at the photos is fine, really don't want it!"

Liu San also frowned tightly: "Chai Mi, this... this price is indeed too high. Buy a cheap one that can shoot is enough."

Chai Mi ignored their dissuasion, said to the salesperson: "Hand it over for me to look at."

She took that exquisitely crafted Sony D11, examined it carefully, then asked a few operation questions.

The salesperson seeing she really wanted to buy, also introduced it a bit.

Chai Mi looked for a while, said: "I'll take it. Also get me... hmm, first get twenty rolls of film."

Chai Mi stuffed the camera into Chai Xiu's arms, then she neatly fished out a thick wad of cash and counted it to the salesperson, that was almost most of the cash they brought this trip.

Chai Xiu hugging the camera, heart a mix of feelings, muttered quietly: "Too expensive Elder Sister, this is too expensive."

Song Qiushui watching that money flow out like water, heart aching straight twitching.

But it was bought for Chai Xiu, could only sigh: "You really are something... alright alright, bought is bought. Xiu, you hold steady, don't bump or knock it!"

Liu San also helplessly shook his head: "Alright, you take this thing back, I reckon my Third Aunt will ache for half a month and not sleep."

After all, two thousand eight is too expensive.

You know, the hairy donkey Chai Mi bought earlier was only eight hundred plus, this camera, could buy four or five hairy donkeys.

Compare like this, you know how expensive this thing is.

Of course, getting here we have to mention Chai Youfu's salary.

Chai Youfu two hundred yuan a month salary, this camera is Chai Youfu two and a half years' salary.

But Chai Mi felt it was worth it, the few people then didn't say anything.

Anyway, not them spending money.

At lunch, Chai Mi again arranged for everyone to eat Old Beijing Fried Sauce Noodles.

Of course, expensive is one aspect.

Not tasty is also real. Everyone simply ate a bite, without fried sauce instead could eat.

Afterward Chai Mi went to buy ten bags of Beijing Roast Duck, gave Liu San two, Song Qiushui two, kept six herself, some to eat at home, some to keep for gift-giving.

After all, going out a trip is not easy, always have to buy some specialties to bring back.

Of course, roast duck is also expensive to a bizarre degree, won't elaborate more.

Otherwise Chai Youfu's salary a month could only buy two and a half roast ducks, even more unbearable.

Afterward the few went to the train station, bought return tickets.

The train was at 3:35 PM, boarded, silent all the way, didn't get off until past 7:40 PM.

Exited the station, asked an inverted donkey rider: "Master, to Sanjia how much?"

The master looked at the few people, then said: "Fifty yuan."

Chai Mi froze: "Holy shit! I fucking came back from the Capital City, you still ask me for fifty yuan?"

Crazy!!!

Song Qiushui also cursed: "You fucking blind, we're locals!"

"Then fifteen? Pitch dark..." The master said.

"Five yuan, take it or leave it." Chai Mi said.

"Get on."

The master rode the inverted donkey, sent Chai Mi and the rest home.

Actually this has a set price, generally daytime three yuan, night five yuan. Of course, outsiders calculated separately.

Arrived home, Chai Mi went home first, then Liu San sent Song Qiushui home too, then Liu San went home himself.

Arriving home, Chai Mi did not tell Chai Youqing and Su Wan about buying the camera, but still took out the roast duck, preparing to let the two of them have a taste.

"Oh my, we've already finished eating, let's eat it tomorrow instead," Su Wan said.

"This roast duck, it must have been terribly expensive... a trip to the Capital City must have cost quite a bit of money," Chai Youqing said with a worried frown.

Chai Mi laughed and took out the leather jacket for Chai Youqing: "Come on, try it on."

Chai Youqing refused to wear it.

Chai Mi said dissatisfied: "If I tell you to wear it, you wear it. Wearing tattered, worn-out clothes all day, is that proper?"

Chai Youqing then put it on, and it must be said that after wearing this leather jacket, Chai Youqing looked somewhat presentable, looking quite the part.