Chapter Sixty-Five Arrival

  After they all finished eating, Qiu Feng took a large jar and ran out. Not long after he came back, he handed the large jar to Qiu Ye.

  Qiu Ye's eyes widened as she looked inside, and to her surprise, there were three green apples. This was the most common type of apple in Northeast China at this time, probably what people would later call Gala apples. As she gazed at the emerald-green apples, her mouth began to water uncontrollably. These apples must be sour! Qiu Ye's excitement got the better of her as she picked one up and took a big bite. The skin was thin, and the juice burst forth as soon as she bit down. She chewed for a moment, savoring the sweet and slightly tart flavor, which was extremely palatable. The flesh was also tender and crunchy, without any grittiness. "Thank you, brother! You're the best!"

  Qiu Feng saw Qiu Ye so happy, he was also happy, feeling that he had done something very right.

  He then turned the big jar to Zhao Shuyan's face and received a round of praise. When it was his turn to take an apple, he directly used both arms with force and played out the advantages of a black gorilla again, splitting the apple in half from the middle, and then gave one half of the apple in his hand to his sister and aunt respectively, planning to contribute his own apple to the two ladies.

  In the end, Zhao Shuyan didn't want half of it and said she was already full from dinner, after eating an apple she couldn't eat anymore.

  Qiu Yeke didn't hold back with her own brother and ate half of the extra apples. Having a big brother is really great!

  The train clattered along, the green train that Qiu Ye and others were sitting on had been running for several days, stopping at every station they saw along the way. Although it was much slower, it also gave everyone a chance to go outside and take a stroll, breathe in some fresh air.

  The time spent on the train was boring, but the students from Shida were all young people. There were no conditions on the train, so they created their own entertainment. Chen Kai and his small group of friends somehow found two decks of poker cards, and a group of people gathered around to start playing poker.

  Qiu Ye and Qiu Feng also followed to watch the excitement, they played a game of cards, the loser drank a basin of cold water. This group of people were playing with great enthusiasm, most of the people in the car were attracted to come and watch them play poker. Of course, some people were also giving advice from behind. Qiu Ye looked at these college students, shouting and cheering, then going to the toilet one after another. It felt very comical.

  With such a commotion, the time on the train wasn't so hard to bear anymore. It was just that eating salty pancakes and vegetables every day made Qiu Ye somewhat unbearable.

  Qiu Ye has been a little white rabbit on the train for several days, now thinking of godmother's braised pork ribs, also drooling.

  These days, everyone has been eating big buns, instant noodles, oily tea noodles, and tea eggs. While it's okay to eat these things for a meal or two, after several consecutive days, they really make people feel nauseous.

  It's good that Qiu Ye brought more than a dozen cucumbers when she was at home, and during meals, they used cucumbers to dip in sauce. That counts as one dish too. When passing through several major stations, Zhao Shuyan would get off the train to see if there were any food vendors on the platform. There really wasn't anything good to eat at the train station, but she managed to buy roasted chicken a few times. However, that roasted chicken was definitely made from young chickens, and it was very lean. But everyone was craving meat so badly that they didn't care about the quality anymore. During meals, they would take out the scrawny roasted chicken first. It was all gone in just one meal.

  Afterwards, Qiu Feng looked forward to the train stopping at a big station so he could eat roast chicken again. Even when sleeping at night, he was very alert and as soon as the train stopped, he would jump up from bed and stick his head out of the window to take a look.

  Another classmate who had the same reaction was Chen Kai, who bought fruit for everyone that day. He also stared at the snack stalls outside and knew when to arrive at the station. He would go out and take a stroll around to see if there were any new discoveries.

  They changed trains halfway and finally arrived in Urumqi, Xinjiang on the eleventh day of their departure.

  It's another busy scene, everyone is rushing out of the station with a gloomy face. Director Feng is in front, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with a middle-aged man.

  Zhao Shuyan explained to the two children that every time the Normal University came to Xinjiang, they were received by a normal college in Urumqi. It was not clear which leader of the Normal University had a relationship with the leader of this college, but in short, they were responsible for providing them with accommodation and transportation.

  They got on a bigger bus than the one for commuting to and from Shi Da, and with more than 30 people from Shi Da, they wandered around Urumqi city.

  Qiu Ye looked out the window with interest, feeling that the scenery outside was more interesting than what she saw on the train. She occupied a seat by the window and gazed outside without blinking.

  Urumqi was just a city that she knew nothing about except its name for Qiu Ye. She looked around curiously at this completely new city to her.

  At that time, Urumqi City seemed to be more developed than Oil City. There were many high-rise buildings on both sides of the main road, but most of the vehicles running on the spacious roads were still horse-drawn carriages and ox carts. Along this road, Qiu Ye also saw a department store with the sign "Hongshan Shopping Mall".

  The car drove past, and Qiu Ye was still twisting her head to see the promotional language on the mall. Zhao Shuyan saw that Xiaoye was so interested in it, followed her gaze and looked over, then smiled and said: "Xiaoye, this is one of Urumqi's landmark buildings, Hongshan Mall, inside is very big, selling things are more complete than our local department store, after we settle down, Auntie will take you two to go shopping, buy new clothes for Xiaoye."

  Zhao Shuyan looked at Qiu Ye's clothes again after finishing speaking. The lower body was a pair of black pants that had been altered to be smaller, and the upper body was a light blue shirt made by Qiu's mother using fabric from old clothes that couldn't be worn at home. Originally, Little Ye was a quiet and lovely child, but once she put on these clothes, all her advantages were covered up, and she looked dull and grey. She had long wanted to dress the child up, but was afraid of what Fengqin and her husband might think. This time, taking advantage of the opportunity to go out, she bought a few more clothes for the child to tidy up.

  Qiu Ye brought her gaze back, and with a pout, she said to Zhao Shu Yan: "Auntie is the best! I want to go for a stroll, but I don't want new clothes. Mom said that I'm still growing, and new clothes won't fit after two days, it's not worth it. So can I buy something else instead?" Qiu Ye wasn't very good at dealing with tantrums, and she couldn't say sweet nothings either. When praising someone, she usually just said "you're the best", which even left her feeling a bit speechless herself.

  Zhao Shuyan listened to Qiu Ye's words and nodded helplessly. It has to be said that Qiu Ye's personality is similar to her mother's, who would rather die than spend money. However, there are some differences between them. Qiu Ye loves money dearly and can't sleep at night if she doesn't make a profit. But this child can also be very generous with her spending. During the New Year, she used her own earnings to buy each of the four elderly people a gold ring, without batting an eyelid when giving it to them. (She didn't know that Qiu Ye had bought herself a gold bangle at the same time.)

  Zhang Shuyan agreed with Qiu Ye, but she also thought that clothes were a must-buy, and other things could be bought too.

  Qiu Ye didn't care what her godmother thought anymore. She saw that her godmother had nodded, and then she shifted her gaze back to the window.

  The people outside were dressed differently from those in the north, with many women wearing red headscarves and men wearing embroidered hats. Qiu Ye knew that was the traditional clothing of ethnic minorities, which she had seen on TV in her previous life.

  Before Qiu Ye could look enough, the bus had turned into a large courtyard and stopped in front of a three-story building. Everyone took their luggage and got off the bus one after another. Qiu Ye looked at the somewhat dilapidated three-story small building in front of her, with the words "Reception Hall" written on it.

  Then everyone settled down, and Qiu Ye and her brother Zhao Shuyan lived in a three-person room, each with their own bed. This made Qiu Ye let out a sigh of relief. On the train, she and her brother slept on a narrow bunk bed, although they took turns sleeping, it was still very cramped, and she hadn't slept well for several days. At night, she was either woken up by being squeezed or by her brother's smelly feet, if she couldn't get a good rest here, she really didn't know how her small body could hold on.

  Just settled in, Qiu Ye took advantage of her small size and went to the public bathroom with Zhao Shuyan to take a combat shower with towels and soap. After coming out, she finally felt refreshed all over, and her hair that had been dripping wet also became fluffy. Seeing them come out, other female classmates swarmed into the small bathroom, Qiu Ye looked at the bathroom which was only 6 or 7 square meters with two shower heads, more than a dozen people squeezed in, and she wondered how they could all get a share of the water.

  Qiu Ye and Zhao Shuyan returned to their room hand in hand, as expected, there was no one in the house, Qiu Feng that little rascal had run off somewhere again.

  After they entered the house, they felt comfortable and had the energy to tidy up their luggage. They took out the unfinished food and other things inside and put them in a cool place, so as not to let them go bad in the trunk. Just as they were busy with this, there was a knock at the door.

  The two of them froze, Qiu Ye's face was full of confusion, who could this be? The person coming shouldn't be a teacher from the university, when they were assigning rooms earlier, the team leader had already said that at 5 pm everyone would gather in the lobby downstairs to go out for dinner together. So it's impossible for it to be a teacher from the university. Moreover, in order to show the difference between men and women, all three floors where Qiu Ye was staying were female students, male students wouldn't casually come to the girls' dorm unless there was an extreme special circumstance. And right now, all the female classmates on the third floor were squeezed into the bathroom taking showers. So Qiu Ye really couldn't figure out who it could be that was knocking on the door.

  She didn't know, but Zhao Shuyan seemed to know who the person outside the door was. With a smile all over her face, she put down the clothes she had been sorting and quickly went to open the door.