Chapter 181

Xiao Qi woke up to the familiar mechanical sound ringing in her ears again: "Host has obtained a bonus of 20,000 yuan based on her own abilities, which has brought positive energy to the surrounding classmates. Xiao Qi is rewarded with an additional 20,000 yuan, which must be spent within seven days. The additional reward money cannot be reinvested."

So Xiao Qi saw that in the interface, the previously appeared additional reward section showed 20,000 yuan separately, with a flashing number 7 behind it.

This was the second time Xiao Qi had received such a reward. She was much calmer this time. Anyway, there were still 7 days left. It was easy to spend money.

Today was Saturday. She only had club activities in the afternoon. Her morning was free. But she had made plans to go to foreign teacher Grace's home tomorrow. Xiao Qi wanted to buy gifts, so she thought about going to the market in Luoxi Town to see if there was anything she wanted.

When Xiao Qi asked if anyone wanted to go to Luoxi Town, her roommates were very surprised. They did not expect the study maniac to want to go shopping.

Now the dormitory had recognized Xiao Qi as the study maniac. She seized every minute to study whenever there was time. She could even lower her head to look at Japanese vocabulary while drying her dripping wet bangs.

Someone similar to Xiao Qi was Gu Yunshu, who was obsessed with novels. She always held her phone while eating to read novels, taking a bite after glancing at the phone once, as if she was eating meals with novels.

If no one disturbed her, she could read till the end of time.

In contrast, Mi'er in the dormitory preferred going out. Keeping her in the dormitory to read books all day would drive her crazy.

Wei Cheng was more moderate. She did not show any particular preferences. She studied quite hard but always felt kind of directionless.

However, since even Xiao Qi had asked if anyone wanted to go to Luoxi Town, Mi'er was definitely the first to agree.

"I've wanted to go see it for a long time."

Wei Cheng nodded, "That's good, yes."

Although Gu Yunshu was obsessed with novels, with three votes against one in the dorm room, she had no choice but to be brought along.

She also knew that only reading novels all the time was not good. But life was just so boring, still novels were more interesting.

The activity level in the dorm room was high. After eating, they set off directly. Luoxi Town was right outside the university campus, just across the bridge, so they walked over there. But since they were going to the market, they headed to the town center.

Surprisingly, there were two hotels in the center of Luoxi Town. One was the town reception hotel, and the other was some commercial hotel. The building looked quite tall and was probably the best hotel in town. Xiao Qi wondered if anyone would stay at the hotels here.

There was an alley entrance at the central square which led to the Luoxi Town central market.

A few little girls roaming the market was quite interesting. They were curious about everything.

As the alliance relied on the sea, there were many seafood products in the market. Kelp dangled moistly like curtains.

There were also fresh shrimp, eel, all kinds of unfamiliar seafood, strange shells and sea snails, and strangely shaped fish. But the smell was not very pleasant, quite fishy.

The shrimp were very big and looked very fresh. Some were still struggling, and some even had thin transparent fishing nets clinging to them. They were probably wild sea shrimps caught from the sea.

Prices varied depending on size. Smaller ones cost over 70 yuan per jin, medium sized ones cost 100 yuan per jin, and especially big ones cost 120 yuan per jin. It seemed that the prices were not cheap even for locals.

There was a saying here: Going into debt to eat seafood is not unreasonable.

Fishermen who lived by the sea seemed to be more open-handed when it came to spending money.

Like the four visiting an aquarium, Xiao Qi and her roommates visited the seafood section in the market. Xiao Qi really felt that there were more varieties of fish here than those she had seen in aquariums before.

Yunshu had never wandered around marketplaces before, so she was quite curious. Her family's helper usually did things like this.

The group took photos with their phones, quite fascinated with everything. The vendors were used to this sight, recognizing them as Enhua University students at first glance.

Xiao Qi came to see if there was anything made of bamboo she could use. But after circling around, she didn't find anything so was about to give up. Just then, she saw an auntie selling strawberries by the market entrance. The red strawberries were held in bamboo baskets as the auntie tried to make a sale with a foreigner.

"Good, sweet, good, buy!"

The others laughed. The foreigner also asked, “How much? How much money?"

"Cheap! Fifty per jin. Hurry up!"

As she spoke, she took out a piece of cardboard with “Fifty - 50 yuan” written on it.

With this mixed Chinese and English interaction, the auntie successfully managed to sell several jin of strawberries.

As Gu Yunshu liked to eat fruit, they had also asked about them at the market stalls earlier, which were selling for 35 yuan per jin, cheaper than those sold at school. But the quality did not look that great and Yunshu was too lazy to buy any in the end.

“It really is important to learn a language huh," Mi'er muttered softly on the side.

Xiao Qi waited until the auntie finished the transaction before stepping forward. She did not aggressively try to bargain or show off her English to prove herself. Sometimes things were just about the philosophy of survival. If the foreigner went in and found cheaper strawberries later, he naturally would not fall for this again next time, or he might still choose to buy here if he felt communication was better. That was just personal preference.

"Auntie, where did you buy this lovely bamboo basket? I'd like to buy one to put flowers in my dorm room." Xiao Qi asked. After a lucrative sale, the auntie was in a good mood when she saw the students. Moreover, the girls looked young and harmless, and one even politely called her auntie.

"You can't find bamboo baskets in the market. Go to the central square outside, across the street, there's a road that sells hardware and stuff. Walk in about three stores, they have fishing nets and bamboo weaving things. You can buy from there."

Xiao Qi thanked her and followed the directions the auntie pointed out. Indeed she found the store that sold bamboo weaving, which had quite a lot of people inside working on nets. Xiao Qi wanted bamboo strips instead of their finished products though. The finished products looked quite crude, seeming disposable.

Asking the boss, surprisingly they did have bamboo strips, but those were for the boss's personal handicrafts and were not for sale.

Still, Xiao Qi wanted to buy them. At a loss, the boss did not know how to price them.

In the end, Xiao Qi bought a bundle for 10 yuan, and the boss threw in some jute ropes and such.

Xiao Qi thanked him and added his WeChat. She would come to him if she needed more in the future.

After buying things, the four dorm mates went to eat at a famous local steakhouse rumored to be a hundred-year-old shop. It did not serve Western steaks but specially stewed Chinese beef steak unique to Meng City.

Large chunks of bone-in beef simmered in master stock until soft and tender. Diners used large scissors to cut off pieces to eat. The bone was simmered into beef bone broth with radish. There was also shredded ginger beef soup and mustard green rice.

It was basically a meal with rice, a piece of steak, radish soup and shredded beef soup as a set.

It was not cheap either, 68 yuan per set, or 53 yuan if you did not want the shredded beef soup.

Since Xiao Qi was treating them, she ordered the 68 yuan set for everyone, as she had won a prize yesterday.

It was quite delicious indeed. The unbroken grains of rice were glossy and slightly sticky. The vegetables made the rice a little salty. The steak was extremely tender, especially the parts with tendons which were even more delicious, both bouncy and chewy. Even Yunshu who did not have a big appetite finished her entire bowl of rice.

You could have unlimited rice refills. Xiao Qi refilled her rice once more.

She had wanted to refill twice originally, but Yunshu could not finish her shredded beef soup, while Mi'er barely touched her radish soup. So they were given to Xiao Qi instead. This was still a rare delightful occasion for the two though, since Mi'er seldom finished even half a bowl of rice, always complaining about dieting and not taking staple foods.

Wei Cheng ate a normal portion and finished it without asking for refills.

After the four were done with their meal, they slowly walked back to school.

On the way, Wei Cheng smacked her lips, still reminiscing the taste, "The steak was so delicious. But too expensive. I'll eat it everyday when I'm rich in the future!"

The rest laughed. Wei Cheng was quite innocent in this aspect. Today's steak was indeed exceptional. That shop's flavor was very authentic, probably having some secret family recipe. It was not greasy at all, yet still so memorable after eating that you just craved for more.

"Next time any of us from our dorm gets some kind of prize money or achievement, let's go eat there together again," Mi'er remarked.

Even Yunshu spoke enthusiastically, "Our flower arranging club seems to have some competition coming up. Maybe I'll participate."

At this, it was Wei Cheng's turn to feel helpless. She felt she had no talents or advantages whatsoever, at a total loss as to what she could possibly do...

Xiao Qi also chuckled, "I will work hard to give Wei Cheng more opportunities to eat steak!"