"One roast duck, one serving of Beile roasted meat, five servings of zhajiangmian (noodles with soybean paste), and one serving of donkey roll (glutinous rice roll), that's all," Li Zhonghua said.
Xia Jianguo's family paid for the hotel for this trip, while Li Zhonghua's family covered all other expenses; this was agreed upon beforehand.
"Mom, this roast duck is better than the one we had in Shenzhen. The skin is so crispy!" Xia Minmin said.
Li Chunmei said, "The sauce is better than that one too!"
Li Qing asked, "Xiao Min, which restaurant did you eat at last time? I'll try it when I get back."
"Sister Qing, it's the new one that opened in the mall next to my apartment complex. I'll treat you to it next time," Xia Minmin promised.
"Alright, when I have time on the weekend, I'll definitely eat you out of house and home!"
Grandma Xia said, "Xiaomin, you must have quite a bit of savings now, enough to treat your sister to a meal. But you don't even think about treating your grandparents."
Xia Minmin wiped non-existent sweat from her forehead. "I'll treat them all. Once I save up some more money, I can treat them all."
Xia Minmin felt sad about her meager savings; they were already pitiful, and now they were even more so.
Grandpa Xia said, "Alright, stop teasing the child. Look how anxious she is, she's almost in tears. Xiaomin, don't worry, you can treat her to a meal when we get back to Shenzhen, and Grandpa will pay for it."
Xia Minmin smiled and said thank you, Grandpa.
“Look, Xiaomin is more favored by her maternal grandfather. The rest of us are all yesterday’s news. My dad has never even invited me to dinner,” Li Zhonghua said with a particularly funny expression and voice.
Everyone was trying not to laugh.
Grandpa Xia slapped him across the face, saying, "Look at the way you behave! You have no manners whatsoever as an elder. You expect me to invite you? What was the point of me having you?"
Xia Minmin couldn't help but shudder. It seemed that Ms. Li Chunmei's love of clapping was inherited from Xia's maternal grandfather. She shouldn't provoke her again.
After lunch, I took a taxi to visit two of the most famous universities in Beijing to encourage Li Qing, who was taking the college entrance exam in a few months.
For dinner, we went to the same hot pot restaurant as yesterday. This time, we were quite familiar with the place and didn't need any help from the waiters.
We got up early today because we're going to climb the Great Wall tomorrow, so everyone went to bed early tonight.
...
On the morning of the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, everyone appeared at the hotel entrance in high spirits.
Li Chunmei asked, "Brother, when will the tour group you booked send a car over?"
"Around seven o'clock."
Sun Erni said, "Should we go get some breakfast?"
"No need. I already agreed on this when I booked the tour yesterday. Today, three meals are included, and we'll be on tour all day. The itinerary is specially designed. Although it's a bit pricey, there won't be any shopping stops along the way."
Xia Jianguo said, "It's good that we don't go to shopping stops. People have told me before that group tours include shopping stops and you can't leave if you don't buy anything."
"They booked a budget tour, but ours is a premium tour, five times the price," Li Zhonghua said smugly.
At that moment, a minibus stopped where Xia Minmin and the others were standing, and a man in his twenties or thirties got off the bus.
The man said, "Hello, do you have someone here named Li Zhonghua?"
"Hello, I am Li Zhonghua."
"Hello Mr. Li Zhonghua, I'm your tour guide for today. My surname is Huang, you can just call me Xiao Huang," Xiao Huang said with a smile.
Hello, hello.
"Are all eight of us tourists here today? If there's nothing else, we can set off."
"Everyone's here."
Everyone boarded the bus one by one, and once everyone was seated, the driver started the bus.
Xiao Huang leaned back in his chair and said, "Our trip today is divided into two parts: climbing the Great Wall in the morning and visiting the Ming Tombs in the afternoon. Our group is a premium tour, a pure sightseeing tour with no shopping stops. I hope everyone has a wonderful memory today."
"Today, everyone will follow my little flag. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me."
"There are two sections of the Great Wall that are open to the public and under maintenance. One is the Badaling Great Wall, which is also the location of the famous Hero's Slope, and the other is the Mutianyu Great Wall. The difference between these two sections is that Badaling is higher and has steeper steps, while Mutianyu has beautiful scenery and a flatter road surface."
"Today we're going to the Badaling Great Wall. If any of the children or elderly people feel unwell, please let us know immediately. Let's have a happy trip and come back happy, okay?"
"good!"
After the tour guide, Xiao Huang, finished speaking, Xia Minmin clapped continuously; she was the epitome of a cheerleader.
We were still some distance from the Great Wall, and everyone fell asleep in the car after a short while.
"Wake up, everyone! We've arrived outside the Great Wall scenic area. It's time to get off the bus and go have breakfast."
Xia Minmin woke up immediately upon hearing the word "breakfast," and asked, "Guide Huang, where are we going to have breakfast?"
Tour guide Xiao Huang pointed to a restaurant next to the scenic area and said, "That's the breakfast shop."
"Can food at a restaurant near a tourist attraction be good?" Xia Minmin's expectations for breakfast vanished instantly.
"Little friend, don't underestimate this shop. It's a century-old establishment, and they only accept reservations from select groups," Xiao Huang explained.
"Oh, let's go quickly!" Xia Minmin was eager to try the food.
Seeing everyone packing their backpacks, Xiao Huang, who had quite a lot of things, said, "We can leave everything else in the car except for our wallets and valuables. The driver will be in the car, so we can climb the Great Wall with ease."
Hearing what the tour guide, Xiao Huang, said, Sun Erni and Grandma Xia finally gave up carrying the bags they were holding. The bags contained a lot of fruit and were quite heavy. Before they set off, everyone else had advised them not to bring anything, but it was no use.
As soon as Xia Minmin entered the store, she smelled the aroma of noodles. This was simply her happy hometown!
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