Chapter 127 Chapter 127 Spending Money Day 127
On the third day of her trip to Xinjiang, Liu Yue arrived in Keketuohai.
This is a national geological park, and there is also a rare metal mining park in the scenic area.
Liu Yue went in for a visit and found it was really cold inside. Sang Yu specially prepared a thick coat for her and also invited a professional tour guide.
If you don't know the story behind the mine, it's just a dark underground space with a few stones.
But this place was once a top-secret national secret. It accounts for 86 of the world's 140 known mineral species. The discovery of Pit No. 3, which Liu Yue memorized in junior high school, added seven rare elements to the periodic table.
It provided the country with raw materials for the secret development of the "two bombs and one satellite", and also assumed the responsibility of repaying 47% of the former Soviet Union's debt. Countless predecessors, who kept their identities secret, shed their youth and blood here. It was not until the No. 3 mine was stopped in 1999 that the place name "Keketuohai" reappeared on the map of China.
It was really cold inside the mine. Liu Yue only stayed there for a short while before she felt the chill seeping into her bones.
She listened to the history and culture inside, and the guide also introduced her to many kinds of minerals. After leaving, there was a stall selling mineral souvenirs.
Liu Yue came over to test her learning results and see how many she could still recognize.
There are many colorful rough stones here, as well as many finished gemstones and crystals.
Keketuohai is a vast repository of natural gemstones, the most famous of which, and the most common item in finished necklaces, bracelets, and pendants, is aquamarine. Liu Yue also saw cut loose stones, all with accompanying certificates, priced between a few hundred and ten thousand yuan, depending on weight, color, and precision.
For Liu Yue, buying aquamarine at this price is just like buying a few new toys.
The unpolished ones looked very smooth, and the inside was hazy, as if they were covered with a soft light filter. Liu Yue picked a few at random and held them in her hands to play with them.
Rather than buying aquamarine at the stall, Liu Yue was more interested in what she overheard from someone next to her: aquamarine could be picked up near the mine.
Wow, is this true? Is Xinjiang full of gems?
She casually bought two bracelets as souvenirs at the stall, one for her and one for He Zhiyuan. She also asked Sang Yu to keep them and help her buy some souvenirs to distribute to her team members when she returned.
Before He Zhiyuan could recover from the sweetness of "she wanted to wear a couple bracelet with me", he was dragged away by Liu Yue to pick up gems.
Picking up stones in Xinjiang may really be a very trendy activity. She even met a stone-picking group who came out specifically to pick up stones.
Liu Yue put on gloves and boots and explored the area carefully.
She searched around for a few minutes, but all she saw were quartz stones and mica flakes, with no trace of aquamarine at all.
Liu Yue smacked her lips in disappointment. It seemed that the rumors were unreliable. She decided to go to Devil City to look for the golden jade. That one was not valuable, so it should be the real one.
She was about to leave when she was suddenly struck by the blue between the stones.
Hey, what is this...
Liu Yue picked up the lustrous blue stone. Coincidentally, the guide of the stone-collecting group was nearby. Seeing the stone in Liu Yue's hand, he excitedly told her that she had found an aquamarine.
Hearing this keyword, other tourists immediately came over and wanted to admire the stone in her hand.
The guide told her how precious and rare this aquamarine was, and that it would be very beautiful if she took it back and polished it into jewelry, and it would be worth a lot of money if sold... At this point, he also told her to be careful and not act alone, so as not to be tempted by money.
Huh? Liu Yue stared at the aquamarine in her hand, lost in thought.
She has bought many gems. Although she is not an expert, she is not a novice.
This thing weighs over a dozen carats, but its clarity and color are average. Assuming it's a real aquamarine, it's worth no more than 5,000 yuan. Those who can travel to Xinjiang, while not necessarily wealthy, at least have enough to eat and wear. They wouldn't risk it for a few thousand yuan, right?
In front of the guide and tourists, Liu Yue didn't say anything. After leaving the stone-picking area, she stared at the stone in her hand for a long time.
“It’s not aquamarine,” she said. “I think it’s sea glass.”
He Zhiyuan didn't understand and asked, "What is sea glass?"
"It's just glass. It's just been washed in the sea for a long time, and the sharp corners have been smoothed out, so it looks like this."
Liu Yue explained it to him, and the more he looked at it, the more it looked like it. She gave it to Ren Zhen, who also said it was most likely sea glass.
——Liu Yue recognized it herself, so why should she hesitate? She will definitely tell the truth.
He Zhiyuan seemed to be thinking: "If it is sea glass... No wonder the guide just now deliberately said in front of so many people that it was very valuable and asked you to be careful."
He speculated that the sea glass might have been left nearby by a rock-collecting group. After all, these people came hoping to find something they could find. If they didn't find anything, they would complain online and no one would sign up for such a group in the future.
The guide told Liu Yue to be careful and not tell anyone else. This was partly to exaggerate its value, but also to give other tourists a psychological hint: they would think, "I didn't pick it up just because I was unlucky, and others who picked it up kept it a secret and made a fortune."
After he put forward this reasoning, Liu Yue also felt that this was the case.
"That group is so stingy," she couldn't help but complain. "They couldn't even bear to use a few real aquamarines, so they just used sea glass to fool people!"
He Zhiyuan shrugged. It is indeed easy to encounter big pitfalls when traveling to other places, especially in areas that you are not familiar with.
When it was time for lunch, Liu Yue and others came to a ranch by the river.
This is a branch of Keketuohai, located outside the scenic area. Liu Yue did not eat lunch in the RV, but camped by the river.
Before, they were touring the mines, but here, Liu Yue calmed down and appreciated the scenery of Keketuohai.
Keketuohai is not a sea. It means "green jungle" in Kazakh and "blue river bay" in Mongolian. The Irtysh River runs through the town, and being in it is like stepping into a forest world from a fairy tale.
Liu Yue and her group were fully equipped for their picnic. Ren Zhen had arranged for a canopy to be set up in advance. The vinyl blackout curtains absorbed heat while letting in the breeze from the shore. Soft, soothing music played on a Bluetooth speaker. She sat in a Kermit chair, watching the river flow before her, feeling indescribably relaxed and comfortable.
The Irtysh River is the only river in China that flows from east to west. She checked in on this knowledge point in her geography book again today.
Although the RV had a refrigerator, Liu Yue still tried a more natural way to keep the watermelon cool. She placed it in the river, letting the water flow over it to cool it down, and she was already looking forward to the effect of natural refrigeration.
Camping and picnicking near the ranch requires an entrance fee. The herdsmen also provided her with a charcoal stove and seasonings, but Liu Yue didn't need them, so she brought her own and thanked Sang Yu for making all the necessary preparations.
But she still spent money at the ranch, and she bought particularly fresh mutton - slaughtered on the spot by the herders.
There weren't many ways to cook lamb outdoors, so grilling it was the most convenient option. Liu Yue watched for a while and even tried to light a charcoal fire, but when she realized it wasn't that easy, she sat back down in silence.
It has to be said that grilling outdoors is a very technical job. Near Liu Yue's picnic spot, a couple was arguing fiercely over lighting a fire, seemingly playing out a real-life version of a breakup kitchen.
...But we haven't even started grilling yet. Isn't it too early to start arguing?
Liu Yue would definitely not intentionally eavesdrop on other people's private affairs, but weren't they arguing too loudly?
Although Sang Yu had prepared a lot of things, this picnic was Liu Yue's impromptu idea. She arrived later than others, so she was embarrassed to talk about renting the whole place, so she sent everyone else away.
Zhang Cheng went over to negotiate and helped them solve the fire problem. The couple was quite embarrassed and kept thanking him, and finally they calmed down.
Liu Yue’s picnic included not only roasted lamb, but also winter melon hotpot.
This is a Guangdong-style hot pot. The ingredients are similar to those of hot pot, but the difference is that the hot pot container has become a hollowed-out winter melon. Cooking hot pot with winter melon gives the ingredients a fresh and sweet flavor.
Liu Yue went to watch the chef cut the winter melon and also tried to cut lace on the winter melon soup.
She didn't control the strength well, and the triangle she cut was larger than the ones next to it, but she didn't need to worry about it, because the chef would adjust the other edges to match her creation.
The soup base of the winter melon soup is made with sea coconut, lotus seeds, red dates and wolfberries. The winter melon flesh is scooped out to make winter melon tea, and some of it is sliced and made into a dish. It really is the original soup and the original food.
When lunch time came, Liu Yue put the seafood into the pot one by one, cooked them until they were delicious, and then added the beef slices and crispy chicken to cook.
This is just an ordinary meal in Guangdong, but in the mountains of Keketuohai, the taste of winter melon soup is more natural and fresh.
He Zhiyuan patiently peeled shrimps for Liu Yue. He mixed a versatile dipping sauce that he learned online, which made the shrimps really fresh and suited Liu Yue's taste.
She returned the favor by picking up a few abalone for him. She had originally intended to put them in his bowl, but since he opened his mouth, she fed them directly to him.
He Zhiyuan loved this moment so much. The temperature was comfortable for a picnic by the river. Above them was a blue sky with white clouds, and in front of them were lush green trees and crystal clear streams.
Here you can hear the sounds of wind, water, gurgling bubbles in the winter melon soup, and sizzling lamb on the barbecue grill, all blending into an elegant sonata, a beautiful welcome music.
If there's one flaw...it's probably that the couple next door started arguing again.
He Zhiyuan was also impressed by them. If they didn't know how to grill meat, why did they have to do it themselves? Now that the meat was burnt, they started blaming each other for their poor grilling skills, the wrong way of handling the ingredients, and the poor quality of the charcoal/meat/skewers they bought...
After having eaten her fill, Liu Yue became interested in eating melons. She pricked up her ears while eating the lamb skewers.
There's nothing we can do about it. It's Chinese people's nature to love watching the fun.
Moreover, this couple is from Northeast China, and their quarreling tactics are really one after another, and there will be a joke every few sentences. If it weren't a bit wicked, Liu Yue would have wanted to laugh.
He Zhiyuan looked at her helplessly and amusedly. How could one treat a couple's quarrel as a crosstalk?
...Although, the way people from Northeast China curse is indeed quite interesting.
The two of them quarreled for more than ten minutes. Suddenly, when they turned around, they found that Liu Yue and He Zhiyuan were not eating. Their faces were not facing the table, but were looking at them intently.
The moment she was caught, Liu Yue immediately sat up straight and righteously accused He Zhiyuan:
"How could you eavesdrop on other people's quarrels? That's totally wrong!"
He Zhiyuan: ???
I inexplicably felt like there was something extra on my head... It turned out to be the blame that Liu Yue had thrown at me.
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The author has something to say: I am very busy today, and one chapter may be posted in the evening.
This IP is preparing for the typhoon and has made a lot of preparations, but it is still trembling.
Yesterday and today I stocked up on water, ingredients, and self-heating hot pot, and suddenly I became interested in hoarding articles...
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