Chapter 132
After saying goodbye to the Qi family, Chu Jiujiu happily boarded the train.
Going from Qinhuangdao to Henan happens to be a southbound route. She got on the bus here. The next stop is Tangshan, and the next stop is Tianjin, which is also the stop where Director Ma and his team got on the bus.
There is a direct train to the capital, but in that case, they would not be able to pick up Chu Jiujiu, so they could only take the train to Tianjin Station, which is not far from the capital.
Therefore, Chu Jiujiu stayed alone on the train for more than an hour before she saw Director Ma and others who were late.
Director Ma’s group consisted of five people, two young, two middle-aged, and one with gray hair who wore a pair of metal glasses. Even though he was in his seventies, Chu Jiujiu could still see the wisdom in his eyes through his lenses.
…
Of these five people, besides Director Ma, there was a young researcher. Chu Jiujiu didn't recognize any of the others. The research on the Shang Dynasty tombs was so valuable that it had attracted professionals from all walks of life. Director Ma introduced the two younger men as a researcher at the Institute of Ancient History and a candidate for the Cultural Relics Archives. The middle-aged man besides Director Ma was an expert in cultural relic appraisal, his brain comparable to Chu Jiujiu's. Both were like human cameras, but the middle-aged man was more specialized, and his camera function was limited to cultural relics.
As for the oldest person, Director Ma's introduction was the longest, like one of those British and American TV dramas Chu Jiujiu has seen, with a ton of titles thrown at this old man like they were free: academician, expert, consultant, and every single one of them, all at the national level. Chu Jiujiu listened intently at first, but then her eyes turned to stars.
All the names finally converged into two words in Chu Jiujiu's mind.
Master.
…
I have to say that years of writing papers and helping with projects have really trained Chu Jiujiu. At the very least, her ability to summarize is now first-class.
The five of them, plus Chu Jiujiu, made up six of them. They were all scholars, or scholars in reserve. Regardless of their true personalities, they were all very quiet on this train. Chu Jiujiu had originally been sitting in the hard seat car. Director Ma, after navigating through the sea of people, finally found her. He then took her back and asked the train staff to buy her a sleeper berth.
This was Chu Jiujiu's first time riding a train. The green train, which was the most backward and disgusting in modern times, was the most luxurious and enviable means of transportation here. When Chu Jiujiu came over, the four people were sitting on the lower bunk. The old man and the young researcher she knew were very nice to her, but the other two were a little impatient with her.
Perhaps because they only deal with words and history books every day, these people don’t have so many twists and turns in their minds, allowing Chu Jiujiu to see through what they are thinking at a glance.
They simply thought she had the syndrome of a spoiled young lady, had taken some backdoor, and had to follow a bunch of professionals out with her, wasting their time and causing them trouble.
Chu Jiujiu saw it, but did not refute it because she was in the wrong.
…
Except for the young lady's illness, everything else was real. She was able to sit in this carriage full of bigwigs because she got through the back door.
Director Ma was very familiar with the others, and he didn't tell Chu Jiujiu what these people were called. Chu Jiujiu only knew their short names.
One is Xiao Wang, one is Xiao Wan, one is Lao Zhao, and the last one is Lao Tong.
Chu Jiujiu has been as quiet as a chicken since she came here. The industry leader Tong Lao looked at her, then looked at the backpacks beside her legs, one big and one small. The small one was emitting a mysterious fragrance.
Tong Lao endured for a while, but couldn't help it anymore, "Xiao Chu, what did you bring that smells so weird?"
Chu Jiujiu sat obediently at the innermost of Director Ma's lower bunk. Upon hearing this, she was stunned for a moment and quickly picked up the brown square bag. "This is the salt-boiled seafood my friend gave me."
As she spoke, she took out, "Mantis shrimp, swimming crabs, white clams, flower clams, razor clams... and a bowl of sauce."
The small bag was filled with seafood, all of which were cooked this morning, just taken from the local fishermen's boats and put into the blazing iron pot.
Unless you live near the sea, many people at this time will never be able to eat seafood in their entire lives. And seafood, unless stir-fried with onions, ginger, and garlic, or covered with extremely heavy sauces, will definitely emit a unique fishy smell. To those who like it, this fishy smell is the supreme delicacy of the delicacy, but to those who don't like it, it's almost like a toilet suddenly exploded.
Xiao Fang already thought it smelled bad, and when she took it out, his face almost wrinkled like the Tianjin specialty Goubuli steamed buns. He waved at Chu Jiujiu: "It stinks, take it away quickly."
This was given to Chu Jiujiu by Chief Qi, so that she could eat it in the car and satisfy her seafood addiction. Chief Qi had been in a high position for a long time and didn't care whether these seafood would offend others. But Chu Jiujiu didn't have such courage. Seeing Xiao Fang's reaction, her voice was full of apology, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
The little girl sincerely apologized to him, and Xiao Fang was not an unreasonable person, so his expression softened. He was about to say it was nothing, but then he heard Chu Jiujiu continue, "I'll eat all of this right away, and you won't be able to smell it after I'm done!"
Xiao Fang: “…”
He looked at the small table filled with seafood with a speechless look.
There’s so much, at least enough for two people, can you finish it all?!
Xiao Fang was still young and underestimated the appetite of a girl who was in the late stages of development and needed a lot of energy every day.
If Chu Jiujiu were to eat alone, she could finish it all, but she would be stuffed to death. However, she was not the type to eat alone. She picked up a crab and handed it to Director Ma beside her, "Director Ma, you can have one too. It's very fresh, but not very fatty. If you wait another month or two, it will be full of meat."
Director Ma had eaten seafood before and loved it very much. He had been drooling at the smell of Chu Jiujiu's food since he got in the car. When he was invited, he happily accepted it.
Then, Chu Jiujiu handed another one to Xiao Wang, the researcher she knew, and said, "Brother Wang, try it too."
Apart from the Institute of World History, the people from the Institute of Ancient History are the most familiar to Chu Jiujiu, because they always worked together some time ago. Although they are separated now, the friendship they had before still exists.
Xiao Wang took it but didn't eat it right away. Instead, he rummaged through his bag and said, "My wife brought me some pancakes with chopped green onions. Don't just eat the vegetables, have some pancakes too."
His words reminded Director Ma, who immediately bent down and took out the military water bottle he brought with him in case anyone felt thirsty.
It was past ten in the morning, not yet time for lunch, but the people here had already started to dine, a seafood feast. Chu Jiujiu handed out two crabs. There were still many on the table. She didn't dare to get close to Old Lady Tong, so she just smiled at him and tentatively handed the crab to him, "Would you like some?"
Tong Lao looked at the crab in her hand. After two seconds, he also smiled and said, "Let me try it."
Chu Jiujiu looked at him with sympathy. He was so old, but he had never tasted the delicious crab. Fortunately, even if she traveled through time, she still traveled to New China.
Mr. Tong, who was holding the crab, said: "..."
Is he loved?
Why?
Old Zhang was the last person Chu Jiujiu invited, which was normal. Chu Jiujiu invited people she knew first, and then invited people she didn't know based on their seniority. When Chu Jiujiu first arrived, Old Zhang didn't like her very much, thinking she was a big troublemaker among their group. Now his expression improved a little, because he could see that Chu Jiujiu was at least a well-mannered and polite girl.
The sound of crunching kept ringing. Except for Xiao Fang, everyone started to cut the crab into pieces, either roughly or delicately. Xiao Fang sat in the middle, with a faint black gas coming out of his body.
He didn't like the taste of seafood, and it was right for Chu Jiujiu not to invite him, but it was too embarrassing for him to just watch stupidly while everyone else was eating.
As soon as these people started eating, Xiao Fang couldn't stand it anymore. It was hard for him to imagine that he had to sit here and wait for these people to finish eating.
Just as she was debating whether to get up and leave, Chu Jiujiu had already chopped up the crab in her hand, peeling out the tender white meat. She dipped it in the sauce, placed it on the lid of the lunch box, and handed it to Xiaofang, "Try it, it's delicious, maybe you'll like it."
Xiao Fang tasted it, not because he thought the white crab meat might be delicious, but because he felt that this was a way for Chu Jiujiu to help him out. He accepted the favor and had to eat a bite no matter how bad it tasted.
After taking one bite, there is another.
…
The train was a shared space for everyone. Chu Jiujiu had accepted the seafood sent by Chief Qi, but she hadn't intended to eat it all on the train. She had planned to take it back to Henan and have it for dinner at the guesthouse. But once on the train, she discovered that the carriage was filled with all sorts of flavors. Few people bought food on the train; most people brought their own, and naturally, the food they brought was quite varied.
Even the stinky tofu is displayed, so naturally she can also display these seafood.
With the joint efforts of six people, all these things were eliminated in just ten minutes. Director Ma took on the responsibility of taking care of Chu Jiujiu and watched her clean up the garbage. Then, he picked up the garbage and threw it all into the trash can at the end of the carriage.
Old Zhang no longer treated her coldly, and the younger Xiao Fang also got rid of his prejudice against Chu Jiujiu. However, he still had some reservations and remained on the sidelines, ready to overturn his impression of her based on her behavior.
He asked Chu Jiujiu, "Is this your first time on a train?"
Chu Jiujiu nodded, then added, "But I often come to the train station. I'm the one who picks up and drops off others when they take the train."
She wanted these people to like her and she hoped that they could all recognize her. This was originally a degrading behavior, but Xiao Fang felt that it was quite cute since Chu Jiujiu did it so obviously.
Xiao Fang gave Chu Jiujiu his first smile, but the smile disappeared too quickly and looked a little stingy.
He then asked, "How old are you this year?"
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