My hometown is far away in Moscow.

012 Buy a big watermelon

After putting on her coat, the woman with the ponytail came over, patted Li Baoqing on the shoulder, smiled, shook her head, and mumbled a few words in Russian. Finally, she lightly touched two fingers to her lips and blew him a kiss.

Li Baoqing only understood the word "sorry," and could only blush and nod repeatedly, saying, "It's okay, it's okay." After the girl with the ponytail and freckles had walked away, she turned back to Hu Yi and asked, "What did she say?"

Hu Yi didn't understand many of the words either, and he pretended to stroke his chin and shrug: "They're probably very interested in your body, and they'll want to favor you again next time."

"Screw you, she must be really impressed by my outstanding performance as a powerful center." Li Baoqing kicked Hu Yi in the butt. The two talked about their highlights as they walked out of the gymnasium and ran into Yan Zhiwen at the school gate.

"Brother Yan, are we going back to the dorm?"

"I'm going to the market to buy groceries, are you coming?"

"Hey, great!" Li Baoqing hurried over to his side. "We've never been to the market before. You can show us the way. The shops downstairs only have potatoes and cabbage. We're so tired of them."

Hu Yi laughed and said, "Yes, buy some good stuff for Baoqing to nourish him; he suffered a lot today."

Yan Zhiwen glanced at Li Baoqing sideways: "Really? What did you do?"

Hu Yi chimed in, "We were playing basketball just now. Baoqing was taking on the girls' school team's center one-on-one under the basket. He was exhausted! That old lady was taller than me and stronger than Baoqing. She just yanked him with her butt and sent him tumbling over."

"What do you mean, 'old lady'! You're really rude. She might even be younger than us!" Li Baoqing frowned and awkwardly explained, "I was just too nervous at the time. I concentrated all my strength on my upper body to fight against her, and my lower body was a little unstable, so I accidentally lost my footing."

"Yeah, anyway, she seemed pretty happy with you. Didn't she even blow you a kiss before she left?"

The three of them chatted and laughed all the way to the vegetable market. It was an indoor market, and each stall was very orderly and clean, much cleaner than the chaotic and dirty farmers' markets in China at that time. Hu Yi and Li Baoqing had never bought vegetables on their own before, and now that they were in the vegetable market, they were inevitably a little dazzled and didn't know where to start.

On Yan Zhiwen's advice, the two bought some pork cartilage ribs, which cost about thirteen yuan per pound, which was acceptable. The selection of vegetables and fruits was not very rich, and only a few items such as potatoes, onions, carrots, and cabbage were not too expensive. The rest were ridiculously expensive, and they didn't dare to even glance at them.

"Hey, cabbage!" Li Baoqing called to Hu Yi, "Haven't had any in ages, let's stir-fry some with vinegar tonight... Wait, what?! Is there a mistake with the price?"

Hu Yi peeked over and saw the price tag read 66 rubles per kilogram, roughly ten yuan per pound. After carefully confirming that there was no decimal point between the two "6s," he patted Li Baoqing on the shoulder and said, "Forget it, let's just eat cabbage. They all look pretty much the same."

"Damn it, this cabbage is barely bigger than a baby bok choy, yet it's so expensive," Li Baoqing muttered sullenly, then suddenly pointed to a spot not far ahead: "Hey! A giant watermelon!"

The watermelon was indeed very large, with a smooth, round surface and clear, intact stripes—it was clearly a good one. Hu Yi's stomach rumbled: "Watermelons are still sold in winter? Shall I buy one and try it?"

Li Baoqing glanced at the price tag: "Okay, I'll buy it! It's only thirty-something rubles a kilogram, half the price of that lousy cabbage from before. I just wonder what Russian watermelons taste like."

Yan Zhiwen said from the side, "The watermelons here are all very sweet, no need to pick and choose, just buy with confidence."

"Alright! One please! Brother Yan, come and eat with us tonight!" Li Baoqing said generously, pointing to the largest watermelon in front of him: "I'll buy this one!"

The Russian woman selling watermelons gently lifted the watermelon Li Baoqing had personally selected with one hand and placed it on the electronic scale, saying something in Russian. Seeing Li Baoqing and Hu Yi's blank expressions, she casually picked up a calculator, typed in a few numbers, held it up in front of them, and said, word by word, "Four hundred and twelve rubles."

"Over four hundred?!" Li Baoqing almost jumped up, waving his hands in panic and saying repeatedly, "No, no."

"What don't you mean?" The middle-aged woman stared at him in confusion.

Li Baoqing scratched his head, unsure of what to say, so he tugged at Hu Yi's arm: "Hey, let's not go for it! Good heavens, a watermelon only costs a few yuan in China, but this watermelon costs over a hundred yuan, it's a rip-off."

Hu Yi was also terrified. He carefully looked at the numbers on the calculator, then stared at the weight displayed on the electronic scale to calculate the price. He shook off Li Baoqing's hand and said, "Nonsense, they've already weighed it for us. How can we say we don't want it now? Aren't we ashamed?" As he spoke, he took out a five-hundred-ruble note and handed it to the old lady with trembling hands.

Li Baoqing felt a pang of heartache. He turned to look at Yan Zhiwen, who was buying tomatoes not far away, and whispered to Hu Yi with a bitter expression, "How about... we split the cost with Brother Yan?"

"Pah, nonsense! You invite people over for watermelon and expect them to pay? Look at your pathetic self! We could save the money by eating a few meals of instant noodles!" Hu Yi slapped Li Baoqing on the back of the head and pointed at the watermelon, saying, "Here you go!"

As the saying goes, no journey is easy without a light load. Even though Li Baoqing is strong and has great physical strength, carrying a watermelon weighing more than 20 kilograms back to his dormitory still left his arms sore and numb.

After resting for a while, Li Baoqing jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen to start stewing pork ribs. He had never cooked before, but he had just learned some skills from Yu Feifei these past few days and was eagerly looking for an opportunity to put them into practice.

A chef isn't made in a day; Li Baoqing's current skill level is only about having a rough idea of ​​the proper amounts of salt and soy sauce. Fortunately, Hu Yi brought a lot of stewing seasoning packets from China, which greatly masked his true skill level.

Hu Yi started cooking rice in the rice cooker, and Li Baoqing returned to the bedroom with a smile, asking, "How is it? Can you smell the aroma?"

Before Hu Yi could answer, the door next door slammed open, and Peng Song burst into the kitchen like a whirlwind, sniffing the pot of stewed ribs: "Smells good! Mmm, smells so good! Are you stewing meat?"

Li Baoqing shrugged and smiled: "Who else could it be?"

"Excuse me," Peng Song swallowed hard, "are your dishes exactly for two people?"

Li Baoqing asked, bewildered, "What do you mean?"

"If I could, I'd like to have some too."

From the very first day Hu Yi and Li Baoqing arrived in Moscow, Peng Song would frequently come over to freeload off them. He'd either come over in the middle of the night hungry to ask for a pack of instant noodles, or strike up a conversation and grab a sausage, or "coincidentally" drop by while they were eating and ask for a free bowl and chopsticks. As time went on, both Hu Yi and Li Baoqing grew a little annoyed, but since they were classmates and neighbors, they didn't mind too much for the sake of appearances.

Seeing that he was eyeing the ribs in the pot again, Li Baoqing politely declined with a troubled expression, saying, "This... why didn't you say so earlier? I didn't make much; it might not be enough for three people."

"That's enough. This pot is big enough. I don't eat much, so you guys eat the meat and I'll just pour some vegetable broth into my rice." Peng Song gave him an encouraging look.

Hu Yi gave him a cold glare: "It's fine to order you some soup, but there's only enough rice for the two of us."

Peng Song laughed heartily: "It's okay, I have a small rice cooker, I can cook rice myself." With that, he skipped back into the house.

Hu Yi frowned: "Damn, this kid's got some nerve, he's got a thick skin."

Li Baoqing comforted him, "It's alright, it's just a free meal. We're neighbors, it doesn't matter."

Before he could finish speaking, Peng Song turned back and grinned at Li Baoqing, "Hey, I don't have any rice. Could you lend me some?"