Chapter 72: One Date a Day Keeps Old Age at Bay

  Chen Jianjun was driving and joking with Qiu Ye, when he turned the steering wheel around a bend, he heard Qiu Ye shouting from behind, "Uncle Chen, can we stop the car for a while here?" Qiu Ye's eyes sparkled as she looked out of the windshield.

  This road has a densely populated area on the right side of the road, which appears to be a market in this residential area. Qiu Ye saw it when she just arrived, but at that time there were more important things to do, so she didn't have the heart to let Chen Jianjun stop and take a stroll.

  Now that the main tasks in Xinjiang have been completed, I've started to think about visiting the local market again. Since she also took the market route in Oil City, of course, I want to do some investigation here, which may be helpful for her future business.

  Zhao Shuyan understood Qiu Ye very well, and when she saw the market in front of her, she knew what was on Xiao Ye's mind. This child now has a money-making mindset, which made her feel helpless. She could only gesture to Chen Jianjun to pull over and stop the car, saying: "There's a market up ahead, I'll take the kids to see if there are any local specialties we can buy, you just wait for us in the car."

  Then she pulled Qiu Ye's hand and followed by Qiu Feng's little tail, they headed to the vegetable market in Urumqi together.

  As she walked, she comforted herself in her heart, thinking that her children were so different from others. While other people's children went out to travel and looked at famous mountains and rivers, her children liked to stroll through markets. It is said that art comes from life, and the child's behavior of being close to life and deliberately walking into the local people's living circle was not far from the purpose of this trip to gather inspiration.

  Three people walked into the crowd, strolling around this stall and that one, seeing which stalls had a lot of people in front of them. They squeezed in to take a look and found out it was selling vegetables. After carefully identifying them, they recognized several types of greens that they also had back home. There were bean sprouts, celery, rape, and so on. Among them, there were two kinds that Qiu Ye couldn't recognize, probably local specialties.

  They watched for a while, then squeezed out from inside and continued to move forward. The people selling vegetables inside were not speaking Chinese, so they didn't understand a word. Although they could communicate through gestures, they weren't very interested in the vegetables here either. Even if they were good, they couldn't bring them back to Oil City. A ten-day train ride would make the vegetables rot completely. So there was no need to bother communicating now.

  Zhao Shuyan led the two children forward, and Qiu Ye saw that there was a stall in front of her selling goods packed in silk bags. She pulled Zhao Shuyan to turn towards it. Zhao Shuyan couldn't help but understand what was on her mind, so she turned around with a good temper and brought the children to the stall. Qiu Ye walked closer and saw that it was indeed a dried fruit stall, which was exactly what she had been looking for.

  Qiu Ye looked at the stall next to a Uyghur youth wearing an embroidered small hat, probably the owner. He pulled Zhao Shuyan and said: "Auntie, when I came here, I just saw an article introducing jujube in one of Uncle's magazines. There was a sentence that said, 'One day three jujubes, beauty never fades.' It also says that red dates are good for nourishing blood, calming the mind, and removing blemishes, making people's skin white and delicate, with fewer wrinkles. This big date looks really good. Let's buy some!

  "Just fill those few carrying baskets to the brim, so that when we carry them, the jade stones inside won't be rolling around. Then cover it with a layer on top. If someone asks or looks, we can just say they're big dates special products."

  Qiu Ye completely grasped the mind of a middle-aged woman. Originally, Zhao Shuyan was already willing to satisfy her aunt's requests. At this time, hearing that eating jujubes had so many benefits, how could she not be moved? She was already a 40-year-old woman and no longer young. Moreover, since the children said it was for show, they should buy it even more.

  However, when she saw the young man from a different tribe wearing a small flower hat in front of her, she became anxious again. The language barrier made it impossible for her to buy even if she wanted to.

  Qiu Ye had been observing her godmother's expression from the side, knowing that her godmother was moved, but she was unable to communicate and was worried about being unable to move forward.

  "Dry mother, you wait here, I'll go and communicate with him." Qiu Ye thought to herself that she had also experienced a lifetime of things, how could this little problem stump her? Since language was not possible, they would use the internationally common smile and gestures.

  Qiu Ye first smiled sweetly at the Uyghur youth, then walked to a sack and looked inside, where she saw dates that were at least twice as big as those from Youcheng. She laughed even more happily, picked up one of the bigger dates, waved it at the youth, and made a gesture of counting money with her other hand. Qiu Ye thought, this way he should understand what I mean.

  However, this young man obviously lacked insight and couldn't understand. He furrowed his brow, watching Qiu Ye rubbing her fingers back and forth, thinking in his heart that this child was so pitiful, getting polio at such a young age, just look at how her hands were shaking.

  Qiu Ye was getting impatient, she had made herself clear, but the person in front of her didn't react at all, this was too stupid. She hadn't thought that different cultures have different understandings of gestures, postures and eye contact. The other person thought her counting money posture was a disability.

  Before Qiu Ye could think of a way to communicate, Chen Jianjun's voice came from behind, still speaking in the language of ethnic minorities. He had just locked the car door and followed them over, and as soon as he found their figures, he saw this little girl holding a big date and comparing hands with someone.

  Qiu Ye slapped his own forehead, how could he have forgotten that Chen Jianjun had been in Xinjiang for at least four or five years and had interacted with the Uyghur people for so long, he must have learned some Uyghur language, otherwise it would be impossible to achieve military-civilian unity. Qiu Ye suddenly understood the situation and immediately turned around, looking at Chen Jianjun with eyes full of admiration, as if speaking Uyghur was a remarkable thing.

  Chen Jianjun looked at Qiu Ye's flattering appearance, and simply rubbed her head with his big hand, then started chatting with the young stall owner. Qiu Ye didn't know what they were talking about in a low voice, so she anxiously asked Chen Jianjun in a soft voice: "Uncle Chen, ask him how much this jujube costs per kilogram?"

  Chen Jianjun whispered to someone, then lowered his head and said to her: "You little girl are really capable, you don't even speak Uyghur but still dare to buy things from people."

  Qiu Ye smiled and said, "Isn't this what my aunt wanted to buy some dates? We can't speak their language, so I'll just go out and gesture with him. Who knew he wouldn't understand such a simple gesture?" She still had some resentment towards the foolish young man in front of her, wondering how he couldn't understand something she had expressed so clearly.

  "Haha, you little devil!" Chen Jianjun was amused by Qiu Ye's quirky appearance and rubbed her hair before asking Zhao Shuyan behind him: "I asked for you, this big date is 50 cents a catty, will you buy it?"

  Qiu Ye pulled her hair out from under Chen Jianjun's palm, and with a puffed face said to Chen Jianjun: "Uncle, help me ask, can I try one of these big dates first? If it tastes good, I'll let Auntie buy more."

  Chen Jianjun communicated with the young man, and the young vendor was not a petty person either. He nodded in agreement. So Qiu Ye put the big date that had been clenched in his hand into his mouth and took a bite. In his heart, he praised it silently. No wonder people later bought Xinjiang dates online, this taste is really good, thin skin, thick flesh, sweet, and strong date flavor.

  Qiu Ye handed over half of what was left in his hand to Zhao Shuyan's mouth, indicating that she should also take a bite and taste it. He believed that after eating one bite, she would be even more determined to buy dates back home.

  Zhao Shuyan didn't mind the saliva on Qiu Ye's mouth, and she took a small bite of her hand, chewing slowly, feeling that it was indeed very delicious, and thought that buying some back would be good, although it didn't have the effects that Xiao Ye had mentioned, eating it as a snack for the kids would also be fine. Then she nodded in agreement.

  Qiu Ye threw the remaining dates into the big mouth that had been waiting with its mouth open, Qiu Feng didn't think it was a little less, and ate all the rest with a "slurp", then spat out a small date pit. Then said: "Old sister, this is delicious, buy more back home."

  Qiu Ye was very satisfied with her brother's cooperation, and smiled: "Alright, brother, since all three of us love to eat it, let's buy more back home and have mom and dad try some too."

  "Go ahead, Xiaoye, just tell your Uncle Chen how much you want to buy and let him communicate with them." Zhao Shuyan handed over the power to her again.

  Qiu Ye led the way, and said to Chen Jianjun who was staring at them with wide eyes as they divided the big jujube among themselves: "Uncle Chen, can you ask if buying more would be cheaper?"

  Chen Jianjun asked the stall owner very responsibly and turned to Qiu Ye: "He asks you how much you want to buy. If you can buy this whole bag, he will charge you four cents a catty."

  "Okay, let's buy a bag then. We still have to stay here for so many days and we can eat some at the reception center normally."

  So Chen Jianjun started haggling with the young stall owner.

  Qiu Feng quietly approached his sister and whispered to her, "Sister, the things in that bag next to you are also delicious. I just had some at Tie Mu's house, let's buy some too." Qiu Feng had spent all of his 100 yuan and was now penniless, so whenever he wanted to buy something, he had to rely on his wealthy sister.

  Qiu Ye followed her brother's finger and saw several bags beside him, one was raisins, one was walnuts, one was badam, and there were several other things in the bags that Qiu Ye had never seen before.

  She doesn't know which one her brother is talking about either. But here you can buy some of each to take back and eat.

  Then Qiu Ye treated Chen Jianjun as a translator and asked the young man about the other bags, what were they, how much did they cost. In the end, they bought a big bag of dates, raisins, walnuts, figs, apricot kernels, dried watermelon seeds, pomegranates, etc. Although not many of each were bought, there were so many varieties that together they added up to another whole bag.

  Later, Chen Jianjun and Qiu Feng first sent all these things back to the car, then returned here to meet with them, until they had walked through the entire market, only then did they feel satisfied. Of course, with Qiu Ye around, it was impossible not to buy anything, she bought several large ham melons and wax gourds, many bunches of grapes, as well as red bananas and egg fruit that she had never eaten before.