Chapter 1195 Barton's Investigation (Part 2)
"My wife, we have visitors at home. Let's get some delicious food. Professor Lubaton will try it with us in the evening and eat the authentic old capital style. Eat a cheap buffet at Dabentou at noon, it's not the old capital style. .”
Lao Wang yelled loudly in the yard, and the neighbors in the small courtyard noticed that Lao Wang brought two foreign friends to the small courtyard today. Although foreigners are very common in China now, especially in the capital, there are a lot of foreigners.
Not enough foreigners usually go to Houhai, Shichahai, Sanlitun and other places. It is relatively new for foreigners to come to such large courtyards. Especially listening to Lao Wang yelling, is this foreigner still a university professor?
People in the small courtyard gathered around Lao Wang to ask questions, curiously discussing the origin of this foreign professor.
They were observing Barton, and Master Barton was actually observing them and them.
As Qin Kuairen introduced, this is indeed a place where low-income people in the capital area live. Narrow and cramped, the room is also small. It is also common for four people to live in a room of 30 square meters.
There are bicycles and electric vehicles at the intersection, which are the main means of transportation for residents living here. Other than that, Barton actually couldn't see a very desolate scene.
This is different from the mage world, whether it is Barton or Feng Meier. None of them are mages who can't eat the fireworks of the world.
In fact, the five legendary mages and their disciples paid great attention to experiencing the hardships of the people. For them, a mage with extraordinary power is both a right and a duty. Only by taking responsibility can one grasp power. This is what the legendary mages taught their disciples.
It's not that Master Barton has never seen the living standards of civilians in the Immortal City and other cities. There are many civilians in the Immortal City, and they eat multigrain bread for three meals a day, and they can only eat beans or potatoes and cauliflower as vegetables and bread for each meal. Occasionally, I may go to the fish market to buy some salted fish and cook them.
Those people also lived in low, dilapidated small houses, even more dilapidated than here. At the same time, there is hardly any furnishings in the house.
But today he was carefully observing Pharaoh's house. The room where his son and daughter-in-law lived was 20 square meters and divided into two rooms, the front and the back, with a large wardrobe.
The ten square meters in the front are used as the living room and dining room, where the family usually eats, and the ten square meters behind the wardrobe are the sleeping rooms for the son and daughter-in-law.
The room is indeed very narrow, and there is no decoration, and it even looks very messy. But Barton also noticed that the people living here are considered low-income people. But there are not many things in their house.
The kind of TV that can play pictures, a solid table, chairs and beds, thick quilts and clothes, these are all a lot. The aroma of food wafted from the small courtyard, and the smell of meat and vegetables could be clearly smelled.
This is not common in the mage world. Most civilians are unlikely to eat fresh meat, and meat dishes are only available during festivals.
And he asked Qin Kuairen, today is not any holiday in this country.
Master Barton plunged into the kitchen where he could smell the aroma of food. The sudden appearance of the foreign old man surprised the housewives who were cooking.
Master Barton didn't care, he was looking at what kind of dinner these people were preparing.
One was cooking fish, and the other was stewing meat. The aroma of the food wafted out and made people's index fingers move. Master Barton even lifted the lid of the house to have a look.
"Oh, what are you doing!" The aunt who was cooking was displeased.
Lao Wang walked in hurriedly and said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. This is Professor Barton from a foreign university. He just came to see the life of our old capital. I'm sorry."
"Old Wang, do you usually eat these?" Master Barton asked his own question.
Lao Wang nodded his head: "Of course, these are some ordinary meals. Come, come, professor, you can sit in the room."
Lao Wang let Master Barton sit down in the Taoist room, and many neighbors came to Lao Wang's house to visit the foreign professor. Of course, the main thing is to join in the fun.
"Is this an old foreign professor?"
"What is this old professor doing at your house?"
"Can you understand someone speaking a foreign language?"
"Wait, Old Wang. I'll ask my son to come. He has learned English well in high school, but his oral English needs to be practiced. You can ask the old professor to talk to him later."
There are all kinds of neighbors in the courtyard, and sometimes they are overly enthusiastic. Especially the mother who wanted her son to practice oral English with Master Patton, Qin Kuairen hurriedly stopped him.
"What, Professor Barton's mother tongue is not English. It's a small Central Asian language." Qin Kuairen's words dispelled the mother's plan to let her son practice oral English.
Master Barton was surrounded by people, but he was not annoyed, and even found it very interesting. There is really a big gap between the civilians of this world and the civilians of their own world.
Logically speaking, the identity that Qin Kuairen fabricated for himself {university professor} is considered a very prestigious person. If in the mage's world, if such a person of status is with the common people, the common people will become extremely stiff and nervous. He even said that he would directly choose to escape and not contact these high-level people.
But not in this world. Not only are these people not nervous, but they can't wait to communicate with themselves. It seems like they don't make that much distinction between status classes?
At the same time, the common people in this world, although they look poor, live in very ordinary places. But the food I ate didn't feel bad at all. It can be seen from the meals they are busy in the kitchen.
This was chosen randomly by himself, and Barton believed that it could not be specially arranged by Fu Changqing. If it is said that the common people here can eat such food, then I am really shocked by the wealth of this country.
And this kind of shock was maximized when Barton communicated with the residents of the courtyard all afternoon and finally reached dinner time.
Maybe it's because they want to save face for the old capital people, or maybe it's because the neighbors haven't had a good get-together for a long time. Lao Wang discussed with several neighbors for a while, and decided to have a dinner with six families tonight. Each family pays 100 yuan for a sumptuous meal.
What kind of food can I buy for six hundred yuan if I cook for myself?
A catty of pork belly is 27 yuan for steamed pork. A pound of pork belly is 27 yuan for braised pork. A catty of pork belly is 33 yuan (including preserved vegetables).
A large carp braised in soy sauce is 30 yuan (five catties). Two sea bass are steamed for 40 yuan. A piece of braised hoof pork is 60 yuan (two and a half catties), and a serving of sweet and sour pork ribs is 40 yuan (about one and a half catties). A pot of meat is 30 yuan. A serving of stewed soybeans with pig's trotters (three catties of pig's trotters and one catty of soybeans) is 80 yuan...
Six hundred yuan can make twenty or thirty dishes, and more than half of them are hard dishes. Master Barton was surprised.
He had to ask Lao Wang in a low voice: "Will this...will be too expensive?"
Lao Wang waved his hand indifferently and smiled: "Hey, if it costs money or not, each family will pay a small amount, which is not much. Everyone is going to have a gathering, so just take this opportunity for us to have a dinner together. .You came at the right time."
After listening to these words clearly through Qin Kuairen's translation, Master Patton could only lament how rich this world is. Even Shengdou Xiaomin's dinner party can be so good, although the dishes are not very delicate, but there is a lot of meat! More meat is justice!
Compared to the calmness of Master Barton, Feng Meier was too shocked to speak. He could only keep whispering: "Too rich, this world is too rich. The first viscount celebrates his birthday The dinner party is nothing more than that! It’s only once a year!"
Qin Kuairen listened beside him, and then thought about his days in the mage world, it seems that this is really the case. I don't know whether my life in this world is too good, or the mage's world is too miserable. Even the food that the nobles usually eat is not as good as that of the common people in this world.