After lunch, He Jian took Xiang Xin to visit the "black market" in the city. It was said to be a black market, but in fact it had been semi-public for a long time.
The black market is located on a street in the south of the city. It is also the busiest place in the entire Jinglong City District. After all, there are hundreds of thousands of people in the refugee camp, and a lot of good stuff comes out of there.
"Husband, what do you think of this necklace? Does it look good on me?"
Xiang Xin held up a necklace with a peacock pendant and compared it in front of her chest. She liked it no matter how she saw it.
"It looks good." He Jian nodded, then looked directly at the shop owner: "Boss, how much does this necklace cost?"
The shop owner looked at He Jian's police uniform and did not dare to make any random bids. He said with a smile on his face:
"Girl, you have good taste. This necklace is the best jewelry I have. Look at the luster. It's made of 24K pure gold and weighs 35 grams. If you two really want it, just give me 30,000 yuan."
"Hey, it's less than a thousand yuan per gram. Is there anything wrong with your necklace?"
Xiang Xin immediately put down the necklace in his hand and became wary at the same time.
"Don't worry, the necklace is definitely made of real gold. The price of gold here is the same." The store owner did not want to say more.
Of course He Jian knew the reason, it was just that the purchase price was lower.
He saw with his own eyes a second-hand dealer who exchanged seven or eight steamed buns for a gold bracelet from a refugee camp, making a huge profit of dozens of times.
Seeing her husband nodding, Xiang Xin was immediately moved and prepared to buy the necklace. Even if she didn't need it, it would be good to bring it back to Yanjing to make a profit on the price.
"I bought it, can you pay with your mobile phone?"
The store owner pointed to the QR code on the side and replied: "Okay, just scan this."
How could He Jian ask his wife to pay for it, so he quickly used his mobile phone to transfer the money to the store owner. His salary and subsidies here are less than 20,000 yuan a month, which is more than many white-collar workers earn.
Throughout the afternoon, the young couple wandered around this street several times and bought a lot of jewelry, which totaled about more than 100,000 yuan.
Xiang Xin was very excited, after all, it was an unexpected surprise.
The time we spent together was always short-lived. Since He Jian only got one day off, after dinner, the other party rushed back to the refugee camp overnight with some nutritional supplements.
Xiang Xin was not willing to "stay alone in an empty house". In order to spend a few more days with He Jian, she went to the police station to sign up as a volunteer in the refugee camp without telling her husband.
Xiao Shao helped her with the registration procedures.
…
Early the next morning, a convoy of more than 100 volunteers set off, and Xiang Xin was one of them.
Being bored on the road and with no cell phone signal, the few people in the car simply chatted.
"The water supply in Yanjing is cut off every day?" a high school girl asked in surprise. You must know that the water supply in Jinglong has not been cut off yet!
Xiang Xin explained with a wry smile: "Your side is close to the Lancang River, and there are several reservoirs upstream, so of course there is no shortage of water.
Yanjing is different. All the rivers on the ground have stopped flowing, and several large reservoirs are not expected to last for long. How can there be no water restrictions?"
"Then what will you do next?"
"It depends on the seawater desalination plant, otherwise what else can we do?" Xiang Xin said helplessly.
"Wow, it turns out that the capital is even more water-scarce than us!" A faint sense of superiority arose in the hearts of several Jinglong people.
Xiang Xin took the opportunity to change the subject: "Have any of you been to a refugee camp?"
"Our hospital has held several free clinics, and I have been there twice." A female doctor in her forties nodded.
"Dr. Yang, what is it like in the refugee camp?" Xiang Xin asked next, and everyone else was also curious.
Dr. Yang sighed heavily: "The refugee camp is not a good place. It is just a large flat land with many shacks built on it. Hundreds of thousands of people are crowded together. Compared with it, the slums are like paradise."
"What should we do tonight?" Xiang Xin asked doubtfully.
Although Jinglong is located relatively south, the temperature at night is still seven or eight degrees below zero. Without heating, people will freeze to death at night.
"Let's warm ourselves by the fire. There are dead trees on the surrounding mountains. There are people in the refugee camp who are responsible for cutting firewood every day.
Last month, due to heating problems, a fire broke out in the camp and many people died." Dr. Yang lamented.
"This is too miserable, why don't we build more houses for them to live in?" The high school girl couldn't help but speak again.
"It's not necessary." Dr. Yang shook his head. "The biggest problem in the refugee camp now is the lack of food, not the accommodation conditions."
The high school girl shut up and said that Daxia was also short of food and Jinglong was even more short of food. She was just naive and not really stupid.
Half an hour later, the refugee camp finally arrived. Before everyone got out of the car, they first smelled a stench.
Xiang Xin covered her nose and complained: "Isn't there a toilet here? Why is it so smelly?"
To be honest, she was a little discouraged.
Fortunately, Dr. Yang was prepared and took out several masks to distribute to everyone.
"Bring it on quickly, just wait until you get used to it."
"Are you used to smelling bad?" Xiang Xin secretly complained.
After getting off the bus, the refugee camp turned out to be just as Dr. Yang said. Not only were the living conditions extremely poor, but even the refugees were all skinny and looked a bit scary.
After checking into the dormitory and putting away their luggage, the people in the car were quickly assigned to different positions.
Dr. Yang naturally went to the free clinic, and the high school girl was assigned to take care of the orphans. Xiang Xin was unlucky and assigned to the cafeteria. It is said that the work there is the hardest and most tiring.
But now that it's here, let's make peace with it.
Xiang Xin quickly got into work mode. It was already past ten in the morning, and lunch was being prepared in the cafeteria.
However, the canteen here was a little different from Xiang Xin's imagination. At least she didn't see any pots and pans, but only large stoves, three or four meters high.
"Master Bao, what are these stoves used for?"
Master Bao is the chef in the canteen. He is not a volunteer, he is paid.
"Of course it's for cooking. Otherwise, how could the hundreds of thousands of people in the entire refugee camp survive with just a few dozen of us?" Master Bao replied with a smile.
"Cooking rice? How to cook it?" Xiang Xin asked curiously.
Master Bao climbed to the top of the stove, then opened the stove door above and introduced:
"Did you see it? Put the ingredients and water here. Once it's full, just steam it for ten minutes and the food will be ready."
"So convenient? How many people can this stove feed?"
"Almost a thousand people!"
"Master Bao, what do refugees usually eat?" Xiang Xin became interested.
Master Bao led Xiang Xin to the warehouse, "The raw materials are all here, we just need to mix them according to the proportion."
Xiang Xin stepped forward and took a look, "Yo ho", this is too stingy, it is worse than pig food, not to mention bran, but it is still edible at least.
But what the hell are sawdust?
Master Bao saw through Xiang Xin's little thoughts at a glance, and explained seriously:
"Xiao Xiang, don't think too much. These are inconspicuous in our country, but for those refugees, they are life-saving food."