A few people watched as Andrei drove his old Gaz truck away, then turned and walked back into the hotel. Xu Mingxuan renewed their room for another three days at the front desk, then took Chen Lan’s hand back to their room. Xiang Xi followed closely behind the couple and also entered their room.
Chen Lan covered her mouth in surprise, lowered her voice, and asked, "Little Watermelon, why aren't you going back to your own room? What are you doing in ours?" Xiang Xi didn't answer Chen Lan's question, casually closed the door, then darted inside and plopped down on the bed.
Xu Mingxuan stared at Xiang Xi's entire operation with wide, surprised eyes! Xiang Xi looked at the couple calmly and then, unhurriedly, asked in a low voice in Russian, "Mila, Nikolai, aren't you two hungry?"
Reminded by Xiang Xi, although it wasn't mealtime yet, Chen Lan suddenly felt her stomach rumble. She didn't know if it was a conditioned reflex, but her stomach began to grumble.
So Chen Lan, while taking off her snow boots and sitting on the bed, lowered her voice and asked, "Boris, what do you want to eat?"
Xiang Xi immediately replied in Russian in a low voice, "Mila, I want to eat. We've been out for several days, eating nothing but bread for every meal. I haven't eaten my fill at all."
When Xu Mingxuan heard Xiang Xi's words, he immediately laughed and, in a rare display, retorted in Russian, "Boris, are you sure you're awake? We're in Vladivostok, not at home playing the young master. Don't be so picky. Just eat something simple, as long as you're not hungry. Don't be so fussy, okay?"
He then patted Xiang Xi's small shoulder.
Xiang Xi replied in Russian in a low voice, "I want to settle, but I just can't swallow it! What do you suggest we do?"
Chen Lan didn't have time to pay attention to the two of them. However, what Xiang Xi had said earlier had reminded Chen Lan. She suddenly remembered the self-heating hot pots, self-heating claypot rice, and self-heating spicy sour noodles she had eaten in her previous life. Just thinking about them made her mouth water!
With this thought, Chen Lan immediately took action. She opened the system with her mind and ordered a slightly numbing, slightly spicy beef hot pot, a tomato beef brisket hot pot, spicy boiled fish, and a spicy stir-fry. She also bought three self-heating rice bowls.
After taking the items out of the system warehouse, Chen Lan got out of bed, put on her shoes, and went to the table in the room. She first checked the outer packaging of each item, found it intact and undamaged, and then unpacked the contents. She first took out the small aluminum box containing the food, put in the rice, then opened the purified water packet for cooking the rice and poured the water into it.
Next, she took the heating pack out of its packaging, placed it at the bottom of the self-heating pot's plastic shell, and added water, filling it to the designated marking. She then placed the small aluminum box containing the rice back in its original position. Chen Lan covered the self-heating pot with its lid and set it aside, picking up the next one to continue the process.
Xu Mingxuan and Xiang Xi watched in stunned silence for a long time before finally coming back to their senses. They also walked forward to help. The three of them looked at the instructions on the packaging and, working together, quickly started cooking the rice. The three hot pots and the spicy stir-fry were also being prepared, leaving only the waiting. They would only need to wait about ten minutes more for the rice and dishes to be cooked before they could eat!
As expected, it didn't take long before the room was first filled with the rich aroma of rice, followed by the fragrance of spicy beef hot pot and tomato beef brisket, and the unique aroma of boiled fish.
When the time was up, all three were getting impatient. However, Chen Lan still lowered her voice and reminded them, "Brother Mingxuan, Little Watermelon, be careful. These things are very hot! Be careful not to burn your hands."
Needless to say, the three of them stopped talking and ate heartily, their stomachs full. They had finally satisfied their cravings. Xiang Xi also returned to his room next door to rest with a look of satisfaction.
Chen Lan quickly packed up the leftover garbage from the meal and put it all back into the system warehouse. She then opened the door to air out the room for a while. After the smell in the room was less intense, she closed the door.
The couple, seeing that there was nothing else to do and that they were a bit tired from browsing the flea market all morning and walking such a long distance, and more importantly, feeling sleepy after eating, decided to take a nap together.
They hadn't slept for long, perhaps about thirty or forty minutes, when Andrei returned excitedly. He knocked on the doors of the couple's room and Xiang Xi's room, shouting, "Nikolai, Boris, open the door quickly! I have good news! Open the door, I've brought you good news."
Xiang Xi, who was in the adjacent room, was the first to open his door and asked with extreme excitement, "Andrei, what good news have you brought? I'm guessing they took all the samples you brought earlier?"
Andrei laughed heartily and said, "Yes, that's right, Boris. Not only did they take all of them, but the order quantities are also very large, especially for the Christmas items. The order quantities are exceptionally large. I estimate you didn't bring much this time. We've agreed to deliver in three days. Boris, take a look at this."
He then pulled a piece of paper from his cotton coat pocket and handed it to Xiang Xi. Xiang Xi took the paper and saw that it was filled with Russian. He couldn't understand a single word on the entire page, so he awkwardly returned the paper to Andrei, saying, "Andrei, you keep it! You're an experienced buyer, and you're careful and meticulous. I'm rather careless, and I'm afraid I might lose it."
Andrei didn't seem to mind too much. He chuckled, took the paper back from Xiang Xi, and put it back into his cotton coat pocket.
At this point, Xu Mingxuan also arrived at Xiang Xi's room. After hearing Andrei's account of what had happened, he was also very happy. So the three of them discussed it and decided that after lunch, they would go to a rural cooperative near the hotel to try their luck. They would see how many they could visit in the afternoon. Chen Lan was still sleepy and couldn't open her eyes, so she stayed in bed to sleep, deciding not to go out with them.