202: Fifth District Special Lamb Hot Pot

Looking at the ghost-like figure walking in front of him, Li Qinghe realized that whether it was North Vietnam or South Vietnam, there was one thing that was particularly consistent: girls who paid attention to sun protection were incredibly well-covered.

Only with such strict precautions could they achieve fair skin.

Someone like Zhang Meiqi was fine; even wearing a long-sleeved sun protective garment, her slender figure was still visible.

But some girls were even more extreme; without removing their sun protective clothing and related gear, not only could you not tell what they looked like, you couldn't even tell if they were a young woman or an older woman.

Zhang Meiqi had also come by motorcycle. After finding her motorcycle, she moved her backpack to her chest, turned around, and called out to Li Qinghe: "Brother Qinghe, follow me. Saigon has more and more motorcycle gangs now."

"Yes, I spent a few hours in District 1 this morning and already saw several bag-snatching incidents."

"Bag-snatching cases have increased by 37% this year."

As they spoke, Li Qinghe walked over and pushed his motorcycle forward.

Zhang Meiqi led the way, plunging into the surging flow of motorcycles. Riding a motorcycle in Vietnam required the feeling of treating the road as your own home; otherwise, you couldn't even squeeze into a gap.

Fortunately, Li Qinghe's motorcycle skills were excellent, and he followed closely behind Zhang Meiqi's bike, not letting any distance open up between them.

It takes half an hour to ride a bike from District 1 to District 5 in Saigon.

Following Zhang Meiqi, they rode through several small alleys and arrived at the entrance of a shop that looked like a street food stall.

The interior decoration made Li Qinghe feel like he was back in a Guangdong Province stall, because the chairs inside were those representative large plastic chairs from Guangdong Province, with both round and square tables.

It was dinnertime, and the shop had quite a few customers. Each table had a clay pot with different contents inside.

"Brother Qinghe, this place specializes in lamb hotpot, and their stir-fries are also delicious. They've been open again for over 30 years."

Zhang Meiqi turned off her engine, got off her bike, and after taking off her helmet, introduced the shop to Li Qinghe.

"Uncle Ming, I've brought a friend to eat," Zhang Meiqi greeted the white-haired owner in Cantonese.

It wasn't until Zhang Meiqi opened her sun protective cover and took off her sun hat that the owner suddenly realized: "It's A-Qi! Thank you for bringing your boyfriend to support my business!"

"Oh, Uncle Ming, don't talk nonsense! He's just a friend," Zhang Meiqi said, a little embarrassed.

"Hahaha, alright, take the menu to your boyfriend and see what he wants to eat."

Zhang Meiqi and the owner's entire conversation was in Cantonese, but Li Qinghe understood most of it. Thinking of the small white bar above Zhang Meiqi's head, he guessed she really hadn't brought a man here to eat before.

And judging by her interaction with the owner, they seemed to be familiar neighbors.

"Brother Qinghe, what would you like to eat?"

Zhang Meiqi placed a greasy, laminated menu in front of Li Qinghe, while she held a ballpoint pen and a notepad, waiting to take the order.

The first page of the menu featured the shop's various hotpots, with the signature hotpot being the lamb belly hotpot, available in small, medium, and large sizes.

The prices were 200,000, 300,000, and 400,000 vietnamese dong, corresponding to roughly 50, 80, and 110 dragon country currency.

Below that was the medicinal lamb penis hotpot, with a medium pot at 700,000 vietnamese dong and a large pot at 900,000 vietnamese dong, corresponding to over 190 and over 240 dragon country currency.

There were also fish hotpots, seafood hotpots, and pork bone hotpots, with prices ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 vietnamese dong, which wasn't too expensive.

Lamb is inherently very nourishing, and lamb penis and beef penis are common ingredients in Chinese traditional medicine, often used for "treating like with like."

For Li Qinghe, there was no need for such supplements, so he ordered a large lamb belly hotpot.

He asked Zhang Meiqi about other specialty dishes here, and she recommended golden sand chicken cartilage, fried shrimp rings, and grilled lamb's milk.

Li Qinghe looked through the menu and also ordered stir-fried pig stomach with pickled vegetables, wild roasted duck tongue, and finally, lemongrass fried tofu.

Strictly speaking, it was six dishes and one soup.

"Uncle Ming, we'll have these," Zhang Meiqi handed the order slip to the approaching owner.

"Young man, our A-Qi is a good girl, a top student from the National University," the owner said, not leaving after taking the order slip, but with a hint of advice for Li Qinghe.

"Yes, boss, A-Qi is a very good person," Li Qinghe replied with a smile in Mandarin.

"Young man, are you from the mainland?" Hearing Li Qinghe's response, the boss asked him in a mix of Cantonese and Mandarin, surprised.

"Boss, you have good eyes," Li Qinghe gave him a thumbs up.

"Of course! Malaysians and Taiwanese can't speak such standard Mandarin; you can tell right away."

The owner looked proud.

He then turned to praise Zhang Meiqi: "A-Qi, you have good taste, finding a Young man from the mainland."

"Uncle Ming, I told you he's just a friend! If you say another word, I won't talk to you anymore."

Zhang Meiqi playfully chided the owner.

"Alright, alright, Uncle Ming won't say anything more."

The owner laughed heartily and walked towards the kitchen with the order pad.

"Brother Qinghe, it seems you can also understand Cantonese?" Zhang Meiqi looked at Li Qinghe, a little embarrassed.

"Yes, I studied in Yangcheng. How do you say it in Cantonese? I understand but can't speak."

"Haha, Brother Qinghe, you said that sentence very accurately."

"After studying for a few years, those are the only few sentences I learned..."

Li Qinghe and Zhang Meiqi began discussing the current situation of Chinese descendants in Saigon.

In the Chinese descendant communities of Saigon, Cantonese is the most common language. Whether from Guangdong Province's Guangfu or Chaoshan regions, including Fujian Province descendants, they all communicate in Cantonese.

Zhang Meiqi told Li Qinghe that Saigon currently has over 400,000 Chinese descendants, with over 100,000 in District 5. In fact, before the unification of North and South Vietnam, there were over 500,000 Chinese descendants living here.

Later, when North Vietnam attacked, many Chinese descendants in South Vietnam, who had good relations with the South Vietnamese authorities and many of whom ran large businesses, fled the area.

So, many Chinese descendants in Saigon fled, with some going as far as the United States and Europe, and closer ones going to countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore.

Quite a few also went to nearby Thailand, or Hong Kong and Taiwan.

As they were discussing this, the owner happened to bring over a large pot of lamb belly hotpot. Hearing Zhang Meiqi and Li Qinghe talking about this topic, he immediately became interested.

He put down the lamb belly hotpot and interjected: "That's right, my brother and I fled to the United States to join relatives back then. More than thirty years ago, I saw that the environment here was better, so I decided to return to the place where I was born and grew up."

Li Qinghe remembered reading online that the boat tickets for fleeing were very expensive at the time and couldn't help but ask the owner for confirmation: "Boss, I heard that the boat tickets for fleeing back then were very expensive, is that right?"

"Yes, when my two brothers and I left, the boat tickets were 8 taels of gold each. Later, I heard they rose to 12 taels of gold each."

The owner spoke with emotion: "My parents spent almost all their savings to send us two brothers out. When the North attacked, our family's house and shop were confiscated."

An old man eating at the next table suddenly interjected: "Among those of us who stayed, those with some money were all rounded up and imprisoned together, then escorted at gunpoint to clear land and build roads."

It was clear that the old man had been listening for quite some time, and seeing the owner join the conversation, he couldn't help but interject.

"We were treated so terribly back then."