Woke up briefly at 6.30am after three hours' sleep to hear a message from a presumably drunken Xiao Nong that simply said "！？？？". I ignored it and went back to sleep till nearly midday, when I heard and saw another message from her asking if I was up yet. I said I'd just got up and asked if she'd eaten as you do, but didn't hear anything back, as you don't. Then, two and a half hours later she pinged to say she'd just got up, and ask if I was with friends as we were going to sing song. What? I jokingly asked at what time and she seriously replied "now" and sent a dingwei. It wasn't yet 3pm, but I thought "why not?" and said I'd be a few minutes. She said to bring six cans of beer, the yellow Li Quan ones that are 4.1% as she likes the taste, and a bag of sunflower seeds.
Fair enough, I grabbed a shower and missed a couple of her calls and picked up the only cold crate of yellow Li Quan in the local shop. Thoughtfully, I asked the shopkeeper to put in one more crate, lest we run out (a crate is only six 1 litre cans that have a bottle top, so I'm not really sure they're cans or bottles, cottles?). I met her on the third floor and she scolded me for not having taken the lift all the way, which is what anyone else would have done had they known where it was. Inside room 306 was just one bloke and his daughter, so we sat down for a ganbei. It really is the best tasting Li Quan, but at 4.1% not the safest for drinking games.
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| Yellow Li Quan beer at KTV at 3.30pm...as you do |
And indeed after a couple more ganbeis, a woman turned up and we started to play mopai. The bloke had early only been taking sips while Xiao Nong and I were ganbeing, but started to lose, meaning sometimes drinking one or two glasses at the end of the round. Xiao Nong also was losing quite a bit. The other woman and I were doing ok though and I was starting to get a bit thirsty. Well Xiao Nong was starting to get a bit drunk and just as I was about to suggest it, the next time she lost she suggested I share her drink. Yes, a win-win! And by now the bloke who had been previously sipping his drink was saying "oh yeah, come on baby!" whenever someone else lost. I told him that the more he drank, the more his English came back, but then realised it might sound like bad advice for language learners. Lord knows it does work to some extent though.
We were now down to the last bottle, so I said I'd go and pick up another crate, and promised I'd be back in ten and a bit minutes. I'd earlier told Tan that I was going to the supermarket and would have done earlier if not running late, so took the opportunity to go to Guanmart to pick up her red dragon fruit, plus some more food for the KTV. Unfortunately they didn't have the yellow Li Quan in the fridge, and I had my doubts about how cold the ones in the local shop would be after only two hours in the freezer. And indeed as I got there I found they'd put four crates of warm beer together in the freezer and even the bottom one was barely cool to the touch.
Back in the KTV room there were now a couple more women and another kid, but Xiao Nong was leaning against a cushion looking a bit the worse for wear. The food was appreciated, especially by the kids, but the beer wasn't as it was clearly barely above room temperature. As the bloke was going to ask about getting ice cubes, Nong fell fast asleep against me. We'd stopped playing cards now, no-one was singing, and just music was playing and we were chatting. The women gave Xiao Nong a bit of a slap on the legs and arms to wake her up but she was out cold. I said it was fine and to let her rest. We chatted for another 20 minutes or so, and ate most of the food I brought, but then it was time for those with kids to take them home so everyone else went home telling me not to forget to bring home the beer, and me telling them I'd not forget to make sure Xiao Nong was ok, and take her home when she awoke.
Which wouldn't be for a while, after which one of the workers came in and I explained the situation. I understood that we'd paid for a certain slot, but wasn't sure if there was a specific time we had to be out. He said something about there being a break between afternoon sessions and evening sessions, and could he clear the table? Of course he could, just don't take the beer! I tried to rustle Xiao Nong from her slumber but she wouldn't rouse until a good hour after everyone else had left. Finally she did, got up for a bit then promptly fell asleep against me again. I let her have five minutes and really had to force her after that. But she made it, said she felt a little sick and went to the toilet but I didn't hear any retching.
I got her home safely and realised I was hungry. For the last hour I wasn't able to reach the table for any food or the one opened beer bottle. Thinking back I should just have moved her off me but at that time I didn't want to awaken her as she obviously needed the sleep. I realise now she'd have been oblivious if I'd just plonked her onto the sofa and poured myself a drink waiting for her to wake up. It had been a weird afternoon, and I was in that tired and uncomfortable window of having had a few drinks, then nothing for 90 minutes. So I drove north and thought I'd find myself an area on my own and have a bite to eat and a cold beer.
I drove up to where I'd had a meal with Li Kun's colleague the other week and found a little shop where I bought two cans of weak Li Quan and a packet of crisps. But whereas in London I'd have no issue finding a bench somewhere and having my can, here it just seemed wrong. People don't eat alone, let alone drink alone. While I was driving through some dark back streets I got a message from Xixi that they were eating at the same western food place as the other day. That gave me some direction at last. I said to order the Thai rice and I'd be there in 20 minutes.
I was starving though, so back home I ate most of the bag of crisps and drank half a can of beer as I didn't want to be too late, and arrived to find Tan on the phone in front of her spaghetti and Xixi just starting her pizza. She been craving cheese recently and this is one of the only place we can find any. I had my Thai rice and by the time I'd finished Tan had only just got off the phone. But I didn't want to stay for desert, so said thanks and I'd see them a bit later, and went home to finish my beer.
A bit later Xiao Nong pinged to apologise to say she'd drunk a lot and was sorry. I was slightly confused as I first read it as "I have drunk a lot, I'm sorry", and without any other information that's what it would have meant (i.e. at this present moment I am drunk). But what she actually meant was "I had drunk a lot (earlier), I'm sorry". I told her not to be so polite and not to be sorry. Then, half an hour later, she sent a message saying she wanted to go for a drink. Ha...well I was ok but that but she asked if I had any friends who would come but I said they had to work tomorrow and it was too late as it was already nearly 10.30pm. She said she was with her sister's kids, so I suggested going to Xiao Bai de Tian. She asked what if there were too many people, so I just answered we'd go next door. But a few minutes later she asked if we could go somewhere else and have bbq fish. Yes, of course.
So during a call with Mat I met her and her sister's kids, a bloke of 17, driving the dian dong che, and a woman of 16 sitting behind, with Xiao Nong in front. We ended up going to Miss You KTV. It seems this is the sort of place she prefers. We went to a public room with booths that I'd not seen the like of before, and ordered the fish and beers and other foods. Try as I might, the beer would not pour and I found it was mostly ice, so we had to return some. I found it interesting how the kids were quite willing and able to drink beer like anyone else. Then Xiao Nong said the kids would prefer to go to a private room to sing songs so presently we moved across the corridor to one of them, just the four of us.
I had no appetite to eat though, despite, or because of having stuff thrust into my mouth. So we played a few games of 0, 5, 10, 15 ,20 or whatever its proper name is, and I didn't do too well, but I was pretty sober so it didn't matter. Apparently we got another 12 cans of beer for free, so I was slightly glad when another bloke turned up at 1am to help us out with some ganbeis and caima. 1am, the bloody curfew. Sod it, I was out enjoying myself and I would stay a little longer. A little longer turned into 2.30am, by which time we'd finally finished the beer and agreed to leave, although there was talk of getting more.
So that was it, another very full and "interesting" day and night in Pingguo. At home the door was indeed locked but I pinged Xixi to open it and of course she was up and opened it seconds later. I wasn't as tired as I should have been and Mat was up so we had another chat about how weird life can be here sometimes. Xiao Nong also pinged me to say that her nephew and niece were up playing games on their phones and she couldn't get to sleep. That made two of us.
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