What's So Enjoyable About Group Tours?
After 4 PM, the boat docked and we returned to the gate of Qinhu Wetland in Taizhou. Only then did I realize: beside the large rock inscribed with 'Qinhu Wetland' there is a stone-carved elk. If I had seen it earlier, the surprise of spotting elks on the island would have been diminished.
Independent travel and group tours each have their own pleasures. On a group tour, the guide is like a big nanny; you leave everything to him—efficient and fast. With a group tour, you can get up close with all kinds of people, a window into today's society.
Returning to the gate of Qinhu Wetland, we immediately boarded the bus. Half an hour later, we arrived at 'One Mu Prairie' for dinner. After washing hands and taking our seats, ten dishes and one soup were already served. Besides fresh shrimp and fish, there was also a whole chicken.
Ten people gathered around the table. After the all-fish banquet at 'Shi Wei Tian Restaurant' in Qintong for lunch, this was the second group meal. First time strangers, second time friends. Glasses clinked, and we chatted while eating. To outsiders, it seemed like one big family.
As for the ten people, the other eight were: a young couple, an elderly couple, and two other pairs: mother and son, mother and daughter. Different personalities—outgoing, reserved, enthusiastic, indifferent, cold on the outside but warm inside, warm on the outside but cold inside...
Mr. Wang and I were the oldest and had the best appetites. It was the same at lunch, and also at dinner.
Leftover women are everywhere. You see them all the time. The mother and daughter at our table—the daughter, in her late thirties, was still single. At the table, she didn't utter a word, just buried her head in eating. She ate the least; I never saw her eat much. Her mother told me on the bus: 'She eats little rice but snacks a lot, so she won't go hungry.'
She is 34, graduated from a 211 university in Shanghai, and works as a financial officer at an investment company in Lujiazui. Her monthly salary is not low. She dated several men, but all fell through, and now she doesn't want to date anymore. Her mother is talkative. She told me: 'She often sneaks off to the matchmaking corner at People's Park to set up a stall for her behind her back.'
—Sigh, even if she finds someone satisfactory, she might not be willing to meet. Sigh...!'
Saying this, I looked at the mother's eyes, which somehow reminded me of Xianglin's wife from Lu Xun's writings! Seeing her daughter walking over gracefully, the mother immediately shut her mouth, looking nervous, and also cautioned me:
—Just pretend I didn't say anything.
The stories of leftover women are more or less the same, and I had no intention of asking further.
In the night, the car arrived at the three-star hotel. I got the room card, went upstairs, and entered room 612—7:14 PM. I had woken up at 5 AM, 14 hours had passed. As someone accustomed to a daily nap, I didn't even doze off today.
