Before Zhuang Rui could finish speaking, Zhang Guojun's large head popped out from the doorway, holding a blood-soaked leopard skin in his hand.
"What are you doing so early in the morning? The whole room smells of blood. Take it out right now..."
Hu Rong glared at Zhang Guojun with annoyance, which startled Zhang Guojun, who turned and walked away while calling out, "Brother Zhuang, I left it at the door for you..."
Hu Rong walked to the door and saw that Zhang Guojun had indeed placed the leopard skin on the wooden steps. He shook his head and said, "That brat, he's over thirty years old and still so unreliable. Zhuang Rui, this leopard skin needs to be tanned and dried before it can be used. Leave it here with me, and I'll bring it to you after the New Year..."
Zhuang Rui casually agreed; the leopard skin was filthy and unsightly.
After having breakfast, the group took a car back to Hpakant. Professors Feng and Chen, however, stayed at the mine. Since they had the rare opportunity to visit Myanmar, they wanted to conduct some in-depth research.
However, Zhu Fanpo returned to Hpakant in the same car as Hu Rong and others. Hu Rong's intention was for him to give Zhuang Rui a ride, because Zhu Fanpo was very familiar with the China-Myanmar border. In order to return to China as soon as possible, Zhuang Rui reluctantly agreed.
After bidding farewell to the old lady of the Hu family in the city, Hu Rong personally escorted Zhuang Rui to the military camp outside the city, where a helicopter was already parked. The fact that Hu Rong could mobilize military helicopters at any time shows his connections and status in Myanmar.
"Brother Zhuang, see you back in China in a while!"
Hu Rong only left the military camp after watching the helicopter slowly ascend and disappear from sight.
Because of the mysterious strong magnetic field inside the Hukawng Valley, which caused the helicopter's electronics to malfunction, the helicopter flew around the edge of the Hukawng Valley for more than four hours before finally arriving at a small town on the China-Myanmar border, which is also a garrison of Myanmar soldiers.
"Boss Zhuang, are you alright?"
As soon as they got off the plane, the petite Zhu Fanpo approached them. Judging from his posture, it seemed he wanted Zhuang Rui to put his right hand on his shoulder. Startled, Zhuang Rui quickly took a few steps back and said, "It's okay, nothing's wrong. Where are we? Let's get through immigration quickly..."
During the several hours on the plane, even though Zhuang Rui closed his eyes and pretended to sleep, he could still feel the intense gaze of this "cooking woman," and he was incredibly conflicted.
"Let's go out first. Wait at the intersection for a while, and a luxury bus carrying Chinese tour groups will pass by. You can go through the border with them..."
Zhu Fanpo was quite dissatisfied with Zhuang Rui's lack of understanding, but he still had to complete the task assigned by Boss Hu. After communicating with the helicopter pilot in Burmese, he led Zhuang Rui and Peng Fei out of the military camp and onto an asphalt road, where the road conditions were much better than in the interior of Myanmar.
"This is a luxury bus?"
Zhuang Rui looked at the bus with blue smoke billowing from its rear as it approached from afar, and glared at Zhu Fanpo with an unfriendly expression.
"This would be considered a luxury car in Thailand..."
The woman muttered something in a very effeminate tone, then extended her delicate fingers and walked to the roadside to flag down a car, which made Zhuang Rui and Peng Fei shudder.
After the bus stopped, Zhu Fanpo and the driver exchanged a few words in Burmese, then Zhu Fanpo took out four 500 Burmese banknotes, handed them to the driver, and turned to Zhuang Rui, saying, "Alright, they can take you directly to the border. Boss Zhuang, I'll miss you later..."
"Okay, okay, thank you. I'll miss you too..."
As Zhuang Rui got into the car, he made excuses, but after he said those words, Peng Fei next to him visibly shuddered, clearly stunned by Zhuang Rui's words.
Once in the car, Peng Fei asked with a mischievous grin, "Brother Zhuang, do you really miss him?"
"Pfft, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry..."
Zhuang Rui was so shocked by Peng Fei's words that he spat water onto the head of a little girl in front of him. He quickly stood up and apologized to the girl.
"It's alright, it's okay. You're Chinese?"
The girl took out a handkerchief and wiped her hair. She turned around and looked at Zhuang Rui strangely. Not only her, but everyone in the car was looking at Zhuang Rui and Peng Fei.
"Yes, of course they're Chinese, aren't they?"
The girl is very pretty, with two sweet dimples when she smiles, making her very pleasing to the eye.
"No, I'm a tour guide in Myanmar, specifically responsible for receiving Chinese tourists. How did you get to Myanmar if you didn't join a tour group?"
After the girl explained, Zhuang Rui realized that the bus was responsible for picking up and dropping off tourists from China who were participating in a "Myanmar day trip." To obtain a temporary visa to enter Myanmar, one had to join this tour. That's why she was so curious about Zhuang Rui and the other person who got on the bus halfway through the trip, assuming they were illegal immigrants.
Zhuang Rui's left arm draped over his shoulder is easily misunderstood.
"I came from Mandalay, not for tourism, and certainly not illegally. By the way, is your Myanmar day tour fun?"
Zhuang Rui offered a brief explanation but didn't say much more, shifting the topic to the tour group.
"What a ridiculous Myanmar day trip! It was completely pointless. We were scammed..."
"Yeah, they called it a luxury bus, but this bus is practically an antique..."
"Go back to the travel agency, damn it, they're even ripping off their own people..."
As soon as Zhuang Rui finished speaking, the people around him started chattering away, clearly having been quite exhausted by the luxury bus.
"Dude, what are you two doing in Myanmar? Are you doing this for drugs?"
A fat man sitting a few rows ahead was quite curious. He even rubbed his fingers together as if he were rubbing powder. His words startled the burly man sitting next to the tour guide in front of Zhuang Rui, who shrank his head down.
"Hey buddy, you can't just say things like that. We're going to Yangon to gamble on jade, and we're stopping by Mandalay on the way. I have certificates issued by the Myanmar government here..."
Zhuang Rui saw that everyone in the car was staring at him and Peng Fei with strange looks, and he couldn't help but smile bitterly. If this matter wasn't explained clearly, he was afraid that once they reached the China-Myanmar border, everyone in the car would definitely report him.
"Yes, this is a VIP certificate issued by our government, that's right..."
After the Burmese female tour guide saw the certificate Zhuang Rui produced, she explained it to the people in the car, which dispelled everyone's doubts. You see, the drug dealers portrayed on TV are all ruthless and vicious. If these two were really drug dealers, they might have kidnapped all of them and taken them hostage.
After learning the identities of the two, the people in the car relaxed and began asking Zhuang Rui about jade gambling in Myanmar. However, seeing that Zhuang Rui only answered one out of ten questions, everyone felt a bit bored, and the topic turned to the beautiful Myanmar tour guide.
"Tour guide, the roads in Myanmar are in such bad condition, what does the government do with the taxes? By the way, how much do you earn a month? Can you tell me?"
The same fat man from before was still asking the questions.
"Our government doesn't collect taxes, and we don't have to pay taxes either. We probably earn about 300 RMB a month?"
The girl was very honest, but what she said made everyone except Zhuang Rui and Peng Fei gape in astonishment.
"Then what will you eat? And won't you have to hand over the crops you grow?"
"Everything grown belongs to us. Our county government only seems to have two departments: the police station and the court. There are no other departments like the education bureau, health bureau, or urban management bureau that you find in China. There doesn't seem to be a tax bureau either..."
The girl's words elicited gasps of surprise. No evil city management officers? The people of Myanmar are so fortunate, even though their monthly income is a bit low.
Zhuang Rui really didn't know these things. Sitting in the back, he became a little curious and asked, "Then who runs your school and hospital? Who pays the teachers' salaries?"
"Education here is free. Students can buy their own books. They can see a private doctor for 50 kyats. The government pays for medicine, but students pay for injections and surgeries themselves. As for schools, they are all funded by the villages themselves. The villagers pool their money to pay the teachers' salaries, which are about 300 kyats per month. Now, Chinese teachers are especially welcome to teach in Myanmar, and many villages are willing to pay high prices."
The girl's words made everyone roll their eyes. A salary of 300 yuan? Even if the price were doubled, probably not many Chinese people would be willing to go there to teach.
Chapter 505 Returning Home (Part 2)
However, Myanmar's welfare benefits are really good. Seeing a doctor only costs 50 kyats, which is only a few cents in RMB. That's practically free, much better than the hundreds of yuan it costs to see a doctor for a cold in China.
The girl's words piqued the curiosity of the men and women on the bus, who all asked their own questions. In this back-and-forth, the differences between the two countries' social structures were truly apparent.
In Myanmar, civil servants like police officers earn a salary of 300 yuan, but they usually only work half a day, finishing at 3 pm at the latest, and can then go on to do their own business.
Moreover, the police basically have nothing to do, because when they catch thieves, they are all beaten to death on the spot by onlookers. The security in various villages and towns in Myanmar is so good that people don't even need to pick up lost items or visit other people's homes.
Burmese people traditionally build houses with bamboo, and they dismantle and rebuild them every three years. Therefore, you can't tell how wealthy a family is just by looking at their house. The average Burmese person who is wealthy will save some money to buy gold, and it's unclear what they do with it.
Upon hearing this, Zhuang Rui muttered to himself, "No wonder the Japanese devils looted so much gold in Burma; it seems they have a tradition of doing so."
When the topic of Burmese wedding customs came up, the men in the car began to breathe heavily.
They heard that Burmese men could marry multiple wives, and even the men sitting next to female companions were secretly listening intently.
In Myanmar, polygamy is perfectly legal, but you must have sufficient financial means to support your wives. Although the police don't handle minor matters like catching thieves—villagers take care of that with their hoes—if you can't support your wives, the police will begin to exercise their power.
In Myanmar, each acre of land is worth approximately 2,500 RMB. If you buy ten acres at once, the seller will give you a daughter as a wife. Once you marry her, she will be responsible for planting, harvesting, and threshing the grain. And you? According to Burmese custom, "noble" men don't need to work; their main task is: playing mahjong!
Finally, the pretty female tour guide summarized: If you have 75,000 RMB and experience as a monk (meaning you can recite a few foreign Amitabha mantras), you can easily have three beautiful wives in Myanmar. And from then on, you won't have to work; you can just stay home and play mahjong!
Upon hearing this, the men in the car not only had their hearts racing, but their eyes also began to bloodshot. Some of them were already mentally calculating that if they sold their houses and cars back home, they should have more than 75,000 RMB. If they came to Myanmar, wouldn't they immediately have three wives and six concubines?
Only Zhuang Rui was secretly laughing. It was true that he was playing mahjong at home, but he would have to trouble you all to take care of the children born to his three wives and six concubines. What a bunch of idiots, did you really think being a stay-at-home dad was so easy?
"Miss tour guide, if I may ask a bold question, how many wives did your father have?"
The middle-aged, overweight man sitting in front turned around and looked at the Burmese female tour guide with an ambiguous expression.
"There are three..."
"How many children are there?"
"There are nine in total, and I'm the third one..."
"Don't your mothers get jealous of each other?"
"If you got married and your husband had several wives, would you be jealous?"
At this point, not only the fat man was concerned about this issue, but others also started asking questions all at once.
"Burmese women don't get jealous, and neither do I. We can definitely be like best sisters..."
Although Zhuang Rui and Peng Fei knew about these things beforehand, hearing them say it with their own ears was a completely different experience. Everyone in the car, except for the driver, was stunned by the girl's words.
"Look, those women should all have the same husband..."
A tourist saw several women walking hand in hand along the roadside and called out to them, causing people in the car to stick their heads out to look.
"Yes, that's right, we Burmese women never get jealous..."
The beautiful female tour guide's words brought tears to the eyes of all the men on the bus. One guy was taking his wife out, and if he accidentally glanced at another woman, he'd get a lecture for ages when he got home. This...this...this is outrageous!
Several men, who were probably still unmarried, started fawning over the female tour guide, making the other men who were traveling with their female companions quite envious. However, the women on the bus also reached a consensus: when they got back, they would definitely tell their girlfriends that Myanmar was a place they should never come to.
The drive from where Zhuang Rui and his group boarded the bus to the China-Myanmar border building was only about 40 minutes. After the bus stopped, several men were still asking the female tour guide for her contact information, which made Zhuang Rui shake his head. He thought that after a while in Myanmar, there would be a lot more Chinese stay-at-home dads.
Zhuang Rui and Peng Fei followed behind the tour group and easily crossed the Myanmar border. Their inspection personnel were practically useless; after handing over their passports, they didn't even bother to look up, just stamped them with a steel stamp and tossed them back out.
However, the Chinese border control ahead was much stricter, with many people having their bags opened for inspection. The efficiency of customs clearance was nowhere near that of Myanmar.
"Peng Fei, can we take these things out of the country? Will they be confiscated during inspection there?"
Turning around, Zhuang Rui looked at the large backpack on Peng Fei's shoulder and felt a little uneasy. When he said goodbye to the Hu family, Hu Rong's father took a lot of tiger bones and tiger penises and asked Zhuang Rui to take them. Despite his repeated refusals, Zhuang Rui could only stuff them into his bag.
"Probably not, it's not like it's gambling. I've never heard of these health supplements being confiscated, have I? Brother Zhuang, how about... I try to enter the country from another place?"
Peng Fei didn't know much about this either. In the past, when he crossed the China-Myanmar-Thailand border, he always took unconventional routes and never went through the border crossings. The border between Myanmar and China is more than 100 kilometers long, and you can easily slip through from anywhere.
"Hey, it's those two. They're not from our tour group, officer, it's those two..."
But Peng Fei couldn't leave now. The fat man in the car, along with several border police officers, had arrived in front of Zhuang Rui and his companion.
"Look at his bag, and this guy has a missing hand. He's definitely up to no good. Officer, is there a reward for calling the police? Shouldn't I get a Good Citizen Award?"
The fat man's words made the mouths of the armed police officers twitch. This guy was underestimating the intelligence of drug traffickers. He probably watched too many crime dramas. Are there really drug traffickers who would brazenly carry a bag and cross the border like this?
"Excuse me, gentlemen, please put your hands in front of you and come to our office..."
A lieutenant-level armed police officer saluted Zhuang Rui and Peng Fei, then politely gestured for them to proceed. However, the muzzles of the Type 81 rifles held by the soldiers behind him were subtly pointed at Zhuang Rui and Peng Fei.