Taking A Trip - Part Two 

Arcturus and co. were in China, if you remember. Shang Simla to be exact. The first thing Arcturus did after arriving at the hotel was check the board of local adventures he could go on. This was the same type of 'board of opportunities' that he had dealt with when he went to France by himself years ago. Remembering how lame that French "tomb raiding" stuff was, I chose to skip the options here (all of the options were about tomb raiding). I wanted to know if traveling had any other benefits to it outside of the exploration gag. (Spoiler: It definitely doesn't.)

The Mengsk family went inside to settle and eat some breakfast. It was a good thing they didn't pack any bags though because there was nowhere to put them safely. There were no rooms, no closets, no personal space at all. Just lines of beds in each room and hallway. There was also no management or cleaning service and you had to cook your own food. Was this a hotel or an abandoned building with working plumbing?

Arcturus was walking around the abandoned building in his pajamas when he ran into self-proclaimed "explorer", Alain Lefebvre. Alain told Arcturus where all the hot hangouts were in the fake Forbidden City. "Definitely hit up the general store. The owner, Xi Yuan, has everything from bikes to dried food. 'General stuff'. Well, garbage, mostly." When he started to stray off-topic and talk about how great the tombs were in his French hometown of Les Champs de Sims, Arcturus knew Alain was not to be trusted. Those tombs were pretty crap, guy.

"Also, Wu Xio is a racist." *raises hands* "Hey, you didn't hear it from me!"

Betty and Emily walked by and pulled Arcturus from his conversation. It was time to head into town and see what what was really going on there. They found a car outside with the keys in it and just stole it. It may have been Alain's. Betty did... not... care, alright?

The hotel. Arcturus is in this photo. Can you spot him?

On our way!

Inside the walls of the city, there really was little to do. No wonder Alain had talked highly of the general store. It was just about the only thing open to visitors! Emily asked what they were going to do first. Arcuturus looked at all the private homes and said, "I guess we go to the general store and then go back to the United States?" Emily sighed. "I'm missing my friends at school for this?" Betty was like, "Honey, what is with you and these friends at school? They just can't be that great."

"The terracotta army is a Chinese thing, right?"

There were actually a few shops lined up. It was called "Shang Simla Market" and it had a food merchant, a book merchant, and a relic merchant in addition to that general store everyone was talking about. The first place they stopped was the relic merchant, run by Zhan Su. It was a small room with a couple vases and figurines set up, none of which were for sale. Betty found out what was for sale though: "fossilized watermelon" and an absolute ton of "broken vases"!

Somehow, Emily ended up talking to an old local by the name of Ai Pei. He didn't speak a lick of English so he just stared at Emily. Emily looked to Betty for help but Betty was debating with Zhan about the availability of the figurines on the front counter.

Ai Pei: "How do I communicate with this child?"
Off screen shout: "Ya DON'T communicate with that child."

"How much for the snake figurine here?"
"Not for sale."
"Why is it here?"
"That's really none of your business."
"Odd response."

Zhan was frustrated. Why was everyone always asking about the figurines? Couldn't they just take a broken vase for $150 and go home? Did you notice in the picture how Zhan was thinking about being happy? It was only a thought though. He can't actually be happy when his life is spent arguing about worthless trinket trash. What a dreamer.

Meanwhile, Arcturus had found the local "special merchant". Her name was Adaeze Min. She didn't have her own shop, she just walked around and sold things out of her pockets. She had deep pockets though because she was selling about fifteen items. They were all things for explorers, like "skeleton keystones" to open any doors while exploring and "escape dust" to get out of tombs if you were trapped in them. Arcturus didn't have a need for any of that so he talked with her about fried chicken while thinking, "Wait. Did she say her name was Adele Dazeem"?

Boy, she's excited about fried chicken.

Betty, finally free of Zhan's depression and with no more relics than when she started, decided to go for a swim with Emily. The ponds in this city were a landscaping element but Betty brought a bathing suit on this trip. Where there's water, she will swim. Swimming in these pools was probably the most out-of-touch American thing she could have done though.

Would you get. out. of. there!

Arcturus didn't want to swim (yet) so he stopped in to the general store. "Xi Yuan," he shouted when he walked in, "I hear you have everything here." She didn't have everything. Alain had told Arcturus that she had everything from bikes to dried food, but she pretty much only had bikes and dried food. Arcturus needed neither at the moment. Xi was puzzled by Arcturus's familiarity with her. Arcturus was puzzled by her stocked goods.

"Hey, I don't need a bike, ok?"
"...sure."

After being escorted from the pools by the authorities, Betty strolled into the bookstore, Emily in tow. The owner, Wu Xio, gave Betty a look. She had a window. She saw that scene. Betty coughed nervously and said, "Ok, let's see what there is to buy here."

Soaking wet and in a bathing suit. Let's look at some books!

Holy crap, look at all this racist stuff! Alain was right about her! There's a book just flat out called "Egg Rolls" and another titled "Stir Fry"? What!? "The Art of Koi Ponds"? "Marital Arts Volume 1: Wax On Philosophic". Jeez. Coming on a little strong there, Sims 3.

Betty saw the items that were on sale and put her hand to her mouth. She fell backwards out of the store, got up and ran away.

- - - Let me take a bit of a time out here and mention something else racist about this game. Each area you can visit has a symbol to go along with it. Egypt has some pyramids, France has the Eiffel Tower and China has a torii. Ok, well, a torii is a Japanese gate typically found outside of a Shinto shrine. Sims 3 doesn't care. All asians are the same to them! They also never patched it and the game came out seven years ago with multiple patches per year - - -

Yikes.

Anyway, the Mengsk family regrouped at a restaurant, cleverly titled "Food Merchant". Liu Pei was the owner, cook, host, janitor, and everything else because every store anywhere is a one person operation. After lunch, Arcturus told Betty she could go back to the hotel without him because he was going over to Liu's house. Betty understood that. She took Emily and the car back to the hotel. Arcturus returned to Xi's general bike store and bought a bike ("I can't believe it myself but I actually need one of these now.") before following Liu back to his house.

"Liuuuuuuuuuu! I'm homeeeeeeee!"

Arcturus rang the doorbell and Liu's wife, Yanyu Tsang, answered. "Am I late?" Yanyu looked into the house at Liu, who was just sitting down to read, then back to Arcturus. "Late for...?" Arcturus pushed past her, waved to Liu and asked him to "scootch over a bit" on the sofa. Liu was a little scared. "Are you the guy from my restaurant a little bit ago? Didn't you have a family?" Arcturus laughed. "I did. I did... So, what's on the tube here?" he asked as he grabbed the remote.

Minutes later, with the tension in the room at an almost unbearable point, Arcturus told Liu that he was hungry. "Im gonna go grab a bite." He got up and went to the kitchen. Liu and Yanyu followed, mostly to make sure he didn't do anything crazy. As Arcturus cooked, they stared blankly. Finally, Liu had enough. "Hey, buddy." Arcturus fidgeted with the burners on the stove without looking up. "Hey!" He grabbed Arcturus's arm and stared in his eyes. "Ya gotta go, man. I don't know what you're doing anymore. I don't even know who you are, really."

Arcturus was offended. "Well, why did you invite me over if you didn't want me to make dinner!?" Yanyu let a bit of a laugh escape. Arcturus stormed out. He left the pot on the stove. He had been making stove top stuffing. Liu took a bite and nodded to Yanyu. "That's good Top."

"Karate guy wouldn't let me make dinner!"

Outside, on the porch, Arcturus called Betty. He said some racial things about Liu Pei, then told her to pack everything and meet him at the airport. "We're... we're going home right now." "Our flight isn't for another three days, amazingly." "RIGHT! NOW!" he shrieked and hung up. Betty, who had pulled the phone away for the screams, put the phone back to her ear. "Hello?... hello?." She smiled. "Jesus Christ. This guy."

Arcturus biked to the airport.

...

Later that night, before turning off the light to sleep, Yanyu would ask Liu, "Did you invite him over?" Liu, laying in bed with his back to her, would reply very simply. "No."