After another stretch of gravel road, the SUV finally entered downtown Nuuk.
As the largest city and administrative center on Greenland, Nuuk had a population of around 17,000. In China, that might have been no more than the population of two residential compounds, but on this island, it already counted as densely populated. After all, Ilulissat, Greenland's third-largest city, had only 5,000 people and just six police officers in the entire city. In fact, locals were more accustomed to calling every city other than Nuuk a settlement.
Though Nuuk was small, it had everything it needed. Perhaps due to Danish influence, the houses along the coast came in all kinds of colors—red, blue, yellow, and purple—like something out of a fairy tale. The city's infrastructure was fairly complete, and the harbor was the liveliest place of all. Fishing boats came and went, unloading baskets of freshly caught seafood onto the shore.
Fishing and mining were also the pillars of Greenland's economy. Perhaps because it was summer, the snow in the city had completely melted, and small yellow flowers bloomed by the roadside, swaying in the wind.
Song Jia parked the SUV outside a convenience store and bought two cups of hot cocoa to fill their stomachs. She drank one herself and handed the other to Zhang Heng. He thanked her and accepted it, but when Song Jia finished her own cup, she realized Zhang Heng had not touched the other one at all.
"Won't you give it a try?" Song Jia asked. "It's delicious. Especially in winter, when temperatures here drop below zero, there's nothing happier than having a cup of hot cocoa."
"I'm a little allergic to cocoa." Zhang Heng casually made up an excuse to brush her off.
Greenland was a completely unfamiliar place to him, and he