The train that was heading towards the Province from the city was the cross-provincial traditional Green Train where even a berth in a sleeper compartment had no air-conditioning. Although the weather had become cooler since July, if one wanted to sleep soundly on the narrow bed, they would have to open up the windows in the compartment.
Ye Jian and Principal Chen located their seats and were preparing to put their luggage above them when the middle-aged couple who were sleeping in the left and right lower bunks got up suddenly. They stared vigilantly at Principal Chen who was about to store his luggage.
“Where are the two of you sleeping? The upper bunk or the middle bunk?” The lady spoke with a questioning tone, “Have you received your bed-card? Everyone here has to sleep according to their bed-cards, you can’t simply sleep in just any bed.”
When she spoke, the expression in her eyes was full of vigilance as if he was a bad person. There’s a need to be alert when you’re away from home, but she shouldn’t do it in such a disrespectful way, acting like she was a cop interrogating others.
Ye Jian, who was building up resentment, pursed her lips and said to Principal Chen, “Principal Chen, I don’t have that much luggage, there’s no need to put it in the luggage compartment. It’s fine to leave it on my bed.” There’s a need to let them know that they were being wary of the wrong people.
After she said that, she saw the middle-aged couple make eye contact with each other, followed by which they lied down and continued sleeping on the bed without apologizing.
After storing the luggage, Principal decided to sit in the lounge chair by the window towards the aisle to enjoy the cool air. The lying middle-aged lady sat up and pointed at the window, “Don’t open the window, okay? Just keep it that way!”
There were a dozen or so people in their carriage, and the first thing the majority of them did was to raise the windows all the way up before the train had started moving. The people, who were covered in sweat, were sitting on the lounge chair by the aisle-sided window waving their fan while moaning and complaining about the heat.
Ye Jian then glanced at their window; it was only slightly opened, barely high enough for the night breeze to enter their compartment.
Principal Chen signaled Ye Jian to go to bed while waving his hand in an “it doesn’t matter” manner, meaning that she shouldn’t take the middle-aged lady’s disrespectful actions to heart, because there will always be such kind of people when going on a trip. Hence, there was no need to remember it.
Seeing that, Ye Jian only smiled and did not argue with the lady.
She also did not like the idea of raising the window entirely; there were lots of events that happened in trains in the 1990s, and the story that Principal Chen told her last time had happened in May of 1993 – the story of the K3/4 international express train that was headed towards Moscow from Beijing.
It was a true story which had an awful international impact that lots of travelers were afraid to board that train any more.
That wasn’t the only horrific incident, there were a lot more too, but none of them was as terrible as the one that happened to that international express train.
Not long after the train started moving, Principal Chen, who had cooled himself of his sweat, smiled at Ye Jian, “This year is the one when I have traveled the most. Normally, I would only board this train as a last resort.”
When he was younger, Principal Chen had walked over who knows how many places while carrying out his missions; after his retirement, he’s living a peaceful and stable life and wouldn’t leave the school easily. Besides, there was an oil reserve depot located underneath the school, so there was no way he could leave the school frequently.
This time, his presence was indeed required to accompany Ye Jian to the Provincial Great Hall of the People, and that’s the reason he decided to travel.
“For us, boarding trains are quite interesting. The last time twelve of us students went from the city to the province, Zhou Liao and the other boys were so excited they couldn’t sleep for the whole night.” Ye Jian, who climbed onto her bed peeped over with her head, smiled, and conversed casually with Principal Chen who was still reclining on the chair while replying, “No matter what, if it’s someone’s first time boarding a train, they will definitely feel excited.”
One was a principal, the other was a student; that’s quite an acceptable reality for the others around them.
The previously sleeping middle-aged couple joined the conversation, Principal Chen was also a talkative person, and in no time, he started chatting about everything under the sun with the middle-aged man.
