Except for Lin Guoqing, the other two were riding a train for the first time, and they were spinning around like they were in a peep show.
In her previous life, Chen Chunhua had taken a high-speed train once, also to Shanghai. But she wasn't going there for fun, she was going to see a doctor.
Shumei, already seventy years old at the time, feared her daughter would be uncomfortable, so she paid a fortune for a business-class ticket. It was comfortable, but too expensive. At nearly three hundred yuan, more than three times the price of a standard seat, she only enjoyed a one-and-a-half-hour journey, and she still had to pay for medical treatment once she arrived in Shanghai.
She felt so distressed that she said she would not go next time.
Now, sitting on a hard bench, holding a small cardboard ticket, she was quite satisfied with the 4.6 yuan hard seat express ticket price.
In fact, compared with the prices in the 1980s, four dollars and sixty cents was not cheap, but compared with the hundreds of dollars later, Chen Chunhua strangely felt that she had made a good deal.
Lin Guoqing got a train timetable from somewhere and gave it to them, saying they could read it if they were bored on the train.
It was called a book, but in fact it was just a folded piece of paper the same size as a newspaper. Sanni opened her eyes wide and tried hard to look at the timetable. It was filled with place names and numbers, which made her feel overwhelmed.
Finally, she finally focused her attention on the advertisements in the corners. Hmm, freezer? No, no, no, air compressor? What is that? The pictures are pretty nice...
Chen Chunhua was squinting her eyes trying to find the bus they were on.
"Where is it?"
"This one, 193, the Chongqing-Shanghai Express." Lin Guoqing pointed to the center of the large piece of paper. "This train goes from Chongqing to Shanghai. We don't have a direct train for such a short distance. Hey, Su County, see? It's 10:13. The train will leave in two minutes."
Su County belonged to Yue City a long time ago, but now it belongs to the provincial capital. Although it is a county, it is very large. Later, the largest international airport in the province was also located in Su County.
When people in their village want to go out, they prefer to go to Su County rather than take the train to the city. It's more convenient and there are more tickets. For example, Lin Guoqing always goes here and has become familiar with everyone here.
It is difficult to buy a seat ticket at this kind of station. When Lin Guoqing takes the train alone, he always stands. It only takes a few hours anyway, and it saves two dollars.
But this time he was lucky, as a group of people got off at the previous stop, Ji City. Lin Guoqing gave his old friend a pack of cheap cigarettes and asked him to leave three hard seats for him.
I don't know if it's a man's "bad nature", but Lin Guoqing really enjoys the look in Shen Chunhua's eyes at this time. There is admiration and admiration in it, which greatly satisfies his self-esteem. It is also for this reason that he worked hard to prepare before leaving, and now he is patiently introducing the timetable to her.
"Well, the next stop is the provincial capital, arriving around 10:58. It's a pity that Mom had to row us here. If we lived nearby, going to the provincial capital would just be a matter of buying a ticket. It would take 45 minutes to get our things delivered to the county."
He probably remembered the three or four hours he spent riding a tricycle to get to the food station in the provincial capital.
"We're not far from Shanghai. It's only eight stops away. Do you see the Shanghai train at the top? This is the final stop. It's 2:50 PM, just before 3:00 PM. That's four and a half hours."
"It's a pity that the chicken farm you mentioned is in Guhua. If it was in Rongcheng, we wouldn't have to ride to the end and could get off one stop earlier. Then we wouldn't have to worry about getting on the bus."
The second-to-last stop on the timetable is Rongcheng. They are all suburbs of Shanghai, but not all of them have train stations.
"How long will it take to get on the bus after we get off the bus?" Chen Chunhua asked. She didn't want to be looking for a place to stay in the dark.
"It will probably take an hour or two." Lin Guoqing took out the notebook from his bag and began to flip through it. Wherever he had business dealings, he had the specific bus routes recorded in detail in his notebook to help him find the place.
"We have to take a bus to the Huangpu River to take the ferry to Hudong. Once we get there, we need to find the bus stop over there and take the Tanggu Line all the way to Guhua Farm."
Hudong is still a vast rural area, vastly different from Huxi. Lin Guoqing has never been to Hudong; the factories he works with for business are all in Huxi. He found this route two days ago.
"How long does the Tanggu Line take?" Chen Chunhua felt that two hours wasn't enough to get there. "How much is it per person?"
Lin Guoqing: "I don't know."
Chen Chunhua: ...
The admiration I had just now has almost faded. Forget it, let's just sit down and talk about it. Even if I know now, what can I do?
While the couple was discussing the route, Liu Ni had already read all the advertisements on the paper.
It was said that the other day, the fifth sister said that after the third sister's wedding room was built, she would pay for her to build a large wardrobe. The fourth sister said that the tables and chairs belonged to her. The seventh sister said that they would embroider pillowcases for the three children. Mum said that she would take care of the quilts and other things...
So what can I do? Maybe I should just buy a fan like the one in the commercial? I can't buy that soap, right? That's way too cheap...
Liu Ni started counting on her fingers again to calculate the accounts in her own small treasury. It was mainly unrelated to academic subjects. She could calculate everything related to money and the farm clearly.
The train started slowly with the sound of the whistle. A few people who were still on the platform buying dried tofu, rice dumplings and drinks while it was stopping at a station hurriedly said "eh eh eh" twice, took back the money they had taken out of their pockets, ran a few steps, grabbed the handle and stepped into the train.
At the conductor's urging, he complained a few times and returned to his seat.
Perhaps because today wasn't a special day, although there were a lot of people, almost everyone found a place to sit. Lin Guoqing said that around the New Year, the train was like a can; once the door opened, people would fall out.
After a few people finally got off at their stop, there were still people waiting to get on. Sometimes the conductor couldn't even squeeze in. There was no place to stand in the aisle, people were everywhere.
There are also some geniuses who bring their own wooden boards, place them above the front and rear seats, lie down there and make their own berths, which at least provides some space.
This is an old photo I found online. It seems that people at that time were really smart!
There were all kinds of smells on the train. If it weren't for the need to collect money, Lin Guoqing would never have wanted to get on the train around the Spring Festival. Every time he got off the train, it was a victory of life.
Chen Chunhua took out three oranges from her homemade backpack, handed one to Liu Ni and one to Lin Guoqing.
While peeling the orange peel, I listened to Lin Guoqing's nonsense and laughed.
She really liked listening to Lin Guoqing talk about this kind of thing. When they were at home, except before going to bed, the couple didn't have so much time to sit still for several hours. They had to take care of the children, do housework, and greet neighbors.
Even though the car ride was only two and a half hours, Chen Chunhua felt really relaxed.
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