Su Jianguo hid the bicycle in the nearby bushes, covering it with dead branches.
He crouched down and crawled through a gap in the barbed wire.
The freight station was brighter than I had imagined, with a few dim streetlights illuminating the main passageway.
Su Jianguo moved along the shadows of the pile of goods, looking for a suitable shooting position.
Finally, he found the ideal hiding place behind a pile of empty wooden crates.
Here you can clearly see the tracks where the train is parked, yet you won't be easily spotted.
Su Jianguo huddled behind the wooden box, his breath condensing into small wisps of white mist in the air.
He rubbed his frozen fingers and glanced at his watch every now and then.
Time passed by, and the freight station remained quiet, with only a sliver of light shining from the distant duty room.
At 4:30, the sound of a car engine could be heard in the distance.
Su Jianguo immediately tensed up and quietly peeked out to observe.
Two covered Jiefang brand trucks slowly drove into the freight station and stopped in an open space not far from him.
"Hurry up! The train's almost here!"
A rough voice rang out sharply in the silence.
Su Jianguo squinted and saw Ma Sanbao's short, stout figure jump off the first truck, a cigarette still dangling from his mouth.
He was followed by seven or eight workers, all of them sleepy-eyed and yawning.
Su Jianguo held his breath and gently unzipped the camera bag.
He carefully adjusted the focus, framed Ma Sanbao and the two trucks, and pressed the shutter.
With a soft "click," the first photograph was taken.
Ma Sanbao seemed to have heard something and suddenly turned his head to look in the direction where Su Jianguo was hiding.
Su Jianguo immediately shrank back behind the wooden box, his heart pounding like a drum.
"What's wrong, boss?"
"A worker asked."
"It's nothing, probably just a stray cat."
Ma Sanbao muttered something and turned to give orders to the workers.
"Everyone, perk up! This batch of goods needs to be delivered to the store before the morning market!"
Su Jianguo breathed a sigh of relief and continued to observe.
Ma Sanbao directed the workers to open the truck's tailgate and prepare the unloading tools.
He kept checking his watch, appearing somewhat impatient.
At 5 o'clock sharp, the scheduled train arrival time arrived, but the tracks remained empty.
Ma Sanbao kicked a pebble on the ground while cursing.
"Damn it, it's late again!"
Su Jianguo was not in a hurry.
Train delays were commonplace during this period, especially for freight trains.
He wiggled his frozen toes and continued to wait patiently.
Time passed by, and the sky gradually brightened.
Ma Sanbao's agitation became increasingly apparent. He paced back and forth incessantly and occasionally snapped at the workers.
Su Jianguo used this time to adjust the shooting angle to ensure that he could capture the best shot.
At 6:10, the sound of a train whistle finally came from afar.
Su Jianguo perked up and pointed his camera toward the railway tracks.
A black coal train slowly pulled into the platform, its number "京B-4419" clearly visible on its side.
After the train came to a complete stop, several train attendants in railway uniforms jumped off the train.
Ma Sanbao immediately greeted him with a beaming smile, pulled out a bulging brown paper package from his pocket, and handed it to the head train attendant.
"Thank you for your hard work, it's the usual practice."
Ma Sanbao lowered his voice, but in the quiet morning, Su Jianguo could still hear him clearly.
The train conductor weighed the paper package in his hand, nodded in satisfaction, and turned to wave to his colleagues.
"Get to work!"
Su Jianguo quickly pressed the shutter, recording the entire bribery process.
His fingers trembled slightly with excitement, but the viewfinder remained firmly focused on the target.
Next came the bustling scene of unloading cargo.
Workers unloaded baskets of fresh vegetables from the coal truck.
The bright green cucumbers, bright red tomatoes, and tender green chives stand in stark contrast to the "Coal Transport Only" signs outside the train carriages.
Su Jianguo took more than a dozen photos to ensure that there was sufficient evidence at every stage.
Ma Sanbao stood by and supervised, urging the workers to speed up from time to time.
As the last basket of vegetables was loaded onto the truck, he checked his watch and a satisfied smile spread across his face.
"Well done!"
Ma Sanbao patted the train conductor on the shoulder.
"Chinese New Year is almost here! I'm going to prepare a huge amount of New Year's goods for my brothers!!"
The train conductor nodded, quite satisfied.
They then watched as Ma Sanbao boarded the truck.
Two trucks loaded with vegetables slowly drove out of the freight station.
Su Jianguo waited another ten minutes to make sure everyone had left before crawling out of his hiding place.
His legs were numb from maintaining one position for so long that he almost fell to the ground.
He slowly stretched his limbs while holding onto the wooden crate, and at the same time checked the film in the camera.
All thirty-six photos were taken, and each one is irrefutable evidence.
The freight station gradually became lively, and the early shift workers began their day's work.
Su Jianguo carefully put the camera into his bag and quietly left along the route he had come from.
By the time he crawled out of the barbed wire fence and found his bicycle, it was already broad daylight.
Su Jianguo let out a long sigh of relief, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up.
After leaving the freight station, Su Jianguo rode his bicycle and quickly headed to the photo studio.
The signboard of "Red Star Photo Studio" looked particularly old in the morning light, and the roller shutter door was tightly closed, clearly indicating that it was not yet time to open.
Su Jianguo leaned his bicycle against the wall, rushed to the door, and pounded on the iron gate.
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