A mere five dollars is not enough to buy two train tickets.
Erhua and Lao Zhang walked for two full days. They went from meeting one person every half day to meeting several people every short while.
Finally, the surroundings became lively and the train station was not far away.
Old Zhang squeezed out of the crowd with a sad face.
"It's only five dollars, not even enough for a ticket."
He sat on the ground, wiped his face with his black hands, and felt very depressed.
Erhua held five dollars in his hand and had no idea what to do.
"I've finished the pancakes, but I'm still hungry! Lao Zhang, tell me the truth, are you lying to me? You never introduced me to anyone!"
Old Zhang got angry when he heard this and cursed, "You're talking nonsense! How can I go to Wang Lao Hu's banquet if I can't introduce him? Stop your nonsense. You're the unlucky one and you're bringing trouble to me!"
After saying that, both of them shut up, their stomachs empty and their mouths weak.
Not far away, an old lady set up a stall. There was a coal stove burning underneath an iron pot, and white steam was coming out from around the lid. When customers came, they would lift the lid and hot steam would come out.
"It's not enough to buy a ticket anyway, so why not have a good meal first!"
Erhua was talking to himself, but also to Lao Zhang, who was so hungry that he was seeing stars. The two of them hit it off immediately.
"Want some steamed buns? Two bowls for one dollar!"
When the old lady saw them coming towards her, she greeted them from a distance.
"What is the old lady selling?" Erhua asked.
"Baomian, that's wontons, two bowls for one dollar."
"Wontons are delicious! You can't get something this good at home. Let's have a bowl each!"
The old lady lifted the lid of the pot and put twenty wontons in. Each one was firm and round, and they jumped up and down in the boiling water.
"Would you like red or white soup?"
The old lady asked with a smile, but Erhua didn't understand and looked confused.
"White soup, white soup."
After Lao Zhang finished speaking, the old lady put some soy sauce into the bowl.
"What soup?"
"White soup! It's lard and soy sauce soup, and there's also a red soup." Lao Zhang looked around and said, "Here, this is the red soup.
Erhua took a look and was surprised to see that the whole bowl of wontons was filled with chili oil!
When all the wontons floated to the surface, the old lady put them into a bowl one by one.
The first bite burned his lips. Erhua blew on it and stuffed the whole wonton into his mouth. He turned it over with his tongue, moved it up and down with his teeth a few times, and then swallowed it.
"It's delicious, but not as good as the shepherd's purse wontons my mom makes."
Old Zhang said without even looking up, "How can your family, with all its poverty, possibly make a decent meal of shepherd's purse wontons?"
Erhua rolled his eyes at him and didn't respond, but the food in his mouth tasted less and less delicious.
What's better than home?
This time he understood what it meant that a nest of gold or silver is not as good as one's own doghouse.
After eating a bowl of wontons, Erhua had a thin layer of sweat on his forehead, and now he began to think about the way home.
"Lao Zhang, are you shameless enough? If so, how about we kneel down here and kowtow to them and beg for money?"
"You're so shameless at such a young age. I can't do that.
Besides, who has so much money these days that they would give it away? Are you dreaming?
Old Zhang felt speechless. His son Liang Genfa had not inherited any of his honesty.
He sighed and said, "I've been to this train station so many times. Let's give it a try today. Maybe we can get on the train."
When the train arrived at the station, those who wanted to get on the train rushed over, while those who wanted to get off the train were still stuck at the door. The scene was quite chaotic.
The staff's shouting was of no use, so one of them took a long bamboo pole and drove the people who were rushing in aside to allow those who were getting off the bus to get out.
What Lao Zhang meant by "give it a try" was to take advantage of the chaos and fish in troubled waters.
The crowd was so intense, people were shoving each other, it was crazy. Erhua and Lao Zhang were suddenly pushed apart, and he was pushed forward by the crowd. It was pitch black here, and there was no sign of Lao Zhang.
Without caring about anything else, Erhua just kept squeezing forward. When he was almost at the ticket gate, Erhua wanted to move back guiltily, but there were too many people and he couldn't move at all.
Everyone was holding a ticket, some held it high and wanted to pass it on, some held it tightly for fear of dropping it, and some tried hard to reach into their pockets.
Erhua put one hand in his pocket and pretended to be taking out a ticket.
Just when it was almost his turn, there was a sudden commotion behind him, followed by a push from behind, forcing the person in front to rush through the iron gate quickly.
"Hey hey hey! What are you pushing for?"
"Take out your tickets! Tickets! Tickets!"
The ticket inspector's voice was behind him. Erhua pulled his hand out to wipe the sweat from his face. It was a close call!
At this moment, the staff on the platform were chasing people away with long bamboo poles, and no one would notice the guilty young man who did not buy a ticket.
Erhua got on the train and took a seat. Only after he sat down did he realize that one of his sleeves was torn at the shoulder.
Next to him was a dark and thin man, and opposite him sat a woman.
"Eat, eat more."
He stuffed a piece of bread into her hand, but the woman refused to eat it and pushed it back to him.
"I'm not hungry, you eat it!"
The man pushed it over again. The woman gestured twice. The man smiled and put the cake into the bag, saying, "Eat it when you're hungry."
Erhua was too embarrassed to look at others, so he looked out the window.
But he had already seen that the woman was mute.
The two of them are like an ordinary couple, and their relationship is even better than that of an ordinary couple.
The man muttered a few words here and there along the way, and the woman kept looking at him with her narrow, curved eyes, occasionally gesturing with her hands in response.
The woman is quite good-looking and the man is not bad either, the two of them are a perfect match.
The only drawback is that she is mute and cannot speak.
Thinking of this, Erhua smiled bitterly: So what if he's mute? The young couple is living a happy life!
He closed his eyes and tried not to think about anything else. He had been busy walking for the past two days and hadn't had a good rest. Not long after the train started, Erhua fell asleep with a humming sound.
The train took two days and two nights to reach Shanghai. By the afternoon of the next day, Erhua was starving.
The woman tore off half a pancake and gave it to him, and he took it gratefully.
The man poured him another glass of water, and he took it with many thanks.
These two things helped him survive two days and two nights.
When Erhua woke up again, the woman and man beside him had disappeared.
"Where is this?" he asked hurriedly.
"Shanghai." Someone answered him.
"Shanghai!" Erhua jumped up from his seat and ran out.
Shanghai! What a familiar place!
I heard the familiar "Ce Na" again among the people coming and going around me!
"Erhua! Erhua! Wait for me!"
Old Zhang was standing on tiptoe and waving here. It seemed that he had also successfully boarded the bus.
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