Chapter 261 On the Road
Song Lubai didn't have much luggage; it was wrapped in a bed sheet, and Wei Yang carried it on his shoulder, so he could carry it all by himself.
They encountered a procession on the street, herded forward like a herd of cattle and sheep, and saw that Wang Haiquan was among them.
Compared to last time, Wang Haiquan is now almost as thin as a paper doll.
Feeling uncomfortable but helpless, Song Lubai quickened her pace, choosing to ignore the sight and calm her mind.
Behind them in the group were the brothers Ma Song and Feng Li. The two brothers also looked miserable, but Song Lubai felt that they didn't deserve to be in the group at all.
What Song Lubai didn't know was that the two brothers had been locked up with others and had been bullied quite a bit during this time.
Every day, everyone's food consisted of only two multigrain pancakes and two bowls of water. The two brothers were lucky if they could eat half a pancake all day long.
Feng Li was notorious, and those who knew his background and those he had harmed joined forces to bully the brothers.
When a person is hungry, they become weak, and when they are weak, they lose the ability to resist. The two brothers were experiencing a cycle of hunger inside, and were bullied without any power to fight back.
Instead of going to the train station, the two took a car towards the transportation company.
At the roadside, Wei Yang asked Song Lubai to take the luggage while he went to the state-run restaurant and bought eight scallion pancakes.
"We'll take a bus to Quli first. We estimate we won't arrive until noon tomorrow. The bus will only stop at night, so we might not be able to find any Uyghurs selling naan bread by the roadside."
Song Lubai held a packaged pancake in her hand, while Wei Yang carried his luggage and walked briskly.
She asked, "Now that the regulations are strict, how come they still dare to do business on the roadside?"
Wei Yang said, "If there's a need on the road, and the wilderness is vast, who would specifically go there to arrest people? Besides, they are different from us to begin with."
If there are language barriers and cultural differences, forcing things together could easily lead to problems.
As they talked, they arrived at the transportation company. Song Lubai thought that the distance of several hundred kilometers would cost at least ten yuan, since it cost several tens of yuan to take the train back to her hometown. However, she did not expect that she would only need to pay three yuan per person.
There weren't many people going to Quli, and the two waited for nearly two more hours before the driver let everyone get on the bus.
While waiting, Wei Yang would occasionally glance towards the northwest corner of the courtyard.
After noticing this, Song Lubai glanced over there several times, but didn't find anything unusual.
She asked, puzzled, "What are you looking at?"
Wei Yang shook his head. "It's nothing."
Only after the car drove out of the transportation company's compound did Li Guangming, who was hiding in a corner and glancing over from time to time, dare to stand up straight.
Although he already knew that Song Lubai and Wei Yang were a couple, seeing the two of them carrying luggage and Song Lubai following closely behind Wei Yang still made him feel a pang of sadness.
The vehicle was a truck, and the open-air cargo compartment in the back could squeeze more than thirty people.
After boarding the train, Wei Yang unwrapped the luggage wrapped in the bed sheet, took out a pillowcase, and handed it to Song Lubai, saying, "It will be dusty on the way, so cover your mouth and nose in a bit."
He looked through Song Lubai's luggage and asked, "If you want to sleep more comfortably tonight, this sheet will have to be sacrificed. Put the sheet at the bottom and the mattress on top, and you can lean against me to sleep at night."
The truck wasn't particularly dirty, but it wasn't clean either; every inch of it had been trampled on by people.
Song Lubai's bed sheet was brought from her hometown last year. It still had patches on it and had been washed so much that the original color was no longer visible. But even so, she couldn't bear to ruin it like that.
But it would be uncomfortable to go out at night without laying something down.
As she hesitated, Wei Yang said, "There are bed sheets over there. When we get there, you can wash this one and use it as a door curtain or window curtain. What do you think?"
Song Lubai could accept this arrangement.
Even though the car was relatively spacious, Wei Yang only laid out a mattress covering a little over a meter of space.
If everyone spreads their blankets like this on the train, there definitely won't be enough space. There are also people hitchhiking along the way. At night, when there aren't many people, he can spread the blankets out even bigger.
The two sat very close, almost shoulder to shoulder.
With so many people on the bus, Song Lubai only recognized Wei Yang, so she naturally moved closer to him.
"Comrade, you two are a newlywed couple, right?"
The other person offered him a rolled-up cigarette, but Wei Yang smiled and refused, saying, "I don't smoke."
He smokes, but he's not addicted. He refused because the cigarette butt was sealed with saliva by the other person.
Smoking this cigarette is like eating the other person's saliva.
Wei Yang didn't answer, but the other party wasn't angry. They continued to ask cheerfully, "Where are you going?"
Wei Yang started chatting with the other party.
Bored on the bus, everyone soon joined in.
The truck quickly left the city and got onto the highway.
Song Lubai finally understood why Wei Yang had told her to cover her mouth and nose with a pillowcase beforehand.
The road was covered in dust, sand, and salt ash. The wheels kicked up the dust as they passed, which was then swept into the truck bed.
When they arrived at a dusty area, everyone choked on the fumes.
Song Lubai simply wrapped her head up with a pillowcase.
The road surface was uneven, and the vehicle was bumping and swaying from side to side, causing the people sitting in the carriage to bump into each other.
Song Lubai and Wei Yang were already close by, and after the car started to sway, their bodies came into frequent contact.
When the road became a little smoother, a large hand appeared around Song Lubai's waist, pulling her closer to him.
Their legs were pressed together, and warmth emanated from their skin beneath the fabric.
The car drove into the desolate Gobi Desert. The driver saw someone waving in the distance and stopped the car by the roadside.
After some negotiation with the driver, the pedestrian boarded the back of the vehicle.
After the driver got out of the car, he said to the people in the back, "Those who need to relieve themselves, get off. Men, go to the left side of the car; women, go to the right side."
When Song Lubai lifted the pillowcase and shook off the dust outside the truck bed, seeing the vast, boundless wilderness with no cover whatsoever, her desire to use the latrine vanished instantly.
Wei Yang noticed her slightly trembling eyes, stood up and said to everyone on the bus, "There are women on the bus. Men, get off and stand on the left. Women, go to the right. Let's all show some respect to each other."
The man who had been talking to Wei Yang the whole way winked and said, "Brother, you're really considerate to your wife."
Wei Yang said, "It's inconvenient to be out and about, especially for women."
Wei Yang patted Song Lubai on the shoulder, "Go downstairs, stretch your arms and legs, I'll go down and keep watch on the left."
Song Lubai got out of the car with a burning face.
At this point, she realized that there were many other uncomfortable aspects to living together as a couple.
After getting off the bus, she and several other women walked nearly a hundred meters to the right.
One of the women said, "You go first, I'll keep an eye on things."
In broad daylight with no cover, everyone finished their business with a mix of embarrassment and embarrassment, and then got into the car quickly.
Song Lubai continued to cover her head with the pillowcase, and the embarrassment slowly dissipated as the car swayed.
The car was swaying, and she didn't want to throw up; she just wanted to sleep.
Seeing that her eyes were starting to glaze over, Wei Yang took out a pillow and placed it on his lap, letting her lie down.
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