Li Manjun has never been on a long-distance train that spans two days and two nights from south to north.
I originally wanted to buy a soft sleeper, but ended up not buying one. I ended up buying a middle seat of a hard sleeper.
At first, Li Manjun thought it was quite novel, but after seeing the free height between the three-story hard sleepers, she realized that she had underestimated the difficulty of this journey from south to north.
In the past, Li Manjun traveled either by plane or high-speed rail. The longest trip was a business trip. He flew from China to abroad. It took 12 hours to fly and he could reach his destination after sleeping in business class.
But now, lying on the middle sleeper, staring at the upper bunk shaking the bed board, Li Manjun couldn't fall asleep no matter what.
The worst thing is that it is better to find a soft seat, at least you can get up and sit down.
There were a few small benches in the train aisle. Li Manjun raised his head slightly to take a look, but his head was hit by the low bed as expected.
It didn't hurt, so she rubbed it and ignored it. After all, this was the third time she had been hit.
Looking up, there were all heads. The carriage, the aisle, and even the thin ridges of the seats were all full of people. The small benches in the aisle had long been overwhelmed by the crowd.
On the luggage rack, there were not only luggage bags but also bamboo cages for chickens and ducks. The live birds inside were chirping.
On a hot summer day, with so many people crammed into the carriage, the air was filled with a stink that was a mixture of food, poultry droppings and body sweat.
Li Manjun exhaled slowly. He really didn't have the courage to get out of bed, so he fell back to sleep and began to lie down.
I had no experience traveling for the first time, and I didn’t bring any story books with me. In the era before mobile phones, the time on the long-distance car passed by extremely long.
The crowded situation in the carriage did not ease until we arrived at the next large city.
But it was only a little better. The chicken coop filled with live birds was taken away, and the smell of chicken and duck shit in the air dissipated a lot.
At noon, the train stopped at the transfer station. A local woman leaned against the window with a hot water bottle and sold hot water to the passengers on the train.
Experienced passengers bring their own thermos bottles with hot water in them, and bring their own dry food for a makeshift meal.
Sleeping in the lower bunk of Li Manjun was a couple with a child. This kind of hard sleeper is the first choice for mothers with children when going out. It is cost-effective, especially the lower bunk.
The parents were very well prepared. They quickly brought the bowl, put the bagged instant noodles into the bowl, poured hot water from their own thermos bottle over it, and closed the lid to make instant noodles.
The child smelled the aroma of instant noodles, opened his mouth with greed, and stuck out his tongue, waiting for his mother to feed him.
It's just that the hot water in the thermos was not hot enough and the instant noodles were not fully cooked, but the child didn't care about this and ate with a happy face.
As for the salesperson on the train, judging from the current congestion level in the aisle, it is impossible to push the cart through.
Li Manjun half sat up, folded the quilt behind him as a backrest, opened his backpack, took out the thermos cup prepared by Zhao Yong, took a sip of warm water, and then took out a piece of bread he had prepared in advance to eat.
She couldn't straighten up during the whole journey, but fortunately, a quarter of the car window behind her was in sight, so it was okay to look at the scenery outside.
Zhao Yong knew that his wife had no experience in long-distance travel at all, so the food she prepared could be eaten directly after opening it. However, he also prepared bowls and two bags of instant noodles, and told Li Manjun that if he wanted to eat something hot, he could buy hot water to soak it at the halfway station.
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He also asked her to bring her backpack with her at all times if she left the bed midway, and asked her to help her keep an eye on the place on the upper and lower bunk beds, so that she would not have to go to the toilet and come back and the place would be occupied.
Li Manjun finished lunch in no time. After a morning of adaptation, in the afternoon, his energy became obviously active.
There were two children on the lower bunk, one was four or five years old, and the other was seven or eight years old. The older one was very talkative, while the younger one was very active and played with her. Then he climbed up the ladder to Li Manjun's bed and looked at her with a fierce look.
It quickly shrank down again.
This was repeated several times, and after Li Manjun fed him half a piece of bread, he sat directly on Li Manjun's bed and talked to her in a slurred manner.
Li Manjun thought he was funny and teased him, and it was night in a blink of an eye.
The older little girl was very expressive, and her parents were very encouraging. She had no worries about disturbing other people. After all, compared to the sound of playing cards coming from the hard-seat car in front, they already seemed very gentle.
The little girl sang loudly, and the adults in the carriage applauded her.
Li Manjun leaned against the window, looked at them with a smile, and occasionally exchanged a few words, then they became familiar with them.
The little girl's mother kindly told Li Manjun that if she was too tired from lying down, she could sit on the chair in front of their bed or eat something.
For dinner, Li Manjun bought hot water and made noodles on the small table below. After eating, he asked the older girl to look at his place and went to the toilet.
Li Manjun simply didn't want to recall this process a second time. Fortunately, the toilet was only one car away from her, otherwise she would have been squeezed just by passing through a group of unknown men, women, and children.
The toilets on the train are really hopeless. They defecate and defecate everywhere without flushing. The hygiene conditions are extremely poor.
Li Manjun experienced firsthand the opinions of the older generation on the dirty and messy green trains.
At night, only two dim lights were on in the aisle, and the truck clanked forward. Li Manjun felt like he was sitting on a boat, swaying, and there was a constant "rumbling" sound in his ears.
This situation lasted for two nights, so much so that after getting off the bus at Jinan Station, Li Manjun still felt like he was floating when his feet stepped on the ground. As soon as he stopped and stood still, he felt like he was moving.
But in fact, both she and the surrounding scenery are static.
Li Manjun looked at the Jinan Railway Station, which was not a complete stranger around him, took a deep breath, carried his backpack in front of him, and followed the people out of the station.
The square in front of the station is the most chaotic place. Li Manjun kept Zhao Yong’s advice in mind:
Keep your carry-on luggage tight, don't buy anything, don't make any public phone calls, don't stop in front of any stalls, avoid people wearing sunglasses, and avoid young people who come in groups of two or three with nothing.
In this way, he walked out of the train station firmly and recklessly.
On the way, she witnessed two encounters, met a young couple looking for tickets and wallets, and watched a foreign man being taken away by two local scalpers.
Li Manjun didn't care about anything, she could only take care of herself.
Far away from the train station, Li Manjun found a local snack roadside stall and ordered pancakes.
The proprietress enthusiastically rolled a green onion for her, and after hearing her foreign accent, she strongly encouraged her to try it.
Li Manjun couldn't refuse, so she endured all the resistance and took a small bite of the green onions peeled by the landlady herself. The whole mask of pain greatly pleased the landlady and his wife.
