Chapter 70
◎Strange Passengers◎
Happily, February arrived, and Tangtang and her brother, Su Juesheng, were about to set off for the capital to attend university.
A few days before the start of school, Tangtang had already packed everything she needed. The admission letter, the household registration and grain and oil transfer certificate, and 50 catties of national universal grain coupons—these important documents were packed into her yellow schoolbag. As for the clothes for washing, daily necessities, and so on, they were stuffed into a leather suitcase.
The wooden box was heavy. For the children to go to school, Su Huimin and Yu Juanfang had specially gone to the retail department in the county town and bought two brand new artificial leather suitcases. Each of these suitcases cost 40 yuan, which was almost a month’s salary for Su Huimin. It was a big expense, but the couple was very happy. They were happy to spend this money!
Amidst their parents’ farewell, the brother and sister got on the bus to the city.
After a bumpy ride of four or five hours in the stuffy carriage, they finally arrived in Xiangyang City. This was Tangtang’s second time in Xiangyang City. The last time was when she was in the first year of junior high, when she and her brother had come to the city to participate in the revolutionary storytelling competition. Compared to a few years ago, Xiangyang City seemed much more prosperous. Several multi-story red buildings had been built, which were not there when they had come a few years ago.
The train station was like a boiling pot of water. There were all kinds of sounds of arguing, talking, and shouting. The brother and sister queued up to buy train tickets to the capital. They were almost squeezed into paper-thin sheets with their luggage, but they finally got on the train.
At this time, the train was still a green-skinned train like a can. The dark green color was probably the deepest memory of the train for the travelers of this era. The narrow aisle was crowded with passengers’ luggage, making it extremely crowded.
The brother and sister found their seats in the cramped and stuffy carriage according to the numbers on their tickets. After putting away their luggage, Tangtang sat down and couldn’t help but let out a long sigh of relief.
After a long whistle, the wheels began to clatter, like someone was beating a clapper on the tracks. The train began to move.
Tangtang’s seat was by the window. The scenery outside the window was constantly changing. The distant mountains gradually merged into patches of green, their outlines becoming blurry against the gray-blue sky. Herds of cattle and sheep, and farmers with white sweat towels wrapped around their heads were bending over to hoe the fields. When they saw the train pass by, they couldn’t help but look up. The chimneys of the farmhouses in the mountain hollows were emitting thin smoke. When passing through the city, they could also see patches of tall buildings. Tangtang’s eyes widened, feeling that all of this was new and beautiful.
“Let’s eat something,” Su Juesheng said. When they had passed through Xiangyang City just now, they were afraid of missing the train, so they had rushed to the train station without eating anything.
“Alright.” Tangtang unscrewed the lid of her water bottle and took a sip of hot water first.
Su Juesheng broke the oil pancake in his hand in half and gave one half to Tangtang. This oil pancake was made by their mother last night. She had heard that the food on the train was particularly expensive, so Yu Juanfang had prepared a bag of white flour pancakes, a few oil pancakes, and some dried meat for them. This was a leavened pancake, sprinkled with chopped scallions and minced meat and pan-fried with lard. It was crispy, soft, savory, and fragrant, and it was also very filling.
Across from Tangtang and the others sat a middle-aged man who looked like a miner. The red words “xx First Coal Mine” were printed on the front of his clothes. At this moment, a woman holding a child came over and, in a broken Mandarin, asked the man if she could switch seats with him.
The man frowned with some impatience but still agreed to switch with her.
And so, the passenger across from Tangtang and the others changed from the middle-aged uncle to this woman holding a child. She looked to be in her forties, wearing a peach-colored front-opening cotton coat, with a dark brown satchel slung over her shoulder. Her face was round and full, and she was smiling, giving a very kind impression.
Tangtang took a bite of the oil pancake, her gaze falling on the little baby in her arms. The child was wrapped in a black floral swaddling cloth and looked to be about three or four months old.
The woman smiled at them, sat down with the child, and after a while, the woman’s male companion also found them and sat down next to her. The two of them talked for a while, and it sounded a bit like a Nanyang accent.
“Little girl, little brother, where are you going?”
Su Juesheng answered, “We’re going to the capital.”
“Oh, the capital. That’s a big city. It’s so prosperous.”
“Where are you going?”
“We’re going to Weinan.”
Tangtang took the initiative to strike up a conversation. “Are you a couple?”
“Yes, we are a couple.” The man pushed the enamel mug towards the windowsill, his Nanyang accent mixed with a stiff Mandarin.
“Then this baby—” Although they were a couple, from what she had seen just now, the man’s hand had been trying to wrap around the woman’s shoulder, and the woman had twisted her shoulder to break free two or three times before the man gave up the idea. The two of them were so distant that they didn’t look like a normal couple at all. Tangtang’s gaze fell on the little baby in her arms.
“This baby is ours, only three months old. We’ll take him to the capital to see the world later.”
Tangtang looked at the child in her arms. The way this woman was holding the child was wrong. Last August, Tangtang’s uncle, Yu Laowu, had a new son. When she went to visit Li Suqin, who was in her postpartum confinement, her aunt had taught her how to hold a baby. She had said that a newborn’s cervical spine had no support, so the child’s head had to be fully supported to avoid it hanging or tilting back too much. But the woman’s hand was loosely placed on the outside of the swaddling cloth, and her fingertips didn’t even touch the back of the child’s neck. The baby’s head was swaying like an empty cloth bag.
Tangtang wanted to remind her, but before she could, the train rolled over a seam in the tracks, and the carriage jolted violently. The baby’s head hit the back of the hard seat with a thud.
The child in the woman’s arms began to wail.
Li Aihua patted the swaddling cloth and coaxed him for a long time, but she couldn’t soothe him. The child’s cries became more and more heart-wrenching, getting louder and louder, echoing throughout the carriage.
Hearing the child’s pitiful cries, the people in the carriage couldn’t help but stand up to check. “He’s probably hungry.”
“Maybe his diaper is wet.”
Li Aihua’s two eyebrows were tightly furrowed. She told the man to go and get some hot water.
Hearing her words, the man took the enamel mug by the window and got up to get hot water.
The child was still wailing. After the man came back with the hot water, Li Aihua used an iron spoon to scoop a spoonful of water and feed it to the child’s mouth. Tangtang had never had a child, but she knew that a three- or four-month-old child didn’t need to drink water.
The iron spoon was too big, and the baby’s mouth was small. A lot of water spilled onto the swaddling cloth.
But the child finally stopped crying. His originally loud cries became much softer. The little baby’s eyes, which had been wet and open, soon drooped and closed. His little mouth was smacking as if he were chewing something.
Tangtang saw the blue mark on the child’s forehead and had an indescribable strange feeling in her heart. She felt that this woman didn’t seem to dote on her child like a mother at all.
A smile appeared on Tangtang’s face. “Big sister, looking at you and big brother’s age, this child must have been born quite late, right?”
“Isn’t that right? I only had this child at an old age.”
Although the woman said that, it didn’t look like it at all. Logically, a child born at an old age would be very doted on. “Why doesn’t this child look like you or big brother? I see his eyes are big and round, like grapes, but you have single eyelids, big sister, and big brother’s eyes are upturned.”
Li Aihua’s hand, which was patting the swaddling cloth, froze for a moment. She forced a kind smile. “That’s probably because he takes after his grandparents. His grandparents have big eyes. Hah, what can you tell from such a small baby…”
“Big sister, where are you from? I hear a bit of a Nanyang accent…”
Li Aihua’s face clearly changed. “No, you must have misheard. My husband and I are both from Guanzhong. How could we have a Nanyang accent?”
Ordinary people really couldn’t tell a Nanyang accent, but Tangtang had been sensitive to sounds since she was a child, so she could hear a little.
The woman in front of her could have just ignored Tangtang, but she kept talking with a smile on her face. Before the words “Nanyang” were mentioned, her expression was kind and at ease.
“Tangtang,” noticing the obvious displeasure on Li Aihua’s face, Su Juesheng tugged at her sleeve, signaling her not to continue asking.
Su Juesheng didn’t know what was wrong with his sister today. He had never seen her question others like this before.
Li Aihua said, “You little girl are talking so strangely.”
Tangtang brushed off her brother’s hand, which was constantly pulling at the corner of her clothes, and forced a smile. “How can I be as strange as you, big sister? You and big brother both look like southerners and have a foreign accent, yet you say you’re from Guanzhong.”
Seeing that Tangtang was staring at the child in her arms and her words were full of probing, Li Aihua felt a little restless. She stared at the passing sign outside the window. “Hey! Isn’t this Yangxu? We’re here!”
The train stopped with a clatter. After a long whistle, the train door opened with a hiss, and a cold wind, carrying coal ash, rushed into the carriage. Li Aihua held the child with one hand and reached for the handbag at her feet with the other, clearly wanting to get off early.
When they got on the train, the woman had clearly said that they were going to Weinan. This was still two stops away from Weinan.
Li Aihua stood up abruptly. Tangtang wanted to reach out and grab her wrist but was blocked by the man in the middle. Seeing that the two of them were about to get off, and the train station was full of people and in a state of chaos, if she let these two get off, they would probably never be found again.
Tangtang raised her voice and shouted, “Someone is stealing a child! Catch the human traffickers!”
Tangtang’s words were like a landmine exploding in the narrow carriage. There was an uproar. The people in the carriage had not yet realized what was going on. Even Su Juesheng, who was sitting next to her, had not had time to react. Tangtang had already chased after them. The man pushed Tangtang, and her arm hit the handrail, creating a severe bruise. The pain made her face contort.
The luggage in the carriage was in a mess. The man’s identity had been exposed. He was angry from embarrassment. He pulled out a sharp little knife from his sleeve and was about to stab Tangtang in the eye. “You damn girl, I’ll teach you to be a busybody!”