Chapter 48: The Vast Ocean of the People!

“I’ll trip your grandpa’s fall!”

Being teased by Li Xiangdong, Uncle Hou became angry out of embarrassment and threw the contents of his tea mug towards the window.

Li Xiangdong, with quick eyes and hands, shut the window, then opened it again, teasing, “You’re really not particular, old sir. Is this how you invite someone for tea?”

Uncle Hou said angrily, “Dongzi, if you have the guts, come in here!”

Li Xiangdong wasn’t stupid, why would he walk right into a trap? He shook his head, “I’m not coming in.”

“You’re not coming in, are you? Fine, I’ll come out. You just wait, kid!”

Uncle Hou angrily walked over to open the door. Li Xiangdong quickly moved to the door and grabbed the handle.

Unable to pull the door open, Uncle Hou shouted through it, “You little rascal, let go!”

Li Xiangdong said, “If you want me to let go, fine, but we’ll let what just happened be bygones. As long as you nod, I’ll open the door for you immediately.”

Uncle Hou didn’t speak, and Li Xiangdong didn’t open the door.

After a standoff for a while, Hou San approached the window, stuck his head in, and said to Uncle Hou with a cheeky grin, “Second Grand-uncle, do you need me to help you open the door?”

Uncle Hou was surprised, “San’er, how did you end up with him?”

Hou San rubbed his nose, “My dad asked me to show Brother Dong around our section. My dad even arranged for us to be on the same train.”

“You two are getting along really well, aren’t you? You even call him Brother Dong?”

Uncle Hou was so angry he laughed. He stopped struggling with the door, walked to the window, and slapped Hou San on the head, “Get out of the way.”

Hou San yelped, pulled his head back, took two steps back, and stood there rubbing the back of his head.

“You idiot, be more careful when you’re with Dongzi in the future. Be careful not to get tricked by him.”

Uncle Hou stuck his head out of the window, looked at his foolish grandnephew, and then pointed at Li Xiangdong, who was still standing at the door, tightly gripping the handle with a mischievous smile on his face.

Hearing Uncle Hou say this, Li Xiangdong was not happy, “How could I trick my own people? Uncle Hou, don’t you slander me!”

Uncle Hou said, “If you’re a good person, then open the door for me!”

“Open it is.”

Just as Li Xiangdong let go of the door handle, he saw Uncle Hou pull his head back and quickly walk towards the door. He turned and ran.

He ran more than twenty meters in one breath, then looked back to see Uncle Hou standing at the door with his hands on his hips, cursing him. He laughed out loud.

He stopped running, squatted by the roadside to wait for Hou San and Ah Zhe, and casually pulled a foxtail weed from the ground to start picking his teeth.

“Hello, Uncle Hou. We met this morning, do you still remember?”

Ah Zhe greeted Uncle Hou with a smile.

“Mmm.”

Uncle Hou pushed the reading glasses on his nose and responded perfunctorily.

His memory was very good. Seeing Ah Zhe’s face reminded him of the scene from the morning. Just as he was about to close the main gate after the work bell rang, Ah Zhe had run over and tried to barge in like a blockhead, only to be stopped by him.

Uncle Hou waved his hand and started shooing them away, “Don’t loiter around here. Scram. Just seeing you guys annoys me.”

Hou San smiled, “Then Second Grand-uncle, you can go back to sleep for a while. We’ll be leaving now.”

“Mmm.”

Uncle Hou walked back to the reception room with his hands behind his back.

Seeing Ah Zhe and Hou San walking quickly towards him, Li Xiangdong threw away the foxtail weed in his hand and stood up.

“You two didn’t get scolded on my behalf, did you?”

Ah Zhe shrugged, “No, I couldn’t get a word in with Hou San’s second grand-uncle.”

Hou San said, “My second grand-uncle has a very strange personality. He only likes people who are on his wavelength. He doesn’t even smile at me.”

Li Xiangdong stood aside listening to their conversation and couldn’t help but smile faintly.

Ah Zhe was muddle-headed, and Hou San was foolish and dazed; of course, Uncle Hou didn’t like them.

When he was chatting with Uncle Hou in the morning, Uncle Hou had said that he didn’t like talking much with people who weren’t sharp.

He was worried that if he interacted with them too much, he would become an old fool himself.

…

It wasn’t far from the passenger transport section’s compound to the Beijing Railway Station building. After walking for less than 10 minutes, the three of them stepped into the station’s front square.

It happened to be the top of the hour, and the bell tune “The East Is Red” chimed from the clock towers on both sides of the building!

What was gratifying was that this unique bell tune was preserved into later generations. From the year Beijing Railway Station was built, it remained unchanged for decades.

Li Xiangdong’s home was not far from the train station. Every time the clock chimed on the hour, he could faintly hear the tune of “The East Is Red.”

But it had been a long time since he had heard it so clearly and up close.

Beijing Railway Station was built as a tribute to the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and was a special-class station under the jurisdiction of the Beijing Railway Bureau.

When it was first built, it only had 12 tracks.

It was estimated to handle a maximum of 200,000 passengers per day, with a waiting capacity of 14,000 people at any given time.

Twenty years later, with the continuous increase in lines, the flow of people was now even more massive!

The area around the train station was filled with passengers rushing on their way. They carried luggage rolls and cloth bundles on their shoulders and in their hands, or held a child with one hand and a large cloth bag with the other.

The crowd coming and going around them were all dressed in the four colors of blue, green, yellow, and gray. As far as the eye could see, it was a dense mass of people.

With a moment of inattention, the short figure of Hou San disappeared from Li Xiangdong’s sight.

“Ah Zhe, where’s Hou San?”

“He was just in front of us a moment ago. Where did he go?”

Ah Zhe stood on his tiptoes and shouted, “Hou San~ Hou San, where are you!?”

Li Xiangdong used his height advantage to look around, searching for Hou San’s figure.

“Here! I’m here!”

The voice came from seven or eight meters ahead. They couldn’t see the person, only a hand waving continuously at them.

Li Xiangdong couldn’t help but laugh, “Hou San has been submerged in the vast ocean of the people!”

Hou San nimbly dodged the oncoming passengers and walked over to them with a smile, “We just happened to hit a busy time. The flow of people is huge at this hour. You two stick close to me.”

Ah Zhe raised his arm to wipe the sweat from his forehead and complained, “But there are just too many people!”

Hou San was already used to it. He smiled, “This is nothing. We’re using the side entrance. If you were to go in through the main entrance, there are even more people there!”

Li Xiangdong nodded without saying a word.

Ever since he stepped into the station’s front square, he had only one feeling: there were many people, a super-large number of people!

So many that just looking at the crowd made his heart feel heavy and suffocated