Chapter 67: I’m 19, I can get married next year!

Hearing the broadcast.

Hou San stood up and said, “Brother Dong, it’s time for us to go eat.”

Li Xiangdong stood up and followed Hou San towards the dining car. He smiled and teased, “Was the voice on the broadcast just now pleasant, or is Kong Dani’s voice more pleasant?”

Hou San turned to look at him and said with certainty, “Of course Dani’s voice is more pleasant.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, Dani’s voice is so sweet when she speaks.”

“I think it’s your heart that’s sweet.”

“Hehe~”

The two chatted as they walked through the carriages, arriving at the dining car located between the hard seat and sleeper sections.

The small blackboard at the food window read: Main dishes include steamed buns, rice, and noodles.

Spicy chicken 1.2 yuan, fried fish segments 1 yuan, fried pork segments 0.9 yuan, braised pork ribs 0.6 yuan.

A hard seat ticket was only 2.9 yuan…

Li Xiangdong understood as soon as he saw the prices; this was not food for ordinary people at all!

And that was indeed the case. Many passengers were reluctant to even eat the 0.3 yuan box lunch. When hungry, they would eat the pickled vegetables and corn buns they brought with them.

For those who didn’t even have corn buns and pickles, they would drink water to trick their stomachs. After all, the water was free.

Drink as much as you want!

Li Xiangdong and Hou San handed over their meal tickets. The two took their staff meals and found an empty small dining table to sit at.

The windows in the dining car were larger than those in the hard seat carriages, making the whole car feel brighter.

Li Xiangdong ate his staff meal of one meat and two vegetable dishes, looking at the scenery outside the window and listening to the cheerful songs constantly playing on the broadcast.

This relaxed and pleasant feeling gave him an indescribable sense of ease.

While Li Xiangdong was still eating slowly, Hou San had already finished and returned his lunch box to the collection window. He came back, sat down, and said, “Brother Dong, can you eat faster? Don’t be like a girl, alright?”

Li Xiangdong swallowed the rice in his mouth, “You should chew your food slowly. I’m not in a hurry, why are you?”

Hou San scratched his head, “It’s not that I’m in a hurry, I’m afraid the train conductor will be. The passengers have all finished eating by now. If there’s not enough water later, the conductor will definitely come looking for us.”

“What the f*ck, why didn’t you say so earlier!”

Li Xiangdong slapped his head. He had relaxed so much that he had forgotten his own duties.

He immediately picked up his lunch box, finished it in a few quick bites, put the lunch box away, and pulled Hou San to run out of the dining car.

Opening the door, Li Xiangdong almost collided with an oncoming cart!

He stopped abruptly, and Hou San, who was behind him, crashed right into him. Luckily, he reacted quickly and supported himself against the carriage wall.

Li Xiangdong looked at the mountain of empty lunch boxes on the cart in front of him and felt a great sense of relief!

If he had crashed into that, cleaning it up would have been a major project!

The two quickly stood close to the side of the carriage, letting the attendant pushing the cart pass first.

After another burst of activity, Li Xiangdong and Hou San filled all the thermos buckets on the entire train. The two were finally free and returned to the break room to wait for the train to pull into Tianjin Station.

The distance from Beijing Station to Tianjin Station is 137 kilometers, which takes two and a half hours.

However, due to departure and arrival delays, it was almost two in the afternoon by the time the train stopped at the Tianjin platform.

Passengers got off one after another, and the crew began to clean up.

Hou San stopped Li Xiangdong, who had slung his cloth bag over his shoulder and wanted to get off for some fresh air. “Brother Dong, let’s wait a bit before we go down.”

Li Xiangdong asked in confusion, “What’s wrong?”

Hou San leaned against the car window, pointed to the platform, and said, “The conductor is down there.”

Li Xiangdong followed his finger and glanced, then immediately sat down without any hesitation.

When you have nothing to do, you can find a place to hide, but you should never loiter in front of the leadership.

They sat there for a good half hour.

Only when they saw Ah Zhe’s figure appear on the platform did the two of them hurriedly get off the train.

The three gathered for a smoke, and soon someone notified them of a meeting.

In the train conductor’s office car.

“We’re taking the train back to Beijing at two in the afternoon tomorrow. Board the train early after lunch tomorrow.”

After the conductor finished speaking, his gaze fell on the seven or eight newcomers, including Li Xiangdong. “You guys need to keep an eye on the time. Don’t be careless. Our train doesn’t wait for anyone. No one is allowed to be late, do you hear me?”

“Heard you.”

Among the sparse replies, only the voices of Li Xiangdong and Ah Zhe, the two outsiders, were the loudest.

The conductor’s face darkened. He shouted again, “Did you hear me!”

“Heard you!”

Seeing the conductor’s display of authority, no one dared to be perfunctory this time. Everyone shouted at the top of their lungs.

The old employees watched the show with their arms crossed. Hou San stood to the side, so amused he was on his tiptoes.

The conductor warned again, “Everyone be careful when you’re out. It’s best not to run around randomly. Now, let’s go to the hostel.”

Although he said this, he knew in his heart that no one would listen to him.

Didn’t everyone fight to get on the train just to go out and trade goods? If they couldn’t leave the hostel, what was the point of getting on the train?

After the short meeting, everyone walked to the hostel in groups. In the distance, the Tianjin Jiefang Bridge could still be seen.

After leaving Tianjin Railway Station, the hostel was not far away.

Li Xiangdong looked at the two-story red brick building in front of him, complete with a few large poplar trees in the courtyard. He thought he had walked onto the set of a suspense drama!

Li Xiangdong and Hou San shared a room.

It was a small, cramped room with two single iron-frame beds, a table, and two long benches.

A small mirror hung on the wall, and below it was an iron rack for washing up, holding a washbasin.

The whole room was empty, without even curtains on the windows.

Li Xiangdong walked over and shook the thermos. “Hou San, let’s go get water together.”

“Alright.”

Hou San also picked up a thermos, and the two went to the water room together.

Passing by the toilet, Li Xiangdong put down the thermos and said, “I’m going to the toilet. Wait for me here.”

The hostel had old-fashioned flush toilets, with a long channel divided into individual stalls.

Ah Zhe was squatting in one of the stalls. He saw Li Xiangdong come in and greeted him, “Dongzi.”

“Mmm.”

After Li Xiangdong finished his business and fastened his pants, he looked at Ah Zhe and smiled, “You’re a smart kid, knowing not to squat in the first or last stall in this kind of toilet.”

Ah Zhe was puzzled, “What’s wrong with the first and last one?”

Li Xiangdong said with a mysterious tone, “There’s a surprise.”

Anyone with experience with this type of toilet knows that when the first stall is flushed, you might get a splash of water on your butt. If you’re unlucky enough to get hit, you can only pray that the water isn’t being recycled.

Because in many places, the water from the urinals is used to flush the toilets…

The last stall was no better. Not only was there a splash, but the accompanying smell could make your head explode!

Just as Li Xiangdong was walking out of the toilet, Hou San walked in. “Brother Dong, what took you so long? Eek~”

He saw Ah Zhe, grinned, bent down, and then tilted his head to take a look. “Hahahaha, it’s a little Ah Zhe~”

Ah Zhe’s face turned red with shame, “As if you’re so big!”

Hou San straightened up, tilted his head back, and replied matter-of-factly, “I’m 19, I can get married next year at twenty!”