"Xibao got so bored staying in the car this long, he must be feeling stuffy. It’s not dark out yet, why don’t you take him outside to play? When we were in the Capital and saw the snow, he was reminded of how you helped him build a snowman and kept pestering our father about it,"
Hearing Feng Qingxue speak, Lu Jiang’s heart immediately softened and he halted in his tracks.
Xibao quickly crouched down to slide off the bed, but was caught by Feng Qingxue, "Mommy will dress you up, put on your shoes, and daddy will take you out to play. Daddy does not want to leave Xibao!"
"Hurry!" Xibao sat on the bed and urged Feng Qingxue who was dressing him.
Fully dressed, Xibao slid down to the floor, ran over to Lu Jiang, grabbed his free hand, and shook it vigorously. He looked up and sweetly called out, "Daddy, let’s go! Let’s play in the snow!"
Feng Qingxue then said to Lu Jiang, "Auntie Wang Fengqiao wants to go home. Can you check if there are any tickets available for her? Buy a sleeper ticket,"
"Auntie has been traveling all this way. Why don’t we invite her to rest with us at the barracks for a while before she goes home?"
After hearing Lu Jiang’s words, Wang Fengqiao laughed and said, "No thanks. I’ll visit your barracks some other time. I got to rush home for the New Year! It just doesn’t feel right to not be home during the festival,"
After hearing her say that, Lu Jiang and Feng Qingxue naturally did not insist.
"Alright then, when I take Xibao out to play, I’ll check if there are any tickets available in the next couple of days,"
There were tickets available, at around ten in the morning the next day.
Lu Jiang bought an over-seventy-dollar sleeper ticket for Wang Fengqiao, nearly eighty, which was not very different from the price of the ticket from the Capital. It was a few dollars less, but it still cost Feng Qingxue’s entire two months’ salary.
Looking at the price indicated on each ticket, Wang Fengqiao was heartbroken.
"Why are these tickets so expensive? Your uncle and I would need to work hard for two or three years to earn eighty dollars. This round trip I’ve taken with you, just the cost of two tickets alone is equivalent to several years’ income for our entire family. No wonder some children of families from around here who have joined the army or become third-line workers don’t return home, even after three to five years. They just don’t have the time or the money, right?"
What a waste to spend a salary on travel!
Wang Fengqiao wished she could return the ticket and walk home instead.
Feng Qingxue chuckled, "With a few thousand kilometers to travel, when in the monkey’s year and horse’s month will you reach home? While the tickets are expensive, we are also making contributions to the nation!"
The first time she had traveled far to visit Lu Jiang, she was quite heartbroken, with forty dollars!
Now, she’s grown used to the hefty price of train tickets, as airplane tickets are even more expensive. One bottle of Moutai per person seems like small change. Although initially, their air travel was arranged by the troops, later she and Du Xiaotao had to bear the cost of airfares themselves. It was a good thing that Lu Jiang’s salary had been in her hands all along, or it would have been a big embarrassment.
Wang Fengqiao said, "Aren’t there seats? Lu Jiang, please exchange this for a seat ticket, which should be several times up to nearly ten times cheaper?" On their trip from their hometown to the Capital, they had bought seat tickets, which cost only a few dollars per person.
"That’s a long time to be sitting. Wouldn’t you be worried about getting swollen legs? Even if you’re not concerned about yourself, I am," said Feng Qingxue, "Nevermind that now, can you help me take care of the child? Xiaotao and I will borrow the guest house kitchen and prepare some food for you to take on your journey."
The food that Lu Jiang’s father brought to the Capital that they didn’t finish eating was brought here, it can be made into dry food for Wang Fengqiao.
The next day, when they sent off Wang Fengqiao on the train, the heavy snow showed no sign of stopping.
...The speed and pricing of trains are not very precise - it depends on the condition of the road. If the road is good, the speed is fast, if the road is bad, it becomes a joke. And then there’s maintenance to consider, we all just have to make do. However, at that time, train tickets were really expensive, with ten dollars you could only travel about five hundred kilometers. I don’t know if this refers to sleepers, the train was also very slow, nowhere near reaching its maximum speed. Being on the road for half a month was considered normal. A lot of third-line workers and soldiers were poor because they spent most of their wages on travel expenses.