Have you ever ridden on a train packed with people, where everyone is squeezed against each other and heels are pressed upon heels?
The scariest part was that the train he was on was a steam train, not even a decent passenger train, clanking and moving so slowly, making him long for the high-speed trains of the future even more.
The air inside the carriage was awful too, everyone squatting on their luggage. Dressed in his military uniform, Zheng Long had to maintain his image and step forward to help when needed. Want to say you’re tired and want to sit down to rest? Ha, there were hardly any seats available.
Luckily, it was mealtime and the dining car opened. The food on the train didn’t require food stamps, but it was much more expensive than outside, so those who could afford to dine there were generally the wealthy with sleeper compartments.
Over the past few years, his allowance and bonuses had accumulated to over 100 yuan. Usually, he had no place to spend money, so on the train, he couldn’t let himself down, especially after standing for hours, legs numb from the cold.
After being in the army for three years, the first year’s allowance was only five yuan, then six yuan the second year, and it had increased to seven yuan a month this year. Get full chapters from NovєlFіre.net
After deducting daily necessities he bought such as pastries and snacks, he had only managed to save up US$ 150, but he had accumulated about a dozen industrial tickets, given as awards for missions, which were precious and he could exchange them for booze for his old man at home.
When he went to the dining car, there were indeed not many people buying meals; there were at least some seats available. Luckily, he only carried a backpack, which made it easier for him to rest a bit.
The food in the dining car was simple but in good portion sizes—a steamed bun cost ten cents and weighed at least two taels, definitely made of mixed flour. In winter, the available vegetables were cabbage and radish, so there was a dish of cabbage and glass noodles with tofu. Though there was no meat, it was much richer than ordinary dishes, priced at thirty cents a portion. Thus, he spent 50 cents to get a dish, two large steamed buns, and a free bowl of thin corn soup.
The moment he sat down with two meal boxes, he felt utterly comfortable all over.
Just as he was about to start eating, he looked at his hands, disliked their dirtiness, and stood up—fortunately, there was a place to wash up in the dining car. However, when he returned, he was dumbfounded; a mother and her child were wolfing down his meal.
"Excuse me, you’re eating my food, aren’t you?"
The woman continued stuffing her mouth, passing food to her son, ignoring him completely.
Zheng Long couldn’t believe it. "No, listen, ma’am, I just went to wash my hands, and you ate my food just like that; do you think that’s appropriate?"
The woman still ignored him until she and her child had cleaned his plates and even finished the soup. Only then, with a satisfied burp, did she look up at him, bafflingly, "Yours? Does it have your name on it? Call it, see if it responds to you?"
Zheng Long took a deep breath, feeling his patience completely depleted at that moment, he gritted his back teeth at the dirty-looking woman.
"So, you’re saying you bought this?"
The woman wasn’t foolish; there were train attendants present in the dining car, how could she claim it was hers?
She tried to sneak away with her son, but Zheng Long wasn’t a pushover to just swallow the insult. "Trying to leave? Compensate me, 50 cents!"
The woman’s eyes darted around, resorting to the typical shrew tactics, "Oh, someone help! Look here, this soldier is bullying us! We, a mother and child, haven’t eaten a meal for three days and nights, thought there was no one around so we took it. Would we eat someone else’s food if we had money? You look decent, how can you be so heartless? We admit it was wrong to eat your meal, we can bow down to you, kneel if needed?"