1
In the late 1990s, I went to college in Chengdu. After vacation, I rushed to the station with three of my fellow villagers, only to be overwhelmed by the dense crowd in the square. Unprovoked fear and panic make it hard to breathe, and luggage and convenience food pile up two mountains before you can get home. At that time, to our county only long – distance double – decker sleeper, early in the morning, dark to; Or leave in the dark and arrive early the next morning.
This is my first time to experience Spring Festival travel.
The four of us crammed into two chairs in the waiting room. Tickets were sold out, and we couldn’t get back to school. After a while, we were surrounded by several ticket touts. They seemed to ask where they were going, then mysteriously flashed out the ticket that now seemed to shimmer, and then spittle flew to describe the station as unsafe, unfit to stay, the higher the price would be… And so on.
Twice the usual fare seemed reasonable, but it was clearly more than we could afford. The scalpers played hard to get, saying that they had only four tickets left and that they would have to find someone else to fill them if we wanted them.
At the steady stream of passengers with their luggage on their shoulders, we looked at each other in dismay and had to cough up our money. Having collected the money for the four tickets, the men had less than thirty yuan left.
We were taken to a secluded spot where a sleeping car stopped in front of an old office building. The driver was very aggressive and almost yelled at us to put our backpacks in the luggage compartment under the car. As the car teeters off, dusk has fallen on the streets of Chengdu, so it’s a good time to feel like you’re home.
In the haze, however, the car stopped. Out of the window, the lights dazzled, and outside a few simple houses, there was another long-distance bus. A group of people gathered around the table, some squatting beside them smoking, a flickering fire, and a strange emptiness surrounded them. I didn’t want to get out of the car, but the driver urged me savagely that everyone had to go to dinner, and he threatened: “Later, in case someone loses something in the car, that’s not clear!”
As soon as we got off the bus, a woman in an apron came to greet us warmly, saying that we were students and would arrange cheap and fine dishes for us, but we would have to spend money anyway, otherwise the driver would not have started the bus…
We had no choice but to sit down. The bench was cold and hard. The wind was pouring in from the corner. Woman answer: “have no noodles.”
A moment later she brought in rough, chipped bowls of cooked or sauteed vegetable leaves, scattered with a bit of fatty shredded meat, chopstick jagged and old. After trying to finish eating, the woman charged us 25 yuan for a bowl of ordinary noodles, which cost only one yuan.
Back on the bus, full of complaints from the passengers, the driver shouted: “Noisy, noisy what noise, other people’s restaurant will not earn some money for the Spring Festival?
As the restaurant was left far behind, there were whispers in the car saying, “Bad luck, never come here again.” Others tried to persuade him in a low voice: “Bear with me. I don’t know how many people can’t get a ticket home for the Spring Festival.”
2
On the eve of the 1998 Spring Festival travel rush, the Railway was opened to traffic. My hometown is on this section of the railway. It was thought that the passengers would be scattered and not be stressed by the tickets, but in fact, the opening of the train did not ease the difficulty of returning home for the Spring Festival. At that time, there were green trains and boxcars. Some students queued up to buy tickets half a month in advance. The small, narrow one was placed in the innermost layer of the stationery bag like a treasure.
On the platform, there were already crowds of people, standing on tiptoe and looking forward to it. A short and thin woman hugged a pile of old clothes and asked: “Do you want to take the seat? Ten yuan a place.” I opened my sweaty palms and suddenly noticed that the tickets I’d had to fight through had no seat number but number and number on them.
I shuddered at the thought of standing for hours. As she motioned to the man behind her to collect the money, the woman whispered to the paying passengers, “Don’t panic when the bus comes. Whoever gives the money has a seat.” The man quickly collected a wad of bills.
The opening of the train did not ease the hardships of returning home for the Chinese New Year
The crowd grew restless and the train drew in slowly. Before they could stop, some were hurriedly stuffing bags into the Windows, others were trying to climb through the Windows with the help of their fellow passengers, and the short, thin woman was already able to squeeze into the door beside the conductor with great dexterity. The conductor simply stopped others to check their tickets and shouted not to throw luggage out the window. The woman quickly threw her old clothes down on the seat and sat down quietly.
One after another, someone piled on or climbed onto the bus. The woman shouted, “Don’t sit where there are clothes. That’s the seat reserved for students! “Is she a teacher?” “Someone hesitated, puzzled. When the men and women, old and young, who had paid the money, found their own places, the first people to squeeze up were like a dream, and the woman had already got off the bus.
The whole process took less than two minutes.
The bus was full, and the previous occupant soon realized that the ten-yuan purchase was not for a seat, but for a seat, which was so crowded around that one could not stretch one’s legs. The corridors are airtight, the bathrooms don’t close, people are everywhere… People settled themselves by putting their luggage on the floor and sitting down.
The man with the baby was tired of standing. He stamped his feet and could only move the baby from his left hand to his right. The car shook as he clutched the iron bars of the luggage rack. Later, he found a large piece of luggage stuck in the middle of the luggage rack, leaving a small space in the middle, so he tiptoed to put the child there. He stretched out his hand hard to hold, the child’s mother also pushed past to try to help the child, but several times can not reach, can only look eagerly.
Not for a moment, the child cried to urinate, the woman about to hold him down, is hesitant, the child has urinated, sideways head to avoid less than the people curse, some frown with paper to wipe clothes, keep complaining, but more people just shut their eyes.
To be able to go home on time for the New Year, compared to those stranded at the railway station, has been very happy.
The noise died down, and the narrow space, with people huddled behind their backs and their arms pressed together, sank into a trance that clicked monotonously as the train roared across the hills and fields.
3
I thought the hardest part of the Spring Festival travel rush was buying tickets and going home, but I found myself really naive. During the Spring Festival travel rush one year, the money in my bag was cleaned out on the bus back to my hometown.
That time, this thought is approaching dusk, the passenger will be a little less, but when the bus slowly pulled into the station, a group of people piled into the narrow car door, I was driven by the crowd to squeeze into the door, the more people, the more nervous, such as effort to squeeze up only to find that the people on the car is not imagined so much.
At this time, a passenger pointed to my satchel, I found that my satchel zipper wide open, and the wallet has disappeared! I suddenly realized to look at the door, and just jam in the door of the car, would have dispersed in a hurry. Several of my fellow passengers could not find their wallets.
When I told my family about the theft, my cousin said, “That’s nothing.”
Once, he saw the station outside the square to sell peanuts, much cheaper than his hometown, so he wanted to take it home, while the New Year to sell fried goods. The big cowboy bag behind my cousin has no place to leave, so I just trample it under my feet. People came and went all around, each on his way home, and no one looked at him twice.
He barged with the seller, looked like, weigh, suddenly, someone patted him on the shoulder, “brother lift a foot.”
Without thinking, he moved on and went on weighing the peanuts. It was time to pay, only to discover suddenly that the denim bag was missing! The seller thought he was about to change his mind. “Didn’t you just step on it?”
His cousin was so angry that he remembered being asked to lift his foot when he had been looking intently at the scales, and having his bag stolen from under his eyes!
Thieves are not the only ones to watch out for.
During the Spring Festival travel rush in 2005, I stood in line at the North Railway Station with 100 yuan in hand to buy 20 yuan a box of instant noodles. It was a three-wheeled mobile stall selling only instant noodles and water, but a thriving business surrounded by people waiting to buy them.
When it was my turn, the owner of the tricycle kneaded the bill gently in his hand and raised it over his head. “Fake.” He said.
I was taken aback and changed it. He rubbed it and handed it to me. “It’s fake, too.
Take back to see, I panicked, how two pieces of money are fake?
Someone in the back kept urging me, so I quickly picked out the latest one in my wallet and turned it over and over before handing it to him. He smiled warmly and said, “Girl, be careful when you go out! If we get the fake money, we’ll have a wasted day.” After that, he handed me four twenty’s and held out the instant noodles to me.
With my luggage slung over my shoulder and hanging from my elbows, I made my way carefully to the waiting room, carrying instant noodles and change. When eating noodles, suddenly feel where wrong, took out the four twenty, a careful look, actually are false!
Wait me to want to go out to look for that tricycle booth owner again, crowded, where have the shadow of tricycle booth? In hindsight, were the people buying the noodles tourists like me, or the stall owner’s cover?
4
The other thing I remember most, though, wasn’t me.
In 2013, at 3am on the 29th of December, I was woken up by the continuous vibration of my mobile phone, which was an unfamiliar number. When the call was put through, I recognized it as a friend from high school. She was crying on the phone and couldn’t speak very well, and it took me quite a while to understand that she had been robbed!
I quickly put on my clothes and left the house. In the silence of the night, except for the occasional fireworks banging across the sky, I could only hear my own pounding heart.
Driving through half the city, she saw a lamp in the distance, sitting with her head on her hands. She was still shaking as she approached, and she walked several blocks to the spot, sobbing at the sight of me.
My friend just came back from Shanghai. On the train back, she met a woman with a kind face and chatted with her. Their destination was the same, the place where they went to high school was the same, and even the teacher mentioned had several of the same.
As the train drew near the station, the woman answered the phone. It sounded like family. She said with a smile, “Be at the North Station around 12:40. My classmate was worried about the upcoming Chinese New Year, and he couldn’t take a taxi at night. Unexpectedly, good luck fell from the sky and he was extremely grateful.
After getting off the bus, the woman led her through the square full of taxis. The woman, who had no luggage, helped her classmates with their bags. “There are traffic restrictions during the Spring Festival travel rush,” the woman explained, while calling to scold her family for parking too far. “It’s impossible to stop nearby.”
With these words, the two men came to a back alley. The classmate is a little uneasy time, the woman is not far from a changan car under the shadow of the tree said, “has arrived.” Said, she quickly opened the door, pushed the students to quickly close again, but he did not get on the car. The classmate even had no time to call for help, was behind the seat of the black hand covered his mouth, pressed the shoulder. There was also a man sitting beside him. He could not see his face clearly, but only the bright dagger.
The strange situation of the Spring Festival travel rush in 20 years
They took off her ring, dug out her purse, dumped cash and cards on the seat, and asked for her pin number. Two men quickly went to get the money with the card, and on their way back they nodded to the people in the car before they pushed her out.
The car disappeared into the night, and she only had time to catch a glimpse of a covered license plate.
The student who was robbed was penniless. They didn’t even leave her a bag of snacks. After a long time, the students stood up trembling all over. I do not know where to go, until there is a cleaner in the street, she just borrowed the phone, not to say to parents, first gave me a call in fear…
We went to the nearby police station to report the case, but the woman could not provide any clues except her appearance. After the recording, the policeman said with a straight face, “Go back, we will inform you if there is any news.” The police next to said: “the year is over, don’t go out credulous others.” Sort of comforting.
After several years of Spring Festival travel rush, there was still no news of the robbery.
5
In recent years, since I bought a small engine car, I thought it would avoid the noise of the station, and away from evil bandits. But there is more to the migration than that. No matter getting up early or taking advantage of the meal point to travel, there is no way to avoid the congestion on the highway. Home more than three hundred kilometers, every morning, we have to arrive at night.
Xiao Li was driving a new BMW. We followed him and drove slowly out of town. At first the stop-and-go can move forward, and then just stop on the highway. The car’s long line, as far as the eye could see, continued to stretch behind.
Gradually, everyone got off the bus, looked at the road conditions, exchanged greetings, some people jumped to stretch their legs. We also get off the bus and take out the food to eat.
Xiao Li lit a cigarette near the door of the car, suddenly panic ground shout: “Oh, key lock car!” We all thought he was joking, but when we looked over, we found the key lying quietly in the back seat, just a stone’s throw away.
Xiao Li had just got some water from his bag in the back seat, put the key there, and closed the car door to smoke. When the car door locked automatically, he had no time to regret it. When all the Windows were closed, Xiao Li’s wife was in a panic and kept blaming her for not driving the car. She kept the spare key at home.
A minute ago we were chattering about rushing ahead, but now we are worried about the passage and what will happen to the cars in the middle. Therefore, while asking 110 for help, I called the 4S shop and was so worried that I was at a loss.
Fortunately, there is a small town less than 10 kilometers nearby, the traffic police help to call the mechanic shop where the master unlocked. The wait was long and anxious, but the opening was short. Within twenty minutes the door had opened. “It’s 850 yuan.” The master crouched on the road, picking up his tools, without looking up.
“Too expensive!” Xiao Li’s wife stared. The master got up and laughed. “It’s not expensive,” he said. “I’m still running dozens of miles during the Spring Festival. Besides, this is a BMW, so it’s more expensive. If you open the lock on that car, “he pointed to our car,” it’s only a hundred or two hundred!”
“Eight hundred, not less.” The master said, motioned xiao Li to look at the vehicles not far away, at this moment, the team has been slowly crawling. Xiao Li said nothing and took out her purse with resignation.
6
A few days ago, working in Huizhou, my aunt called to say that she finally returned to Chengdu, I also followed with a sigh of relief. A month ago, they snapped up tickets from Huizhou to Chengdu in no time. In a panic, they grabbed tickets from Shenzhen to Chengdu. They went to Shenzhen one day in advance, waited until midnight at the railway station, and stayed on the hard seat for more than 30 hours, which took three days and three nights. To make matters worse, all the flights back to Huizhou and Shenzhen had been taken, so we had to choose Chengdu to Guangzhou…
Compared with the snowstorm stranded passengers, the motorcyclists with plastic sheeting on their legs, and the returnees who encountered emergencies during the Spring Festival travel rush, we all experienced a lucky Spring Festival travel rush.
In forty days, more than two billion people were on a great migration. No matter how many difficulties and troubles there were, all of them were still stubbornly rushing to their way home. The smog and the flying snow could not stop them either.
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