Transmigrator Alliance

Chapter 301 On the train

"Playing chess?"

Father Yu was shocked. He had never expected that the young ancient man in straight robes stared at him for a long time and blurted out such words.

"What kind of chess is this, young man?"

"Go." The young man opposite said concisely and uttered two more words.

"I'm not very good at playing Go," replied Yu's father.

"So you know how to play it? Old man, your long and slender fingers are the hands that hold the chess pieces. You must be able to do it. Come on, play a game. I brought the chessboard." The young man hurriedly took out a special wooden chessboard from under his seat. It was only thirty centimeters square.

"Old man, you go first with the black pieces." As he said this, the young man handed over the wicker chess pot.

"Then I won't be polite." Father Yu picked up the black piece from the chess jar. It was made of pottery, a flat round piece with two flat sides. The black piece was placed in an empty corner first. As soon as the piece was placed on the chessboard, there was a snap, and the young man opposite had already put down the white piece, raising his hand faster than Old Yu.

"Old sir, you still say you can't do this? Start by occupying an empty corner. Last year, I met a senior man in the capital who played like this. I lost three games in a row before he won. This method is the most stable. You can attack when you advance or defend when you retreat."

Father Yu took a deep breath. Every time he made a move, the young man on the opposite side would move back without stopping. After more than ten moves, Father Yu's moves became slower and slower.

Bang! The young man made another move. Just as Yu's father was thinking about his next move, another crowd of people came rushing in. There was a sudden noise, and the carriage was in chaos, with chess pieces scattered all over the floor.

The train whistled and started to move slowly. Lao Li, who was sitting next to him, poked Yu's father in the waist and said, "Are you still getting off? Look how crowded it is. There are five people crammed into this row of seats."

The young man opposite him protected the chessboard with both hands, trying to keep steady in the crowd, and urged: "I'm still okay, I'm still okay, go ahead, finish this game."

"Young man, we really can't get off here. Wait until there's more time." Father Yu looked around and said helplessly, "What's your name? Where are you going?"

The young man sat up quickly and made a half-faced gesture, "My surname is Zhu, my given name is Zongliang, may I ask your name, sir?"

"My last name is Yu, so you can just call me Old Yu. Our place doesn't have as many rules as yours."

At this time, another young man came over, looking for someone. When he saw Zhu Zongliang, his eyes lit up and he shouted, "Brother Zongliang, why are you here? Your sister was looking for you outside the train and asked me to look for you. I searched several carriages, but you still have the time to play chess here? You are such a chess nerd!"

Zhu Zongliang shrank his head and said a little aggrievedly: "I have to cry when I see my sister, which will make both of us feel bad. Why bother?"

Through conversations with several people, Old Yu learned that Zhu Zongliang had often competed in chess with several classmates in the Imperial College in the capital. He had indeed made some fame, and he had no worries about food and clothing and lived a very happy life.

But after the people's army invaded the capital, most of his family's fertile land outside the city was confiscated, and the houses in the city were sued and confiscated by some poor owners. His father was found guilty of lending money and sentenced to life imprisonment. From then on, the family fell into poverty and lost their livelihood.

His status as a student at the Imperial College became his meal ticket, but he could no longer live a lazy life as before. In order to respond to the People's League's transformation of Ming intellectuals, he had to go to Laishui County with his classmates to experience rural labor re-education.

"Well, it's okay to lose my home. What can I do if I say it only adds to my sadness? Let's take it one step at a time." Zhu Zongliang lowered his head, feeling very depressed. Old Yu comforted him with a few words and left. Several other young people had almost the same experience. It was difficult for Old Yu to judge the fate of this group of young people. If he sympathized with them, what about the previous victims?

Old Yu and Old Li looked at each other, sighed, and blamed the evil old Ming Dynasty society.

"It's time to get your meal!" the conductor shouted in the crowd.

The crowd, who had been in a gloomy mood just now, suddenly regained their energy and took out lunch boxes of various materials from their luggage and waited for their meals. The so-called meals were just brown rice with small pieces of pickles.

This is the standard meal on the train, and the cost is included in the ticket. Unlike Lao Yu who paid for the ticket, Zhu Zongliang and other students can get meals simply by showing their student ID cards. Needless to say, they also did not pay for the ticket.

Zhu Zongliang started eating immediately after he got the rice. He seemed to have been starving for a long time. He ate quickly and carefully, with a look of enjoyment on his face. Then he suddenly stopped and carefully wiped the rice grains stuck to the corners of his mouth into his mouth. If some of the rice fell, he would immediately look for it in the direction where it fell. If it fell on his clothes, he would pick it up with his hands and put it into his mouth, licking it with his tongue.

If it fell on the ground, he would immediately hold his legs and feet together for fear of stepping on it, and then lower his head and quickly pick up the rice.

This eating posture made Lao Yu and Lao Li stunned. Zhu Zongliang and his companions did not care about the looks of these two third world elders at all. They finished their meal in one gulp and licked their chopsticks clean. Then they reluctantly went to the bucket to fill a box of water, which they used to wash the lunch boxes and as soup. They drank the soup slowly, mouthful by mouthful, as if they were savoring the taste of the food.

At this time, Lao Yu's lunch box had not been opened yet, and the vacuum-packed braised meat and other braised foods he carried with him had not been unpacked.

"Wow, how hungry must you be?" Lao Yu sighed. He hadn't felt this kind of hunger for many years.

"Mr. Yu, you may not know that we never lacked food before."

At this time, the companion next to him coughed twice, as if to remind him to be careful with his words and not to get into trouble, or it seemed that he was just trying to clear his throat.

Zhu Zongliang swallowed his saliva and continued, "If people only eat rice and less oil and water, their appetite will increase a lot unconsciously. I used to read in the court newspapers that people in Shaanxi were cannibalizing each other due to food shortages. I thought it was exaggerated. Now I know that hunger is really unbearable. Alas."

Having said that, Zhu Zongliang drank the soup in the wooden lunch box in one breath, and with a gulp, he reluctantly put the lunch box away.

"Here, you can share these braised dishes. We are old and have bad teeth, so we can't eat much." Old Yu reached out, tore open the package of the braised dishes and spread them on the table.

Several people who had already smelled the food thanked them, picked up the stewed dishes with chopsticks, put them into their mouths and chewed them, all shouting that they were delicious. Soon, only the stewed chicken skeleton was left in the plastic bag. Zhu Zongliang said hurriedly, "This chicken bone is the most delicious. I'll get some more hot water and send it to the boiler in front to make soup."

Everyone cheered and waited for a while. The cooked chicken bone soup was served with a fragrant aroma. Several people scooped it into their lunch boxes and sipped it like drinking tea, not as eagerly as before. After the meal, everyone's relationship became closer and they had more things to talk about.

Time passed faster and faster, and soon it was time to say goodbye the next morning. Zhu Zongliang and his friends parted reluctantly with Lao Yu and Lao Li, feeling nervous about their future life in the countryside.

It is hard to say whether the reluctance is a kind of emotion or just a beautiful imagination of the food supply in the third world.

(End of this chapter)