A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

In the next few days, Gui'er listened to the green train clanging across the rails every day, which was boring and tedious. Fortunately, they brought enough dry food and there were meals on the train. Every time they arrived at a station, there would always be locals carrying bamboo baskets and selling their homemade local snacks, which was quite novel. Outside the train window, rice fields and ponds receded alternately, and occasionally passed by a village with blue brick and tile houses, and farmers could be seen working in the fields.

Every time they arrived at a station, all sorts of passengers would get on. Their carriage was filled with well-dressed, wealthy people, and occasionally passengers from other carriages would stray in. Dingxiang would occasionally go out to check, then come back and tell Guier a vivid story: "Just now, a group of porters in shorts boarded our carriage, with coarse cloth slings draped over their shoulders. The smell of sweat mixed with tobacco smoke washed in. They squatted in the aisle, laughing and talking loudly in the local dialect. One of them pulled out a piece of braised duck wrapped in oil paper, the oil soaking the corners of the paper. But before they could even stand still, the conductor rushed them to the regular car."

Gui'er nodded and leaned back in her chair, taking out a pocket copy of "New Woman". The smell of ink overwhelmed the miscellaneous smells in the carriage.

One day, just as they were leaving a station, the train jerked to a halt, the lights flickering and then extinguishing. A conductor, holding a lantern, passed by and shouted, "Tracks ahead for maintenance. We'll be stopping for an hour!" The passengers erupted in a commotion. The porters cursed and pulled out their pipes. Several businessmen in suits surrounded the conductor, arguing that they had delayed their trip.

Gui'er opened the curtains and saw a vendor selling roasted peanuts on the platform taking advantage of the situation to sneak onto the train. The tin cans in their bamboo baskets clinked. She bought a bag, the peanut shells smelling burnt. As she ate them, she heard the old woman in the next compartment say to someone, "Last year, we took this train and encountered bandits when we passed the Nanling Mountains. It was all thanks to the Railway Guard..."

By the time the tracks were repaired, it was already dark. When the train started again, the lights outside the window formed a flowing galaxy, and the wind outside the window was wrapped in moisture, already carrying the unique warm and humid air of the south.

After 4 or 5 days of stopping and starting, we finally arrived in Guangzhou.

Gui'er has been on the train these days. Although she was sitting in a luxury suite, she was still feeling suffocated.

Ah Cheng said to her, "Miss, please wait a moment." Then he ran down quickly, found some porters on the platform to carry the luggage, and then let Dingxiang and Guier get off the train.

Guier looked up.

The Guangzhou Station platform was paved with pewter-gray cement, and at its end stood a Western-style clock tower, its spire piercing the dusk. Inside the station, a wooden sign read "Yue-Han Railway." Dappled sunlight filtered through the platform's iron roof, illuminating passengers carrying wicker boxes and uniformed porters.

A steam locomotive sat beside the tracks, its smoke and steam filling the air. The train attendants waved red and green flags and shouted. Porters in shorts surrounded the foreign company employees, bargaining with them. Women in cheongsams stepped on high heels to avoid the puddles. Newsboys hawked the Shenbao newspaper, its headline reading "Southwest Government Affairs Conference."

Guangzhou Railway Station adopts a modern Western architectural style. The overall shape is solemn and elegant. The roof has a distinct Western-style eaves design, the wall lines are simple, and the windows are neatly arranged.

The interior of the station has high ceilings and simple plaster moldings. The floor may be covered with green patterned tiles. The waiting hall has wooden benches and the walls are decorated with some cigarette advertisements and paintings of female stars.

Acheng led the porters, carrying the luggage, and walked slowly with them out.

There is an inspection station at the exit. Inspectors in Zhongshan suits check luggage. Cantonese, Mandarin, and various local dialects are intertwined in the hustle and bustle, which makes the place more lively and bustling than Fengcheng, like a trading port.

When it was their turn to check their luggage, the inspector had a stern look on his face. He opened the box and was about to look inside. Ah Cheng quickly took out a few silver dollars and put them in his hand. Then he shook the inspector's hand with the hand holding the silver dollars and said with a smile, "Thank you for your hard work, thank you for your hard work. These are all our young lady's personal luggage. It's not convenient for a little girl to show her things in public."

After shaking hands with him, the inspector clenched his fist and weighed the silver dollar that Ah Cheng had just secretly handed over in a handshake. He roughly knew the weight and pretended to flip it over. He nodded and said, "It's just something from an ordinary family. There's nothing to check. Let's go."

Ah Cheng quickly smiled, nodded and said, "Thank you for your hard work." Then he quickly called the porter and walked out.

Arriving outside the train station, Ah Cheng took out a piece of paper and said to the porter, "Go to the Aiqun Hotel."

The porters nodded, and the one leading them said to Ah Cheng in a Cantonese accent, "Boss, the Aiqun Hotel is about four miles from here. You two ladies will probably need to find a rickshaw to take you there, otherwise it will be a long walk."

Ah Cheng turned around and waved to the row of rickshaws waiting for passengers. A young man in his early 20s quickly got up and pulled the rickshaw over.

Gui'er pulled Dingxiang up to sit, but Dingxiang declined, saying, "Miss, I won't sit down, okay?"

Gui'er said, "Don't be so particular when you're outside. Just sit down."

Dingxiang finally sat down.

Although they were 4 kilometers away, they could still see the towering Aiqun Hotel from a distance. The rickshaw driver saw that they were from other places and introduced it to them, saying, "This Aiqun Hotel was just completed this year. It's said to be the tallest building in our area. It's quite impressive."

Arriving in front of the Aiqun Hotel, Guier looked up and saw that the hotel adopted the design style of an American skyscraper, which was not much different from modern buildings. Compared with the surrounding old-style buildings from the Republic of China, it seemed as if she had returned to the modern era.

Ah Cheng started running around to the front desk to book a room. He specially arranged a suite, and then arranged for porters to move the things into the room. Guier looked at the interior of the suite, which was very fully and modernly decorated and had a separate bathroom, and she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

After settling down, Ah Cheng said to Gui'er, "Miss, I'm going to check out the ship to Hong Kong. You take a rest first." Then he turned around and went out again.

Guier called the internal line to the service desk and asked them to send up some food.

After a while, the waiter brought the menu and Guier asked him to recommend some local specialties.

Guier took a look and saw fried prawn rolls, stir-fried conch slices, whole wax gourd, grouper, and roasted golden and silver ribs. She had never eaten these in Jiangcheng or Nanjing before, but after trying them, she found them quite appetizing.

She asked Dingxiang to save some food for Acheng, and the two of them began to eat it voraciously.

Ding Xiang smiled and said, "This Guangzhou cuisine is really delicious. I was thinking you'd be blessed by following the young lady. I'll ask Brother Cheng to write a letter for me and tell them about it. They're sure to envy me."

Gui'er then remembered that she had to report to Sha Yanxiao that she was safe, so she said to Dingxiang, "You wait here, Brother Cheng. We can't make outside calls here. I'll go to the service desk and borrow a phone to call back to Jiangcheng to report that I'm safe."