Chapter 48: Living off a woman, sleeping with an old cadre... A soft sleeper compartment (Seeking follow-up reads)

The afternoon at Beijing Normal University was lively as the examinations for the past few days had just concluded.

On the sports field not far from the administrative building, groups of young female students could be seen sitting directly on the ground, reciting poetry together and expressing their sentiments regarding the impending departure of friends and their eager anticipation of returning home.

Standing against the dim, yet bright light near the window at the end of the corridor, Cheng Kaiyan placed his warm hands on the icy windowsill and looked out, lost in thought.

To be precise, he was considering whether or not he should inform his aunt about taking time off to visit Jiangcheng.

Although his aunt was a rather aloof person, she had always treated him quite well. Aside from the awkward baggage of a broken engagement between them, there were basically no other conflicts, and Cheng Kaiyan hadn't taken the canceled betrothal to heart anyway.

After all, he was merely fulfilling a loyal commitment and acting upon someone's entrustment.

Besides, Cheng Kaiyan could actually perceive that Jiang Ting and he were somewhat alike; whenever he saw Jiang Ting, he always had the sensation of looking at another version of himself.

It was just that one treated people with cold indifference while the other was gentle, yet their common trait was that it was exceedingly difficult for anyone to truly enter their inner worlds.

"Oh well, whatever. Who told you to be my aunt..."

With a soft shake of his head, Cheng Kaiyan pushed open the door and stepped inside.

The small office was not spacious, and its furnishings remained simple.

Two facing desks were placed near the window. A corner of the sheer curtains was gently pulled up and held in place by a bottle of Shanghai-brand ink to block out the harsh light from the outside.

At one of the desks, a slender woman lay face down with her hands intertwined, her long, dark hair concealing her ears and face.

"Is she asleep?"

Cheng Kaiyan murmured as he looked at Jiang Ting's figure.

Ever since the first time he met his aunt, Cheng Kaiyan had never seen anyone else around her—even the man he had seen in the wedding portrait never made an appearance.

After a long while, Cheng Kaiyan had vaguely realized why this woman had asked him to help her move. Of course it wasn't out of any concern that "her husband might be exhausted" or to use Cheng Kaiyan as cheap labor; it was genuinely because Jiang Ting was all alone when moving.

Moving all by oneself—Cheng Kaiyan had done it many times.

Some people on the internet said that the loneliest thing in the world was moving alone.

Carrying a huge pile of belongings in and out by yourself, sitting down on the stairs to catch your breath from sheer exhaustion, feeling the chill radiating from the steps, the aching and numbness in your arms, the weakness in your palms, and the way your drenched clothes clung tightly to your body.

A helpless sense of desolation would assault you from every corner of your entire being...

"Why would anyone choose to move on a rainy day?"

Looking at the exhausted woman who had fallen asleep, Cheng Kaiyan formed a few guesses in his mind. He stepped forward, picked up his aunt's neatly hung coat from a nearby stool, and gently draped it over her shoulders.

"Mmm..."

A crisp, cold, low moan escaped Jiang Ting's lips. Lying face down with her head turned to the side, she slowly opened her eyes. The sudden appearance of a man's silhouette—whose face she could not clearly distinguish—sent a chill down her spine and caused her pupils to abruptly contract. "Who is it!"

"It's me, Aunt Jiang!"

"Phew..."

Recognizing the face of the person before her, Jiang Ting finally let out a sigh of relief. Supporting her forehead with one hand, she asked in a somewhat dazed manner, "What time is it?"

"It's half-past three. Please don't sleep in the office like this; it's so cold here. How much better it would be to sleep at home—the faculty dormitories have heating. What would you do if you caught a cold here in the office?" Cheng Kaiyan asked with genuine concern.

Jiang Ting tilted her head back to look at him, then suddenly smiled like winter instantly turning into spring as the frost melted away. "If I catch a cold, there will still be someone to take care of me. Usually, there's only myself."

"Stop joking around. Am I not a person? I'm right here by your side every single day at work."

Cheng Kaiyan retorted, then hooked a stool over with his foot and sat down. "Oh right, Aunt Jiang, I have something to tell you."

"Go ahead."

Hearing him say that, Jiang Ting blinked.

"I was writing something a while ago, and somehow it actually got accepted. Now the editors want me to go over and do some revisions."

"What?!!"

Jiang Ting's beautiful eyes widened, but she quickly regained her composure, as if her momentary astonishment had been nothing more than an illusion.

With an utterly serene expression, she said indifferently, "Not bad, that's a good thing. Congratulations, Kaiyan."

Seeing her reaction, Cheng Kaiyan opened his mouth, momentarily at a loss for words.

According to normal human logic and thinking, shouldn't she be a bit surprised?

And then ask for the details?

How could she...

"What is it?"

A very faint smile lingered on Jiang Ting's rosy lips, and under the desk, the tip of her foot was swaying leisurely.

Humph~

So what if your submission got accepted and you got to stay in a guesthouse?

Who told you not to let me read it beforehand!

Cheng Kaiyan was very observant. After pondering for a moment, he recalled how that afternoon his aunt had intentionally tried to get close, saying she could help him review his manuscript, only to be subconsciously rebuffed by him at the time.

"I was wrong, Auntie! Please forgive me."

"All right, all right... Tell me, where did you submit it? Make sure it wasn't some third-rate publication or magazine."

Jiang Ting waved her hand, her expression finally shifting slightly as a trace of curiosity emerged.

*Jiangcheng Literature* in Jiangcheng, though it's been renamed *Fragrant Grass* now."

"Jiangcheng?!!"

Jiang Ting's cool voice rose a notch, turning somewhat sharp, and she gazed at Cheng Kaiyan with a complex expression.

Working so hard to write manuscripts these past few days and submitting them to Jiangcheng...

Jiangcheng!

Clearly, this boy went all the way there because of Xiaoli... Right, after all, he was the one whose fiancée came to his face to call off the engagement. If it were anyone else, they probably wouldn't have been able to endure it.

It was a miracle that this child had been acting as if nothing had happened all this time; heaven knows how much pain he must have been hiding in his heart.

"Alas... This has truly been hard on you, Kaiyan! Your aunt is sorry for you."

Jiang Ting bit her lower lip tightly and sighed, her heart filled with self-reproach, guilt, and a deep sense of pity for Cheng Kaiyan.

Strictly speaking, this was her fault as well. The boy had only recently returned from his military service in the southern frontier, and he still carried a bullet wound. Putting aside offering him condolences and care, rushing over aggressively to break off the engagement right from the start was truly inappropriate...

???

What was going on here?

"It's all in the past now, Aunt Jiang..."

Seeing Jiang Ting look like that, Cheng Kaiyan was momentarily baffled before realizing what his aunt meant, so he gave a vague, noncommittal reply.

"When are you leaving? Have you bought your ticket yet?" Jiang Ting asked caringly, her face no longer cold.

"The sooner the better, I suppose. I haven't bought the ticket yet; I was planning to let you know and then head down to the train station to see if there were any remaining tickets."

"Then you probably won't be able to get one. Right now it happens to coincide with the Spring Festival travel rush—forget about a sleeper ticket, you wouldn't even be able to buy a platform ticket! You really need to be more mindful."

Jiang Ting gave him an exasperated look, but without stopping her actions, she pulled Cheng Kaiyan along outside, located the telephone in the administrative office, and dialed.

Half an hour later, a jeep drove into the campus and parked beneath the administrative building. A guard in military uniform with a rifle slung across his back respectfully delivered two train tickets.

During ticket purchases in the 1980s, travelers had to go to the station and state their destination, whereupon the ticket clerk would retrieve pre-printed tickets from the corresponding compartment and stamp them with the date and train number of the day.

However, such trouble was unnecessary now.

One ticket was for departure today, and the other for return on February ninth.

Arranged thoroughly and impeccably—was this the charm of a prominent second-generation elite?

Cheng Kaiyan was filled with deep emotion as he examined the two train tickets in his hands.

The tickets were small and made of stiff cardboard, with braille printed on the back, and different seat types were distinguished by different colors.

Train tickets were categorized into various types, such as hard seat, soft seat, and suburban tickets, with distinct ticket colors as well; for instance, hard seat tickets were light red, while soft seat tickets were light blue.

Unlike the hard seat he had taken when returning to Beijing from the southern frontier, these two were extraordinarily precious soft sleepers—a true luxury!

Ten years prior, if someone slept in a soft sleeper, the train attendants would even address them as "Chief"!

Of course, things were different now.

Soft sleepers weren't something just anyone could sleep in; only high-ranking cadres at administrative rank fourteen or above, or retired senior cadres, were qualified.

However, personnel traveling on official business for their work units occasionally used soft sleepers as well. Some people, however, would not ride in them; instead, they would flip the tickets by trading with others to take hard seats or hard sleepers, pocketing the price difference to subsidize their household expenses.

Naturally, some individuals emerged in response to the times and acted as middlemen in the transaction.

Thus, that very evening, accompanied by Jiang Ting and his mother Xu Yuxiuxiu, Cheng Kaiyan boarded the T38 express train from the great capital Beijing to the Hankou Station in Jiangcheng, carrying luggage of all shapes and sizes.

It took just one day and one night to arrive!