Chapter 51 Playing Cards on the Train

Clank, clank...

Across the vast expanse of the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain in Henan.

A black, iron-bellied dragon was speeding through endless fields, its locomotive puffing out billows of scorching white steam.

The T38 Express on the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway line was operated by the Jiangcheng Railway Bureau.

Known as the thoroughfare of nine provinces, Jiangcheng had been a major transportation hub since the late Qing Dynasty, with almost all major railway routes intersecting through it.

The current Beijing-Guangzhou Line was actually formed after the completion of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge in 1957, which merged the Beijing-Hankou Railway and the Guangdong-Hankou Railway.

The Beijing-Hankou Railway, originally known as the Lugou-Hankou Railway, was the historic trunk line connecting Beijing and Hankou.

It was the first railway the Qing government prepared to build independently after the First Sino-Japanese War. Proposed by Zhang Zhidong, the Viceroy of Huguang, construction began in 1899. Lacking funds, the Qing government borrowed 4.5 million pounds sterling from Belgian merchants.

The construction engineering was supervised by a Belgian company. Except for the materials supplied by the Hanyang Ironworks, all other provisions were contracted to the Belgian company, enjoying tax-exempt status. During the thirty-year loan period, all traffic management rights rested entirely in the hands of the Belgian company.

The reason my moribund Qing Dynasty managed to linger on for so many years was largely due to the opium trade and loans from Western powers...

Because so many railway lines passed through Jiangcheng, the jurisdiction of the Jiangcheng Railway Bureau was immensely vast, leading to its numerous dissolutions and re-establishments over the years...

Even now, in the year 1980, it still governed the railways throughout the entire Hubei province and a small half of Henan province, including Xinyang, the section of the Beijing-Guangzhou Line from Mengmiao south to Donghuangdian, and the Mengbao Branch Line, all under the administration of the Jiangcheng Bureau.

"There are so many farmlands in Henan. I'm afraid this place will still be farmland forty years from now."

In a soft sleeper compartment, Cheng Kaiyan lay on the lower berth, resting his head on the train's pillow with a towel he had brought himself, looking sideways out the glass window.

Neatly arranged farmlands and fertile soils were already sprouting tender green shoots, and the branches of some roadside trees even brushed against the window glass.

Amidst the crisscrossing fields, small rural settlements could be faintly seen nestled near the farmland, alongside rows of wooden utility poles.

The train had been running all night and was now deep within Henan territory.

It was expected to arrive in Jiangcheng by tomorrow morning.

Although he had rested in the soft sleeper for the entire night, Cheng Kaiyan had not slept well.

It was not only because of the rhythmic clanking of the train wheels, but also because the bed was too short for him to stretch his limbs properly, lacking the spaciousness of later generations.

"It's fine for someone of my height in the North, but if I were down South, people would probably call me a lanky giant..."

Cheng Kaiyan rolled over and got up. Without pausing, he dressed himself and walked out into the corridor, realizing it was already past nine o'clock.

He poured some water from his personal thermos, washed his face to wake himself up, and then headed to the dining car to grab a few steamed buns and stuffed rolls to satisfy his hunger.

With a long journey still ahead, Cheng Kaiyan did not continue reading the unfinished classic romance novel *Gone with the Wind* as he had the previous night. Instead, he strolled around, occasionally gazing at the scenery passing by the window.

The soft sleeper compartments were lined up one after another with their doors open. Cheng Kaiyan noticed that most passengers were sitting on their beds, gathered around the small inner tables playing cards.

"A pair of hooks!"

"Pass, can't beat that."

"A pair of machine guns! Crush you!"

...

Aside from the smell of cigarette smoke, the compartments were filled with shouting voices carrying various dialects from all over the country.

Ah, playing poker was practically the only pastime on trains these days. Walking from one end of the train to the other, nearly every compartment was hazy with smoke and the sharp snapping sounds of slaps on cards.

Just as he was about to return to his compartment, Cheng Kaiyan was suddenly stopped by a crisp voice speaking with exceptionally standard Mandarin: "Hey! Little comrade, care for a game of cards? We're one player short, fancy joining us? It's a good way to relax, playing continuously can get a bit tiring..."

Cheng Kaiyan turned his head to look and saw a man of about twenty--eight or twenty-nine years old. He wore a leather jacket over a white collared shirt visible at the neck, and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose.

He possessed the gentle, refined demeanor of a scholar.

Yet when Cheng Kaiyan caught sight of his face, he froze in surprise.

That nose, that face, those eyes combined together—why did they look so familiar?

Isn't this An Shaokang?

What a coincidence!

To actually run into this person on a train from Beijing to Hankou!

Cheng Kaiyan stared at An Shaokang for a moment. The other man stood in the doorway, looking back at him with a hint of perplexity as to why this young fellow remained silent.

"Young man, I've watched you wandering around for quite a while, you must be terribly bored. We happen to be missing a hand. Don't worry, we don't play for high stakes, nothing to worry about."

An Shaokang pushed up his glasses and smiled genially.

"Ahem, sure. I'm bored out of my mind right now anyway. Give me a second."

After a brief thought, Cheng Kaiyan accepted on the spot and stepped right into the compartment.

...

There were only three people inside the compartment: two men, a woman in her forties or fifties, and one empty berth.

After a round of cards, everyone made brief introductions.

"I'm from Henan, Luoyang, Henan..."

The middle-aged man in his forties, wearing a Zhongshan suit, sat with his back straight as he played. He introduced himself as an official from a tractor manufacturing factory in Luoyang who had just been away on a business trip to Beijing.

"The Luoyang Tractor Factory, is that First Tractor?" Cheng Kaiyan asked in surprise.

The Dongfanghong tractors were manufactured in that very factory located in Luoyang. As China's first tractor manufacturing plant, it carried the nation's dream of agricultural mechanization, and the "Dongfanghong" tractors produced there could be found all across the country.

Back in 1959, Premier Zhou inspected their factory and praised them highly using the phrase "Four Firsts."

"You must remember, you are 'China's First'! You must produce 'China's First' products, cultivate 'China's First' talents, and create 'China's First' achievements!" An Shaokang recited sonorously at this point.

At the mention of Premier Zhou, everyone in the compartment smiled, their faces filled with reverence and fond remembrance.

"Hahaha! It's all about making contributions to the people!"

The middle-aged uncle burst into a hearty laugh, his face beaming with pride. At the same time, he pulled out a copy of the Little Red Book, gave it a wave, and then tossed down a card with a sweeping gesture: "A small King!"

"Pass."

"A pair of twos to top that..."

As they played cards, the group quickly became acquainted.

"As for me, I study French and work as an associate professor at Wuhan University. In case you haven't seen it, the Changjiang Literature version of *The Hunchback of Notre-Dame*—that was translated by me." An Shaokang played a two and smiled.

"Oh, so you're a great professor? Impressive."

Hearing this, the uncle immediately gave a thumbs-up and then turned to Cheng Kaiyan, "And what about this young comrade here?"

"Me? I also work at a university, though I can't compare to Professor An here—just a humble teaching assistant," Cheng Kaiyan replied with a smile.

"An assistant is quite good too."

In an era rife with occupational prejudice, everyone nodded in agreement and resumed their card game.

They were playing for stakes of a penny a hand, with no wild cards and very few bombs.

By the end of the morning, Cheng Kaiyan had won eight cents, barely enough to buy two fried dough sticks.

They stopped playing at noon, treating their encounter as a chance meeting of travelers. Cheng Kaiyan retreated to his compartment to read and sleep.

The next morning, the sky was overcast.

Across the Yangtze River, a giant steel dragon lay prone, its metallic structure piercing through the clouds and mist.

In the distance, the horizon merged with the river surface, blurring the boundary between water and sky.

A heavy river mist hung over the water, shrouding the grand bridge like layers of gauze.

"Woo-woo-woo~"

Suddenly, a deep and powerful whistle sounded from afar. A train cut through the quiet of the night like a shooting star, its blinding headlight tearing the layers of fog apart.

In the distance, the faint silhouette of the industrial city crouching under the night sky came into view.

"Dear passengers! The thirty-eight express train, traveling from the great capital Beijing to Hankou, is about to arrive at Hankou station..."

"Woo-woo~~"

"Ding-ding-ding-ding~"

Jiangcheng, which ranked seventh nationwide in 1980 with a GDP of 5.344 billion yuan, had finally arrived!