Journey 1995:Non-Stop

Chapter 2 Settlement
The car started, but Yan Hui had not returned to his previous seat, which made Ma Junliang a little anxious. He wanted to get up and ask the attendant, but he didn't dare to get up. He anxiously leaned forward and looked around, and only breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Yan Hui come back.

"The wind is too strong and I can't stand walking against it. I came in from the carriage over there." Yan Hui explained.

"I guess so. It's a good thing I didn't get up to look for you! I was afraid you'd missed the bus!" Ma Junliang stood up and made room for Yan Hui. "We agreed to stop here. Let you rest for a while."

"You should get some sleep first. It will take another 6 hours to get to Fengtian. You can sleep for one more stop and then give it to me."

"Brother, thank you very much. Go to sleep first and talk to you after you have rested enough." Ma Junliang was a little persistent. He looked at Yan Hui with some doubts, "Brother, how about your legs?"

"It's okay," Yan Hui patted his leg, "I fell once before."

"Then you should take a rest."

"Okay, call me when you're tired." Yan Hui didn't say anything. He just sat there and slowly ate his steamed bun.

After the car passed Jinzhou and then Haicheng, Yan Hui couldn't fall asleep, so he gave his seat to Ma Junliang.

The car would arrive in Fengtian in two hours, and he was both excited and confused.

When the train stopped at Haicheng Station just now, Yan Hui went down to feel it. He didn't know how many degrees below zero it was, but the biting cold scared him, and the dull pain in his right leg made him even more uneasy.

People back home say it's easy to make money in the north, but how can survival be so difficult there? It's said this isn't the coldest time of year anymore, so how do you survive when it's the coldest?

His right leg was broken half a year ago, and it has recovered now. He can run and jump around at home, but the cold wind here has blown away all his confidence.

Not long after, the bus stopped at Anshan Station. The final destination of this bus is Fengtian, which is only an hour's drive away.

Looking at the people getting on the train, Yan Hui was very envious, especially when he saw a father and daughter actually going to the sleeper car, he was even more envious.

Taking a sleeper for an hour's journey? Yan Hui couldn't even comprehend this.

One steamed bun was obviously not enough to satisfy one's hunger, and Yan Hui's stomach was still empty, but he no longer had the courage to go to the platform to buy anything. He could only watch the train door close and continue to head for Fengtian.

When we get there, it will be warmer when the sun rises, right?

The only thing worth being happy about was that the attendant who had been guarding the door of the sleeper car had gone to rest, and Yan Hui could go over and find a place to sit for a while.

"Dad! There's a rat!" shouted the girl who had just gotten on the bus.

"Rat?" A middle-aged man immediately went over to take a look, but found nothing.

Yan Hui did see the mouse, but he didn't say anything. He was from another place, and even if he caught it, he didn't know how to eat it. It was so cold here, would it be difficult to make a fire?

The last hour was particularly difficult. Until the car began to slow down, more and more people gathered in the aisle. Yan Hui hugged his bag and looked out the window. It was still dark.

After several stumbles, the train pulled up to Fengtian Station. Yan Hui joined the large crowd outside. The crowds made it feel less cold than he'd imagined. He followed the crowd, ticket in hand, and walked out in a daze.

This is the terminal station, and there are many people getting off. Yan Hui doesn't need to find the way at all, just follow the crowd forward.

Yan Hui vaguely felt as if someone was touching his pocket. He reached out to touch it, but found that there was no hand in the pocket.

I looked around but found nothing.

After walking a few dozen meters further and entering the tunnel, he saw someone touching his other pocket! This wasn't an illusion!
Yan Hui didn't have anything useful in his pocket, so he wasn't worried. He didn't reach out to grab it again, but quickly looked around and saw the short man who was grabbing a seat in the car!

Oh shit!

Yan Hui couldn't stand this, he immediately pushed away a few people around him and prepared to take action, but he didn't expect that the short man was more agile than him. He bent down and got through a few people, and then disappeared from sight.

Yan Hui looked around but couldn't see the man or Ma Junliang.

The exit passed by a locked door in the entrance hall. A staff member unlocked it and went in. As the door opened, the warmth from inside hit Yan Hui, and he felt a little more excited.

Before daybreak, the area around Fengtian Station was already bustling with activity. At a glance, there were over a dozen cars of all kinds. Yan Hui took out the address he had prepared and looked at it again.

He came this time to look for his fourth uncle. His fourth uncle was the son of his second grandfather. To be more precise, Yan Hui should call him fourth uncle. It was said that he was doing very well in Fengtian.

It’s not just said, it’s very good.

During the Chinese New Year this year, my fourth uncle came home and told me that he had just asked someone to buy a Jetta car in Changchun for 23 yuan last year!
The letter was simple: take bus No. 261 from Fengtian Railway Station to Tiexi Building Materials Market. Once there, ask around and you'll find the address. Yan Hui was hungry and cold, but thankfully, he was polite and found the bus stop after asking around. He bought two steaming cabbage and vermicelli buns.

Although there was no meat at all, these two buns saved half of Yan Hui's life.

When the bus arrived near Tiexi Building Materials Market, it was already dawn. The place was very lively, with many "big-head" cars coming and going. Yan Hui got off the bus and looked for a while, and felt that his feet were no longer his own.

The bus was poorly insulated, and although his body was fine, his feet were already numb from the cold. Coupled with the chronic injury in his leg, he even limped a little when he walked.

After getting off the car, he asked several people, but no one knew where his uncle was. He could only look for the house number. After looking for several houses, the owner of one house was kind enough to show him the way. Only then did he know the location of his fourth uncle.

Everything went smoothly. Before his feet froze, Yan Hui met his fourth uncle's daughter Yan Yan.

"You really came!" Yan Yan was a little surprised to see Yan Hui. "My dad said the day before yesterday that you might come over in the next two days. I didn't expect you to really come!"

"Where is my fourth uncle?" Yan Hui was somewhat excited.

"My dad went to the forest farm in Baishan. He said there's going to be a month of suspension of work there, so I had to go check it out in advance. He said he's arranged a place for you to stay and even prepared an electric blanket for you!"

"Will Fourth Uncle be back for another month?" Yan Hui suddenly felt a little disappointed.

"That's not the case. He'll probably be gone for a week," Yan Yan explained.

"Yeah, this is the tea I brought from home," Yan Hui opened his bag, took out a box and handed it to Yan Yan.

"Why are you being so polite?"

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Yan Yan took Yan Hui to their residence. They were quite familiar with each other and had fought when they were young, but Yan Yan was two years older than Yan Hui, and when they were young, Yan Hui had always been defeated by her.

In the past three years, perhaps due to the pressure of high school, Yan Yan did not go home for the Chinese New Year.

"School is about to start. Fortunately, you came today. If you were two days later, you wouldn't be able to see me." Yan Yan was talkative. As she led Yan Hui forward, she talked about some of the situations here, and Yan Hui listened carefully.

"Then I am really lucky. If you are not here, I don't know who to look for."

"By the way, I heard from my dad that you broke your leg last summer? How are you now?" Yan Yan said, lowering her head to look at Yan Hui's leg.

"It's nothing serious, don't worry."

"What happened?" Yan Yan was still a little worried. "How could his leg be broken? My dad told me that this matter was related to the Xiao family, but he only said half of it."

"Uncle doesn't know what happened either," Yan Hui shook his head. "Sister Yan, don't worry. I fell on my own."

"Okay." Yan Yan's face was full of disbelief, but she didn't ask any further.

After walking for about 10 minutes, Yan Hui followed Yan Yan to a prefabricated house. Yan Yan took out a key and opened the door, saying, "I really envy you. You have an independent room here. I don't have any freedom at home. I might as well live here."

Yan Yan's words came to an abrupt end, because after opening the door, she saw a man squatting in the corner, smoking and taking a shit.

The man who was taking a shit looked at Yan Yan with some confusion, and waved his hands while cursing.

Yan Yan quickly retreated. She was stunned for seven or eight seconds, and looked at Yan Hui in panic: "That's not right, my dad said you are the only one in this room."

"It's okay, Sister Yan, just give me the key." Yan Hui was a little unbearable due to the cold, and his feet were getting more and more itchy.

"Oh, okay. My dad said that if you have time, just help him move some boards. That's all. You can go inside and take a look." Yan Yan didn't expect the environment inside to be so bad. She didn't want to go in at all. She threw the key to Yan Hui and ran away.

The ground here was covered with snow, which had not melted yet. Yan Hui pushed the door open again, and the elder brother who had just been pulling was still there.

It was so cold, and the elder brother was not wearing any thick clothes, revealing his big bald head. "What are you doing? How did you come in this way?" The bald elder brother was very unhappy and looked up at Yan Hui.

"I was introduced by Uncle Hang. He said he would reserve a room for me here."

"Okay, this room is yours." The eldest brother pointed to a place and said, "Don't enter through this door in the future. This is the backyard."

"What about my key?" Yan Hui was a little confused. He only had one key, and it wasn't the key to the house?

"The lock on this back door can be opened with any key. Don't talk nonsense. I can't do it with you here."

"Oh oh oh." Yan Hui immediately ran to his room.

Yan Hui used his key to unlock a wooden room and peered inside. The room was about six square meters, with one window, a bed, and a pile of leftover wood.

The only difference between inside and outside is that there is no snow inside, and the temperature is no different from outside. Although Yan Hui doesn't know how many degrees it is, it is definitely below zero.

It's always better if there's no snow. Yan Hui saw the quilt and quickly took it over, draping it over himself. Sitting on the bed, he discovered the "electric blanket" Yan Yan mentioned.

This was the first time he had seen such a thing. It looked like a bed sheet, and it looked like there were some wires on it, coiled around and around.

Yan Yan had just told him how to use the electric blanket. Yan Hui plugged in the socket, turned on the electric blanket, and then looked at it for a while.

I didn't feel warm at all.

He tried lying on the electric blanket and then covered himself with a quilt. After about five minutes, he finally confirmed that the electric blanket was working properly and there was a little warmth underneath. But this warmth was really not enough. It was too cold. His feet had no feeling at all. He needed a stove!
Yan Hui and his fourth uncle weren't particularly close. During Chinese New Year, Yan Hui's father had told him to rely on himself and not solely on his fourth uncle. If his fourth uncle were home, Yan Hui could have gone over tonight to stay with him, but Yan Yan was the only one there, and they'd even provided him with an electric blanket. Going back would have seemed immature.

Anyway, this is settled.

After only 20 minutes, Yan Hui couldn't stand it anymore. His feet were itchy and painful, and this unknown feeling made him panic. His back, which was pressed against the electric blanket, did feel warm, but the rest of his body felt like the blanket was broken.

Yan Hui struggled to get out of bed and turned off the electric blanket. He decided to go find Sister Yan Yan.

After lying down for a while, his strength did not recover much, but his condition became worse. He held on to his last breath and returned to his fourth uncle.

"Oh? You're here?" Yan Yan was reading a book at the side of the store. "Are you settled?"

Yan Hui still had her bag on her, but she nodded. "I'm settled in, Sister Yan. That room is still a little cold. I'll come over and warm myself by the fire."

"Yes, go ahead and grill it. Come have lunch with me later at noon." Yan Yan's words sounded like the sound of nature.

Yan Hui walked to the stove and carefully took off his shoes, but the more he warmed his feet by the fire, the more itchy they became, and there was also a strong foot odor.

Yan Yan was reading a book and raised her head with a frown: "Xiao Hui, don't worry if your feet are cold. Don't be so close to the stove."

"Oh, oh, I see."

Yan Hui thought Yan Yan was annoyed with him, so he put on his shoes, moved a little further away from the stove, and roasted the food slowly.

"These shoes of yours won't work," Yan Yan kindly reminded. "We don't have your size at home. Go back to the labor protection store next door and buy a pair with thicker cotton. These won't hold up. Fengtian isn't our hometown."

"Well, sister, how much is a pair of shoes here?" Yan Hui was afraid that he would be ripped off.

"Ah? I don't know about that." Yan Yan thought for a moment, "Just buy a thicker pair. By the way, do you have money?"

"Yes, yes." Yan Hui said quickly.

He roasted his feet for a long time before they gradually returned to normal. With nothing to do while roasting by the fire, he picked up Yan Yan's high school textbook and started flipping through it.

He was a decent student in junior high school, but since boys in his hometown could go out and work as long as they could read, he didn't continue his studies. The stories of his eldest and fourth uncles attracted these children from southern Fujian far more than the school.

Before Yan Hui, there were no physics classes in junior high school. Yan Hui was one of the first to attend after the reform, so his junior high physics class was taught by a high school teacher. Therefore, he could now understand Yan Yan's physics textbook. He read the chapter on thermodynamics, looked at his feet, and suddenly felt that the knowledge was correct.

"Xiaohui, can you understand?" Yan Yan walked closer. "Are you feeling warmer?"

"It's warm now." Yan Hui didn't answer the previous question. "Sister Yan, I'm going out to buy a pair of shoes."

"Go ahead. As for clothes, I'll look for them later. I'll give you one of my dad's old coats. Don't mind."

"How could that be!" Yan Hui was surprised and happy. Relatives are still the best.

Yan Hui, who had recovered most of his strength, went out of the house and went to several stores. He spent 33 yuan to buy a pair of cotton shoes and a pair of thick cotton trousers. His assets were sharply reduced to 142 yuan.

Ordinary clothes are not expensive, but thick cotton shoes and cotton pants are too expensive. Yan Hui felt a little painful after buying them, but then he thought about it and saw that the broom used for sweeping the floor in his fourth uncle's house was too old today, so he spent 3.5 yuan to buy a new one.

He put on his cotton shoes and trousers, folded his own shoes and put them in his bag, then returned to his fourth uncle's place.

"Just treat this place like your own home, why buy a broom?" Yan Yan said this, looking quite happy. "My dad told me before he left that he wanted to treat you. Come on, I'll take you to eat something delicious!"

"I'll try not to cause you any more trouble." Yan Hui looked at the stove. "Sister Yan, how do you light the fire in this stove? I can come over every morning to help you light the fire."

"I'm going to school the day after tomorrow, and my stepmother will be here. My stepmother and I don't get along, so she's basically not here when she's here. She doesn't like to talk to people, so you just need to be careful." After Yan Yan finished speaking, she went on to tell Yan Hui some tips on how to light a stove.

Yan Yanren was relatively simple. She taught Yan Hui a bunch of daily things, and then took Yan Hui to a restaurant at the door. She ordered a dish of pork with sauerkraut, a dish of stir-fried chicken rack, a large bowl of bone soup, and a large pancake as the staple food.

"I don't like this bone soup, it's too greasy. You drink it yourself." Yan Yan looked at her cousin and suddenly felt that her cousin was quite handsome.

Before, Yan Hui was cold and hungry, and that listless state must have looked ugly. Now that he has eaten and is full of energy, he is still a serious and handsome young man.

This meal was the happiest moment of the past three days. Yan Hui almost ate all the bone residue in the bone soup base, which made Yan Yan laugh.

"My dad said there's a job moving wood at No. 37 in the East District. He's given us a heads-up, so you can go over and do it first. When he comes back, he'll see if there's any other work for you." Yan Yan finished her father's last instructions.

"Yeah, don't worry, Sister Yan, I can do it." Yan Hui ate so comfortably that he felt full of fighting spirit. He knew he could make money in the north!
Tiexi Building Materials Market is divided into several areas, and the area where Yan Hui is located is entirely wood-related industries.

From the importation, processing, and exportation of timber, from bulk to individual shipments, all timber-related industries were involved. Fourth Uncle was a major wholesaler, directly connected to the forest farms, and considered a relatively large player in the market. Yan Hui gained a general understanding of the market from this.

The main types of wood are red pine, white pine, larch, elm, birch, poplar, elm, etc. The prices of different types of wood are different, but the processing methods are similar.

Tiexi Market is close to the railway freight station. Every day, a lot of timber is unloaded from the station, sent to the market for processing, and then loaded onto trucks for shipment in the form of planks and square timber. It is more like a distribution center.

Yan Hui went to No. 37, East District to ask, and sure enough, his fourth uncle had given him a heads-up in advance that there was a job for a porter there.

Simply put, it involves moving the wood from the factory warehouse onto a truck. The truck is an Isuzu truck, capable of hauling 6-10 cubic meters of wood. Each truck is paid 80 yuan. Generally, it takes four people two hours to load a truck, and each person earns 20 yuan.

The biggest problem with this job isn't the tiring part, but the waiting and the free work. Simply put, you have to wait constantly, and some of the daily chores aren't paid. According to others, from morning till night, each person can earn about two carts, or 40 yuan.

Theoretically, 40 a day, not bad! This is more than Yan Hui imagined.

He arrived in the afternoon and found no work for him, as everyone else was fully booked. So he honestly helped out the entire afternoon, working for nothing. This earned him recognition from the boss and the other porters. The boss was a short, large man who gave Yan Hui a pair of work gloves.

After a good lunch, Yan Hui was full of energy in the afternoon, but by the evening, he was still hungry. He didn't want to go back to his own room, so he stayed there until after eight o'clock, leaving with his boss's satisfied gaze.

Two steamed buns cost 4 cents, and Yan Hui ate them with the kelp shreds he had left over from the morning, enjoying them very much.

As he expected, the night was unbearable. Fortunately, he had his uncle's old coat to cover himself, otherwise the quilt would not be able to withstand the sub-zero temperature. An electric blanket was definitely not enough to deal with it. Lying in bed, every breath he exhaled was a white mist.

That afternoon, he was quick-witted and asked a few people about heating. They all said they needed a stove. Several of the workers had never heard of electric blankets.

There's still a lot of scrap wood here, but stoves aren't cheap. Yan Hui asked around, but no one's selling used stoves this season; the only ones to buy are new ones. Even if there are used stoves, they're still not cheap.

Yan Hui spent his first night in Fengtian with many fruitless thoughts.

(End of this chapter)