Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 8, Part 8: I Really Fly a Plane

After a three-hour wait, passengers boarded the Jinpu Railway.

Just like last time, Fang Wen didn't neglect himself and bought the luxury carriage again.

He followed the female student with his luggage and boarded the train.

Just when the female student thought he had some ulterior motive, he sat on the other side of the carriage.

A few minutes later, the train started moving, marking the longest journey of its kind.

At first, the passengers in the carriage chatted with interest, but later they gradually became bored.

The mother and daughter were fast asleep, completely unaware of the middle-aged man sitting opposite them.

Fang Wen, sitting in another row, kept observing the situation over there.

He noticed that the middle-aged man kept glancing at the bracelet on the woman's wrist and the handbag she carried.

But because there were people sitting next to him, he didn't make a move.

Until the person next to me got off the car and left.

Fang Wen planned to catch them in the act.

But the middle-aged man still didn't move. Instead, he stood up, stretched in a pretentious manner, and even made a sound.

This action caused a disturbance inside the carriage.

A burly man stood up and walked straight to the middle-aged man, sitting down next to him.

Although the two did not speak, they exchanged glances.

It seems there really is a problem.

But now there are two of them, and I have no chance of winning if I take action myself. I need to think of another way.

Fang Wen picked up his suitcase, got up, walked out of the luxurious carriage, and went to the conductor's office at the rear of the train.

After an eight-hour journey, the train stopped for half an hour at a stop along the way.

Passengers who felt uncomfortable after sitting on the train for a long time got off to rest.

The mother and daughter followed the middle-aged man out of the carriage.

The two women were chatting and laughing with the middle-aged man on the platform.

Little did they know, the burly man sitting opposite them quietly moved behind them.

The two grown men suddenly struck, slapping the mother and daughter on the shoulders.

Before the mother and daughter could react, they both became dazed.

In this state, the two of them actually listened to the middle-aged man's words and were about to follow him away from the platform.

Just then, the train conductor and several attendants rushed over and tackled the two men to the ground.

"It's for taking pictures of beggars."

The conductor lifted the middle-aged man's hand and showed the passengers the ring with a short pin on his finger.

Upon hearing this, the passengers on the platform became agitated.

Regardless of the era, people have always been extremely hostile towards those who traffic children and women.

A group of people rushed over and started punching and kicking the two of them until the police officers at the station arrived and detained them, at which point they stopped.

While they were teaching the human traffickers a lesson, Fang Wen was trying to wake the mother and daughter up.

The mother and daughter stood there blankly, unresponsive to anyone calling them, seemingly only responding to the middle-aged man.

An elderly woman offered advice: "Splash it with cold water. I've heard from the older generation that no matter what kind of medicine it is, it won't work if you're startled."

Upon hearing this, Fang Wen opened a bottle of Shanhaiguan soda and splashed it on the faces of the mother and daughter.

The cold water brought them back to their senses.

"What happened?" The woman with her hair in a bun rubbed her temples, turned to look at the middle-aged man with tattered clothes and a bruised face, and asked in surprise, "Why did you hit him? Is there no law in this world?"

The train conductor pointed at Fang Wen and explained, "If this young man hadn't found us, you two would have been kidnapped and sold. Don't you understand? They're child traffickers."

"A flower shop?!" The woman with her hair in a bun paled. Recalling what had happened earlier and hearing the passengers chattering amongst themselves, she finally understood. Just then, the train whistle sounded, and the passengers hurriedly returned to their carriages.

The middle-aged man and his accomplice were naturally not allowed to get back on the train. The mother and daughter, still terrified, entered the carriage, their eyes filled with fear as they looked at the two human traffickers through the window.

In this day and age, once someone is abducted, it's their fate; they can never come back.

Therefore, the woman with her hair in a bun was very grateful to Fang Wen, and after the train started moving, she took the initiative to come to Fang Wen's side.

"Young man, thank you so much. My daughter and I will never forget your great kindness. Shuyun, why don't you thank your benefactor?"

The female student looked ashamed and lowered her head.

"I'm sorry, I thought you were a bad person. I was really blind. Thank you for not holding it against me and for saving us from this predicament."

Fang Wen smiled as he looked at the mother and daughter.

“Actually, I found that person’s behavior strange from Tianjin onwards. What kind of stranger is so enthusiastic? But since I didn’t have any evidence, I couldn’t say anything. But later in this carriage, his accomplice came. I saw that although the two of them pretended not to know each other, they kept exchanging glances. I guessed there was something going on, so I reminded the conductor. I think you two should remember to thank the conductor and the other train staff.”

"Yes, yes. Shuyun, we also need to thank other benefactors."

Then, the mother and daughter walked around the train again, thanking all the people who had saved them.

After this incident, the two of them actually decided that Fang Wen was a good person and insisted on sitting with him.

Looking at the mother and daughter who had moved to sit opposite him, Fang Wen said helplessly, "What's going on with you two?"

The female student seemed to have matured a lot, and said in a serious tone:

"My name is Shen Shuyun, and my mother's name is Mu Xinqin. We are two vulnerable women who have traveled thousands of miles to find our relatives, and we have no one to rely on. We are afraid that such things will happen again in the future. Since Mr. Fang is also going to Shanghai, could you please take care of us? We would be extremely grateful in the future."

So that's what it is. Now that we've started, we might as well see it through to the end.

Fang Wen smiled and replied, "Sure, let's go to Shanghai together. It'll be good to have someone to look after us on the way."

This promise relieved the mother and daughter.

The female student, Shen Shuyun, reverted to her usual temperament, widening her eyes as she asked, "Brother Fang, what exactly do you do?"

"He really is a pilot, I'm not lying to you," Fang Wen said helplessly.

"I don't believe it. Airplanes are rare things; there are only a handful in all of China. I know you must have some reason that you can't explain. I won't ask."

No matter how Fang Wen explained, the female student just wouldn't believe him, so Fang Wen let her be and didn't say anything more about it.

The Jinpu Railway is 1000 kilometers long, but the trains only travel at 30 kilometers per hour.

This was the fastest way for the general public to travel between the north and south during the Republic of China era.

It took more than 30 hours for the train to arrive at Nanjing Pukou Station.

Pukou Station and Xiaguan Station are separated by the Yangtze River and can only be reached by ferry. Before the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge was built, it was a gap in the north-south train traffic.

Fang Wen and the mother and daughter got off the car and took a ferry across the river.

Fortunately, I was able to buy a ticket for the next train on the Nanjing-Shanghai line, and I only needed to wait an hour to board.

This is probably the best news of the trip.

After waiting for an hour, the three boarded the Nanjing-Shanghai Railway and, after another ten-hour journey, finally arrived at Shanghai Station.

Outside the station, someone specially greeted the mother and daughter.

Before leaving, Shen Shuyun specifically asked Fang Wen, "Brother Fang, how can I find you in the future?"

Fang Wen took out a pen, wrote a passage in the notebook, and handed it to Shen Shuyun.

"Brother Fang, I'm leaving."

Shen Shuyun happily got into the car.

In the car, she opened the note and couldn't help but smile when she saw the handwriting.

"Brother Fang's handwriting is so ugly. Oh, is that the China Airlines pilot's villa at 270-273 Rue Albert in the French Concession?"

She couldn't help but show a surprised expression; it turned out that Brother Fang wasn't lying, he really was a pilot.

(End of this chapter)