CHAPTER 40: CHAPTER 39: REVENGE UNDER THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS

Zhou Family’s three-person trip to Guizhou was originally booked with airplane tickets. However, the day before their departure, they were informed by the airport that Shanghai Airport had accumulated snow preventing flights from taking off normally, resulting in delays until after the New Year.

Having already taken his annual leave, Zhou Qiang had no choice but to find another way. Finally, he managed to secure three sleeper tickets, which meant sitting for over thirty hours from Shanghai to Guizhou.

Xi Lijuan, unable to dissuade her son who was determined to visit Guizhou, had no choice but to mutter a few complaints, mainly about Zhou Qiang’s unreliability, as if the rare heavy snowfall in Shanghai was his doing.

In the comfort of the sleeper carriage, the freshly changed clean bedding quickly lulled these pampered passengers to sleep.

The train leaving Shanghai and heading southwest passed through fields first blanketed in heavy snow, then rows of cut stubble revealed after the snow melted, and once it entered the Yun-Gui Plateau surrounded by mountains, the snow had completely melted.

As the train to Guiyang approached after the war, the already thin air was squeezed intensely warm by the throngs of people traveling during the spring festival.

Before the train even arrived at the station, Zhou Qiang had hastily made arrangements to first contact a local travel agency in Guiyang. Having sat for over thirty hours, Xi Lijuan had no interest in thinking about these plans and just wanted to find a clean and quiet hotel for a night’s rest. The couple argued, and they barely left the advanced sleeper car when they were scattered by passengers heading all over the country.

"Old Zhou, hurry and find our son," Xi Lijuan shouted until her voice went hoarse, only to see Zhou Qiang dragging luggage, but Zhou Ziang was nowhere to be seen.

Inside the train station, among thousands of people in cotton-padded clothes and jackets, men and women alike, Zhou Ziang was nowhere to be found. At that time, Zhou Qiang only had a pager, making it almost impossible to find someone lost in such a vast train station without using the station’s broadcast announcements.

"Dear passengers, the train from Bai Family Ancient Town to Guiyang has arrived at the station. Please take your personal belongings and be careful as you exit the station," announced the train station broadcast, which Zhou Ziang found headache-inducing amidst his dislike for crowded places. Thinking that Zhou Qiang and his wife would surely be exiting, he walked alone outside the station with his luggage.

The temperature difference inside and outside of the station was at least five to six degrees. Unfazed by the severe cold, Zhou Ziang left Guiyang Railway Station only to find the exit crowded with people and various types of rickshaws.

Guests looking for hotels, people arranging carpool rides; voices with accents from the north and the south mixed into a lively and chaotic melody of the spring festival rush.

The train’s food was not comparable to home cooking, and Zhou Ziang had barely eaten anything all day, his stomach now singing the tune of an empty fortress strategy.

Outside the train station, crossing the red light, a few pedestrians were crossing the street.

Across the street was a pushcart. A middle-aged woman from Guiyang was peeling corn husks, dozens of boiled corns placed inside a pot turning from white to enticing golden yellow in the bubbling water, the severe cold slightly alleviated by the sweet and sticky aroma.

Zhou Ziang checked his watch. It had been ten minutes since he left the station, and Zhou Qiang and his wife were still not out. He decided to buy some corn and then head back. Xi Lijuan had an even worse reaction to the train food; she didn’t eat anything except drinking water.

"Xiao Xian, are you hungry? Shall we go across and buy some corn?" Zhu Shijun asked after he came down from the vehicle, his face reddened by the cold wind after a few breaths.

Half a year ago, when he traveled by car, his spirits were still fine, but this time taking the train, he felt bone-tired. Zhu Shijun vaguely knew that there must be some hidden illness in him, thinking that he should go to the Guiyang First People’s Hospital, but he was also afraid that if the examination really found something, his little granddaughter would have no one to take care of her.

The buildings in Guiyang were much more stylish than the low-rise buildings in Bai Family Ancient Town, and the vehicles coming and going around looked much better than Uncle San Gouzi’s metal car. Xiao Xian was happily looking at the buildings and vehicles on both sides when she heard Zhu Shijun’s words, and the grandfather-granddaughter duo headed towards a corn stall across the street.

The traffic on the road wasn’t heavy. Zhu Shijun intentionally slowed down to teach Xiao Xian about pedestrian crossings and traffic lights, and as they walked, he said, "When the light ahead turns red, we can’t go. Now it’s green, so we can cross." The duo strolled behind the crowd, staying three to five steps away from them, with Zhou Ziang walking ahead.

Toward the direction of Guiyang Station, behind Zhu Shijun and Xiao Xian, two or three figures stealthily followed behind the Zhu Family duo.

Xiao Xian and Zhu Shijun focused on the traffic light and did not notice the people behind them. Among the three, one had a familiar face, Blue Hair’s accomplice who had jumped from the train to escape, and the other two were his partners. After escaping from the train, Haozi and Blue Hair had contacted their colleagues in Guiyang.

On the train, Zhu Shijun had mentioned going to Guiyang, and with Blue Hair thinking about the thirty thousand yuan, and also being outsmarted by Xiao Xian, he was here for revenge.

"Lan Mao, are you sure it’s that grandfather and granddaughter," his accomplices closed in on the duo, while the people ahead remained unaware of the movement behind. A fierce-faced man pulled out a switchblade from his bosom and gestured towards the front.

"I’m not wrong, I would recognize that kid even if he turned to ash. I’ve never been tricked by anyone in my life, let alone a child," thirty thousand yuan was a huge sum by the late 90s. Blue Hair did not want to return empty-handed and risk getting some fingers cut off by the gang leader.

"Just the two of them, an old man and a child. We block them from three sides. I’ll hold the old one with my switchblade, while you hold the child down and we search them. But let’s keep it down, we’re on a busy street."

The crowd had crossed the pedestrian path, and the traffic light behind them turned red again.

"Boss, give me three corns, one peeled and the other two bagged," Zhou Ziang bought three corns.

"Alright," the corn vendor peeled the corn, and white vapor rose from it.

"Lady, we’ll also take two, pick the bigger ones for me." Xiao Xian took the money from Zhu Shijun and hopped to hand it over. Upon hearing this, the corn vendor saw a six-year-old child and also started smiling.

Zhu Shijun looked at his granddaughter’s bouncing, his face full of affection, but thinking of his hidden ailment, his eyebrows furrowed again. Suddenly feeling a chill behind him, three figures surrounded them, and the old man’s body stiffened.

"Grandpa, this corn tastes really good," Xiao Xian turned around, about to hand the corn to Zhu Shijun, but before she could step forward, she was grabbed by a youth who had bought some corn but hadn’t walked away yet.

"Don’t go there," Zhou Ziang, with a sharp eye, had already noticed the flash of knife light carried by a few men walking behind Zhu Shijun.