That Long Railroad

1

　　 When I was less than three years old, my grandmother took me from my hometown to Dingxi to raise me, and it was a long way to go by train. The first time I went, it was dark as I walked. The train was so dimly lit that it was like a white plate hanging overhead, with no light in sight. I got sleepy and said, "Grandma, I want to lay my nest (quilt) to sleep. Grandma said, "Good boy, where is the nest on the train, sleep in grandma's arms". When I woke up, I was in a strange place, and my grandmother told me that we had arrived in Dingxi. The year was 1979.

　　 Grandpa's father and Grandma's mother were still at home, so almost every summer my grandparents took me back home. At that time, the train was green, and year after year, I felt that more and more people were riding the train, and the car was crowded, and people were like sardine cans in the car, stuffy and breathless. Train tickets are not easy to buy, either grandpa to go to a long line, or to ask relations; the train is not have the right number of seats, after getting on the train to see people are full, grandpa is responsible for putting the luggage, grandmother pulled me tightly with one hand, with a smile to ask one by one: "where do you get off ah? When I came across people who got off the train after a few stops, I stood next to them and chattered with them, to invariably confirm the relationship between the seats. Sometimes when people saw that I was a child and gave up a gap for me to sit in the seat, my grandmother thanked them gratefully.

　　 When seats were available, Grandma brought out the food she had prepared for us to eat. The food we brought was just eggs, steamed buns, and apples, but what I was craving was the roast chicken that others ate on the train. The smell of the roast chicken went straight to my nose and made me stop liking the eggs and steamed buns in front of me. I must have been thinking that when I grew up I would be able to eat roast chicken on the train.

　　 There were many times when my grandmother took me back home alone, and, sometimes, I had to backtrack at a train station called Mengyuan. Somehow, every time, the train was reversed there in the middle of the night. I was so sleepy that I couldn't lift my head and open my eyes, and my grandmother couldn't read or write, so she was afraid I would lose it, so she held me tightly with one hand and carried my luggage tightly with the other, asking everyone when the bus was coming and what time it was. The station was very small, with very few people, and the lights in the station were faint and cold. Grandma didn't dare to take a nap for fear of missing the train.

　　 One of my grandmother's nephews was in college in Xi'an, and he was a sophomore that year, so my grandmother and I and this uncle took the train from our hometown together. When we arrived at the Xi'an train station, it was night again. There was a young man with a shoe box, asking if leather shoes were cheap. We said no, the shoe seller said it does not matter if you do not buy, you first look. My uncle touched it with his hand, the result was bad, the shoe seller had to sell us the kraft paper shoes, the attitude was very rude. We find wearing red armband management also useless, red armband said: "This is your own business, and the train has nothing to do with, I can not control". Later, my grandmother and uncle said a lot of good words to send this guy away.

　　 Later, the family conditions were better, and when they returned home, sometimes they could get on the sleeper. At that time I was in the fifth grade, liked to sit by the window to see the scenery, see the train in the mountains between the shuttle, the railroad on both sides of the poplar trees flying backward swept; the train turning, you can see from the window black locomotive with black smoke pulling the long carriage in the speed, the window outside the crops a piece, far away from the village hazy, starry, very some picturesque feeling; night time outside the window starlight I can't tell if it's the stars in the sky or the lights in the distance, the breeze is coming, and I can hear the crickets chirping.

　　 The summer after the midterm, my aunt's husband came home to pick me up and take me to Dingxi for the summer. We backtracked in Xi'an, and that day we sat in the square to cool off and wait for the time, and a young lady waiting for the bus next to us asked me, "Where are you going to work? I looked at what I was wearing, thought about my age, touched my messy hair, and thought no wonder this young lady had such a misconception.

2

　　 Fast forward in time to the late 1990s. I had gotten into college and was going to school in Hangzhou, and the whole family was especially happy. One day a relative came to visit and talked about Hangzhou, and my grandmother said, "Isn't Hangzhou just like the county town? The relative said, "Hey, Hangzhou is a paradise, it's better than the county town to nowhere. Grandma smiled with satisfaction, and I felt like an old man showing off his grandson's achievements in such a simple way.

　　 All those who went to college in the 1990s probably had the same experience. Every year, the trains were overcrowded and very crowded during the winter and summer holidays when students started school. The train has been replaced with a red one, but I can't see any improvement with the green one. When the train arrived at the station simply can not squeeze up, sometimes the doors do not open. Once I went to Xuzhou to see Zhao Bo, I had to let Zhao Bo hold my buttocks to stuff me through the window of the car.

　　 In the carriage, there are people everywhere, a crowded one, almost can not move half a step, even the luggage rack are climbing up to stay. Sometimes you have to let others pinch you to move around, and your feet do not have to touch the ground, just like the Beijing subway during rush hour. Beijing's subway may last for a while, but I have to stay on the train for more than ten hours. You can't eat or drink on the train, especially not water, because the toilet is either locked or people are standing in the toilet, so you can't use it. The night was even more miserable, especially in the second half of the night, people were sleepy and upside down, there was no place to lie down, there was no place to lie down, and some people even slept under the seats. The air was filled with the smell of feet, and in the morning, everyone woke up with a puffy face, miserable.

　　 To Hangzhou as if in another world, the prosperity and affluence of Jiangnan seem to be in the air and can be smelled. The neat and clean streets are full of traffic, lined with green trees and tall buildings; the West Lake is sparkling, with many beautiful lotus flowers planted in the lake, and the willow trees around the lake look like the long hair of a beautiful woman, swaying in the wind. In the sunset, the green tiles and white walls, the small bridges and flowing water, and the lonely boats on the waves constitute a perfect landscape painting of Jiangnan, which makes people forget to return.

　　 The scent of osmanthus was wafting around the school. I met new classmates and teachers, heard new perspectives, had new ideas, and read many books in the library that I didn't have time or opportunity to see before. Our dorm mates also went to see all-night movies, went on a night tour of West Lake, and went to see the meteor shower at the Gem; we also went to his grandmother's house, Haining Chang'an, with Qian Tao to have fun and see how stinky tofu is made.

　　 Whenever I took the train between my hometown and school during the summer and winter, I felt that one end of the train was connected to my hometown and the other end was connected to my hope. Four years passed quickly and I graduated to the beautiful seaside city of Qingdao.

3

　　 Time fast-forwarded again and fixed to 2014. I had been living in Qingdao for more than ten years and was familiar with and liked everything here. But things are unpredictable. In 2014, for complicated reasons, I chose to work in Beijing.

　　 Jiaozi Railway was one of the first lines to build a moving train, and then other lines were built into high-speed trains, and this section was only repaired this year. The moving train or high-speed train is simply a bird in the hand compared to the old green or red trains, clean, bright, less crowded, and fast, and everyone has a seat to sit - although many people are looking at their cell phones without expression. I think that allowing citizens to live with dignity is one of the main signs of social progress.

　　 For the past four years or so, I have been running back and forth from Qingdao to Beijing at a frequency of about once every two weeks - returning to Qingdao on Friday nights and arriving in Beijing on Sunday nights, each time taking more than four hours each way.

　　 When I left Qingdao for Beijing, my son was in his first year of school, but in a trance, this little one was already in the fourth grade.

　　 In the spring, when my wife was tutoring my son's homework under the lamp, cooking for him, going to pick him up and drop him off, practicing taekwondo with him, and practicing piano with him. I was in Beijing, and the leaves of the ginkgo trees downstairs were growing, and the poplar flakes from the poplar trees were drifting in, so many and so many that I had to close the windows everywhere.

　　 In summer, when my wife and son strolled in Zhongshan Park, they found cherry blossoms and smelled the fragrance of cherry blossoms next to the lush and tall trees; when they stepped on the beach with bare feet in the sea bath, they saw gulls flying in the sky and caught cute little crabs. When I was in Beijing, I came back to my dormitory at night after working overtime, and the weather was very hot. I felt so hot that I had to turn on the air conditioner and close the windows.

　　 In autumn, when my wife accompanied my son to go out sketching, I stood at the intersection of the Eight Great Passes and looked at the undulating road stretching into the distance, flanked by yellow trees and yellow walls, the ground sprinkled with fallen leaves; the red roofs of the houses were more vicissitudes under the golden leaves, and the creepers on the walls became red; the bright sunlight passed through the leaves, leaving dappled shadows, as beautiful as a fairy tale. I was in Beijing, and I had just come back from dinner with some friends at night. I drank a lot of wine and got dizzy, so I just laid down. I don't know if the window was closed or not.

　　 In winter, when my wife accompanies my son to piano competitions when I visit museums when I go to the movies when I prepare Christmas programs, and props when I participate in programs as a host. I was in Beijing, feeling sore at night, running on the treadmill for a while, tired and sweaty. I knew that the window was closed.

　　 The most distant distance in this world is not the distance between life and death, but that you and your children are in one city, while I am in another.