Page 139 - updated on July

Yu Jihui: “A Stinking Old Ninth – A Tale of the Coal Capital” (updated on July 2020)

I bought two more steamed bread made of bran

flour and put them in one of my pockets as a reserve.

I might have to travel for a long time on the train. I

slipped back into the station. But when I got to the

spot where the goods train to the north had it been, I

found that it had left. It was too late for me to regret.

I slipped out of the station and strolled outside for

hours. By evening, I slipped into the station again. I

checked the trains one after another. Soon I found

one goods train to Man Zhouli (a city bordering the

Soviet Union). I was overjoyed. The city was exactly

the destination that I was eager to go to. Black

Peony’s school was just in the suburbs of that city. It

was also a coal train. I congratulated myself on my

good luck. I chose a carriage and climbed on to it.

When I jumped into one corner of the carriage, I

found myself face to face with a woman about forty.

She was a typical peasant woman. She gazed at me in

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