The train I took for the first time was an iron-coal steam locomotive. Every few seconds, it made a dull "clang-clang-clang" sound. Without air conditioning, most passengers pulled up their windows, and the whistling wind accompanied the journey. People on the train, some carrying poles, some carrying quilts and some carrying schoolbags, are mostly people who go out to work and study, and people are talking loudly about their hometown dialect. I want to take the train to study in another city. There are no companions and no extra luggage. I sit alone in the seat by the window, listening to the sound of the train's iron wheels rubbing against the rails and the heavy "clang" sound. The mountains, rivers and towns that the train passes by pass by quickly.
I'm not as timid as I used to be. After several rides, I became an old passenger. I will find my seat familiarly and calculate the arrival time accurately. Chatting with passengers I met briefly. An uncle from the north to the south sat opposite me. He introduced to me that it is very cold in winter in the north. People grow wheat, eat steamed bread and pack jiaozi for the New Year. He said that he went to the south mainly to buy vegetables from the south. When I left, the uncle encouraged me to study hard so that I could have a good job in the future. Once again, a girl with long hair and deep bangs sat side by side with me. I asked her which school she was studying in and what her plans were in the future. The girl said that the country may not include job assignment. After graduation, she plans to work in Guangdong. She said that as long as she has income, she can repay her tuition. No matter what job she does, she will go.
On the train, the flight attendants often push fruits, drinks, instant noodles, etc. back and forth, asking, "Here come fruits and drinks, who wants them?" Lunch, dinner and box lunch. But all this seems to have nothing to do with me. I don't have extra money to buy anything. Closing my eyes, watching the passing scenery outside the window and occasionally chatting with fellow passengers are all I have to do every time I take the train.
four short years passed quickly, and I graduated. Like people who traveled far away, I took a look back at the familiar and gradually unfamiliar mountains, waters and roads in my hometown with the simplest luggage, and then rushed into the vast working population. The repeated scene lasted for three years.
Spring Festival travel rush is definitely a difficult migration for people who go out to work. What impressed me the most was that I took a train from my hometown southwest to Jiangsu and Zhejiang for 33 hours. It was not so much a train ride as a train stop. Although it is an electrified train, the passengers on it are indescribably crowded. This time from the southwest to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, I have bought tickets one week in advance, and I can only buy station tickets. The train is very crowded, people are back to back, chest to chest, so crowded that even their feet have nowhere to fall. The bathroom on the train didn't open for a long time, and there was no response when knocking at the door. The flight attendant could only open the bathroom door with the key, which was shocking! Since there are a lot of passengers hidden inside. Every time the train stops, a large number of passengers rush to climb up, but few people get off. For long-distance trains, people envy those passengers who have seats, and they can sleep beautifully, while people standing can only half-open and half-close their eyes, and they are "woken up" by the creeping people every few minutes. Some passengers really can't stand the drowsiness, since they get into the seats and fall asleep. The train goes all the way. From day to night, the sun rises and sets. After a day on the train, people welcome the night again. I wish I could have a seat, even for two minutes. A passenger about my age saw that I had been standing for too long, so he gave me his seat to have a rest. I suddenly felt an unprecedented warm current stirring my whole body. Yes, there is nothing like going to a strange place alone and having a strange voice to give sincere care.
From south to north, from spring to autumn, in more than three years, the train took me through many places, ate Daoxiao Noodles in northern Shaanxi and walked through the primitive jungle in Yunnan. The endless wandering made people miss a stable place to stay. Finally, I passed the examination of public institutions and became a township cadre in my hometown, ending those days of taking the train.
for more than ten years, I seldom take a train, but a railway heading for a distant place, a roaring train, I don't know where the train is going at the moment and where the people on the train will go.