Chapter 938: Peasant brothers who make people look at them with new eyes

Although Li Juan and Li Qiang had both been to Wucheng, the school had organized trips.

But this trip was heading towards Yanjing, and although the bus ride was the same, the two children were still very excited. Gu Gu Xiaoxia and Gu Xiao Yu sat in a row, one holding Ming Ming and one holding Hao Hao, while Li Long discussed the arrangements after arriving in Wucheng with Li Jianguo.

There were a lot of people at the train station.

People carrying big and small bags gathered from all directions, surging towards the waiting hall and the ticket office, just like ants returning to their nests.

After Li Long and the others got off at the Bayi Guest House, they went straight to the waiting hall. Li Long urged them to keep an eye on the things here, while he went to Yusufu's stall to buy some raisins, walnuts, dates, and such, a portion of which Gu Xiao Yu would take back later.

After all, they had run such a long way, it was impossible not to bring anything. Another portion was for their own people to keep.

They didn't bring many things themselves, and these dried fruits added together didn't increase the weight much.

"With so many people, won't it be very troublesome when we get on the train?" Li Jianguo was a bit worried. After all, it was easy to say when he went back to his hometown alone before, carrying a bag, whatever he said went.

Now holding two little ones, following two little ones, and two women, it wasn't even easy to squeeze.

"It's okay, we have sleeper tickets," Li Long said, "When ticket checking starts, I'll go ask if there's a priority lane. If we can walk, we'll go first; if not, it's okay. There are fewer people on the sleeper side, no need to squeeze."

Li Jianguo remembered that Li Long had bought sleeper tickets this time and smiled. It was true, the hard seats he squeezed in before were not just a sea of people, but almost impassable.

Now with fewer people in one sleeper, it was definitely different.

It's really good to have money!

Gu Gu Xiaoxia and Gu Xiao Yu listened on the side, knowing that Li Long had arranged everything, so they didn't ask any more questions and specifically took good care of Ming Ming and Hao Hao.

Seeing so many people, Ming Ming and Hao Hao were also particularly curious and wanted to look left and right. Fortunately, although Li Juan and Li Qiang were a bit reserved at this time, their minds were all on their two younger brothers, helping to look after them, so there wouldn't be any problems.

There were more and more people in the waiting hall, some had nowhere to sit and could only stand, and there were people sitting beside big piles of luggage, with all kinds of smells.

Seeing that it was still early before getting on the train, Li Long said to Li Jianguo:

"Big Brother, you take them to eat first, and come back to replace me later." As he said this, he pointed out the place where he had eaten with Yusufu the day before yesterday to Li Jianguo.

Li Jianguo wanted to stay behind himself, but Li Long whispered:

"Big Brother, I'll stay by myself, I'm tall and big, this place is easy to occupy. If you stay, a group of people will come to squeeze the seat, and it won't be easy for you to speak."

Li Jianguo thought that was right, so he took Gu Gu Xiaoxia and the others to eat.

Li Long placed the luggage of these few people on the seats. At this time, don't talk about any benevolence or morality. He believed that if he gave up the seat now, when his wife came over holding the children later, people would likely not give it up.

Someone came to ask Li Long, and Li Long directly said that the seat was taken, they went to eat, and the person looked at Li Long, who was tall and big, and had a straight face, so they didn't say anything more.

When Li Long came out, he brought a book—of course, not that kind of scholarly tome, but *Seven Swords Descending from Heaven Mountain*, which Li Long had read, but now he had nothing to do, so he took it to pass the time. He also planned to buy some books to mail back to read when he had time in Yanjing on this trip.

In an era without mobile phones, reading martial arts novels was also a kind of enjoyment.

Li Jianguo and the others ate very quickly, and when they entered again, there were already fewer people in the waiting hall, and some people had checked their tickets and left.

"I didn't bring any for you, *latiaozi* still needs to be eaten hot in a restaurant." Li Jianguo said, "You go eat, we'll stay here."

Li Long helped take the luggage off the seat, let them sit down, and only then did he go to eat.

Not long after returning from eating, ticket checking began. Li Long went over to ask, and at this time there was no VIP or special lane, so he could only line up with everyone else to check tickets. Li Long held Ming Ming and Hao Hao, carrying a big backpack, Li Jianguo led Li Juan and Li Qiang, and Gu Gu Xiaoxia and Gu Xiao Yu followed with their respective bags.

There is strength in numbers, the most troublesome Ming Ming and Hao Hao were carried by Li Long, the others were easy to follow, all the way through ticket checking, walking fast, almost squeezed by people to go up the overpass and down the passage, and arrived in front of the train.

Fortunately, everyone was holding hands and didn't get separated. Once they arrived in front of the train, the people dispersed, Li Long and the others breathed a sigh of relief, and then shouted: "Carriage 11, walk, walk, walk, move forward."

The entrance on the hard seat side was crowded with people, some people pulled the window open directly after getting in first, and people below threw bags in, then climbed up, staff came over to stop them, and it was a mess.

The sleeper side was much better, most people were lining up, not in a hurry, seeing Li Long holding the children coming over, some even gave up their seats.

Get on the train, arrive at the seat, put Ming Ming and Hao Hao on the bed, and then start to settle down.

Seeing the children in the middle and upper berths, Li Long could clearly feel that some people might think the children would be noisy, and their brows were furrowed.

He didn't care either, being able to bring Ming Ming and Hao Hao out meant the two children were precocious and had already passed the noisy stage, and at this time they were already trying to reason with their family.

So they didn't worry that the two children would affect others.

Li Juan and Li Qiang knew they were in the middle berth, so they immediately took off their shoes, set them up, and climbed up, feeling the novelty of riding the train.

Soon, Li Qiang climbed down again, went to Li Long's side, and while helping Li Long take care of Ming Ming and Hao Hao, he whispered to Li Long:

"Little Uncle, you said we'll arrive in Yanjing after this train drives all the way?"

"Right, the train will take three or four days, and when we get off the train, it's Yanjing Station."

At the starting station, after checking tickets and getting on the train, the train had to stop here for a while longer. Li Long heard someone arguing with the conductor at the entrance, and he guessed it should be passengers who were not in this carriage wanting to get on.

After waiting for a long time, the train started, and Li Qiang excitedly said to his sister:

"Sister, it started, it started!"

Although Ming Ming and Hao Hao didn't understand much, they also followed and shouted it started, it started. Gu Gu Xiaoxia and Gu Xiao Yu had already freed their hands at this time, each holding one, and Gu Gu Xiaoxia whispered:

"You can't shout here."

Ming Ming nodded seriously:

"Not shouting... Brother shouted."

"I'm not shouting either." Li Qiang heard it and hurriedly said, "Look, Brother is not shouting."

"Hmm, not shouting." Hao Hao also followed.

This serious reply made everyone else laugh, and the atmosphere in the carriage suddenly became cheerful.

Li Long took out a water cup from his backpack to get water. The two children were no longer drinking breast milk, they had milk powder, of course, they preferred to eat supplementary food. Usually, Li Long would get some edges of *naan* for the two children to gnaw on, just as teething.

There was salt in the *naan*, and both children liked it quite a bit. After getting the water, Li Long took out a clean gauze bag containing *naan* from his backpack, took out the *naan* bought this morning, broke off the edges, divided them into two halves, and the two children sat quietly on the berth and gnawed.

Seeing these two children so well-behaved, people in other berths were also a bit surprised, and then some people started chatting with Li Jianguo.

The berths Li Long bought were two lower berths and two middle berths in 13 and 14, and two lower berths in 15 and 16.

The current arrangement was Gu Gu Xiaoxia and Gu Xiao Yu in the lower berths of 15 and 16, Li Long and Li Jianguo in the lower berths of 13 and 14, and Li Juan and Li Qiang in the middle berths of 13 and 14.

Living in the upper berths of 13 and 14 was a middle-aged couple. It wasn't time to rest yet, and they were both sitting on the stools opposite the berths. The middle-aged man started chatting with Li Jianguo.

"Comrade, where are you going? The terminal station?"

"Right, how about you?" Li Jianguo also asked with a Henan accent.

"Right." That person said with a bit of reserve, "My home is in Yanjing, this time I'm going back to visit family, you..."

"We're going over to look around, see Tiananmen. You work in Northern Xinjiang, and your home is in Yanjing? Then the people of Northern Xinjiang must thank you." Li Jianguo said happily.

When that middle-aged man first heard Li Jianguo's Henan accent, he was a bit arrogant, but as a result, Li Jianguo said this, and he was suddenly embarrassed, hurriedly waving his hand and saying:

"It should be, it should be, everywhere is building the four modernizations."

This suddenly made it easy to chat.

Gu Xiao Yu listened to the conversation between the two and whispered to Gu Gu Xiaoxia: "I didn't expect Big Brother to speak with such a high level, this doesn't look like a peasant at all? If he didn't open his mouth, saying he's a cadre would definitely be no problem."

"Hee hee, you don't know, in the team, Dad and Big Brother have the best relationship. Although Big Brother didn't graduate from junior high school, in their era, being able to go to junior high school was already very remarkable. Big Brother is different from others, he has his own ideas about looking at people and handling things, his thinking is not ordinary."

Li Long heard the sisters' words very clearly, he smiled and didn't speak.

Li Qiang asked Li Long in the middle berth:

"Little Uncle, will the train stop later?"

"Stop, it will stop when we get to Turpan later." Li Long said, "Two or three hours, why, want to get off the train?"

"No, I'm just asking, Turpan? Is it the one with the Flaming Mountains?"

"Right, but in this big winter, you can't feel it. And even if you get off the train, you can only move on the platform, know what a platform is?"

"I know, I know..." Li Juan hurriedly raised her hand, "We learned *The Back View*, there's a platform on it..."

Fine, learning to apply it, not bad.

Li Long chatted with Li Juan and Li Qiang, Ming Ming and Hao Hao had already been taken over by the Gu sisters, and he was considered relaxed.

After a while, the conductor came to check and change tickets, and "invited" the two people who were not in this carriage out, so Li Long was even more at ease, it seemed that the carriage would be semi-enclosed from now on, and safety could basically be guaranteed.

When stopping in Turpan, some people got off, and when they got on, they brought two bags of raisins. Li Long and the others also went down to move their bodies, clearly feeling the temperature difference inside and outside the car, even if it was the Fire Continent, it was quite cold in this big winter.

Li Long and the others bought meals directly for dinner. The two people chatting with Li Jianguo ate the pancakes they brought themselves.

At this time, they felt the gap, and they didn't expect Li Long and the others to buy a portion for Ming Ming and Hao Hao when buying meals.

Rich.

At this time, Li Jianguo could also feel that it was really different from before when coming out with money. When going home before, big bags and small bags, besides his own luggage, the rest were things bought for home. The dining car on the train was expensive, at that time the three-day and three-night train was almost just getting by.

Now with children, they couldn't just get by. Thinking about it, if money was tight, how could they bring children out to see the world?

And with money in their pockets, buying a boxed meal really didn't hurt much—at the beginning, they could really endure it, three days, a few *naan* and they got by.

They didn't care about other people's gazes, Li Jianguo whispered to Li Long:

"I brought some national grain coupons, I don't know if it's enough after going over."

"It's okay, reform and opening up has been for several years, state-run shops need coupons, private ones don't, at worst we'll just eat in private shops." Li Long said, "A few days, we're not afraid of that."

Li Jianguo actually had the same idea, so this matter stopped there.

These tickets and certificates would only be canceled in seven or eight years, although more and more private shops opened up and didn't need grain coupons, they would be more expensive. Public units still needed them, and they would be cheaper.

But for the Li family's current net worth, these were all minor matters.

When sleeping at night, Li Long was quite alert, but no problems occurred. Driving all the way past Hami Xingxing Gorge and out of Eastern Xinjiang, nothing happened.

The next day's breakfast was still the meal from the dining car, that middle-aged man took hot water, ate with cold pancakes, watched Li Long and the others drink porridge, and said enviously:

"You've become rich, is this the benefit of contracting production to households?"

"Hmm, besides planting grain, we planted some cash crops." Li Jianguo smiled, "Mainly because we brought children, we ourselves are nothing, but bringing children, we have to eat something hot. Poor family, rich road..."

"Right, right, right, poor family, rich road." The middle-aged man echoed.

He was muttering in his heart, are peasants now really this rich? Why does his own brother-in-law cry poor every day?

After breakfast, after passing another small station, some people walked through the carriage to here, seeing that the carriage here was empty, a few people stopped, put their luggage in the aisle, and sat on the stools by the window.

That middle-aged couple was originally resting on the berth, at this time they came down and saw people on the stools, the other party was two cold-faced men, they didn't dare to drive people away, hesitating, Li Jianguo greeted them to sit on the berth.

The two hurriedly sat down. Just after sitting down, more people walked over, and then started to squeeze in and sit here.

"If you're not in this carriage, walk forward!" Li Long could see that some were obviously not in this carriage, and some were looking at the luggage above and the people on the berth with shifty eyes, feeling unhappy, and said: "The conductor will drive people away later anyway!"

Li Long had a large build and a resonant voice. As soon as he shouted, people immediately echoed him, with the middle-aged man in the upper bunk having the loudest voice. Those few people who had come over intending to freeload stood up hesitantly.

Li Long was worried that it would be inconvenient for the Gu family brother-in-law and the others next door to bring the children, so after shouting, he pushed away the people blocking here and squeezed over, and sure enough, found that a few people were squeezing and sitting on the lower berth next door, Ming Ming and Hao Hao had obviously never seen such a battle, and looked aggrieved with their little faces.

"Go, go, if you don't go, I'll hit you!" Li Long's voice suddenly became loud, "If you're not in this berth, hurry up and go!"

As he said this, he threw out the luggage that a few people had placed between the two berths.

If it were normal times, if he were alone, he would just lie on the berth at this time and not care at all, managing people was the conductor's duty.

But now it affected his own family, so he definitely had to manage it.

Li Long had great strength, pushing and shoving these people into the aisle, at this time something happened in another carriage, a woman's shouting sound rang out, vaguely hearing it wasn't known if it was touching her butt or stepping on her shoe, and the carriage suddenly became chaotic.

Li Long didn't care about that much, and very simply pushed out the people who wanted to squeeze here, clearing a space.

Li Jianguo next door was also taking action, although he was much shorter than Li Long, his energy was not small, and that middle-aged man also joined in, so these people were driven into the aisle.

Some people glared at them, cursing in their mouths, saying that everyone was a traveler outside, why bother each other.

Li Long was not polite either:

"You need to be more disciplined, who would bother you? Besides, with so many people squeezing here, do you think you can stay?"

If there were few people, and they were polite and had some sense of awe, Li Long wouldn't mind accommodating some people—of course, the conductor had to allow it.

But with so many people squeezing this place like a hard seat carriage, the conductor definitely wouldn't allow it.

And it affected his own family, so Li Long naturally didn't mind being this villain.

Sure enough, after the train started, the conductor came over and started driving people away.

"Sister, with Brother-in-law here, we can be much more at ease. You just scared me to death... I've been here twice and haven't encountered such a situation. At that time, I was in the middle berth, and didn't care about that much..." Gu Xiao Yu whispered to Gu Gu Xiaoxia.

"Heh, he has strength, and he dares to think and dare to do, otherwise, our family couldn't have the life we have now." Gu Gu Xiaoxia said quite proudly.

The middle-aged man next door sat back on the stool in the aisle, and also said with emotion: "Heh, young man, not bad, not bad, without you, we would have suffered."

His wife also echoed and said: "That is, I saw two of them whose actions were not disciplined, if it weren't for this brother shouting, maybe we would have lost things."

Li Long was a bit embarrassed to be praised, he waved his hand and said: "It's nothing, we are traveling together, so it's fate, shouldn't it be done?"

With such an encounter, everyone's relationship became closer, and they talked more.

Next was daytime, all the way through the Gobi Desert, and through the carriage, one could occasionally see red deer and Mongolian gazelles galloping in the distance.

Obviously, at this time, wild resources were not only rich in Northern Xinjiang, but other places were also about the same.

There were not many things during the day, Ming Ming and Hao Hao didn't cry or make trouble, with their mother and aunt, and their brother and sister accompanying them to play, they were very happy.

Seeing that the two children didn't cry or make trouble, many people nearby clicked their tongues in wonder, such young children being so well-behaved was really rare.

Li Long knew, however, that he had to be careful next.

The scene in *A World Without Thieves* might appear. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 939 =====