Chapter 61: The First Escort Mission Ends

Because the locomotive had been swapped, a brief air brake test was required, which had nothing to do with Li Xuewu and his team, so they watched the engineers busy themselves.

Li Xuewu and Wang Yimin had finished eating, each cleaned their meal boxes, and then saw Liu Guoyou signaling—likely preparing to depart.

Not long after, the station’s departure signal light turned green; the external duty officer emerged from the operations room holding a signal flag, stood on the platform midway along the train, and waved a green flag toward Li Xuewu’s car, signaling departure.

Li Xuewu saw the train conductor Liu Guoyou confirm the status of the departure signal and the external officer’s signal, then unfolded his green flag and drew a circle from outside to inside, signaling the engineer to depart, while the station’s external officer turned to face the locomotive, relaying the conductor’s departure signal.

After the engineer and assistant engineer confirmed the departure signal, the whistle blew a long blast, and the train slowly began moving, its speed gradually increasing as the steam engine powered up.

This was still a double-headed steam locomotive; if a single steam locomotive had accelerated to this speed in such a short time, it would have been unthinkable—nowhere near the acceleration and speed of trains in the future.

Li Xuewu had eaten only one serving of braised pork over rice, placed the other box of chicken stewed with mushrooms over rice in the drawer, planning to eat it later if hungry; seeing Liu Guoyou busy filling out the trip log, he took out his escort log and began writing.

“My first escort mission has been overwhelmingly eventful,” Li Xuewu remarked as he filled out the log.

Liu Guoyou didn’t look up but replied, “Can’t say whether your luck’s good or bad—I’ve been running for over ten years and haven’t encountered this many incidents.”

Thus, Li Xuewu’s freight car rattled past Fengcheng, past “the end of the universe,” “Ben Shan’s hometown,” “the ancient capital of Yan,” “the main battlefield of the pocket formation,” entered Chuncheng, then continued rattling along the internal siding into Plant 17.

(Test your knowledge—do you know where these places are?)

After the plant’s receiving officer verified the lead seals against the paperwork, copied the escort log with the opposing security department, obtained their signature, and signed the counterpart’s record, the escort mission was finally complete.

Li Xuewu and his team would wait in Chuncheng until Friday night to depart empty, escorting special steel to Gangdu City and returning it to the plant.

So Li Xuewu had at most twenty-four hours to handle that batch of large white pears.

Li Xuewu had slept well on the train and did not rest in the dormitory arranged by the plant.

He told Wang Yimin he was visiting relatives, then reported his plans at the dormitory office.

Outside the plant gate, the night was empty; he strolled leisurely for over ten minutes, constantly glancing behind to check for surveillance.

Nighttime tailing was extremely difficult; Li Xuewu was confident no one was following him, so in the darkness he pulled out his bicycle and rode straight to his second uncle’s house.

His second uncle lived in a railway bureau dormitory building—this was his second aunt’s parents’ home.

When Li Xuewu entered the courtyard, it was silent; the gatekeeper was dozing. He dismounted his bicycle from afar, stepped quietly inside, and went upstairs to the second floor.

Standing outside his second uncle’s door, he took two nets full of large white pears from his space and held them in his hands.

He knocked for a long time before his second uncle finally opened the door.

“Xuewu? What are you doing here? Did something happen to Grandma?”

His second uncle Li Gan exclaimed in surprise; his second aunt heard the shout and rushed out too.

Li Xuewu quickly ushered his second uncle inside, placed the two nets of pears on the cabinet by the door, and shut it behind him.

“Grandma’s fine. I’m on an escort mission for our steel mill and happened to be in Chuncheng, so I came by.”

His second aunt Han Xiumei slapped Li Xuewu hard on the arm, scolding, “You brat, why didn’t you write ahead? Why drag all these pears all this way? What a hassle!”

Li Xuewu helped his second uncle, whose legs were weak, sit on the armchair and replied to his second aunt.

“The notice came last-minute; the letter couldn’t have arrived faster than I did.”

His second uncle lit a cigarette from the table, took a deep drag, and exhaled slowly, finally calming down.

“When did you transfer out? Your third uncle wrote that you were promoted—why are you now at the steel mill?”

Li Xuewu drank the hot water his second aunt handed him, dispelling the chill in his stomach.

Li Xuewu knew his own situation: though memories of that war-torn scene were slowly returning, he hadn’t witnessed it firsthand—only felt it deeply—so his tone in replying to his second uncle was very calm.