Zuo Jiang's trip was carefully prepared, and when he went to school on Monday, he found a free time to give a small tape recorder to the head teacher, Mr. Zhang, who accepted it after a few excuses. When he was out of school on Tuesday, he found Teacher Zhang to ask for leave, saying that Tongjiang's grandmother was sick and wanted to visit his grandmother with his mother.

Zuo Jiang almost miscalculated the time, "12, 11" major accident occurred around 2 in the morning, the railway calculation time is 24 hours, 0 o'clock in the middle of the night is the dividing line, after 0 o'clock is the next day, this year's December 11 is Thursday, Zuo Jiang was going to Tongjiang on the morning of the 11th, but then it suddenly occurred that if the 11th night took the 2302 train, arrived at Tianmenshan Station at about 2 o'clock in the morning of the next day, that is to say, it was the early morning of the 12th, so it was exactly one day late, If something really happened, it would be over, and he was suddenly scared into a cold sweat.

When going to school in the morning, Zuo Jiang told his mother that Li Shuyuan was too cold and would not go home for dinner at noon, and Li Shuyuan went home at noon mainly to cook for Zuo Jiang. After Zuo Jiang arrived in Tongjiang, he stored his schoolbag in the parcel storage office in the waiting room, asked for a room in the hotel, and went upstairs after eating in the hotel restaurant.

Zuo Jiang lay on the bed in the room and watched TV for a while, and when the time came to 1:15 in the afternoon, he picked up the phone in the room and called his mother Li Shuyuan, who was at work at 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

After a while, Li Shuyuan picked up the phone: "Hey, hello, Songjiang Railway Hospital, who are you looking for?" ”

Zuo Jiang smiled and said, "Mom, I'm Zuo Jiang." ”

Li Shuyuan said: "Xiao Jiang, have you eaten at noon, what is the matter with your mother?" ”

Zuo Jiang said: "Mom, I've eaten, I'm looking for you to tell you that today Teacher Chen from the 22nd Middle School in the city asked me to help her out of the Olympiad competition, which is the teacher Chen who guided me in the provincial Olympiad competition last time, because the questions need to be kept confidential and are closed, so I can't go home tonight, and I can't go back until the end of the exam tomorrow, I'm afraid you will be worried, call you first, and Teacher Chen at the school has helped me ask for leave!" ”

Although Li Shuyuan was a little reluctant, when she thought that Zuo Jiang could win the first place in the provincial Olympiad competition, it all depended on the guidance and help of Teacher Chen, and she couldn't say anything if she didn't agree, so she said: "Okay, Xiaojiang, you have to take care of yourself!" ”

Zuo Jiangyou made a phone call to the hotel's main desk and told them to wake him up at 6 p.m. Then I was relieved to get some sleep.

At 6 o'clock, the phone in the room rang, at this time Zuo Jiang woke up for a while, but he didn't get up on the bed, he knew that this was the hotel's wake-up call, picked up the phone and said thank you and put it down. Then I washed my face, got dressed, and went downstairs to eat.

After dinner, Zuo Jiang saw that the time was only 6:40, and there were still more than 2 hours before the 2302 freight train started, so he walked out of the hotel to look for a small shop on the street, and he wanted to buy two boxes of good cigarettes to bribe the captain of the 2302nd operation, so that he could get on the guard car smoothly.

Walking to an inconspicuous small shop, Zuo Jiang walked in, although the small shop was inconspicuous, there were many varieties of cigarettes, so Zuo Jiang climbed on the counter and watched. When Zuo Jiang came, he wanted to buy two boxes of phoenix or two boxes of yellow ginseng cigarettes, the price of phoenix cigarettes was 5 jiao and 4 cents a box, and the small shop generally sold it for 2 yuan, and the yellow ginseng cigarette is also the big ginseng cigarette that Songjiang people often say, the parity is 6 jiao and 1 cent a box, and the small shop generally sells 1 yuan and 6 jiao, Zuo Jiang looked at it for a while and suddenly found that there were good friends in the counter, so he asked the price, and the shopkeeper told him to sell 3 yuan a box.

Liangyou cigarettes are the first batch of foreign cigarettes to enter Songjiang Province after the reform and opening up, and Zuo Jiang does not know which country is produced in the specific country, because the cigarette box is marked with "Hong Kong government advises citizens that smoking is dangerous to health", Zuo Jiang later thought that it may be foreign cigarettes distributed in Hong Kong, when he went to college, Liangyou cigarettes were 6 yuan a box, and now selling 3 yuan may be the early days when this cigarette just entered Songjiang Province.

Zuo Jiang took out 10 yuan to buy three boxes, and bought a pack of matches, in the small store he opened a pack and took out a stick, wanting to experience the familiar taste of Liangyou cigarettes, Zuo Jiang has quit smoking for many years, just took a puff and couldn't help but choke and cough. The shopkeeper looked at Zuo Jiang, a child casually bought three packs of Liangyou cigarettes, very surprised and envious, usually few people sell this cigarette in a pack, he is open the box to sell, a 1 dime 5 cents. The surprise was that three packs were sold at once, and the envy was of course that Zuo Jiang was rich. Seeing that Zuo Jiang opened and smoked a very greedy cigarette, he was not willing to smoke a good friend cigarette that he had sold for so long, the reason was that it was too expensive, looking at Zuo Jiang smoking the cigarette shop owner and sniffing the smell, it was almost a halazi that didn't flow down!

After Zuo Jiang coughed, he saw the appearance of the shopkeeper and understood what was going on, took out a cigarette from the cigarette case and threw it to him, and then left the small shop.

Zuo Jiang stayed in the hotel until 8 o'clock and went downstairs, and walked to Tongjiang Station, this hotel is not far from Tongjiang Station, and it takes more than 10 minutes to walk. At this time, the management of Tongjiang station is very loose, when there is no passenger car, the exit door is always open, Zuo Jiang walked into the station from the exit, all the way to the operation room, he had to inquire about the 2302 times in a few departures.

As soon as he walked to the door of the operation room, a car inspector with a small hammer walked out of it, and Zuo Jiang hurriedly stepped forward and asked, "Master, how many lanes does 2302 depart from?" ”

The inspector glanced at Zuo Jiang, maybe he saw that Zuo Jiang was quite polite, and he didn't stop and said: "In two 5!" He walked in front of Zuo Jiang.

Zuo Jiang's previous life in Tongjiang Station did transportation work, know that the inspector said that the two 5 is 10, the railway is generally to the departure line more than 10 large stations are used to call 10 as two 5, because 10 and 4 pronunciation is more similar, afraid of confusing 10 by two 5 to replace, small ninety-nine and multiplication formula is two 5 one ten!

Zuo Jiang is very familiar with the station yard of Tongjiang Station, bypassing the long train in front of the road and coming to 10, at this time the 2302 train has been marshalled, and there are more than 10 people in front of the station behind the car, men, women and children, Zuo Jiang thinks that these people may want to take a ride.

At this time, the running conductor has not yet come, none of these people who want to take the train dare to get on the guard car first, there is an unwritten rule on the railway, if you get on the train first when the commander does not agree to you to ride, it is to look down on the captain, no matter who you send him, he will be mercilessly to give you down.

Among the more than 10 people, there were people who wanted to take a ride, and the station staff who came to see them off, all standing here chattering, when a guard with a coal bucket on his back got off the guard, he was in charge of filling the guard with coal and making a stove, and after getting off the car, he walked up to a woman and chatted with her.

At this time, the captain of the running car came over with a leather bag on his back, and the guard hurriedly greeted him and said, "Master Zhang, my daughter-in-law and her sister are going to Fengyang to buy some goods, you can carry them." As he spoke, he took out a box of cigarettes from his trouser pocket and secretly stuffed it into the commander's hand.

The captain glanced at it and put it in his coat pocket and said, "It's too cold tonight, you can give me some good coal!" ”

The guard said: "Master Zhang, don't worry, I'll give you the same piece today." ”

At this time, other people also gathered around to talk to Captain Zhang, some were sent by his acquaintances, and some were directly stuffed cigarettes into his hands, Captain Zhang got into the guard car after a nod, and these hitchhikers also followed the guard.

Zuo Jiang didn't follow the guard, he knew that the commander of the operation car was going to get out of the car to check the current car in a while, so he waited below. After Captain Zhang hung up the signal light, he got out of the guard car with the hand signal light, and Zuo Jiang stepped forward when he saw it and said, "Master Zhang, I'll go to Fengyang with your car!" As he spoke, he took out the two boxes of Liangyou's cigarettes and gave them to him. Captain Zhang used his hand signal light to see clearly that it was a burst of excitement in his heart after Liangyou smoke, the broken cigarettes given by more than 10 people just now were not as valuable as Zuo Jiang alone, he was originally going to make a show, but when he saw Zuo Jiang's generous move, he said: "You go up, find a place to sit by yourself." As he spoke, he walked forward to look at the car with the signal.

Zuo Jiang didn't expect today's Captain Zhang to be so easy to speak, originally he had 10 yuan in his pocket, and if he couldn't do it, he handed it over, but he didn't expect it to be useless at all, Zuo Jiang was very afraid of meeting a running captain like Lu Dongzi again, but fortunately, it was quite smooth at this level.

Zuo Jiang got into the guard car and saw that the seats inside were full, and there were 7 or 8 people sitting on the ground with paper grams, and there was no place for him to sit at all, so he stood by the railing of the stove and roasted his hands, the fire of the guard car was burning very strongly, and the car was very warm.

At 8:50, Captain Zhang returned to the car, checked the wind gauge and the car equipment that there was no problem, got out of the car, and saw the assistant attendant in front of him give the signal, and he turned the hand signal to the green light to show the driver the signal.

With a long roar of the locomotive, the train started with a loud rumbling sound, and the speed gradually increased, and in a short time it left the station and plunged into the vast night.