The Road Home

Chapter 34

Lu Yanchen was part of the last group to arrive at the factory.

As per usual practice, prior to entering the site, every person needed to be checked, turn over his personal effects, and change into the same set of black combat clothing.

The conditions here could not compare to that of the military base. Lu Yanchen figured that he would not be able to contact Gui Xiao every day, and hence on the way here he had already arranged things with Gui Xiao. She would send emails to him on a regular basis, and he would read them whenever he was able to. She also needed to keep her mobile phone free at all times because once he had a free moment he would find an opportunity to call her.

Everyone was staying in the factory's dormitory, a three-level building.

Two people shared each room, with each person having his own upper and lower bunk, the upper bunk for storing luggage and the lower for sleeping. So simple and austere was everything it was as if he had returned to the past. About two months later, when he came back to the dorm one night, Elder Shen, who shared the room with him, was not asleep yet. He had asked the cafeteria for some peanuts and was pairing them with baijiu. Seeing Lu Yanchen walking in, he called him over to sit with him. At the desk beside the bed, these two men, one old, one young, began sipping alcohol together.

While drinking, Lu Yanchen looked at the open laptop on the desk. On it was a pre-downloaded American television series.

When he saw this, he chuckled. Before he left home Gui Xiao had often been watching this series.

Catching sight of his expression, the old man also laughed. "You young'uns don't understand. In our time, the country had a tight relationship with the big brother, Soviet Union, and the language everyone learned was Russian. Who would have known? Now everything is English. I'm old now, so old, but I still had to start from square one and learn it. And it's not enough to just learn it; we need to be proficient in it. And we need to keep up with the times, too, and know all their new words and expressions. Watching this is useful."

Lu Yanchen could relate with all these things that Elder Shen was talking about.

When you go abroad for exchange, if you are not able to speak well, it is a disgrace to the country. When providing international support, if you cannot speak deftly, it is a problem also.

The two looked at one another and smiled. At the end Elder Shen even pointed at the picture on the computer screen. "What I can't understand is, the girls and lads in here are constantly breaking up and then matching themselves up again at will. Every few episodes they'll switch boyfriend and girlfriend amongst themselves... The culture is different, and it's hard to understand." Elder Shen explained that it was his youngest niece who had helped him download the series, and he had not gotten to catch more than a few glimpses of it before he came here to the factory. Now he could see from watching it that it was not all that suited to him, but there was no way for him to exchange for a different one anymore. He would just have to wait until he had his time-off in lieu in a month and was back in Beijing, and then he could do something about it.

The next day, the sun was not even up when someone knocked on their door.

Elder Shen simply draped a jacket over his shoulders and then stepped outside, but very shortly he returned. "Xiao Lu, you sleep a little longer. They've dug up an impressive one in the minefield up ahead. I'll go take a look."

When Lu Yanchen got out of bed, the sky was just beginning to brighten.

There was an issue with the drainage pipe in the dormitory building, so Lu Yanchen had a shower in the factory's shower room and then came back out. While he was towel-drying his hair, the person who had hurriedly brought Elder Shen out early this morning now returned, his forehead slick with perspiration. Seeing Lu Yanchen, he sprinted over with large strides, drew a panting breath, and stated quietly, "He's gone."