We take the taxi to the nearby railway station. I find a chain café shop about 500 meters away from the railway station which opens all night. I take Dorra in and find a corner. Then I carefully say to her: “Stay here and wait for me! If I don’t come back, don’t walk away by yourself! Don’t call anyone! Don’t talk to any people! Don’t walk around! You’d better not even go to the toilet!”
I leave her in the café shop and walk out to go to the railway station.
Winter nights in the south are not really too cold. But now I’m feeling a trace of chill in my bones. There is no starlight in the sky. Looking up from the muddy exhaust gas in the city, it seems that the sky is grey. In the lights of the city, the sky is too grey to make people feel hopeless.
I laugh bitterly and can’t help but tighten my coat, but I still feel cold in my heart.
It’s twelve o’clock, and there are few pedestrians on the road, until arrive the ticket office at the railway station, there are more people around.
Only one third of the windows in a row are still lighting, and people are queuing to buy tickets. In the waiting hall, there are many passengers lying on the benches, some are leaning, some are simply taking off their shoes as pillows to sleep. There are even places where people lie on the ground. Some are crowding around the corner smoking.
Far away from the ticket gate, a uniformed railway station worker is napping in his chair while aother one is reading newspaper or magazines. The light is so dim that makes people feel sleepy.
I stand in front of the electronic train timetable and check the train number and time carefully.
I haven’t even figured out where to go. My goal is very simple. Find the earliest and fastest train to leave, no matter goes to anywhere!
As I’m looking at the train timetable, I carefully watch whether there’re any suspicious people around me.
Although I think they can’t find me so soon, after all, they need to find my identity before they can hunt me! But I still have enough vigilance. In this escape game, any care is absolutely not superfluous!
From time to time, some ticket touts come around and ask me where I’m going, trying to peddle their train tickets, and some long-distance black cars coaches are also chasing me.
I ignore them, but calmly search the train timetable. Finally, I’ve decided: twenty-five minutes later, there’s a train to go to HaiCity. This is the nearest express train I can find.
I go to the ticket window and the conductor tells me in a stiff voice that there’s no ticket left. I think for a moment and buy two station tickets. I decide to advance to the train platform, and then get on the train to make up the ticket as long as we can leave! We just need to leave as soon as possible!
When I pay for it, I suddenly notice that some people on the left seems to be coming towards me. My heart is throbbing, I pretend to count the change, and take a furtive look from the corner of my eye.
Two men, all flat heads, are wearing grey coats, having no luggage in their hands, standing about ten steps away. They seem to be observing me carefully.
My heart is beating hardly, and alert at once! At the same time, I noticed another man on the other side looking at me coldly, checking my appearance carefully.
I immediately feel a chill in my heart, take the change off the counter, turn around and run away!
The men on both sides see me running away, they immediately stop hesitating. The two men on the left are first responding and chasing me. The man on the right is screaming something as he is running. It’s too far away for me to hear. I want to rush to the exit, but I see seven to eight men rushing into the door of the waiting hall. Some of them are wearing black suits. They are having the clear target, all rushing towards me!
Without hesitation, I turn around immediately and instead of running out, I’m rushing towards the ticket gate.
For a while, people in the hall are turning upside down, because there are many passengers are waiting for the trains, they are sitting on the ground in the hall, and some of them even leave very small place to step. There are so many people coming in a hurry, have tripped up several people and causing some disputes. They are shouting in several places, accompanying by shouting and scolding. I’m just stuffing my head and rushing into the station. The staff member who is reading the newspaper seems to want to stand up and stop me, but I push him aside and he fall on the ground. Then I hold the railing with one hand and roll over it like a hurdle.
In the adjacent duty room, there’s a policeman and two security guards are rushing to the station. I don’t care about them, just run towards the station. The latter two guys are running after me very fast. We are rushing into the underground passage of the station one by one. Along the way, I bump into two or three travelers with luggage, and on one occasion I nearly fall down. I staggere a few steps and crash to a snack selling cart. By this time, a man behind me has caught up with me. This man is running very fast, and leaving quite a distance from the other people behind me. With the momentum of tripping, I simply squat on the ground. The man in the back can’t stop. He’s tripping over me and falling face down on the ground. I get up and go on running all the way along the platform.
At this time, some of the men chasing me behind are stopped by the police and security guards at the station. I see two other security guards are standing in front to stop me. I’m clenching my teeth, jumping from the platform to the railway, and then rushing to the opposite platform.
Many people in the station are watching from afar, as well as the whistle sounds of the railway police are sharp and harsh! I’m running cross the platform and heading underground. Then I’m running towards the passenger exit. Just after a turn, I suddenly see a leg is stretching out in front of me. I stumble on it and fall. My whole body is shocked and don’t know where the pain is or where the numbness is. I can’t care about it at all. My first thought is turning over immediately after I fall to the ground. Then I see a man is holding an iron stick to hit to my head.
I raise my hand, holding the bag in my hand up to block. The iron stick is hitting on my fingers. It’s so painfully, and the whole palm has lost its feeling immediately. I kick him in the abdomen, and then I’m turning over, jumping up and keeping running.
At the exit of the train ahead, the lights are flashing in my eyes. Two uniformed staffs are hesitating to stop me. I’m running towards them and pulling out the knife at my waist. My face is stained with blood and shouting fiercely: “Get out! Get out of the way!”
The two staffs are hesitating for a moment, and both stepping back carefully. Compare with the risks of return, their lives are more important. I think in my heart: you are right.
I can’t wait to take the winding rail passage, just turn it over directly from the top. At the last ones, my body is turning softly and falling heavily on the ground. My knee is painful. I’m gritting my teeth and standing up desperately. There’s a rush of footsteps behind me. I feel wet in my pants. I guess my knee must have bled and flowed a lot. I can’t care about it at the moment, just rushing into the crowds outside who are holding up the signs to wait for pick up the passengers.
After a few screamings, the crowds are unconsciously giving me a way, so I’m just rushing out of the station all the way from the exit.
Continuely using this sprint speed running for several hundred meters, I have already terribly fatigued. My soles are soft. The place where I broke my knee is getting more and more painful. My lungs are shortness of breath and burning tingling let me unable to stick out.
At night, when there are few passers-by in the city, I’m escaping like a bereaved dog and turning into a dark alley by the road. I’m leaning against the wall and finally falling on the ground with the weak legs.
This is a backlit alley, but also a dead end, it is estimated that the sun is not shining all the year round. The ground is wet, the corners are suspicious slippery, do not know whether it is moss or something else. There’s a rotten smell in the alleys, and some urine. I grin powerlessly. It must be that some people who couldn’t find the toilet to nuisance here.
Although I know the ground must be very dirty, but I really can’t stand up now. My lungs seem to be burning. When people are nervous, some of the most bizarre ideas will jump out of their minds. I think sadly: Damn, now the body is really not as good as before, just running this way and panting like this. It seems the time to quit smoking. Otherwise, my lungs really can’t stand it.
Under the dim light, I’m rubbing my numbed knees and checking my hand which was hit by the iron stick. The thumb and index fingers are swollen, like two carrots.
I’m cursing in a low voice and can’t help thinking: How could they find me so soon?! How is that possible?
After gasping for a few minutes at this dead end, I’m sure that no one has come after me, no one has found me, and I feel a little calm.
I wait patiently for nearly an hour in the alley, then carefully take off my coat, turn its inside out and put it on.
Fortunately, I’m wearing a jacket can be worn on both sides. It is completely different in color and slightly safer when turn it over.
Looking out of the alley for a while, I come out. I dare not to walk to the cafe shop to find Dorra. Instead, I go to a bus stop about twenty meters away and get on a bus. Then I get off at the next stop.
Bypassing the railway station, I spend another ten minutes crossing two lanes and is
It’s about seven or eight hundred meters away from the railway station. I intentionally pick the dark alleys to cross. But when I’m turning a corner, a dark shadow is coming out from the corner of the wall, hitting me and knocking me against the wall. Then I feel that my waist is held up by a hard thing. A hoarse voice with the foreign accent, with a bit of courage and tension, stammering: “Money! Give out all your money!”
There is another dark shadow standing at the entrance of the lane, facing me on the side, looking out nervously, turning back and whispering: “Hurry up!”
It’s the robbery, but I’m relieved, and then whisper: “I have no money on me.”
He’s saying: “You… Give or not?! Don’t you give or not?!” Then he’s raising panicked hands to want to slap me on the face. I squeeze his wrist. he gives a painful cry. One thing in his hand is falling to the ground, and I’m immediately lifting my knee and bumping to his stomach. This fellow at the entrance of the lane sees and seems to want to run, but he’s reluctant to give up his companion, standing there for a second, and then rushing to me.
It doesn’t take me any trouble to let him down easily. Then I pick up the thing on the ground and look at it. It’s a screwdriver.
Looking at me, the guy in charge of the lookout is suddenly beginning to beg: “Don’t beat us. Please don’t beat us!”
I don’t have mind to care about these messy things now, throw the sharp screwdriver on the ground and raise my legs to go. But the man seems to have misunderstood that I’m going to kick him. He’s so frightened that he’s immediately lying down on the ground, hugging his head and saying: “We are also forceds. We can’t go back without money. The damn truck can not run without money to refuel. We are hungry for a whole day.”
I stop immediately, look at the two people on the ground, hesitate and ask: “Truck? What truck?” Instinctively, I seem to see a glimmer of hope!
They are two long-distance freight drivers who brought goods to our city. After delivery, the two guys were a little greedy and drove to the railway station to see if they could take one or two people back by the way and earn some extra money.
But in places like railway stations, thieves are everywhere! The two guys were not familiar with there, and in less than half a day, the purses were scratched. The money and reward they had just received were all stolen, and even the mobile phones were stolen too.
Together, the two men haven’t even got a coin. They have been hungry for a whole day without eating. Now they can’t even go home. Because there is not much gasoline in the truck, they can run a maximum of twenty or thirty kilometers. It must be refueled! But they don’t even have half a dime. It costs hundreds to drive on the highway.
Two people were trapped in the vicinity for a day, be stolen money, coupling with not being able to return home, they were anxious and angry, and suddenly aroused evil ideas, found a sharp screwdriver in the truck’s toolbox, found this secluded Lane entrance, temporarily tried to make a robbery.
And I, unfortunately, was their first target of robbery. Hearing this, A mind is coming into my mind. I pull up the two guys on the ground and ask: “Where are you going back?”
“Heyan city.” They answer me.
I nod, reach out and pat them on the shoulders: “So, I’ll give you five hundred. and you take me to HaiCity. Anyway, it’s the same direction. Five hundred is enough for you to go home all the way.”