Chapter 144 - 99: Planning
The car pulled into the Sunshine Family Courtyard.
The road in the courtyard was riddled with potholes, so Chen Jianguo drove slowly.
It was the time of evening when people came out to cool off after dinner.
Many of the factory employees were sitting under the large trees downstairs, chatting with rice bowls or large cattail fans in hand.
When they saw a shiny black sedan drive in, everyone stopped talking, their eyes following the car.
Chen Jianguo parked the car in an empty spot downstairs from his apartment in Building Three.
He pulled the handbrake and took out the key.
He got out, walked to the back of the car, untied the plastic rope, and lifted the bicycle out of the trunk.
"Jianguo, you bought a car?"
A neighbor walked over and asked, a little surprised.
"No, what car? It’s borrowed."
Chen Jianguo set the bicycle on its kickstand.
"It’s just that in two days, Xiaozhuo has to go to Huizhou to register for school. I borrowed a car to drive him."
"That makes sense. Xiaozhuo is the pride of our factory. He deserves to be driven to Huizhou in a sedan," the neighbor agreed with a smile.
Chen Jianguo didn’t stay to chat. He locked the car and went upstairs.
He pushed open the door.
Inside, the ceiling fan was on, WHIRRING loudly.
The sounds of stir-frying came from the kitchen, and the smell of cooking oil mixed with the aroma of rice drifted out.
Chen Jianguo changed into his slippers and placed the car keys on the shoe cabinet.
He walked into the living room.
Chen Zhuo was sitting on the sofa, holding half a watermelon and scooping out the flesh with a spoon.
The television was on.
The screen showed CCTV’s *Animal World*.
The voice of Zhao Zhongxiang drifted from the old TV’s speakers.
As Chen Zhuo watched, he spat the watermelon seeds into a small box made of folded newspaper on the coffee table in front of him.
His aim was perfect; not a single seed missed.
"You’re back," Chen Zhuo said, turning his head at the sound.
"Yeah."
Chen Jianguo walked over and glanced at the TV screen.
A lion was chasing an antelope across the screen.
Chen Jianguo turned and went into the bathroom to wash his face.
Wiping his face with a towel, Chen Jianguo came out and sat on the armchair next to Chen Zhuo.
The armchair was old, and the springs underneath let out a dull GROAN.
Chen Jianguo took a large cattail fan with frayed edges from under the coffee table and began to fan himself.
The sliding door to the kitchen was pushed open.
Liu Xiuying walked out carrying two dishes.
One was stir-fried green beans with shredded pork, the other stir-fried tomatoes with eggs.
"Wash your hands and come get the rice," Liu Xiuying said.
Chen Jianguo stood up, went into the kitchen, and brought out three bowls of rice, along with a small plate of sliced pickled cucumbers.
The family of three sat down at the small round table in the living room.
The ceiling fan blew the steam from the food to one side.
Chen Zhuo picked up his chopsticks, put a piece of tomato into his bowl, and lowered his head to eat.
"You brought the car back?" Liu Xiuying asked, picking up some green beans with her chopsticks.
"Brought it back. It’s parked downstairs," Chen Jianguo said, taking a mouthful of rice.
"Did you give the things to Old Zhang?"
"I did. Old Zhang refused to take them no matter what, so I just left them on the floor," Chen Jianguo said, chewing his food.
"He’s a big businessman, he doesn’t need those things, but we have to observe the proper courtesies."
Liu Xiuying nodded.
"How’s the car?"
"It’s great. Brakes are responsive. The clutch is a little high, but it’s not a problem. Old Zhang even filled up the tank."
Chen Jianguo swallowed the rice in his mouth.
"I just drove it all the way back, and the AC is nice and cool. We’ll have no problem at all for the trip the day after tomorrow."
"Is there a lot of space in the car?"
"Plenty. The back seat of a Santana is really spacious," Chen Jianguo said with a smile.
"That big suitcase you bought for Xiaozhuo? We can toss it in the trunk and still have more than half the space left."
「After dinner.」
Liu Xiuying cleared the table and took the dishes into the kitchen.
Outside, the sky had turned completely dark.
A few dim, yellow streetlights lit up in the family courtyard.
The chirping of cicadas drifted in through the window, along with the sound of old men playing Chinese chess under the large tree, their pieces clicking against the board.
Chen Jianguo took a damp cloth and wiped the living room coffee table completely clean.
He pushed everything on it—the fruit bowl, the water glasses, the old newspapers—onto the nearby TV stand.
A large, flat area was now clear on the coffee table.
Chen Jianguo turned and walked into the bedroom.
A moment later, he came out holding something rolled into a tube.
It was a map.
A very large, folded paper map.
The cover read in large characters: *China Highway Traffic Map*.
The map was clearly old. Its corners were worn white and fuzzy, and the cross-shaped creases in the middle had been reinforced with two layers of clear tape.
Chen Jianguo had bought it back when he was a long-haul truck driver and had kept it at home ever since.
He sat down at the coffee table and spread the map out flat.
Chen Jianguo used an ashtray to hold down the top-left corner and the TV remote for the top-right.
Chen Zhuo turned off the TV.
He walked over, but instead of sitting on the sofa, he sat cross-legged on the floor next to the coffee table.
The floor was cool, a welcome relief from the summer heat.
Chen Jianguo pulled a pen from his shirt pocket.
"Come take a look," Chen Jianguo said, pointing at the map.
Chen Zhuo leaned in.
The map was a dense web of colorful lines.
Black lines with hash marks were railways, thick red lines were national highways, and thin blue lines were provincial roads.
There were also countless dots, large and small, with densely packed place names written beside them.
Chen Jianguo’s index finger tapped a spot near the top of the map.
There was an inconspicuous little dot with a name written next to it.
Zeyang.
"This is where we are now," said Chen Jianguo.
His finger traced a thick red line, slowly moving downward.
It slid past the provincial border.
It slid past a few slightly larger dots.
Finally, his finger stopped on another large dot near the bottom of the map.
Huizhou.
"See it clearly?" Chen Jianguo asked, turning his head.
Chen Zhuo nodded.
Chen Jianguo picked up a red-and-blue pencil and gestured over the map.
He flipped the pencil over and used the blue end to draw a small circle next to Zeyang.
"The morning after next, we’ll leave the courtyard and get on National Highway 104."
The blue tip of the pencil began to trace the red line downward.
It made a faint scratching sound on the paper.
"I know this road well. Years ago, when I was with the transport team, I always took this route on my runs down south. The road surface is decent, but there are a lot of big trucks hauling coal, so we have to be careful."
The pencil tip stopped on a city’s name.
Mozhou.
"We should get here around noon, twelve o’clock."
As he spoke, Chen Jianguo drew a small triangle next to Mozhou.
"We won’t stop in the city proper. It’s easy for an out-of-town car to get lost, and there are too many traffic lights and a lot of congestion."
Chen Jianguo pointed to the triangle.
"We’ll just find a water-refilling station or a truck stop on the side of the highway, get a hot meal, rest for an hour or so, add some water to the radiator, and use the restroom."
Chen Zhuo stared at the blue line slowly extending across the map, not saying a word.
He listened quietly.
His father’s plan was meticulous, marked by the characteristic reliability of an old pro driver.
Chen Jianguo continued drawing the line downward.
The blue line passed through Mozhou and continued south.
"After Mozhou is Fengzhou. This stretch has a lot of toll booths, so I’ll need to remember to get some small change ready. The road’s got a lot of potholes, too. If it gets too bumpy for you in the back, just lie down and get some sleep."
The hand holding the pencil was steady.
"Past Fengzhou, we’ll reach Yan City."
The pencil tip tapped a spot toward the lower middle of the map.
"Once we’re in Yan City, we’ll be more than halfway there. If we’re tired, we can pull over and rest for half an hour. If not, we’ll just drive straight through."
Chen Jianguo put the pencil down.
He picked up his cup and took a sip of water.
"After we cross the Huai River, the drive gets much easier. It’s a wide, open road. As long as we don’t hit rain or traffic, we should be able to drive straight to Huake University by around four in the afternoon."
Chen Jianguo leaned back against the sofa and fanned himself with the cattail fan.
"It’ll still be light out when we get there. We’ll go to the registration office first to get you signed up and settle your dorm room. Then at night, I’ll take you for a walk around Huizhou and we can try some of the local specialty dishes."
Chen Zhuo sat on the floor.
He looked at the old map on the coffee table, now marked with a long blue line.
This line was the starting point of a trajectory that would define his next four years, and perhaps even longer.
"Okay," Chen Zhuo nodded.
He didn’t object or offer any suggestions.
’This feeling of having someone else plan the whole trip, of not having to worry about a thing,’ Chen Zhuo thought, ’it isn’t so bad.’
The kitchen door slid open.
Liu Xiuying came out, wiping her hands.
"Have you settled on the route?" she asked, walking over to the coffee table.
"Settled. We’ll just follow National Highway 104 all the way down. It’s the reliable way," said Chen Jianguo.
Liu Xiuying nodded.
"Alright. I’ll go to the South Gate Vegetable Market tomorrow morning and buy two pounds of fresh beef to braise at home. I’ll also hard-boil ten eggs. That way you two will have something to snack on if you get hungry on the road."
She looked down at Chen Zhuo, who was sitting on the floor.
"Xiaozhuo, all those books and notebooks in your room—pick out the ones you want to take tomorrow and put them on your desk. I’ll pack them in the suitcase for you the day after."
Chen Zhuo stood up.
"There isn’t much. Just a few notebooks and a couple of changes of clothes will be enough."
"How could that be enough?"
Liu Xiuying shot him a glare.
"You’ll be gone for more than half a year. You need to have both warm and light clothes. It’s humid over there. If you don’t pack everything you need, you’ll just end up worrying. Don’t you worry about it, I’ll do the packing."
Chen Zhuo didn’t say anything more.
"Okay."
「The night grew late.」
The wall clock pointed to ten.
The cicadas outside had gone quiet. A night breeze blew in through the cracks in the window, carrying a hint of late summer’s chill.
"Alright, let’s get to bed early."
Chen Jianguo stretched, his bones letting out a few sharp CRACKS.
"I still have to go to the factory tomorrow to hand over my work and get my leave approved."
Liu Xiuying cleaned up the coffee table and went to the bathroom to wash up.
Chen Zhuo threw the newspaper box of watermelon seeds into the trash can and turned off the living room light.
He returned to his small bedroom.
He lay on his single bed.
The light from the streetlamp outside cast a dim yellow band across the ceiling.
Chen Zhuo closed his eyes.
The blue line Chen Jianguo had drawn on the map appeared in his mind.
Zeyang.
Mozhou.
Fengzhou.
Yan City.
Huizhou.
He turned over and pulled a thin terrycloth blanket over his stomach.
His breathing slowly evened out.
And so, the night two days before his departure passed quietly.