By the time the train reached the next day, everyone had fallen into a rhythm, the clattering of the train’s motion becoming a part of their lives, and they couldn’t stop it even if they wanted to.

Soon, a man came onto the opposite sleeper, claiming he was coming from Zhangye and was heading to Jiuquan.

He was wearing a dark blue Zhongshan suit, with the buttons fastened tightly, about thirty years old, with a ruddy face typical of men from this region.

However, when he took off his shoes, his feet were smelly.

He casually carried a roast chicken and a bottle of Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor), and as soon as he got on the train, he sat cross-legged on the lower bunk, lit a cigarette, and began to rub his feet while tearing into the roast chicken, leisurely eating and drinking.

The smell of alcohol, smoke, and the savory roast chicken filled the air.

The three kids, who hadn’t eaten meat in a while, were sitting in a row, gazing hungrily at the man.

They stared at him as he rubbed his feet and drank liquor, their mouths watering at the sight of the roast chicken.

“Do you want to eat some?” The man, probably feeling embarrassed by their stares, asked them.

Er Dan opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, Chen Lina quickly covered his mouth.

She had made up her mind: if any of the kids dared to eat any of the chicken that the man had touched with his foot-rubbing hands, she would immediately open the window and throw him out.

Luckily, the man got off at the next stop.

Nie Bozhao and Chen Lina breathed a sigh of relief, opened the window to get some fresh air, and finally dared to take a deep breath.

The train kept moving forward, quickly leaving Hongyan Province and heading toward the frontier.

The scenery changed drastically—at first, there were people, but soon, there were no people in sight, just vast stretches of barren desert, endless and desolate.

Though the three kids didn’t have to endure the hard seats because they had sleeper berths, being cooped up for an entire day and night was driving them mad.

Fortunately, it began snowing outside.

The sleeper compartment had heating, so the train was warm, like spring.

The two younger children were running around in sweaters, while outside, snowflakes danced in the air.

To Chen Lina, this wasn’t something extraordinary, but for the two younger kids, it was a spectacle they had never seen before.

In the morning, when they were eating biscuits, Nie Weimin refused to eat.

The milk powder mixed with wheat milk essence smelled delicious.

When his mother Sun Gong was still alive, she had taken him to the chief engineer’s house, and they had served him that very drink.

He had tasted it, and it was so fragrant that he still remembered it to this day.

Seeing his two younger brothers eagerly eating biscuits and drinking the milk powder, Nie Weimin couldn’t help but feel resentful.

In his grandmother’s house, and in his maternal grandmother’s house, they would never have imagined giving him such treats.

To his grandmother, the only thing that mattered was lamb. Lamb was the most nutritious and the best for growing strong.

And in Wuma Yi, lamb was never in short supply.

Every winter, people ate lamb three times a day.

Nie Weimin didn’t like lamb at all and would cry every time his grandmother forced him to eat it.

Starving and feeling miserable, Nie Weimin lay down on the upper bunk, closed his eyes, and pretended to be dead.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been lying there, but suddenly, he smelled an incredibly rich aroma.

This was a smell he had only smelled once before—when his mother took him to the chief engineer’s house.

The same fragrance had wafted in the air.

It was a complex blend of various spices, deep-fried and cooked with fried eggs, a smell that could only come from a dish prepared with many ingredients.

Although he hadn’t eaten it, the mysterious fragrance had left an indelible impression on four-year-old Nie Weimin.

After pouring hot water into an enamel mug, Chen Lina placed a pack of instant noodles inside and covered the lid.

After three minutes, she opened it, and then called Er Dan over: “Only one bite each, with a piece of biscuit for each of you. After you eat, San Dan can eat, then I’ll eat. Let’s begin.”

Er Dan quickly grabbed a big bite, swallowed it, and exclaimed, “Mom, it’s so delicious! I want more, I want more!”

San Dan was too young to grab the chopsticks properly, and a noodle hung from his chin.

Chen Lina took the mug, scooped some noodles for him, then handed it to Nie Weimin on the upper bunk. “Little Nie, do you want a bite?”

“Brother doesn’t want any.”

“He doesn’t want any,” both Nie Bozhao and the younger two said in unison, but before they finished speaking, they saw the miserable-faced Nie Weimin scrambling down from the upper bunk.

He quickly grabbed a big mouthful of noodles, which had softened just perfectly, and the combination of oil and flavor made it so delicious that Nie Weimin nearly cried.

It was simply too, too delicious.

“That’s the spirit. Want some candy? You didn’t have any yesterday, so you can have two today,” Chen Lina asked.

Nie Weimin felt like a traitor to the people, but the instant noodles were so good, and besides that, he also wanted sugar and fried flatbreads.

He could hear Er Dan crunching away on the fried flatbread with a big apple, and his cravings twisted in his stomach.

“Don’t rush, take it slow, there’s more,” Nie Bozhao patted his son’s back as he ate ravenously.

As Nie Weimin cried and continued to eat, he looked at his younger brothers, who were watching him eagerly, and then pushed his noodles aside.

Wiping his tears, he grabbed an apple and some fried flatbread, and climbed back to the upper bunk.

The train continued to race forward, and the snowstorm outside grew heavier.

There was no sign of life, no houses, not even a single tree.

Chen Lina closed her eyes, thinking that at least if there was a tunnel to pass through, it would be better than endlessly traveling through the vast snowstorm.

But when she awoke again, it was still nothing but endless snow hitting the window.

At such a time, even spotting a single tree through the wind and snow would have been a great comfort to the people on the train.

But there was nothing—no tree, just the snowstorm.

Bored, Chen Lina took out Nie Weimin’s sweater from her luggage, unraveled it into yarn, and rolled it into a ball.

She was planning to knit two pieces together to make a big sweater for the second child.

In the afternoon, a sudden scream came from the upper berth.

At that moment, Nie Bozhao, struggling with the two younger children who were being impossible, passed by the dining car and went to check on the cramped, full car ahead.

Chen Lina was dozing off, holding a few yarn balls.

“Comrade Xiao Chen, Comrade Xiao Chen,” Nie Weimin shouted from the upper berth, rolling around in a panic.

“What’s wrong?” Chen Lina deliberately answered slowly, pretending not to care. The little one had to be made to learn discipline.

“My tooth, my tooth,” Nie Weimin continued to roll around, and suddenly, with a somersault, he fell down with a loud cry.

Nie Bozhao, holding the child, rushed over, and everyone heard the scream.

When they rushed back to look, the eldest son had his two small, milky white front teeth stuck to a big white rabbit candy.

His first tooth loss had begun in this dramatic way.

After three days and nights on the train, the three children were exhausted, and Chen Lina was too tired to even open her eyes.

At this point, the sleeper tickets from the provincial capital to Wuyima, a journey of thousands of kilometers, had cost Nie Bozhao half a month’s salary.

But without those tickets, Chen Lina and the children might have died on the train.

She had heard of people going to Wumayi who went mad from enduring the endless desert.

At first, she thought it was just a joke, but now, having experienced it herself, she realized it was no joke.

She was on the brink of losing her sanity.

“Comrade Xiao Chen, we’ve arrived, we’ve arrived. Get off the train,” Nie Bozhao had already packed up all the bags, carrying the second child on his back, holding Nie Weimin’s hand, while Chen Lina had to carry the youngest and haul all the scattered bags.

Carrying three kids meant there was a lot of luggage.

“Wumayi is so small,” she said as she looked around outside the station—heavy snow, low buildings, and green minibuses passing by in the icy wilderness. Chen Lina was stunned.

“This is Ulu, we still have to wait for the base car to take us directly to the base. Wumayi is behind the base. So, if you need to buy anything, you can do it now,” said Nie Bozhao.

Chen Lina’s jaw nearly dropped. “You’re saying this is Ulu? Are you kidding me? This can’t be Ulu!”

Ulu, the largest city in the North, a hub connecting Europe and Asia.

The last time Chen Lina came, the moment she got off the plane, the bustling city made her feel like she had arrived in Hong Kong or Shenzhen.

And now, it looked like this?

If this was Ulu, then how backward was Wumayi?

And the base, what kind of place was that?

She wasn’t even staying in a city?

“Comrade Xiao Chen, I have a request,” Nie Weimin, whose front teeth had just fallen out from the candy, said, his little face turning red from the cold.

“Comrade Xiao Nie, go ahead.”

“I don’t want to eat lamb, I want vegetables, pork ribs, and the dumplings you make.”

“This is not difficult. Once we’re home, I’ll buy the ingredients and make them for you,” Chen Lina reassured him.

“The base doesn’t have vegetables, only lamb. One sheep a week, and that’s all we have to eat.”

“No place to buy vegetables?”

“No.”

Chen Lina’s mouth dropped open as she looked at Nie Bozhao.

At that moment, she felt like she had been sold into a poor mountain village by human traffickers.

But who would have thought that this man, 15 years later, would become witty, good at dancing, humorous, and able to make a lot of money?

With just a glance, he could make her buy everything she wanted.

“Then let’s buy them now,” Chen Lina gritted her teeth, making a quick decision. “See that residential area? There must be vegetables there. Let’s go, come with me.”

Nie Bozhao firmly refused, “No, most of the people here are ethnic minorities. If you want to buy vegetables, I’ll go. You stay here.”

Chen Lina smiled at Nie Weimin. “Do you want to go with your dad or with me?”

Nie Weimin thought for a moment, then grabbed Chen Lina’s hand. “I want Comrade Xiao Chen to go with me.”

He didn’t want to go with his dad because if he did, they’d just get the usual three items—lamb, radish, and cabbage—then Grandma would stew them all together in a big iron pot.

The smell was terrible—just like Uncle Ha’s smelly, rancid odor.

Though she had already learned a bit about life in the border regions, when they entered the residential area and found the market, Chen Lina was still shocked.

The entire market was filled with meat, entire cows and sheep hanging in the air.

The butchers were sharpening their knives as a huge cow, weighing hundreds of pounds, was sliced into large pieces with a loud slap on the cutting board.

In one corner, Chen Lina saw piles of cabbage, two bunches of frozen leeks, and bags of large radishes.

And it was expensive.

In this era, where a pound of cabbage costs only a few cents, lamb cost one yuan, and cabbage was fifty cents per pound, radishes cost seventy cents, and leeks were as expensive as meat—one yuan per pound.

Little Nie Weimin stared longingly at the vegetables, and Chen Lina gritted her teeth, taking out ten yuan to buy ten pounds of cabbage and ten pounds of radishes.

She didn’t dare buy leeks, though, since she had just over a hundred yuan on her and needed to save it for emergencies—what if the kids got sick?

After wandering around the whole market, Chen Lina finally found a place selling vegetable seeds.

The seeds weren’t expensive—she bought a few packs for only one yuan.

Then, she bought some seasonings—star anise, cinnamon, cloves, which cost a bit more.

Carrying a woven bag full of radishes and cabbage, Chen Lina felt like she was on the brink of bankruptcy.

When they reached the train station, in the icy snow, Nie Bozhao was surrounded by large woven bags, with a wool coat wrapped around the legs of the two children, as the three of them exhaled white mist into the air.

“Comrade Xiao Chen, your introduction letter is in my pocket.”

Nie Bozhao motioned for Chen Lina to look at the wallet inside his coat. “This is what Ulu looks like now, and Wumayi only has a few small buildings. The base is even worse. If you can’t stand it and want to go home, you can buy a train ticket and leave now. It’s still not too late.”

“Since I’m already here, I’ll make the best of it. Comrade Nie, since I’ve come, why would I leave?” Chen Lina retorted, pulling at her lips.

“Comrade Xiao Chen, I have one request: stop pouting. And I know your ears are sharp, and your mind is intact—you haven’t lost your mind.”

“Yes, her ears are sharp,” Nie Weimin quickly agreed. “I teach Er Dan things, and she hears everything.”

“When adults are talking, children shouldn’t interrupt,” Nie Bozhao reprimanded his son.

Nie Weimin pulled a long face, while the younger two burst into laughter.