Chapter 326 Go to Lhasa by Train

Lin Luoran invites Pei Yuan, who is downcast, to the canteen for a cup of hot soybean milk.

The music and the cheers of fans from the auditorium make the canteen look desolate. Lin Luoran goes to the second floor and chooses a seat near the window. She orders a bowl of duck blood soup with rice noodles, a Jinling specialty.

The rice noodle is chewy and the duck giblets are not smelly. Besides, adding some red oil and chopped green onion makes it appetizing. This is good for canteen food.

Seeing “Fairy” eating duck blood soup with rice noodles in front of him, Pei Yuan is less downcast.

“Since we made the trip to Mount Hua that year, our relations.h.i.+p has gradually heated up. By the time we graduated, we were together. I signed a contract with a designing inst.i.tute, and Bingyan was encouraged to be an actress… Although she was pretty and good at singing, she was not professional. Besides, she only entered this profession after graduating from college. She worked in the capital for two years, suffered a lot but did not even release an alb.u.m…”

This is a story that has a nice start but has the same old ending like other stories.

Xia Bingyan was proud. Her relations.h.i.+p with Pei Yuan was not smooth. When encouraged to go to the capital, she did want to prove herself. Maybe in her subconsciousness, what she wanted more was to defeat Lin Luoran she once saw.

Becoming a famous star can bring people vanity most.

Pei Yuan stayed at the designing inst.i.tute. The long-distance relations.h.i.+p was unpredictable. In two years, Xia Bingyan’s career was not at all successful, while Pei Yuan has become the head of a small project of the designing inst.i.tute. He had a bright future. Xia Bingyan was already twenty-five years old. It was even harder for a woman at this age to become famous in the entertainment circle.

Pei Yuan once offered to provide for Xia Bingyan, half-joking and half-serious. That meant a proposal. But Xia Bingyan was still proud and stayed in the capital.

Zhang Shuming, who was gone before, has returned as a shareholder in an entertainment company.

The same old story began here. The distance and disagreement made Pei Yuan and Xia Bingyan drift apart. One day, when Pei Yuan was watching a game conference on TV, he saw Xia Bingyan wearing the ancient costume as a brand representative. They had a big quarrel .

Xia Bingyan blamed Pei Yuan for not understanding the difficulty of being a star. Pei Yuan accused her of performing for extra income and forsaking her singing dream.

Afterwards, Xia Bingyan was advertised as “Forgotten Fairy”. She became famous with the enthusiasmas the Chinese people are longing for immortality. When Pei Yuan saw the slogan of “Meeting at the top of Mount Hua”, he worried that Lin Luoran, who was somewhere in Huaxia, would see this CD by accident and brought trouble to Xia Bingyan. He was also heartbroken that his girlfriend had lost her pride.

They had a very big quarrel. Pei Yuan went abroad and Xia Bingyan took the opportunity to become famous.

When Pei Yuan finishes the story, soybean milk has already become cold. And Lin Luoran has already finished eating the duck blood soup with rice noodles.

She puts down the chopsticks and talks about what she has seen at the backstage, “Someone is playing tricks, so no wonder the two of you drift apart. I would not investigate the matter, but the thing between you two…”

Pei Yuan smiles bitterly, “I already knew that Zhang Shuming took advantage of it, but we were also having problems. A fly never bites an egg that has no crack on it. She was proud and was easily influenced by other people. It was not the first time she had misunderstood me.”

Lin Luoran does not know what to say. It seems that last time when they were in Mount Hua, Xia Bingyan’s roommate played some tricks, almost making them lose the opportunity to start a relations.h.i.+p. But what can she say now? She can be generous and doesn’t care about other people using her as a gimmick. But the problem between Pei Yuan and Xia Bingyan results from their two extreme personalities.

Pei Yuan is not Zhang Shuming. He seems to have a silken tongue, but he would not do anything that requires losing dignity.

However, Xia Bingyan is very proud. She grew up surrounded by other people’s flattery so that she could not accept her boyfriend’s stubbornness. When the romance of love faded, life would return to its original state.

“Then, what are you going to do afterwards?”

Pei Yuan hesitates, “Maybe I will go abroad again.”

Lin Luoran smiles, “You don’t want to stay and contribute to our motherland?”

“I left hurriedly at that time, which annoyed the leader of the designing inst.i.tute. He kept my personal file. You know that in Huaxia, it is extremely hard to find a job in any standard research and designing inst.i.tute without personal files.”

Lin Luoran thinks for a while, and asks, “Your major is about Aeros.p.a.ce Technology, right?”

Pei Yuan nods.

Undergraduate students majoring in Aeros.p.a.ce Technology can also work in designing inst.i.tute. Pei Yuan must have solid basic knowledge. Lin Luoran has an idea, “Pei Yuan, you didn’t throw away that two futons, did you?”

When it comes to futon, Pei Yuan thinks of what happened at the top of Mount Hua. It seemed like yesterday when his heart throbbed because of love, but actually, it has been six years. He and Xia Bingyan could not go back.

Futons were not thrown away. They are in Pei Yuan’s hometown.

Lin Luoran borrows paper and pen from canteen staff, writing down the address of Lin’s family and the phone number of Yuan Ye. She asks Pei Yuan to take futons to Rong City. Yuan Ye can contact Lu Sanchun for him. If his background has no problem, he will be arranged to the base.

Pei Yuan holds the paper and was stunned. When he wants to ask again and looks up, Lin Luoran has gone.

There are only bowls and chopsticks left on the desk, which proves that he is not dreaming. The base is okay. A man does not solely depend on love to live . He also got a career.

Pei Yuan keeps the paper with the address in his pocket seriously. He stands up, leaves the canteen and walks slowly out of the door of Jinling University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

After all, they were once in love. At this moment, Xia Bingyan seems to have felt it . She feels empty. She doesn’t find Pei Yuan in the crowd…

She seems to have lost the young man who liked to make her laugh. Time flies and youth will never come back. From now on, she is all alone.

Xia Bingyan is singing a cheerful song, but her eyes trickle down her cheeks, wetting her makeup.

Those fans who shouted enthusiastically suddenly found out that the perfect idol on the stage squatted down and cried like a willful little girl.

Life is just like this. Sometimes, there is no other chance. There is no opportunity to start over, no b.u.t.ton to pause and continue. Missing the present means that there is never another opportunity.

…

After handling the trivial matter, Lin Luoran sets out on a journey with a piece of light luggage.

She has booked a night train ticket and bought some snacks. At ten o’clock in the evening, the train leaves from Jinling Station.

There is a strange mixed smell in the train, making Lin Luoran uncomfortable to eat anything. However, she still needs to stay here for another forty or fifty hours. Therefore, she has to hold her nose and eats a bowl of instant noodles.

At eleven o’clock, the light is turned off. Lin Luoran lies on the sleeper, covered with a quilt and falls asleep with the train’s movement. Without self-cultivation and spell, she could only turn herself into an ordinary pa.s.senger and view this trip with an ordinary mind. Maybe in this way can she find what she wants?

The next day, Lin Luoran could hardly notice the strange smell in the train. She then feels like she is completely integrated into this place.

At seven o’clock on the third day, Lin Luoran arrives at the destination.

Lhasa at night seems to have no difference with other inland cities. Lin Luoran experiences hypoxia and takes a rest to adjust herself.

There are people who speak Tibetan, and there are people who wear suits and speak Mandarin with an accent. Lin Luoran follows the crowd and gets out of the station.

The place is not safe at night. She does not walk around in the city at night but finds a family hotel to stay. She takes a hot bath and then goes downstairs to eat some local mutton kebabs.

There is also pancakes, but it is so big that Lin Luoran thinks she could not finish it in one day.

There are very few women walking on the streets at night. It is very dangerous for a single female tourist like her. The owner of the family hotel asks her to hurry upstairs when some young Tibetan men comes in.

He is kind-hearted. Lin Luoran packs the mutton kebabs and carries them to the small room on the third floor.

The bed is fairly clean. She watches TV for a while, but there are only local TV channels. She doesn’t speak Tibetan. So, after eating mutton kebabs, she lies down and falls asleep.

At midnight, the mutton smell makes her uncomfortable, so she wakes up and drinks some water. Looking from the window, the noisy city has now become quiet. Although Lhasa is not exactly the same as she had imagined, Lin Luoran still feels that she is dreamy, and someone is holding a prayer wheel and singing tantras that she could not understand.

In the early morning of the next day, having eaten b.u.t.tered tea and two meat bun provided by the hotel, Lin Luoran checks out and carries a big bag heading to the inner city.

The Lhasa New City, which centered on the Potala Palace and Barkhor Street, stretching north to Sera Monastery and stretching west to Doilungdeqen County. Overlooking Lhasa New City from a high place, the post and telecommunication building, the press building, Lhasa hotel, Tibet hotel and all kinds of buildings are scattered all over the city and look prosperous.

It is said that when Princess Wencheng was married in Tubo, there were only sands and gra.s.sland here. After Jokhang Temple and Ramoche Temple were built, an increasing number of monks and wors.h.i.+pers came here. Besides, Songtsan Gambo built a series of palaces at Red Mountain here. This city has gained popularity, becoming a famous city on the Tibet Plateau.

Therefore, only when you have set foot on Jokhang Temple and Barkhor Street can you say that you have been to the real Lhasa.

Lin Luoran listens silently to the two tourists talking about the history of Lhasa, and she decides to visit Jokhang Temple.

She goes with other tourists but does not expect that she would meet an old friend.