Chapter 66

The car stopped in front of the barrier at the entrance to the Linquan station freight yard. The guard, seeing a car arrive, came out of the guardhouse to inquire about the situation. Li Yifeng leaned out of the driver's side window and waved, and the guard immediately raised the barrier to let them through. The car drove to the designated freight position and opened the right side of the cargo compartment to align with the loading position. Li Yifeng found a forklift that was in operation and used it to directly lift the containers from the car and transport them to the large warehouse.

Xiao Yuanhang jumped down from the cargo compartment, took two packs of Liangyou cigarettes from his backpack, and handed them to the car driver through the window. Although the car was arranged by Li Yifeng, he didn't want to owe him a favor. The car was transporting his goods, so giving two packs of cigarettes as a token of thanks was appropriate. The driver politely declined at first but eventually accepted the cigarettes.

Xiao Yuanhang then took out two more packs and handed them to Li Yifeng to give to the forklift driver. The forklift had already finished transporting the containers and moved to another work area. Li Yifeng said, "The forklift driver is my younger brother, you don't need to worry about him."

Xiao Yuanhang replied, "Brother Li, you're all helping me. Since he's your younger brother, I can't let him down. Two packs of cigarettes don't cost much, just give them to him."

Li Yifeng took the cigarettes and glanced at the work area but didn't see the forklift driver. He said to Xiao Yuanhang, "I can't see where his forklift went. Let's go to the freight office to handle the transportation procedures, and then I'll find him."

At the freight office, Li Yifeng directly filled out the cargo ticket for Xiao Yuanhang. The sender, recipient, and company address needed to be filled out by Xiao Yuanhang himself. He thought for a moment and wrote down Wang Dahai's name and address. After paying the freight charges at the payment counter, the procedures were completed. Xiao Yuanhang treated Zhao Bingnan and Li Yifeng to lunch. Back at the hotel, Xiao Yuanhang counted out 200 yuan and gave each of them 100 yuan. They politely declined at first but eventually accepted the money.

Since Linquan only had a direct train to Guhe at 10:35 AM every day, and the train to Tongshui in the afternoon arrived at 5:30 PM, with no trains from Tongshui to Guhe in the evening, Xiao Yuanhang and Wang Dahai would have to wait until the next morning to catch a train to Guhe. Zhao Bingnan and Li Yifeng repeatedly urged them to stay, so Xiao Yuanhang decided to stay one more day in Linquan and left for Guhe with Wang Dahai the next morning.

The train arrived in Guhe at 5:30 PM. After getting off, they found a small restaurant and had a meal. According to Li Yifeng, the two containers of goods would arrive in 5 to 7 or 8 days. Selling so many pine seeds wouldn't happen in a day or two, so they needed to find a place to store them. Xiao Yuanhang gave Wang Dahai 1,000 yuan to rent a warehouse and, if possible, an office to sell the pine seeds. This would make it look more official, and the 10,000 yuan worth of pine seeds would need someone to guard them. They could set up a bed in the office for the guard to rest at night. Xiao Yuanhang would rest for one more day and then leave again the next day.

Wang Dahai was very pleased with Xiao Yuanhang's trust and readily agreed. When Xiao Yuanhang returned home, his father, Xiao Qiliang, heard the door and immediately came out of the main room to say, "Xiao Hang, people from your section came to the house to look for you three or four times today. I didn't ask them what it was about, but they said to come to the section as soon as you returned. It must be something urgent!"

What could be so urgent that the section would look for him? Xiao Yuanhang thought about his last shift, which involved rescuing a pregnant woman, but he had already reported this to the party committee office. It couldn't be that. Could it be that another team was short-staffed and needed him to fill in? That was likely! But it was almost 8 PM, and no one would be at the section office. He could only go the next day.

Thinking this, Xiao Yuanhang said, "It might be to fill in for someone. There's no one at the section now, I'll go tomorrow morning." He then took his backpack and went into his room, took off his coat, and went to the kitchen to wash up. He then went to bed, feeling very tired despite not having done much work. He had also had some alcohol, and he fell asleep soon after lying down.

The next morning, after eating, Xiao Yuanhang went to the section office. He first went to the fleet office. As soon as he entered, the fleet captain, Lin Yan, exclaimed, "Xiao Yuanhang, you're finally back! The railway bureau and the division have been looking for you like crazy!"

"The railway bureau and the division are looking for me?" Xiao Yuanhang was completely baffled and asked, "Why are they looking for me?"

"Don't you know about this big deal?" Lin Yan, realizing that the people who had come looking for Xiao Yuanhang might not have told him, explained, "Here's what happened. The rescue of the pregnant woman by your team was reported in the People's Daily. The head of the political department saw the report and personally inquired about it. The party committee offices of the railway bureau and the division called Secretary Ma directly to get the details. They couldn't find you at home, and Zhang Yaping didn't know much. They need the information urgently, so go to the party committee office right away."

Xiao Yuanhang was initially incredulous. The People's Daily was the most authoritative party newspaper in the country, a barometer of Chinese politics! Could rescuing a pregnant woman on a train really make it to the People's Daily? It seemed almost unbelievable!

"What are you standing there for? Go quickly!" Lin Yan, seeing Xiao Yuanhang's stunned silence, urged him impatiently.

"Okay, okay! I'll go right away!" Xiao Yuanhang snapped out of his daze and hurriedly agreed, then ran to the party committee office.

Wu Yue, the publicity assistant, greeted Xiao Yuanhang with surprise, "Xiao Yuanhang, you're back, that's great!" She pulled him to her seat and said urgently, "Sit here and write a detailed account of the rescue of the pregnant woman. The division party committee wants us to report by 10 AM."

Xiao Yuanhang was still a bit incredulous and asked Wu Yue, "Sister Wu, I heard from Captain Lin that this was reported in the People's Daily?"

"Yes, yes!" Wu Yue nodded and said, "It was in the People's Daily two days ago, which arrived yesterday. Look..." She took the People's Daily and flipped to page 6, the social news section, and pointed to the bottom right corner, "Here it is!"

Xiao Yuanhang followed Wu Yue's finger and saw the report. The title was "Crew of Train 292 Actively Assists Pregnant Woman in Labor." The article was not long, about 300 to 400 words, and included a photo of Xiao Yuanhang, Wang Keqin, and Zhao Baocheng lifting the woman onto an ambulance.

Seeing the photo, Xiao Yuanhang thought of the journalist Tang Wanjun and looked at the byline, which read: "Xinhua News Agency Journalist Tang Wanjun!"

So she was a Xinhua News Agency journalist!

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PS: Feeling depressed.................

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{Piaotian Literature}