A few days later.
One sunny morning.
Dong Xuebin drove along, stopping and starting, and finally reached the place where he would be taking up his post three days later, following the map. Since there were still several days before the reporting date listed on his Letter of Appointment, he had no plans to report to the city right away. Instead, he intended to take a look around the county first, familiarize himself with the environment, and get a feel for the local culture and atmosphere so he could better carry out his work here in the future.
The road was terribly bumpy, nothing but dirt tracks full of potholes.
Fortunately, the Land Rover Range Rover's off-road performance ranked among the best in the world. Forget this kind of terrain—even the desert would have been no problem.
Seeing an old man by the roadside, Dong Xuebin immediately pulled over.
After getting out, Dong Xuebin promptly asked, "Sir, could you tell me how to get to Zhenshui County?"
"Huh?" The local carrying a shoulder pole looked at him and rattled off a long string of words that Dong Xuebin could not understand at all.
Dong Xuebin could only repeat himself slowly. "Sir, do you know how to get to Zhenshui County? Which way is it?"
The local spoke in a heavy regional accent. He could probably understand Dong Xuebin, but Dong Xuebin could not understand him, making communication difficult. It was no wonder. This was a remote mountainous area in the west, and the accent was vastly different from that of northerners. Besides, the man was elderly and probably did not speak standard Mandarin. After failing to understand him for quite a while, Dong Xuebin stopped asking. He thanked the old man, then turned and spotted a young man passing by.