After leaving the airport, Chen Jue did not head straight to Baoshan, where Biao lived. Instead, he spent a night in Kunming first.
Getting to Baoshan from here by chartered car would take six or seven hours, so Chen Jue booked a high-speed train ticket for the next morning. It would take only three and a half hours, making it faster and more convenient.
He remembered how Brother Biao had suddenly rushed into marriage a few months before graduating from university, stunning Chen Jue and the other sheltered bumpkins in their dorm, who had only just entered the working world as interns!
To attend Biao's unexpected wedding, Chen Jue and his dormmates had spent two days and two nights taking old green trains and making transfers from Wenzhou. Back then, high-speed rail had not yet reached the Baoshan area.
Incidentally, Chen Jue had attended university locally in Wenzhou. Neither the school nor his major had been particularly good. The only thing that had added a little color to his life was befriending a few like-minded dormmates.
Jiang Fan, who was working hard to make a life in Hangzhou, was the second oldest in their dorm. He was originally from Tianzhu in Long Province and was of mixed Han and Tibetan heritage, with a Han father and a Tibetan mother. His ID listed him as Han, but his everyday habits leaned more toward Tibetan customs: spinning prayer wheels, hanging khatas, lighting butter lamps, and occasionally making some butter tsampa to share with everyone. He was generous and loyal. Eventually, he took out a mortgage, bought a home, and married a local Hangzhou woman, putting down roots there to live and work.
As for the man Chen Jue called Brother Biao, he was the oldest in the dorm. His full name was