After taking the bus to South Railway Station, Li Long made a point of looking toward Yusufu's stall and discovered that someone else had taken his place.
Had Yusufu left?
Li Long had originally planned to look over the other stalls after finishing his shopping and buy a few more things if he found anything good.
With Yusufu gone, Li Long vaguely recalled that one of the two neighboring stalls had sold snow lotuses and the other shoes-work shoes, rubber shoes, and the like.
Li Long lost interest in browsing. He got off the bus with his things and headed toward Bayi Guesthouse.
At Bayi Guesthouse, Li Long bought a ticket back to Ma County. After a short wait, he boarded the bus.
He tied the sack of seed watermelons' seeds shut and put it on the luggage rack, but kept the bag of jade in his arms. Wrapping his coat tightly around himself, he looked out the window.
There were "short-distance" buses here to several cities in Northern Xinjiang. Short-distance meant journeys of no more than three hundred kilometers; tickets to places like Hu County, Ma County, and Stone City were all available here.
For buses going farther, to places like Southern Xinjiang or the interior, passengers had to go to Nianzigou.
Through the window, which had not yet iced over, he could see people streaming back and forth outside. It was even busier here than on Old Street.
The bus soon departed. After what had happened on the way there, Li Long remained quite alert, but the return journey went smoothly, without any incidents.
He got off and carried his things back to the compound. Gu Xiaoxia was already home from work and cooking.
Gu Xiaoxia was a little surprised to see him. Before leaving, Li Long had