Like Cui Jiuyang and Li Mingyue, quite a few passengers had come out of their cabins onto the deck to admire the night scenery.
Some exclaimed just as Li Mingyue had, their words full of longing and anticipation for the bustling metropolis.
Others had complicated looks in their eyes, brimming with ambition yet frowning in thought.
Beside Cui Jiuyang and Li Mingyue stood two young men who were clearly different from the other passengers.
The two were obviously students, one tall and one short, and they gazed silently toward the shore.
Cui Jiuyang had already noticed them in the cabin earlier.
While everyone else chatted or dozed, those two alone had each held a book, engrossed in reading beneath the swaying gaslight.
Only now, on the deck, did Cui Jiuyang make out the covers of their books-New Youth.
The taller young man noticed Cui Jiuyang looking and gave him a friendly smile. Then he glanced at Li Mingyue, who was still excitedly pointing things out on shore, and said to Cui Jiuyang, "Sir, the place your companion is pointing at is the concession."
"Those buildings were all built by foreigners, and they use arc lamps. That's why it's as bright as day after nightfall, much brighter than the places where we Chinese live."
Cui Jiuyang assumed they were students coming to Shanghai to study.
He had always respected the students of this era, all the more so when they held two copies of New Youth.
He nodded to the two students and smiled. "My senior sister and I have never been to Shanghai before. Seeing it today, it certainly lives up to its reputation. It really is different from our hometown, where everything is dark at night."
In those days, truly few people could read and write.
As soon as