After six weeks on crutches, doing physical therapy, in a general state of inactivity, I was free. I know I mentioned it once already, but that’s where
this story begins: pure elation at finally being free, and a train ride.
After being a part of the new trainee’s site-placement announcement, I
wanted to depart from Chengdu as soon as possible. This meant taking the first
available ticket: a hard seat. The longest hard seat I had taken was Lanzhou to
Chengdu, clocking in at twenty-one hours; this hard seat took a whopping
thirty-two (if you’re curious about the inner-workings of my psyche, I wrote
that sentence with an impression of Mo).
