Mei said nothing. She simply smiled, uncomfortably.
Following a stream of people, they walked upstairs, reached an open but sheltered platform, listened to the guidance of a conductor and found the right coach. Before boarding the train, Mei hurriedly took a photo of Ming standing in front of their coach.
Finding the seats was another small adventure. The carriage seemed very large, and was quite full already. The fl oor was impressively clean. The purple backs of seats in rows with or without the passenger’s hair dazzled Mei. The numbers of the seats looked too small. The windows felt a bit too broad. The aisle in the middle was strangely narrow. Mei, moved and stopped, moved and stopped, like a crippled leg. She kept searching for their seats from side to side, being pushed to speed up until she found their seats in the very front row. There Ming took the window seat and Mei the middle one.