The president said, “I remember that. It was to seize a Rhine bridge behind enemy lines. Operation Varsity. The largest airborne operation in history.”
The premier said, “If conventional-powered transport planes can be towed too, the thing might have real-world significance. It has the potential to cut air transport costs by ninety percent.”
The president asked, “Has anyone in the country suggested an idea like this before?”
The premier shook his head. “Never. Children clearly aren’t at a disadvantage on every front.”
The president looked up at the sky and said with feeling, “Yes. Sky trains, and maybe gardens in the sky as well. What a wonderful future. Still, first we’ve got to help the children overcome their disadvantages. After all, we didn’t come here to discuss trains.” He pointed at the train. “Children, go have a look at what’s on board.”
The three children ran off to the train. Huahua clambered up the ladder of one car, followed by Specs and Xiaomeng. They stood atop the big white plastic sacks that filled the car; from this vantage point, similar sacks were visible in cars farther down the train, gleaming in the sunlight. Squatting down, Specs poked a small hole in one, and translucent white needle-shaped grains spilled out. Huahua picked one up and licked it.
“Careful. It may be poisonous,” Specs said.
“It looks like MSG,” Xiaomeng said, and then licked a grain for herself. “Yep, it’s MSG.”
“You can pick out the taste of MSG?” Huahua asked, eyeing her suspiciously.
“It’s MSG, all right. Look!” Specs pointed to the row of sacks ahead of them, on which, written in large letters, was a logo familiar to them from TV ads. But they found it hard to reconcile the chef on TV in his large white hat tossing a sprinkle of white powder into a pot with this huge dragonload. They walked across the bags to the other end of the car and gingerly stepped over the coupling into the next, which was filled with the same white sacks of MSG. They went another three cars farther, all of them chock-full of MSG sacks; clearly the rest of the train would be the same. Even one train car seemed enormous to children used to passenger cars; they counted, and like the premier had said, there were twenty cars in this train, all of them full of MSG.
“Geez that’s a lot. All the MSG in the country must be here.”
As they descended the ladder they saw the president and premier approaching on the trackside path, and as they were about to run over and ask questions, the premier stopped them with a wave of his hand, and called, “Take a look at what’s in the other trains.”
And so the three of them ran along the path past a dozen cars, and then the locomotive, and then after a gap of ten meters they reached the tail of the second train and climbed up to the top of the car. This one was also brimming with white bags, but they were woven, not slick plastic, and they were labeled EDIBLE SALT. These bags were hard to puncture, but a small amount of dust had leaked and they dabbed their fingers and had a taste: indeed it was salt. Another huge white dragon stretched out ahead of them; all twenty cars in this train were carrying salt.
They returned to the trackside path, ran the length of the train, and climbed up onto the top of a car in the third train. Like the second, it was full of salt. They climbed down and ran to the fourth train. Also salt. Then Xiaomeng said she couldn’t run anymore, so they walked. It took quite a while to go past twenty cars to the fifth train. Salt again.
They were a little demoralized by what they saw from the top of the car. There was no end to the line of train cars, which curved and disappeared behind a hillside in the distance. They got down and passed another two trains filled with salt. The head of the second train was beyond the hill and from their vantage point on top of it they could see the end of the line of trains—another four ahead of them, they counted.
They sat down on the top of the car to catch a breath. Specs said, “I’m tired out. Let’s go back. There’s nothing but salt in the rest of them anyway.”
Huahua stood up and took another look. “Hmm. It’s like a world tour. We’ve traveled half of the big circle, so it’s the same distance whether we go ahead or turn back.”
And so they pressed onward, car after car, along uneven ground, like they were circumnavigating the globe. Now they didn’t need to climb up to know it was salt in the cars, since they could smell it. Specs said it was the smell of the sea. At last the three of them passed the final train and emerged from its long shadow into bright sunlight. Before them was a stretch of empty track, at the end of which stood the MSG-laden train they’d left at the start of their circuit. They walked toward it along the empty tracks.
“Hey, there’s a little lake over there,” Xiaomeng exclaimed delightedly. The pond in the center of the circular track reflected the light of the sun, now descending in the west, a sheet of gold.
“I saw that before, but you two were focused on salt and MSG,” Huahua said, walking atop a rail with both arms outstretched. “You get on that one and we’ll see who can walk the fastest.”
Specs said, “I’m sweating and my glasses keep slipping down, but I’ll beat you for sure. Stability over speed on the high wire—it’s all over if you fall off.”
Huahua took a few more quick steps. “See. Fast and stable. I can walk all the way to the end without falling off.”
Specs looked at him thoughtfully. “That may be true right now, but what if it was like a tightrope, and the rail was hanging in midair with a thousand-meter drop below you? Could you still make it to the end?”
Xiaomeng looked off at the golden water and said softly, “Yeah. Our rail is hanging in midair.”
Three thirteen-year-olds, who in nine months would be supreme leaders of the largest country in the world, fell silent.
Huahua jumped off the rail, stared at Specs and Xiaomeng for a bit, and then, with a shake of his head, declared, “I’m not keen on your lack of confidence. Still, it’s not like there will be much playtime in the future.” Then he hopped back up on the rail and teetered off.
Xiaomeng laughed. It was a laugh perhaps a little more mature than for a girl of thirteen, but Huahua found it touching. “I never had much playtime before. Specs, nerd as he is, doesn’t play much. You’re going to lose biggest out of the three of us.”
“Leading the country is fun enough in itself. Today was pretty fun. All of that salt and MSG, those long trains. Pretty impressive.”
“We were leading the country today?” Specs said with snicker.
Xiaomeng, too, was skeptical. “Yeah, why did they show us all this stuff?”
“Maybe so we’ll know about the national MSG and salt reserves,” Huahua said.
“Then they should have brought Zhang Weidong. He’s in charge of light industry.”
“That moron can’t even keep his own desk in order.”
Back at their starting point on the circular railway, the president and premier were standing beside the train. The premier was speaking, and the president was nodding his head slowly. Both of them looked grave, and it was clear they had been talking for quite some time, silhouetted against the backdrop of the great black train in a powerful tableau, like a centuries-old oil painting. But their expressions brightened immediately upon seeing the children’s approach. The president waved.
Huahua whispered, “Have you noticed that they’re different with us than they are among themselves? When we’re around, the sky could be falling and they’d remain optimistic. But when they’re together, they’re so serious it makes me feel the sky really is falling.”
Xiaomeng said, “That’s what adults are like. They can control their emotions. You can’t, Huahua.”
“So what? Is there something wrong with letting others see me for who I really am?”