Reborn: I'll Never Fail My Childhood Sweetheart Again-Chapter 253 - 112: I Endure—Bro Is the Legendary Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle! (Part 2)

"Save it, with your condition, there are plenty of rich and handsome guys chasing after Qin Shiqing in school, and they've all been rejected by her."

"Maybe she just wants to focus on her studies and has no interest in dating during university!"

"..."

Just as a few guys were talking about the campus beauty.

"Whoosh!"

A taxi stopped at the entrance of Zhejiang University.

The door opened, and Su Zelin stepped out. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Today was the day to take the train back home, so Su Zelin, who was heading to the train station along with Qin Shiqing, took a taxi and brought along his childhood friend as well.

"Zelin, you're here!"

Qin Shiqing greeted him with a smile.

"Yeah, you get in first!"

Su Zelin took her luggage, quickly opened the trunk, put it in, and then got in himself.

The taxi sped away, leaving a few Zhejiang University boys with question marks on their faces.

Wasn't she supposed to be focusing on her studies and not planning to get a boyfriend?

Did Zhejiang University's good fortune end up in someone else's field?

Arriving at the station entrance, the two quickly found Lu Haoran and Tang Yan who were already waiting outside.

"Su Zelin, Shiqing!"

Seeing her friends, Xiaoyanzi was delighted.

"Haha, you guys are really early."

Qin Shiqing asked with a smile.

"It's all Lu Haoran's fault, afraid of traffic on the way or something and worried about missing the train, so he came to the university super early, causing me to wait here for ages!"

Xiaoyanzi complained.

"Better safe than sorry."

Lu Haoran scratched his head.

That's the honest type's personality, you could say he's reliable or call it overthinking.

"Alright, Xiaoyanzi, just be content. This one behind me is so leisurely, I called him several times before he lazily arrived at Zhejiang University, and it really stressed me out!"

Qin Shiqing also complained.

Su Zelin is the exact opposite of Lu Haoran.

He seems unfazed as if the sky could fall and he wouldn't worry at all.

In fact, he's not worried.

Traffic jams are rare between University Town and the train station unless there's an accident. Besides, Lin'an's transport department knows the universities are on break these days, and during the Spring Festival travel rush, they ensure daily traffic management on this route. Even if there's a jam, it quickly gets resolved.

If he really misses the train, Su Zelin has his ways to get tickets for the next one. His Nokia 8210 is full of ticket scalpers' numbers.

It's simply a matter of money, very easy.

Talking while walking, the four of them entered the train station.

Seeing the scene in front of them, Lu Haoran, Qin Shiqing, and Xiaoyanzi gasped.

There were already lots of people outside, but the inside of the train station was even more crowded.

Everywhere you looked, it was full of heads.

The crowds surged inside the station like waves, constantly moving, bustling, with a noisy buzz in the air like a disturbed beehive.

The waiting hall seats were long occupied. Many travelers simply sat on their luggage, some spread newspapers on the ground, and some weren't picky and sat right on the floor.

The waiting hall buzzed with various noises, complaints, and parents scolding children for running around. Many staff members were trying to control the chaos, but the scene was still a total mess.

Broadcast announcements echoed from time to time, with travelers dragging luggage or children, forming snaking lines waiting to enter the station.

This was the grand spectacle of the early 21st-century Spring Festival travel rush!

The term "Spring Festival travel rush" appeared in a Xinhua News Agency bulletin as early as 1980.

However, the era of the Spring Festival travel truly began in the late 1980s with a wave of labor migration across the country.

Countless southbound workers, businessmen, and students returned home for the New Year during the Spring Festival, bringing about an annual migratory movement.

By 1994, the passenger traffic during the Spring Festival had exceeded a billion.

This even gave rise to a special professional group—the Spring Festival scalpers.

As soon as the Spring Festival travel rush began, these ticket scalpers would camp at train stations all day, using special channels or hiring buyers to hoard tickets and then resell them at higher prices.

At this time, train tickets weren't yet under a real-name system.

Until 2010, the Guangzhou Railway and Chengdu Railway Bureau started trialing real-name train ticketing, and nationwide implementation had to wait until 2012.

In 2000, Yanjing also attempted to launch the first-generation online ticketing system "Capital Railway Online," but many aspects were still lacking back then. Coupled with slow internet speeds, servers frequently crashed, so the business was quickly suspended.

Later, Shenghai followed suit and also promoted online ticketing, similarly shutting it down after only a day due to network issues.

So, travelers ultimately still had to come to the train station to buy tickets.

The failure of non-real-name train tickets and online ticketing trials made scalpers rampant, driven by huge profits, creating numerous scalper factions nationwide. In this era, countless scalpers got rich from reselling train tickets.

Compared to everyone else's shock, Su Zelin remained calm.

He was quite familiar with the chaos of train stations during the Spring Festival travel rush from a previous life.

This scene frightened Tang Yan, as it was Xiaoyanzi's first time traveling or going home during the Spring Festival travel period.

She was dumbfounded and exclaimed, "So many people, it's really absurd, Su Zelin, how did you manage to get a train ticket?"

"Haha, because I have money power!"

Su Zelin laughed.

Money isn't everything, but it can simplify most complex problems.

"Superpower? Give me a break, did your dad know someone at the Lin'an train station?"

She misunderstood the power of money, thinking it was family connections.

Su Zelin's dad was a businessman, and it was said that he often used to travel to Lin'an, so knowing someone at the train station wasn't surprising.

"My dad doesn't know anyone, but I do."