The cousins bombarded them with questions. Their sincere, unaffected interest made conversation easy. The Wei family had traveled all the way from Anhui Province. Their grandfather had decided it was time to evacuate Anhui. After Changsha, the train was going to Chengtu, where the Wei cousins were going to attend West China University.

“But why didn’t you head directly to Changsha from Anhui?” Meirong asked. “It’s so much farther to come up to Wuhan and then go west.”

“The direct route by rail was too dangerous,” one said, “and this was the only way we could all travel together.”

Fanling interrupted. “It’s because General Wei is our uncle.”

The general had arranged all their travel, giving his family priority on civilian transportation when possible, troop transportation if nothing else was available. This circuitous route was the result.

The Wei girls were delightful company but now that she knew, Lian felt uncomfortable riding in a railcar commandeered for a general’s family. From the way Meirong and Ying-Ying quieted down, she could tell they felt the same. The Wei girls chattered on, oblivious to their unease. They gasped upon hearing of Minghua 123’s run-ins with Japanese aircraft, shook their heads in sympathy at accounts of walking at night for long miles with nothing but starlight overhead, of the cold and hunger. But they’d never suffered through any of it.

“Did you know the nickname for West China University is ‘Mistress College’?” one of the Wei cousins said. “Warlords used to send their mistresses to this university. They wanted sophisticated, beautiful hostesses to show off. The warlords donated a lot of money to the university so their women could attend school in style. That’s why the campus is so beautiful.”

“Our dormitory is like a palace,” said another. “Don’t get off in Changsha. Stay on the train and enroll at West China when you get to Chengtu.”

“We can’t abandon our school after all we’ve been through,” Ying-Ying said.

“Anyway, your school sounds too fancy for us,” Meirong said. “We prefer listening to lectures in drafty temples while sitting on hard slate floors.”

“You’ll love Chengtu when you finally get there,” Fanling said. “The climate is so temperate, the air so soft and warm. Promise you’ll come find us at our university when you get there.”

FROM THE ROOF of the railcar, Shorty had a view of the road beside the tracks. Normally, rail travel from Wuhan to Changsha wouldn’t have taken more than six hours, but the locomotive had been damaged during an air raid, and the conductor stopped every hour so his engineer could make sure the repairs were holding. Each time they stopped, the railway tracks were besieged by people hoping to climb on for a ride. Soldiers on the train had to stand guard and wave their rifles to push back the crowd.