A bus driver couple in Nanjing has been driving the same bus on the same route for the past 12 years. They have enjoyed an ordinary but happy life though they can spend no more than 20 minutes together during the work time.
It was half past four in the morning and the city was yet to be awakened.
Kang Youhua, a 49-year-old bus driver in Nanjing, had got up for washing up.
Xue Song, her husband, was on the night shift the day before. He had slept on the sofa in the living room for fear of disturbing his wife.
Before going to sleep, he left a note on the table notifying his wife that the bus was parked where it had been parked for the past years. He also left behind an egg on the table.
It was 4:50 in the morning and Kang left home to head for the place where her husband had parked the bus after making two transfers on the bus ride.
For the past 12 years, bus route 90 has two drivers only, Kang and her husband. Every day they have to make shuttle services back and forth along the route which is 7 kilometers long for a single ride.
Kang fell into love with her husband Xue in 1988 when she was a bus conductor and Xue was a bus driver.
In 1995, they got married and years later their daughter was born.
With the debut of the one-man-operated bus in the late 1990s, Kang chose to become a bus driver too after going through a strict training.
It was half past one in the afternoon, the time for the couple to pass the work onto the next shift. They had 20 minutes together and they would like to talk about their daughter very much during the short break.
20 minutes a day for 12 years is translated into 1500 hours or a bit over 60 days. This is the time they could stay together for the past 12 years. The husband and wife had to part from each other when the short break was over.
Xue would take over the shift one or two hours in advance when his wife was feeling uncomfortable.
For the only one-day break for each week, they would stagger their working time so that they had not been able to spend the time together for the reunion dinner on the Chinese New Year’s Eve for the past 12 years.
Their only group photo with their daughter was taken 16 years ago when the daughter was four. The daughter used to grumble but later came to be understandable when she was recruited by the bus company.
Kang will retire next year and the couple has made up their mind to go for self-drive tours when they are free.
It was late in the evening and Kang was ready to go for sleep. Xue would not come home until he finished checking the safety of the bus. A warm home with a wife waiting for the return of her husband is no less affectionate and romantic than the others though they have carved their love story onto the bus wheels.
