緩件號碼 DISPATCH №

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HQL-402

內容 CONTENTS:

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Travis JEPPESEN水墨畫
inkwash paintings by Travis JEPPESEN

出發點 START POINT: 上海 Shanghai

到達點 END POINT: 香港 Hong Kong 經由 VIA 山西太原 Taiyuan, Shanxi Province + 廣州轉運站 Guangzhou Relay Centre

定量信息 QUANTITATIVE DATA: 訂單 ORDER WC-LIQUID GROUND 一個藝術夾 1 portfolio + 一大塑料筒 1 large art tube

慢遞人員 COURIER: 張煜航 ZHANG Yuhang

物流情況 SHIPPING STATUS:

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到達
COMPLETED：
2021-07-28，15:02

慢遞招募發布
ROUTE REQUESTED：
2021-06-11

附注 NOTATION:

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此項派遣的進一步詳情已轉至HQL-409
Further details for this dispatch transferred to HQL-409

2021-06-29，15:20：
今日上陽台有每週的推手，我邊正好將貨物帶到閃電轉運站去。本來我以為上陽台眾人總提的市二宮就在上陽台附近，結果其實還有一點距離，需要搭一站地鐵。阿朱給我分享的定位是一個婚紗攝影工作室，到達後，我看到一個又像地產中介又像酒吧的地方，我以為這就是閃電。結果不遠處正好有人開門，問我是不是來送貨，我才發現那邊才是閃電。進屋後那人說他就是阿朱，我隨他把東西帶到二樓，便離去。
Today is the weekly martial arts practice at Soeng Joeng Toi, so I can conveniently bring the dispatch to the FLASH FAX Guangzhou Relay Centre nearby. At first I always thought that when SJT people talked about the Second Workers' Cultural Palace area, I thought it would just near SJT, but it turns out it's still a ways away, one metro station apart. Mr. ZHU shared the location with me, a wedding photography studio. When I arrived, I noticed a place that looked something in between a real estate agency and a bar—thought that must be FLASH FAX. But in the end, someone opens a door nearby and asks if I am here to deliver the dispatch. So FLASH FAX turns out to be just next door. The person who opened the door turns out to be Mr. ZHU. We brought the dispatch upstairs to the second floor, and then I left.
2021-06-27：
前天凌晨，慢遞員何子聯繫上了廣州轉運站負責收貨的阿朱和涵露，約定週末交貨。結果到了今天，下午下起了大雨，等雨停了我也不想再出門了，於是就很抱歉的改了時間，定在週二我去上陽台的時候交貨。
Two nights ago, Ms. PORTABLE puts me in touch with the two who are in charge of taking care of the dispatch in Guangzhou, Mr. ZHU and Ms. ZHANG. We make an appointment for a handover over the weekend. But as this weekend arrives, it's raining all afternoon, and by the time it finally stops I don't feel like leaving the house anymore. I apologise and reschedule for the following Tuesday when I'm going to nearby Soeng Joeng Toi.

2021-06-21：
在家待了一周多後，我動身回廣州。家人覺得廣州目前疫情嚴重，想讓我再多住幾天，但被我以回廣州有事為由推辭。其實這兩年，我一回家就會犯鼻炎，並且腹瀉，一走就好了。我媽說是因為太原總比廣州冷，地氣涼，水土不服。不過也確實，我每次一回廣州就自動痊癒。想起來我爸會算命，他之前說過，我水命，所以得去水多的地方，去南方，越南越好。我想起《湧浪之間》里的一句話，「當共產黨統治了北方，所有的鬼魂都跑到了南方，而香港就是最南的南方。」
I stayed in Taiyuan with my parents for one week then set off back to Guangzhou. My family was worried that the virus situation in Guangzhou was still severe, asking me to stay for a few more days at home. Telling them that I had things to take care of in Guangzhou, I declined. In these last two years, every time I come back home I actually come down with a runny nose and diarrhea, and once I leave I'm better again. My mother says it's because Taiyuan is so much colder than Guangzhou and I'm not used to the climate anymore. But it's really like this, once I get back to Guangzhou my body is automatically fine again. My father knows how to read fortunes, and he told me once that my destiny is with water, so I should go somewhere where there's a lot of water, like to the south, or maybe Vietnam. It makes me think of a line from Many Undulating Things: Once the Communist party had control over the north, all the ghosts and spirits fled to the south, and Hong Kong is exactly the most southern of the south.

飛機是下午5點20的。我3點15動身去機場，車程要半小時左右。曾經的太原機場——我猜和那些西北三四線省城的機場一樣，都是連接在荒涼的高速公路盡頭，後社會主義風格的小機場。但是這些年公路變成了高架橋，機場也改建的更現代化，我倒是覺得之前那種還蠻好的。不過這次，因為那個黑色的圓筒，我被帶到了一個有著破舊機器的小隔間里，這裡好像並沒有被翻新，保留了原來的風格，牆上還貼著「永遠跟著黨走」，我反而有點開心。不過工作人員倒是什麼也沒有問，直接把那個圓筒放進了破舊的機器就離開了，「反動」繪畫在我的「黨」的目送下完成了托運安檢。在飛機上我想到貌似在展銷場「後勤」官網上曾經看到過有運送到太原的貨物記錄，似乎是買了《馮火》雜誌，而在夾山改梁的全國駐留總匯表中我也看到了一個太原的駐留點，好像在勝利街那裡。不知道這其中有沒有什麼聯繫。
My plane back to Guangzhou was to depart at 5:20 in the afternoon. I left for the airport at 3:15, and the journey was about half and hour or so. Taiyuan Airport is a post-socialist style little airport—and I guess like most other northwestern third and fourth tier city airports—is linked to the city by what were once desolate highways. But over the last years, all these highways have become high overpasses, and the airport has been modernised, though I think the way it was before was actually not so bad. This time, however, it's because of that black tube that I was brought to some shabby room that was not included in all the renovation processes. It made me smile to see that it still retained that old style, with an old piece of equipment and taped to the wall a sign that reads, “Follow the Party Forever”. Without saying a word, the worker took the tube and placed it into that old piece of equipment and then left. So it turns out that this “subversive” painting has successfully been scanned and security checked under the eyes of our “Party”. While on the plane, I remembered about how I had seen a few dispatches that had passed through Taiyuan on the LIGHT LOGISTICS website; they seemed to mostly contain Fong Fo. And actually the JSGL collective's free stay directory also has one listing in Taiyuan; I think it's on Shengli Street. Not sure if these two things are related.

晚上8點半飛機落地。我迫不及待的取上行李跑到外面抽煙，快抽完的時候，我把煙給了一個排隊使用吸煙區打火設備的女孩幫她點煙，她點著之後問我要不要幫我丟掉，我讓她還給我，我還沒有抽完。出租車上，司機和我說廣州的飯店還是都不允許堂食，所以好多飯店乾脆就直接關門歇業了。這時下起了瓢潑大雨，我心想壞了，一會兒下車西肯定得給淋濕了。說實話，每次廣州的暴雨都能給我嚇個半死，太原下雨是很少的，而英國雖然雨多，但都是drizzle。我在出租車上發信息問我本地朋友，是不是要刮颱風了，她說可能還得過兩個月，然後她問我窗戶朝那邊，我說朝南，她說那沒事兒，朝南朝北都有可能給你吹爛了。
The plane touches down at 8:30 in the evening. Impatient to wait for the check-in luggage to come out, I go out for a smoke. As I finished, there was a line of people waiting to light their smokes with the lighter machine in the smoking area, so I gave my still lit cigarette to a young woman to light hers. She asked me if she should put out the rest for me, but I asked her to give it to me, that I was not finished smoking. In the taxi, the driver tells me that restaurants in Guangzhou are still not open for seat-in dining, so a lot of places have already shut down going out of business. Suddenly a downpour starts, and I think, “Not good. When I get out of the car everything will get wet.” To be honest, it scares the shit out of me every time there's sudden rainfall in Guangzhou. There's very little rain in Taiyuan, and while there is a lot in the UK, mostly it's only a drizzle. In the taxi I try to send a message to a local friend, asking whether or not a typhoon has been forecast. She says there won't be for another couple of months, and then she asks me what direction my flat's windows face. I tell her they look to the south, and she says I have nothing to worry about. Actually it doesn't matter if they are facing north or south, my windows will all surely be blown to pieces.

好在車程夠長，我在下車的時候基本雨已經停了。
Luckily, the car trip is fairly long, so by the time I get off the taxi the rain has already stopped.

2021-06-12：
上午與Alvin約定下午兩點左右見面。午間和同伴去吃brunch，然後發現上海週末好像所有人都跑出來吃brunch，各處皆排隊盛況。我想既然大家這麼愛吃，為何不像廣州茶樓一樣，多開幾家。好不容易找到一家排隊人少一點的，我卻食慾全無，遂到隔壁買煙，愕然發現上海的Lucky口味比廣州還全，就買了兩包沒抽過了讓我的同伴挑了一包，我自己留了另一包。說起來，中國北方地區（除了北京）基本是買不到進口煙的（我們叫 外煙）。作為一個電子煙選手，第一次知道Lucky還是在英國我那個香港同學的宿舍里，他說這個東西在香港很流行，再配合上他以Delacroix的《La Liberté guidant le peuple》改畫的‘五大訴求，缺一不可’的電腦桌面，頓時泛起一種很滑稽的左派憂鬱。煙店老闆從老遠的庫房，找了好半天才翻出那幾包我沒抽過的口味，我心想，如果把那種桌面背景打印出來給他保管，估計也能藏好一陣。 我的香港同學是一個大煙鬼，後來我為作我的科幻寫作項目收集素材，對他進行了一個採訪。採訪錄音為粵語，英語transcript有如下一段話：
I felt uncomfortable coming off the tear gas. I retched. Once I got home, I took a shower. I lit up a cigarette, drank some clean water to cool down, but still, my body feels unwell. Mentally, I did not feel bad about this... Well, for sure, smoke moves faster than human jaws, so many people had ingested quite a bit of tear gas. Is that bad for the environment? Yes, for sure. The chemicals in the smoke would hang there for quite a while, and they would also be on your clothes and bad for your genes. Inhaling tear gas really harms your health.

In the morning Alvin and I finalised our appointment for around two o'clock in the afternoon. I went first with my friend for brunch around noon, realising everyone else in Shanghai does the same thing on the weekends. There were lines waiting to get in everywhere. I thought to myself, since everyone loves eating so much, why don't they each open up a few more branches like the restaurants in Guangzhou do? After quite a bit of difficulty, we finally found one place where the line was slightly shorter, and since I wasn't hungry yet, first bounced next door to buy cigarettes. Surprisingly, it appears that Shanghai has even more varieties of Lucky Strike cigs than Guangzhou, so I bought two packs that I've never tried before and let my friend choose one, keeping the other for myself. Actually, in northern China (apart from Beijing), it's nearly impossible to buy imported cigarettes (we call them 'foreign smokes'). As a vaper, the first time I found out about Lucky brand cigarettes was not until a Hong Kong classmate in the UK told me about them; he said that they were really popular in Hong Kong. Combined with the image of an appropriated version of Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People captioned with “Five Demands, Not One Less” on his computer desktop, I suddenly felt something like an absurd leftist melancholy. After a long time spent searching for the two kinds of Luckies that I had asked for, the boss of the smokeshop came out from the back of the storage area, and I thought, if I gave the shop owner a print-out of this picture and asked him to store it for me, I bet he'd be able to keep it safe for a long time.

My Hong Kong classmate is a heavy smoker. Later, I interviewed him to collect material for the sci-fi writing project I've been working on. The recording is in Cantonese, and in the English transcript there is a part below:
I felt uncomfortable coming off the tear gas. I retched. Once I got home, I took a shower. I lit up a cigarette, drank some clean water to cool down, but still, my body feels unwell. Mentally, I did not feel bad about this... Well, for sure, smoke moves faster than human jaws, so many people had ingested quite a bit of tear gas. Is that bad for the environment? Yes, for sure. The chemicals in the smoke would hang there for quite a while, and they would also be on your clothes and bad for your genes. Inhaling tear gas really harms your health.

下午兩點20左右，我來到約定地點處取貨。社區門口的大鐵門需要自己伸手進去把插銷打開。上樓後，我並沒有找到Alvin給我發的門牌（或者說，這棟樓里根本就沒有清晰可見的門牌），只得發信息叫他給我開門。進屋發現要帶走的畫夾放不進我的小旅行箱，而畫卷滾筒比我想象的還大，並且也不是一般行李的形狀，所以我稍微有點擔心托運的事情，只能和Alvin約定如果無法順利托運，就叫閃送給他送回來再想辦法。其實我之前與這位Alvin有一面之緣，但他似乎並不記得我，我本想多聊兩句，結果兩人看起來都越說越尷尬，就道別離開了。
At around 2:20pm, I arrived at the arranged meeting spot to pick up the dispatch. The front gate of the residential block had a metal latch that you needed to open by sticking your hand through and pulling from the inside. After arriving upstairs, I couldn't find the door number that Alvin told me (at least it seemed that this building didn't have any clearly marked apartment numbers), so I sent him a message asking him to open the door. Once inside, I found out the art portfolio was too big to place into my small luggage case, and the other tube shaped case, besides already being shaped differently from ordinary luggage, was much larger than I imagined, too. This made me worry a bit about whether or not it would be possible to check in the two pieces, so we agreed that if I ran into any issues at the airport I could order a local courier to take the stuff back to him. Actually, I've met the sender Alvin once before, but I think he didn't recognise me at all. At first I thought we'd be able to chat for a bit, but it seemed as if the longer we stood there the more embarrassing the situation became, so I left.

我帶著貨物先和同伴逛了一家旁邊的花卉飾品店，我的飛機是下午6點30，得回酒店取行李，而過幾日才會離開的同伴這會兒剛好約了朋友，就先行道別。我在這家店鋪里等叫來的車，店員上來和我搭話，說掃描他們品牌的二維碼關注公眾號可以送給我小禮品，我說我給你掃碼，但是禮品我就不要了，你看我大包小裹的貨物，也沒手拿你的禮品。上車後稍稍有點後悔，那個禮物看起來還挺精美的。
My friend and I brought the dispatch along for a stroll, entering a nearby flower shop. My plane was scheduled for 6:30pm, so I would soon have to go back to the hotel to pick up my suitcase, and my friend had to go meet other friends anyway, so we said our goodbyes first. I waited inside the flower shop for my taxi to arrive, and the shop assistant came up to chat with me a bit, informing me that if I scanned their QR code and followed their WeChat public account I could receive a free gift. I said that I could follow them, but that I wouldn't need the gift—already carrying too much on me, no more hands free to take on a free gift. Thinking about it again after I got in the car, I felt a bit of regret. Actually the free gift looked quite elegant.

回酒店拿到行李後，才意識到帶到上海的幾個煙彈已經抽空了，而煙油留在了廣州，想到回到老家也不可能買新的煙油，就趁這空閒的一會兒出去買一次性電子煙。前兩日和我媽通話，我開玩笑到，本來是來上海玩兒三四天的，中途才認清形勢發現不好回廣州了，結果就待了一周，都快變成逃難了。我先進了一個賣煙的商店，但是賣家告訴我沒有電子煙，並充滿敵意的看著我。沒辦法，只能去馬路對面的便利店。在那兒買到了一個我沒見過的牌子的。
After picking up my luggage from the hotel, I realised that the vape pods I had brought with me to Shanghai were already empty and the refill vape oil I had left in Guangzhou. Once I got back to Taiyuan I knew there wouldn't be any way to buy more vape oil, so I took this last bit of free time to go buy single-use e-cigarettes. A few days ago, I had spoken to my mother and joked about how I had only planned to stay in Shanghai for three or four days, but that the situation in Guangzhou had led me to staying for a week, something like fleeing from danger. I first went to a smoke shop, but looking at me with hostility, the shop assistant told me they didn't sell e-cigarettes. So with no other options, I went to a convenience store across the street and ended up buying some brand that I've never heard of before.

下午5點左右順利抵達機場，辦理托運的時候櫃台問我那個圓筒是什麼，我特別想回答，是火箭筒，我來炸你們機場的。但想想還是算了。「畫兒，藝術品」我答道。「超規貨物」工作人員瞟了我一眼。不過最後還是沒遇到什麼阻礙，順利托運了。
I arrived smoothly to the airport at around 5:00 pm. At the check-in desk I was asked what was inside the big tube, and I was tempted to reply, “A rocket launcher in order to blow you all up with”. But I didn't. “A painting, artwork,” I answered. “It's outside of the regularly accepted measurements,” said the airline worker, throwing me an eye. But in the end everything went through without a hitch, and the tube was checked in.

晚上8點飛機就落地了，比預計早了半小時。出站的時候要查行程碼，我頓時有點緊張，因為行程碼上有14天內到過廣州的記錄。不過我突然想到前段時間的一個笑話，就是太原機場里的工作人員，面對大批不熟悉這些數字符碼的老年人大喊道，「啥都可以，手機上，綠的就行。」，我就隨便找了個綠色的上海健康碼，在工作人員面前晃了一下，通過。
The plane landed at eight in the evening, half an hour earlier than estimated. Upon exiting the station there was a check of our location records, and I immediately got a bit nervous, because my records would show that I had been in Guangzhou within the last two weeks. But then I suddenly remembered something funny that I saw recently about Taiyuan Airport. Most of the passengers are old folks and have no clue about these digital platforms, so the staff will accept anything you show them on your mobile phone; as long as it's green it's fine. So I looked for one of the green health codes I had from Shanghai and flashed it to the worker as I passed smoothly by.

回到家，我媽好奇的問我，「nia你帶回來的這是僧了？」。「畫哇，我估計是，完後我要運到廣州，有人要運到香港的」。「奧，那可值錢了哇，那老咱鬧出來賣老哇」。我一直覺得太原話說出來任何事情都會讓人感覺既像開玩笑又嚴肅認真。「奧，估計是外當代藝術，不值錢哇」，我答到。「奧麼，運到外香港了？是不是反動的了，你不是就是喜歡外些麼」。「奧，估計是老哇」。
Finally back home, my mother was curious and asked me, “What are these things that you've brought back?” “They're paintings, I guess. I have to bring them back to Guangzhou, and there are people who will bring them to Hong Kong.” “Oh, then they must be worth money, wow, we should take them and sell them!”. I always think that our Taiyuan accent makes everything sound both like it's a joke but also very serious at the same time. “I think it's contemporary art, not worth much”, I answered. “But they need to be carried to Hong Kong? Are they subversive? You always like that kind of foreign stuff.” “Probably.”

2021-06-11：
完成上一單HQL-399後幾日，何子和我說有新單需要幫助，全因廣州的疫情，再加上端午節，我的計劃原本是回太原老家再反廣州，期間奔波周折，並不適合送貨，故而想要推辭這單。不過等待之後何子和我說並無其他合適人選，故接下。沒想到事後得知這次的物件體積還蠻大，反而讓我莫名來了興趣。
A few days after completing route HQL-399, LIGHT LOGISTICIAN Ms. PORTABLE informed me of another route that would need assistance. But because of the pandemic situation in Guangzhou, as well as the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, my original plans of going first back to my hometown of Taiyuan before Guangzhou were all in disarray, I thought maybe this time it wouldn't be so appropriate to courier, so I was thinking to respectfully decline. Ms. PORTABLE said, however, that there were no other available couriers, so I took up the route anyway. I didn't realise until later that actually the dispatch was actually quite large, though this actually piqued my interest.

下午時和交貨的Alvin取得了聯繫，約定明日午後取貨。這會兒我正在West Bond看Laurent Grasso的展覽（說是展覽，其實也就一幅畫一個影像），美術館裡的冷氣開的太足，加上缺少睡眠，讓我在那個漫長的論文電影前直打擺子，最後只能先行離開。等同伴出來後，她問我要不要去樓上看下康定斯基，我下意識回應到：康定斯基有什麼好看的。遂離開。後來我回想到，在英國讀本科時，導師就是俄羅斯現代藝術研究的專家，當時沒少聽他講康定斯基。後來因疫情回國，期間少有聯繫。曾在回國初時讀到報道說學校附件的一個養老院有疫情集中爆發的情況，奪取不少老人的生命。希望我的導師平安無事。
In the afternoon I was put in touch with Alvin, and we made an appointment for me to pick up the goods the next afternoon. At the time, I was actually at the West Bund area viewing a Laurent Grasso exhibition (which actually only consisted of one painting and one video), and the air conditioning of the museum was on full blast, so with the addition of me not having had enough sleep, the extra long video essay was making me feel ill, so I couldn't manage to stay and left before finishing. After my friend came out, she asked if I wanted to go to the upper level to see Kandinsky, and subconsciously I thought, “What's there to see in a Kandinsky? Let's go.” I remembered later that while doing my undergrad in the UK, one of my tutors was an expert in modern Russian art, and he had often spoken about Kandinsky. But because of the pandemic I came back to China early and didn't have much contact anymore with my UK professors. Not long after I had returned from the UK, I read a report that a senior citizens' home near our school had become the source of a corona cluster, and more than a few elderly lives were lost. I hope that my teacher is okay.

媒體記錄 TRACKING:

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