Chapter 205: Jumping the Train

“Northwest Outdoor” was likely a brand. Logically, those boxes and tools should have been standardized products from Northwest Outdoor. I planned to investigate further once the ship docked.

Time was pressing, and the three of us were getting hungry. We quickly replaced the lids on the black boxes one by one, wiped up the water on the floor with towels, and moved the boxes blocking the door back to their original positions. Only after the cargo hold looked more or less the way it had before did the three of us file out.

Outside, night had fallen. The sea breeze howled, and I wrapped my clothes tightly around myself. The kitchen was empty. I followed He Yu as he slipped inside and grabbed three cups of instant noodles from a cabinet. I clutched my bag and managed to swipe three ham sausages, using a knife to slice them open and drop them into the noodles.

Lu Ayao closed the kitchen door. As He Yu was adding the seasoning packets, he suddenly slapped the table. I jumped in surprise. He looked at me and asked, “How about I make you something else? You’re still injured, you shouldn’t be eating this junk with us.”

He stood up to open the small refrigerated locker on the ship, but I grabbed him. I snapped the plastic fork apart and picked up the kettle to start steeping the noodles. As I poured the water, I told him not to bother; we’d probably be docking soon anyway, so this would suffice. I held the noodle cup to warm my hands, my peripheral vision fixed on the bag in my lap.

This time, I wouldn’t open the notebook in that bag until the ship docked and I was in a place of absolute safety. Until then, I wouldn’t tell anyone that I had found the only clue related to my grandfather in that underwater research facility.

I spent two and a half days recovering on the ship. During that time, I was constantly terrified that the corpses in the black boxes would start to smell. Since we had opened the boxes and the ice had melted, the scent should have drifted out quickly. Strangely, however, everything on the ship remained normal.

On the afternoon of the third day, the ship finally docked. As soon as the three of us stepped off, we were ushered into a car bound for the railway station. This time, Xiao Wu was with us. In his capacity as a “double agent” who had been undercover for years, he followed behind me with utter shamelessness.

When it came time for the ticket check, he stepped forward to take my luggage. I mocked him under my breath, “You’re just here to keep an eye on me. Why act like such a helpful lapdog?”

Xiao Wu didn’t take offense at all. He gave a cheeky grin. “The Eldest Miss is very concerned about you. She had me follow you because she’s afraid something might happen. The situation has changed drastically. You were in the South China Sea for so long that you might not realize it now that you’re back, but there are plenty of wolves and tigers out on these roads.”

I glanced at him, sensing a deep meaning behind his words. He seemed to be hinting at something, but he wasn’t willing to speak plainly. He just silently carried my luggage and followed me onto the train.

This time we were on a “green-skin” train. Due to various issues, the train stopped frequently, making the pace incredibly slow. My berth was at the very top, which made getting up and down a struggle. I decided to just sit on the bottom bunk with He Yu, drinking soda and snacking on peanuts.

He Yu loved to talk when he was bored. As a member of Wenbilu, he had traveled to a vast number of places throughout his life. He started by telling me about the places he’d been, then moved on to ghost stories from various regions to try and scare me, and finally circled around to the beautiful girls of the ethnic minorities. After chatting for ages, aside from his claims about how stunning the girls in Xinjiang were, almost nothing else he said was believable.

Just then, a middle-aged man in his forties walked past the door of our compartment. I had been happily cracking peanuts, but the moment I saw him, I lost my appetite. My smile froze.

The look in that man’s eyes was not that of an ordinary person. In our line of work, whether it was feng shui surveying or tomb raiding, you could usually identify a peer with a single glance. It was a look entirely different from a civilian’s. If I had to describe it, there was a gritty, violent edge to it, like a desert wind.

The man only spared me a single glance before walking past. Our compartment was at the very end of the train where there was almost no foot traffic. For him to go out of his way to peer into our compartment made it hard to believe he wasn’t up to something.

He Yu was highly alert. He saw my expression shift for a split second and reacted immediately. Though his casual banter didn’t falter, his demeanor changed. He slowly leaned back as he spoke, stiffening his neck and squinting his eyes to peer out into the corridor.

He took a look, then shot me a meaningful glance and gave a tiny shake of his finger. Lu Ayao, who was lying on the other side, sat up soundlessly. He stood, adjusted the whip tucked into his lower back, grabbed an apple from the table, and moved toward the door. At the same time, he made a downward pressing gesture toward me, telling He Yu and me not to act rashly.

Watching his movements, my heart nearly leaped into my throat.

Lu Ayao placed the apple flat on the handle of his long whip and extended only the apple past the doorframe. He had barely pushed it halfway out when a dagger suddenly lunged from behind the door, skewering the apple clean through.

Lu Ayao was fast. He spun the whip in his hand. The attacker behind the door likely hadn’t expected this move. Lu Ayao jerked his wrist upward, and the apple, along with the dagger, was tossed high into the air. The man’s weapon was gone. Lu Ayao followed up with a kick straight to the man’s chest.

I grabbed my bag from the top bunk, ready to run at a moment’s notice, and then leaned toward the door to look out. What I saw nearly scared the life out of me. From both directions, a crowd of people armed with entrenching shovels and knives was surging toward our compartment like a wave.

“Damn it! Grab your gear! We’ve been targeted!” He Yu cursed loudly.

“Gear?” I shouted back. “What gear? Everything was confiscated when we got on the ship!”

Lu Ayao’s side was already a chaotic mess. The middle-aged man he’d kicked had knocked over a pile of thugs behind him. I was squeezed between the two of them. He Yu managed to snatch the dagger away, leaving me to catch the apple as it fell from the air.

The two groups had us pinned. The middle-aged leader wiped the blood from his mouth as his men helped him up. He pointed a finger at me. “Get him! That brat is the one who opened the box. Get that jade casket for me!”

I wanted to cry. In that moment, I felt like dropping to my knees and screaming that I’d been framed.

As soon as the leader finished speaking, his subordinates from both sides swarmed forward. The space was too cramped to unfurl a long whip, so Lu Ayao simply used the handle to block as he engaged the mob with his bare fists.

“Go on then!”

He Yu grabbed a man by the collar and hurled him back. Another man tried to bypass him and lunged for me, but He Yu swept his legs out from under him, sending him face-planting into the floor. I immediately snatched up an entrenching tool from the ground and brought it down hard on his head, knocking him out cold.

After the strike, a wave of lingering fear hit me. I was worried I might have killed him. I turned to He Yu and asked, “Did I hit him too hard?”

He Yu was still locked in a struggle. He and his opponent were wrestling over a single knife; the man had his hands around He Yu’s throat, while He Yu gripped the man’s wrists, looking like he was even tempted to use his teeth.

He grumbled a curse at me through gritted teeth. “I think your brain is the thing that’s malfunctioning! Get over here and help me!”

I rushed over and delivered another blow to that head with the shovel. This time, the impact was so hard my hands went numb. Freed from the grip, He Yu retreated to my side and gagged a few times. “Damn it, he nearly choked the life out of me. I’m going to be too nauseous to finish my lunch now.”

Before I could respond, someone locked their arm around my neck from behind. Without looking back, I closed my eyes and swung the entrenching tool wildly behind me. There was a sharp clang, and the man choking me collapsed. Looking around, I realized the floor was already littered with bodies.

Xiao Wu had broken someone’s leg and kicked him to the ground before coming over to check on me. Lu Ayao followed close behind him. Xiao Wu glanced at He Yu, who was still in the thick of the fray, and said, “The cops are coming. We need to get out of here, fast.”

I nodded. With things having escalated into a full-scale brawl and so many people lying incapacitated, staying behind was out of the question. It wouldn’t look like they were the ones who started it. There was no point in explaining; our best bet was to run.

Suddenly, a hiss of air brakes echoed from outside. The train was making an unscheduled stop.

“Quick! Move it!” Xiao Wu urged.

Without a second thought, He Yu used the entrenching tool to smash a window. He vaulted through the frame and disappeared into the tall grass below. Xiao Wu gave me a shove from behind.

I had no choice. I scrambled up the window and jumped, tumbling into the brush. I landed hard on my backside, but He Yu hauled me up, and the two of us took off, staying low as we bolted toward the village ahead.