Chapter 205: Jumping the Train

“Northwest Outdoor” was likely a brand. Logically, these boxes and tools should have all been made by Northwest Outdoor. I planned to investigate further once the ship docked.

It was getting late, and the three of us were getting hungry. We quickly put the lids back on the black boxes one by one, wiped up all the water on the floor with towels, and moved the boxes blocking the door back to their original positions. Only after restoring the cargo hold to roughly how it had been did the three of us file out.

Outside, night had already fallen, and the sea breeze howled. I wrapped my clothes tightly around myself. The kitchen was empty, so I slipped inside with He Yu and grabbed three cups of instant noodles from the cabinet. Holding my bag in one arm, I managed to swipe three ham sausages, using a knife to slice them open before dropping one into each cup of noodles.

Lu Ayao shut the kitchen door. While adding the seasoning packets, He Yu suddenly slapped the table, startling me. He looked at me and asked, “How about I make you something else? You’re still injured, so you shouldn’t be eating this stuff with us.”

With that, he stood up to open the small mini-fridge on board. I grabbed him, snapped my plastic fork apart, and picked up the kettle to start pouring the water. As I poured, I told him not to bother; it shouldn’t take long before we docked, so we could just make do. I cupped the noodle container to warm my hands, watching the bag in my lap out of the corner of my eye.

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

I recovered on the ship for two and a half days. 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 snow inside had melted, the odor should have drifted out soon enough, but strangely, everything on the ship remained completely normal.

It wasn’t until the afternoon of the third day that the ship finally docked. As soon as the three of us stepped off, we were ushered into a car bound for the train station. This time, Xiao Wu came with us. As a “double agent” who had been undercover for years, he tailed right behind me with complete unabashedness.

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 tabs on me, so why play the big-tailed wolf?”

Xiao Wu didn’t feel offended in the slightest and gave a cheeky grin. “The Eldest Miss is very concerned about you. She asked me to tag along out of fear that something might happen. The situation has changed drastically. You’ve been in the South China Sea for so long that coming back suddenly, you might not feel it yet, but there are plenty of jackals, wolves, and tigers out on these roads.”

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

This time, we were taking a green-skin train. Due to various issues, it kept making unscheduled stops, so the pace was incredibly slow. My berth was at the very top, making climbing up and down quite a chore, so I decided to just sit on the bottom bunk with He Yu, drinking soda and snacking on peanuts.

When He Yu was idle, he loved to ramble. The people of Wenbilu traveled to a vast number of places throughout their lives, so at first he told me about all the spots he’d visited. Then he moved on to local ghost stories to scare me, before finally circling around to the pretty girls of ethnic minorities. After chatting for half the day, aside from how stunning the girls in Xinjiang were, practically 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 munching on peanuts, but the moment I saw him, I suddenly lost my appetite, and 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^[1], you could usually identify a peer with a single glance. It was a look entirely different from a regular person’s. If I had to describe it, it had 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 had 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 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, throwing the apple and dagger high into the air. The man lost his grip on the blade, and Lu Ayao followed up with a kick straight to his chest.

I grabbed my bag from the top bunk, ready to run at a moment’s notice, and 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.

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

“Gear?” I yelled back. “What damn gear? Everything fucking got handed over before we boarded!”

Lu Ayao’s side was already a chaotic mess. The middle-aged man he’d kicked had tumbled back into the pile of thugs behind him. I was squeezed between the two of them. He Yu managed to snatch the dagger, leaving me no choice but to catch the apple as it fell from midair.

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 stowed his whip and engaged the mob with his bare fists.

“Down you go!”

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 onto the floor. I immediately snatched up the 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 bite him.

He grumbled a curse at me through gritted teeth. “I think your brain’s got a cramp! 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 me to death. I’m going to end up eating half a bowl less for lunch today.”

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 behind me, the floor was already littered with bodies.

Xiao Wu broke 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 fight, 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 of them lying incapacitated, staying behind was out of the question. It wouldn’t look like they were the ones who had picked the fight. Explaining would be useless; our best bet was to run.

Suddenly, a hiss of air brakes echoed from outside. The train came to a stop mid-journey.

“Quick! Hurry!” Xiao Wu said.

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

I had no choice. Forced to climb up the window, I jumped out as well, tumbling into the brush and landing hard on my backside. He Yu hauled me up, and the two of us took off, crouching low as we sprinted toward the village ahead.