Chapter 60.1: Journal Approved!
This was obviously a dream.
Jiang Xia lowered her expectations a little and wished that, for the rest of her life, she could eat a balanced diet of meat and vegetables in exchange for the system giving her a skill that wasn’t so disgusting.
With that thought in mind, Jiang Xia cleared her throat and said to the attendant standing in front of her, “That’s a bit of an exaggeration. I’m just an ordinary police officer who happens to be able to draw a little.”
An ordinary police officer who could catch over a hundred pickpockets on a single train journey?
The attendant hesitated, unsure what to say.
If you’re an ordinary police officer, then what does that make the railway police officers on our train? A bunch of good-for-nothings who just sit around eating for free?
“Comrade Jiang is far too modest.”
Maintaining her smile, the attendant returned Jiang Xia’s train ticket and letter of introduction. She then stepped aside to make room for her and said, “We’re short on time, so you’d better board the train now.”
Jiang Xia nodded and boarded first, carrying her lightweight backpack.
Behind her, Lu Yixing carried the luggage, while the two police officers assigned to escort them carried the local specialties they’d purchased. Together, they lugged their various bags and parcels onto the train.
Come to think of it, having more people did have its advantages. All four of them had booked berths in the same compartment, so they wouldn’t have to worry about strangers casually sitting on their lower berths.
Jiang Xia naturally took the lower berth, which had more room. No one objected.
The summer heat was stifling. The old green-skinned train had no air conditioning, and the carriage was stuffy and reeked of the sweat of too many people packed together. Jiang Xia sighed and silently pushed the window open as far as it would go.
She was beginning to miss high-speed trains.
And thinking about how she’d have to wait nearly thirty more years before she could ride one made her even more miserable.
“Here, a fan.”
Lu Yixing somehow produced a carved wooden folding fan from nowhere. “Use this to cool yourself down if you’re hot.”
As he spoke, he placed a cloth bag on the small metal table in front of them.
Inside were all kinds of items he’d gathered over the past few days to alleviate motion sickness, ranging from medicine and snacks to herbal sachets. He’d thought of practically everything.
Hopefully, at least some of them will work this time.
Jiang Xia accepted the folding fan with delighted surprise.
It felt cool to the touch and carried a faint, delicate fragrance. It was probably made from the finest sandalwood. The fan was intricately carved with auspicious patterns, with an ancient pagoda engraved in the center. Beside the pagoda stood an old pine tree, its trunk and branches carved with remarkable strength and vigor. Anyone could tell that it was the work of a master craftsman.
Jiang Xia didn’t fan herself with it. Instead, she ran her fingers over the carved patterns and asked curiously, “Huh? Lu Yixing, when did you buy this folding fan?”
“I bought it the day before yesterday when I went out.”
Lu Yixing’s hand paused for a moment before he replied casually, “If you like it, you can keep it and use it.”
The two police officers were still putting away the luggage. When they heard this, they both raised their heads and exchanged glances.
Oho! Something’s going on here!
There was nothing special about giving someone an ordinary fan as a casual gift. But this wooden folding fan was clearly worth a small fortune. That made it an entirely different matter!
Jiang Xia turned the fan over a few more times before saying, “Then I won’t stand on ceremony.”
Ah, she really had no resistance to delicate little trinkets like this!
Hearing her response, Lu Yixing finally relaxed the hands he’d been secretly clenching together.
The train began to move.
The other two passengers in their compartment leaned out to size up the newcomers, then, as seasoned travelers, promptly struck up a conversation.
The two police officers smoothly launched into their fabricated identities and managed to fool the other passengers without difficulty.
Given what had happened before they set off, Jiang Xia put on a bit of an act, pretending to suffer from motion sickness. After eating a few orange candies, however, she gradually returned to “normal.”
The four of them chatted about all sorts of things, from one end of the country to the other. Jiang Xia wasn’t particularly interested, so she pulled a copy of One Hundred Thousand Whys she’d bought while shopping earlier out of her bag and began reading.
As expected of a product of the Cold War era, the book was hardcore. It covered everything from shooting down aircraft with antiaircraft guns to making guns and ammunition by hand. It was practically a step-by-step guide to building an arms factory!
Jiang Xia was thoroughly engrossed. She was expanding her store of knowledge, whether useful or not, when, before she’d even read for very long, she noticed that attendants kept coming through her carriage, one after another. Every time, they would stop in front of her compartment and linger for quite a while.
The first two at least pretended to have some other reason for stopping. The ones who came afterward didn’t even bother hiding it. They simply stood there and openly stared at her.
Jiang Xia finally understood the troubles that came with being an expert like Expert Chen.
Being recognized by too many people wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Everyone was coming over to gawk at her like she was a monkey at the zoo.
That’s right. She was the monkey in question.
However, since none of these people had approached her directly, Jiang Xia simply pretended not to notice them.
The last time she’d been on a train, she’d inspected every carriage at every station and drawn portraits while carrying out an exhausting, high-intensity campaign against pickpockets. Much of that had been driven by the system’s rewards and the stimulation she’d gotten from dealing with the robbers. There was no way she was going to do the same thing again this time.
Not only was it exhausting, but if she did it once, twice, and then a third time, the railway police and attendants would eventually come to take it for granted. Then, if she didn’t catch pickpockets as diligently in the future, they’d feel that something was wrong.
That was human nature. Better to set expectations properly from the start than invite resentment later.
The railway police officer on the train was a normal person, too. He understood perfectly well that Jiang Xia was a local police officer while he was railway police. Catching pickpockets was his job, not hers. If she was willing to help catch criminals, that was a kindness, not an obligation. It was perfectly normal for her not to get involved.
Even so, he couldn’t help feeling a little itchy with curiosity.
Who wouldn’t want to see what the Book of Life and Death could do when it finally made its move?!
And so, Officer Wang bought a roast chicken from the train’s food vendor, along with some peanuts and sunflower seeds. Then he brought his apprentice over to seek Jiang Xia’s advice.
“B-Book… I mean, hello, Comrade Jiang!”
Standing at the entrance to the compartment, Officer Wang smiled warmly and greeted her enthusiastically. “Old Zhao told me about you. He said you’re good at fighting, can draw portraits, and you’re still so young. A real young prodigy! I didn’t believe him at first, but now that I’ve seen you for myself, I have to admit that seeing is believing!”
“Come, come! This roast chicken is a local specialty from Wendi. It’s absolutely delicious. Comrade Jiang, you should give it a try.”
As he spoke, Officer Wang moved to place the gifts on the table.
Well, look at that. He was going straight for the gift-giving!
Jiang Xia quickly put down her book and reached out to stop him. “You’re too kind, Comrade. I haven’t done anything to deserve this. How could I possibly accept your gifts?”
“Ah, don’t worry! These don’t require ration coupons, and I got them at our internal staff price. They weren’t expensive. Just think of it as a little something to go with your lunch!”
Officer Wang didn’t bother beating around the bush. He got straight to the point. “Besides, I’d also like to ask you to give this stupid apprentice of mine some pointers. Could you teach him a bit about how you catch pickpockets?”
So that was what this was really about.
He’d already practically forced the gifts into her hands, so there was no getting out of it now. Still, the man was sincere, and it wasn’t unreasonable to agree to his request. After a moment’s hesitation, Jiang Xia nodded. “All right, then.”
She stood up, dusted off her hands, and stuffed her little notebook and pen into her pocket.
“Come on. Let’s take a walk around the train.”
Lu Yixing and the two police officers remained perfectly calm. This sort of treatment was entirely normal for them. But the two passengers in the compartment had never witnessed anything like this. They abruptly fell silent, staring at Jiang Xia in a daze.
Just who was this woman? Why was a railway police officer being so courteous and coming to her for advice?
Jiang Xia took the two men on a circuit of the train.
Even in the height of summer, some of the hard-seat carriages were still so crowded that there wasn’t even enough room to stand comfortably. Jiang Xia walked forward, looking from side to side, and only stopped when she reached the connection between two carriages.
Standing at the entrance, she took out her notebook and began sketching as she spoke.
“The middle-aged woman in the blue shirt standing by the restroom door in this carriage. The thirty-year-old man in the black jacket sitting on the left side of the fourth row, with a split lip… They’re all pickpockets.”
As she spoke, a man’s face quickly took shape beneath her pencil. Officer Wang and his apprentice leaned over for a closer look.
It was an exact likeness of the man she’d just described!
Their eyes widened involuntarily.
This was incredible! The Book of Life and Death truly lived up to its reputation!
After making a circuit of the train, Jiang Xia continued sketching and entering information into the system, adding yet more pages to its Book of Life and Death. Once she’d finished, she handed the portraits over to Officer Wang and happily returned to her sleeper compartment.
Meanwhile, the pickpockets aboard the train were left utterly baffled. For some inexplicable reason, it would suddenly seem as though darkness had fallen around them, and then their hands would be in handcuffs.
Even if they saw the railway police officer running off into the distance, it made no difference. Somehow, the officer would still manage to track them down and drag them out.
They couldn’t make any sense of it.
It was practically as if they’d encountered a ghost! Absolutely terrifying!
After this latest round of activity, Jiang Xia’s reputation score rose considerably once again.
The first day passed without incident.
On the second day, just as dawn was breaking…
Jiang Xia was still half asleep when the familiar sound of fireworks suddenly rang in her ears.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host! You have earned the fear of your fellow professionals. Reputation +1~]
[Congratulations, Host! Your reputation has reached the maximum level!]
[Random system reward draw in progress…]
As the sounds of celebratory firecrackers rang out one after another, Jiang Xia jolted and instantly woke up.
She brought up the system and stared at the lottery interface, praying fervently in her heart.
Something normal, something normal, please!
The selection indicator hopped randomly between dozens of identical gift boxes. It gradually slowed down before finally coming to a stop.
The chosen gift box moved to the center of the screen, growing larger and larger before opening rapidly, revealing a dazzling golden light.
The system cheerfully announced the result.
[Congratulations, Host! You have won the complete set of Level 4 tomb-raiding techniques!]
Jiang Xia immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Oh, yeah! This skill is much more normal than the previous ones!
Wait a minute. What was normal about having experience in tomb raiding? It was just that the system had lowered her standards so drastically that her baseline had become absurd!
Before Jiang Xia could finish complaining, a massive amount of tomb-raiding knowledge came surging into her mind.
How to read the terrain and geomantic features of a location, assess the lay of the land, identify auspicious burial sites based on the configurations of mountains and waterways, locate the points where dragon veins converged, and determine which dynasty a tomb belonged to…
How to judge the location of a coffin based on the surrounding terrain, choose the most suitable direction for digging a tunnel, and enter the main burial chamber by the shortest possible route. There were even specific explosive formulas for blasting open a suitably positioned grave-robbing passage.
There was also knowledge about assessing the danger posed by a tomb’s traps in advance and taking precautions, as well as identifying the dynasty to which the gold artifacts she’d unearthed belonged, estimating their value, and all sorts of related trivia.
…
…
Jiang Xia stared blankly, her eyes wide.
This reward had certainly opened her eyes.
So this was how you read terrain! Who would’ve thought that mountains with different shapes and positions could have so many different interpretations?
Excellent. She now knew how to locate gold veins and identify auspicious burial sites. She could even chant the famous tomb-raiding verse: “Seek the dragon and divide the gold; observe the winding mountains…”
What a pity that if she wanted to form a small team, she’d still be missing a Fatty.
Just kidding. That would be way too illegal. The sentence started at three years, with no upper limit.
Besides, tomb raiding in novels and actual tomb raiding were two completely different things.
The tunnels dug by tomb raiders were usually very narrow. A large one might be just wide enough to crawl through on one’s hands and knees, while some were so small that one had to wriggle forward on their stomach.
The process was stifling and cramped, with dirt constantly trickling down onto one’s body, sometimes accompanied by a few creepy-crawlies. It was downright horrifying, enough to make anyone feel as though their claustrophobia was kicking in.
The burial chambers themselves weren’t much better. After all, they were underground, sealed off for who knew how many years. There could be accumulated mud and stagnant water, rotting wooden coffins, and the decayed remains of sacrificial victims, reduced to little more than bones…
In short, these places were the ultimate haunted houses. Their smells and textures could rival those of a sewer, and entering one genuinely took a tremendous amount of courage.
Jiang Xia was terribly disappointed.
Give me back my beautiful fantasies about tomb raiding! I was looking forward to watching Candle in the Tomb over thirty years from now!
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