Chapter 49.2: Train Robbery
The four of them started playing cards.
Although Lu Yixing was sitting there playing, his attention wasn’t on the game at all.
Every now and then, he glanced down the aisle, then checked on Jiang Xia’s condition.
So much time had passed, yet her face was still deathly pale, and she looked completely drained. It seemed that the only thing making her feel even slightly better was keeping her face beside the window and letting the wind blow against her.
Had the motion-sickness medicine still not kicked in?
When Lu Yixing noticed that Jiang Xia had nearly finished her water, he played the card in his hand and said, “Hold on a moment. I’m going to get some more water.”
With that, Lu Yixing stood up, took the water bottle from Jiang Xia’s hand, and headed toward the front of the train.
Now that’s taking good care of her.
As people got older, they tended to enjoy a little gossip. Guo Qingshan grinned and jerked his chin toward Jiang Xia, who was still gazing out at the scenery, then raised an eyebrow at Zhang Yongfeng.
Zhang Yongfeng likewise raised both hands and made a squeezing motion toward Guo Qingshan with his fingers.
Liu Ping joined in, silently mouthing something as well. The three of them exchanged exaggerated looks and eye movements, putting on an entire silent comedy routine.
More than ten minutes later, Lu Yixing finally returned with the water bottle.
He was also carrying several bags of candy, along with a fresh stalk of sugarcane he’d somehow managed to get his hands on.
There were White Rabbit milk candies, soft corn candies, and several kinds of fruit-flavored hard candy.
“Jiang Xia, why don’t you have some candy and sugarcane? See if they make you feel any better.”
As he spoke, he placed the water bottle, candy, and sugarcane on the table in front of Jiang Xia.
Eating candy really could make people feel a little happier.
Jiang Xia turned her head.
Avoiding eye contact with him, she reached out and picked up a packet of fruit-flavored hard candies.
State-run products were still pretty trustworthy.
Her voice was somewhat weak as she said, “Thank you so much.”
“No problem.”
Lu Yixing’s manner was completely natural.
“Get some more rest. If you start feeling uncomfortable again, tell me right away.”
Jiang Xia nodded slightly.
“Okay.”
Guo Qingshan turned his head and continued exchanging exaggerated looks with the other two.
As soon as Lu Yixing sat down, the three of them instantly wiped the expressions off their faces and became completely serious.
Guo Qingshan took the initiative.
“Come on, come on. Let’s keep playing.”
The four of them picked up their cards again.
While sorting through his hand, Guo Qingshan glanced at Jiang Xia once more.
Come to think of it, the two were about the same age. The man was handsome, the woman was pretty, and just judging by their appearances, they really did make a good-looking pair.
It was just that the woman seemed a little too delicate. She was only taking a train, yet she’d gotten this badly motion sick. Her constitution was far too frail.
Nothing like the tough women of their generation, who could truly embody the saying that women hold up half the sky.
If these two really got together, the man would probably have to shoulder both his career and the household.
He’d have his work cut out for him.
Still, if one was willing and the other was willing, what business was it of his?
“I’m playing a pair of fours.”
With that thought, Guo Qingshan laid down two cards.
And so the four of them played cards all the way until noon.
After a whole morning, Jiang Xia was feeling considerably better. She felt that she had basically become immune to those images. Aside from still feeling a little nauseous, she no longer had much urge to throw up.
That wasn’t entirely good news.
Because a normal person absolutely wouldn’t be able to accept this kind of thing. The fact that she was able to adapt meant her sanity value had probably dropped quite a bit. She might feel perfectly fine herself, but to other people, she could look like something entirely different.
Better keep pretending to be weak.
…
At noon, Jiang Xia still had no appetite. She didn’t buy any food from the train. Instead, she ate some of the pastries her mother had prepared to fill her stomach and continued maintaining her motion-sick persona.
The others in the compartment, including Guo Qingshan, had either brought food with them or bought meals on the train. They shared their food among themselves, finished eating, and then resumed their card game.
The train arrived at a station.
Some passengers got off, while new passengers boarded. The carriage was lively for a while before gradually settling back down.
Some people had already started nodding off.
After playing two more rounds, Guo Qingshan also began to feel sleepy.
He put down his cards.
“That’s enough for me. I’m too sleepy. I’m going to catch a little shut-eye.”
Zhang Yongfeng yawned as well.
“I’ll take a nap too.”
He put down his cards, climbed the ladder, and crawled into the middle berth.
“Then I guess I’ll get some rest too.”
With no one left to play with, Liu Ping reluctantly stopped as well. He was just about to climb into the upper berth when two young men carrying bags approached, one following closely behind the other.
Liu Ping moved aside to let them pass.
Once the two men had gone through, Liu Ping immediately climbed into his berth.
With the area around them finally cleared out, Lu Yixing looked up at Jiang Xia.
“Don’t you want to get some rest?”
Jiang Xia didn’t really want to take a nap.
She had a feeling that if she fell asleep, there was a very good chance she’d have some rather unpleasant dreams.
“I’m not tired.”
She said, “If you’re tired, you can go rest in the upper berth for a while.”
“I’m fine too. I’ll stay here.”
Lu Yixing shook his head slightly.
“How are you feeling now?”
“Pretty good.”
Jiang Xia joked, “I should be able to make it to Quzhou alive.”
“You really are optimistic.”
Protecting someone and dealing with criminals were things Lu Yixing could handle, but when it came to actually taking care of someone, he really had no idea what to do. All he could say was, “If you really can’t hold on, make sure you tell me. We can always get off halfway, rest for a day, and then continue.”
Jiang Xia answered firmly, “It’s fine. I’ll definitely be able to make it.”
Lu Yixing let out a helpless sigh. He was just about to say something else when a furious shout suddenly came from farther down the train.
“This is a robbery! Nobody move! Hand over your money!”
Huh?!
Lu Yixing’s expression instantly hardened.
There were robbers in the carriage, and he hadn’t even noticed them?
He had failed in his duty.
Jiang Xia’s expression also turned serious.
Seriously? We’re just taking a train! Pickpockets I could understand, but how did we end up running into a robbery too?!
Lu Yixing quickly turned sideways and looked down the aisle.
At the moment, two young men were standing guard at each end of the carriage. One was holding a sharpened iron rod, while the other carried a long knife with a freshly honed edge.
Besides the four men guarding the aisles, there were three others actively robbing the passengers.
The leader looked to be in his thirties and had a full beard. He was holding a gun. Behind him were two enforcers: one was heavily built, with a scarred face and a wooden club in his hand; the other was younger, with a dagger tucked into his waistband and a cloth sack in his hand. He was currently snatching money from one of the passengers.
The passenger cried out in desperation, “That’s the factory’s public funds! You can’t take it!”
“F*ck, why are you making such a damn fuss?!”
The scar-faced robber was visibly impatient. He raised his wooden club and smashed it straight down onto the man’s head.
Bang!
A heavy impact rang out. Blood immediately began streaming down the passenger’s head as he collapsed backward, his hand falling limply to his side.
It was impossible to tell whether he was dead or alive.
The younger robber excitedly weighed the money in his hand.
“Three stacks! That’s three thousand yuan! No wonder people in the sleeper cars have money!”
The bearded leader urged them on.
“Quit wasting time! Keep robbing!”
As he spoke, he stepped forward himself, pointing the muzzle of his gun at another passenger.
“Hand over your money!”
The passenger was trembling like a leaf.
“I—I’m just traveling for work. I don’t have any money on me!”
“You’re in a sleeper car and you’re telling me you don’t have any money?”
The bearded robber didn’t believe him at all. He waved his hand.
“Beat him!”
The scar-faced man raised his club again.
The bearded robber turned his gaze toward their end of the carriage and shouted threateningly, “You people up ahead, get your money ready too! If I don’t get enough when I come over there, you’ll see what happens to you!”
Guo Qingshan, who had just been preparing to go to sleep, jolted awake. He sat up and cautiously looked out into the aisle, then immediately ducked his head back down.
His lips were trembling, his legs were shaking uncontrollably, and he kept muttering to himself.
“We’re screwed, we’re screwed. How did we run into robbers? And there are so many of them!”
Liu Ping panicked as well.
“We’re screwed! I was only going to negotiate a contract. I didn’t bring any money!”
They were smashing people directly in the head. These robbers were beating their victims as if they intended to kill them. If someone didn’t hand over the money, they really might beat them to death.
Some passengers were screaming. Others were begging for mercy.
The entire carriage descended into chaos.
Jiang Xia cautiously stuck her head out as well.
She counted the robbers, then glanced at the gun in the bearded man’s hand, her heart sinking.
There were actually seven robbers, and one of them even had a gun.
How were they supposed to deal with this?
She ducked back down, her palms beginning to sweat.
Lu Yixing turned back as well.
Jiang Xia leaned close to him and whispered, “Did you bring any weapons?”
As she spoke, two more dull thuds came from farther down the carriage.
Jiang Xia’s heart sank even further.
This is bad.
This wasn’t merely an example being made of one victim to frighten the others. Unless someone handed over enough money, they were absolutely going to get beaten too.
A few blows directly to the head like that—someone might survive, but they’d be permanently crippled.
These robbers were genuinely vicious. And given their mentality, if they discovered that the two of them were undercover police officers traveling in plain clothes, things would probably get even worse.
“No.”
Lu Yixing lowered his voice and spoke rapidly.
“We’re not traveling for an arrest operation. Regulations prohibit us from carrying firearms.”
“Anything else?”
“Didn’t bring anything.”
Another piece of bad news.
Even though she’d already had a bad feeling about this, Jiang Xia still felt as though her heart had dropped straight to the bottom of an abyss.
“Then what do we do?”
She frowned tightly. “If we refuse to hand over the money, they’ll use force. And if they find out who we are, they’ll probably come down even harder on us.”
“I know.”
They were right in the middle of the carriage. The robbers were getting closer and closer, leaving Lu Yixing less and less time to think.
His hand clenched suddenly.
There was no other choice.
“I’ll take the gun.”
Lu Yixing pulled the cash and ration coupons he was carrying from his pocket and handed them to her.
“Hide the letter of introduction. Take the money to the upper berth. If I can’t do it, give it to them.”
Taking on three men alone in such a cramped space, with two of the accomplices armed with long weapons and the others carrying melee weapons—it was nothing short of gambling with his life!
He was preparing to fight a battle with nine chances of death and one of survival, while leaving all the escape routes to her?
Jiang Xia’s heart was deeply shaken.
She took a breath, grabbed her backpack, and pulled out a pair of scissors whose tip she had sharpened to an extremely fine point.
She had originally brought the scissors simply to make herself feel safer. She never expected she would actually have to use them.
If she’d known they could bring something as long as an iron rod onto the train, she would have brought a long hammer instead!
“No. I’ll do my best to hold off Scarface.”
As long as she could keep Scarface occupied, the pressure on Lu Yixing, who would only have to deal with two men, would be much lighter. He would have a seventy-to-eighty percent chance of taking the gun.
Once they had the gun, everything would become much easier.
“Hm?”
Lu Yixing was still watching the situation outside. He hadn’t expected that answer at all.
He immediately turned to Jiang Xia and firmly objected.
“No. Listen to me. This isn’t a game!”
“I graduated from the police academy too. I studied public security.”
Jiang Xia tightened her grip on the scissors, the sharpened blade flashing coldly in the sunlight.
She stopped pretending to be weak. She no longer restrained the influence of the Hannibal lessons flooding her mind, either.
Looking straight at him, she spoke with unwavering resolve.
“I’m not that bad at grappling and hand-to-hand combat. Besides, I have a weapon. Trust me. I can keep him here.”
Lu Yixing stared at Jiang Xia.
Perhaps it was the adrenaline surge brought on by the extreme danger. Jiang Xia now looked perfectly normal, with not the slightest trace of weakness. Her entire body was taut, like an arrow waiting to be loosed, and her deep-set eyes were filled with murderous intent.
Clearly, she intended to use the scissors like brass knuckles, planning to take Scarface out of the fight in one blow.
As for exactly how thoroughly she intended to incapacitate him, that was none of your business.
All that mattered was that she would definitely leave him behind.
For a moment, Lu Yixing hesitated.
That level of composure and such a fierce fighting spirit were nothing like those of a student who had never seen real combat. If anything, she looked like a seasoned fighter who had been through live-fire drills.
What a strange one.
Could she simply be exceptionally gifted?
There was no time to think about it. Lu Yixing looked into Jiang Xia’s eyes. Even though he had never seen her fight before, he instinctively chose to trust her.
“Okay.”
Lu Yixing stopped arguing. Without the slightest hesitation, he stepped forward and turned his back to her.
Guo Qingshan, who was still trembling, was completely dumbfounded.
Wait, what the hell were these two?
What happened to that frail young woman who had been so carsick just moments ago that she could barely speak without gasping for breath?
As they spoke, the bearded man, Scarface, and the young robber gradually made their way over.
In the neighboring compartment, several passengers who had already prepared their money hurriedly handed it over. One passenger, whose clothes were obviously much poorer than the others, shakily produced a little over a hundred yuan in cash and some ration coupons.
His voice trembling, he pleaded, “Big brother, this really is all the money I have…”
The bearded man kept walking forward while Scarface took the money, tossed it straight into the cloth bag that the young robber had already filled halfway, and this time he didn’t bother with his club.
Instead, he raised his fist and slammed it into the passenger’s stomach.
“You little bastard, you think you can fool me? You’ve definitely got more hidden somewhere! Hurry up and hand it over!”
“Please, hero, spare me! Please, hero, I really only have this much—!”
After punching him three times and seeing that the man genuinely had nothing else to hand over, Scarface released him with an annoyed expression.
“Consider yourself lucky I’m feeling generous. I’ll let you off this time.”
They didn’t have much time left. The railway police would be coming soon, and they couldn’t afford to waste time on this man.
The bearded man reached the compartment where Jiang Xia was sitting.
Behind him, the young robber followed with the cloth bag.
Jiang Xia had already slipped the scissors into her pocket. She recalled how to deal with rotten pork, and her face promptly turned pale again.
Seeing that the two men were still some distance away from Scarface, she realized that her opportunity had arrived. Raising her voice to sound weak and delicate, she stood up and walked toward the approaching Scarface.
“Big brother, we just visited our relatives and are on our way home. We really didn’t bring any money with us. Please, just let us go—”
Lu Yixing likewise concealed his hostility. He took the money from his pocket and approached the bearded man while handing it over, looking every bit like an ordinary office worker.
“Big brother, this really is all the money we have. Please, show us some mercy and let us go.”
The two of them approached from opposite sides, successfully separating the three robbers.
Seeing that the person coming toward him was just a pale-faced young woman, Scarface was completely at ease. He casually hefted his club, his gaze instantly turning lech*rous.
“Well, well. She’s a beauty, isn’t she?”
Perfect. He wasn’t on his guard at all.
“Big brother…”
Jiang Xia couldn’t actually cry, so she did her best to force a sob into her voice. She raised her left hand to cover her face while taking another step forward without breaking stride.
Close enough.
Standing face-to-face with him, Jiang Xia discovered that the man was a full head taller than her. He was wearing nothing but a sleeveless undershirt, leaving both muscular arms exposed. Each arm bore a ferocious, writhing blue dragon tattoo, making him look like an exceptionally tough fighter.
*Hmm. This meat must have a pretty good texture.*
In an instant, Jiang Xia felt all her emotions being stripped away, leaving behind nothing but absolute rationality.
She reversed her grip on the scissors, drawing upon every piece of experience she had just learned under the tutelage of the Hannibals. In a flash, she pulled the scissors from her pocket, raised them high, and drove the sharpened tip with deadly precision into the space between Scarface’s fourth and fifth ribs!
In the split second between life and death, a thought suddenly popped into Jiang Xia’s mind.
‘Wait a second. Does this count as self-defense?’
Scarface reached out his hand.
He was still thinking about getting to enjoy a little female company when, in the blink of an eye, the other party suddenly pulled something gleaming from her pocket.
Years of fighting had given him sharp instincts. The moment he saw it, he recognized the danger and instinctively tried to retreat.
But when he looked up, his eyes met hers.
In that instant, a chill crawled up his spine, so cold that it felt as though the blood throughout his body were about to freeze.
‘What the hell was that look?’
She wasn’t looking at a person at all.
She was looking at livestock!
Terrifying. This woman had definitely killed people before!
And not just one or two!
Otherwise, she couldn’t possibly have eyes like that!
‘He’d picked a fight with someone he couldn’t afford to mess with!’
‘F*ck! Move! Get out of the way!’
Scarface wanted to dodge, but sheer terror made his legs feel rooted to the floor. He couldn’t move at all. He could only desperately twist his body to the side.
But it was already too late.
The scissors in Jiang Xia’s hand came down, piercing through his clothes and sinking deep inside.
Blood gushed out.
Scarface’s vision went black in an instant. His mind went blank, and he lost consciousness completely.
At the same time, Lu Yixing stepped forward, drawing back his arm before driving an elbow straight into the bearded man’s chest. Immediately afterward, he raised his hand like a blade and brought it down hard on the wrist of the hand holding the gun.
The sudden heavy blow made the bearded man gasp in agony, unable to breathe for a moment. His grip loosened, and the pistol he had been clutching tightly dropped to the floor with a sharp *clatter*.
He staggered back against the carriage wall, enduring the pain in his chest as he panted and shouted,
“F*ck! We’ve run into some tough ones! Lao Qi, move!”
The young robber, Lao Qi, had never expected such a sudden turn of events. Panicking, he dropped the cloth bag, pulled the short knife from his waist, and slashed at Lu Yixing.
Lu Yixing didn’t stop moving. He stepped back, then kicked the gun, sending it straight underneath the lower berth.
“Brother Guo, get the gun!”
Guo Qingshan finally snapped back to his senses. Trembling all over, he dropped to the floor and crawled forward, sticking his butt up in the air as he reached for the gun.
Lu Yixing continued retreating. Seizing the right moment, he bent his arm and drove another elbow strike into the bearded man’s throat.
Then he took two more steps back and kicked the motionless man hard in the side of the waist, sending him sprawling directly in front of the young robber.
The young robber’s eyes had already gone bloodshot.
He didn’t even bother catching his boss. Instead, he took a step back, then charged forward with his short knife raised.
“The gun! The gun’s here!”
Guo Qingshan, still sprawled on the floor, finally got his hands on the gun.
He put every ounce of strength he had into getting back on his feet. He felt like he’d never moved so fast in his entire life as he thrust the gun toward Lu Yixing.
Lu Yixing immediately took it.
He flicked off the safety, aimed at the young robber charging straight at him, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
<< _ >>