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墨書 Inktalez
At that moment, a somewhat plump young woman walked past us and shouted, "And you four aren't allowed to leave either, do you hear me?!"
Li Zhisheng muttered behind me, "Well, this is just great; when it rains, it pours..."
I waved my hand behind me and lightly hit Li Zhisheng, then smiled at the woman in front of me. "Sister, we're about to get off at the next stop. Aren't you delaying our schedule? Besides, the four of us are from another carriage; we haven't even been over there..."
"Stop the nonsense..." She pointed her finger at us dismissively and said, "I can tell just by looking at you that you're not good people, especially you—the one hiding behind with glasses. You look shifty; did you steal something?!"
Hu Fang stifled a laugh behind us at the woman's words directed at Li Zhisheng. When Li Zhisheng heard her call him shifty, he couldn't hold back anymore and stepped forward angrily. "Hey, how can you talk like that? Who's shifty? You can't keep an eye on your own things and then accuse others! Do you have any decency left?!"
Just then, the train slowly came to a stop, and the doors opened behind us. I quickly turned to the woman and said, "Sorry, sister, but we really have to go. If you've lost something, you should check carefully on the train; it might be somewhere. We really haven't stolen anything from you..."
Seeing that we were about to leave, she hurriedly grabbed Li Zhisheng by the collar. "What do you think you're doing?!"
Li Zhisheng was genuinely getting anxious.
"Hmph! You must have stolen something and want to run away. I'm telling you, there's no way out!"
"Let go of my collar!" Li Zhisheng glared at her with furrowed brows, ready to make a move.
I quickly grabbed his clenched fist and gritted my teeth. "How about this? You tell me how much your lost item is worth, and I'll give you the money to buy a new one!"
She gave me a disdainful glance. "What I lost is a diamond ring worth hundreds of thousands. Can you afford that?"
Hearing this, I put my wallet back into my pocket and sized up the woman in front of me. She had broad shoulders and a thick back, with heavy makeup that made her stand out even more. The gold necklace around her neck was hard to determine if it was real or fake at first glance, but coincidentally, I was in the gold business!
I calmly stepped forward and pushed her hand away from Li Zhisheng's collar. With a faint smile, I said, "I won't argue about how much your lost ring is worth just yet; however, everything about you looks fake—including that gold-plated necklace..." I pointed at her neck and added, "It's probably not even gold-plated; it's likely just painted with gold paint."
"I-I bought this for five hundred thousand!" she defended herself.
"Oh, really? You bought it for five hundred thousand? Looking at the size of that necklace, it can't weigh more than a hundred grams. Based on the current gold prices, you must have been seriously ripped off," I said, my expression shifting rapidly to one of seriousness as I pointed at her. "If you really had that much money, would you be taking this train? It's not a holiday, and you could easily get a plane ticket or a high-speed train ticket, right? Plus, tickets during the off-season aren't that expensive. Unless you're trying to scam insurance money, you're just crying thief!"
I hadn't thought through what I was saying; I just wanted to con her a little. To my surprise, it actually worked. As soon as I finished speaking, she glanced around the empty carriage and without a word ran toward the carriage we had just come from.
"Wow, Shen, impressive!" Meng Zhuang praised. Before I could bask in my moment of triumph, a bright whistle sounded from outside. I cursed under my breath; I had been so focused on arguing with that scammer that I almost forgot about our real objective.
"Quick, let's go!" I shouted. Everyone hurriedly turned around and rushed out of the train. Just as my foot left the carriage, the doors closed and the train started moving.
I silently breathed a sigh of relief. At that moment, a platform attendant walked over and looked at us. "Next time, prepare earlier. Don't rush out when the doors are about to close; it's dangerous, you know?"
I nodded repeatedly in response. "Yes, yes, we'll definitely pay attention next time." "Alright then, hurry along," the attendant said before turning away.
"Not bad! You've got potential as a detective!" Li Zhisheng said while patting me on the shoulder.
I humbly replied, "What potential? Honestly, if you hadn't been arguing with her, you would have noticed these things too..."
"You two stop flattering each other already! Can someone explain what's going on?" Hu Fang asked.
"Let's go outside first; I'll tell you slowly..." I said as we walked toward the station exit.
On the way, I shared with her what dangers I had sensed and recounted what I had seen on the train. Hu Fang turned pale upon hearing it, while Meng Zhuang broke out in a cold sweat.
"That's not right, Shen. Since there was danger in that car, why didn't you notify the others? If we just ran away like this, wouldn't the people in that car..."
I interrupted Meng Zhuang, "I've thought about that too, but consider this: we live in a technological age. No matter who you tell about such things, they won't believe you. And even if I have two talismans and Jiang Ling with me, I can't use Void Spirit right now. First of all, Jiang Ling can't use it, and I don't even know if the talismans will work..."
"You're not wrong, Shen. Moreover, based on what he encountered before, premonitions almost always occur when there's a life-threatening situation. In other words, if he hadn't run away, he would have undoubtedly died!"
Hearing Li Zhisheng's firm conclusion sent a chill down my spine. Hu Fang defended me, saying, "In situations where one can save others by sacrificing oneself, they might still risk their life to help. But if sacrificing one's life is futile and could lead to their own demise without any chance of saving others, that's a different story."
I sighed, "You all stop it; I know I didn't think it through. It's just that the entire carriage seemed very empty earlier. I hope those two Evil Spirits can't find anyone..." I silently prayed in my heart that no one would lose their life because of this.
"So... what do we do now?" Meng Zhuang asked as he looked at the deserted street outside the station.
"Since we can't leave now anyway, why don't we find a place to rest for tonight and set off early tomorrow..." With that, our group found a nearby inn to stay for the night.
At the inn, we booked two rooms. Li Zhisheng, Meng Zhuang, and I shared a double room while Hu Fang took a single room. I thought sharing a bed with one person would be more than enough, but I never expected the bed to be so atrocious. It was just right for one person but cramped for two; turning over was difficult and there was even a risk of falling off.
"This is ridiculous..." I lamented. Li Zhisheng looked at Meng Zhuang and said, "Then I'll sleep with you; Meng Zhuang can take the bed to himself."
I glanced around the room: "I guess that's all we can do; there's not even a sofa to sleep on." Complaining aside, finding a decent inn at this hour would be nearly impossible. Even if it was uncomfortable to sleep here, it was better than sleeping on the street.
...
The next morning came; I had not slept a wink all night, struggling to keep myself from rolling off the bed. Li Zhisheng and Meng Zhuang seemed to have slept well. After washing up briefly, we checked out and discussed our plans for the day ahead.
Li Zhisheng looked at my bloodshot eyes and asked, "What's wrong? Did you not sleep well last night?" I drooped my eyelids and replied, "Take the 'well' out of that!"
"What did you all do last night? Why didn't you sleep?" Hu Fang asked with concern.
"Don't worry about whether I slept or not. The urgent matter now is to figure out how to get going."
Meng Zhuang, having listened, said, "Anyway, there are trains passing through this station. I'll go ask if there are any tickets left. If there are, we can continue our journey by train. If we leave now, we should arrive by tonight."
"Alright then, go check if there are any trains."
"Okay!" Meng Zhuang agreed and dashed toward the ticket counter.
He had barely been inside for two minutes when he ran back out. I looked at the distance where Meng Zhuang was and muttered to myself, "Hmm... that was quick. It seems there are no tickets."
"Really?" Li Zhisheng said confidently, "I'll bet you a hundred bucks that there are tickets." Hearing Li Zhisheng's certainty piqued my interest: "Sure, I'm in."
At that moment, Meng Zhuang shouted from afar while running, "There are tickets! There’s a train in an hour! Hurry up!"
"A hundred bucks!" Li Zhisheng grinned and extended his hand toward me. "Why did you come out so quickly if there are tickets..." I grumbled as I pulled out my wallet and slapped a red bill into Li Zhisheng's hand. "Thanks!" he said as he tucked the money into his pocket.
Hu Fang mocked me, saying, "See? Pride comes before a fall. Last night's events made you too cocky."
As we spoke, Meng Zhuang had already reached us. He bent over with his hands on his knees, catching his breath before repeating, "There are tickets for the train in an hour."
I glanced around the station. "You buy the tickets first. Since we still have some time, let's grab breakfast..." I said, handing our identification cards to Meng Zhuang.
After he bought the tickets, we casually found a noodle shop nearby. Since there were no customers, the Boss was sitting to the side watching TV. Noticing that he hadn't seen us yet, I called out, "Boss, do you have anything to eat?"
Seeing that business had arrived, the Boss quickly got up with a smile, "Yes, yes! I have Beef Noodle Soup and Lamb Noodle Soup... take a look at what you want." He pulled out a menu and handed it to me.
I asked what they wanted to eat. Meng Zhuang and Li Zhisheng were indifferent, but Hu Fang was more particular. She said, "One bowl of Beef Noodle Soup with lamb, and make it the largest! I didn't eat any late-night snack last night, I'm starving..."
I looked at her, "Auntie, we have to catch a train soon; we don't have that much time to eat!"
"If I can't finish it, I can take it to go..." Just as she finished speaking, a news report came from the TV beside us.
"Yesterday, a violent murder occurred on the railway line. A corpse was discovered on train K1408; the age of the deceased is unknown, and the head has been severed..." Hearing this, I quickly turned my head to look at the TV. Although the images had been blurred, I could still recognize the gold necklace lying on the side.
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