10 - You're trying to frighten me!

T/N: warning! Don’t eat when reading this chapter unless you’re not grossed out by vomit and garbage.

It would be five hours until the train arrived at Wancheng, the next station.

For Zhou Yanling, five hours could feel like an awfully long time. He had woken up next to Xiao Quan’s corpse, then took a bus home, showered, and changed clothes. After that, he tidied up. He took his stained clothes and shoes and burned them, smoking while he incinerated them. Then he checked to make sure that he had his ID and some cash on hand, wrote responses to his clients, and ate the large yogurt that was left in his refrigerator. At 3AM, he was sitting at the head of his bed, repeatedly refreshing the news headlines on his phone. Two hours later, he emerged from his bedroom at his usual wake-up time and texted his office to request a leave of absence. Outside, the sun slowly rose. Along with the sun, his skin also warmed until his body was finally a comfortable temperature. He was sure that he had survived. Many years in the future, he was sure that he would still be able to remember the tight clench of fear prickling his skin and the dread deadening all four limbs.

Even just five hours could be enough to torture someone until they became insane.

By the afternoon of the third day, the police had finally released the suspect’s name. Sitting in front of the television, Zhou Yanling had been eating beef noodle soup and adjusting the sound with the remote. When he heard his own name from the television, he experienced a novel sensation, resembling a sudden chill starting at the top of his head and spreading throughout his body, freezing him and causing him to shiver uncontrollably. He picked up his bowl to drink the soy sauce-flavored broth. It was quite salty, astringent and greasy. Immediately, his stomach revolted. He went to the bathroom and vomited the entire bowl of noodles, then he turned on the tap and rinsed his mouth with water. His face was covered in droplets of water and sweat and his lips were turning purple. He had really caused quite a mess. While washing his face, he paused for a moment, remembering a joke from an unknown source: there was an Englishman who had installed two sinks in his bathroom, one for washing his face and the other for crying. He seriously considered if he should install another sink should he survive this.

At the present moment, Zhou Yanling felt awfully calm. He walked quickly to car 1 without any distractions preying on his mind, his thoughts centered only on that thief wearing a blue jacket. These ten carriages weren’t long and it would only take five minutes to walk them round trip. There was no sign of Blue Jacket. Not in the toilets, not in the lockers, not in the engine room, and not in the boiler room. There was no sign of him anywhere. Where could he have hidden? Could it be that the thief could change faces?

On the train, there weren’t many places that could hide a person. The seats in the hard seat 1 section were partitioned so that an adult wouldn’t be able to hide underneath them. The luggage racks were actually large enough for hiding. In theory, they should be strong enough to be able to support that sort of weight. However, it would be extremely conspicuous to crawl onto the luggage rack in broad daylight. Apart from this, where were some other places that he might have missed?

A janitor walked towards Zhou Yanling. She was occupied picking up a winnowing basket 2 and throwing out the two tissues inside. Then, she stopped to sweep up melon seed and peanut shells from underneath a table. As Zhou Yanling staggered past her, the two slightly rubbed shoulders. A strange thought formed in Zhou Yanling’s mind. He quickly walked to the garbage can next to the hot water dispenser.

Opening the garbage can, he was hit in the face by dense rotten fumes. Zhou Yanling’s throat tightened, and he retched. He held his nose, endured the nausea and reached inside, pulling out a large number of instant noodle cups, food wrappers, pull-top cans and balled up tissues. The rest was comprised of spoiled food and plastic tableware. As the trash dropped to the ground, the janitor approached and angrily rebuked him: “What are you doing? Why are making such a mess? It was very difficult for me to clean all of that up!”

Zhou Yanling ignored her and, without taking his leave, went to rummage through the garbage can in the next car. Searching inside the first garbage can in car 3, he opened the lid, and a pull-top can fell out. Apparently, it was so full that nothing else would fit. As he pushed aside the first layer of rubbish, from below came a faint watery sound. Zhou Yanling wasn’t prepared for a bowl of instant noodles to fall onto his face. His nose was repeatedly smeared against the side of the bowl, his line of sight was obstructed, and he didn’t have time to remove the bowl from his head when he felt something rise up from the inside of the garbage can and vigorously knock into him. He was pushed off balance and, as he tread on the greasy food, he fell.

Zhou Yanling craned his head back as he struggled free of the instant noodle container. Immediately, he saw Blue Jacket scrambling to stand, wet noodles dripping from the top of head and one of his feet stuck, dangling over the side of the garbage can. Zhou Yanling 3 reached out to grab him: “Still fleeing–”

A leg of the thief’s trousers had been grabbed, alarming him. He tried to kick the hand away. Zhou Yanling was almost kicked in the head. The thief was so frightened that he tried to crawl away on his hands and legs. Zhou Yanling swept his leg sideways, but didn’t expect the thief to dodge, turning his body and striking out at Zhou Yanling with his fists. Zhou Yanling raised his hand to block the fist and, using the momentum 4 to catch the thief’s 5 wrist, pulled him back. Blue Jacket’s face looked cruel and he shouted, “You’re in my way!” His other hand pulled out a box cutter, and he advanced on Zhou Yanling, intent on cutting him.

Even though that box cutter was only the size of a hand, its slight blade had been sharpened to a vicious edge. The blade sliced the side of his ear. Wet warmth dripped from Zhou Yanling’s ear. Zhou Yanling promptly dodged sideways. He hadn’t expected to run into someone skillful in martial arts 6 . Secretly, he mourned that it wasn’t easy to be a thief nowadays. He didn’t have any sort of weapon, so he had no choice but to focus all of his attention on handling this situation. The thief brandished the blade about, spinning it in his palm as he pleased, blocking all sides, and forcing Zhou Yanling back into a wall! Right away realizing that there was no escape, Zhou Yanling quickly crouched to avoid the blade. With both hands, he grabbed the thief by his legs, abruptly rose to his feet and rammed him into the wall.

He moved impatiently and slammed his fist into the thief’s face. The thief’s grip on the blade was loosened by the force of the blow, and the blade fell to the ground. Zhou Yanling punched him repeatedly, the blows causing the thief’s nose and mouth to bleed. Unexpectedly, he still had enough breath to knee Zhou Yanling in the stomach with all of his might. Because of this strike, Zhou Yanling’s stomach turned queasily. He covered his mouth and retched.

A handful of fresh blood hit his palm.

The thief didn’t dare continue fighting. Without catching his breath, he immediately turned and fled. With great difficult, Zhou Yanling held back his body’s desire to vomit and gave chase. That thief was probably a hardened thief. The thief’s steps were fast but his footfalls made no noise, and he wasn’t frightened when he bumped into people as he fled to the back of the train. Zhou Yanling chased after him, the entire time yelling: “Make way, make way! Everyone, move! Don’t let him escape! He’s a thief!” But no one dared to come and help intercept him. Zhou Yanling 7 was running so quickly that he, inevitably, knocked into people using all his strength. There was a child on the floor who started crying after he stepped on him. He had no choice but to stop and pick the child up, return the child to the mother, and apologize.

The aisle was only wide enough to allow two people to walk abreast. It would be difficult for a third person to squeeze through. He’d only just caught sight of a food cart ahead, the attendant unhurriedly hawking their wares. The thief stopped in front of the cart and turned back to see Zhou Yanling watching him. Suddenly, he rushed at the attendant, grabbing the cart and pushing it towards Zhou Yanling. This hot and wildly careening metal cart sped towards Zhou Yanling!

Out of the attendant burst a startled scream of such a high note that it could have brought down the roof, and which immediately, piercingly deafened listeners. The scream shocked Zhou Yanling, and he stood stock-still for a few seconds, completely unmoving. The dining cart was designed to preserve the temperature of the food. Underneath the cart was a large metal box holding boiling water. There was a partition to keep this part separate from the meals on top, which were kept warm by the rising steam. The cart itself was very heavy and solid. If it ran into a person, it wouldn’t have been a small matter! Boiling water would splash out, causing serious burns.

Zhou Yanling’s adrenaline peaked violently. Even when the dreadful four-wheeled meal cart had accelerated to less than two meters away, his head was still blank.

By the time his mind had started to work again, he had already lifted a foot and resolutely kicked out at the advancing steel dining cart!

“Clang–” With a loud noise, the cart pressed against the sole of his shoe. His body was abruptly pushed back in the opposite direction, the force causing him to have to repeatedly retreat. Zhou Yanling stumbled back several steps, swiftly bracing himself with a hand on the seat beside him. He twisted his body to duck into a gap between seats. As the dining cart hurtled past him, he reached out to grasp the lever and pulled it to brake the cart, bringing the deadly vehicle to a stop.

At this time, only a short muted gasp came out the female attendant’s mouth. She was panicked, shocked and, her throat trembling in confusion, didn’t react.

Zhou Yanling didn’t have much time to think. He passed her and continued to chase the thief. The thief saw that there wasn’t even the slightest damage done and again broke into a run, quickly moving towards the back of the train. Zhou Yanling distantly caught sight of his body coming to a sudden stop. A familiar figure dazzlingly appeared from beside the front seats. It was Wu Fengrong, in uniform, and he was carrying the stolen black suitcase.

Blue Jacket was attacked from the front and the rear, caught in the doorway of car 9. Zhou Yanling’s footsteps slowed as he closed in on him, and he said to Wu Fengrong: “RongRong, don’t move. He might still have a blade.”

Wu Fengrong immediately glanced at his bleeding ear. The look on his face was as if he had received a sudden blow: “Get down, put your hands up, and don’t move! The transit police are on their way!” As he was speaking, he picked up his two-way transceiver and made a show of talking into it, appearing as though he was notifying the transit police. Blue Jacket hesitated for a moment then put his hands in the air.

Wu Fengrong slowly put the hand-held transceiver away and walked towards him, but the thief shouted: “Don’t come near me! If you continue to approach, I’ll jump off the train!”

The space between Zhou Yanling’s eyebrows were stretched taut. He noticed that the thief was standing next to the door to car 9. He could jump out if he pulled open that door. Even though he wouldn’t die at the current speed, if he did jump he would probably end up with severe physical injuries.

“Don’t get carried away,” Zhou Yanling said. “You mustn’t gamble with your life!”

Wu Fengrong faced Zhou Yanling, the expression he sent telling him to shut up. Zhou Yanling understood, but shrugged his shoulders and pasted an innocent expression onto his face. At this time, the other passengers had already begun to pay attention to this confrontation between the three people, and were drawing close, blocking the narrow aisle until not even a drop of water could trickle through. Wu Fengrong was nervous about this state of affairs. If the others became too keyed up over this thief, who knew what would happen next. People increasingly began to discuss this situation, and some had even started to jeer. Wu Fengrong’s face became increasingly grave and solemn.

Some anonymous person in the crowd shouted: “Jump, a! Quickly jump! If you can, then jump!” Wu Fengrong was just about to berate this person when, in the blink of an eye, Blue Jacket suddenly slammed into the car door. Zhou Yanling took a couple of steps to catch him, but there wasn’t enough time. He had already pulled the door open with a thump. The blue jacket flapped in the wind and then he was gone. Wu Fengrong followed Zhou Yanling 8 closely. The rough and screaming wind almost pulled the two out.

The conductor turned around to rebuke: “Who the fuck shouted that just now? Get out here!” He wanted to continue, but Zhou Yanling pulled his arm to get him to stop, and in a low voice urged him to let it go. Still, he wanted to scold: “What let it go? A person just died, and you want to let it go? You enjoyed watching it and didn’t think it was a big deal, ba? Later, if I catch another thief, I should just toss him out the train and let him fall to his death. The same if I catch a child kidnapper or a womanizer? Or should I tie them to a wheel and just let the train crush them? A lot of people spend years studying and writing about the law, but that’s nothing compared to you, ba? If we just let them fall to their deaths it wouldn’t be complicated. And wouldn’t letting you fuck around mean that there would be less tax collected to pay for the police and judges?”

He stood there panting in rage, his face completely red, and his eyes were fierce and harsh. Suddenly, the car was fearfully silent. The sound of the wind leaking through the windows could clearly be heard. Nevertheless, Zhou Yanling felt that he was adorable. If they weren’t in front of so many people, he would have wanted to pull Wu Fengrong into his embrace and kiss him relentlessly.

Zhao Xintao struggled to extricate himself from the crowd and started to get the gawkers to disperse: “Let’s go, let’s go. There’s nothing to see here. Stop looking……” As he opened the door, he tucked his head close to his body. Outside, the wind was extremely strong. He stood in this dangerously windy place and sighed. As he glanced to the side, he unexpectedly saw a pair of leather shoes dangling along the side of the windshield. So scared that he almost screamed, he went to find Wu Fengrong immediately.

“He’s not dead! He’s not dead! RongRong, outside, this guy was able to-could he have clung to the side of the car, ba?”

Wu Fengrong stuck his head out and, sure enough, he found Blue Jacket clinging to the ladder on the side of car 10, not daring to move as he leaned beside the windshield. His left shoe had fallen, and he had tried to toe his shoe back on several times to no avail. This time, as he turned his head, his gaze met that of Wu Fengrong’s and he no longer cared about the shoe. He climbed up the ladder with a sock on one of his feet and, as a result, suddenly slipped down a rung.

It had just snowed lightly. Everywhere outside was moistened by melting snow. The ladder was still dripping with water, making it too slippery to grasp. Wu Fengrong looked on helplessly as he saw the body fall, his eyelid twitching wildly. He had a terrible premonition.

He gazed into the distance. The straight train track appeared to curve in 500 meters.

He would have to pull him back before the train could make the turn, Wu Fengrong thought. When the train turned the corner, where the car connected with the windshield, it would adjust to the radius of the curve. On one side, the windshield would lengthen, while on the other it would shorten 9 so that cars right in front of and behind the articulation would turn smoothly. During the turn, the cars could collide on the compressed side. In that case, if there was someone at that junction between cars, if they were on the side that was compressed, that person would be completely crushed to death! If the train’s speed was fast enough, the force of the compression could cause that person to be instantaneously killed, without even enough time to feel pain.

And that wasn’t even the worst of it. If the windshield didn’t compress enough because there was a body in the way, the windshield would be incapable of conforming to the radius of the curve. When that happened, the car wouldn’t be able to make the turn smoothly and the car behind could overturn. At that time, everyone on the train, both passengers and crew, would be in danger.

At least the thief was already regretting his actions. His fingers were trembling violently, and his face was green and stiff from the recent fall. He was so scared that he didn’t dare to move, and he clung to the ladder with his whole body, howling: “Save me–Save me–”

A hand pulled Wu Fengrong back into the car. Zhou Yanling said: “Open the door in the car opposite. I’ll go pull him back.”

Zhao Xintao opened the door while trembling in fear. Zhou Yanling had just forced Wu Fengrong behind his body. Pulling on the door’s handle with only one hand, he leaned half of his body out of the car. Blue Jacket was so close their arms could touch, but their bodies were at a 90° angle to one another.

The wind was more cutting than knives, and sweeping along with the wind was also rain and snow which caused his line of sight to be obstructed. Because of the wind, Zhou Yanling couldn’t see a thing; he could only hear the sound of clothes being beaten by the wind. It’s all make-believe when someone pulls themselves onto a train in a movie. Even before he opened his mouth, it was full of snow and wind. The wind was so painful, it felt like the skin on his face was being flayed off. It was all he could do just to hold on.

Zhou Yanling could only yell: “Grab onto me! Are you able to get your foot around, ma? Give it a try!”

“You’re in the way! I can’t see!” Blue Jacket yelled, his voice cracking. It was hard to see the door from his angle.

Zhou Yanling clenched his teeth and extended his leg to hook it around the top of first rung of the ladder. It took several tries before he was able to, with great difficulty, step on firmly and take his hand. Blue Jacket was desperately gasping for breath.

At that moment, the usual rhythm to which the train swayed, changed. Zhou Yanling grasped that this wasn’t good. The train was about to make the turn, the windshield was beginning to contract, and the back of the car was beginning to compress, rapidly pulling inward towards Blue Jacket! Fortunately, Blue Jacket couldn’t see what sort of thing was happening behind him, so he wasn’t scared enough to soil himself. But Zhou Yanling could clearly see it. There wasn’t enough time to carefully think it through. Bravely, he climbed out and put his palm on Blue Jacket’s shoulder, grabbed hold of the man’s sleeve, and threw him into the car.

The thief shouted in fear. As his body fell into the car, the windshield contracted completely, and the cars crashed into each other! “Bang–” A loud sound echoed down over their heads. It shook Zhou Yanling to the pit of his stomach. His heart stuttered. The force of this blow was not something that a regular person could bear. He lost his grip and half of his body fell outside!

Someone pulled on his waistband, pulling at his lower body and dragging him inside. He turned his head. Wu Fengrong’s face was ashen, panic shown in his eyes. It was as though he had seen a corpse. He helped him up then pulled him into an embrace. When Wu Fengrong’s lips met his, they were stiff and ice-cold, but the two couldn’t bear to part from each other.

The two were eager, and they wildly, ardently sucked on each other’s lips. Neither cared if others watched. The tip of Wu Fengrong’s nose brushed lightly against the bridge of Zhou Yanling’s nose. Their hot breathes mingled together. Zhou Yanling pressed him against the side of the door. Their lips parted a little, but Wu Fengrong was not willing to part and chased after him, wanting to stick to him like glue. Regretting it, Zhou Yanling pulled him back into his embrace and sucked on his tongue, wanting to bite, to consume. Wu Fengrong suddenly broke the kiss, panting violently, and reprimanded lowly: “You’re trying to frighten me, aren’t you!”

Zhou Yanling leaned the top of his head against his forehead, unable to calm his racing heart: “I don’t dare. I just also don’t want to stop.”

Wu Fengrong looked dazed. Zhou Yanling brushed his hand through the ends of his hair.

The author has something to say

Mr. Zhou took it upon himself to perform all the stunts in these scenes. Thanking Mr. Zhou for his hard work. Mr. Zhou, please eat that fleshy leg = 。 =

T/N:

trains have different types of seats, rather like planes have different classes. There’s hard seats which are some of the cheapest, soft seats and sleeper cars. And, of course, there’s standing room as well A winnowing basket :

added for clarity 顺杆爬蛇 : literally climbing the pole; using someone else to gain something added for clarity 拳脚 : either martial arts in general or 拳术, a specific set of martial arts added for clarity added for clarity This is what the articulated windshield looks like when making a turn