Chapter 1

(Ps: This is the beginning of a new book, and various data is very important. Please add to your favorites and recommend it.)

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Rumbling.

A green K-class train was speeding across the land, its next stop being Chaohu. Outside, the ponds were quickly passing by the windows.

In Carriage 3, Lower Berth 18.

A rather ordinary-looking teenager was lying on his bed, reading a book. Opposite him was a soldier, probably returning home for a visit. Under his berth was a green package, and he sat upright on the bed.

The teenager's name was Zhang Yang. The soldier had boarded at Hefei station, sitting very straight. Zhang Yang secretly glanced at him and noticed that the soldier's dark green military uniform had two bars and two stars—Lieutenant Colonel!

The soldier was around thirty years old, with thick, straight eyebrows. People like him were usually straightforward. Seeing Zhang Yang secretly observing him, he smiled and asked, "Young man, are you going to school?"

Under Zhang Yang's berth was a suitcase containing a laptop, which his father had bought two years ago. It was a Dell N5010 with a Windows 7 system. His father usually only used it at home. Now that Zhang Yang had been admitted to university, his father let him take it, and it looked almost new.

"Yes, I just finished the college entrance exam and am going to start my first year."

"What major?"

"Journalism and Editing."

Zhang Yang waved the book in his hand; the title was "A History of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature."

They chatted for a while, and then Zhang Yang got up to get some water. In the middle of each berth's aisle, there was a stainless steel hot water bottle in an iron frame. He was at the rear of the carriage, and he had to walk past people sitting in the corridor. The train was never a quiet place, with women soothing their children, people playing cards, watching movies, and eating, plus the distinctive calls of the attendants.

"Sunflower seeds, drinks, fruits, sausages, chicken legs, eight-treasure porridge, please move your feet."

"Fruits, ten yuan per serving."

"Breakfast, steamed buns, buns, porridge, pickles, ten yuan per serving."

"..."

"Three of a kind!"

"I go all in!"

"Double king!"

"Oh, no, no."

...

It was only 7:30 in the morning, but the people who had slept on the train all night were already noisy. It was September, and the weather in the south was still quite hot.

When Zhang Yang passed Berth 21, a woman was holding a child, seemingly in a hurry because the child needed to use the restroom. The carriage was narrow, so Zhang Yang let the woman pass with her child.

When Zhang Yang returned with the water, the woman was still holding her child. When he got back to his berth, he noticed that the brown leather bag that had been on the woman's berth was now gone.

He looked around; Berth 22 was empty, and only Berth 21 had someone, a young man in his twenties. Zhang Yang didn't think much of it and sat down with the hot water bottle.

Not long after he sat down, a person walked past his berth. He glanced and saw it was the young man from Berth 21. The young man had a shoulder bag, and he was holding it tightly, apparently preparing to get off the train. The next stop was Chaohu station, and some people were getting up to gather their luggage. At that moment, a woman's voice echoed through the carriage.

"My bag? Who took my bag?"

This shout immediately startled everyone. There was a thief in the carriage! Everyone checked their luggage to see if anything was missing. Zhang Yang looked over and saw that the woman who had lost her bag was the one holding the child earlier.

Trains were always places where thieves operated, and losing bags or money was very common. Zhang Yang could only sigh. With so many people on the train, who knew which one was the thief?

At that moment, he noticed the young man from Berth 21, who was tightly holding his shoulder bag, with the same worried expression as the other passengers. Under the bag and against his chest, a brown strap was visible. Zhang Yang remembered clearly—it was the brown leather bag that the woman had lost!

The train was about to arrive at the station, and the attendants were preparing to open the doors. If he didn't act quickly, the thief would get off the train.

Zhang Yang's mind raced, and he lunged forward, grabbing the brown strap and pulling hard!

A brown leather bag appeared, the very one!

He pointed at the thief and shouted, "Catch the thief!"

The thief was about to get off the train but suddenly saw someone lunging at him, pulling the bag. He was startled!

The woman saw the brown leather bag in the thief's hand and exclaimed, "That's my bag!"

"Damn!"

The thief's face turned cold, and he tried to run, but Zhang Yang held onto the bag tightly. A soldier was nearby, and the thief immediately decided to run, letting go of the bag and sprinting away!

The surrounding passengers saw the thief trying to escape and stood up to stop him. The thief suddenly pulled out a green glass beer bottle from his shoulder bag and smashed it on the table. The broken edge was extremely sharp, and the people around him quickly moved out of the way.

The lieutenant colonel, who had been calm, suddenly stood up, grabbed the full hot water bottle that Zhang Yang had just filled, and threw it at the thief's head with the force of throwing a grenade.

"Bang!"

"Ah! It's hot, I... I'm burning to death!"

The hot water bottle hit the thief's head, perfectly striking him. The thief's vision went black, and he screamed as the hot water burned him. The other passengers, who were avoiding the sharp glass, were far enough away to avoid being burned.

Seeing the thief hit, the lieutenant colonel quickly chased after him, taking a few large steps to reach the thief's back and kicking him hard!

Even a mediocre soldier could handle a thief, let alone a lieutenant colonel?

This kick made the thief fall to the ground, groaning. The lieutenant colonel kicked the broken glass away from the thief's hand and twisted his arms behind his back, pinning him down.

"Good job!"

"Great!"

"The soldier is awesome!"

Seeing the thief subdued, the passengers cheered. The attendants and train staff also arrived, working with the station police to take the thief away. Zhang Yang handed the wallet to the woman with the child, and the surrounding passengers praised him.

"Great job, young man!"

"If it weren't for you, the thief would have escaped."

"Thank you, young man."

The woman held Zhang Yang's hand, thanking him repeatedly. The brown leather bag contained money for her husband's medical treatment at a major hospital, over ten thousand yuan. If Zhang Yang hadn't caught the thief, the consequences would have been dire.

In the crowd, a passenger wearing gold-rimmed glasses quietly approached Zhang Yang, unnoticed. The gold-rimmed glasses were the thief's accomplice. The thief had been caught, and he hadn't made a sound, planning to take revenge on Zhang Yang.

These thieves never operated alone on the train; they always worked in groups, like the character Lishu in the movie "A World Without Thieves."

Lishu was very angry, and the consequences were severe!

This thief also had a backpack, and he reached into it, pulling out another beer bottle. Finally, he squeezed behind Zhang Yang and smashed the green beer bottle on his head!

"Buzz!"

Zhang Yang's brain was hit hard, and his mind went blank. With the passengers' screams and the liquid flowing down his face, he didn't know if it was beer or blood, and he fell to the ground.

The lieutenant colonel was talking to the attendants outside the carriage and heard the commotion. He turned around and saw Zhang Yang fall.

The man with the gold-rimmed glasses was pushed to the ground by the angry passengers and was taken away by the arriving police and attendants. The lieutenant colonel examined Zhang Yang's injuries; the beer bottle had hit the top of his skull, cutting his scalp, and the area was already swollen and bruised.

After emergency treatment, the bleeding had stopped, but Zhang Yang was still unconscious. The surrounding passengers recounted the events, and the train made an unscheduled stop for twenty minutes. The theft and assault case involved a lieutenant colonel, and the station leadership and police quickly arrived to investigate.

The two thieves were handcuffed and taken away in a police car. The station leader and the lieutenant colonel talked for a while. After the doctor examined Zhang Yang, it was determined that he was unconscious due to the impact but was not seriously injured. He would likely experience temporary dizziness for a while and should rest and avoid strenuous activities.

The lieutenant colonel looked at the documents in his hand, including a green college admission letter. The station had already implemented real-name ticketing, so Zhang Yang's information was available.

"Zhang Yang, a freshman in the Journalism Department at H University."

"Click!"

At the moment Zhang Yang's consciousness faded, a huge lightning bolt flashed across the sky.

In his ears, a mechanical voice faintly echoed.

"Conditions met, Super Movie System, activated..."

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