The seat next to us remained empty until just before departure. Then, a familiar figure, a backpack slung over their shoulder, walked up to us. I quickly moved my legs to let them in.
“Oh? Hand, you’re on this train too,” Bingbing whispered.
“Outsider, just call me Xiaobai,” Bai Qingcheng said coldly, sitting in her seat. She bent down, unzipped her backpack, and pulled out a Jianbing Guozi, eating it heartily.
I quietly offered her the coffee the guesthouse driver had given me.
Bai Qingcheng didn’t take it, but after she finished eating, she asked, “I heard you got a case of cigarettes from the Lin family?”
“Ah, yes, do you want one?” I quickly patted my pockets. Thankfully, I had two boxes on me. I had already asked the guesthouse staff to mail the rest back to Lvshun. There were quite a few smokers among the people and demons at the base.
“Have one,” Bai Qingcheng said, licking her lips. It seemed she was in a good mood today.
I took out a cigarette and offered it to her, whispering, “They don’t allow smoking in the carriage.”
“I’ll go to the restroom,” Bai Qingcheng said, taking the cigarette and lighter from my hand. She headed to the restroom, and I wondered if she would trigger the smoke alarm.
“She looks no different from an ordinary person,” Bingbing said, turning off her Qi Sensing technique and smiling at me.
“Didn’t she say she’d arrive in Jinling by noon? Why is she on the same train as us?” I asked.
“Maybe she has other business. Look,” Bingbing said, poking at Bai Qingcheng’s backpack left on the seat. The zipper was open, and I leaned over to peek inside. It contained some small toys, like those for infants. They were definitely not toys for Bai Qingcheng’s own use. Perhaps she was going to visit a friend’s child.
Not long after, Bai Qingcheng returned, carrying a faint scent of smoke. It was then I realized that smoking was indeed possible in high-speed train restrooms. But she was a special individual; a single word from her could halt the train or even reroute it. I certainly wouldn’t dare try it.
Bai Qingcheng didn’t chat with us, nor did she play with her phone. She sat in her seat, hugging her backpack to her chest like a pillow, and rested with her eyes closed the entire journey.
With her present, Bingbing and I dared not converse either, so we simply accompanied her in resting.
I was sleep-deprived from the previous night, and the train was very stable. The passengers in the carriage were generally well-behaved and quiet, so I quickly fell asleep again.
When Bingbing woke me to see the scenery, I opened my eyes and saw that we were already at the Yangtze River Bridge and about to arrive at the station.
The train might have stopped at a station in between, and some passengers had changed.
I turned to look at Bai Qingcheng. She was no longer in her seat.
“Where did she go?” I asked Bingbing. “Did she go for another smoke?”
“She went to the front carriage, don’t know what for…” Bingbing hadn’t finished speaking when a gentle female voice came from the high-speed train’s broadcast system.
“Attention passengers, we have received an urgent notice from the station ahead. Our train needs to make a temporary stop to wait for other trains to enter the station. We will be braking shortly, please prepare yourselves.”
After three announcements, the high-speed train began to brake, a rather abrupt stop that made many passengers lose their balance.
“I’ve never encountered anything like this before,” Bingbing said.
Once the train came to a complete stop, I understood what was happening.
My Qi Sensing technique showed that a strong purple aura, previously at the front of the train, had left the carriage and was moving away.
Immediately afterward, the train restarted and accelerated rapidly, possibly to make up for lost time.
Bai Qingcheng had gotten off on the left side. I moved to her seat and looked out the window. Soon, I saw her figure. She had jumped off the high train tracks and into a factory area below. This area seemed to be entirely comprised of lumber mills, with processed lumber everywhere. Not far off was the river, and by the river, a small village. Bai Qingcheng’s destination was likely there.
I extended my Qi Sensing technique to the small village and, wow, an unexpected discovery.
The village had about a hundred people, and among them were three individuals with purple auras. Furthermore, all three were peak masters with deep purple auras, and all were human.
It seemed that in addition to drawing manpower from me, Bai Qingcheng had also mobilized many experts from other channels to deal with the Miao King.
Was a mere Miao King worth such a grand mobilization?