Chapter 16 Long-Distance Train

  I'm in the hospital watching my little sister, I don't know when she'll wake up from her coma. Zhao Yuer also can't help but cry seeing me so sad, Zhao Yuer bought a lot of delicious food for Erniang. We stayed at San Shu's house for another night, and San Shu and San Niang asked about my studies too, they misunderstood us and thought we were a couple, it took a long time to explain that we're just good friends. After staying at San Shu's house for another day, Zhao Yuer and I left Longquan Town.

  "Nie Yu, don't be sad. Look at Little Sister's appearance, it's still the same as before, no change. As long as we find the Ice Jade Bangle, there is a possibility to lift her curse." Zhao Yun'er kept comforting me while sitting on the long-distance bus.

  "It's okay, I'm much better now. It's just that when I saw my little sister and second aunt earlier, I thought of my uncle again. They raised me since I didn't have biological parents, but now...". The gloomy mood still lingered on, Zhao Yuner looked at me and shook her head too, she knew our family matters weren't so simple to let go of easily.

  Two hours of driving, I stared at the scenery outside the window, my heart's depression couldn't stop the fast passage of time. In a blink of an eye, we arrived at the school gate. Wu Shi Rong was already there waiting for us at the entrance. We had a simple meal at a small restaurant near the school gate and then took a taxi to the train station. There were many people at the train station entrance, all students returning home for the holidays. We also squeezed in with our big bags and small bags. Luckily, we three had seats next to each other.

  The three of us had berths in the twelfth car, which was the last one. The middle seat was found and after putting away our luggage, we sat down. It was a four-person berth, with Zhao Yuner and I on one side and Wu Shirong on the other.

  "Excuse me, please make way!" At this time, a girl squeezed over from the crowd in the opposite carriage, wearing glasses thicker than chocolate sandwich cookies. She was over 1.6 meters tall, with shoulder-length hair, but wore a large silver locket around her neck.

  "Hello, excuse me, is this seat empty? My seat number seems to be here!" The girl put her luggage on the luggage rack and sat down next to Wu Shi Rong.

  I looked at the girl opposite me, wondering where I had seen her before. She had a head of shiny black hair that reached almost to her waist, a slender figure in a denim short-sleeved shirt, with a white camisole underneath, and a silver-white belt on her jeans. Her nose was high-bridged, her eyebrows were thick and fine, and under them were a pair of big, shining eyes.

  "Hey, what a coincidence! Aren't you Zhao Lili from the computer company? Are you also taking this bus?" I said, and Wu Shirong, who was playing with his computer, hastily looked up.

  "Ah, so it's the two of you, no, three, and now there's another beauty. Where are you all headed? Judging from your accents, are you locals going on an out-of-town trip?" She put away her things and sat down in a chair. Wu Shi Rong tilted his neck and deliberately leaned in closer to her side.

  "Yes, the three of us are going to Jiangxi's Miao Village for tourism. The scenery there is very good and we've heard that everyone there can catch cicadas with their bare hands, so we're curious and want to go see." Her big eyes stared at me.

  "Miao Village? No way, my family is from Wencheng, I'm from Miao Village, but after high school graduation, I was assigned to Haicheng University's archaeology department. What a coincidence! Let me be your free tour guide!" Zhao Lili got so excited that she almost jumped up, and quickly took out many fruits from her backpack for us to eat.

  "Is your hometown Wencheng's? Is that the Miao village?" I also found it hard to believe, it was just too coincidental.

  "That's right, my family has been there for generations. I also know about the Gu you're talking about, but I've never raised one. Gu is using poisonous insects to curse others, or wooden puppets and such, it seems like some kind of evil magic. You're not going to use it to harm people, are you?" Her big eyes were getting wider and wider.

  "We're not going to harm others, we're going to save people... my little sister at home..." I told her our purpose, based on my intuition she's not a bad person, and since we're from the same school, I didn't have any guard against her.

  "Oh? Then you're really a good brother, if I were your little sister I would be very happy. Unfortunately, I'm the only one in my family. By the way, I'm one year older than you guys, so you should call me senior..." The three of us got along really well with Zhao Lili and before we knew it, we had chatted for an entire afternoon.

  The sky gradually darkened, and my stomach unknowingly became hungry. Wu Shi Rong wanted to invite us to the dining car for dinner. This guy usually only orders a dish with meat once a week in the school cafeteria, but today he was generous when he saw the beautiful woman arrive. After finishing dinner, we returned to our seats and continued chatting.

  "Zhao Lili, do you have a boyfriend?" Wu Shirong smiled and looked at Zhao Lili, who seemed to feel a chill and hurriedly wrapped her arms around her own shoulders.

  "This is none of your business, I won't tell you, hope we can talk about something constructive." Zhao Lili looked at me and Zhao Yuer with a serious expression.

  "Are you two in a romantic relationship?" As soon as she asked, Zhao Yu'er was slightly embarrassed by Zhao Lili's question and her cheeks turned red.

  "We are good friends, good brothers!" I hastily explained, but Zhao Yuer looked at me as if I didn't seem happy.

  As we chatted, we both got sleepy. The small cart selling snacks was pushed back and forth, occasionally with a few train staff and police officers patrolling back and forth. At this time, I felt that something was not right. More than ten minutes ago, the lights in the carriage were still bright, how did they suddenly dim down now? And it's so quiet. It's impossible, this is not a dormitory, how can there be no sound from so many people on the train all of a sudden? I quickly got up to take a look, and Zhao Lili also got up.

  "Zhao Lili, don't you think it's strange here? Why is the carriage suddenly so quiet?" I looked at Zhao Lili, she seemed to be thinking about something, then got down from the berth and put on her shoes.

  "Let's go take a look, I also find it strange that so many people would fall asleep at the same time, and the train staff are also sleeping motionless." Zhao Lili looked at me curiously as we walked into another carriage.

  I and Zhao Lili carefully walked towards the front carriage, there was no light inside the carriage, everyone was sleeping soundly. Suddenly, it seemed like there were two or three people's shadows in front, carrying big bags on their backs, they didn't sleep but stretched out their hands to touch those who were asleep, touched wallets and mobile phones then put them into their own big bags behind them.

  "Thief! Zhao Lili, go find the conductor quickly! They're stealing passengers' belongings!" I said to Zhao Lili and gave her a push.

  "This is really a thief, but they are not ordinary thieves. You see that everyone else is asleep, but they are awake, and they must have cast a spell on the people here!" Zhao Lili looked at me very affirmatively.

  "Did you get possessed? Then why didn't anything happen to me and you? How do you know it's definitely possession, how can you be sure it's not some kind of hallucinogenic drug?" I looked at Zhao Lili with growing suspicion.

  "In our Miao village, there's a kind of Gu insect also called the Sleepy Gu. If you throw its powder into the air, anyone who comes into contact with it will fall asleep, and then they can do bad things. This is just a very basic Gu technique - after studying witchcraft for a few years, you can master it." Zhao Lili was hiding behind me, peeking out to take a look. At this time, those black-clad men were already approaching us quickly, so I and Zhao Lili hastily hid under the bed in the cabin.

  "What do we do now? Are we just going to stand by and let them bully us here? If they come to rummage through our things, we can't even fight back!" I'm getting a bit anxious, exorcising ghosts is one thing, but these are big, live people, my talismans don't work on living people at all.

  "It's okay, I have a way. You just stand still." Zhao Lili said, taking down a round iron ball from the upper berth, which seemed to be full of hollow flower patterns.

  At this time, a thief in black clothes seemed to have heard our conversation and walked towards us with his neck twisted, pulling out a long dagger. I saw the dagger and quickly hid under the bed again. At this time, Zhao Lili stood up, opened the iron ball, lit the things inside with a lighter, covered it with a lid and shook it, and a burst of green smoke came out of the iron ball.

  "Who's there? Who is it? Come out, or I won't be polite!" The black-clad thief seemed to have heard the sound of me moving back and forth, and became even more frantic. He raised his knife, pushed open the door of our carriage, bent down, and glared around with big eyes. His head was covered in a black sock, only revealing his eyes and nose.

  "It's me, take a look at what this is?" As she spoke, Zhao Lili flashed out from the doorway and blew forcefully on the iron ball. The green smoke on top of it swirled out and floated towards the thief. The thief was extremely clever and quickly covered his nose with his hand. At this time, a black shadow jumped down from the upper bunk and hugged the thief. The black shadow wrapped its arms around the thief's waist and used force to scratch the thief's armpits. The thief couldn't withstand the sudden intense itchiness and opened his mouth to take a breath.

  "Still not going down!" Along with Zhao Lili's voice, the big guy wearing a hood sat on the ground motionless. I took a look at the black shadow and it was Wu Shirong.

  "Wu Shi Rong, you're not sleeping either! Thanks a lot earlier, you're really clever!" I gave him a thumbs up, and I really admired him.

  "I was just sleeping, but I was woken up by your voices. I heard everything you said. Just as I was about to get up and help you, I jumped up. Don't thank me, Zhao Lili is the best! Let's hurry to that carriage and subdue them all!" Wu Shirong puffed out his chest and glanced at Zhao Lili, who couldn't help but burst out laughing at his pretentious expression.

  Two thieves lost their companions and slowly came towards us. I, Zhao Lili, and Wu Shirong hid at the door. When the two thieves approached, Zhao Lili repeated her old trick, and puffs of smoke shot up to their faces. Thud! Thud! Two muffled sounds, and they both fell down... Then we found some ropes and tied them up tightly before returning to our own beds...

  "Zhao Lili, you deceitful person! You said earlier that you had never been possessed by a spirit, but it turns out you're actually an expert at being possessed!" I looked at her in confusion, and now it was already midnight. Just before, the police had woken up and taken away the three thieves.

  "Today, this Gu is just the right thing to counteract the Somnambulism Gu. I brought it with me when I went out to protect myself, but I didn't tell you because I was afraid of unnecessary trouble. If others heard about it, they might be unfavorable to us..." Zhao Lili hastily explained to us.