The salesman immediately froze when I yanked the bag of berries out of his hand and realized that he had been too direct and facetious. He stowed away his phone and quickly withdrew away with Big Sister enjoying her berries, simpering at herself.
He quickly took out more bags of berries from his basket and began hawking his goods to other passengers as if the earlier episode with Big Sister was only a dream. But no one else would be foolish enough to let such a fat chance to get away! The rest of the other passengers mobbed the salesman with shouts and screams, "We are also your neighbors too! Give us each one free bag! We'll give you our Wechat IDs!" This train was coming from the direction of North-eastern China and most of the passengers boarded the train from the first stop. Everything turned into a disaster for the salesman. Never did he realize that his flippant attempt to get Big Sister's contact would turn into a catastrophe!
Big Sister flashed a
Just as soon as Zhang Zhigui finished, I spied Lu Bugong's smile fading as he extracted a little wooden box from his pocket. "What do you mean, Zhigui?" I asked, ignoring that while trying to look cordial. "I have scoured through many ancient manuscripts and documents. This is not the only era in which the Shiyan Blade has reappeared. Even during the times of the Warring States, the Northern and Southern dynasties of Wei and Jin, and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the Shiyan Blade has continually reentered the fold to cause havoc across the land. And each ripple that it caused mostly involved the dragon leys; ripples caused by the sons of Yan Di of the South wielding the Shiyan Blade!" The smile had all but vanished off his face when he reached this point and the look he cast at me was fierce and penetrating. Suddenly, the air screamed with a wood projectile wheezing right past my nose and drilled deep into the wooden pillar beside me.
Our party of five stepped into the restaurant, purportedly famous for its broths of meat and innards. Chongxi pulled up another chair from an adjacent table and plopped down on it, calling loudly, "A menu please, waiter!"Never one to be shy to show his vehemence whenever it comes to his gourmet cravings, Chongxi could be rather insistent or impassioned, if not rabid. Big Sister and Edelweiss could only gawk at his antics with amusement. As for Lin Feng and I, we have long grown accustomed to his antics that we have become numb to his lack of table manners. We nonchalantly set alight a pair of cigarettes as we watched Chongxi recited a list of orders to the waiter.Before long, the five of us were ripping off barbecued meat off our donkey burgers with bowls of mule offal brew. Chongxi gnashed his teeth as he bit and tore at his roasted bread-wrapped mule meat and slurping down his soup with obtuse boorishness, utterly oblivious of the vulgar noises he was c
The stranger looked nowhere near impressive; more like any Tom, Dick, or Harry on the streets. By the stubbles and dashes of white in his hair and the wrinkles crayoning his face, he looked over forty years old. A man in his late-middle age, looking hardly unusual nor remarkable. But it intrigued me that he was here in a restaurant like this.But it was odd. Why was I wondering about his looks when I should be feeling bothered about him intruding on our dinner? He sat at our table, looking as if he was one of us and all of us had our eyes trained upon him.Feeling slightly perturbed, I was the first to ask, “Urm… Dear sir? What are you doing…" The stranger smiled at me. "You lot are not common people." The ends of his lips twitched when he finished. He might be trying to look friendly, although "friendly" would be hardly the word that came to mind when I laid eyes on him. An air of sophistry hung about the stranger and his insincere smile and I could only s
I rubbed the back of my head and shrugged. “You guys still remember what the man was just saying, do you?" Bewildered looks came at me from around the table. "Well, let's first forget about what he read about me. But what he said itself was wrong."Chongxi and Lin Feng had obviously not paid careful heed to what the stranger was saying. They had forgotten almost everything that the charlatan had said. After all, who would put much stock in the piffle sprouted by a common swindler? Edelweiss and Big Sister had been listening intently to him. But I could hardly rely on them to remember every single word the hustler was saying since they were amateurs in this line of business. But Big Sister somehow knew what I was talking about. "Are you referring to the part where he said that you have the air of rulers?" she asked, "That the world could be yours if you so wish?"I nodded at her and everyone looked positively shocked when they finally understood what it mean
I frowned, my forehead creasing deeply. "When is this body found? Have you ascertained the time of death?" I asked the police officer. I would have peppered him with a flurry of more questions when I suddenly realized that I had not even known his name. Scratching my nose abashedly, I asked him, "Urm… I'm afraid I still don't know your name, officer?"The policeman looked nowhere near as perturbed by my inadvertent lack of manners. "The victim was found in this condition somewhere at around 17:30, which is almost an hour ago. Forensics shows that the time of death is somewhere between 3 to 3:30 pm. That means this corpse has been hanging up there for almost two hours before it was discovered. But it's not surprising, considering that this scene is quite a ways from the main road and it lies away from the scanning range of our real-time cameras. Ah, yes. My name is Wang Qingwen, a Captain of the Criminal Investigations Division of the Yi County Police Force. I have once
"Get what?" Edelweiss uttered incredulously. "Edelweiss still doesn't understand what is going on." Chongxi observed wryly. "Come on," Lin Feng quipped, "Just tell us!"Big Sister had just finished placing our order. Putting down the menu, she joined into the conversation. "I don't know what happened before. You mentioned just now that Zhang Zhigui is fighting against a cult. An organization. And that organization also covets Little Brother's Shiyan Blade. Don't you find it odd that of all times, Zhang Zhigui turned against us now and has taken the Blade?"A waitress came back for the menu and Big Sister handed it to her. With a look as if she was staring at a bunch of loony psychos who had just escaped an asylum, the waitress took the menu, spun, and left.Lin Feng smacked the back of his own head in dawning comprehension. "Oh, my God! I didn't think of that! So that means somebody from the Order of Pain is instigating Zhang Zhigui to take Shi
Adorned in a jet-colored down jacket that came with a hood that fully concealed the person's appearance, I could only guess that this stranger was a woman, although I still knew nothing about her intentions for coming close.Our party of five separated in the middle to allow her to pass, thinking that she might be headed somewhere else and we were only in her way. But instead of walking past through the gap we had opened up for her, she followed me and stopped right in front of me, standing as still as a tree.There was no way I could know what she wanted. But any other people would have been frightened by now by this woman's brusque behavior. Ordinary people would already be dreading if a ghost or a demon was hidden under the hood, but I was sure I would deliver a hard blow with my fists.The hood retracted to reveal a face. Not pale as Death like a ghost would have worn, but a black-colored face mask that completely cloaked the woman's face,
Lin Feng strode to a corner where he found his dart and returned it to its pouch before he rejoined us. Edelweiss hurried back to me, anxious to check on my condition.Big Sister patted on her shoulder gently and gestured for her to remain calm. "I've seen him just now. The wound is deep but his organs are fine. He'll be okay." Edelweiss wiped away her tears, nodding, and she held my hand, still choking between her sobs. "I'm sorry, Shiyan..." I forced a weak smile and pinched her cheek softly. "What is there to be sorry about. I'm fine." "If only I knew what she was going to do, I'd never let her hurt you! Aunt Ulan had instructed me to take good care of you. Yet I..."Well, this is how a strong woman thinks, I mused amid the pain, She would never whine and moan like some teensy little girl and ask how am I. Instead, she only wants to protect me from harm. "Shiyan," Lin Feng suggested and said, "Shouldn't we notify the hotel management? They have surveilla