Chapter 135

Usually, when faced with such situations, most people choose to avoid the conflict. They either stay silent and wait for their fate or find an excuse to step away for a moment. I, however, wanted to try to scare the thugs off first.

Listening as the blades were slowly drawn from their sheaths, I could wait no longer. I slammed my hand on the table and shouted at Lu Yao, "Oh my, Lu Yao, I smell scrambled eggs! Who’s eating that? I’m allergic!"

The slam did startle the thugs. They paused, their blades halfway out of the sheaths, and glared at me with their thick brows and wide eyes. I immediately lowered my head and began apologizing, hoping to make them put their weapons away and refrain from doing something they would regret.

"Senior Xiaodong, what are you talking about? I only smell rotten eggs!"

As soon as Lu Yao finished speaking, I heard the other passengers discussing my outburst, and some women even pointed at me, calling me a lunatic. I was so angry I could have bitten her; if it hadn't been for my shout, at least a few people in this carriage would have been injured by now.

Even though my stunt had startled them, it was only temporary. Before I knew it, the thugs had fully unsheathed their knives and drawn their handguns. Just then, a patrol officer happened to be walking through carriage thirty-two.

"Bang!"

"Th-th-th-th-th-this is a robbery!"

The officer slumped into a pool of blood. The two men with the thick brows stood up from their seats, pouting. Moments later, fifteen or sixteen more thugs armed with guns and knives flooded into the carriage.

The ringleader, who had gold teeth and was smoking a designer cigar that had stained his gold teeth black, amused me. He shouted a classic robbery line that reminded me of Fan Wei’s performance in a movie, and I almost laughed out loud.

The entire carriage erupted in screams. Because shots had been fired and someone had been killed, the train’s alarm sounded, originating from carriage thirty-two. Patrol officers rushed in with guns drawn, but the dozen or so thugs quickly took control, using the body of the fallen officer as a barricade in the aisle.

Several thugs with submachine guns hid behind the dead officer, aiming their weapons at the incoming police and demanding millions in cash within a short timeframe, or else they would slaughter everyone in the carriage. Meanwhile, the thugs already in the carriage began looting the passengers.

The leader, puffing on his cigar and waving his pistol, swayed as he shouted, "IP, IC, IQ cards—tell me your passwords!" He then signaled his men to begin the plunder.

Honestly, I don't know what these low-level thugs were thinking, trying to rob a train. With modern technology, the days when you could pull off a heist without triggering alarms are long gone. They were likely on the police's radar the moment they started. In my view, these idiots had watched too many heist movies and, in a moment of heat, decided to stage a real-life version, becoming the first train robbery case of the twenty-first century.

I tugged at the terrified Lu Yao, signaling her to switch seats with me so she could sit on the inside, preventing the thugs from taking any unwanted interest in such a pure, sweet girl.

"Bang!"

"Argh! My leg!"

"You piece of trash! The U.S. even handed over our Diaoyu Islands to Japan, and you still dare to play with an iPhone in front of me? Don't you want to live? Don't you know I'm a patriot?"

Another gunshot rang out. A man fell, clutching his leg, curling up in pain beneath the seats. The gold-toothed leader blew the smoke from his pistol and kicked the wounded man in the stomach.

Most of the valuables in the carriage had been looted. Fortunately, I had checked most of my luggage, including the bank card with millions that my uncle had given me, sparing me from a massive financial loss. Still, I couldn't help but find it hilarious that this robber was so "patriotic"—who knew a patriot would turn to robbery?

"Hey, this little chick looks good. Come keep me company!"

A burly man reached out to grab a girl sitting behind me. Though she was pretty, she didn't hold a candle to Lu Yao. The girl resisted fiercely, but she was dragged out and thrown to the ground as the thug began to tear at her clothes. Seeing this, I instinctively shielded Lu Yao, doing my best to keep her out of sight.

"Hey, boss, there are a few more beauties here! Keep them for yourself!"

The men dragged several more girls into the aisle, forcing them to kneel before the man with the gold teeth. Because I was shielding her, Lu Yao went unnoticed, though the two bearded men who had been sitting in front of me glanced our way a few times.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

"Listen, thugs inside! The police can meet your demands, but if you go any further, we will do whatever it takes to take you down one by one!"

The officers in carriages thirty-one and thirty-three had finally spoken, and they had shot and killed the man who was assaulting the girl in the aisle. I began to wonder if there was a master marksman among the police. Both doors of carriage thirty-two were blocked, leaving only a hole the size of a soybean. The difficulty of hitting a target through that gap from the outside—and killing them in one shot—was immense, yet the police had done it.

I saw the disbelief on the leader’s face; his subordinates were cowering behind the seats. The gold-toothed man was so shocked that his cigar fell from his mouth. He was the only one left standing in the aisle, clutching his silver pistol, his eyes locked on the tiny, soybean-sized bullet hole in the steel door.

But a leader is a leader for a reason; he wouldn't have regained his composure so quickly if he weren't experienced. He fired three shots into the ceiling to embolden himself and his brothers.

Finally, he shouted to the outside, "Damn you, you filthy cops! You killed one of my brothers! Do you believe we’ll slaughter everyone in this carriage?"

As he spoke, he grabbed a woman, pressed his pistol to her forehead, kicked aside the barricade, and exposed himself to the police. He then signaled his men to rip open their jackets, revealing bundles of TNT strapped to their chests. It seemed the money was a ruse; a terrorist attack was the real goal.

These were terrorists acting under orders. Their puppet masters would stop at nothing to sow fear in the hearts of the people—truly heinous individuals. If this kept up, and one of these morons had an accidental discharge, the entire trainload of people would be heading to the afterlife.

The King of Hell would have a fresh batch of unemployed ghosts on his hands. Jobs are hard to find in the world of the living, and even harder in the underworld; they’d probably end up washing dishes or mopping floors at Meng Po’s teahouse, forced to drink her foot-soak water in their spare time.