Chapter 167: Sleepwalking
With the train conductor’s departure, the barbecue came to a complete end.
He Jie dragged the unconscious Qu Hang back to his own carriage, and Professor Ma and the others also dispersed.
Lin Xi stepped barefoot on the carpet in the dining car’s aisle, her silver hair shimmering with fine fragments of light under the night lights, clutching a fluffy down pillow tightly in her arms, the pillowcase still carrying the faint pine scent of the train’s disinfectant.
Yu Yue was bending over to organize the seasoning jars in the dining cabinet, her waistline outlining a gentle curve.
Suddenly sensing her hem being gently tugged, she turned back and met a pair of light gray eyes. Lin Xi tilted her face up, the tips of her ears peeking through her hair strands glowing pink, like a young kitten offering a gift with treasure.
“Here, for you.” Lin Xi stuffed the pillow into her arms, the crumpled pillow surface still retaining dents warmed by body heat.
Her fingertips quietly hooked Yu Yue’s apron ties, her eyelashes casting uneasy shadows under her eyes. “You said… bedtime story.”
Yu Yue chuckled helplessly as she received the pillow.
Lin Xi was just like little Xiao Jing when she was young, but Xiao Jing had long stopped depending on her at that age.
She really liked this little girl; she was obedient and endearing.
But…
Yu Yue instinctively glanced toward Carriage 1, feeling some hesitation in her heart.
“Not tonight?”
Lin Xi asked with disappointment.
Thinking of how the girl could only live for four more years, Yu Yue felt heartbroken. She touched her smooth silver hair and said softly, “Wait until Aunt Yu is done with work, then I’ll come tell you a story, okay?”
The girl turned her head and called out faintly, “Brother.”
Lin Jin, who was packing up the grill, trotted over. “What’s up, little Xi?”
“I want to sleep with Aunt Yu.”
“Ah?”
Lin Jin looked at Yu Yue somewhat awkwardly.
“Aunt Yu agreed, but she has a lot of work to do…”
“Ah, no problem. You go rest; I’ll clean up the dining car.”
Lin Jin patted his chest and readily agreed.
Yu Yue felt something was off, but with the words already spoken, she could only wipe her hands and say apologetically, “Sorry to trouble you.”
“I’m the one troubling you.”
Lin Jin scratched his head and laughed heartily.
Yu Yue took the girl’s hand and went to her room. Seeing it pitch black inside, she knew Xiao Jing must have been working overnight again, and her heart quietly relaxed.
She felt a strange sense of guilt in her heart, like she had secretly brought home another daughter behind her own daughter’s back.
Lin Xi walked in and, before she could say anything, accurately found her bed.
“Aunt Yu’s bed is so soft.”
Lin Xi patted the pillow onto her spacious bed, lifted the quilt, and curled into the covers first, leaving only half her face exposed.
The vibration of the train rolling over the railway track came through. She scooted toward the wall, leaving just enough space, as if carefully measured, for a gentle older sister to lie down.
Yu Yue tidied up simply, changed into pajamas, and then lay down.
Whispers of one big and one small voice came from under the quilt.
……
The acid rain outside the train had stopped at some point.
Listening to Lin Xi’s breathing gradually become even and long, Yu Yue gently tucked in the quilt corner.
Moonlight leaked in through the gaps in the car window, plating a layer of hazy frost on the girl’s silver hair. Her fingertips brushed over Lin Xi’s slightly furrowed brow, and that bit of unease melted away like snow.
The bedside electronic clock ticked to 01:47, and Yu Yue silently slipped out of the quilt.
Looking at the girl on the bed, Yu Yue hesitated for a moment, then finally bundled up her jacket and headed toward the carriage connection.
The train swayed and rocked, as if passing through a bend with a very large arc.
Just as she disappeared behind the door of Carriage 1.
The girl on the bed suddenly opened her eyes, her gaze dazed, and she followed in Yu Yue’s direction.
……
Su Huan had originally planned to talk about the plan, but seeing everyone’s good spirits, he didn’t say much and just gave Liang Kuan some instructions on the next route.
Steel Council Headquarters was in the bottom-left corner of Qingchuan Province, near the southwest.
After leaving the industrial zone, the train headed north all the way.
Wangjiang Peak in Guangren City was directly north of Qingchuan, in the upper-middle part of the entire province.
However, Su Huan didn’t plan to go straight there.
In central Qingchuan Province, many survivors and large companies later established settlements and cities. It should now just be a survivor camp and a small exchange black market.
The train’s upcoming modifications were still short on many materials, so he planned to check there first.
So they needed to veer east first.
Pass through the black market, then head north to Wangjiang Peak.
With his thoughts sorted, under the influence of mild alcohol, the train conductor gradually felt sleepy.
In a half-dreaming, half-awake state, he suddenly felt the mattress sink silently.
A warm, soft body carrying a pine scent suddenly squeezed into his arm bend, and he reflexively wanted to embrace it.
“Hm?”
His turning motion suddenly froze.
The mattress sank again!
Su Huan’s groggy brain blanked for a moment.
Too much information; it short-circuited a bit.
A slightly cool body was drilling in from the foot of the quilt.
Long hair swept over his calf, carrying the dampness of night dew, and the soft, tender little body accurately curled into his other arm bend.
Yu Jing?
Yu Yue?!
Su Huan’s narrow eyes widened to the extreme, filled with stunned bewilderment.
He instinctively felt the one who came in from the left.
The slender waistline under the cotton pajamas felt very familiar; the skin under his palm was like melted butter, rising and falling between his fingers with her breathing.
Yu Yue sleepily nuzzled into his shoulder hollow, the shampoo scent from her hair fresh and pleasant. She unconsciously grabbed the fabric at Su Huan’s chest, her knee pressing on his thigh. Because she didn’t use her ability around him, she completely didn’t notice there was another person in the quilt.
But Su Huan was fully awake now.
No problem on the left.
Definitely Yu Yue.
Then what about the right?!
He instinctively explored… hiss!
No!
Definitely not Yu Jing—not to mention she had no reason to appear in his bed at the same time as Yu Yue.
He knew her well; Yu Jing was the lean and toned type, with an even slimmer and longer figure.
This skinny, slippery tender feel…
Could it be the little bean sprout?!
Amid the vibration of the train passing over the switch, Su Huan clearly felt two starkly different body temperatures.
Glancing down by the faint moonlight, a flash of silver completely stunned him.
The young girl slept tranquilly and peacefully like a cat with its claws retracted.
The thin straps of her slip nightgown had slid off her slender shoulders, her skin gleaming with a pearl sheen under the moonlight, darkening his gaze.
What was this girl here for?
Just because he saved her life, so she was offering herself?
Nonsense.
As if this were some storybook.
Su Huan frowned; it seemed something had happened on the train that he didn’t know about.
This feeling of losing absolute control made him very uncomfortable.
Yu Yue beside him felt today’s train conductor was unusually well-behaved, puzzled in her heart. She gently stroked his brow with faint comfort.
Seeing he made no move, drowsiness surged, her eyelids drooping, and finally unable to hold on, she fell into deep sleep.
