Chapter 168: It Landed On Me
A tree as thick as a water bucket slowly pulled out its roots, then stealthily stepped onto the railway track. Seeing no one paying attention to it, its movements became even more brazen, with dense leaves shaking and rustling.
Wasting a whole night, it finally moved itself from a low pothole to the highest place in the vicinity.
Between the two railway tracks propped up by gravel.
It didn’t know why those humans spent time piling up these useless gravel instead of enjoying the sunshine and rain, but its slow thinking couldn’t figure out these things either. It only knew that acid rain wouldn’t accumulate under its feet.
Suddenly, a regular vibration came from the distance.
This feeling was very familiar.
The vibration grew closer and closer.
The two railway tracks vibrated so much that its roots went numb and couldn’t properly insert into the gravel.
But it finally realized what this was.
“Bang——”
The armored train traveling at low speed snapped the mutated tree in half with its ramming horn, and the wheels crushed over it, producing a crunching sound.
The tough branches were like being thrown into a juicer, dyeing the undercarriage a patch of blood red.
The lingering mist dissipated, and dawn broke on the horizon.
Dawn passed through the steel blinds and fell into carriage number 1.
On the train conductor’s luxurious big bed was a somewhat indistinct human outline.
Because the quilt was too fluffy and soft, only a large bulge could be seen.
Golden light sprinkled a layer of faint gold dust on her eyelashes, trembling slightly with the train’s sway. Yu Yue slowly opened her eyes.
Smelling the strong masculine scent at the tip of her nose, her pretty face flushed slightly.
She suddenly remembered the little girl still on her bed and quickly crawled out from under the quilt, hurriedly running toward the doorway.
“Did you forget something?”
A low, husky, magnetic voice sounded behind her, with a nasal tone.
“Just leave it here for now.”
Leaving those words, Yu Yue, who hadn’t even put on her shoes, had already quickly run out of the carriage.
‘Is this something you can just leave?’
Su Huan felt the wriggling tender body on his right arm, his narrow eyes filled with contemplation.
After struggling for a while, the young girl with a head of brilliant silver long hair crawled out from under the quilt. Her two hands pressed against Su Huan’s chest, her light gray eyes gradually focusing as she quietly sized up the man beneath her.
Her voice carried a hint of confusion, “Does Brother Su like Aunt Yu’s scent too?”
Su Huan narrowed his eyes and said nothing.
He controlled various thoughts flashing rapidly in his mind while observing the young girl’s expression.
‘Tofu tonight’
‘Arrange a seat for Lin Jin under the railway track’
‘Plain and ordinary’
‘A bit skinny’
Seeing the girl still wearing a confused expression, Su Huan emphasized one phrase.
‘Little bean sprout’
Visibly, a trace of annoyance appeared on the girl’s face.
Su Huan’s lips curved slightly, then he continued mumbling in his mind.
‘Although there’s a bit less meat, it’s still good for picking teeth.’
Suddenly, panic appeared on Lin Xi’s face, and she wanted to crawl out from under the quilt.
But her slender waist was like locked by an iron hoop, unable to move.
Su Huan teased, “Come when you want, leave when you want, treating my place like a hotel?”
Lin Xi gave up struggling and lay back down. A blush appeared on her fair little face, “But Brother Su didn’t push me away either.”
Pinching her tensed jaw, Su Huan wore a faint teasing smile, “What can you hear now?”
“Brother Su is a dangerous bad guy.”
Su Huan’s eyebrow arched, revealing a hint of danger.
The young girl pouted and quickly said, “I can’t hear it anymore…”
Su Huan pondered, “So, you can only hear the strongest surface thoughts of others?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Lin Xi hummed perfunctorily.
“You can’t hear those messy thoughts buried under strong emotions?”
“Uh…”
“If someone holds vigilance in their heart and doesn’t deliberately amplify certain thoughts, you can’t hear them either, right?”
“Don’t ask, don’t ask…”
Lin Xi wrinkled her delicate little nose and pleaded painfully.
Su Huan was unmoved, forcing her to meet his gaze. He’d only heard of mind reading before; in two lifetimes combined, this was the first time encountering it. How could he not figure it out?
“Is the success rate higher when reading ordinary people? What about evolvers?”
The young girl stopped pretending, wearing an expression of defeat.
“Having my cards read first thing in the morning is really unpleasant.”
Su Huan sneered, “Heh, little thing, you have quite the contrast.”
Lin Xi tossed her beautiful silver hair and said indifferently, “Just because of silver hair, you think I’m some anime naive girl? The train conductor isn’t that superficial, right? This is just from the experiment mutation.”
“I always thought sleepwalking was anime-exclusive.”
Lin Xi’s body stiffened, and she said unnaturally, “When asleep, I unconsciously seek out what I need.”
Su Huan’s gaze sharpened. The young girl before him was very attractive to him, though he couldn’t pinpoint why. But the feeling wasn’t as exaggerated as hers, and he could control it.
He certainly wouldn’t wander blindly at night.
“What about when awake?”
Lin Xi chose her words carefully to describe the sensation when suddenly faint footsteps came from outside the door.
The train conductor never locked the door.
So the footsteps came directly to the bedside.
“Su Huan, the little girl in my room…”
Yu Yue looked at the two overlapping on the bed, her almond eyes dazed as she stood frozen in place.
Su Huan’s eyelid twitched lightly, “She ended up here.”
……
When the train turned east past the last mountain pass, Lin Jin was standing at the front of the train, rinsing the rotten minced meat from the ramming horn with a water cannon.
The marks left by acid rain corrosion shimmered with iridescence in the sunlight, like solidified oil films.
He suddenly narrowed his eyes. Buildings lined both sides of the railway track densely, but what struck him oddly was that the car wrecks seen everywhere had vanished in this city, leaving only some randomly scattered rubber tires.
Instead, what was everywhere were tall trees with lush branches and leaves, straight trunks with a metallic sheen.
But where they grew, there were no other plants—either asphalt roads or steel bar and cement building rooftops. Even on the ground, the surroundings were barren.
“Iron-eating tree, a kind of mutated plant that likes to eat metal.”
Lin Jin put down the water cannon in his hand and turned back, seeing the train conductor walking over with hands in pockets. The gloom under his long hair was illuminated by sunlight, his brows relaxed, a faint weary smile on his face.
“Morning, train conductor.”
“Morning.”
Su Huan walked to Lin Jin’s side and squatted down, hands on his knees, yawning.
Lin Jin looked at those trees occupying the streets and plaza, curiously asking, “Do they eat other plants too?”
“No, aside from mutated plants, ordinary plants have all been corroded by acid rain, so everywhere is barren. But iron-eating trees don’t just eat iron; zombies, mutated beasts, humans—as long as nutrition is lacking, they’ll eat them too.”
Su Huan explained indifferently.
