Chapter 61: Intuition
Star City train station was still as hot and crowded as ever, with the crowd surging toward the platform corridor in a chaotic mass.
The few who arrived early and took the internal staff passage quickly entered the carriage as soon as the train pulled in, avoiding the “lively” scene.
Thanks to Yan Bei’s special treatment as a researcher, they also bought several soft sleeper tickets, and the enjoyment made Su Ning even more determined about her previous idea.
She even silently upgraded the prepared compensatory meals by another level.
A long whistle sounded.
People who hadn’t boarded yet jostled toward the train doors, while many more climbed in through the open windows, prompting the capped attendants with whistles to shout warnings about the danger.
“Clang clang clang hiss~ clang hiss clang hiss~”
The green-skinned train slowly pulled away from the platform with the second whistle.
Xiao Qiu, who had been leaning on the window watching with great interest, finally withdrew her gaze and sat back on the bedding.
“Uncle Fu…”
“Wait a bit, Xiao Qiuqiu, can we change the way you address me?”
Fu Jiaming, who had finally climbed onto the upper bunk with one leg, poked his head out and looked down at the child on the lower bunk, negotiating.
“You see, you call Su Ning and Luo Shuangshuang sisters, right? I’m friends with them, so how can you call me uncle? That would make us different generations.”
“But Uncle Fu, Mom said that people a bit older but looking young are brothers and sisters, and only those much older should be called Uncle Bai Bai!”
The implication was that the four of them didn’t look young to him? Looked old?
Of course, age-wise, being in his early twenties made it no problem to be the uncle of a little girl just a few years old, but this differential addressing… really stung!
“Hiss~”
Yan Bei from the opposite lower diagonal bunk let out a scoff, not forgetting to twist the knife, “Self-inflicted humiliation.”
“Heh heh~ Is that how you talk to your uncle? Have you no sense of seniority?”
This provoked Fu Jiaming to immediately retort, and only after did he realize: heh heh, being called uncle was great—it automatically elevated their generation!
“Su Ning, I think the food you’ve prepared shouldn’t be given to him. Old people have trouble digesting if they eat too much.”
“Mm, makes sense.”
Xiao Qiu covered her mouth, watching the three banter, her eyes squinting into little crescents from laughter.
The childish verbal spat stopped only when someone opened the carriage door from outside.
The newcomers were a young couple, who kept exchanging sweet yet shy glances, clearly a pair who had just started dating.
Everyone exchanged smiling simple greetings, all hoping for harmonious coexistence in the same carriage for the next three or four days.
The last to enter was a middle-aged man with a flat-top haircut and a face full of stern resolve.
With no difficult or unreasonable people around, the atmosphere in the carriage grew livelier with Fu Jiaming’s outgoing personality that could chat with anyone.
“Sister Ning Ning.”
Su Ning had been listening quietly on the side, politely responding when occasionally addressed, but when she felt a little paw quietly slipped into her hand, her originally distant and cool smile warmed genuinely.
She squeezed the little hand and leaned down to ask softly, “What’s wrong, Xiao Qiu?”
“I need to pee… oh, no, Sister Ning Ning said girls should say go to the toilet.”
“Good girl, let’s go. Put on your shoes and I’ll take you to the toilet.”
Xiao Qiu nodded, released her fingers, put on the sandals stored under the bedding, and fastened the buckles.
After saying something to Yan Bei who looked over, Su Ning took the little one’s hand and opened the carriage’s sliding door.
The corridor, barely wide enough for two people, had some ticket-changers sitting or standing around.
They walked all the way to the end of the soft sleeper carriage without finding an empty toilet, so they had to take her through the dining car carriage to the hard seat carriage.
After passing several carriages, they finally spotted an empty toilet with the door slightly ajar.
“Xiao Qiu, go in quick. I’ll wait right here at the door, okay?”
“Okay, I’ll be super fast~”
Once the little one went in, Su Ning pulled the door from outside and stood there waiting for her.
Looking from the rear of the carriage, the hard seat carriage had almost no place to step, filled with huge snakeskin bag suitcases or people sitting on the ground.
Even the open space right next to the toilet up to the train door was occupied.
Various odors assaulted the nose, and with the midsummer heat making it even hotter, the mixed smells were even more intense.
“Sister Ning Ning, I’m done!”
Hearing this, she quickly released the door handle and took the hand Xiao Qiu reached out, preparing to head back.
When they reached one of the carriages, her steps suddenly halted.
Without waiting for Xiao Qiu to ask, she directly picked her up, using Xiao Qiu’s body to shield most of her face as she carefully observed, becoming even more certain that the mother-daughter pair sitting at the connecting door between two carriages were those two—
The big aunt who had kindly warned her but pointed the wrong direction, and the little girl who had caught insects to eat in the Fengzhu Ridge bamboo grove.
Could this little girl be her granddaughter?
For some reason, this thought surged in her heart, especially since…
The little girl kept her head down leaning against the door, motionless, while the big aunt held a one-year-old baby in her arms.
It wasn’t unheard of for an older person to bring two children, and there were even quite a few on the train with one person taking more children on a long trip.
But bringing a baby without preparing any food or drink for it, and the baby sleeping quietly without crying or fussing—this was very strange.
Silently noting the carriage number, Su Ning held Xiao Qiu and walked naturally past them.
Sensitive Xiao Qiu noticed something and quietly nestled on her shoulder without a sound, wrapping her arms around her neck and peeking back.
After passing two more carriages, Xiao Qiu whispered in her ear, “Sister Ning Ning, that big sister has a hand injury.”
“Hm?”
“I saw it. There are blue-purple rings on her hand.”
Thinking of the height from which the little one had seen, looking down would indeed allow a view.
Blue-purple rings? Could they be strangulation marks?
Should she tell the train staff? But based only on her guess and suspicion… what if she was wrong?
Returning to the carriage with a heavy heart, Su Ning’s furrowed brows tightened even more.
“What happened?”
“Nothing…”
The answer on the tip of her tongue was swallowed back. She looked up at Yan Bei: what if? For this kind of thing, she’d rather be wrong and apologize later than pretend it didn’t happen.
She put Xiao Qiu back on the bedding and walked two steps to the opposite side.
Entirely subconsciously, he shifted aside, and when she actually sat right next to him, Yan Bei’s ears turned bright red, though his face remained as composed and calm as ever.
“I suspect… human traffickers.”
The heat radiating from the person just a palm’s width away seemed to burn through his clothes, making half his body on her side scorching hot.
Trying to ignore that strange sensation, Yan Bei refocused on what she was saying, and sure enough, the palpitations instantly faded, his body finally returning to normal.
“Where? How many people?”
“In Carriage Number Twelve. I’m not certain, just my intuition.”
Even though she said she wasn’t certain, Yan Bei didn’t question it because he believed her.
Though they’d known each other only a short time, he just trusted her, both as a person and in how she handled things.
“A big aunt in her fifties with two children: a six- or seven-year-old girl and a baby less than two years old.”
She then softly told him her suspicions and the entire process of how she knew them.
Yan Bei habitually tried to twirl a pen, only realizing there was nothing in his hand, his expression growing grave with her words.
This woman was indeed very suspicious.
If it was as she said…
“You stay here and don’t go anywhere. I’ll go out for a bit.”
“No, you’re still injured!”
In her haste, she grabbed his arm, then quickly let go upon realizing it wasn’t right.
But in that instant of contact, foreseeing the scene that would soon unfold, Su Ning was determined not to let him go out.
“Rest assured, I won’t confront that person. I’m just going to find the train staff.”
She took a deep breath. Since the matter was confirmed and she had stirred it up, there was no reason to hide.
Su Ning waved her hand, looking at him with an uncompromising expression, “You’ve never seen the person and don’t know who it is. How will you identify them to the train staff? I’ll go. You watch Xiao Qiu.”
“No!”
If they were really human traffickers, there couldn’t be just one—there would definitely be accomplices. What if an accomplice hidden in the crowd saw during identification and retaliated later?
Yan Bei couldn’t possibly let her face such danger, but looking at her expression, turmoil surged in his eyes.
After a standoff of just a few seconds, he conceded a step, “I’ll go with you.”
“What are you two whispering about, all secretive?”
“Jiaming, watch Xiao Qiu. I’ll go with Su Ning to the dining car carriage to get some food.”
