Chapter 19: 019 Subway Encounter Battle
The train arrived at the terminal station, Rongdu.
Before getting off, Wang Heng glanced at the mirror as he passed by and nearly scared himself. He saw that his eyes were completely red. Looking closer, the whites of both eyes were full of bloodshot veins, just like he was possessed.
But considering the ordeal of this trip, red eyes were really too normal. After all, he had stayed up all night last night and hadn’t slept at all.
Sitting in hard seat was already hard to fall asleep, not to mention the air conditioning in the carriage was broken. Of course, the most terrifying were those noises…
Starting at ten in the evening, the people around started shouting Fight the Landlord at the top of their lungs, until two in the morning. At the same time, the auntie next to him watched dramas on her mobile phone with speaker on, and that pile of melodramatic lines not only tormented Wang Heng’s ears but also poisoned his sanity.
And in the second half of the night, when Wang Heng finally felt a bit sleepy, a child’s crying suddenly rang out in the carriage. Moreover, one child’s cry triggered the cries of two other children. They were probably all between three and five years old, the age that’s unreasonable yet full of energy. With such a commotion, no one on the whole train could sleep.
Walking past the mirror, Wang Heng scanned around. Sure enough, more than half of the people around, regardless of gender or age, looked listless, and some even had dark circles.
The moment he stepped out of the train, Wang Heng took a deep breath of fresh air, feeling refreshed all over. But after a few more steps, his mind was still a bit foggy, and he yawned several times in a row.
Following the crowd, he walked out of the train station and squeezed into the flow of people heading to the subway.
To go from the train station to school, the most convenient way was to take the subway—he had already checked the route and could see the signs, so even while fighting sleepiness, he knew how to go.
But when squeezing into the subway carriage, Wang Heng suddenly woke up.
He heard a quite familiar voice, the tone of a young girl with a hint of complaint: “Mom, just don’t worry about this kind of thing…”
Looking toward the voice, Han Yixuan’s face appeared less than five meters ahead.
Wang Heng couldn’t help but complain inwardly—this was the power of the worldline correction mechanism? It was too terrifying!
The young girl and her mother were standing together, also squeezed into the corner of the subway carriage. Between the mother and daughter was a large red suitcase, forcibly taking up quite a bit of space, making it feel even more crowded.
At this moment, Wang Heng couldn’t help but feel relieved. Luckily, he had seen Han Yixuan first, not the other way around, or else it would be trouble from the sky again.
He shrank his neck, bent his knees slightly, trying to make himself as short as possible.
But not long after, a middle-aged man next to him asked: “Young man, are you feeling unwell?”
Shrinking his body like Wang Heng was doing now was indeed too strange, easily mistaken for some sudden illness. He didn’t dare straighten up, but he couldn’t attract others’ attention either.
So Wang Heng shook his head and put on the most natural smile possible: “I… just have to pee a bit.”
The middle-aged man immediately showed a face full of sympathy.
————
Han Yixuan and her mother didn’t notice Wang Heng, who was shrunk in the corner not far away, until they walked out of the subway carriage.
At this point, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Wang Heng straightened his back, twisted his neck, his face full of relaxed ease.
However, he forgot that the enthusiastic middle-aged man from earlier hadn’t gotten off yet.
“Young man, you… already let it out?”
Wang Heng’s face stiffened, suddenly not knowing what to say.
The man looked down at his crotch, his small eyes full of big confusion: “No wetness, what’s going on with you? Can it go back to the kidneys?”
Wang Heng made up an excuse: “This is self-suggestion, a hypnosis technique in psychology.”
The man exclaimed in admiration: “Hypnosis on the bladder, your technique is too amazing!”
Wang Heng really couldn’t explain anymore, luckily, the station where he needed to transfer had arrived. So Wang Heng stopped talking to the man and rushed out of the carriage.
This platform was the intersection of two subway lines, and according to the route he had checked in advance, he was supposed to get off here anyway.
However, Wang Heng never expected that right after getting off, he saw another familiar face. And this time, their eyes met, impossible to dodge anymore.
She was wearing a neutral black shirt, water-blue jeans, and white sneakers, with medium height and a slightly slim build, just like an ordinary female university student. Her short hair, just past the earlobes, was also low-key and not flashy. But the confidence flying in her eyes, that strong and unquestionable aura, was anything but ordinary.
Of course, her delicate features and subtle, almost imperceptible makeup were just right, unremarkable in the bustling crowd. But once noticed, it was impossible to ignore her.
That was Lu Qi.
The moment their eyes met, Lu Qi didn’t seem to recognize him yet. But the surprise in Wang Heng’s eyes immediately made her react.
“Hi, what a coincidence… You’re that great magician?” Lu Qi walked over with a smile, asking so.
Wang Heng swallowed, at least appearing calm on the surface: “Yes, it’s me.”
“Calling you magician feels weird… Your surname is Wang, right? Then I’ll call you Little Wang?”
“My name is Wang Heng, please drop that ‘Little’.”
“Sorry, no offense,” her smile carried a bit of apology, “I’m Lu Qi, nice to meet you.”
“Sister Lu, I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Calling me sister so soon? Do I look that old?”
Wang Heng certainly couldn’t say he was accustomed to calling her Sister Lu, so he explained: “No, since you’re an employee at Penguin, you must be a senior. I haven’t started my first year at university yet, so I have to call you sister. But you don’t look old at all, just like my high school classmates, young.”
Lu Qi blinked: “You’re so silver-tongued, not like a programmer, more like a product manager.”
“How could that be, product managers are so dumb…”
“True, if only they were really silver-tongued.”
The two quickly reached a consensus on the strange topic. And this subtle instant rapport made the corners of Lu Qi’s mouth curl up a little unconsciously.
So Lu Qi said: “Perfect, I have nothing to do today, the new department isn’t set up yet, super idle. I’ll go to your school for a stroll, chat on the way?”
This was a question, in a questioning tone. But Wang Heng knew that Sister Lu’s suggestion actually left little room for discussion. The key was, he couldn’t find a reasonable excuse to refuse.
Just a while ago, she had added five thousand beyond the agreed mission remuneration, no way to turn down that face.
Wang Heng could only reply: “Uh… okay.”
————
Stayed up late again… Sigh. Next time, strive to overcome laziness.
Seeing a classmate asking if it’s one chapter, yeah, temporarily still is. After communicating with the editor, it won’t be long before evolving from one-update beast to a new form.
