Chapter 341: 334: The Fish that Slipped through the Net

The woman sat down again, holding the child and pulling the blanket around her as if she had purchased a ticket and owned the sleeping berth. Her arrogance was revolting.

Another person came over intending to sit down but the woman fired off words like a machine gun.

“You didn’t see the child, you didn’t see my child fall just now, my child needs rest, what’s wrong with my child, my child this, my child that.”

It seemed as if only she had a child and nobody else did.

Soon after, Qin Ziye arrived.

Tang Yuxin glanced at the man following him, dressed in the uniform of a conductor, which had a badge labelled “Train Captain”.

This man was the train captain.

“Check tickets,” commanded the train captain to his accompanying staff.

The attendant pistraight walked over to the woman.

He extended his hand, “Please show me your ticket.” The woman turned pale.

She was fussing around but not showing her ticket.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“My child just fell…”

“Lots of people fall, it’s not like only your child falls. Hurry up,” the attendant was getting impatient. It was so crowded, and he still needed to check other people’s tickets. It was the busy spring holiday travel season, and everyone was travelling with their families. Normally, people without tickets were not allowed in the sleeper cars, but it was so crowded now that sometimes they had to turn a blind eye. Everyone knew this, but it wasn’t acceptable to just shamelessly occupy someone else’s sleeping berth. After all, they had paid for it.

But the woman, still holding her child, refused to give him her ticket.

“Hand over your ticket,” the train attendant’s voice grew severe, “or we have the right to kick you off the train.”

As soon as the woman heard she might get kicked off the train, her face changed. She rummaged in her pocket for a while before finally producing a crumpled train ticket.

The train attendant took the ticket.

Then, he asked the woman through gritted teeth, “When does your ticket say you were supposed to board?”

Ignoring him, the woman turned her face away, choosing to play dead.

“Everyone has had a hard time buying tickets, and every single person on the train is on their way home. Just because you snuck onboard and took someone else’s bunk doesn’t mean it’s alright.”

“Please come with me now to buy a supplemental ticket, or at the next stop, you’re getting off.”

The woman’s face paled, she muttered under breath as she got up, grudgingly vacating the lower berth she had occupied for several stops.

The train attendant knocked on the table again.

“Comrade, your ticket please.”

The man’s snoring continued.

“Comrade,” the train attendant tried again with patience, surprised that the man was still asleep. Was he deaf? He couldn’t hear him?

The train captain strolled over and placed his hand on the snoring man, shaking him and asking for his ticket for the ticket inspection.

The man’s snoring continued. However, the conductor kept on shaking him. In this case, it was clear who would last longer on this train and obviously, one can’t win against a thicker arm.

There was a certain order to everything, and it was the same on the train.

Buy a ticket, take a seat, that was the order. Otherwise, why would everyone say that train tickets are hard to come by? Nowadays they’re even harder to come by. You can’t board the train without a ticket, even if the train is empty. Especially now, during the busy spring holiday travel period.

The man had no choice but to sit up, no longer snoring, but his face was uneasy, showing traces of guilt and embarrassment.

He took out his ticket.

He gave his ticket to the train attendant.

No seat.

At least it was better than the woman before, who’d just produced a ticket out of nowhere, trying to swindle people. This man had at least bought a ticket, although it was for the standing area.

“Please leave the sleeper car,” the train attendant instructed, handing the ticket back to the man.

The man could only stand up and leave, heading for the crowded area where there was no room to even stand.

“We’re sorry, Mr. Qin, we’ve not been managing things properly,” apologized the train captain to Qin Ziye.

“I understand it’s not your fault. I understand what it’s like during the spring travel rush, people like these are the minority,” replied Qin Ziye.

“Yes, yes,” the train captain eagerly agreed. A female attendant quickly tidied up the berth, patting and folding the blanket, even the area dirtied by the child’s shoes.

The train captain and his attendant went off to check other people’s tickets. They decided to thoroughly inspect the sleeper car tickets, to avoid any further occupancy mix-ups.

“Come over,” Qin Ziye extended his hand to Tang Yuxin. Despite being quite alert, her eyes were heavy with sleep.

“Have a rest,” aware of her exhaustion, Qin Ziye refrained from further conversation and suggested she sleep.

“Okay,” Tang Yuxin agreed, and laid down. No sooner had she done so, she fell asleep, deeply succumbing to her fatigue, heedless of her surroundings. Qin Ziye covered her with the blanket – not that even he wasn’t exhausted himself.

Reluctantly, he laid down across from Yuxin, but as he was trying to fall asleep, he felt like he would fall off the bed with each train jolt.

Even though he knew this wouldn’t happen, he couldn’t help worrying – this kind of place could hardly offer a feeling of security.

When Tang Yuxin opened her eyes, what she saw was Qin Ziye’s struggle to sleep, although he was clearly tired.

She sat up, took a book and approached him.

“Why are you not sleeping?”

Qin Ziye smiled at her and affectionately brushed her hair aside.

“Can’t sleep, it’s too noisy. I’ll try again later tonight,” Tang Yuxin replied. She sat next to Qin Ziye and started reading. Qin Ziye dozed off amidst the jolts of the train on its tracks – comfortably this time without the uneasiness of possibly falling.

Tang Yuxin closed the book and turned to look at the sleeping Qin Ziye. He looked like a peaceful, harmless masterpiece.

However, Tang Yuxin knew there’s no such thing as harmless people in this world. Beneath every harmless appearance, one can never tell what thoughts and plans an individual harbours.

The seemingly harmless often turn out to be the scariest and she realized she didn’t know much about Qin Ziye after all.