The electronic clock at the long-distance bus station read 2:37 PM. Feng Yulan checked her backpack for the third time, checking her ID and cash. She clutched the two tickets, their edges softened by sweat.
Zhang Shumin stood half a meter away from her, her gray headscarf covering most of her face, leaving only a pair of sharp eyes that kept scanning the waiting hall.
"Don't look around," Zhang Shumin said in a low voice, "be more natural."
Feng Yulan pursed her cracked lips and forced herself to stop fiddling with her ticket. The waiting room was filled with the smell of instant noodles, sweat, and cheap perfume, and the cries of babies and vendors echoed incessantly.
These noises that usually annoyed her now gave her a strange sense of security - in the crowd, they were just two ordinary middle-aged women.
"Passengers heading to -- please go to Gate 3..." The female voice on the radio was filled with electric noise.
"It's our car." Zhang Shumin nudged Feng Yulan with her elbow, the movement was light but irresistible.
Feng Yulan picked up the woven bag at her feet - it contained a few sets of clothes and toiletries that they had hurriedly packed.
Zhang Shumin tightly grasped the black handbag. Feng Yulan knew that it contained cash, ID card and the fruit knife.
While queuing for ticket checking, Feng Yulan felt the hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stand up.
She subconsciously turned her head, her eyes passing through the crowd, and caught a reflection in front of the glass door of the station entrance - the golden dial flashed in the sun, and then disappeared in the crowd.
"Mom..." Her voice was stuck in her throat, and her fingers dug into Zhang Shumin's arm tightly.
Zhang Shumin didn't look back, but her back straightened instantly: "What did you see?"
"Gold watch...that man..." Feng Yulan's knees began to tremble, and the sound of the ticket inspector tearing off the ticket duplicate was amplified into a gunshot in her ears.
"Don't stop, keep walking." Zhang Shumin grabbed her wrist with her backhand, almost crushing her bones with such force, "Keep your head down, don't let him see your face."
As they followed the crowd into the passage, Feng Yulan's breathing became increasingly rapid. At the end of the passage, a long-distance bus with peeling paint was taking in and out passengers.
When she got on the bus, she couldn't help but look back again - the man in the black suit was standing at the ticket gate, scanning the queue with sharp eyes.
"He's looking for us..." Feng Yulan almost collapsed on the steps of the car door.
Zhang Shumin suddenly pulled her up: "Get up! Get out of the way!"
The carriage was already 70% full. Zhang Shumin walked straight to the double seat in the corner of the last row, leaving the window seat for Feng Yulan.
"Sit inside and draw the curtains," she ordered, stuffing her handbag between them.
Feng Yulan huddled by the window, peering through the gap in the curtains at the platform. The man with the gold watch had already passed the ticket gate and was checking each train.
His movements were calm, like an ordinary passenger, but Feng Yulan could see the unnatural bulge in the hem of his suit - what was hidden there? A gun? Or a knife?
"He's here..." Feng Yulan's voice was as thin as a mosquito.
Zhang Shumin suddenly pulled out a box of cooling oil from her bag, scooped out a large dollop and rubbed it on Feng Yulan's temple: "Pretend to be carsick and lie down."
The pungent smell of mint rushed into Feng Yulan's nose, and tears immediately welled up in her eyes.
She leaned back against the front seat and heard Zhang Shumin complain loudly in her thick dialect: "I told you not to eat those unclean things at the station! Look, I'm going to throw up again!"
Amid the roar of the engine, Feng Yulan felt the car vibrate slightly. It was time to drive! The man with the gold watch had already appeared at the front door, talking to the driver. The driver shook his head and pointed at his watch.
"Dear passengers, please fasten your seat belts, we are about to depart..." The voice of the conductor on board came from the loudspeaker.
Suddenly, a sharp brake sound came from the other side of the platform. Through the gap in the curtains, Feng Yulan saw two black cars roughly stop at the exit, and several men in black suits jumped out.
The man with the gold watch glanced back and suddenly walked quickly towards their car.
"He's coming up!" Feng Yulan dug her nails into her palms.
Zhang Shumin grabbed a woven bag and covered Feng Yulan's head with it, then she hunched her back and started coughing, like an old woman taking care of her sick daughter.
Footsteps came from the aisle and stopped in the row in front of them. Feng Yulan could smell the scent of cologne mixed with tobacco and hear the subtle sound of leather rubbing against each other. The man with the gold watch stood less than a meter away from them.
"Sir, the train is about to leave, please return to your seat." The conductor's voice was alert.
"Looking for someone." The man with the gold watch said in a low, cold voice, "Two women, one in her fifties, the other in her early thirties."
"No," the conductor replied flatly, "most of the passengers on this bus are migrant workers returning home."
There was a moment of silence. Feng Yulan held her breath, tears dripping down the back of her hand from the irritation of the cooling oil. Zhang Shumin's coughing became louder, interspersed with exaggerated retching sounds.
The engine roared again, and the car shook violently. The man with the gold watch cursed softly, and the footsteps gradually faded away. Feng Yulan heard the muffled sound of the car door closing, and then the car slowly drove out of the station.
Only when the urban landscape was completely replaced by farmland did Zhang Shumin remove the woven bag from Feng Yulan's head. The two looked at each other, each seeing the shock of having survived a catastrophe in the other's eyes.
"How did they know we were going to take this train?" Feng Yulan asked in a whisper.
Zhang Shumin shook her head and took out two crumpled pieces of paper from the compartment of her handbag - they were the schedule information of another train they had originally planned to buy.
"Maybe they're tapping the house phone, or..." She paused, "They have people in the police station."
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