Chapter 41 Chapter 41 The Troubled Journey Home
Lin Anran was accompanied by his bodyguards and boarded the train's soft sleeper compartment safely and smoothly. There were four beds in the compartment, and Lin Anran and his two companions occupied three of them. The remaining bed was empty as no other passengers had arrived.
Lin Anran looked around the carriage curiously. She looked out from the window and saw people walking hurriedly outside, dragging their luggage and rushing to squeeze into the train. However, it was not a festival, so the train was not that crowded. Fortunately, she was not returning to Lin Village before the Spring Festival, otherwise train tickets would not be as easy to buy as they are now. Every time the Spring Festival travel rush comes in China, the train station is definitely crowded with people.
"Anran, do you want to sleep on the upper or lower bunk?" Zhang Yan asked Lin Anran after helping her put her luggage under the bed.
Lin Anran said without hesitation: "Upper bunk." The lower bunk is safer, but it is also easy for others to sit on it, which she doesn't like. The upper bunk is a completely independent space.
Zhang Yan chose Lin Anran's lower bunk, and Li Ming chose the lower bunk opposite, so that they could protect Lin Anran more easily. However, Lin Anran felt that there should be no danger in this carriage, so he just needed to wait for the last passenger. If that passenger was willing, once the door of their carriage was closed, they would basically not be affected by the outside world.
Not long after, a young man came in carrying a suitcase. When he saw Lin Anran and the other two, especially when he saw Lin Anran's face clearly, his eyes lit up and he greeted her warmly, "Pretty girl, are you also coming to Yangcheng? I work in Yangcheng and was assigned to Shenzhen by my company. Because of my good work performance, I got a few days off, so I came back to Yangcheng. After that, I have to go back to Shenzhen, blah blah..."
The young man spilled all his secrets, even his home address, how many people were in his family, his salary, and the fact that he had been single for 24 years.
Lin Anran: “…”
This is too enthusiastic, without any guard at all. If she was a liar, she could steal the young man's underwear right now. Of course, Lin Anran would not do that.
Lin Anran said a few perfunctory words and had no intention of having a deep conversation with a stranger. She took out a deck of cards that she had prepared earlier and called Zhang Yan and Li Ming to play cards with her.
"You four are short of one, and I can fill in." The young man looked at Lin Anran very attentively.
Zhang Yan and Li Ming also looked at Lin Anran. She was the one who made the decision.
Lin Anran thought for a moment. His eyes were a little eager, but his behavior was not out of the ordinary. He could be considered a passionate person. It was indeed the case that there was one person missing. "Okay, you come."
The young man suddenly cheered with joy.
Taking advantage of his happiness, Lin Anran suggested: "Let's close the door of the carriage. Do you mind?"
Young man: "No, I don't mind at all. Just close it! I take trains often and I'm quite experienced. Now, if I close the doors of train compartments, it's warm and most people won't push the doors open to get in."
After playing a few rounds of cards, Lin Anran finally remembered that the man's name was Lin Dejie, who had the same surname as her.
When Lin Dejie learned Lin Anran's name, he was very happy and said, "Miss Lin, we are so destined to meet! Maybe our ancestors came from the same lineage."
Lin Anran played a card and said, "It's not impossible."
In addition to playing cards, Lin Anran and his other three also play the chess that Lin Dejie carries with him, which does not prevent them from having fun on the train.
The train they took from Shenzhen to Guangzhou was very fast. The train stopped in Guangzhou, old passengers got off and new passengers got on. Lin Dejie also had to get off the train. What Lin Anran didn't expect was that Lin Dejie confessed to her very directly before getting off the train. He said that he fell in love with her at first sight and hoped that there would be new developments in the future.
Lin Anran, who was caught off guard by this, said, "Thank you, but I'm sorry, I don't accept it."
Lin Dejie looked disappointed, but he cheered up the next second. He said sincerely, "Ms. Lin, I hope you don't think it's superficial or frivolous for me to confess my love to you the first time I see you. But we met on the train. If I don't tell you now, there might not be another chance in the future. I have to tell you that I like you."
Lin Anran uttered a sigh and nodded: "I don't take it to heart."
Lin Dejie was stunned for a moment and sighed: "Actually, I really hope that Miss Lin, you are willing to take...to heart."
"Mr. Lin, you should get off the train now." Lin Anran smiled slightly, raised her right finger, and gently tapped the watch on her left hand.
After taking a deep look at Lin Anran, Lin Dejie finally left the car with his luggage bag.
Lin Anran did not close the door immediately because the next new passenger was about to arrive, and she hoped it would be a lesbian.
"Lin Dejie...his name sounds familiar." Lin Anran stroked his forehead.
Li Ming's silence was golden, but he was actually on guard at all times. Zhang Yan relaxed a bit, protecting Lin Anran closely. Upon hearing Lin Anran's words, she smiled and asked, "The name sounds familiar. Is there someone with the same name in your village, Anran?"
Lin Anran fell into reminiscence. "There is indeed a person named Lin Dejie in Lin Village. The characters 'De' and 'Jie' have very good meanings. There is more than one person named Lin Dejie in the village. My four siblings and I were named by an elder named Lin Dejie. However, the familiarity I'm talking about is not the same as this."
Zhang Yan: "Or where have you heard this name?"
Lin Anran pondered, and suddenly, a lightbulb flashed in her mind! In the original novel, there was a man named Lin Dejie, who worked hard to become a big boss in the future. His most prominent role was falling in love with the original heroine at first sight and immediately confessing his feelings to her. Of course, the result was failure, but it also helped to strengthen the relationship between the heroine and the hero. The heroine and the hero were a perfect match, and there was absolutely no way a third person could get in the way. After the failure, Lin Dejie did not get entangled. Instead, he seriously started a business with the heroine and the hero, and eventually they achieved success together.
Lin Anran: “…”
Wow, love at first sight, love at first sight again!
Even if Lin Anran was not sure whether the Lin Dejie who just got off the train was the Lin Dejie in the original novel, based on the familiar "love at first sight", there was a 99% chance that it was him.
"Do you remember?" Zhang Yan was curious.
Lin Anran nodded and shook his head: "Not really, forget it, it doesn't matter, he's just a passerby anyway."
Zhang Yan couldn't help but laugh and reminded him slightly: "That passerby just told you something very important."
Lin Anran didn't take it to heart at all. She waved her hand casually: "You'll get used to it."
After hearing this, Zhang Yan's eyes subconsciously fell on Lin Anran's face. Indeed, with such a beautiful face, it was very easy to be liked.
Lin Anran's wish came true. The second passenger who entered their carriage was a lively and outgoing girl. As soon as she entered the carriage, she started talking to Lin Anran and the other two one by one. Unlike Lin Dejie, who opened his mouth and spilled all his personal information, the girl bombarded Lin Anran and the others with questions one by one, as if she was investigating their household registration.
As a result, Lin Anran didn't say anything useful, so Zhang Yan asked her questions one after another and successfully shut up the girl's chattering mouth.
Lin Anran whispered to Zhang Yan: "It would be better if it was Lin Dejie." At least Lin Dejie would not investigate their household registration.
Lin Anran was very careful about protecting her privacy, so why would she share her information with others, especially strangers?
As a result, the girl was quiet for a while, and when she saw that Lin Anran and the other two were in the same group, she pouted and walked out of the car.
Without the annoying noise, Lin Anran dug out the beef jerky she had brought with her and handed a bag each to Zhang Yan and Li Ming. She also took a bag for herself and munched on it happily. "Where did she go?"
Li Ming's bed was closest to the carriage door. He said, "She went to visit other carriages."
Lin Anran chewed and said, "I really can't stay idle."
Zhang Yan and Li Ming exchanged a glance. Li Ming continued to stare at the movement outside the carriage door. Zhang Yan suddenly lowered his voice and said to Lin Anran, "Anran, we need to be more vigilant from now on."
"Ah? Be alert?" Lin Anran paused while chewing the beef jerky. She quickly reacted and whispered back, "Is there something wrong with that girl just now?"
Zhang Yan nodded and explained softly, "As soon as she entered, she quickly took a look at our luggage and our clothes, especially your watch and pearl earrings."
Lin Anran was startled and covered her ears with her hands. After she became rich, she bought herself a lot of beautiful jewelry and put them in a jewelry box at home. She would wear them when she was in a good mood and admire herself in front of the mirror. She never wore them when she went out. She usually just wore that cheap watch to check the time. But after hiring bodyguards, she would occasionally wear earrings or necklaces when going out to dress herself up and feel good. She spent money to have the freedom to wear any jewelry she wanted.
"The pearls in my pearl earrings are very small." Lin Anran had specifically chosen the smallest pearls to wear today. She never imagined someone would be watching. As she spoke, she reached out to take the pearl earrings off.
"No need to take them off, Anran, you can still wear the earrings." Zhang Yan stopped her.
Lin Anran suddenly realized and put her hands down: "If I take off the earrings now, it will only attract her attention and alert her, right?"
Zhang Yan: "That's true, but we only have suspicions now, we don't have any evidence."
Since she had nothing to do, Lin Anran asked Zhang Yan to explain to her the various methods and incidents of thieves. She would exclaim in surprise from time to time, having learned something new. Nowadays, there are many kinds of methods of stealing, especially on trains, where thefts happen frequently. If you are not careful, your luggage may be taken away without you noticing. There are also many cases of wallet theft, so there is now a special kind of "anti-theft underwear", which is especially popular among people who work outside.
After listening to this, Lin Anran looked at Zhang Yan who was sitting on the bunk below her, and Li Ming who was guarding the door of the carriage, and felt very safe. As expected, expensive things are good. Even if forty people came, she would not be afraid, hahahaha.
The girl was so busy getting close to the passengers in other carriages that she hardly stayed in Lin Anran's carriage for long. No one knew what time she came back to sleep at night.
With two reliable bodyguards by her side, Lin Anran slept soundly on the upper bunk on the train, without any trouble of not being able to sleep after changing beds. She woke up feeling refreshed. After washing up and having breakfast, she raised her head and glanced at the upper bunk opposite. The bed was messy, which meant that the girl had come back to sleep, but she was gone now.
"Is she out visiting friends again?" Lin Anran asked while drinking soy milk.
Zhang Yan: "Yeah."
Lin Anran was curious: "Is this called scouting? Is that right?"
Zhang Yan smiled: "If she is real, then that's it."
Lin Anran sighed: "This is not easy to handle."
Zhang Yan said yes.
Without evidence, people are wrongly accused, but if we wait until the thief is caught and the stolen goods are seized, someone’s property may be damaged.
But Lin Anran is not a public security officer, she is an ordinary person, and her safety depends on two bodyguards. It is better not to think too much about it, as it is useless.
Perhaps after visiting friends, the girl returned to the carriage. When she saw Lin Anran, she asked, "I saw you wearing pearl earrings yesterday. Why aren't you wearing them today? My mom has a pair too, and she said she'd leave them to me. Did you buy them at a high-end mall in Yangcheng?"
Lin Anran looked up from the book and looked at the girl: "Pearl earrings? I took them off before going to bed last night and forgot to put them on."
Girl: “Then you can put it on now.”
"No, I'll put it on when I get off the car." Lin Anran said casually, and she buried her head in reading again.
Seeing that Lin Anran was reading and ignoring her, the girl had no choice but to go and look at Zhang Yan and Li Ming. Finally, she chose to talk to Zhang Yan, who seemed easier to talk to. Zhang Yan deliberately controlled the topic so that the girl would not notice anything unusual. Then, the two of them talked and the topic became deeper, but the girl was like a frog in boiling water and didn't notice it at all.
Lin Anran seemed to be studying seriously, but in fact, his ears were secretly perked up, and his heart flew to Zhang Yan. He wanted to stick close to her to listen. He was exclaiming in his heart, "Wow, wow, wow, Zhang Yan has amazing words. Very good, very good. Take notes.ing~"
Zhang Yan and Li Ming are worthy of being the most expensive bodyguards in the security company. Not only did they keep Lin Anran's watch and pearl earrings safe and sound, they also brought the flight attendants with them to catch the girl red-handed when she and her gang committed a crime in the middle of the night.
"They threw the passengers' luggage off the train?" Lin Anran was stunned. "So they have people waiting outside where the train passes by?"
Li Ming hasn't come back yet. He stayed there to help the train police catch the thief gang and count the passengers' lost luggage and valuables. Lin Anran nodded in agreement. She was very happy to let Li Ming go and help. With Li Ming, a very powerful thug, the train police caught the thief gang very smoothly.
Zhang Yan never left Lin Anran's side. Her and Li Ming's mission was to protect Lin Anran. "Yes, this group of thieves has committed crimes in many places. They are all veterans. The police have been tracking them down, but to no avail. This gang of thieves fled to this section of the train route, connecting with people from all walks of life. There are more than a dozen of them, and this time they were all arrested."
Lin Anran: "Were the local police also apprehended the people who were waiting outside the train?"
Seeing Lin Anran's expectant expression, Zhang Yan immediately nodded, "Yes, not one less."
Lin Anran gave a thumbs-up: "Awesome! Meeting you and Li Ming is such a blessing for a thief, haha!"
Zhang Yan smiled and said, "This kind of case can be solved by just getting some details and making some guesses."
Zhang Yan's words were not modest at all, but Lin Anran liked it and felt very safe. When Li Ming came back soon, he would feel even more secure.
"I seemed to have heard the sound of a wooden warehouse before?" Lin Anran looked at Zhang Yan and Li Ming with great curiosity. She felt that she must have heard it correctly. It couldn't be that fireworks were set off outside the train.
Li Ming: "The thieves' accomplices were carrying wooden magazines, and the police officers had a brief exchange of fire with them. Fortunately, no one was injured."
Lin Anran's eyes widened: "Fire exchange? Can ordinary people hold a wooden gun?" Her mind started working rapidly, recalling the newspapers and magazines she had read, and the legal provisions of this era. There was indeed a ban on wooden guns in the country, but there was no comprehensive ban on wooden guns now. Ordinary people, no, thieves are not ordinary people. If these marginalized people want a wooden gun, it is not impossible to get it. Where there is a market, there is trade.
Li Ming: "It's a clay warehouse, and there are other wooden warehouse branches. They must have been obtained illegally."
Lin Anran swallowed her saliva. She looked at Zhang Yan on her left, then Li Ming on her right, and said softly, "If the enemy has a wooden cannon, can you two still fight twenty at once?" She hugged herself with both hands, and suddenly felt cold. This world is so dangerous! To think someone could easily get a wooden cannon. If someone used it to shoot at her, then she... Ahhhh!
Zhang Yan patted Lin Anran and said, "Anran, don't worry. Even if the enemy has a wooden cannon, we can usually defeat twenty with one."
"That means there are special circumstances." Lin Anran accurately grasped the loophole in Zhang Yan's words and said pitifully.
"I can't completely deny this possibility, but in a fist fight, Li Ming and I won't lose to anyone." Zhang Yan said, stretching out his fist with a confident look on his face.
Lin Anran looked at Zhang Yan and Li Ming's sandbag-sized fists and nodded. She was sure that the two of them could definitely beat her with one punch each. "Well, I shouldn't be that unlucky. This time it was resolved smoothly. Zhang Yan, you didn't even have to make a move."
Lin Anran convinced herself, but she still couldn't help but say to Zhang Yan and Li Ming, "I should have hired ten bodyguards earlier. Ten people can surround me tightly. Even if there are two hundred people, it will be easy."
Zhang Yan and Li Ming smiled.
Lin Anran remembered that she had vowed to Zhou Heyuan on the phone that two bodyguards were enough to protect her. She covered her forehead and wondered in her heart, could she have set a flag for herself?
Nothing bad happened on the train afterwards, so Lin Anran felt relieved.
They arrived smoothly at the city train station where Lin Anran and the other two were going to get off. Lin Anran was not in a hurry to book bus tickets. She took Zhang Yan and Li Ming to the hotel and booked two rooms. She wanted to take a shower and wash her hair first. In short, she wanted to clean herself up first, and then reward herself with a good meal. It would take several hours by bus to return to the original owner's hometown, and the conditions in the village were not that good.
After enjoying it, Lin Anran felt relaxed. The three of them got on the bus again. The bus was full of people. There were people like Lin Anran who were returning home with luggage bags, and there was a family of three with a child... The bus was very lively. The driver was steering the wheel and taking a group of passengers off.
Lin Anran looked at the scenery outside the window for a while. First, there were the tall and low buildings in the city, pedestrians riding bicycles on the road, and then there were large tracts of farmland, or woodland and wasteland. It was winter now, and there was really nothing beautiful to see. She was a little bored. She remembered the newspaper she bought at the newsstand at the station before getting on the bus. She had thought that it was not easy to read books on the bus, so she read some local newspaper news to pass the time.
Opening the newspaper that smelled of ink, Lin Anran read the news with great interest. She turned it over and continued reading. When she saw the small piece of news in the lower right corner, her eyelids twitched and she couldn't help grinding her teeth hard. Damn flag!
Lin Anran let out another soft "tsk".
"What's wrong?" Zhang Yan turned around and asked.
Lin Anran handed the newspaper to Zhang Yan and pointed at the news in the lower right corner: "Look here."
Zhang Yan looked down and saw the news headline: Two truck drivers died after being robbed by road bullies on a certain national highway!
While Zhang Yan was watching the news, Lin Anran quickly took out the map she bought with the newspaper and found the national highway. It was okay, this bus would not take that national highway. She said, "Yes, it should be fine." Now she didn't dare to raise the flag randomly.
Zhang Yan came over to take a look and comforted Lin Anran, "It'll be fine. Lu Ba has been sentenced. Li Ming and I specially prepared some extra things to bring with us."
"What is it?" Lin Anran was indeed very curious.
So Zhang Yan showed Lin Anran the weapons she and Li Ming had prepared. Of course, there was no wooden cannon. Zhang Yan and Li Ming were powerful enough without it, and they could seize other people's wooden cannons at any time and use them for their own purposes.
Lin Anran couldn't be completely relieved, as she had a strange premonition that this bus trip would not be smooth.
And her premonition was indeed correct.
The bus stopped at a station, the door opened, and several passengers wanted to get off here. As a result, the passengers were blocked at the door and were forced to retreat with a sharp knife pointed at their eyes. The other passengers on the bus reacted and someone screamed. After the first scream, there was a third and fourth scream... the screams continued one after another.
Lin Anran's eyes widened, her heart was pounding, she was extremely nervous, and she clenched her palms tightly. She didn't react until Zhang Yan held her hand. However, she opened her mouth but no sound came out, probably because she was afraid.
Eight fierce-looking robbers boarded the bus, each holding a knife. They used the knives to force the driver to close the door and continue driving. They were not allowed to stop or follow the original route, but to drive in any direction at random. They also used the knives to force all the passengers to shut up. A crying child was beaten, and blood suddenly flowed from his forehead. They did not even spare the child, and everyone was so scared that they dared not breathe.
Everyone was asked to hand over all their belongings, but the leader of the gang took the money handed over by the first passenger and suddenly changed his attitude. He threw the money in the passenger's face and said, "You're sending away beggars? You're hiding your money on your body, right? Take off all your clothes! Everyone!"
Lin Anran gritted his teeth. He couldn't bear it anymore. He really couldn't bear this humiliation.
"Brother, look! There's a really beautiful girl here!" A car thief spotted Lin Anran, his eyes full of lust. He reached out and couldn't help but shout, "Brother, after you're done playing, let me play too. I've never seen such a beautiful girl in my life!"
Lin Anran held an iron rod in her hand and first hit the bandit's hands hard. Without pausing, she raised the iron rod again and hit him on the head. She hit him hard a second time and a third time, hitting the bandit's head like a ball. Scarlet blood spurted out and stuck to her iron rod. She decided to beat him to death. After all, she wouldn't go to jail if she killed a bandit or a road bully. She stared at the beast's third leg and raised the iron rod.
Zhang Yan and Li Ming took action immediately when Lin Anran struck the first blow, helping to suppress the bandits who wanted to resist, making it easier for Lin Anran to beat them. The two of them quickly knocked down three bandits each who wanted to get close to Lin Anran, leaving one. However, Lin Anran's fierce behavior scared some people, but some brave people were aroused and rushed forward, beating the last bandit to a point where they didn't know whether he was alive or dead.
"Master, stop the car, let's go to the police station!" Lin Anran stepped on the knocked-down car thief with disgust. Seeing that he could still groan, he stepped on him hard again.
"Go to the Public Security Bureau!" Lin Anran shouted, and it was a call that attracted hundreds of responses. While answering, the passengers went to beat up the car thief who was knocked down nearby.
The driver heaved a sigh of relief and shouted, "Okay! I'll turn around right now!"
As a result, the next second, the bus tire burst, and it lost control and crashed into a tree on the roadside. There was a loud bang, and everyone in the bus was almost knocked unconscious.
Lin Anran shook her head, but the shaking was not a big deal. What was terrible was that she saw a group of villagers with weapons surrounding the bus outside.
Lin Anran: “…”
The car thief had just been knocked unconscious, and now the road bully is here again? It really wasn't appropriate for her to return to the original owner's hometown!
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