Chapter 197
Chapter 197
The instant Qin Ying spotted the Shadowy Figure, her heart skipped a beat.
She didn’t make a sound. Judging by its outline, the Shadowy Figure behind the seat looked human.
Of course, it was also possible that a Human-Faced Blob had engulfed some poor soul’s head and was enjoying a midnight snack.
Qin Ying licked her lips. From the corner of her eye, she spotted a heavy iron shovel with a worn wooden handle lying nearby, the kind used to feed coal into the train’s boiler. Without making a sound, she picked it up.
Using the locomotive’s headlamp for light, she crept closer. She raised the weighty shovel, ready to bring it crashing down.
Just then, the Shadowy Figure suddenly let out a groan.
Qin Ying twisted her wrist, forcibly redirecting the shovel at the last second.
Clang!
The shovel slammed heavily into the old train’s blackened wooden planks.
Qin Ying stared uncertainly at the Shadowy Figure. “Minmin?”
She bent down to check.
First, she caught a whiff of Xuncao Flower Spray. Then she saw the person slumped behind the seat.
It was the missing Yin Minmin.
She was also dressed in mountaineering clothes and covered from head to toe in mud. She appeared to have lost consciousness, and one loosened hand still held a bottle of Xuncao Flower Spray.
“Minmin!” Qin Ying helped her sit up.
Yin Minmin’s teeth were clenched tight. Whether from cold or injury, she was trembling violently.
Qin Ying swept her gaze around the area and recalled the Xuncao Flower Spray she had smelled earlier.
This place was covered in slime and was likely crawling with creatures of the Human-Faced Flesh Mass type. The fact that Yin Minmin had been able to lie here unconscious without being devoured meant the spray had probably protected her.
Qin Ying took the spray from Yin Minmin’s hand and sprayed herself twice.
An eerie sound like mollusks slithering immediately came from among the slime mold’s filaments nearby.
Sure enough, Xuncao Flower Spray could repel this kind of Human-Faced Flesh Mass.
Somewhat reassured, Qin Ying carefully put away the half-full bottle.
She patted Yin Minmin’s face twice, only to find her skin burning hot beneath her fingers.
Yin Minmin had a high fever and was muttering incoherently.
Qin Ying had no idea what had happened to her or why she was lying here alone.
For now, she could only find a way to move her somewhere relatively safe, then check whether she was injured.
Unfortunately, unconscious people were dead weight. Without being able to cooperate, Yin Minmin weighed a ton.
It took Qin Ying an enormous amount of effort just to get her upright.
But if she carried Yin Minmin, she wouldn’t be able to move freely. In a place with danger lurking everywhere, neither of them would be safe.
After thinking it over, Qin Ying gave up on moving her alone.
She lowered Yin Minmin back down, then used a finger to perch Thunderbird on her forehead.
“Protect her.”
After giving Thunderbird its instructions, Qin Ying picked up the kerosene lamp and headed toward Carriage No. 8.
Carriage No. 8 was in an even worse state than Carriage No. 9. Bloodstained slime mold crisscrossed the carriage, forming a web.
There were no survivors left.
Qin Ying trudged through slime nearly two fingers deep, using the heavy coal shovel to clear a path forward.
The nest of red and yellow slime churned restlessly at Qin Ying’s Xuncao Flower scent. Countless unseen things fled into the distance along the slime mold.
Relying on her memory, she found the seat where Zhang Yuqin had been sitting.
It was empty. Zhang Yuqin was nowhere to be seen.
With no other choice, Qin Ying retraced her steps.
Using her right hand, which was sheathed in Di Shang, she flicked a lump of slime off her shoulder. Seeing that Zhao Jixian and the others had obediently remained where they were, she called to them, “Come up here and help.”
At her words, Black Seven and his hoodlums stayed rooted to the spot.
Clearly, they had no intention of helping.
Zhao Jixian and Feng Meiyu hesitated for a moment, but ultimately stepped forward to lend a hand.
Qin Ying didn’t force Black Seven’s group. Once Zhao Jixian and Feng Meiyu had climbed into the locomotive, she led them to Yin Minmin.
“This is my colleague. Help me support her.”
Concealing the motion behind the seat, she took out the Xuncao Flower Spray. “This liquid can ward off poisonous miasma, disease, and harmful pests.”
For the time being, Qin Ying regarded Feng Meiyu and Zhao Jixian as allies among the living. When it was time to grant them a favor and demonstrate what she could do, she had no reason to hold back.
Right in front of them, Qin Ying pressed the spray twice, misting both their shoulders. Then she said quietly, “This stuff is worth more than gold. Black Seven and his men don’t deserve any.”
“Don’t say a word, and stay out of the water.”
Zhao Jixian’s face lit up with excitement.
Feng Meiyu also looked as though she had just been let in on an enormous secret. She pressed her lips tightly together and nodded several times.
With the two of them helping, they successfully got Yin Minmin out of the vehicle.
“Are there any refuge chambers in the tunnel?” Qin Ying asked Zhao Jixian.
After receiving an affirmative answer, Qin Ying gestured ahead. “Lead the way. We’ll go to one of them.”
She was still holding the shovel she had picked up earlier. Behind her, Feng Meiyu and Zhao Jixian supported the unconscious Yin Minmin between them.
When they saw the group preparing to leave, Black Seven and his men, who had been pretending to be dead and blind to everything, exchanged looks.
One of Black Seven’s men asked, “Boss, should we follow them?”
Black Seven rolled his eyes at him and jerked his head forward. “Follow them.”
His hand was clenched tightly around the homemade pistol in his pocket. It only held three bullets, not even enough for one per person if trouble broke out. Of course he had to follow.
The refuge chambers Qin Ying had mentioned were standard in railway tunnels. They allowed machinery to turn around and, once construction was complete, gave workers somewhere to shelter temporarily from passing trains or store equipment.
Qin Ying and the others hugged one wall. Following Zhao Jixian’s verbal directions, they walked roughly four hundred meters before finding a relatively large refuge chamber.
A rusty padlock hung from its door, and Di Shang refused to touch it.
Qin Ying had no choice but to do it herself. She hefted the shovel and smashed it hard against the iron lock.
The clang of metal on metal echoed and multiplied through the tunnel until it became deafening.
Black Seven, better known as Fatty, strode forward and barked, “Stop that! Are you trying to lure those things here?”
The tremendous noise magnified his unease. When Qin Ying ignored him, his street-thug temper flared.
He instinctively reached for his pistol, but before he could pull it out and throw his weight around, the Thunderbird perched on Qin Ying’s shoulder turned its head toward him.
A faint blue glow rose over its wings.
Black Seven’s hand trembled, and he hurriedly yanked it back out of his pocket.
He cast several wary glances at the Thunderbird, then turned and muttered a few words to his men.
Just then, there was a loud clang as Qin Ying finally smashed the door open.
Her arms aching, she lowered the heavy shovel. With a long, rusty squeal, she pulled open the iron door to the chamber that had been sealed for years.
A musty, metallic odor wafted out, and Di Shang squirmed uncomfortably around Qin Ying’s arm.
The Thunderbird flew a lap through the chamber first. Once it confirmed that the air was safe, Qin Ying and the others filed inside.
They shut the iron door behind them. By the light of the kerosene lamp, they saw that the chamber was empty apart from a few broken planks and scraps of cloth.
Qin Ying was puzzled. A chamber like this should normally have had at least some odds and ends inside.
Black Seven noticed her expression and chuckled. “You might not know this, but anything in here worth money was sold off long ago.”
In the chaos of 1910, anything belonging to the railway was practically unowned: first come, first served. The place had been picked clean by thieves long ago.
Qin Ying arched a brow but said nothing.
After laying Yin Minmin down in a secluded corner, she pulled over a scrap of cloth and asked Feng Meiyu to hold it up.
It barely formed a private enclosure, but it was enough for Qin Ying to examine Yin Minmin.
She pulled open Yin Minmin’s collar, then froze.
By the light of the kerosene lamp, she could see that beneath Yin Minmin’s hiking jacket was a red dragon-and-phoenix bridal jacket.
Qin Ying’s heart sank. She wiped the mud from Yin Minmin’s face.
Her skin was burning hot, yet her face was deathly pale, and black, veinlike lines covered half of it.
They were the same markings that had appeared on Zhang Yuqin’s face.
Yin Minmin was a Ghost Bride too.
The thought had barely crossed Qin Ying’s mind when Yin Minmin’s eyes flew open and an incoherent murmur escaped her lips.