Rustle… rustle…
At that moment, an extremely faint sound came from the very back of the carriage.
Xi Renjie frowned and turned to look. At the rear of the carriage, several storage compartments were stacked together. Some of the compartment doors were open, revealing cleaning supplies that the attendants hadn’t had time to remove, but most remained closed. The sound came from the lowest compartment.
The noise was so quiet that only Xi Renjie, sitting in the last row, could hear it. He stood up and walked to the storage compartment, forcefully yanking open the bottom door!
Inside the dim and cramped compartment, a girl of about five or six years old was curled up in a ball, staring at him in terror.
Xi Renjie froze.
He didn’t know where the girl had come from. Most likely, she had sneaked in during the chaos before the train departed. Because of her small size and clever hiding spot, no one had noticed her… But perhaps her body had stiffened from being curled up for so long, and she couldn’t help but shift slightly—just enough for him to hear.
The girl’s face was deathly pale. Like an injured dove, she desperately tried to shrink further into the compartment, her eyes filled with fear and despair as she stared at Xi Renjie.
"Chief Xi? What are you doing?" A law enforcer caught sight of Xi Renjie standing at the back of the carriage and asked in confusion.
Xi Renjie glanced at the girl in the compartment, then closed the door with his backhand, answering calmly.
Before the law enforcer could say anything else, the train suddenly jolted violently. Bright sparks flew from the tracks as the speed dropped sharply. Amid the screeching of brakes, everyone lost their balance and lurched forward!
"What’s going on?!" Xi Renjie steadied himself and immediately demanded, "Why are we braking suddenly?"
"I… I didn’t brake!"
A bewildered voice came from the driver’s compartment. "I don’t know what happened—the train malfunctioned on its own!"
"How could it malfunction out of nowhere?!"
Xi Renjie and the others stuck their heads out the window, trying to see what was going on.
Screech—!
Amid the wildly flying sparks, the train’s speed plummeted. The beam of the headlights pierced the darkness, illuminating the silhouette of a figure in a trench coat standing calmly on the tracks under the night sky.
The figure stood motionless on the rails, watching the train roar toward him like an out-of-control beast. The wind whipped his coat, and amidst the drifting snowflakes and mist, his form stood as unshakable as a mountain.
[Audience Expectation +3]
[Current Expectation: 63%]
The train’s speed dropped sharply, slowing to a halt until the massive locomotive came to a steady stop right in front of him.
"A person?" A law enforcer narrowed his eyes, trying to make out the figure’s face.
"Is it a civilian trying to stop the train?"
"No, wait… that coat…"
"It’s a judge? Wait… that’s Chen Ling!!"
"How is that possible? Didn’t he die?!"
Under the silent night sky, the figure slowly raised his head. The moment Xi Renjie saw that familiar face, his emotions churned with indescribable complexity…
"Good evening, everyone." Chen Ling toyed with the control lever he had swapped from the train’s front and spoke lightly,
"It’s so late. Where are you all rushing off to?"
The law enforcers all turned to Xi Renjie. After all, Chen Ling was a judge, and the only one who could oppose him was another judge—Xi Renjie himself. After a moment of silence, Xi Renjie stepped off the train.
He walked slowly forward through the snow-covered wilderness.
"The dose I prepared for you should have been enough to keep you asleep until morning… How did you do it?"
"Thanks for the hospitality, Chief Xi." Chen Ling met his gaze calmly. "Your wine tasted good. If it hadn’t been spiked, I would’ve gladly had a few more sips."
Xi Renjie froze slightly, staring at Chen Ling in shock. "You didn’t drink it at all? Impossible… I watched you drink it."
Chen Ling stood silently, offering no answer. At this point, explanations were meaningless.
"So… you heard everything I said."
"I did."
Xi Renjie stopped in front of the locomotive. The headlights tore through a corner of the night, illuminating the two figures in black trench coats standing on the tracks, silently staring at each other.
After a long pause, Xi Renjie spoke with a complicated expression, "Chen Ling… you shouldn’t have come."
Back at headquarters, when it was just the two of them, Xi Renjie could secretly defy Aurora City’s orders and let Chen Ling live… But now that Chen Ling had appeared before everyone, Xi Renjie had no choice but to carry out his duty. If Chen Ling didn’t die here, Xi Renjie would have no way to explain himself once he reached Aurora City.
"You’re really planning to take these scum to Aurora City?" Chen Ling glanced at the law enforcers behind Xi Renjie, laden with bags of loot. "This isn’t like you."
Xi Renjie’s eyes trembled slightly, but he replied, "It’s Aurora City’s order."
"Aurora City?" Chen Ling sneered. "You’ll do whatever Aurora City tells you? Are the people in Aurora City gods?"
"Chen Ling, you and Han Meng are geniuses. You can afford to look down on Aurora City with your pride." Xi Renjie frowned. "But for me, Aurora City’s orders come above all else."
Chen Ling didn’t dwell on the issue. Instead, he cut straight to the point, "You spared me once by defying Aurora City’s orders. This time, I won’t kill you either… Leave. I only want the lives of those behind you and this train."
Hearing this, the expressions of the people on the train changed instantly. They stared at Chen Ling in fear and hastily cried out, "Chief Xi!! You can’t let him kill us! He’s the heretic Aurora City wants dead!"
"Chief Xi! We can’t delay any longer… Kill him now!"
"Yeah, if we wait any longer, the civilians behind us will catch up…"
"Aurora City wants Chen Ling dead. If he doesn’t die, how will we explain ourselves when we get there?"
"…"
Amid the clamor behind him, Xi Renjie shook his head without hesitation. "They’re people Aurora City wants. If you try to kill them, I can’t just stand by."
The group immediately relaxed. Even though Chen Ling was a judge, he was only first-tier. As long as Xi Renjie was determined to protect them, Chen Ling couldn’t touch them.
"Oh?" Chen Ling narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Then I’ll kill them anyway… Can you stop me?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Chen Ling’s figure blurred and vanished from the spot!
Chen Ling moved too fast. Even Xi Renjie couldn’t react immediately. By the time he caught sight of Chen Ling’s trajectory, the black trench coat had already crashed into the carriage behind him!