Chapter 210: Chapter 210

By six o’clock in the evening, they arrived at Provincial City. The woman kept saying she hadn’t reached her destination, so Old Liu drove straight to the train station, and Qin Xi and Li Xianglu got off there, thanking him before they left.

At this moment, Old Liu didn’t have a good expression towards the people on the car, he directly opened the door and let everyone out. He had been patient throughout the journey, and besides, his family’s leader held a much higher position than Wang Family’s—still in office—and the descendants of the Wang Family had to be polite to him. A nanny’s child acting so arrogantly, he simply kicked them out and drove away.

Outside, Li Xianglu was looking at things, while Qin Xi found someone and bought two tickets for the seven-thirty train. There was still an hour and a half before departure, so they couldn’t go far, thus the two headed to the State-owned canteen at the train station. It was mealtime and quite crowded. Qin Xi asked Li Xianglu, who said he had a full lunch and wanted to have some noodle soup.

At the counter, Qin Xi was delighted to find they had Lanzhou noodles, so he ordered a large bowl and a small bowl, adding two cents for two small plates of pickled vegetables.

After a soupy meal, although sweating, they both felt comfortable. At the counter, Qin Xi bought ten hard-boiled eggs since there weren’t any tea eggs around yet.

By the time they finished eating and entered the waiting room, it was already seven o’clock, and according to the hand-written signs, it appeared there were no delays.

In a few minutes, they began checking tickets and both boarded smoothly. Because they had luggage, Qin Xi pulled some strings to secure two officer cabins, and luckily, there were no other passengers. Both stayed together, and Li Xianglu was extremely happy.

Qin Xi put all the luggage under the bed, then let Li Xianglu go freshen up first.

After Li Xianglu returned, it was Qin Xi’s turn. Although there were no other passengers, and each originally had a bunk (top and down), Li Xianglu thought someone might join midway. Since they had beds available, they didn’t occupy other bunks.

Sure enough, during the night, two young girls came aboard. They appeared to be in their early twenties and both were very cheerful and outgoing. They introduced themselves briefly: the round-faced, chubby one with a bob haircut called herself Tian Tian, true to her name, always laughing; the other, slender and somewhat aloof woman, was named Lin Dongxue.

Li Xianglu also politely greeted them but felt something odd about them; their gazes seemed different, as if trying to see beneath the surface.

Qin Xi, as usual, was cold and indifferent to any other woman but Li Xianglu, which pleased her very much.

The next morning, both girls politely invited Qin Xi and Li Xianglu to join them for breakfast in the dining car. Li Xianglu didn’t want to go, but Qin Xi, for some reason, nodded and agreed. Lin Dongxue mentioned leaving someone to watch the stuff, asking Tian Tian to bring her meal back since she didn’t sleep well and preferred to stay.

No one said much; at that time, the train’s food was still decent: rice porridge, pickled vegetables, steamed buns, and you could pay for fried eggs.

Li Xianglu and the others had bought food on the road, so they just took it out and courteously offered some to Tian Tian, who smiled and also took out an egg.

The three had breakfast together and then went back. Lin Dongxue was still eating when they returned.

Because her period had just ended and she hadn’t bathed or changed her underwear, Li Xianglu thought about going to the restroom to change, so she took out the bag from under the bed to search for items, not revealing anything odd despite sensing something amiss. After pulling out another bag and searching, she finally found a few items, took them, and left with a smile.

After tidying up a bit, Li Xianglu came back, and Tian Tian and Lin Dongxue were chatting casually, greeting Li Xianglu with a smile when they saw her come in.

After finishing their meal, everyone was free; Li Xianglu took out a book to read, and seeing that Li Xianglu didn’t say anything, Qin Xi took a book and went to sit in the aisle.

At noon, the same three people went to have lunch together, Lin Dongxue still didn’t want to go.

On the train, Li Xianglu, aside from asking what to eat and whether to drink water, did not converse with Qin Xi at all.

It wasn’t until 4 PM when they got off the train that the four of them said goodbye. Li Xianglu seemed nervous and looked around for a long time. Qin Xi felt that this girl had been acting strange all along, but she didn’t ask. Only after they got home did Li Xianglu finally breathe a sigh of relief, her palms sweating.

Mr. Li had known that the two were coming back today but didn’t know what time exactly. Sister Xing was cooking dinner, and as soon as she saw them, she quickly boiled water for them to bathe.

Li Xianglu didn’t bother to talk first; she went to shower, changed into new clothes, and with her hair still dripping wet, she came out into the yard. Qin Xi had already finished washing and was chatting leisurely with Mr. Li.

Qin Zhen was nowhere to be seen. Upon asking, they found out that he had gone to see Mr. Qin, saying that he had been going there every day recently and coming back at 7 PM, treating it like a job, and when asked why, he wouldn’t say, just pouted with a face full of resentment.

Li Xianglu saw Sister Xing busy in the kitchen, then took a deep breath and told the two, "Those two women on the train were suspicious."

Qin Xi frowned—indeed, he also felt that those two were a bit strange, but couldn’t put his finger on what specifically was odd.

After Mr. Li inquired further, they found out that two persons entered their carriage during the night.

Li Xianglu said solemnly, "They rummaged through our belongings."

What! Qin Xi was startled, then coldly asked, "When?"

Li Xianglu replied, "Right after breakfast, I wanted to change clothes, then I discovered that our things had been searched through. But I don’t know if they touched the black bag."

Qin Xi nodded, "No wonder you were unusually quiet the whole way."

Li Xianglu shook her head with unease, "These two were too strange, not like normal people. Tian Tian may be smiling, but I feel her smile doesn’t reach her eyes, as if she is smiling just for the sake of smiling."

Mr. Li suddenly grew curious, "Smiling for the sake of smiling?" This was a course they trained in back in the day, creating a persona; to play a cheerful person you have to smile often, smile at everyone, and it eventually becomes as natural as breathing.

Thinking this, Mr. Li looked towards Qin Xi.

Qin Xi’s face looked particularly solemn; he didn’t know who they were, but they were definitely not simple. Was it just about searching his belongings?

Without delving deeper into the matter, after dinner they sent Sister Xing away. Today was August 10, and their plan for collecting scraps still needed a few more days. Since Li Xianglu needed to organize things, they decided to have Sister Xing continue to come over.

At exactly 7 o’clock, Qin Zhen returned, and when he saw his elder brother and Li Xianglu, he wailed, "Brother, Xianglu, Dad doesn’t want us anymore!"

ps: Forgot the Chapter names in the previous few Chapters; truly, even if I made them, you wouldn’t understand them...

And yes, still writing.