The Lost Tomb : Sea Of Sands

Chapter 88: Fatty

Xie Yuchen opened his eyes and sat up.

The coal car's carriage was swaying, and stacks of coal were piled up on either side. He had been sleeping on the floor between the two piles of coal slag.

His whole body was the color of dirty coal, but fortunately, he had the foresight to wear leather, which was easy to take care of.

The swaying was slowly weakening, which meant the train should be approaching the station.

Where was he? There were sixteen trains to choose from, all of which had different destinations. The total number of possible stops and transfers was more than four thousand, and if he transferred multiple times, he would probably appear at almost every railway station in the country.

The other party knew that the only way for him to leave that train was to board another one, so the villages near the tracks would become more and more dangerous within twenty-four hours. It was also easy to leave clues when entering a place where people were.

The basic idea was that the other party would definitely predict his transfer, but he didn't transfer, believing that he could escape even if he was found.

When the train stopped, he pulled open the door of the carriage, and cold air poured in, practically chilling him to the bone.

He wrapped his leather jacket tightly around himself, jumped off the train, saw the coniferous forest on both sides, and asked himself, Have I reached the northeast?

Looking around, he saw no one. This was a small freight station, so only a few people were loading coal in front of it. He went to the platform, walked up to the kiosk spewing white smoke into the air, and bought a pack of cigarettes. Then he got a pedicab into town, found a cell-phone store, and bought a phone.

While buying a down jacket, he set up an app that would send text messages regularly, and put his phone on the bathroom window.

Back at the station, he bought a train ticket and started another journey.

After seven hours, the app started up and automatically sent a text message.

In Beijing, Huo Xiuxiu had been sitting on a stool for two days and one night. She hadn't moved and didn't show any signs of emotion.

The huge courtyard house was cold and deserted compared to the bustling city outside, but there was a chill— along with the smell of blood—amid the noise.

The vast expanse of land extended outward, and all of China was connected to Beijing. It was as if all the pulsations converged through the courtyard, into the room, and into the cell-phone in front of the woman.

When she had approached the courtyard back then, Xie Yuchen was kicking the shuttlecock, and the newly bought courtyard hadn't been completely renovated. Before, she had always heard her grandma say that this elder brother didn't have it easy, not one bit. He was kicking the shuttlecock in the sun, his long hair was more elegant than her own, and he looked very happy and focused. How wasn't it easy? What was he facing at that time? Was it the courtyard, the city of Beijing outside, or all of the land outside of Beijing?

While growing up, Huo Xiuxiu saw and understood bit by bit, but it wasn't until the moment three days ago that she really understood where this elder brother's difficulties lay.

The text message was sent and spread into the sky. After exploding on people's cell-phones in all the cities across China, the courtyard house she was in became a monster almost overnight. The monster kept extending, devouring everything around her, and finally enveloped the whole earth.

In front of this monster, she was the only one left.

"It turns out that you faced this kind of thing before." Huo Xiuxiu's hands were shaking, and she could really feel the difference in the weight of the world after Xie Yuchen's thin body left this courtyard forever.

For so many years, he alone carried the burden that they could be devoured by this behemoth at any moment, all while laughing, drinking tea, arranging flowers, practicing opera, and painting here. She could hug his arm and do all kinds of willful things for so many years.

"Thank you." When Xiuxiu cried before, she had repeated this over and over again, not knowing whether it was because of heartache or fear.

The phone on the table flashed, showing that a text message had been received, but Xiuxiu didn't look at it. She felt relieved and nervous at the same time.

She stood up and walked out, only finding Fatty and a Tibetan in a blue robe, who were squatting on the flower bed in the courtyard. They stood up when she came out.

"So few of us?" Xiuxiu smiled bitterly.

Fatty weighed his backpack. "Why, are you looking down on this fat man?" Xiuxiu looked at the Tibetan in the blue robe, who gave her a courteous Tibetan greeting.

"Let's go."

When Xiuxiu pushed open the door of the courtyard, it was bustling with all kinds of people, just like the Changsha that Wu Xie had seen.

Upon seeing Xiuxiu come out, those people stopped chatting and looked at her. She took a few steps forward, but the people were blocking the road and preventing her from leaving. Someone in the crowd said, "This woman is my sister, don't hurt her. You can do whatever you want to the others."

Fatty flung his backpack down, pulled out two large detonators from inside, held them in front of his body as if they were firecrackers, and lit a cigarette. "I'm sorry, I've watched too many Hong Kong and Taiwanese movies. Children really shouldn't watch too many of them."

"Don't be afraid, he won't dare detonate them." Someone in the crowd said.

When no one moved and that person shouted again, someone else shouted back, "This man's Fatty Wang. He's capable of anything."

"You're too kind, too kind." Fatty said happily, "Come on, come on, come on, if you say that, I'll be embarrassed not to do it. Here, I'll give you some face. "

With that said, he lit a detonator and threw it into the crowd.

Everyone immediately threw themselves away as the detonator exploded and flew everywhere.

When the people got up and looked through the smoke, they saw Fatty and the blue-robed Tibetan standing in front of Xiuxiu. They were both wounded in the explosion, but they hadn't done any evasive maneuvers when it occurred. It was as if they were a wall, blocking anything in front of Xiuxiu.

"It's so fucking awesome pretending to be cool." Fatty spit out a mouthful of blood and seemed a little nauseated as he said to the blue robe, "I'm sorry for my inexperience."

The blue robe was better off than Fatty. He wiped the blood off his face and said something in Tibetan that obviously wasn't very nice.

As the surrounding people started to stand up, Fatty lit another detonator and threw it away. This time, he threw it a little further.

That did the trick. After the explosion, those who could stand up again began to scatter and flee.

The three of them didn't make any moves. Fatty and Xiuxiu just stared at the hands of those in the crowd who were fleeing.

"There!" Fatty's sharp eyes immediately saw a young man with steadier movements than the others. Although he also seemed to be running, the rhythm was completely different from the others.

In an instant, the blue-robed Tibetan rushed at the young man like an arrow shot from a bow, a Tibetan knife flying out of his sleeve.

The young man was caught off guard, but he reacted extremely quickly. At the moment when the knife descended, he unexpectedly dodged and used one hand to flip over. But the blue-robed Tibetan was faster than him, and was already behind him as soon as the young man was back on his feet. The Tibetan knife flashed as quick as lightning and hit him in the back of the head.