They didn’t notice anything unusual all the way to the dining car. By the time the two of them entered, the usual mealtime was almost over, and there were only a few people sitting inside.
As they passed the second row of dining seats, Qin Ziqi caught that faint rotten-egg smell again, but there was no one sitting there. Qin Ziqi stopped and signaled with her eyes that there was something wrong with this row.
The comrades who had come with Si Chenye followed behind them at a reasonable distance. Si Chenye clasped his left hand behind his back and made a hand signal toward them.
When the two of them continued farther inside, Lu He had already taken a seat in the second row and was slowly checking underneath the seats with both hands.
At the innermost row of the dining car, a man sat with his back to Qin Ziqi and the others, eating his meal. When they approached, the man turned his head and glanced at them before turning back to continue eating.
The moment Qin Ziqi saw the man’s face, her hand instinctively caught Si Chenye’s sleeve. She immediately relaxed and said, “Aye, I want to eat the dish that comrade is having too. Buy it for me.”
Si Chenye’s eyes flickered.
Aye?
But he understood that Qin Ziqi was giving him a signal.
“You just said you wanted braised pork. Why do you suddenly want scrambled eggs with cucumber?”
Si Chenye calmly led Qin Ziqi to sit down behind the man. With his body facing the dining-car door, he made a hand signal toward Lu He.
Meanwhile, Lu He had found something unusual beneath the second-row seat. After receiving Si Chenye’s signal, he immediately left the dining car to find his comrades.
“I don’t care. I just want it. Or you can buy both dishes?” Qin Ziqi tried her best to remain relaxed, leaning back slightly.
She was certain now.
It was the same man, and it was the same smell.
She slowly nodded at Si Chenye.
Good heavens. Was she really going to help capture an enemy agent?
Could she earn a merit citation for this?
But there was gunpowder involved. It was a bomb!
Could she get hurt?
“All right, all right. How about you go back to the carriage and wait for me? I’ll buy it and bring it to you. You like malted milk, don’t you? The one I just made is still in the carriage.”
Now that they had identified the man, Si Chenye couldn’t let an ordinary civilian remain in danger. He came up with an excuse to get Qin Ziqi out of the dining car.
Qin Ziqi naturally understood.
“All right, but hurry. I’m starving.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll be quick.”
Qin Ziqi walked toward the dining-car door, looking back every few steps.
“You have to be as fast as possible, okay? I’m really hungry!”
Lu He, who was hiding outside the door, was completely dumbfounded.
If he hadn’t known that these two had never met before, he really would have thought they were a couple. The way they spoke to each other was so sweet and clingy.
As soon as she left the dining car, Qin Ziqi let out a sigh of relief.
Lu He walked behind her and whispered, “Comrade Qin, for your safety, don’t go back to your seat yet. Come to our carriage and stay there for a while. There are railway police officers there.”
“Okay, I understand.”
Qin Ziqi quickly walked to Si Chenye and the others’ carriage. It was completely empty now, with only two railway police officers standing guard at the entrance.
“Are you Comrade Qin?”
“Yes.”
“Deputy Battalion Commander Lu gave us instructions earlier. You can go straight inside.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Inside, every bunk had a neatly folded military uniform placed on it.
But what was this overwhelming smell of stinky feet?
Qin Ziqi looked around the carriage.
Sure enough, beneath the lower bunks were six pairs of Liberation-style cloth shoes.
With no other choice, Qin Ziqi took a bottle of medicated oil from her space and dabbed a little beneath her nose. She was afraid that if she stayed there too long, she’d actually pass out from the smell.
She had no disrespect toward the soldiers.
But the smell of stinky feet was genuinely difficult to endure.
With nothing else to do, she walked to the doorway and asked one of the railway police officers, “Do I have to stay here the whole time?”
“Comrade Qin, since you’ve seen the dangerous individual, it’s safest for you to remain here until the danger has been eliminated.”
“All right. Could you please have one of your comrades help me bring some things from my seat? It’s really inconvenient for me to go back.”
She had nothing to eat or drink, and there were books in her luggage that she could read. Sitting there doing nothing while smelling stinky feet was simply unbearable.
“Of course. Which seat are you in?”
Qin Ziqi gave the officer her seat number. The officer called over a train attendant to help, but the two of them still remained stationed at the doorway.
A few minutes later, the train attendant arrived carrying Qin Ziqi’s suitcase and bundle.
“The educated youth who was sitting with you said these two belong to you.”
“Yes, thank you.”
Qin Ziqi didn’t want to carry too many things and squeeze through the crowded train, so on the surface she had only brought one suitcase and one bundle containing food. Everything else had supposedly been sent ahead by mail.
She took a book out of her suitcase and began reading absentmindedly.
Many books were prohibited during this period and couldn’t be read, so the book Qin Ziqi had brought was one of the original owner’s high school textbooks.
She had no idea how much time had passed when the carriage door suddenly opened.
Si Chenye walked in.
Qin Ziqi glanced at her watch.
Good heavens. It was already four o’clock.
She had been here for more than three hours.
“Is it over?”
Si Chenye nodded.
“Yes. It’s over. We caught him and also found the explosives he and his accomplices had hidden on the train. Thank you this time. I’ll report your contribution to my superiors.”
“Oh, good. Then can I go back now?”
Although hard seats were terribly uncomfortable, these sleeper berths belonged to someone else, so Qin Ziqi hadn’t dared take advantage of the situation. She had only sat on the lower bunk and leaned against the table in the middle.
It was still tiring, though at least her backside wasn’t hurting quite as much.
“Because of your contribution, I just spoke with the conductor and arranged for you to switch from a hard seat to this sleeper berth. You’re going all the way to Harbin, right? You still have two days to travel.”
The berth next door happened to be unoccupied.
“Really? Is that okay? Won’t it be too much trouble?”
Her words sounded polite, but Qin Ziqi was already cheering inwardly.
Two more days and two more nights.
If she had to sit the whole way, she might be crippled by the end of the journey.
“It’s fine. It’s right next door. Just go over there.”
Si Chenye noticed the luggage by the door.
“Is that yours?”
“Yes.”
He picked up her suitcase and bundle and personally carried them to the berth next door.
“To conceal our identities, we didn’t assign anyone to this compartment. You can stay here as you like.”
It was practically a gift from heaven.
With no one else around to disturb her, Qin Ziqi could simply lock the door at night and enter her space to bathe. She wouldn’t have to feel uncomfortable from being unwashed, nor would she have to use the foul-smelling train toilet.
Every day, she only needed to pretend to go outside and walk around a little.
“If it weren’t for your help this time, we wouldn’t have caught them so quickly. If we hadn’t caught them, it could have resulted in an irreversible tragedy.”
Si Chenye couldn’t reveal the specific details, but Qin Ziqi had indeed played the biggest role.
Who would have thought the enemy agents would be so ruthless?
There were three of them, and they had secretly planted ten bombs on the train.
Fortunately, Qin Ziqi had detected the smell. And one of the three men had been easier to deal with—not because he couldn’t withstand interrogation, but because he simply wasn’t very tough.
Otherwise, if they hadn’t managed to locate all ten bombs before the timers went off, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
“I just did what I could. After all, I’m on this train too.”
It had simply been a coincidence.
Otherwise, Qin Ziqi wouldn’t have known anything about it.
She wasn’t actually clairvoyant.