The Trouble the Trouble Magnet Brought

Bai Yao thought he knew his own sleeping habits pretty well. He slept very obediently.

So how had he started out sleeping facedown on the little table, only to wake up lying on Kong Wu's thigh?

And wasn't this position a little too intimate?!

The main point!

Why had his Mental Power alarm failed again?!

Baffled and confused, he felt utterly at sea.

As he got up from Kong Wu's thigh, a thought popped into Bai Yao's head out of nowhere.

This thigh is all muscle!

Once he was sitting properly, Bai Yao saw Hu Yang sleeping with his head against Dongfang Dazhuang's shoulder.

Perhaps his brain hadn't fully booted up after he'd just woken, but his first thought on seeing them wasn't how sweet they looked. It was that Hu Yang's neck would definitely hurt when he woke up.

Unlike Bai Yao, who had slept lying down and didn't need to worry about a sore neck.

That thought even made Bai Yao happy for a moment, but his now fully booted-up brain promptly put a stop to it.

How could he think that?!

As all sorts of thoughts crowded Bai Yao's mind, Kong Wu saw him sitting there in a daze and asked, "Did sleeping make you tired? Do you want to get up and move around?"

"Huh? Sure." Startled back to his senses, Bai Yao agreed.

Getting up and moving around sounded good. It would also let him get away for a while and give his muddled brain a chance to return to normal.

Bai Yao got up, stepped past Kong Wu, and headed toward the carriage door.

There was nothing else for it. The passage between the carriages was the only place with any room to move around.

After struggling through the crowd, he was almost there when someone suddenly grabbed him and yanked him back.

Bai Yao: ???

Which blind fool had grabbed him?

He turned to look and saw—Gu Yang.

Oh no, it's the trouble magnet! The thought flashed through Bai Yao's mind.

Though that was what he thought, he didn't say it outright. Instead, he put it another way.

"Oh, it's Comrade Gu. Are you going to the toilet too? Want to go toge... ahem..."

Bai Yao: That nearly slipped out.

To his surprise, Gu Yang readily agreed.

"Sure, let's go together."

Bai Yao: ???

Brother, what's wrong with you?

While he was still in a daze, Gu Yang dragged him away. By the time he came to his senses again, they were already outside the toilet.

"Wait—"

Before he could finish, he had been pulled inside.

Bai Yao looked at Gu Yang in horror. He really hadn't expected this guy to be so bold.

Though the guy was handsome, Bai Yao didn't want a taste of this dish.

Just then, Gu Yang suddenly let out a heavy breath and looked at Bai Yao seriously.

"Sorry, Bai Yao. I have a reason for doing this. Hear me out first. Comrade Jiang Rou and I found some enemy agents, but they're suspicious of us too. I came to find you because I wanted to ask you to get a railway police officer."

Bai Yao: ???

What the heck?!

Enemy agents?!

Good grief, he really is the protagonist, running into all kinds of trouble.

But seriously, don't you have a brain?

With the two of them going to the toilet together, it would be strange if Bai Yao didn't come under suspicion.

And why had Gu Yang come to him?

What was it?

Did he, Bai Yao, have a face that made people feel especially safe?

At that moment, everything Bai Yao was feeling showed plainly on his face.

Seeing this, Gu Yang understood and hurriedly explained, "Don't worry. They didn't see us come here together. I just couldn't stay away too long, so I came to you for help."

Bai Yao breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that... not!

Did Gu Yang really think the enemy agents had no brains? There were bound to be others keeping watch on the train in secret.

With that thought, Bai Yao spread out his Mental Power and, sure enough, spotted two people whose gazes weren't right.

The main point! Those two had daggers on them!

They weren't guns, but in the hands of trained enemy agents, even a dagger was more formidable than a weakling like him.

Of course, now that he'd been dragged into this, he couldn't escape even if he wanted to. So he might as well think about it another way: how could he get the most out of the situation?

After a moment of thought, Gu Yang said, "Bai Yao, we have to go. If we stay too long, they'll get suspicious."

Bai Yao couldn't help rolling his eyes. Then something occurred to him, and he asked, "Comrade Gu, you clearly could have told someone else, so why did you choose to tell me?"

Gu Yang was taken aback, but he didn't hide anything. He answered honestly, "A gut feeling, I guess. I kept feeling that telling someone else would cause even bigger trouble."

With that, Gu Yang opened the door and went out.

Bai Yao: ???

Gut feeling? Your daddy, the Heavenly Dao, gave you a hint, didn't he?!

Cursing inwardly, Bai Yao went out too.

After leaving, Gu Yang went straight back to his seat. Bai Yao, meanwhile, used his Mental Power to see the two lookouts quietly closing in on him.

Still, they didn't seem to be planning to make a move. That counted as good news, he supposed.

Of course, he also knew he couldn't go looking for a railway police officer now, lest he provoke the two of them.

And so Bai Yao returned to his seat, where he saw Hu Yang holding his neck.

His thoughts raced, and Bai Yao came up with a plan. He looked at Hu Yang and said with a smile, "Your neck hurts after only two hours of sleep. There's still another day and night to go."

"Ah, I know! I really don't know how I'm going to get through the rest of the trip," Hu Yang wailed.

Sure enough, Hu Yang reacted just as Bai Yao had expected.

"I just heard Gu Yang say he was going to ask someone about switching to sleeper berths. He asked if any of us wanted one." As Bai Yao spoke, he quietly took Kong Wu's hand and wrote the characters for "enemy agents" on his palm, stroke by stroke.

Just as Gu Yang trusted Bai Yao, Bai Yao trusted Kong Wu's fighting ability.

Kong Wu had been about to catch the mischievous little hand tickling his palm, but Bai Yao stopped him, and he realized what was happening. After Bai Yao wrote the characters twice, he understood the situation too.

Hu Yang, on the other hand, felt something was off when he heard this. But seeing Bai Yao's expression, he played along.

"Really? What are we waiting for, then? Let's hurry up. I'm sleeping in a berth tonight." Hu Yang rose as he spoke, ready to leave.

Bai Yao looked at Kong Wu and Dongfang Dazhuang. "Come along. With your builds, you two can't stand these tiny hard seats either, right?"

"Mm. Dazhuang, let's go." Without giving Dongfang Dazhuang a chance to refuse, Kong Wu pulled him up and led him away.

Dongfang Dazhuang wanted to speak, but every time he tried, Kong Wu's grip tightened. After several attempts, he realized they were leaving because of something important that couldn't be said openly, so he stopped trying and followed along.

As the four of them left, Bai Yao greeted Gu Yang with a cheerful smile when they passed him. "Gu Yang, didn't you say you could find someone to help us switch to sleeper berths? We've all decided to switch. Sorry for the trouble."

Gu Yang understood what Bai Yao had in mind, but wouldn't doing this draw even more attention from the enemy agents?

As he was thinking this, the middle-aged man sitting across from him said with delight, "So you have a connection for that, young man! Could you take my wife and me along? My back feels like it's being pricked with needles when I sit too long."

From Gu Yang's reaction, Bai Yao knew these two were probably the enemy agents he had discovered, so he spoke up before Gu Yang could.

"Why not? Let me tell you, my classmate here is a well-known model student who loves nothing more than helping others. He's really quite famous around our area. After graduating, he resolutely quit his job and chose to go up to the mountains and down to the countryside for the construction of our motherland."

"But that said, my classmate doesn't ask for anything, though you ought to show some appreciation, uncle. Of course, we're all young people with lofty aspirations, so could you write a letter of commendation and send it to the commune we're going to?"

"And of course, it would be even better if you could include a few words about your work unit. What do you say?"

Grinning as he spoke, Bai Yao sat down right between the middle-aged couple.

While everyone was distracted by his unexpected move, Bai Yao used his Mental Power to take everything the two enemy agents had on them.

Money, ration coupons, letters, daggers, and—a pistol.

Bai Yao froze for a moment. He understood why Gu Yang had been so compliant.

But this was no time to complain about Gu Yang. Without giving the middle-aged man a chance to speak, Bai Yao immediately got up to leave, scolding him, "You're hesitating over something like that? Uncle, you really are something else. You want someone's help but don't even want to thank them."

The middle-aged man, who had only just recovered from his surprise, was stunned again. He simply hadn't answered at once, so how had he ended up being scolded?

"No, no, no, of course I have to thank him. How could I be so inconsiderate?"

"That's more like it." Bai Yao looked at Gu Yang. "Let's go, Gu Yang. I owe you one for this, brother. I'll definitely take care of that thing you mentioned before, nice and proper."

Gu Yang understood what he meant. He said "Mm" and got to his feet.

Bai Yao gave Kong Wu a look, and Kong Wu unobtrusively moved to the middle-aged man's side.

As for the middle-aged woman, Bai Yao was thinking of handling her himself when the delicate-looking girl named Jiang Rou went over.

Although Jiang Rou had quite a fiery temper, a fiery temper didn't mean she could fight. He didn't want anyone getting hurt because of his plan.

But just as he went over, before he could speak, Jiang Rou gave him a sweet smile, then took out a handful of soybeans and offered them to him.

"Have some roasted soybeans."

Bai Yao: ???

The next second, he understood what the girl intended.

As she offered him the soybeans, she picked up two and lightly crushed them between her fingers, turning them into roasted soybean powder.

Bai Yao: ...

What a mighty warrior!

I'll take my leave!

There was no need to worry about this girl. It was the middle-aged woman he ought to be worried about.

By now, Hu Yang, who was following behind, had seen what was happening and had a guess.

He could tell those two were no good, but as for the details, he would probably find out soon enough.

Of course, Bai Yao hadn't forgotten the other two accomplices. His Mental Power was keeping an eye on them; he wasn't about to let his credit be diminished.

Those two kept their distance, close enough to provide timely aid without drawing too much attention.

Soon, Bai Yao moved to the very back, pretending to talk to Hu Yang.

After walking some distance farther, Bai Yao and the others came to a sleeper carriage with no passengers in it. He knew this was a suitable place to make a move.

Sure enough, the two enemy agents in front thought so too. Just as they reached for their daggers, Bai Yao beat them to it and shouted, "Make your move!"