Kicked by God

Su Huan quietly retreated, paid them no further attention, and knocked on the door of Yu Jing and her mother's room.

Yu Jing stepped into the doorway, glanced at the noisy sixth carriage, and asked softly, "Do you want me to come with you?"

Su Huan was a little over six feet tall, just enough to look down at Yu Jing, who was five foot six.

His lips parted slightly. "Come on."

Su Huan turned and walked toward the carriage ahead.

Yu Jing hurried after him.

There were eight deluxe sleeper compartments, the same number as the regular sleeper compartments.

The difference was that each deluxe sleeper had one large bed and housed only one person, while regular sleepers had four beds.

Su Huan opened the door and stepped over a fuel tank. He found a few awkward footholds among a pile of metal parts before finally managing to sit down on his bed.

From there, he looked down at a floor strewn with all kinds of metal parts. Wrenches of various lengths stuck out of an iron drum cut from a fuel tank.

The carpet underfoot was soaked with oil, too.

The edges of the rooms on both sides bore signs of rough cutting. It looked like the two adjoining compartments had been opened up.

Su Huan looked up and saw Yu Jing standing there in a daze. He narrowed his eyes. "Is Yu Shuo surprised?"

Yu Jing's calm expression shifted slightly, and her eyes lit up.

"Where did you get this?"

Su Huan said coldly, "Whether you and your mother can stay depends on whether you can put this motorcycle back together tonight."

Yu Jing picked up the wheel by her feet, not caring that the oil smeared across it dirtied her T-shirt. "Kawasaki Ninja H2. This isn't a motorcycle. You can call it a Land Flyer."

"It revs at 130,000 rotations per minute. Do you know what that means?"

Yu Jing suddenly turned her head and stared at him as she asked.

Su Huan was taken aback by her intensity, then asked doubtfully, "What does it mean?"

He'd ridden plenty of motorcycles in his previous life, but they'd all been ordinary models. He'd brought this one back because its design was especially good-looking.

He hadn't even known the make or the specs.

He hadn't expected Yu Jing to recognize it at a glance.

"When you twist the throttle all the way, it feels about the same as getting kicked by God."

Su Huan frowned. "Just tell me whether you can put it back together."

"No problem!"

Yu Jing agreed at once, then began searching the oil drum for tools she could use. She looked even more eager than Su Huan.

Su Huan said nothing. He took out his log and began watching Yu Jing.

At first, things seemed fairly normal.

"Where's the rear suspension?"

"Behind the panel to your front left."

"Where's the piston caliper?"

"It should be... probably under your foot."

"It's not here."

"Why don't you look again?"

Half an hour later, the scene began to get more animated.

"I can't believe they took this bike apart by force. They even scratched the paint!"

"What a waste!"

"Unbelievable!"

Su Huan, helping nearby, watched Yu Jing grit her teeth as she worked on the bike and muttered curses under her breath. His expression shifted between light and dark.

If she hadn't been so good with her hands, and if her figure outlined by those jeans hadn't been so tempting, Su Huan would already have been unable to resist strangling her right there.

"Hand me a wrench."

"This one?"

"No, the other one."

"This one...?"

"Not that one! The one I just used!"

"Forget it. I'll do it myself!"

Su Huan glanced at the four or five wrenches Yu Jing had just touched and twitched his mouth.

He couldn't tell whether the woman was being serious or putting on an act.

Before she picked up a wrench, she had the air of a highly educated research professional. Now she was more like the fiery, foul-mouthed young mechanics from the repair shops in the wasteland in his previous life.

Her little mouth kept going nonstop.

But the results were impressive, too. The parts he'd scattered all over the ground had been put back together by a third or so.

This wasn't just finding a treasure. It was like striking a whole mountain of ore.

Her hands-on skills rivaled those of a mechanic with ten years' experience.

While Yu Jing wasn't calling for him, Su Huan took out his little notebook and checked off "maintenance specialist" on the page for his Armed Train plan.

Once he found Master Ba again in a while, he could officially launch the first phase of the Armed Train project!

"December 17, early winter, temperature 24°C—"

The temperature had risen another degree. It looked like the deadline was still a long way off, but the temperature only rose slowly in the early stages.

Su Huan had kept an eye on Yu Jing for several hours last night. Once he confirmed she really knew her stuff, he went to sleep in the room next door.

Of course, not wanting to be muttered about to his face had been a major factor, too.

Clatter—clatter—

The train rolled slowly out of the tunnel and stopped in the outskirts of Wen'an City.

As far as the eye could see, lush green mountains rose around them. Modern industrial buildings dotted the valleys, and the train stretched across the tracks like a green locomotive basking in the sun.

Aside from the zombies being hauled on the train making a bit of noise, everything was lovely.

The carriage door opened. Su Huan stood in the doorway with a long wrench in hand and looked around.

He casually knocked twice on the metal door.

The shrill clangs rang out.

The zombies on the carriage howled even louder, but after a long wait, only one half-dead zombie crawled out from underneath the train.

Its white shirt was worn to shreds, its flesh smeared with dirt, and half its face was missing.

"You don't look like you're from around here, either."

Su Huan jumped down and swung the wrench at the back of its head.

With a thud, the zombie fell silent.

"Ding!"

"Daily kill count: plus one!"

Su Huan mimicked a mechanical voice and laughed strangely.

He didn't have a system, and killing zombies hadn't gotten him anything so far. But life was life—you had to find ways to amuse yourself.

Otherwise, he would never have made it through four years.

Liang Kuan followed close behind, calm as ever, a fire axe in his hand.

He was clearly already used to Su Huan's eccentricities.

The two of them walked to the next carriage, carefully keeping away from beneath the train. When nothing creepy crawled out, Liang Kuan went forward and opened the door.

Since it was an old-fashioned sightseeing train, the doors had no electronic locks or speed-sensitive locks. They still used a mechanical mechanism.

They had to be operated manually.

Liang Kuan pulled the door open, revealing a row of drawn, anxious faces inside. The moment they saw Su Huan, their expressions turned to fear and disgust.

"Time to get to work! Come on out!"

Su Huan kept up his customer-service smile.

Seeing that there was no danger, the people gradually filed out and gathered in the open space.

Ignoring their resentful and fearful looks, Su Huan clapped twice and said with practiced ease, "Same deal as always: bring back three portions of food and water, plus one medical supply, and you can get on the train. Today's special ticket is a tool. Whether it's a power drill or a chainsaw, anything useful for repairing machinery can count as one ticket."

Quite a few people's faces changed.

But they didn't dare refuse to go. They could only stand among the crowd and mutter under their breath.

"Before, we only had to bring back three portions of food and water. Why do we need to bring medicine now, too?"

"We can barely find enough to avoid the zombies... Where are we supposed to get that much food?"

A young man in a hooded sweatshirt glanced at Su Huan, silently left the group, and began exploring the area.