Hu Long frowned slightly.
He was about to put it in his pocket, but after thinking it over, he tucked the Human Skin into a compartment inside his backpack instead.
This thing was too strange. Keeping it close would be safer, but it might have side effects, which would be even worse.
Only after finishing did he reach into his pocket and take out his phone, which was vibrating incessantly.
The caller ID showed Hu Chengwen.
"Hello!"
"Xiao Long, how have you been enjoying yourself lately?"
Hu Chengwen's voice came through.
"Not bad."
Hu Long replied.
He knew the other man hadn't called just to check on him.
Over this past while, he had gotten to know the personalities of several members of his original body's family.
Sure enough.
After Hu Chengwen had asked a few questions about how Hu Long was doing,
he finally got to the point.
"You've had enough fun. The end of the year is almost here, and the Ancestral Rite is starting in a couple of days. Come back for a bit."
Hu Chengwen's voice came through.
"The Ancestral Rite?"
Hu Long's gaze shifted.
His words reminded Hu Long of a few scattered memories from his original body.
There really was such a thing as an Ancestral Rite.
But because his memories were so incomplete, he didn't know much about it.
Just then, perhaps because the Ancestral Rite had come up, a fragment of a memory left in his original body's mind suddenly surfaced.
It was a memory of the Hu Family's main branch.
Perhaps because so much time had passed,
the scene was blurry.
His original body only knew that even facing the main branch's people brought immense pressure.
The feeling was strange.
He couldn't put it into words. It was like standing before a ferocious beast.
They were also mysterious and immensely powerful.
Even Hu Chengwen was extremely cautious around members of the Hu Family's main branch.
Remembering this,
Hu Long's thoughts stirred.
It seemed the Hu Family his original body belonged to had some secrets of its own.
He wasn't getting anywhere by staying out here anyway, so he might as well go back and take a look.
With that, he agreed.
"All right, I understand."
The sky was crystal clear, and sunlight spilled down, turning the boundless grassland into a vast carpet of velvety green stretching to the horizon.
Suddenly,
a dark line appeared on the horizon, slowly cutting through the expansive greenery.
Clatter... clatter...
The sound drew closer, slow and heavy, the wheels knocking over the gaps in the tracks.
Thick clouds of black smoke billowed from the locomotive and rolled into the deep blue sky.
It was a green locomotive, its long body gliding steadily across the vast green wilderness.
"Hey, switch seats with me! I want to sit with my girlfriend."
In the aisle at the back of Car 13, a burly man spoke to the young man by the window.
The young man wore sunglasses and had earbuds in. He acted as though he hadn't heard.
The burly man raised his voice. "I'm talking to you!"
Only then did the young man turn his head, his gaze behind the sunglasses sweeping over indifferently.
"Sunlight reaches my seat."
He spoke without much inflection.
"Have your girlfriend switch with someone else."
"A-Cheng, forget it. Don't make a scene."
The woman beside him couldn't help speaking up.
The man's expression darkened, and his voice grew louder. "Xiao Mei, you go sit over there. I'll sit here!"
The other passengers' eyes had already turned toward them.
The woman named Xiao Mei looked embarrassed. Her face went cold as she snapped, "I told you to go over there, so go!"
The burly man opened his mouth, but in the end he didn't dare defy his girlfriend. He could only take out his anger on the young man by the window, glaring at him viciously. "Just you wait—"
Before he could finish, the young man cut him off.
He pulled a booklet from his bag and casually opened it on the table.
"Don't push me."
The young man's voice wasn't loud, but it was perfectly clear.
"I'm mentally ill. If you keep running your mouth and set me off, I might kill you. Believe me?"
The man's gaze fell on the page. It was a diagnosis certificate, stamped at the bottom with the red seal of the "Morning Light Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center."
His expression stiffened. The words "Who knows if it's real?" caught in his throat, and he didn't dare say them.
Bullies in this world were often most afraid of people who didn't care about their own lives—and even more afraid of mentally ill people who didn't care about their own lives.
When ordinary people ran into trouble, they might get scared, have reservations, and choose to back down.
But there was no predicting what a mentally ill person might do. You could never guess what they would do next.
Even if they really killed you, your death would most likely count for nothing.
"What's going on here? What's the matter with you two?"
Just then, a train officer's voice rang out from the carriage ahead as he made his way over.
He had obviously heard the commotion.
The burly man took the opportunity to snort and turn back to his seat, disgruntled.
"Sorry about that. My boyfriend has a bit of a temper."
The woman named Xiao Mei apologized to the young man in a somewhat embarrassed whisper.
He didn't reply. He had already turned back to the window, watching the scenery rush past.
The shifting light was reflected in his sunglasses, which also hid the expression in his eyes.
The young man was Hu Long.
He didn't want to switch seats simply because the sun reached this one, allowing him to increase his Source Value. That was all.
Although high-speed rail already existed in this era, it hadn't become widespread. Most people still relied on green locomotives when traveling.
There were two reasons he didn't choose the more efficient option of flying:
First, only a handful of big cities had airports.
Second, he didn't trust planes. Their accident rate was extremely low, but if something did go wrong, death was almost certain.
Suddenly,
[Source Value +0.1 wisp]
A line of silver text appeared before his eyes.
Hu Long's gaze shifted.
Only ten minutes had passed since his Source Value last increased, and the Sheepskin Scroll had no Source Value left.
Besides, this time the increase was 0.1 wisp, not 0.01.
In other words, this increase hadn't come from sunlight.
Thinking this over, Hu Long followed the direction from which he sensed that cool current of air. His gaze couldn't help turning toward the young woman named Xiao Mei sitting beside him.
She looked to be in her early twenties. She wore a dress, had a slightly yellowish complexion, a high nose and deep-set eyes, and a few freckles.
It was clear that she wasn't of pure Yu State ancestry. She looked more like a person of mixed descent from Luo State.
But that wasn't certain. There were some ethnic minorities in Yu State, after all.
At that moment, she was quietly holding a book and reading it with her eyes lowered.
Two bold black characters were printed on the cover: Evil Thoughts. It was a famous mystery novel.
But that wasn't what Hu Long cared about.
It was her hand—or more precisely, the Snake Bone Bracelet wrapped around her right wrist.
A moment ago, her arm had moved and brushed against his.
"What's wrong?"
The woman seemed to have noticed Hu Long's gaze and asked.
"Could I take a look at your bracelet?"
Hu Long made no attempt to hide his interest.
He pointed directly at the Snake Bone Bracelet and asked.
"This..."
She was about to refuse.
It wasn't particularly valuable, but that didn't mean she would let some strange man look at it.
Especially when he seemed to be mentally ill...
But before she could finish,
Hu Long continued.
"I'll buy your bracelet for ten thousand."
"Are you sure?"
The woman paused.