An unpleasant smell filled the train. With New Year approaching and so few trains running to begin with, the hard-seat carriage was packed. Every seat was occupied, people leaned against the sides, others lay on newspapers spread beneath the seats, and even the connections between carriages were crowded. There was always a queue outside the toilet, too.
It was dark outside, but the carriage lights were fairly bright. Li Anguo and Chen Xingbang sat in the middle, with Li Junfeng and Li Junshan on the aisle. Two unfamiliar young men occupied the innermost seats. They were quite wary of the four of them and barely spoke along the way.
Late that night, Li Anguo and Chen Xingbang slept with their heads on the table. The tables for six-person seating in the hard-seat carriage were slightly longer than those for four, but they still only reached the middle seats. Li Junshan and Li Junfeng, sitting on the outside, had no room to lean forward. Li Junfeng rested against Chen Xingbang's back, while Li Junshan held the lining of his coat over himself with both hands and slept with his head tilted back.
Then he felt something moving against him. Opening his eyes a slit, he saw a short, middle-aged man leaning against the side of his seat, pretending to rest. In fact, the man's hand was already reaching inside his coat.
Li Junfeng instantly flared up!
There was no money inside his coat, but targeting him like this-did the man think men from Eastern Henan had no fight in them?
Keeping his eyes nearly closed, he released his coat and clenched his fists. Suddenly turning, he grabbed the man's outstretched wrist with his right hand and drove his left fist hard into his cheek!
The middle-aged man screamed and toppled over.