Chapter 37...

Chapter 37...

Chapter Thirty-Seven

If we're talking about Jiang Lai's special skills, we have to mention her previous profession. As a bestselling author, she even took on the task of drawing comics herself to help her books sell better. With the added advantage of being a bestselling author and having decent drawing skills, she achieved a synergy greater than the sum of its parts.

Speaking of train stations, where many accidents occur in period novels, Jiang Lai initially looked around curiously, wondering if she would also encounter some accidents like some female protagonists in period novels. However, everything went smoothly at the train station until she boarded the train, and she didn't encounter anything strange.

Everything went smoothly. Sleeper tickets were hard to buy at this time, so I could only buy seated tickets. When I found my seat, there were already people sitting there. However, the people I encountered were all understanding and made way for me as soon as they saw me with my ticket.

"Excuse me, we were sitting here because there was no one here." Sitting upstairs was a family of three: a young couple with a little girl who looked about three or four years old.

"It's alright," Jiang Lai replied, but she had no intention of giving up her seat to someone else. The journey would take several days, and Jiang Lai wasn't that kind of saint.

Seeing that the couple had made way for him, You Maidong said to Jiang Lai, "Jiang Lai, you can sit by the window."

"It's alright, Auntie, please sit there. If you feel stuffy, you can open the window for some fresh air." Jiang Lai, who didn't feel carsick, quickly declined.

"No need, no need, you sit inside. It's better for Anguo's father and me to sit outside." You Maidong said, leaning closer to Jiang Lai and whispering, "You young people should sit inside. So many people here have bought standing tickets. Some people might think you're too shy to give up your seats." If you encounter an elderly, weak, or disabled person, you'll feel bad if you give up your seat, but you'll also feel uncomfortable if you don't.

I understand. It's just that they're afraid of encountering people who take advantage of their age and morally blackmail others.

"Then I'll sit inside," Jiang Lai said. She made her decision immediately after hearing You Maidong's words; she didn't want to stand for days.

"That's right." You Maidong was satisfied with Jiang Lai's obedience. That's how a person should be: not to take advantage of others, but also not to suffer losses.

However, not long after You Maidong finished speaking, someone actually started morally coercing others to give up their seats, as if echoing what You Maidong had just said.

"You're such a big young man, why don't you give way to an old lady? I'm so old, what's wrong with you giving way to an old lady?" The voice sounded quite kind, but the meaning behind the words was not so pleasant.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw a seat behind them where a woman in her forties or fifties was talking to a young man in military uniform. Jiang Lai, with her keen sense of smell, caught a faint whiff of blood and anti-inflammatory medication. The young man in uniform was injured and was fast asleep, undisturbed even in the noisy environment. Jiang Lai guessed that he must be seriously injured.

"You're being unreasonable, ma'am. Why should that young man give up his ticket just because he paid for it? Just because you're older doesn't mean you don't need a ticket!"

"Aren't soldiers supposed to serve the people? Leaders all say they serve the people, so what, did I say something wrong?"

As soon as the old lady said this, the person who had been speaking up for the young soldier fell silent, unable to find a rebuttal. Especially these days, many people can get caught up in something wrong and get into trouble for it with just one wrong word. In this era, almost everyone thinks twice before acting bravely for a just cause.

Seeing that no one responded, the old woman became even more arrogant: "See, I told you so! Young people these days have no respect for the elderly or children. Everyone says the People's Liberation Army stands up for the people, but I've never seen such an ignorant person..."

Seeing that the young soldier didn't react at all, the old woman felt she had been provoked and actually reached out to shove him. However, the young soldier fell down as a result of the old woman's shove. Fortunately, the train was crowded and he fell onto a pile of luggage, otherwise he might have fallen directly to the ground.

The sight terrified all the onlookers. The moment the young soldier fell, the crowd who all stepped back created a gap in his body.

"Hey hey hey hey... What are you doing? I'm telling you, don't try to scam me on purpose. I'm telling you, this... this has nothing to do with me... I... I..."

Jiang Lai clapped her hands and stood up, but You Maidong was even faster. As a military family member, seeing this situation inevitably reminded her of her son, and she wondered if Ye Anguo would also be morally blackmailed like this outside.

Thinking of Ye Anguo and his fellow soldiers, how hard they train every day, how many missions they go on, and how they go to the battlefield. The three children Ye Anguo adopted all had fathers who died on the battlefield or during missions, and they might also suffer the same hardships as this young man. Whenever You Maidong thought of this, he felt a pang of sadness, as if his heart was being squeezed by a hand.

However, just when Jiang Lai thought You Maidong would rush up to argue with the old woman, she saw You Maidong rush forward and quickly help the young soldier up: "Young man, young man, wake up..."

A step too late, Jiang Lai immediately shouted, "Comrades near the carriage door, please help call the train police officer."

A kind-hearted uncle immediately replied, "I'll go."

As Jiang Lai took out her own military water bottle, which Jin Nian had secretly mixed with spirit milk, she called out while pouring the water, "Is there a doctor in the carriage? This soldier seems to be injured."

"Should we take him to the hospital? We need to get him there before the train leaves."

Someone suggested sending the young soldier to the hospital, but coincidentally, the train, whose doors had already been closed, started moving at that moment, and began to chug along.

Jiang Lai glanced at her watch, puzzled. She had only ever heard of trains being delayed; was she just inexperienced? Could a train really arrive early?

However, Jiang Lai didn't have time to think any further. There was no doctor in their carriage, not even a doctor. Some people quickly went to other carriages to call for help, while others went to the train crew and asked them to use the train's public address system to find them.

At this moment, Jiang Lai could only quickly bring the cooled boiled water mixed with spirit milk to the young soldier. No matter what the young soldier's condition was, Jiang Lai had to feed him the spirit water as soon as possible, whether it was to save his life or to strengthen his body.

However, she noticed something was wrong. As mentioned before, Jiang Lai's senses were very sharp now, especially her nose. As soon as she got close to the young soldier, she smelled a medicinal scent on him, one of which Jiang Lai found very familiar.

"One of these smells very similar to the mutated tiger-striped grass we saw in the secret realm a few days ago." Jin Nian's voice rang out at just the right moment.

"I remember you said before that this tiger-striped grass is very poisonous, and even a little bit can cause a person to faint?" Jiang Lai's face darkened. She couldn't care less about anything else at the moment. She squatted down and forcefully pinched the soldier's cheek, forcibly feeding him a mixture of spirit milk and cooled boiled water.

Actually, Jiang Lai had considered this, because the tiger-striped grass was very poisonous, and neither she nor Jin Nian knew what other medicinal herbs were in the wine besides the tiger-striped grass. Jiang Lai drinking this glass of cold water might have adverse effects.

If nothing happens, that's fine. But if something does happen, it's impossible to explain. Even if nothing happens, what if the other person foams at the mouth or spits out blood during the process of using the spirit milk to detoxify? Jiang Lai would really be speechless.

Fortunately, things are moving in a positive direction. After being fed the spiritual milk, the young soldier's complexion gradually improved, no longer as pale as before. His slightly furrowed brow and twitching fingers also indicated that he might wake up soon.

Jiang Lai's attention had long since shifted away by then. She looked around and discovered that the arrogant old woman who had been so domineering just a few minutes ago was nowhere to be seen.

The soldier who inexplicably fainted, the old woman who disappeared, and the train that started running ahead of schedule—just thinking about these three things made Jiang Lai instinctively feel that something was wrong, and Jin Nian confirmed her guess.

"That old lady isn't an old lady, she's a man." It was clear from Jin Nian's voice that he was also shocked. Normally, with Jin Nian's abilities, this person wouldn't be able to disguise himself under his nose. But Jin Nian had his own principles. He believed that as a boy, he should have at least some respect for women. Therefore, he would never use his abilities to "see" women unless he sensed something was wrong.

"Where is that person? Did they slip away?" Jiang Lai didn't blame Jin Nian.

"He just sneaked away and went to another carriage. Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him and won't let him get away. But how are you going to catch him without being exposed?" Jin Nian asked curiously.

"You probably don't know what I used to do." Jiang Lai chuckled, then pulled out a notebook in front of everyone, took out a pencil and started drawing quickly. Before long, the image of the old lady from before was vividly depicted on the paper.

"Jiang Lai?" You Maidong called out to Jiang Lai, but received no response. He looked up and saw the painting Jiang Lai had drawn, and immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Well, the prospective mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were on the same page. It turned out that You Maidong had also noticed that the old lady was missing. She was thinking about how to find her when she saw Jiang Lai and remembered her nearly thirty-year-old son's childish behavior of showing off Jiang Lai's paintings to them. She remembered that Jiang Lai was a great painter, but before she could even say anything, Jiang Lai had already finished her painting.

Although it seemed like Jiang Lai and Jin Nian had been talking for a long time, only a few minutes had actually passed. Meanwhile, the train crew had already realized what was happening, and the staff at the broadcasting station were calling for a doctor, while the train police arrived immediately.

However, before the train police officer could even figure out what was going on, a sketch was shoved into his hand, followed by You Maidong rattling off a series of words in a remarkably clear and concise manner, recounting the events that had transpired.

Jiang Lai was quite impressed with her future mother-in-law's eloquence. She originally thought she was already very eloquent, but she never expected that You Maidong was even better than her.

So when You Maidong finished explaining what happened, he turned around and received an admiring look and a thumbs-up from his future daughter-in-law. As a result, Jiang Lai raised her future mother-in-law's favor to a new level.