Sun Spurge
While Zhao Linong was still standing there in a daze, He Yuesheng made a swift decision. He grabbed her and turned, running in the direction the train had been travelling.
The moment Zhao Linong turned around, she saw what had lifted the carriage into the air.
It was another enormous plant growing at an astonishing speed. The top of its stem had already pierced through part of the carriage. Something that should have radiated vigorous life now only made one’s scalp prickle, its murderous intent laid bare.
“There must be railway police in the front carriages!” He Yuesheng looked towards the front of the train. He had managed to retain his ability to think and quickly said through gritted teeth, “They have weapons. We’ll run that way. We’re not far from the Ninth Base. If we can hold out a little longer, we might still have a chance to survive.”
They did not run straight towards it.
He Yuesheng kept a firm grip on Zhao Linong’s arm and continuously veered diagonally towards the front-left. He clearly intended to circle around the enormous plant before it completely pierced through the carriage, but he was careful never to leave the stretch of railway covered in gravel.
Several people caught up from behind and overtook them, evidently also searching for their only chance of survival.
Zhao Linong watched the people continually passing her.
Their faces were frighteningly pale and covered in cold sweat. Even their pupils had constricted, yet they continued to grit their teeth and run with all their strength.
It was almost impossible to witness this kind of situation in real life. Even actors in films and television dramas could not portray fear this convincingly.
Zhao Linong lowered her eyes towards her left hand.
Because He Yuesheng had been gripping her so tightly, her sleeve had been pulled slightly upwards, exposing a small section of her wrist. She could clearly see goosebumps slowly rising across the skin, while the fine hairs stood on end.
Zhao Linong wondered whether even her body was frightened inside this dream.
Another person overtook them.
Zhao Linong’s gaze fell upon his back and noticed blood splattered across his shoulder. He must have been among the people standing closest to the enormous man-eating plant earlier.
He had already felt death looming over him. No wonder he was running faster than everyone else.
“Um…”
Zhao Linong suddenly noticed that the plant piercing through the carriage had already pushed its upper half outside, revealing swaying, inverted-oval green leaves.
It seemed as though someone had pressed a fast-forward button. It rapidly grew and differentiated while its stem turned towards them as though it were alive.
After a moment’s thought, she stretched out her free hand and poked He Yuesheng, who was running with his head lowered.
“It’s coming this way.”
The two of them stopped running in perfect unison.
But it was already too late.
Without the carriage obstructing it, the plant’s stem rapidly elongated and lunged towards them like a snake.
A snake, however, did not have five heads.
This plant could instantly branch into five umbrella-shaped leaves. In the blink of an eye, it had already reached them.
There was a sound like a water-filled balloon being punctured and suddenly bursting apart.
Yet Zhao Linong could also distinctly hear bones snapping.
Standing upon the gravel, she slowly blinked.
The man who had been running ahead of them moments ago had been pierced through by a green leaf.
A trace of consciousness probably still remained. His body struggled to keep running and managed to move approximately half a metre before finally becoming still and collapsing towards the ground.
After the umbrella-shaped leaf pierced his body, it rapidly split into a broad, rounded, triangular seed capsule.
It was absorbing the man’s blood.
The green capsule continued to swell. A faint blood-red colour gradually became visible beneath its surface.
Only after every drop of blood had been drained from his body did the stem and leaf abruptly pull free and begin searching for its next prey.
Zhao Linong raised her right hand and touched the corner of her eye.
She lowered her head and looked through her blurred vision. Bright red blood stained the back of her hand. It had splattered from the man in front of her and still seemed warm.
…This bizarre and fantastical world appeared to be real.
“Duck!”
He Yuesheng caught sight of something beside Zhao Linong from the corner of his eye and suddenly shouted in terror.
His fingers tightened around her arm as he tried to pull her down with him.
However, Zhao Linong reacted half a beat too slowly.
She even followed He Yuesheng’s gaze and turned her head to look.
It was too close.
The umbrella-shaped leaf, radiating murderous intent, was almost touching Zhao Linong’s eye.
She could even smell a mixture of fresh grass and blood. She could not tell whether the blood belonged to the plant or came from the stains splattered across her.
The plant seemed to know that it was about to capture its prey. In its excitement, it began prematurely forming a triangular capsule.
The umbrella-shaped leaf that should have pierced through her suddenly fell to the ground.
Its stem had been severed before the capsule could finish forming.
Zhao Linong followed the fallen leaf and stem with her gaze.
First, she saw milky-white liquid flowing from the severed end, mixed with faint traces of blood-red. It trickled across the gravel-covered ground.
Looking further upwards, she saw a young man holding a Tang sword in his left hand.
He wore an entirely black special-police uniform and a black mask over his face. Only a pair of sharp, cold eyes and brows remained exposed.
His long, straight legs were tucked into military boots, and one boot rested upon the other end of the severed stem.
That foot seemed to weigh a thousand kilograms.
The stem thrashed frantically in an attempt to escape, but it could not break free.
The plant immediately realised that it had encountered a troublesome obstacle.
Its remaining four umbrella-shaped leaves stopped searching for prey and turned around, attacking the man all at once.
There were clearly only four stems and leaves, yet when they charged together, they seemed capable of blotting out the sky.
The young man suddenly lifted his foot from the severed stem.
The moment it was released, the broken stem arched upwards and attempted to pierce through his skull.
In the next instant, however, the man leapt onto the stem and used it as leverage to propel himself into the air.
Holding the Tang sword in his left hand, he severed three of the incoming stems and leaves in a single instant.
Before the umbrella-shaped leaf beneath his feet could react, he braced his right elbow against its stem and slid straight down.
The moment he landed, he raised a gun and fired at the plant’s roots beneath the carriage it had lifted and pierced through.
At the same time, he swung his left arm horizontally, cutting through the final intact umbrella-shaped stem and leaf pursuing him.
Milky-white sap mixed with blood scattered through the air like rain.
As the Tang sword swept horizontally, sunlight struck the blade and reflected a dazzling white light directly into Zhao Linong’s eyes from where she stood behind him.
In the next instant, the light vanished.
After severing the stem and leaf, the man smoothly returned the blade to its sheath without even glancing at it.
Zhao Linong’s gaze fell upon his hands.
He wore black fingerless tactical gloves, and his exposed, slender fingers were wrapped around a handgun.
After he fired, the severed stem seemed to lose all vitality. It collapsed to the ground and rapidly withered.
Gunfire continued to erupt from both the front and rear of the train.
Someone leapt over from the other side and landed directly on the roof, sweeping the area with an assault rifle.
The young man turned slightly to the side.
Even with the mask covering his face, it could not conceal the high, straight outline of his nose. Sunlight fell across his profile, clearly illuminating his long eyelashes and tinting them gold.
A badge was attached to his arm.
Where it should originally have read “Special Police,” the words had been replaced with “Guardian.”
“They’re Guardians. We’re saved.”
He Yuesheng released a long sigh of relief.
Zhao Linong, who had been staring thoughtfully, turned her head and met He Yuesheng’s equally contemplative gaze.
They both paused.
Then they spoke simultaneously.
“Sun spurge.”
“Ye Changming!”
After giving their respective answers, each looked at the other in confusion.
Zhao Linong only knew that sun spurge was also called five-cloud grass, cat’s-eye grass and several other names. She had never heard the name He Yuesheng had just said.
Sun spurge was an annual herbaceous plant belonging to the Euphorbiaceae family. When its stem was broken, it released milky-white sap. It was commonly found along roadsides and on wasteland.
She had never seen sun spurge grow to such an enormous size.
Only after observing it at close range and confirming that all its characteristics matched had she been certain of its identity.
He Yuesheng clearly did not care what Zhao Linong had said.
He released her arm, leaned his head closer to her ear and whispered excitedly, “No assault rifle and a Tang sword strapped to his back—it has to be Ye Changming. We’ve struck it lucky this time. I can’t believe we actually ran into him.”
Zhao Linong raised her eyes towards the tall, straight figure of the man walking away.
Then she lowered her head and wiped her right eye again.
“I heard…” He Yuesheng noticed her movement and stepped around to examine her face.
He immediately looked alarmed.
“What happened to your eye?”
Blood had splashed across the right side of her face. She had wiped it earlier without thinking, smearing it into several streaks. A dark-red patch covered her right eye, making her look rather frightening.
“Blood splashed into it.”
Zhao Linong rubbed it with her finger. The reflexive tears she squeezed out carried some of the blood from her eyeball.
The clear, stinging pain in her eye constantly reminded her that none of this was a dream.
“Stop rubbing it. You need to rinse it with water. I’ll help you find some later.”
He Yuesheng looked around.
There were Guardians at both the front and rear of the train. As gunshots rang out, the stems and leaves of the enormous plants withered one after another.
The surrounding area was in complete disarray.
Many people who had finally regained their senses gathered together, seemingly hoping to find security in numbers.
Dense gunfire erupted from the very front of the train.
Soon afterwards, five heavily armoured off-road vehicles rapidly approached.
The first armoured vehicle abruptly braked to a halt. Three of the vehicles behind it stopped separately to its left, right and rear, surrounding and protecting the one in the centre.
“It really is Luo Fanxue!”
He Yuesheng excitedly bumped Zhao Linong with his shoulder.
Her eye was uncomfortable, and she had just discovered that she had arrived in an entirely new world.
Zhao Linong silently drew in a breath and tried to suppress the boundless confusion rising within her heart. She lifted her head and looked towards the heavily armoured vehicles.
People wearing black special-police uniforms emerged from each vehicle. They formed a protective formation around the young woman who stepped out of the vehicle in the centre.
The young woman had beautiful features but a cold expression.
Her long, curly hair fell down her back. She wore a white outdoor jacket and camel-coloured hiking boots, with a black backpack over her shoulders.
She walked directly towards the withered enormous plant.
Before crouching down, she casually tied up her long curls, leaving several loose strands beside her ears.
Corpses were still scattered across the surrounding area, yet she calmly crouched beside the enormous plant and began inspecting it without appearing affected in the slightest.
Her movements were composed and efficient.
The passengers standing nearby, still trembling and recovering from their terror, all looked at her with envy, admiration and longing.
Luo Fanxue did not spare any attention for the people around her.
She removed a syringe, a small knife, gloves and several other objects from her black backpack. Someone beside her began recording.
After putting on the gloves, she lowered her gaze and used the syringe to extract the plant fluid.
She then cut open the plant’s stem and umbrella-shaped leaves with the knife, placed the samples inside petri dishes and carefully stored them.
Only after finishing all of this did she stand and walk towards the young man a short distance away.
He was speaking with the train conductor.
Luo Fanxue waited until their conversation had ended before looking at the young man.
“It’s sun spurge, a Class-C mutated plant. Most plants enter their growing season in March. Protective solution will need to be sprayed more frequently along the base routes.”
Hearing this, the young man’s narrow eyes swept across the crowd.
His gaze settled upon one person before immediately moving away again.
Neither Luo Fanxue nor the conductor standing beside him noticed the movement.
Zhao Linong’s right eye was uncomfortable. In the end, she could not resist lowering her head and rubbing it again, completely unaware that someone’s gaze had briefly fallen upon her.
“I’d already heard that Ye Changming was going to become Luo Fanxue’s Guardian.”
He Yuesheng’s phoenix eyes were filled with envy.
“I wonder whether we’ll be able to become researchers like her in the future.”
Zhao Linong did not understand what he was talking about.
To avoid exposing herself, she did not respond. Instead, she silently memorised the unfamiliar terms he had mentioned.
She lowered her head and examined herself.
The clothing and bracelet were both unfamiliar. She did not know whether her body had changed as well.
Everything that had just occurred forced Zhao Linong to clearly recognise that she had probably transmigrated into a new world.
And this new world contained dangers that had never existed in her original one.
“Hey, which base are you from?” He Yuesheng suddenly asked.
Without changing her expression, Zhao Linong countered, “What about you?”
He Yuesheng waggled his eyebrows.
“The Seventh Base. In future, whenever you want tea or coffee, you can buy it from me. I have connections.”
The Ninth Base, the Seventh Base…
The bases in this world were probably identified by numbers.
They had only just experienced a brush with death, yet He Yuesheng appeared to have completely recovered already.
“Student Zhao, which base are you from?”
He Yuesheng had not forgotten his earlier question.
“The Central Base.”
Zhao Linong recalled the advertisement cover on the high-speed train and casually fabricated an answer.
“I don’t have any connections for obtaining seeds.”
He Yuesheng gave her a strange look.
“The seeds in the Central Base are all controlled by the Luo and Shan families. Of course you don’t have any connections.”
The Luo family and the Shan family…
She had learned another piece of information.
The group of Guardians who had suddenly appeared not far away vanished just as quickly once they had dealt with the mutated plants.
The five heavily armoured off-road vehicles started their engines. With a deafening roar, they turned around, circled past the front of the train and returned to the road.
It was as though they had never appeared.
Only the tyre tracks left behind on the gravel proved that they had ever been there.
The conductor had already begun summoning everyone to form orderly lines.
“New students, the rescue vehicles will arrive shortly. Please form two lines and wait!”
The conductor shouted through a loudspeaker.
New students?
Zhao Linong turned and looked around.
Sure enough, everyone who had stepped off the train was young.
Did that mean she was now a new student in another world?
He Yuesheng lifted his left hand.
He swiped his right thumb across the silver disc on the bracelet, and a pale-blue screen immediately appeared above it.
“We’re really unlucky this year. We actually encountered a mutated plant on the route. People died before the school term even started. Being an agricultural student really is dangerous.”
Zhao Linong followed the crowd and joined the queue.
The instant she heard the final words spoken by He Yuesheng beside her, she whipped her head towards him and finally lost her composure.
“An agricultural student?!”
He Yuesheng’s fingers, which had been moving rapidly across the screen, abruptly froze.
He raised his head and looked Zhao Linong up and down.
“Were you knocked unconscious by your parents and dumped at the Ninth Agricultural Base? Why are you reacting so strongly?”
The Agricultural Base!
Zhao Linong’s vision nearly went black.
Her parents had wanted her to leave the countryside so badly that they had even named her Linong—“Leave Agriculture.”
Now she understood.
There was a problem with her name.
The character li, meaning “leave,” should never have included the water radical.
Because it contained the sense of being bogged down and unable to break free, she had been destined to spend both of her lives farming!
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