Chapter Eighty-Nine: Confrontation

Scorpion Luo was thrown into panic, and Bryan’s face darkened as well. Seeing this, Fang Nian smiled and said calmly,

“The tricks the two of you have been playing have finally come to light.”

With that, Fang Nian gave Duan Rui, who had been quietly watching the drama, a glance. Duan Rui nodded, then stepped forward and opened the door leading to the second carriage. Outside, a large crowd had already gathered. Besides the poor, there were also several wealthy passengers standing at the doorway.

And the people standing at the very front were all too familiar to him: it was Luo Li, who had previously befriended Fang Nian and the others.

Xiao Xueluan did not know Luo Li, and looked puzzled.

“What is going on? Why are so many people guarding here?”

Jin Jinhui was just as confused. Looking at the countdown watch in her hand, then at Fang Nian, she asked anxiously,

“Stop keeping us in suspense. Tell us what is happening. The cold tide is coming soon. Are we all just going to sit here and wait to die?”

Indeed, the cold tide was the one thing everyone cared about now. As for Scorpion Luo, as for Bryan, even if they died, so what? It would make no difference.

But this time, before Fang Nian could speak, Luo Li, who was standing at the very front of the crowd, suddenly strode excitedly into the last carriage. As soon as he stepped inside, Fang Nian could see his body trembling, his eyes blazing with an almost desperate light, only for that light to vanish in an instant.

“Scorpion Luo, if it weren’t for Brother Fang, I might have spent my whole life trapped on this train, living inside your lies, worshipping the two of you like saviors. You two shameless swindlers—today I will make you pay in blood.”

Fang Nian walked over, patted Luo Li on the shoulder, and said lightly,

“All right, Brother Luo. It’s all over now. Calm down. Leave the rest to me.”

Then Fang Nian looked at the others on the train. Apart from those who had been killed, nearly everyone was now in the second carriage.

“Everyone, I think it is time you learned the truth. Brother Luo is right—you have all been deceived. I want you to think carefully about how you boarded this train, how you became passengers on the End Times Express.”

At Fang Nian’s words, both the poor and the rich were stunned at once. Everyone began searching their memories, and soon someone began speaking of the circumstances that had brought them here.

“I was a lawyer living on Earth. One day I woke up and found the whole world had become a realm of ice and snow. Everything around me had turned to crystal—houses, cars, even my relatives, frozen dead at my feet. I was terrified and had no idea what had happened. Then... I saw vehicles from Bryan Corporation. They were taking in survivors, so I got on the train.”

“Yes, my experience was similar. I had gone camping with my school, and on the way back a bizarre gale suddenly rose out of nowhere. Then the school bus rolled off a cliff, and everyone on it died except me. But when I woke up, the world had changed completely. All living things without body heat had become ice sculptures, and only a few people survived, so I boarded the train too.”

“My experience was about the same. I only discovered the world had changed after waking up from sleep, and then I got on the train as well. The unlucky part for me may be that after boarding, I had to live in the poor district all the time and suffered every kind of torment.”

“So did I. Why were you all in the wealthy district? Was it because you could make money on the train? Or did you board with huge sums of cash already on you?”

“What the hell do you know? Our money is the wealth we accumulated over a lifetime, and what we spent on the train was money we earned back on Earth. You were poor, so of course you deserved it. You deserved to spend your lives eating cockroaches.”

“That’s right. You lowly vermin living at the bottom caused us nothing but trouble. I think life on the train is great. Anyway, I have money and can spend it however I please. All you can do is envy me.”

...

One voice after another rose up. Bitter memories surfaced one after another, and those who had long been oppressed, too afraid to speak, along with the rich who were accustomed to pleasure and feared losing everything, all began to complain incessantly.

In an instant, the atmosphere grew tense again, and some people even began to bristle with hostility. At that moment, however, Luo Li suddenly raised a pistol and fired a shot into the carriage ceiling.

The deafening crack of the gun immediately silenced everyone. Although the bullet struck the carriage, it caused no damage at all.

Xiao Xueluan stared at the pistol in Luo Li’s hand and said in surprise,

“A blank round?”

Fang Nian nodded, then used the force of his inner energy to carry his voice.

“All right, everyone be quiet. The moment of revelation has arrived. I believe you will soon know the answer, because your class is about to graduate.”

As he finished speaking, Duan Rui suddenly picked up an iron chair beside him and handed it to Fang Nian. Fang Nian took the chair and hurled it violently at one of the carriage windows.

His action startled everyone. They did not understand what he was trying to do. Outside that window lay the frozen world of ice and snow; if this barrier were lost, the cold would rush in. If it flooded this last carriage, then before the cold tide even swallowed them, all of them would die here.

Yet to their astonishment, the glass did not shatter. Instead, it abruptly went black, and nothing could be seen beyond it.

“What’s going on? Why did it go dark? Look—outside the other windows you can still see the scenery.”

“Yes, what is this? Why has the world disappeared? What kind of situation is this?”

Scorpion Luo and Bryan’s eyes suddenly turned icy. They were just about to move when they discovered that the four subordinates previously freed from prison by Luo Li and the others had quietly appeared beside them. Yet unlike before, they did not seem to be protecting Scorpion Luo this time. They were guarding him.

“Sir, we followed you all the way from the Super Armed League to here, and in all that time we never once disobeyed your orders. But this time we cannot. We also want the answer, so please do not act rashly. You should know that if the four of us join forces, even you, sir, would not be our match.”

“Of course, if this boy is lying, we will never let him go. If he is deceiving us, we will rip off his head right here in front of you, sir.”

With that, the four of them turned their gazes toward Fang Nian in unison, signaling that the obstruction was gone and he could continue.