Being looked at by this inexplicable gaze, Fan Ning's heart was beating fast, and his hands and feet began to become cold.
The temperature difference between day and night in the countryside in summer seems to be much greater than that in industrial cities. Several people wearing thin skirts or thin shirts in the carriage clearly felt the coolness of the night breeze.
Along with his sight, Fan Ning's spiritual sense penetrated the thick, dark fog surrounding the train and looked straight into the distance.
There seemed to be some buildings and lights there, but because they were quite far apart and the visibility was extremely low, they were basically in a state of insignificance.
eyes...gazing...
Why do you feel like this again?
Just before I learned about Kaplan's condition, I was talking to him about command issues.
So it resulted in the same over-inspiration as last time?
This sense of gaze comes and goes as quickly as something in the air breaks and reorganizes, the dancing black mist becomes stagnant, and the restless distant lights return to their feeble state.
The light of first acquaintance ignites, and invisible threads of inspiration stretch into the warm air everywhere behind you. Clothes and shoes become warm and dry, and your skin instantly returns to warmth.
"Carone, I...I feel that the current scene and atmosphere are very similar to those ghost stories just now..." Joan's voice sounded a little frightened.
"It's just a malfunction." Fan Ning sat back on his sofa, "It took a while, but it's not an uncommon situation."
In previous lives, trains were delayed, and there were only a few more outrageous situations than this. A few hours was nothing, there were still more than ten hours, or even more than twenty-four hours.
Xilan also spoke softly: "We are not in a hurry to get to the Imperial Capital right away, right?"
Joan knelt on the sofa, moved her body closer to Fan Ning, and supported the top of the sofa with her arms: "But, I am really hungry... Our original plan was to enjoy the first meal at Fort Santalan at around six o'clock.
Meal to make up for the fact that Chinese food was treated too casually on the train, but it’s already past seven o’clock.”
Fan Ning turned to look at her and said puzzled: "Aren't you always enjoying snacks and drinks?"
"Their function is mainly to relieve boredom rather than to fill the stomach."
"It's strange, there are no problems with the power components." Lu frowned and climbed the stairs back to the carriage without saying a word, accompanied by the conductor behind him muttering in a low voice.
Fan Ning asked: "Didn't you send a telegram?"
"It's been issued, the parking space occupation warning, and the technical assistance for troubleshooting have all been issued." the train conductor replied.
At this time, Lu finally realized that something was wrong: "What's going on? No one responded to the technical call for help except for the technical fault. Why did it stop for so long and no other trains passed nearby?"
He took out a roll of maps from under the duty platform, spread it on the table and unfolded it, and everyone gathered around it.
"According to the current itinerary, we should be near this area." Lu said.
"Gogol's small town?" Fan Ning followed the movement of Lu's finger and carefully observed it, and after a few seconds he said in surprise.
Then Fan Ning looked up and saw Xilan and Qiong looking over with equally surprised eyes.
Is it such a coincidence? It just happened to break down and stop here?
"It's here, but it doesn't look like here..." Lu thought to himself, "There are more hills in the distance, fields nearby, some ancient city walls and forts, and I've just seen the river. The terrain features are consistent.
But the small town of Gogol is a stopover, and there was no stopover just now. It has been a long, long time since the last stopover."
"Or are we still a few kilometers away? There is nothing but black fog to the west of the direction of travel, but there are faint lights in the distance to the south in the vertical direction. This looks like a small town, but the railway track should pass through the small town of Gogol
That’s right, why is it on the outskirts of the city?”
"Mr. Fanning, is there anything wrong with your pocket watch?" Roy's voice came from the connection between carriages 1 and 2.
Seeing her pursed lips, her face pale, and her eyes filled with fear and anxiety, Fan Ning instinctively had a bad premonition.
Several people took out their pocket watches one after another, and then their expressions changed drastically.
I saw that the three hands on the dial were all moving counterclockwise. The overall speed was moderate, and there was still a gradient of hours, minutes and seconds, just like someone was twisting the knob forward evenly.
...The pocket watch is broken? How could it be all broken? Fan Ning couldn’t believe it.
"Hurry up and ask the maintenance people below to come up and lock the doors and windows first. There is something wrong with this place."
Fan Ning's words reminded Lu and several flight attendants around him.
"Come out, hurry up, hurry up, just go this way." The conductor began to urge the technicians who were still working on the track.
"You guys hurry up and go to other carriages to explain to the passengers." Lu also started to give orders.
After these disgraced technicians got on to Car No. 1, the conductor quickly closed the door tightly.
These people wearing helmets and holding wrenches or toolboxes stood in a row. For the next three minutes, the conductor silently counted the number of people five times, and then his hands and feet began to shake.
"What's wrong?" Lu asked.
"Mr. Adair...it seems, there seems to be one missing..." The conductor felt a chill rush to his forehead.
"One is missing??...Who is missing? Is he still under the car and hasn't come out yet?" Lu raised his eyebrows.
Since he holds a high position, it is naturally impossible for him to remember the faces of all the flight attendants or their names.
"The surroundings are quite quiet, the shouting is quite loud, and everyone is lying not far away. It shouldn't be..." The conductor's eyes were mixed with confusion and horror, "There were originally 15 technicians, who is missing?
What is the responsibility of the position...The name seems to be case, is case...is it??..." His voice became smaller and smaller as he spoke, first becoming a monosyllable, and then gradually only his lips were moving.
"You can't even figure out the names of your employees?" Lu glared at him angrily, "It's okay if you don't remember the names, but you don't know what positions they are responsible for?"
The conductor stood there dumbfounded.
"Where are you?" Lu looked around at the group of skilled workers, "Which colleague is missing? What is his name?"
Everyone looks at me, and I look at you.
...Could this group of people have a mental problem? Could it be that there were more than one at first, and then they scared themselves? Fan Ning, who was sitting on the sofa, looked at the scene in front of him in confusion.
Lu felt his blood pressure gradually rising.
As an outstanding graduate, as a senior who is regarded as a role model by everyone, I became the person in charge of the first stop to receive the St. Lenia Symphony Orchestra to perform in the imperial capital. If there is an accident, forget it, and it is unlucky to encounter a probabilistic event... But the gang under me
The emergency response capabilities and professional level capabilities demonstrated by this person are really embarrassing.
A train conductor can’t even figure out the names and positions of the people under him?
"I suddenly don't wonder why this train is like this. You don't have to do it after you go back today."
Hearing Lu's words, the train conductor stood blankly for a while, and then his eyes lit up: "Employee roster, yes, look at the roster and click again."
I must have been in a trance due to this series of accidents and lost my memory.
He walked quickly back to his workbench as if he had been saved, and when he returned to Car No. 1 again, he held a light-colored booklet in his hand.
"Morgan Attlee." "Arrived!"
"Zeblon Wall." "Here."
"Donahue Norris." "It's me."
…
The short roll call and response ended quickly.
"14?" The conductor's eyes widened, he shook his head vigorously, and looked at the roster several times again, "Isn't it 15?"
He counted the lines over and over again and wrote clearly in black and white.
Starting from the 15th person, they are the flight attendants.
Lu crossed his arms and leaned to the side, looking at him coldly.
The train conductor put his white-gloved right hand on his forehead. After thinking and recalling for a while, the expression on his face gradually changed from disbelief to confusion, and finally to an apology of self-blame.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Adair. I'm really sorry. I didn't know why I was confused just now. There are 14 people. Yes, the technical staff of the train set have always been these 14 people."
Fan Ning faintly felt something was wrong.
A train conductor wouldn't be able to figure out such a low-level issue.
"Let me take a look at your maintenance account for this month."
Half a minute later, he began to flip through the forms, focusing on the signature of the "Maintenance Person" in the column on the far right.
Everything works fine, no gaps or breaks.
"Why are there a lot of equal data in these date ranges?" He pointed at the ledger and asked the train conductor.
"It's normal, sir. This is a rough statistic in itself, and changes below 1 decimal point are not reflected."
Fan Ning nodded.
To be continued...