Chapter 8
In the afternoon Yi got out of the high-speed train followed by the mixed breed Kai and Jin, which was pulling behind him a small suitcase with wheels down the vehicle.
"You're really going to carry the suitcase all behind you?" Yi asked as the boy stopped beside her to look around the station.
"I've got a few shirts and a few pants in here in case I need to change them,"
"I didn't expect as you talked about taking the suitcase you were meaning it"
"I wasn't but I changed my mind. But hey I can always borrow you something. I can't promise, that they will fit you"
"I see about that later" Yi mentioned. "If you don't mind we could keep in there a few water bottles in case we get thirsty on the way"
"Sure and hey can you see, where Peng is at the moment?" Jin asked, then the girl unlocked her smartphone and looked up for the card and updated the site to track down Jin's smartphone and they found him close to a place called Baoji.
"Here" Yi answered showing Jin the smartphone. Jin then pressed with his finger on the square button to open up the previous sites they had visited last time and entered on a map of china showing all the various railways the country had all over the place. "Look there it is" Yi added as she observed the boy looking over the card then Jin zoomed closer on the card looking for the place, then Yi held her finger over the smartphone near the corner and Jin slowly slid up on the phone to encounter the name of the place.
"We're going to have to take a regular train. This one was the last station of the high-speed train" Jin mentioned and Yi took her phone back into her pocket.
"So we have to go this way then?" Yi asked earning a nod from Jin.
"Yeah, come down at the underpass must be the departure board of the trains" Jin asserted moving along with Yi to the stairs, walking them down entering a corridor with several passages to other railways. Jin looked around along with Yi, then the girl noted a few passages away from her two TV screens on the wall with various train names, then she nudged the boy on the arm and pointed to the end of the corridor to the TV screens, then both walked together at the screens and stopped there looking at the various lines.
"There is one in 9 minutes. If we manage to get us three tickets and find the line, we're good"
"Alright" Yi responded moved away from the board along with Jin further to a kiosk, then Yi stopped along with Kai as they saw the dog forbidden sign on the door.
"Kai has to stay out here" Yi mentioned then Jin looked down at the dog, which was panting normally.
"Should I stay with Kai here and you go in look for something?" Jin offered seeing Yi shrug her shoulders.
"You don't need to do that" Yi answered. "You can go in"
"Okay, do you want anything else besides water?" Jin asked, then heard a stomach grumble and Yi place her hand over her belly.
"Maybe a pack or two of cookies would be a good idea" Yi suggested earning a nod from the boy. "Oh hey look beside the store are two ticket machines. Should I buy us the tickets, while you're in there?" Yi suggested earning a nod from Jin.
"Good idea" Jin consented, then entered the kiosk while Yi approached the first ticket automat and looked at the display, which showed the railways around the area Yi was. On the side Yi zoomed away to see more of the map, then she gazed at the map searching for the city they had seen Peng before.
"Where is Baoji?" Yi asked herself, then she found the name and clicked on the railway line over the dot, that had the name of the city tagged and jumped to the next page, which asked the passenger number and the class number. "We're picking second class obviously," Yi said while exchanging looks with the dog, which sat beside Yi looking at her tapping on the display of the machine tilting his head a little aside wondering, what she was doing on it. "Just in case of an emergency we saved some money"
"1050 Yuan?" Yi asked herself surprised, then she opened the button of the pocket behind the back of her shorts a dark red wallet, then she opened it up to flick through the bills and took out twelve and shove the first one into the gap of the machine, then she wide her eyes as the note got send back to her. Yi frowned and took the bill out again, then shove it into the gap again, which pulled it in, making her smile, afterward the bill came out again, making Yi groan. "Are you kidding me?" Yi complained taking the bill out, then she noticed on the side of the machine the 100 Yuan banknotes were not acceptable, besides 50, 20 and 10.
Kai looked up at the girl, then let out a short bark earning the attention of the girl.
"I probably have to wait for Jin, until he is back from the store," Yi told the dog, then put the cash bills back into her wallet and checked out the other bills she had beside them and picked out 4 bills of 50 Yuan. "This isn't enough" Yi mentioned, then Kai started to bark as Jin had appeared carrying his suitcase behind him and a paper bag with two large water bottles and three cookie packs.
"Did you manage to get us tickets?" Jin asked and Yi shook her head.
"The automate doesn't take the 100th bills" Yi mentioned showing the instruction on the machine to the boy.
"Looks like I've gotta use my debit card then," Jin said taking out his wallet to take out a silver-colored card then inserted the card into the slot of the card reader, then typed down the PIN and removed the card as it got discounted from it. "There we go," Jin said as the machine went to the next step now printing out the tickets.
"I didn't know you had a debit card," Yi said watching Jin giving it a kiss before he put it back into his wallet.
"And I'm glad I had it" Jin confessed making Yi shake her head with a smirk at the silly act of the friend.
"Great, now we should head up at the train. It must be arriving any minute"
"You're right" Jin agreed. "It was rail 7, right?"
"Yeah, it's near the boards we saw before" Yi stated, then Jin grabbed the suitcase on the handle again and moved forward quickly together with Yi and the Chow Chow mixed breed to the boards and walked up the ramp to arrive at the platform of the train station encountering many passengers on the smartphone waiting for the train.
"Woah there are many people here"
"Yeah, more than we saw underground" Jin mentioned putting the suitcase straight on the ground on its wheels. "Do you think we're all going on the same train like them?"
"It's closing time for most of them. It's most likely possible for them to be boarding the same as us"
"Well I hope you don't have claustrophobia, cause this isn't going to be very comfy for anyone of us," Jin told the dog, which panted and wagged his tail while looking at the boy. "You know Kai is actually a pretty cool dog," Jin said going down on his knees to pet the dog on the head. "Do you think he has a good sense of protection or tracking?"
"Maybe one of them he could be good in it," Yi said gazing at the dog, which turned his head around at Yi panting happily by looking at his new owner.
"That's our ride" Proclaimed Jin as he saw a white train taxing beside their platform stopping, after that it opened its doors so that a small crowd of passengers could leave the train.
"You go first?" The teenage boy implied and Yi looked at Jin's suitcase, then glanced at the face of the friend.
"I think you should go first, because of your suitcase" Yi contented and Jin looked at the entrance of the train.
"I think you've got a point" The raven-haired boy stated walking at the entrance of the train followed by Yi, Kai and other passengers to the entrance. Jin stopped at the side of the train beside a few other passengers, which were already traveling while standing in the train, therefore Yi approached the boy along with Kai and they stood in front of Jin, then watched more people get into the train.
"Too bad the luggage racks here are small in here" The boy pointed out, then observed Kai sink his ears and put his tail between his legs under his belly and walk around Jin pulling Yi against the boy.
"Sorry," Yi apologized as she bumped into the friend.
"No problem" Jin answered then Kai walked around Jin and Yi again, then sat down next to Yi with sad puppy eyes. "Don't worry Kai, everything is okay" Jin assured, then watched Yi caress the dog on his head for a bit, afterward he poked Yi's hand again with his nose wanting her to pet him again, which she did.
"So when he does that he's asking for more?" Jin questioned the friend, which chuckled at the question.
"Doesn't that look obvious?" Yi questioned a little amused.
"Just wondering, could also mean something else?"
"Okay, the only thing I'm wondering about Kai at the moment is, why is he scared at the moment, if it is because of the crowd or anything else," Yi told the friend, then noted a few passengers wanting to pass beside her to pass through the corridor of the train and Yi stepped closer to her friend.
"We're definitely going to be really tight in here" Jin mentioned. "Lucky today it's not that hot" The boy added, then Kai yelped as a passenger, that had just passed beside the two raven-haired teens and stepped by mistake on the dog's tail, which made the mixed breed jump away pulling Yi and Jin together.
"Woah" Both gasped as it happened followed by Yi hitting Jin on the chin with her head.
"Ouch that hurt"
"Sorry!" Yi apologized looking up at Jin, which wide his eyes in surprise as he saw Yi had placed her hands over his chest.
"You're a little clumsy today Yi" Jin joked making Yi furrow her eyebrows in confusion, then she looked down at her arms to see her arms down and she took them off and crashed against a person, then landed back on Jin's arms, which had held her before eventually hitting him another time.
"I didn't mean to"
"It's alright" Jin responded, then Yi looked back at how tight the people had squeezed into the train and Yi looked down at the dog leash, which was wrapped around her and her neighbor.
"This is kind of awkward"
"I know, right?" The friend agreed, then they felt the train start to move on and Yi slowly started to lose her balance and Jin caught her while she hit him again on his chin, making him frown.
"Sorry" The girl apologized making Jin grin at the moment as he had Yi on his arms, then he placed his right arm behind her back caressing her back. Yi held her arms over his chest smiling a little lovely, which made Jin smile and he continued it for a while as long as he saw the girl enjoying it.
A biker drove on a white motorcycle out of the main street into the side road, which leads into a small court with a couple of MDU's buildings. The driver passed beside a sideway parking zone and placed his motorcycle behind the front of a minivan and turned the engine off. The guy got up from the bike, then he walked to the pathway, that leads to the apartment building, then he stopped as he saw a raven-haired woman stand in front of the apartment watching around the place, then she looked at the man and waved at him.
"Oh no," The man mumbled as he recognized the redhead at the door. "Dr. Zara, what are you doing here?"
"I've come with great news" The woman answered. "You won't believe, who I saw today in the restaurant"
"I don't really want to know it, to be honest..."
"Dave, one of your previous employees is accompanying that little boy we had caught last time with his older friend when we were taking the yeti with us. Both are heading to the Mount Everest. I've caught their whole conversation. They're going to scatter the ashes of Mr. Burnish at the Mount Everest and eventually, they will be able to see that yeti again"
"Listen, Zara, we had great luck last time, that we survived that avalanche back in Mount Everest. Don't you think it would be better to move on with our lives and keep doing, what we were doing this present?"
"This time it will be easier for us. We only have to deal with the child and Dave. We follow them to the Everest and stop them and force the kid to go up there in order to save Dave's life. When the yeti appears to see the boy, we shoot tranquilizer darts at him and take it to the other scientist institute in Hong Kong. I still have a few old contacts from there, which could help us"
"I'm not fond of the idea. It could still go wrong, what if we're attacked by other yetis?" The man asked. "You saw, what that yeti could do with its power?"
"For the yeti to not suspect anything we need to be invisible" Zara explained. "We need to blend in, hide somewhere, where we have sight to the boy and the yeti"
"I can't assure you it's a great idea" The man added to the conversation again, making Zara sank her head, then she smirked as she had another plan to convince the man to follow her.
"Okay, I'm going to ask anyone else then," Zara said turning her back to the man. "Too bad with the money we could make from getting that yeti you could quit your job at the mall and I don't know…..start your own business like I don't know….. A bike shop?" Zara added walking slowly away from the man, which thought about the redhead's comment and sighed making Zara again smirk, then stopping waiting for the man to speak to her again.
"Okay, I'll do it" The man answered, then Zara turned around walking back at the man to give him her hand. "But, if something doesn't go the right way I quit"
"Deal" Zara agreed shaking the hand of her old friend.