Chapter 62: Battle on the Train

Zhang Tie-lan returned shortly after, looking rather grim. "There's a robbery in the rear carriage," she reported. "I heard there are about a dozen of them, and one of them even has a gun!"

"What?" Ye Fan was momentarily stunned. A dozen people, and a gun?

Li Yao-yao asked in a terrified voice, "Are they going to kill people?"

"I don't know!" Zhang Tie-lan said with a dark expression. "It wouldn't be as bad if they didn't have guns, but even I can't take on someone with a gun..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Zhang Chun-xian rushed back in, looking flustered.

"You've all heard, haven't you? There are robbers in the back carriage!"

Ye Fan nodded and asked, "We heard. Where did you guys just go? Where is Qiao Wei?"

"That scumbag went to the front carriage to hide!" Zhang Chun-xian cursed, hastily grabbing his briefcase, and explained, "The kid Qiao Wei got scared and dragged me to the front to hide. He didn't even stop to think—the bandits are definitely going to search the entire train! How could he possibly get away?"

"I came back just to tell you all: hide your money quickly and pretend to be asleep! Oh, and leave some loose change in your outer pockets. If they ask for it, just give it to them."

Zhang Chun-xian clearly had some experience with this sort of situation.

Ye Fan finally snapped to his senses and asked, "How can they be this brazen? Why hasn't anyone called the train police?"

"The train police are useless! They'll just rob them too once they show up!"

Zhang Chun-xian muttered as he packed his belongings, carefully hiding his cash close to his body before lying flat on the lower berth. "Mr. Ye, you guys should pack up quickly too! You'd better take the lower berth and let the two young women take the upper ones."

Zhang Tie-lan immediately swung into action. She first rolled up the large bills, hid them on Li Yao-yao's person, and helped her climb up to the highest top bunk. Then she hopped directly onto the second-tier bunk and lay down. Only Ye Fan lingered, slowly lying down on the bottom-most level.

Lying on the bed, it all felt completely surreal!

This was a real robbery! Just ten people holding up an entire train? With a gun, no less? And the train police couldn't do a thing about it?

His only impression of train robberies came from the movie *A World Without Thieves*, specifically Teacher Fan's famous line: "ICBC card, tell me your PINs, I'm here to commit a robbery of a different kind..."

As his mind wandered, a chaotic sound of footsteps echoed from the rear of the carriage, followed by several fierce, menacing shouts: "Nobody move! This is a robbery!"

The carriage instantly fell deathly silent, you could hear a pin drop.

Ye Fan closed his eyes tightly. Within ten steps, a gun was fast and accurate; even with his martial arts skills, he was no match for a firearm.

He would just chalk it up to bad luck and throw some money away to feed the dogs!

Finally, the footsteps drew closer and closer. Suddenly, the shrill cries of a frightened child pierced the carriage, accompanied by a woman's desperate pleas for mercy.

"Please, don't take that! That's life-saving money for the child's father!"

"Shut up! Hand over all your money!"

"No, please!"

"Heh, this little gal even dares to bite me? Brothers, strip her naked!"

The carriage descended into utter chaos. Ye Fan clenched his fists tightly, a surge of hot blood rushing to his head. He refused to let these thugs be this arrogant!

He snapped his eyes open and saw that Zhang Tie-lan had also sat up, preparing to get off the bed!

"Stay here, I'll go!"

Seeing that Ye Fan was about to step out, Zhang Tie-lan let out a low growl, leaped down from the bed, and charged straight out of the compartment!

Ye Fan followed closely behind, just in time to see three or five ruffians manhandling a young housewife while her child lay in the aisle, wailing at the top of their lungs!

Zhang Tie-lan had already rushed to the front. With an angry roar of "Stop right there!", she grabbed one thug by the collar and sent him crashing to the floor.

Perhaps encouraged by Zhang Tie-lan's actions, or perhaps moved by the heart-wrenching cries of the child, several other passengers immediately surged out from their compartments to grapple with the bandits. The already narrow aisle was instantly packed to capacity.

Anxious, Ye Fan pushed his way through the crowd to back up Zhang Tie-lan, just as the rear door of the carriage swung open and another thug stepped in brandishing a handgun!

"Damn it, you're courting death!"

Red-eyed, the thug raised his gun and aimed straight at Zhang Tie-lan.

Seeing the man about to pull the trigger, Ye Fan let out a low roar, stripped off his suit jacket, balled it up into a tight bundle, and hurled it forward with all his might!

*Crack!*

A sharp gunshot rang out, tearing the suit jacket to shreds. The previously chaotic carriage instantly quieted down!

Followed immediately by a cry of agony—it turned out that a young man who had stepped forward to help Zhang Tie-lan had been shot!

"They have a gun!"

Passengers shrieked, clutching their heads and scattering in panic. The shooting thug wore an even more ferocious snarl as he prepared to pull the trigger a second time.

At the very brink of disaster, Ye Fan finally lunged to the front. He whipped the leather belt from his waist and lashed it forward with vicious force!

*Smack!*

Another gunshot echoed, but the blow from the belt knocked the gun off target. The bullet shattered the carriage window, causing the entire pane to fracture and burst into a shower of glass shards.

Ye Fan closed the distance instantly, pressing right up against the armed thug. Utilizing a sequence of the Eight Wind-Spanning Palms, he forcefully disarmed the man and snatched the pistol from his grip!

"Nobody move!"

Ye Fan's voice was hoarse as he pressed the barrel of the pistol directly against the thug's forehead.

At his roar, the passengers—who had just been cowering in fear—were suddenly reignited with fury. With a barrage of chaotic punches and kicks, they pinned all dozen or so thugs firmly to the floor!

"My baby!"

Weeping bitterly, the young housewife threw herself over her child, scooping him up. The toddler was shaking uncontrollably, burying his face in his mother's bosom and wailing loudly.

An elderly woman, her eyes bloodshot, grabbed a thermos bottle from a nearby table and smashed it mercilessly onto a downed bandit.

"I'll teach you to rob people! Curse your ancestors!"

Acting almost possessed, she shattered the thermos, scalding the thug with boiling water until he let out ear-piercing screams of agony. Not a single person stepped forward to stop her.

"Alright, grandma, stop hitting him!"

At that moment, a disheveled train police officer stepped forward to restrain the elderly woman.

As one of the resident train officers, he had also participated in the earlier brawl, bearing a fresh knife scar across his cheek.

He first directed the crowd to bind the bandits securely, then strode over toward Zhang Tie-lan's side.

Right beside Zhang Tie-lan, a young girl was kneeling on the floor, trembling violently. Her mouth hung open, but no sound came out as she weakly shook the lifeless-looking body of a man sprawled on the ground.

It was the brave young man who had taken a bullet meant for someone else!

"Stop shaking her, miss! Otherwise, your brother will bleed out even faster!"

Standing closest, Zhang Tie-lan stopped the girl and knelt down to inspect the wound. A pool of blood had gathered beneath the young man, and he was already clinging to life by a thread!

The police officer immediately shouted at the top of his lungs, "Doctor! Is there a doctor here?"

"I'll go check the front carriages! Everyone stop crowding, hurry up and find a doctor!"

Passengers scrambled hurriedly toward the front and rear carriages to search for medical help. Swimming against the human tide, Ye Fan finally squeezed through to Zhang Tie-lan's side. At that moment, she was holding a fruit knife and had already ripped open the young man's shirt. Right over his left chest, a bloody hole was bubbling crimson liquid!

"How is it?"

Seeing the wound, Ye Fan's heart sank. Even without being a doctor, he could tell the bullet must have punctured the young man's artery, or else he wouldn't be bleeding so profusely.

Which meant the young man's life was rapidly slipping away...

Sweat poured down Zhang Tie-lan's forehead in anxiety. She had learned emergency battlefield first aid in the military, but this kind of gunshot wound was in such a tricky location that she simply didn't know where to begin!

"I have an idea!" she blurted out suddenly. "I learned in the army that for this kind of gunshot wound, you can use gunpowder to sear the wound shut and stop the bleeding. But where on earth are we going to find loose gunpowder?!"

Ye Fan quickly pulled out the pistol he had seized from the thug and asked, "Is this enough?"

Zhang Tie-lan snatched the gun, expertly ejected the magazine, popped out a bullet, and then shook her head.

"It's too little. With this rate of bleeding, it's not enough..."

Ye Fan furrowed his brows tightly. "We have to try something, right?"

Just as his voice fell, a shout rang out from the carriage: "The doctor is here!"

Led by a helpful passenger, a middle-aged man trotted hurriedly to Ye Fan's side.

"I'm a doctor from the Jiangbin Provincial Hospital, let me take a look... *Hiss!*"

The middle-aged doctor drew a sharp breath, immediately tore off his scarf to press against the young man's chest, and shouted urgently, "We need to stop the bleeding! The artery is severed. Does anyone have any plastic sheeting?"

"Plastic sheeting?"

The passengers looked at each other in dismay. In this era, plastic goods weren't all that common; most people carried their belongings in cloth sacks or paper bags.

"I do!"

Ye Fan abruptly stood up and sprinted back toward his compartment. Plastic sheeting? He didn't just have plastic sheeting—he had plastic wrap, gauze, and iodine as well!

Standing at the compartment door, Li Yao-yao saw Ye Fan return and asked with concern, "Ye Fan, are you alright?"

"I'm fine! A young man was shot, I need to grab some supplies."

With the help of several passengers, Ye Fan quickly hauled his suitcase down, retrieved a medical kit, a roll of plastic wrap, and rushed back. Li Yao-yao followed closely behind him as he returned to the injured young man's side.

"Wonderful, you actually have a medical kit!"

The middle-aged doctor's eyes lit up as he immediately set to work.

Hearing the doctor's words, the surrounding passengers let out cheers of relief. The young girl kneeling on the ground also relaxed, her body instantly going limp as she collapsed onto the floor.

"Miss, your brother's going to make it. Come sit on the bed!"

Zhang Tie-lan supported the young girl, trying to urge her away, but the girl stubbornly shook her head, forcing herself back up into a sitting position.

Time ticked away second by second. Working under Ye Fan's assistance, the middle-aged doctor first disinfected the area with iodine, then applied gauze and plastic wrap to stem the bleeding. Yet no matter how many times he wrapped and secured it, the blood refused to stop, even showing signs of the wound expanding!

"This is bad!" The doctor's face turned ashen. Wiping away his sweat, he whispered to Ye Fan, "The bullet must have fragmented inside his body. The internal trauma is too severe; external pressure alone won't work!"

"Useless?"

Ye Fan's heart plummeted. Nearby, the young girl—who had just regained a shred of hope—heard these words, rolled her eyes, and fainted dead away!