Back to the 1970s: Building My Fortune Through Time Trading-Chapter 294: Encountering a Thief on the Train
The middle-aged woman looked at her warmly: "Comrade, where are you from? Where are you headed?"
Su Xiaoxiao frowned, not wanting to engage with her; this woman was obviously suspicious.
She replied coldly, "Excuse me, could you make room?"
There was a small dining table between the two rows of seats, so the remaining space on either side wasn’t much.
The middle-aged woman sat on the outside, firmly blocking the way in.
"Alright, alright."
The middle-aged woman wasn’t intimidated by her indifference, smiling broadly as she moved aside a little.
Su Xiaoxiao squeezed past her knees with difficulty, and as she went in, she felt her bag being lightly tugged, or so she thought.
She turned back abruptly and saw the middle-aged woman holding onto the corner of her handbag.
Unexpectedly, she reacted quickly, as the middle-aged woman awkwardly explained, "Your bag bumped into me, so I just moved it a bit."
Su Xiaoxiao pulled her handbag over, found nothing unusual, and sat back in her seat.
Her seat was at the innermost part, while the middle-aged woman sat on the outermost seat, and the middle seat was still unoccupied.
Seeing her sit down, the middle-aged woman immediately leaned forward: "Comrade, could you sell me some of that beef jerky you had earlier? Look, I didn’t bring much food for my son and me on this trip."
"Sorry, I don’t have enough for myself, not for sale."
This person clearly had other plans, and Su Xiaoxiao didn’t want to engage.
After responding, she casually placed her handbag on the inner side, leaning back in her seat and pretending to sleep.
She wanted to see what this woman was up to.
Chen Ju, seeing her eyes closed, thought she was finally tired and looked pleased.
This girl, although dressed modestly, took out some rare snacks, clearly pretending to be poor, indicating her family’s conditions weren’t bad.
She’s seen many like her, thinking they’d avoid thieves by pretending to be poor. Too naive.
Seeing that no one was paying attention around, she quietly moved closer to Su Xiaoxiao and reached for the army green handbag.
She extended her hand into the bag cautiously while keeping an eye on her surroundings.
Suddenly, she froze, meeting the gaze of a woman holding a child next to her, and instantly tensed up.
As she was contemplating her next move, she saw the young woman look away indifferently, clearly not wanting to meddle, maybe even feeling a bit schadenfreude.
Chen Ju became bolder, directly reaching into Su Xiaoxiao’s handbag.
The young woman holding the child glanced over and mentally cursed, thinking the girl deserved it.
Let her be so stingy, hmph!
Actually, Su Xiaoxiao hadn’t slept at all. She noticed as soon as the woman reached into her handbag.
But her bag was empty; those items were taken from a small space warehouse and she wasn’t afraid of being stolen.
There were still several hours until the stop, and being eyed by these two thieves wasn’t a good idea.
Chen Ju rummaged through Su Xiaoxiao’s handbag for a long time, finding nothing but a scrap of paper with eaten beef jerky, not even a hair.
Her face turned green, like that could be possible? Could the girl have hidden her money in her clothes?
Her gaze fell on Su Xiaoxiao, contemplating whether to take the opportunity to feel her body, just as Su Xiaoxiao opened her eyes.
"Sis, do you need something?"
Su Xiaoxiao looked at Chen Ju, who was almost leaning on top of her, feigning confusion.
Chen Ju’s body stiffened, seeing that the girl hadn’t noticed anything, she immediately relaxed.
"Well, there’s a gap in the window, I was afraid you might catch a cold, so I helped close it a bit."
Train windows at this time could be opened, and her lie was quite reasonable.
"Thank you then."
Su Xiaoxiao didn’t expose her, stretching wearily as she straightened up on the seat.
Loosening her neck, she took off the jacket from the outside and deliberately placed it on the middle seat.
Chen Ju’s eyes lit up when she saw it.
This fool, she was just worried about how to search her, and she came to her herself.
Chen Ju was excited, taking advantage of Su Xiaoxiao’s turned head to check outside the window, thoroughly searched the cotton jacket but turned even greener.
No, still nothing.
The accomplice opposite was getting anxious.
How could that be? How could there be nothing?
Could it be hidden in intimate clothing? That would be difficult to handle.
Chen Ju’s eyes roamed over Su Xiaoxiao, finally deciding to give up.
She didn’t expect this girl, who seemed silly, to have such a clever mind.
Exchanging a glance with her partner, the two decided to change targets.
Just then, the conductor pushed a trolley over.
"Lunch boxes, hot lunch boxes available, both meat and vegetarian. Any passengers interested?"
The conductor called out as she walked with the trolley.
Chen Ju suddenly perked up.
This girl didn’t bring anything. She would have to eat, wouldn’t she? When buying a lunch box, it would be clear where she kept her money.
Thinking of this, she waved to stop the conductor, "Hello, what kinds of lunch boxes do you have?"
The conductor glanced at her and responded, "There are lunch boxes with cabbage stewed tofu, cabbage with sliced meat, stir-fried potato strips..."
After the conductor finished the introduction, Chen Ju looked at Su Xiaoxiao, seeing she had no intention to speak up, and couldn’t help but ask, "Comrade, I’m buying a lunch box. Do you want to buy one too?"
After saying that, she looked eagerly at Su Xiaoxiao.
Unexpectedly, Su Xiaoxiao shook her head and calmly took out pancakes, eggs, a jar of pickles, and some Lao Gan Ma sauce she’d just ordered from the mall, from her handbag.
Chen Ju’s eyes widened; no way, where did she get all these things from?
She clearly felt nothing earlier; this was like witchcraft!
Su Xiaoxiao, seeing her face turning from green to red, calmly spread things out on the table: "I’ve got my own food, I don’t need any, thanks."
The conductor, waiting for a long time without seeing her purchase a lunch box, looked a bit displeased: "Comrade, are you buying or not?"
If not, don’t waste her time.
Chen Ju quickly said, "I’ll have one cabbage tofu."
"Thirty-five cents."
The conductor handed her the lunch box, took the money, and was about to push the trolley forward.
The young woman holding a child next to her stopped her: "Comrade, I’ll have... the cabbage with sliced meat."
Glimpsing at Su Xiaoxiao’s spread of food, she was initially planning to order a vegetarian dish and switched to meat.
Not even willing to buy a lunch box, hmph, putting on a show.
She glanced proudly at Su Xiaoxiao, only to find that the latter wasn’t looking at her at all and was busy peeling an egg.
The little boy looked longingly at the egg in Su Xiaoxiao’s hand, barely keeping drool from dripping out.
"Eat!"
The woman, fuming, slapped the little boy’s hand, thinking that dead girl was doing it on purpose. Who brings so much food on a train ride?
Chen Ju felt even more conflicted than the woman; the little girl beside her was using white pancakes with Lao Gan Ma, adding a bit of shredded pickles and rolling them with eggs, eating with delight.
While she looked at her own food, a lunch box with almost no oil in the cabbage tofu, and the hard sorghum bread in her hand, she felt like she could hardly swallow.
Damn! How could that dead girl eat so well?
More importantly, that aroma kept wafting into her nose, making her mouth water with envy.
After eating and drinking, Su Xiaoxiao packed up the leftovers and got up to go to the toilet.
She had just stood up when she sensed the middle-aged woman sitting next to her was following.
