Henry Clark, being a local of Hangzhou, naturally took charge of buying the train tickets. Coincidentally, Henry Clark had been practicing at home every day recently and wanted to get some fresh air, so three days before their departure, Henry Clark took half a day to go to the local High-Speed Rail Gang branch to buy the tickets. When he got back, he even told Samuel Bennett, “I’ve got everything sorted! Don’t worry!”

At the time, Samuel Bennett didn’t think much of it, figuring, “What could possibly go wrong with buying a train ticket?”

And so, on the day of their departure, something went wrong.

The two of them each carried a bundle on their backs, with Henry Clark holding a trident in his hand, and arrived at the departure point in high spirits. Then Henry Clark showed the tickets, and the staff told him, “You bought the wrong way. These are tickets from Luoyang to Hangzhou.”

Henry Clark was immediately annoyed: “Come on, what’s the difference between Luoyang to Hangzhou and Hangzhou to Luoyang? The price should be the same, right? Just let us on, what’s the problem?”

The High-Speed Rail Gang staff member who received them laughed, “Well, is there any difference between walking from your home to here and from here to your home? Why don’t you just go back then?”

Hearing this, Henry Clark became furious and brandished his trident as if he was about to stab someone: “Damn it! What kind of attitude is that? And why didn’t you remind me when I was buying the ticket? Didn’t the person selling the ticket ever wonder why I, being in Hangzhou, would buy a ticket from Luoyang to Hangzhou?”

“Let me think… For example, maybe you have a friend living in Luoyang, and you want to invite him to Hangzhou for a visit, so you buy a ticket, tuck it in a letter, and mail it to him. That makes sense, right?” the staff member replied.

“Uh…” Henry Clark was left speechless.

“Besides, young man, you’re a big, strapping guy.” The staff member wouldn’t let up and continued with a smile, “If a child came to buy a ticket and this happened, maybe our ticket seller would give a reminder. But someone like you, we’d definitely assume you know what you’re doing.”

“I…” Henry Clark wanted to argue, but the other party made too much sense, and with so many people waiting for the train watching him, he felt even more embarrassed.

“All right, all right… Brother Clark, that’s enough, give me some face.” In the end, it was Samuel Bennett who stepped forward, giving Brother Clark a way out and stopping him from further embarrassing himself.

Unfortunately, even though Samuel Bennett tried to reason with the High-Speed Rail Gang staff, since all the seats were already sold out, they still couldn’t get on the train. The next coach to Luoyang wouldn’t leave for another seven days, and by then, they might miss the Mid-Autumn Festival gathering.

Helpless, the two had to buy tickets on the spot and boarded a coach to Xuancheng, planning to figure things out once they got there.

Along the way, Samuel Bennett naturally couldn’t help but tease Henry Clark about his “reverse high-speed rail” blunder, while Henry Clark stubbornly argued back, blaming the High-Speed Rail Gang staff.

The other passengers in the coach silently endured their banter, not daring to tell them to shut up. After all, one of them was holding something that looked like an oversized manure fork and seemed pretty irritable—if they annoyed him and got stabbed, that would be really unlucky.

And so, the coach continued on its way. Around noon, they made a brief stop at a relay station before quickly setting off again.

By late afternoon, as the coach was traveling along the road, suddenly…

“Ow, Brother Clark, my stomach hurts all of a sudden, what should I do?” Samuel Bennett had always had a sensitive stomach since childhood, often needing to go to the bathroom more than three times a day, and now he felt the urge again.

“What do you want me to do about it?” Henry Clark grumbled in annoyance, but then turned and went to the front of the coach to talk to the driver. A moment later, he came back and said, “The driver says the schedule is tight and they can’t stop at will. Otherwise, we won’t make it into the city before dark, and everyone will be stuck outside the city gates. He can’t take that responsibility.”

“How long until the next relay station?” Samuel Bennett asked.

“It’s still a while,” Henry Clark replied. “He said if you really can’t hold it, just jump off the coach, take care of business in the woods by the roadside, and then find your own way to catch up.”

Samuel Bennett was really desperate. He thought for a moment, “That works… I’m pretty good at lightness skills, so I should be able to catch up. But Brother Clark, can you manage?”

“Huh?” Henry Clark was stunned. “What’s it got to do with me? Why should I go with you?”

“Cover me,” Samuel Bennett said. “What if I get ambushed by bandits halfway through and get killed?”

“Then just go die!” Henry Clark’s voice even went up an octave as he replied.

This kind of conversation—like middle schoolers… no, elementary schoolers inviting each other to the bathroom—felt perfectly natural between them.

“Come on! Are you my bro or not? Just say the word!” Samuel Bennett urged. “Hurry up, I can’t hold it much longer.”

“All right, all right.” Henry Clark saw that quite a few fellow passengers were already stifling their laughter while watching them, and felt it would be embarrassing to stay here alone, so he grabbed the trident lying on the floor and got up, “I’ll go with you, I’ll go with you…”

The High-Speed Rail Gang’s coach was specially designed for passengers, with a long and wide carriage pulled by four horses. The speed wasn’t very fast—by modern standards, about twenty kilometers per hour—so even getting off while it was moving wasn’t much of a challenge.