Chapter 170: Unjustly Slandered
Chapter 170: Chapter 170: Unjustly Slandered
The donkey cart drove into town, and Chen Hao saw Fu Xiaoxiao and the two kids to the station, helped them carry their things onto the bus, stood beside the coach and watched Fu Xiaoxiao sit down with the children before he finally felt at ease and stepped back.
"Little sis, be careful on the way!" Chen Hao waved at Fu Xiaoxiao, worried.
"Second Brother, goodbye." Fu Xiaoxiao nodded, smiling at him as she spoke.
"Second Uncle, we’ll miss you." Lu Chen shouted.
Hearing Lu Chen’s words, Chen Hao broke into a smile and waved hard.
The coach slowly started up. Fu Xiaoxiao took Lu Lin and Lu Chen and set off on the journey home. Fortunately they were riding all the way to the terminal station, so there was no need to get off halfway. Fu Xiaoxiao sat by the window, letting the cold wind from outside blow on her, blocking out the suffocating smell inside the bus.
Lu Lin and Lu Chen pressed tightly against Fu Xiaoxiao, watching the surroundings warily.
As more and more people got on, some people with no sense of decency took off their shoes and such, and all kinds of smells mixed together. Even with that bit of wind from the window, it still made Fu Xiaoxiao almost pass out.
Leaning on the air coming in from outside the window, she finally held out until they reached the terminal. When Fu Xiaoxiao got off the bus, her face was pale. Lu Lin and Lu Chen, frightened, hurried to support her.
"Mom, are you okay?"
"I’m fine, I just need to sit for a bit." Fu Xiaoxiao waved her hand and sat down on the steps to the side, breathing the fresh air, and only after quite a while did she start to feel better.
"Comrade, are you alright?" A staff member from the platform came up to ask with concern.
"I’m fine, I just get carsick." Fu Xiaoxiao was embarrassed to say she’d been knocked out by the stench.
"That’s good. If you still feel unwell, our office is just up ahead, you can go there to rest for a while." The woman saw that Fu Xiaoxiao was alone with two children and spoke.
"Thank you." Fu Xiaoxiao shook her head—she already felt much better, the nausea had eased a lot. Lu Lin helped her to her feet.
"My name is He Jie. If anything comes up you can come find me at the platform!" Seeing that Fu Xiaoxiao was indeed much better, He Jie finally felt reassured and went back to her patrol, leaving after she spoke.
Fu Xiaoxiao took Lu Lin and Lu Chen to line up at the ticket window. At the front of the line, a woman was angrily slapping the counter.
"I said I want a sleeper ticket, I don’t want a seat. Comrade, please change it for me."
"There are no sleeper tickets left. Right now we only have seats. Are you buying a seat or not? If you’re not, don’t block other people from buying." The ticket seller had no intention of indulging her and directly called the next buyer forward.
"Are you buying or not? If not, then move aside." People in the back urged her on—everyone was waiting to buy tickets!
"I’ll buy!" Seeing that she wasn’t going to be given a sleeper ticket, the woman could only resentfully buy a seat.
Most people were unwilling to splurge on sleepers. Fu Xiaoxiao slowly stepped up, and when it was her turn, she handed her paperwork to the ticket seller.
As soon as she saw Fu Xiaoxiao’s documents, the ticket seller immediately took out two sleeper tickets and smiled at Fu Xiaoxiao.
"Comrade, wish you a smooth journey."
"Thank you, and I wish you success at work."
Fu Xiaoxiao answered her smile with a line of her own.
Right by the ticket window, the same woman who’d just failed to get sleeper tickets saw that the stubs in Fu Xiaoxiao’s hand were clearly a different color from hers, and angrily blocked Fu Xiaoxiao’s way.
"Didn’t you just say there were no sleeper tickets? How come she can buy them? Aren’t you just picking on people?" The woman’s expression was hostile; she glared at Fu Xiaoxiao, and when she saw that Fu Xiaoxiao was even prettier than she was, a flash of jealousy passed through her eyes.
"Please move aside." Fu Xiaoxiao couldn’t be bothered to explain to her. She took Lu Lin and Lu Chen’s hands and was about to leave.
"You can’t leave. Do you have some shady relationship with them or something? I demand a full investigation. How come she can get sleeper tickets that none of us could buy!" Jiang Lan blocked her and refused to let her pass, her voice growing louder as she spoke.
The people who were buying tickets all turned to look over. Even though they themselves weren’t buying sleeper tickets, that didn’t stop them from feeling disgruntled that Fu Xiaoxiao seemed to be getting special treatment.
"Are you a toad in a pond? Once you start croaking you never stop?" That one line from Fu Xiaoxiao left Jiang Lan stunned.
"How can you insult people like that! So you really do have some shady relationship with them, don’t you? I must’ve hit the nail on the head." Jiang Lan felt sure she’d guessed right and pointed at Fu Xiaoxiao angrily.
"Even tofu has a brain—apparently you’re the only one who doesn’t." Fu Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes at Jiang Lan. "Never heard of something called pre-booked tickets?"
"What pre-booked tickets?" Jiang Lan froze; she had never heard of such a thing.
"Before this trip, I had already confirmed my return tickets, so now I just need to come here and pick up the tickets I reserved. Got it? The staff already said there were no tickets left. What, you have to tie me to some ’special group’ and insist I must have some shady relationship to get tickets?" Fu Xiaoxiao gave Jiang Lan an exasperated glance.
"How can you have such a bad temper, Comrade? How was I supposed to know there’s something like pre-booked tickets!" Jiang Lan was losing steam; her voice weakened a lot.
"I’m perfectly capable of having a good temper, but why should I cater to you?" Fu Xiaoxiao said coldly. "You don’t bother to figure out what’s what and just block my way, and then you insist I’ve got some shady relationship with the staff—does that make you feel smart? That mouth of yours is really something. Just by opening and closing it twice, you manage to dump filth all over us!"
"I...I was just upset that I’d queued so long and still couldn’t get a sleeper ticket." Jiang Lan lowered her head aggrievedly, trying to make it look like Fu Xiaoxiao was the one being unreasonable.
"What does you not getting a ticket have to do with me? Blocking me—is that supposed to make you look good? What am I to you? Without a word you dump dirt all over me. Now that you realize you were wrong you still won’t admit it, and instead you blame me for having the ability to get a ticket? What do you have in your head that lets you pack so much nonsense in there?" Fu Xiaoxiao said icily.
"Comrade, if there’s an issue, take it to the office. Don’t stand here holding everyone up." Hearing the commotion, He Jie hurried over. After listening to what Jiang Lan had said, she came forward with a cold face.
"I’m not going to the office, I just wanted to ask." The moment she heard "office," Jiang Lan faltered, and no matter what, she refused to go.
"Are you sure? If there’s anything you don’t understand, we have staff in the office who can explain it to you, so you don’t go around opening your mouth and accusing us of having improper relationships with passengers." He Jie’s face stayed cold, and several other staff also came over, looking at Jiang Lan with hostile expressions.
"I don’t need to..." Jiang Lan had already lost all the bluster she’d had when she was making a scene earlier; she hung her head and didn’t dare make another sound.
"Apologize." Fu Xiaoxiao said mildly. "We’re all adults here, not little girls. You act without thinking and cause trouble for other people, and you don’t even know how to apologize? You smear the staff with a single offhand comment—do you have any idea how much trouble one casual remark from you can bring to other people? Not just to me; you owe the staff an apology too!"
He Jie glanced back and saw that it was Fu Xiaoxiao—someone she’d just met briefly. Now seeing her speak up on their behalf, she gave her a small nod.
"I...I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it..." Seeing that everyone around was staring at them, Jiang Lan’s face flushed red, and she could only bring herself to apologize to them.
"When you were making a scene just now, your voice was plenty loud. And now this volume—are you talking for the mosquitoes’ benefit?" Fu Xiaoxiao had no intention of indulging her; if Jiang Lan thought she could muddle through, that was impossible.