Ch 186: Guide to Running a Shop in Another World

The blue train, adorned with three white-striped patterns, rumbled over the sea, approaching the platform against the backdrop of a setting sun reflected on the water.

As the train doors opened, passengers disembarked with their suitcases, meeting friends and family with weary smiles, instantly filling the platform with lively chatter.

In stark contrast, the screening room remained silent. The audience watched with rapt attention, eyes filled with wonder, fear, and an irrepressible curiosity for the unknown.

This serpent-like object, the Sea Train, was not a boat but something that floated on the ocean.

As people descended from the box-shaped carriages, the audience marveled at how such a thing could even exist.

Le Han and Rong Shenghua sat in the back rows of Theater 1. They had been deeply shaken by yesterday’s collaboration between the cinema and Yuguizhai, pondering it overnight, and had rushed to buy tickets for the first screening.

Staring at the Sea Train on screen, both men were transfixed, wondering if this was a figment of imagination or an actual thing.

The old conductor and a young attendant exited the control room, chatting and revealing some details about the Sea Train. It ran on “floating light power” instead of steam, and the unique designs of the front and rear cars held symbolic meaning. The newly replaced wallpaper in the carriages featured patterns once beloved by a royal family a century ago.

Such details rarely advanced the plot; instead, they built a world so realistic it almost felt tangible.

To the citizens of the Great Wu Dynasty, this brief segment raised numerous questions. What was floating light power? How did it differ from steam power? Who invented the Sea Train? Were commoners not afraid of punishment for using something fit for royalty?

The platform was the train’s final stop. As passengers finished disembarking, new ones boarded, heading toward new destinations.

The scene transitioned quickly, showing various characters boarding through different doors and entering distinct compartments.

The Sea Train began its journey once again, rumbling past the audience.

Some viewers rubbed their eyes, muttering softly, “So many people… it’s impossible to remember them all.”

Their neighbor reassured, “Just keep watching; it’ll make sense later.”

Indeed, the cast was extensive, and their clothing and appearance were somewhat indistinguishable to the citizens of Great Wu Dynasty, making it difficult to tell them apart at first glance.

For now, the audience was more captivated by the Sea Train itself, gliding smoothly over the sea, traveling quickly and steadily.

It was entirely different from the carriages and cargo ships they knew.

Outside the train windows, thick layers of gray-blue clouds stacked up, the dusk growing heavy.

Inside the carriages, a mysterious figure in a dark brown cloak, a group of people in black suits with heavy cases, an elegant woman with her daughter, a scholarly man claiming to be an editor for a newspaper, a young girl on her way to Taicheng to find relatives, a sharp-tongued old count with a limp, and a couple returning home to marry—all conversed under dim yellow lights, drinking red wine, playing cards, or dozing by the windows.

As stories go, this opening seemed rather uneventful.

The night deepened, and the novelty of the journey wore off. Most passengers began to rest, some heading to the restroom.

Bang!

A heavy gunshot jolted everyone awake, marking the first casualty.

The shooting occurred in the restroom between the first and second carriages. Hearing the sound, passengers rushed to the scene, where dark red liquid seeped from under the restroom door, their faces tense with dread.

In the theater, the audience stirred; it really was a murder mystery, and the action had begun before they even processed it.

Le Han narrowed his eyes, fingers brushing the embroidery on his cuff.

He had noticed that heavy sound in the trailer, sensing it was some kind of signal.

Now it seemed to be the signal for murder, and he wanted to uncover its source.

On the screen, a few male passengers worked together to break open the restroom door, revealing the victim—a young man lying face down, a bullet lodged in his chest, already lifeless.

After examining the scene, they still hadn’t identified the victim.

The blood pooling from under the restroom door also raised questions. Though shot in the chest with his legs facing the door, there was not enough blood from his wound to account for the large puddle outside.

Whose blood is it?

And who killed this man?

It was the first time the citizens of the Great Wu Dynasty encountered this type of film, and they began to immerse themselves in the scene, guessing who the murderer might be.

“Who could it be?”

“I think it’s that old man with the limp—he looks like a villain, and he’s got a nasty way of speaking.”

“That’s possible, but I also think the newspaper editor seems suspicious; the way he looks at people is unsettling.”

The audience, unfamiliar with what a newspaper editor does, began analyzing based on their impressions.

Xie Xu, overhearing, couldn’t resist chiming in softly, “Then by that logic, wouldn’t those people in black and that mysterious person in the cloak be even more suspicious?”

Chen Yuning’s eyes lit up with understanding; that must be why there were so many close-ups of them in the beginning. The murderer had to be among the characters who’d already appeared.

Chen Yuning couldn’t hold back and countered Xie Xu, “Those people in black haven’t reappeared since they boarded; they’re probably not in these two carriages, so we can rule them out for now. As for the man in the brown cloak, he looks suspicious, but that doesn’t necessarily make him the killer.”

Xie Xu frowned. “So, who do you think the murderer is?”

Chen Yuning shook his head. “The character relationships haven’t been revealed yet, and there’s not enough information to deduce the killer.”

This film was far more interesting than they’d anticipated. Unfortunately, Prince Jin wasn’t here today.

There was a banquet at the palace, so the Prince Jin’s family had to enter the palace early, leaving no time to attend.

Actually, anyone with an invitation had to enter the palace early.

But Xie Xu and Chen Yuning, determined to see The Sea Train, snuck out early, planning to watch it before heading to the palace.

As it turned out, the film did not disappoint.

At a critical moment, the train attendant reappeared, revealing the identity of the deceased—a jewelry merchant who was on this trip to deliver a beautiful pigeon’s blood ruby to Taicheng.

Since the jewelry merchant was a frequent Sea Train passenger, the attendant recognized him, and the two had even chatted briefly during ticket inspection.

With the victim’s identity clarified, there was a new direction for the motive—the ruby.

The breakthrough to finding the killer was the blood at the door that didn’t belong to the deceased. The murderer likely got injured during the attack, so examining the passengers for injuries could expose the culprit.

Halfway through the inspection, Lady Sera’s daughter Annie was found with a fresh bandage on her wrist.

Annie was only thirteen, with a round face, twin ponytails, and dressed in a luxurious black dress, her gaze sharp.

When the train attendant grabbed her wrist and pulled her up, she didn’t panic, but Lady Sera was anxious to explain that her daughter had hurt her wrist in a recent horse-riding accident and didn’t want to remove the bandage for everyone to see.

The old count, with his limp, shouted impatiently, demanding that Annie remove the bandage to prove her innocence.

The other passengers watched Lady Sera and Annie with scrutiny. While they didn’t speak, their eyes conveyed the same demand as the count’s.

“Ahhhh—” A woman’s scream interrupted the inspection; it seemed something had happened in the next carriage.

A second victim had appeared.

This time, the murder scene was in the restroom between the second and third carriages, and the victim was Janet’s lover, Chad.

Chad and Janet were the couple planning to return home to marry, and Janet was the first to discover him.

They were passengers in the second carriage and had to undergo inspection after the jewelry merchant’s death. Chad, needing to use the restroom, told Janet he’d go before the inspection reached them.

But he never returned, and Janet grew worried. She got up to check on him in the restroom.

She knocked, but there was no answer. A sense of unease crept over her, and when she saw blood seeping from under the door, she screamed in terror.

The crowd broke down the restroom door, and Chad’s death was eerily similar to the jeweler’s: a gunshot wound to the chest, killing him instantly.

However, this scene was even more horrifying—blood was splattered everywhere.

Soon, the passengers noticed Chad’s right forearm wrapped in a blood-soaked bandage. As they unwrapped it, fresh blood continued to seep from the wound.

This…

Passengers exchanged glances, and Lady Sera pointed at Chad’s corpse, declaring loudly, “He’s the murderer! His arm is still bleeding; it must be him.”

But what was the motive?

The ruby that had been with the jeweler was indeed missing, so the conductor and the limping count began searching Chad’s body.

They found no ruby, and the passengers’ gazes gradually shifted to the weeping Janet.

If Chad had indeed killed the jeweler to steal the ruby, the gem should have been on him.

With nothing found, the situation grew more baffling.

And who, then, had killed Chad?

The relationships between people are complex, with hidden and overt ties that intertwine. Sometimes, when hidden motives are elusive, one must start with the most apparent connections.

Discarding emotion, they scrutinized those around them with a rational eye.

Janet noticed the strange looks directed her way, and, feeling uncomfortable, raised her head and asked tearfully, “Why are you all looking at me like that?”

The audience grew restless.

“Do they suspect the young woman?”

“She doesn’t look like she has the strength to kill an adult man. And weren’t they planning to return home to marry?”

“Who on earth is the murderer?”

Standing in the aisle of Theater 1, Ku Ba crossed his arms, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he scrutinized the scene for clues.

On the train, the passengers forcibly searched Janet and Chad’s luggage, even inspecting Janet’s dress, yet they still found no ruby.

Who was the killer?

This question lingered in the minds of everyone in the screening room.

As the other passengers strained to identify the murderer, the man in the brown cloak, who had sat quietly in the corner of Carriage 3 since the beginning, suddenly rose. He blocked the door connecting Carriages 3 and 2, pulled a Gatling gun from beneath his cloak, and shouted, “You’re all being hijacked! Hands on your heads and squat down—don’t move!”

The turn of events happened so suddenly that both the passengers on the train and the audience in the screening room were momentarily stunned.

But the sheer intimidation of the Gatling gun quickly forced the passengers to comply with the cloaked man’s orders, crouching down like lambs awaiting slaughter, trembling in fear.

The brown-cloaked man was, in fact, a robber. He had received a tip that a few highly affluent individuals would be traveling on this particular Sea Train.

Originally, he had planned to strike at the darkest hour of the night, but the series of murders had prompted the first-class passengers to try to move to the rear carriages for safety.

Forced into action ahead of schedule, he made his move.

One passenger, overcome by fear, tripped and fell, prompting a companion to turn back to help.

The cloaked man raised his Gatling gun, firing without mercy, and the two passengers were practically torn apart.

The train fell silent, the sound of waves lapping against the carriages faintly audible.

In the screening room, silence reigned as well, as if one could hear a pin drop.

What kind of weapon was this?

So terrifying.

Chen Jingshan and Liu Gennong sat in Theater 3. Ever since watching the trailer for The Sea Train Serial Murders, they had planned to see the full movie together.

Liu Gennong had become one of the most popular storytellers in Liangjing by adapting cinema films into story scripts.

However, he had found the previous film, In Search for the Deep-Sea Beast, challenging to adapt, leaving him frustrated.

This time, with The Sea Train, he knew from just the trailer that it would become a sensation in Liangjing, and he had eagerly arranged to see it with Chen Jingshan.

The more he watched, the more excited he became, speculating about who the killer might be.

But at that moment, he was startled by the weapon in the hands of the man in the brown cloak.

Even without fully understanding the weapon, a primal fear gripped him.

In another screening room, the audience was equally shaken by the sight of the Gatling gun.

Wan Baozhu sat in the center of the back row with her two maids.

Cui Zhu and Qing Fei clung to each other, peeking at the screen with half-closed eyes, too frightened to look directly. Wan Baozhu’s brow furrowed, her gaze heavy with seriousness.

However, the fear didn’t last long. After finishing his looting, the man in the brown cloak retreated to the outside of Carriage 3.

The final shot showed him lying in the restroom, valuables scattered on the floor, a gunshot wound in his chest, dead.

The passengers, still recovering from the shock of the robbery, were faced with a third victim, killed in the same manner as the others.

Most passengers were already exhausted but dared not let their guard down.

They didn’t know the rules behind the murders, nor could they find clues to the killer’s identity, and for all they knew, they might be the next to die.

Xie Xu kicked the back of the seat in front of him, feeling agitated yet unable to relax for even a moment. “Who on earth is the killer?”

In the lobby’s rest area, Lu Yao sat in a corner, reading, with a glass of orange water by her side.

Fu Chi, who had just checked on both screening rooms, walked over to Lu Yao. “The audience is about to lose it—you can hear them outside, breaking down and asking, ‘Who is the killer?’”

Lu Yao looked up, a smile in her eyes. “That’s the allure of a suspense film.”

Fu Chi sat down across from her. “What are you reading?”

Lu Yao held up the book, showing the back cover.

Fu Chi’s eyes flickered. “Is that the original novel of The Sea Train Serial Murders?”

Lu Yao nodded. “You know the author.”

Fu Chi examined the author’s name more closely, looking puzzled. “No recollection.”

Lu Yao prompted, “She works at the Little Pet Cafe.”

After a brief pause, Fu Chi’s expression turned resolute. “Jiu Hua.”

The film had been bought from Eden Sea, and among the human employees at the Little Pet Cafe, there were only a handful.

Lu Yao closed the book, her fingers lightly brushing the cover. “When I bought it, I didn’t realize; Jiu Hua was surprised too—she thought I knew it was her work when I bought it.”

The Sea Train Serial Murders was adapted from an obscure early novel of the same name by Jiu Hua, set in the Sea Calendar year 2530.

The Sea Train in the movie was the only real sea train in Eden Sea, connecting to a small island known for its tropical fruit.

The total journey was less than ten kilometers, yet it was one of the most crucial transportation routes in Eden Sea.

The historical development of Eden Sea differed from Lu Yao’s world, yet technological progress in both had an oddly similar trajectory.

For instance, “floating light power” in the film, a renewable, pollution-free energy sourced from the ocean, was quite similar to electricity in Lu Yao’s world.

The characters’ clothing and level of civilization in the film were comparable to the early 19th century in Lu Yao’s world.

After learning that Lu Yao had bought the film adaptation of The Sea Train, Jiu Hua had brought her a set of the original novel the next day.

Lu Yao had already read more than half of it, gaining insights into the history of Eden Sea through Jiu Hua’s writing.

The seeds of civilization were gradually being sown; what direction would the Great Wu Dynasty take in the future?

Would the cinema’s presence bring fortune to the people or disaster?

It seemed too early to tell.

When The Sea Train Serial Murders ended, the audience emerged from the theater, looking dazed and visibly drained.

The plot’s intensity clearly lingered, and some viewers rushed to the ticket counter, tossing a coin pouch over. “One more ticket for The Sea Train Serial Murders!”

They had uncovered the killer, but the first viewing was too overwhelming, with many details missed. They needed to rewatch it several times to catch everything.

These weren’t the only guests like that; quite a few young people, after watching the first round, bought tickets to see it again, eager to examine every detail.

Xie Xu and Chen Yuning lingered at the entrance for a long time. The final reveal of the killer had been… far too unexpected, making it difficult to process.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have time to watch it again today, so they left in a daze.

Noticing Lu Yao in the rest area, Wan Baozhu walked straight toward her.

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