Searching for someone in northern Myanmar, and you call that earning tuition fees?

The carriage was plunged into complete darkness.

The sound of water flowing from the heating pipes had stopped, and heat was rapidly escaping from the metal carriage. The polar night's frigid air, at minus forty-two degrees Celsius, was relentless, seeping into every crevice.

Old Zhao's first reaction wasn't fear, but rather cursing.

"Damn it! Where's the heating? Where the hell is my heating?!"

He grabbed the thermos and hugged it to his chest, shrinking into the collar of his military coat, leaving only his eyes showing. The Buddhist prayer beads hanging from the thermos jingled and rattled with his trembling.

Li Changfeng had already pressed himself against the car window. He scraped off a small patch of frost from the glass with his fingernail and then pressed one eye against it.

Outside the window, the darkness of the snowfield was torn apart by more than a dozen beams of light.

The halogen headlights of the snowmobiles converged from all directions, each beam pointing towards the stationary train. The roar of the engines pierced through the metal carriages, a deep, muffled growl like that of a wild beast.

"They forced the train to stop..." Ah Xue's voice came from the darkness, choked with sobs, "In the wasteland, we can't escape. We'll freeze to death, or they'll hunt us like rabbits."

Li Changfeng stepped back, his voice low: "Fifteen snowmobiles, two people per vehicle, one driving and one armed. All armed with AK-12 assault rifles. Judging by their equipment, they're the main pursuit team of Arctic Fox. We're surrounded."

"Seventeen cars." Su Ming's voice came from the direction of the upper bunk.

Everyone was stunned for a moment.

Old Zhao peeked half his head out from the corner of the berth: "How did you count? Were you lying on the roof of the car?"

"The engine noise is off," Su Ming's voice came from the upper bunk, calm. "There are two more hidden in the shadows; they're command vehicles. Seventeen in total."

Old Zhao opened his mouth, but decided not to ask the question any further.

"What's wrong with seventeen? Is there a difference between fifteen and seventeen?!" he practically yelled. "The difference is I have to take two more pills!"

He rummaged through the pockets of his military overcoat, pulled out a blister pack, and shakily popped two pills into his mouth.

When Ah Xue saw the silhouette of Old Zhao swallowing medicine with his head tilted back in the darkness, she subconsciously took a step back.

"What...what are you doing?" she asked, her voice trembling.

Old Zhao smacked his lips and gave her a puzzled look: "Taking your medicine?"

Ah Xue's face turned pale. She thought of a more desperate possibility.

"You wouldn't be thinking of...?"

"What are you thinking about?"

"suicide?"

Old Zhao nearly choked to death while holding his medicine in his mouth. He coughed for a long time, tears welling up in his eyes, and slapped his thigh: "I fucking took nitroglycerin! Not potassium cyanide! How come your brain works just like Su Ming's?!"

"So you're swallowing so much now, are you planning to end your own life before they break in?"

"Xiaoxue," Old Zhao caught his breath, "Don't look at me like that. This medicine can't be taken as food, but if I don't take it now, I'm afraid my heart will stop beating the moment this kid opens his mouth."

Ah Xue looked at Su Ming suspiciously, then at the crumpled medicine in Old Zhao's hand.

"Uncle Zhao, calm down." Su Ming climbed down from the top bunk, his footsteps silent. "You've already overeaten today. If you eat any more, you'll have a heart attack before Arctic Fox even makes a move."

"I fucking want to have a heart attack right now!" Old Zhao shoved the blister pack into his pocket and roared incoherently, "A heart attack would be the end of it all! It's better than getting riddled with bullets by those bastards later! Su Ming! You fucking say something! What are you going to use to reason with people this time?! Last time in Africa, at least the ground was warm! This time, even the ground is ice cold!"

Su Ming ignored Old Zhao's roar.

He calmly crouched down in the darkness, opened his canvas bag, pulled out the stack of legal documents, and quickly flipped to a certain page by the faint reflection of the motorcycle headlights outside the window.

Then he stood up and handed the document to Ah Xue.

"Ms. Xue, don't be nervous." Su Ming's tone was as if he were conducting business at a bank counter. "This is an excerpt from Article 37 of the International Asset Preservation Law, Article 14 of the Ice Fog Kingdom Inheritance Convention, and the Exclusive Legal Power of Attorney I've drafted for you. Please sign and put your fingerprint on it first. Once all the formalities are completed, we can go and explain the principles of legal rights protection to those mercenaries."

Ah Xue blankly accepted the document.

She glanced down at the paper—it was covered with densely packed clauses, written in Chinese, English, and Russian.

A standardized layout and format are essential for a formal legal document printed out from a law firm.

Outside the window, the roar of snowmobile engines drew closer.

"They...they're about to burst in..." Ah Xue's voice trembled. "You want me to sign documents? You want me to sign documents at a time like this?"

Su Ming nodded: "While there's still light."

"What light?!"

Su Ming pointed to the seventeen motorcycle headlights outside the window.

"Borrow their lamps to see."

Ah Xue gripped the document, her fingertips trembling violently. She took a breath, gritted her teeth, and pulled a ballpoint pen from her pocket.

It wasn't because she believed Su Ming.

It's because she had no other choice.

When Xue handed the signed document back, Su Ming casually asked a question.

"Ah Xue, do you owe the oligarchs money?"

Ah Xue was stunned: "Huh? What?"

"I'm asking you, are there any debt disputes within this two billion inheritance? Do you owe them money?"

"No! Grandpa's accounts are perfectly clean! I've seen the audit report!"

Su Ming nodded, put the document away, and looked satisfied.

"very good."

He fastened the clasp of his canvas bag, looked up, and the light and shadow from the window swept across his face, illuminating it in half-light and half-shadow.

"Then they should owe us money."

Li Changfeng, who had been observing the situation outside the window, turned his head and said, "Su Ming, there are still Arctic Fox people on the train that haven't been cleared out. According to that floor plan, there's one group in each of carriages one, three, and five, and another group in the engine control room. Now, we've cut off the power to force a stop, coordinating from the inside and outside. They're waiting for us to show ourselves."

Su Ming took the captured walkie-talkie out of his pocket, his thumb resting on the edge of the call button, but he didn't press it.

"Don't rush things inside." He glanced at the burly man. "Let's talk over here first, you outside."

The burly man's eyelids twitched.

Su Ming pressed the call button.

A buzzing sound came from the earphones, followed by a cold voice:

"Viper, the train has been forced to a stop. Is there any movement in your compartment?"

Su Ming replied in fluent Russian: "Received. There are three civilian passengers in the compartment, no target. They are evacuating. We need the headlights on the front of the train to assist."

There was a two-second pause on the other end of the walkie-talkie.

"Roger that. The locomotive crew is restoring power; lights will come on in two minutes. All squads, hold your positions and wait for the signal."

Su Ming released the call button and looked up at Li Changfeng.

Two minutes.

Li Changfeng understood. He pushed open the door to the private room and disappeared into the dark corridor.

Old Zhao squatted in the corner, repeatedly unscrewing and screwing on his thermos, muttering to himself. Xue, shivering with cold, huddled on her bunk and glanced at Su Ming.

He squatted down in front of the burly man again.

"Let's get to know each other again." Su loosened the burly man's shoelaces to improve blood circulation, his tone still gentle. "My surname is Su. I'm a finance major. Now, let's talk about the money your boss owes me."

The burly man was in so much pain that his face was covered in sweat, and only one thought was in his mind—the finance department?

"Your forced stop has caused a serious delay to this international train." Su Ming's voice echoed in the dark compartment, as serious as a professor lecturing. "According to Article 91 of the Ice Mist Country's Railway Transportation Law, the indirect economic loss caused by an unjustified interruption of train transportation is approximately US$300,000. We need to confirm the payer for this."

The burly man gasped in pain, bracing himself with his unbroken hand, and looked at Su Ming as if he were a monster: "You...you're fucking crazy?"

"I've studied bone setting," Su Ming said gently. "Now you have two choices: one, answer my question and I'll help you reset your joint; two, don't answer, and I'll still help you reset it."

The burly man was taken aback; the two options sounded the same.

Su Ming laughed, a laugh that seemed particularly sinister in the darkness: "The difference is that the first one is to reconnect it, and the second one is to break it."

The burly man's face turned deathly pale.

Outside the window, the snowmobile engines continued to rumble. The beams of searchlights swept across the windows, casting fleeting, pale spots of light into the compartment.

Su Ming patted the burly man's unbroken arm and gave him a kind smile.

"Come on, sign this, and you and your brothers outside will all live."