"Lee, do you really need to be this cautious?" Amelia asked, watching him closely. "You're acting like a covert operative."
"You work in the news industry," Lee Yunlong replied. "Do you truly not grasp the kind of influence your colleagues command? Even with these precautions, we're severely limited. If I weren't worried about exhausting my reserves, I would have applied a glamour to your face by now—guaranteeing that even your closest acquaintances wouldn't recognize you."
"Isn't that a bit dramatic? It's not as if we're wanted fugitives."
"In my opinion, fugitives have it better," he said. "At least a criminal's reputation precedes them; people might hesitate to get involved out of sheer self-preservation. But us? Who is going to fear a pair like us?"
Amelia threw up her hands in frustration. "What is wrong with these people? I'm a victim in all this! Why target me? If they have that kind of drive, why don't they go after the Heavenly Express?"
"Their family and friends vanished because of a curse," Yunlong explained calmly. "Anyone would be driven to desperation. You tell them to track down the Heavenly Express, but how could ordinary people ever hope to find it? You, on the other hand, are right in front of them—a defenseless civilian. How much fight could a fragile woman put up? It's all too easy to construct a righteous pretext: at best, you're a key witness; at worst, a prime suspect. If time weren't so tight, legal proceedings would already be underway, and you'd be waiting for an arrest warrant."
"Bullshit," Amelia spat, her anger flaring. "Those absolute bastards!" She paused, suddenly digesting his words, and narrowed her eyes. "Lee, why didn't you mention yourself in all that? Aren't you worried at all?"
"I am an adventurer, after all," Yunlong offered a faint smile. "I have plenty of confidence in my ability to slip away when things go south."
Amelia glared at him in utter speechlessness.
Every half hour, Yunlong used a water gun to refresh the magical mist around Amelia. After spending the entire afternoon driving around the city, he finally turned the vehicle around at nightfall and headed back toward the vicinity of Yorba Linda. Securing a room at a nearby motel—a converted mobile home rental under a forged name—the two settled in. Once the door was locked and the curtains drawn, Yunlong pulled out a vial of specialized pigment and traced a circular magic array onto the floor. At the four cardinal points, he set down glass bottles filled with refined potions. In the center of the array, he placed a single chair and instructed Amelia to sit. Lacking the proper facilities to construct a full-room ritual area, Yunlong had to improvise using his cultivated core to lay down a Four Elements Array. Its effective range was small, but remaining inside would still suppress the curse's progression.
"Lee, why did we come back here?" Amelia asked, peering out the edge of the window. "Is this that whole 'the most dangerous place is the safest place' routine?" Memories of the Heavenly Express were still raw, and with the curse still clinging to her, being this close to the original site made her deeply uneasy.
"A dangerous place is just a dangerous place," Yunlong replied, setting down his equipment. "That phrase is a movie trope. How many people in the real world actually play with their lives like that? We came back here to gamble on luck."
"Gamble on luck?"
"Precisely." Yunlong reached into his pocket and handed her a necklace. It looked like cheap junk bought from a roadside stall—the chain was flimsy, dull, and entirely unpolished, adorned with a single, obviously fake black pearl.
Knowing he wouldn't joke about something like this now, Amelia took the necklace and examined it carefully, though she couldn't discern anything extraordinary about it.
"Don't bother looking," Yunlong said. "The only thing of value on that string is the imitation black pearl. You've heard of guardian charms? That fake pearl is essentially a guardian spell condensed into a physical potion."
"Do I need to swallow it?"
"Not yet," he cautioned. "Amelia, given our current circumstances, if those instigators don't track us down, I can find a way to help you endure the curse over the next few days. But if they do break down that door, do you really think they're going to sit down and reason with you?"
Amelia thought it over for a long moment, then slowly shook her head. The odds of a peaceful confrontation were virtually nonexistent.
"Such a worst-case scenario is highly probable, and the likelihood increases with every passing hour. Even if I keep moving us around, we might dodge them once or twice, but can we keep running forever?"
The logic was stark and undeniable. If one person was looking for her today, there might be three tomorrow and ten the day after. As time wore on, the frantic relatives of the missing would only grow more desperate. Hiding indefinitely was an illusion.
"Which brings us to why we need a contingency plan," Yunlong continued. "If events take a turn for the absolute worst, we must have a solution ready. Amelia, can you think of any way out?"
Amelia racked her brain for a moment before giving up with a sigh. "The only thing I can think of is calling the police, but the way things are going, the police will just lock me up in an interrogation room. Lee, you've clearly thought this through. Just tell me what you have in mind."
Yunlong didn't deny it—he wouldn't have handed her the necklace otherwise. "I do have a plan, but it's a gamble, and the stake is your life. If we can avoid using it, we should. You have far more experience than I do when it comes to managing public crisis and narrative control. If I had a choice, I'd much rather use your method."
Amelia let out a grim, hollow laugh. "Crisis management boils down to a few standard plays: divert public attention, reframe the narrative, or make deals behind closed doors. But all of those require a team, and more importantly, financial backing. Leaving aside the fact that I've had to cut off all external contact, even in an ideal situation I wouldn't have the resources to launch a proper campaign. Facing relatives who have been driven mad by grief, I don't even think there's a chance to exchange information rationally. What options do I have left? Die in front of them to prove my innocence? Lee... just tell me your plan."
Yunlong fell silent for a long moment. Thinking it over, he realized Amelia was entirely correct. Who actually pulled off crisis management in the States? It was either prominent corporations, public celebrities, or wealthy magnates—entities with endless capital, leverage, and personnel. How many ordinary citizens ever managed to play that game? In a country with such a hyper-developed media ecosystem, journalists falsely accusing innocent people and ruining lives was a tale as old as time. And what was the outcome? They would stall, delay, and deny. Reporters weren't law enforcement; they didn't care about evidence or absolute justice—their job was to generate a bombshell story. As for the unfortunate souls whose names were dragged through the mud? The best they could hope for was a tiny retraction printed in the obscure corner of a newspaper. A cheap apology cost the media nothing.
"You're a sharp woman, Amelia," Yunlong said quietly. "And that's precisely why I'm hesitant to use my method. My plan requires you to risk your life on a single roll of the dice. Since we cannot resolve this rationally in a safe environment, we throw caution to the wind—we intentionally trigger the curse and use your life to carve a path out."
Amelia stared at him, her eyes wide. "Lee... you're not joking, are you?"
"Amelia, don't you see?" Yunlong's voice was firm. "We can strive for the best outcome, but we must prepare for the worst. Do not use your laptop to go online—it's far too easy for them to trace your location. We should still have a brief window of time. Keep a close eye on the news broadcasts over the next two days. If there is complete radio silence regarding the Heavenly Express, then my theory is almost certainly correct—a reality that will be extremely disadvantageous for us."
Amelia hesitated before asking the question burning in her mind. "Lee, what exactly is this dire reality you're anticipating?"
"The federal government's top brass and media conglomerates acting in tandem to impose a total information blackout on the Heavenly Express."
Amelia gasped. "How is that possible? At least thirty people at the station saw the footage! Are they really trying to suppress the disappearance of all those individuals?"
"If I had to guess, they will take a two-pronged approach," Yunlong explained. "On one hand, they'll exert top-down pressure to hush the story. On the other, they'll dispatch specialized operatives to deal with the train directly."
"Isn't that a good thing for us?" Amelia pressed. "If official specialists destroy the Heavenly Express, won't the curse on me be broken automatically?"
Yunlong shook his head. "You're being naive, Amelia. Who are these official specialists? They'll be drawn entirely from law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Are you unfamiliar with how they operate? Crude and heavy-handed. If they find out you watched the video but didn't vanish, how do you think they will handle you?"
As a media professional, Amelia was well aware of how elite federal agencies operated. Deep down, she agreed with his assessment, though another thought suddenly occurred to her. "Lee... what if we reach out first and offer to work with them?" As she spoke, she watched his face carefully. The idea was admittedly underhanded—she used the word "we," but as an ordinary person under a curse, what leverage did she have to offer federal operatives? She would essentially be throwing Yunlong to the wolves to take the heat.
Yunlong shot her a cold glance, reached into his jacket, and slapped a card into her palm. Amelia inspected his expression to ensure he was merely annoyed rather than furious, then turned her attention to the item. To her complete surprise, it was an official credential identifying Lee Yunlong as a Special Consultant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Amelia had no idea he held such high-level backing. "This is fantastic, Lee! If you're already an FBI consultant, it'll be so much easier for us to coordinate with their operatives!"
Yunlong hadn't expected Amelia—usually such a shrewd woman—to act so dense when it mattered most. "Amelia, do you honestly believe those high-ranking figures are hushing up the media and quietly sending in specialists just out of the goodness of their hearts, to save those trapped victims?"
The sarcasm in his tone was unhidden, and Amelia winced. Before she could defend herself, Yunlong pressed on. "Who do you think those specialists are? They are the clean-up crew for the powerful. Why do you think I'm reluctant to make contact? The moment you fall into their hands, control is taken entirely out of our hands. The absolute best-case scenario I can imagine is them forcing us to sign lifelong non-disclosure agreements, burying this forever. But even in that best-case scenario, how do you plan to face the families of your missing colleagues? And the real problem is that the probability of that ideal outcome is practically zero. The most likely scenario is that once we fall into their custody, they'll force us onto the front lines to face the Heavenly Express. If we succeed, they take the credit. If we fail and die, they don't have to worry about security leaks."
Amelia's face paled. She had been clinging to naive hopes, blinded by her own desperation. But now that Yunlong laid it out so starkly, her knowledge of high-level corruption confirmed his words. Selfish though his perspective was, his dark prediction was overwhelmingly likely to come true. "Is our situation really that dire?" she whispered.
Yunlong gave a nonchalant shrug. "Who knows? These are just my calculations. My job is to strive for the best result while preparing for the absolute worst."
Amelia agonized over the options before finally setting her jaw. "Lee... tell me the plan."
"It's simple," Yunlong said. "Those so-called specialists only have leverage over you because you're a mortal civilian. If we shift our mindset, we can turn that vulnerability into an asset. Without a weak point to exploit, they can't push us around—and we can use them as pawns instead."
Amelia frowned. "Lee, I know I'm just an ordinary person. But if they come knocking, they'll be backed by the full weight of the federal government. If they try to forcibly draft you into service, what will you do?" Having regained her composure, her investigative instincts kicked in. They were in the same boat; why was he framing everything around her weaknesses while brushing off his own vulnerability?
"Me?" Yunlong said casually. "I'm an occult researcher and an adventurer. I have dozens of ways to handle them. Don't worry about me."
Amelia's expression remained fixed, though the light in her eyes flickered briefly before returning to normal. She suddenly realized that many aspects of this situation had long passed beyond her comprehension and control.
"The core variable is you, Amelia," Yunlong continued. "If the worst scenario comes to pass, the only person who can decide your fate is yourself. The potion I brewed won't harm your body; at most, it'll feel like carrying a sixty-pound rucksack on your back. Even if you take it right now, its potency will easily last seven days. But it isn't a silver bullet. It acts like a custom-made safety net—it doesn't suppress the curse, but its power activates once you are pulled into the domain of the Heavenly Express. It shields your physical body and soul, preventing the entity from inflicting lethal harm. Even if the curse drags you onto the train, there's an eighty percent chance this potion will see you through the most dangerous period, allowing you to be one of the lucky survivors."
Amelia didn't share his optimism. An eighty percent chance meant that, even in the best-case projection, there was a twenty percent chance she would die. This wasn't a math problem or a video game; she only had one life. Even a one percent failure rate could mean death if luck turned against her. "Can't I use other magical items? Like a enchanted blade or a wand? Something that increases my offensive power, even if it doesn't boost my defense?"
"A logical thought, but impractical for your situation," Yunlong replied. "It's not that I lack offensive artifacts, nor am I hoarding them. But first, I need to know your true objective: do you want to survive, or do you want to trade your life to chip away at the train's power?"
"I want to survive, obviously!"
"Then I can't give you anything other than the potion."
"Why?" she demanded. "How does being stronger make me less likely to survive?"
"Precisely because of that," Yunlong explained. "First, understand that even if we combined our strength, we couldn't take the Heavenly Express in a direct confrontation. Its power vastly outmatches ours. You are an ordinary human; if I gave you a high-tier magical artifact, your body wouldn't even withstand the aura, let alone wield it