"His original appearance only exists in the records," Sandy said. "It's tricky to analyze."
"How much longer will it take?"
"Don’t interrupt! Five minutes."
So Lily Bai stared at her without blinking, nerves frazzled.
A little over four minutes in, Sandy told them, "Skeletal similarity: 95%."
Lily Bai: "What does that mean?"
"He is," Lisa said. "He’s Master Nebula."
"Oh my god!" Lily Bai burst straight through the ticket gate.
The ticket inspector shouted, "Hey, what are you doing? Where’s your ticket?"
Samson Zhang had been listening the whole time. He didn’t really get what they were saying, but he always backed his sister, no questions asked.
So he rushed over to the ticket inspector and said, "Sorry, sorry! My sister is just... delivering life-saving medicine! We have a relative with heart disease, and if she doesn't get the medicine, she might have an attack on the train. Sorry, she'll be right out!"
"No way! No ticket, no entry," the inspector insisted.
"Please, have a heart! Saving a life is worth more than building a seven-story pagoda. We'll stay right here, and if you need to punish us, we'll accept it..."
...
Once Lily Bai dashed onto the platform, she realized she had no idea which car Mr. Howard was in.
Luckily, she could sense bio-electric signals.
Locating the couple, Lily Bai made a beeline for their car.
She didn’t have a ticket either, and just barged onto the train.
The attendant chased after her, scolding nonstop: "Miss, where's your ticket? Please show your ticket! You can't just barge in without a ticket..."
Mr. Howard and his wife were startled to see her suddenly burst in. "Lily, what are you doing on the train?" they asked.
Lily Bai leaned in close to Mr. Howard’s ear and whispered, "If you don’t want your wife’s heart condition to relapse, be a good boy and get off the train with me, Master Nebula."
"Miss! Please show your ticket! If you don’t have one, get off right now. The train’s about to leave," the attendant said angrily.
"I’m getting off now." Lily Bai gave him an apologetic look, then whispered to Mr. Howard again, "I’ll count to three. One, two..."
"Alright, alright!" Mr. Howard resigned himself, stood up, grabbed their bags, and pulled his wife off the train.
His wife asked in confusion, "What’s going on? Did we get on the wrong train?"
"Lily bought us plane tickets. We’re flying home," Mr. Howard said.
"Oh? That’s so generous of her!" his wife said gratefully.
"Let’s talk after we get off. The train’s leaving," Lily Bai said, ushering them off.
The whole way, Mr. Howard didn’t say a word.
No one knew what he was thinking.
When they arrived at Dragon Mountain Hills and got off, Mr. Howard saw where they were and his face changed dramatically; he was even trembling a little.
Lily Bai glanced at him and asked, "Mr. Howard, have you been here before?"
"No, never."
"This is our home in Dragon City!" Samson Zhang said gently. "Don’t worry, Mr. Howard, my sister—"
He glanced at Mrs. Howard, hesitated, and left the rest unsaid.
"You live here?" Mr. Howard asked in surprise.
"Yep! This is my brother-in-law’s ancestral home," Samson explained.
Mr. Howard said nothing more, and the group walked inside.
After a few steps, he saw the big incense burner and suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Then, all at once, he let go of his wife and strode quickly to the remains of the Holy Spirit Tree.