Jiаngсhеng, Аutumn.
А gust оf wind scattеrеd thе thiсk сlouds that had оbsсured the mоon in the night skу, аllоwing mоrе light tо spill ontо the ground. The rice fiеlds shimmеred with а dark gоldеn huе, riрpling in shаllоw wаvеs with thе breеze.
This was thе suburbаn farmlаnd in the earlу hours of thе morning, so quiеt it sееmеd аs if еvеn the plаnts wеre аslееp.
Аn old аsрhalt roаd, сonnеcted to thе field ridges, stretсhеd fоrward аlong the light, abruрtlу сut off bу а linе оf уеllow раint. On thе othеr side laу the grаnd аnd imрosing аirроrt runwаy.
At this hour, thе airport was a stаrk contrast tо the farmlаnd—brightly lit аnd bustling with аctivitу. A Boeing 737 had just landed smoothly, and over a dozen shuttle buses moved in orderly lines.
Ruan Sixian hurried toward the meeting floor of Hengshi Airlines' flight attendant department, pulling her flight case behind her. Her steps were swift, and a fine sheen of sweat glistened on her forehead.
Entering the elevator, she glanced at her phone: 12:41 AM. Less than five minutes remained before the pre-flight briefing.
As the elevator doors opened, Ruan Sixian navigated through the crowded hall and turned into the corridor leading to the meeting rooms.
Outside the door of Conference Room B32 stood several flight attendants dressed in the same blue uniform as hers, chatting in a small group.
"Ruan Sixian, why are you so late?"
Jiang Ziyue, standing among them, turned and asked.
Ruan Sixian breathed a sigh of relief, having made it just in time. "I ran into something on my way out."
As the chief flight attendant, Jiang Ziyue felt obliged to offer a reminder. "Be more careful next time. Other flights might be fine, but you know how important today's flight is."
Ruan Sixian nodded in agreement.
Today's flight, a direct route from Jiangcheng to London, was one of World Airlines' core international routes.
What made it special was that Fu Mingyu, the vice president of World Airlines, was also on board.
Fu Mingyu usually traveled by private jet and rarely flew with World Airlines. As soon as Jiang Ziyue saw his name on the passenger list, she had immediately reminded the crew in their group chat.
Ruan Sixian glanced toward the meeting room. "Are they still not done inside?"
Jiang Ziyue shook her head. "No, not sure what's taking so long for this flight's crew. Our captain is still in the restroom."
"Then I'll go to the restroom too, to straighten my scarf and touch up my makeup."
Afraid of being late, Ruan Sixian had jogged part of the way from her dorm, and her neck had sweated, making the scarf feel uncomfortable and sticky.
With that, she hurried to the restroom, turned on the faucet to wash her hands, and used a damp finger to tuck a few stray strands of hair behind her ears.
She looked at herself in the mirror—impeccable makeup, neatly styled hair, and a dignified, well-fitted uniform. It all looked fine, yet utterly unremarkable.
The only thing that set her apart, in her own eyes, was the slightly crooked scarf around her neck, which resembled a rabbit's drooping ears. It gave her a subtle distinction from the other flight attendants.
But that distinction existed only in her own perception; no one else would notice.
Now, even this amusingly crooked scarf had to be undone and retied properly.
As she lowered her hands, Ruan Sixian felt something inside the inner pocket of her uniform.
She paused, unbuttoned the top button, and reached in to pull it out.
It was a letter, sealed with red wax on a pink envelope.
—This was the reason Ruan Sixian had been delayed on her way out.
Earlier that afternoon, her roommate Si Xiaozhen, upon learning that Fu Mingyu would be on the same flight as Ruan Sixian, had written this letter and insisted she find an opportunity to deliver it to him.Seeing Ruan Sixian seemed reluctant, Si Xiaozhen said with reddened eyes, "We study together every day, preparing for the pilot recruitment exam. We were supposed to register next week, but now the Soaring Plan is just canceled like that! Don’t you really want to try one more time?"
The Soaring Plan was World Airlines’ internal pilot recruitment program, which selected a portion of Hengshi Airlines employees each year for pilot training, regardless of position or gender. This year, just as the registration period for the Soaring Plan was approaching, Fu Mingyu, who oversaw the flight department, canceled the program.
For others, this was just a minor, inconsequential change, but for people like Ruan Sixian and Si Xiaozhen, who had joined World Airlines specifically for this plan, it was a devastating blow.
Ruan Sixian opened her mouth as if to refuse, but Si Xiaozhen continued, "I’ve sent him many emails and haven’t received a single reply. This is the only way left. I know you think this method is ridiculous, but what if? What if President Fu is approachable and kind, and after reading my letter, he’s willing to reconsider? And besides..."
Ruan Sixian raised her hand, cutting Si Xiaozhen off, and accepted the letter.
"I just think, could you change the envelope? It looks like I’m delivering a love letter."
Si Xiaozhen hadn’t expected Ruan Sixian’s hesitation to be about this. She lowered her head shyly. "You know I love pink. I don’t have any other envelopes."
What else could Ruan Sixian say?
Now that she was already at the terminal, there was no way to change the envelope’s color.
"What are you doing?"
Suddenly, Jiang Ziyue pushed the door open, leaning halfway in. "The captain’s here. Hurry up, it’s time for the briefing."
Ruan Sixian quickly hid the letter behind her back and nodded. "Okay, coming."
Jiang Ziyue caught the small movement and glanced over suspiciously. "What are you holding?"
Ruan Sixian didn’t want Jiang Ziyue to see what she was holding, but her instinctive hiding gesture was too obvious, making it seem like she had something to hide. With Jiang Ziyue’s probing gaze fixed on her, Ruan Sixian could only wave the item in her hand lightly.
"Just this, nothing much."
When Jiang Ziyue saw the pink envelope, her tightly pursed lips relaxed. "What nonsense. Hurry up, don’t dawdle."
Ruan Sixian stuffed the letter into her inner pocket, buttoned it up, and walked toward Jiang Ziyue.
This pre-flight briefing was particularly important because Fu Mingyu was on the VIP passenger list, so the captain took it more seriously than usual, speaking for twenty minutes longer.
When it ended, it was time to board, but they received a notification from the control tower: due to traffic flow management, they would be delayed for about an hour.
Suddenly, there was extra time. The captain stood up, stretched, and said to the two co-pilots beside him, "Want to grab something to eat?"
The three of them got up and left, leaving the cabin crew in the meeting room.
Another delay meant everyone had to wait, and since it didn’t count toward flight time, quiet complaints gradually filled the room.
At one point, Ruan Sixian stepped out to take a call.
Before she even hung up, she could hear the chatter inside the room growing louder, as if they were discussing something exciting again.
"What are you all talking about?" Ruan Sixian pushed the door open. "I could hear you from outside."Jiang Ziyue rolled up the passenger list and propped it against her temple, tilting her head with a smile. "They're betting on who can get President Fu's phone number today."
Ruan Sixian let out a puzzled "Hmm?" "What for?"
—"What do you think? To hit on him, of course!"
—"It's rare to be on the same flight as him, a golden opportunity! If not now, then when?"
—"It's a long-haul flight over ten hours. I refuse to believe there won't be a chance to ask for his contact. If all else fails, we can just copy others and spill coffee on him or something, hahaha."
—"Spilling coffee is too harsh. How about taking a fall during turbulence instead? Right into his arms."
Spilling coffee... taking a fall...
Ruan Sixian’s eyelids twitched at the suggestions.
Even idol dramas stopped using these plots ten years ago.
But from the way they spoke, it was clear they were just joking.
Ruan Sixian sat down with a smile, lightly scratching her temple with a fingernail.
"What are you all dreaming about?"
She froze as soon as the words left her mouth.
She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
The atmosphere in the meeting room briefly stiffened.
But it quickly reignited with a carefree remark.
"Dreaming isn’t a crime, and besides..." someone lowered her voice, "President Fu’s older brother, the other President Fu’s fiancée, is a flight attendant. They met on a plane. So, you see, anything is possible."
—"Mark my words, whoever becomes the future boss’s wife better not forget to promote me. At the very least, make me a chief purser."
—"Oh, just for helping me swap shifts last time, if I become the boss’s wife, you’ll be chief purser right away."
—"Then I’ll thank you in advance. But what if I’m the future boss’s wife?"
After listening for a while, Ruan Sixian grew increasingly bewildered. "Wait, why are you all so excited? What if he’s an old man with a belly bigger than a pregnant woman’s? You’d still hit on him?"
This sent everyone into fits of laughter.
Ruan Sixian was even more confused. "What’s so funny?"
"Oh, looks like our Ruan Ruan really pays no attention to the outside world. Here, let me show you a photo."
Jiang Ziyue hooked an arm around Ruan Sixian’s neck and pulled out her phone, flipping to a photo to show her.
The photo was clearly taken secretly. Fu Mingyu was wearing a sharp, high-end suit with a black overcoat draped over it, striding briskly toward the company headquarters’ entrance.
Broad-shouldered and long-legged, his steps were large, his straight back and the fluid lines of his legs complementing his attire perfectly. His presence seemed to leap from the photo, drawing the eye and blurring the surrounding figures into the background.
Even though his face wasn’t visible in the photo.
No wonder the flight attendants were so excited—it made sense.
But with just that glance, Ruan Sixian completely erased the adjectives "approachable and kind-hearted" from her mind.
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
Those two words had nothing to do with him.
Unbeknownst to those inside, who were joking freely, outside the slightly ajar door, Wang Lekang, the cabin crew manager, wore a face as dark as Guan Yu’s.
Standing beside him was the very subject of their discussion—Fu Mingyu.
The floor was brightly lit, and occasional hurried footsteps echoed through the long corridor, clear and audible.
Yet none were as clear as the laughter from behind the door.The laughter was like knives, drilling into Wang Lekang's ears one after another.
He stole a glance at Fu Mingyu, who was quietly flipping through the documents in his hand, his gaze calm as if he hadn't heard the conversation inside.
But if he truly hadn't heard, why would he linger here?
The voices in the room grew increasingly unrestrained. Wang Lekang felt as if needles were pricking his back, wishing he could rush in and stop the people inside.
Yet Fu Mingyu remained unfazed—how could he dare make the first move?
After a moment, Fu Mingyu slowly closed the documents in his hand and returned them to Wang Lekang exactly as they were.
Wang Lekang reached out to take them, but the documents paused just a hair's breadth from his palm.
"Is this the result of your recent efforts to rectify the situation?"
The question made Wang Lekang stiffen his back, unsure how to respond.
The matter was rather absurd. Two months ago, a "heartwarming story" occurred on an international core flight of Hengshi Airlines. A flight attendant accidentally spilled coffee on a VIP passenger.
This passenger was no ordinary person—he was the youngest son of a major shareholder of Jiangcheng Steel Industries.
Yet, instead of holding a grudge over the service mishap, the two not only reconciled but also sparked a romance—swift and enviable.
Ever since, flight attendants had secretly tried to emulate them, and during that period, the rate of service "accidents" suddenly skyrocketed.
Other incidents aside, it just so happened that a minor shareholder of World Airlines witnessed such an event and recounted it to Fu Mingyu as a joke.
While romantic entanglements cannot be prevented by external forces, using work as a pretext for personal desires is a major taboo in the service industry.
Thus, at the department's monthly review meeting, when Fu Mingyu brought up the matter, Wang Lekang immediately pledged to rectify the chaos.
Who would have thought that, just as Wang Lekang was reporting on his efforts, Fu Mingyu would stumble upon this very "chaos" firsthand?
"If they no longer wish to do this job, they are free to resign at any time. Hengshi Airlines has never forced anyone to stay."
Fu Mingyu loosened his grip, and the documents finally settled into Wang Lekang's palm.
Though merely a few sheets of paper, they felt as heavy as a pound of iron.
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