Тhе nехt mоrning, Ruаn Sixian wоkе tо thе sоund of her alаrm.
Shе opеned her еуеs аnd stаrеd at the сeiling for a long while befоrе her mind finаlly сlеаrеd.
But thе mоmеnt shе gоt out оf bed, she cоuldn’t hеlp but сurse Bian Хuan for sеlling fake winе—hеr hеаd wаs роunding terribly.
Whеn shе walkеd intо thе living roоm, she frоzе, almost rаising hеr hand tо call the рolice.
Веfоre hеr eyes wеrе сushions sсаttеrеd оn thе floоr, shоes strеwn haрhazardlу, a smаll blаnkеt draреd сrоokedly оver the edge of thе coffeе table, аnd her bаg оverturnеd, its contents spilled everywhere.
Yet, within seconds, she regained her senses.
The state of her home wasn’t due to a break-in—it was the aftermath of Fu Mingyu forcibly carrying her from the couch the night before.
Memories began flooding back, and her body seemed to recall the sensations involuntarily.
Glancing at the sofa, she remembered how tightly Fu Mingyu had held her when he picked her up, leaving her no room to struggle.
As she walked to the doorway to slip on her slippers, she recalled how he had wrapped his arms around her from behind, taking her hand in his, his chin resting against the side of her head. With just a slight turn, she could see the line of his jaw.
Looking back toward the bedroom, she remembered him leaning over her bed, his presence enveloping her, rendering her immobile, while the tie hanging from his collar swayed gently before her eyes.
Hiss…
Ruan Sixian hugged her arms, warily scanning the room.
Why did every corner seem to trigger flashes of Fu Mingyu in her mind?
How had that wretched man managed to leave his shadow lingering everywhere in her home?
Ruan Sixian quickly slipped on her slippers and headed to the bathroom for a shower.
The hot water washed away her fatigue, along with the emotions that had built up over the past few days.
She had drunk her fill, vented her anger, and made a scene—now, it felt as though a blockage in her heart had finally cleared.
The problems were still there, but they no longer felt suffocating.
After blow-drying her hair, she returned to the living room to tidy up and found a pack of cigarettes on the floor.
Picking it up, she noticed only two or three were missing.
There was no need to guess whose they were.
Ruan Sixian placed the cigarettes in the coffee table drawer. As she closed it, an image of Fu Mingyu smoking suddenly flashed through her mind.
Standing relaxed, one hand in his pocket, his head tilted slightly, eyes lowered, his silhouette flickering in the glow of the flame.
He looked rather handsome.
Huh?
Ruan Sixian paused, confused.
She had never seen Fu Mingyu smoke before—why would such an image appear in her mind?
Just then, the doorbell rang, interrupting her thoughts.
She got up to answer it, and a delivery person handed her a bag.
"Hello, your breakfast. Enjoy your meal."
Having learned from last time, Ruan Sixian wasn’t too surprised.
She checked the receipt—it was indeed under her name—and accepted the delivery.
Inside was a bowl of vegetable and lean pork congee, a cup of hot soy milk, and two pieces of date cake.
Hmm…
It was exactly the kind of breakfast she usually enjoyed.
Ruan Sixian took a sip of the soy milk, its mild sweetness lingering on her tongue.
After a moment’s thought, she decided she should thank Fu Mingyu.
She opened WeChat, found Fu Mingyu’s contact, and sent him a message.
Ruan Sixian : Received the breakfast. Thank you.
Not expecting the busy Fu Mingyu to reply instantly, she sipped her congee while scrolling through her unread messages.
Scrolling down, she noticed a message from Si Xiaozhen sent twenty minutes earlier.
[Si Xiaozhen]: Are you awake? I was worried you’d oversleep and feel unwell, so I ordered breakfast for you. Remember to eat.Ruan Sixian stared at the message, frozen for several seconds. ???!!!
It wasn’t Fu Mingyu who ordered it???
She immediately reopened Fu Mingyu’s WeChat and, with life-or-death urgency, recalled the message.
But just as she lifted her finger, a message came through from the other side.
Fu Mingyu : It wasn’t me.
Fu Mingyu : Don’t overthink it.
Ruan Sixian: “…”
Who’s overthinking???
Ruan Sixian : I just sent it to the wrong person, sorry.
Oh???
Oh!!!
So you don’t believe me, huh???
Ruan Sixian suddenly felt the soy milk wasn’t sweet anymore, and the congee had lost its flavor.
What’s wrong with Fu Mingyu?
Just yesterday, he was the one being presumptuous, so how did it suddenly seem like she was the one being presumptuous today?
And he even acted like he didn’t believe her.
The more Ruan Sixian thought about it, the angrier she became. She took a photo of her breakfast with her phone and posted it on her Moments.
On the other side, Fu Mingyu stood by the hospital bed while He Lanxiang chatted warmly with her cousin.
The two of them chattered on and on for a long time. Fu Mingyu’s mind drifted elsewhere, his gaze fixed on a flower on a branch peeking through the window.
He didn’t know how long he had been staring when he turned his head to find He Lanxiang still talking nonstop. The aunt seemed to be in high spirits, as if she could pull out her IV and go on a three-day shopping spree in Milan with her right away.
With nothing but topics he wasn’t interested in filling his ears, Fu Mingyu had no choice but to take out his phone and scroll through it.
He opened WeChat, and the interface was still on his chat with Ruan Sixian.
Since she hadn’t replied, he exited the chat and glanced at his Moments. The small icon in the upper right corner was Ruan Sixian’s profile picture.
He tapped it and saw that, half a minute ago, she had posted a photo of a breakfast spread.
【Thanks for the breakfast, babe, love you mwah mwah @Si Xiaozhen】
Fu Mingyu knew exactly what Ruan Sixian meant.
He narrowed his eyes and looked out the window again, feeling inexplicably irritated.
His gaze returned to his phone.
Fu Mingyu tapped into Ruan Sixian’s Moments, wanting to see if she had posted anything else recently that might have been subtly aimed at him and that he had missed.
But as soon as he entered, the background of Ruan Sixian’s Moments album caught his eye.
White background, black text—a very bold line of words.
“Here to check on me again? Admit it, you like me.”
Fu Mingyu: “…”
He closed his phone.
Time-wasting things like Moments were best left untouched.
After the incident of mistakenly thinking the breakfast was from Fu Mingyu, Ruan Sixian was sure he would seize this opportunity to flaunt his presence in front of her.
But this time, she miscalculated—Fu Mingyu was unusually quiet.
Of course, it might also have been because he was busy. In any case, he didn’t show up again.
The next time the two met was five days later, in the morning.
Ruan Sixian arrived at World Airlines on time, preparing for her final flight before officially taking up her position as co-pilot.
World Airlines was as bustling as ever in the early morning. Ruan Sixian, dressed in her uniform and pulling her flight case, was passing by the large conference room of the Flight Department when the door suddenly swung inward.
Then, footsteps sounded.
For some reason, Ruan Sixian felt it was probably Fu Mingyu.
She stopped and looked over, and sure enough, there he was.
Behind the door, the room was brightly lit, and the attendees were silent, watching Fu Mingyu walk out.
He seemed to be in a very bad mood. With one hand in his pocket and his brows slightly furrowed, he strode out with such force that the air around him seemed to drop by two degrees.Ruan Sixian stood less than five meters from the door—a position that would inevitably bring her face-to-face with Fu Mingyu.
After just a few steps, Fu Mingyu indeed caught sight of Ruan Sixian.
Yet their gazes met only briefly. Just as Ruan Sixian opened her mouth to offer a greeting, he turned his head to listen to his assistant and no longer looked at her.
The group simply walked past Ruan Sixian.
When Bai Yang emerged afterward, he paused for a moment, intending to greet her. But seeing that Fu Mingyu had shown no reaction earlier, he figured the two must have had another argument last time and were probably at odds like fire and water right now. Better not light the fuse, or he might end up blasted into the most dazzling firework on the horizon.
After everyone had left the conference room, the surroundings grew quiet again.
Ruan Sixian glanced back at Fu Mingyu’s retreating figure, her brows slowly knitting together.
She carefully tried to recall whether she had forgotten something she did that night while drunk that might have offended him.
Did she hit Fu Mingyu?
No, she probably couldn’t beat him.
Did she curse too harshly?
Probably not—he was the one who insisted on following her in and refused to leave. She had been quite polite in her words.
Or did she say something that hurt his pride?
Wait, Ruan Sixian suddenly snapped back to reality.
Why was she reflecting on this here? Fu Mingyu never played by the rules—how could she analyze his behavior using normal logic?
Besides, he could do whatever he wanted; it wasn’t her business.
She silently scolded herself twice, then strode off, pulling her suitcase behind her.
Today’s flight was quite a coincidence.
It was Ruan Sixian’s final backseat training flight, and the crew happened to be Captain Fan and Co-pilot Yu, the same pair from her very first training flight.
The three of them had flown together several times during this period and were fairly familiar.
Once on board, Captain Fan and Co-pilot Yu took their seats in the front, both looking relaxed.
Today’s route was from Jiangcheng to Lincheng, with two local segments—a familiar route with excellent weather conditions. Everything was perfect.
After preparations were complete, they took off smoothly. Half an hour later, the aircraft entered cruise mode on autopilot.
Captain Fan picked up a cup of red date tea and turned around. “Xiao Ruan, next week you’ll officially start as a co-pilot. You can notify the flight department—I’ll take you on your first flight.”
“Oh, okay.”
Ruan Sixian nodded, then fell silent again.
“What’s on your mind?” Captain Fan suddenly asked.
Ruan Sixian hesitated for a moment before saying, “What do you think it means when a man suddenly…”
Halfway through her sentence, she noticed Co-pilot Yu’s complexion didn’t look right.
“What’s wrong?”
Co-pilot Yu clutched his upper right abdomen, his lips gradually paling.
“Hiss… it hurts here a bit.”
Then he said to Captain Fan, “I might have diarrhea. I’ll go to the restroom.”
Captain Fan nodded and put on his oxygen mask as Co-pilot Yu stood up.
With one co-pilot gone, Captain Fan stopped making small talk.
A few minutes later, Co-pilot Yu returned. Captain Fan removed his oxygen mask and resumed the earlier topic. “Xiao Ruan, what were you saying about a man?”
Ruan Sixian didn’t answer, because she had noticed something off about Co-pilot Yu the moment he came back in.
“Are you feeling unwell somewhere?” Ruan Sixian leaned forward to ask. “You look terrible—you’re pale and sweating on your forehead.”
Hearing this, Captain Fan immediately turned to look at Co-pilot Yu as well.Ruan Sixian's words were still relatively calm when she stood up, but he was already unable to sit straight, his hands tightly clutching his upper right abdomen, his face deathly pale, with beads of sweat streaming down his face and neck.
"What's wrong with you?" Captain Fan asked in shock.
Co-pilot Yu's lips were also completely bloodless. He opened his mouth, taking a long time before he could speak: "I don't... don't know, it suddenly hurts terribly here. I might not be able to hold on until we reach Lin... Lincheng."
"Are you sure?" Captain Fan asked again, "Is it serious enough that you can't hold on until Lincheng?"
Co-pilot Yu thought about it himself.
But the next second, another wave of intense pain struck his upper right abdomen, and his whole body began to tremble.
"I don't think I can make it..."
Ruan Sixian took a tissue to wipe the sweat from Co-pilot Yu's face while also feeling his forehead.
"Captain, he has a fever!"
Captain Fan stared at Co-pilot Yu for a few seconds, then suddenly cursed.
"Damn it, it's probably acute cholecystitis. My wife had it before."
Because Captain Fan's wife had suffered from this illness, he knew that in severe cases, it could be life-threatening.
A few seconds later, he said, "Xiao Ruan, switch positions with him. You take the co-pilot seat, then call the third flight attendant in to take care of him. Have the security officer take the third flight attendant's position, and have the chief flight attendant ask if there are any medical professionals among the passengers."
Ruan Sixian did as instructed. After a while, the third flight attendant came in and relayed the chief flight attendant's message.
"There are no medical professionals on this flight."
Beside them, Co-pilot Yu was still groaning in pain. Captain Fan frowned tightly, looking at him for a few seconds before finally making a decision.
"Xiao Ruan, have the chief flight attendant notify the cabin that we are now diverting to Fudu Airport."
"Okay."
Soon, the cabin announcement broadcast sounded.
At the same time, Ruan Sixian put on her headset and sunglasses, looked at the instrument panel, and said, "We are currently about thirty minutes away from Fudu Airport. The estimated landing weight will exceed the limit by 1.5 tons."
After speaking, she looked at Captain Fan, waiting for his decision.
"Hmm, we can land," Captain Fan said. "Prepare for diversion."
Ruan Sixian had no objections to this.
Whether considering Co-pilot Yu's current physical condition or according to airworthiness standards, she believed it was entirely possible to land overweight.
If she were in the pilot's seat, she would have made the same decision.
But Co-pilot Yu, who could barely speak from the back, voiced his opposition.
"N-no, landing overweight could cause an unsafe incident. It's not allowed..."
"Shut up!" Captain Fan snapped angrily. "I'm the captain, and I know what I'm doing! At the current takeoff weight, as long as the rate is controlled below 360 feet per minute, we can land safely. If anything happens, I'll take full responsibility!"
But even after he said this, Co-pilot Yu still disagreed, insisting he could hold on until the aircraft's fuel consumption reduced the weight below the maximum landing weight.
In short, he did not agree to an overweight landing.
Captain Fan was usually gentle and soft-spoken, but at this moment, his tone was firmer than Ruan Sixian had ever heard before.
As the two were about to argue, Ruan Sixian said softly, "Captain, let's burn fuel."
This was a compromise.
Captain Fan sighed helplessly. "Fine, you insisted on this yourself."
But the aircraft had no fuel-dumping system, so they could only find a way to consume the fuel.Ruan Sixian kept her eyes on the instrument panel. When the plane descended to 15,000 feet, she asked, "Captain, should we lower the landing gear now?"
Captain Fan nodded. "Lower it."
Lowering the landing gear wasn't in preparation for landing; they simply wanted to increase fuel consumption and reduce the weight below the maximum landing weight as soon as possible.
The altitude continued to drop slowly, while Co-pilot Yu behind them could barely even muster a groan.
Ruan Sixian whispered reassuringly, "Senior Yu, hang in there a little longer. It's almost over."
There was no response from behind.
Captain Fan took a deep breath and said, "Xiao Ruan, prepare to use the speed brakes to further increase fuel consumption."
Just as Ruan Sixian was about to agree, the person behind who lacked the strength to groan spoke up. "N-no, we can't!"
Captain Fan ignored Co-pilot Yu entirely. The latter was panting anxiously in the back, on the verge of tears.
World Airlines regulations stipulated that if engine thrust exceeded 66% while using speed brakes, it would be considered a QAR Level 3 event. If such an incident occurred, it would severely impact Co-pilot Yu's future promotions, upgrades, bonuses, income, and more.
Although Ruan Sixian also wanted to curse the ridiculous rule, she couldn't simply ignore it, nor could she dissuade Captain Fan.
After all, on an aircraft, the captain held absolute authority.
Sure enough, Co-pilot Yu struggled to speak up. "If we reduce any further, it'll be a QA..."
Before he could finish, Captain Fan cut him off. "Shut the hell up! I'm trying to save your life right now! Which is more important, your life or the QAR?!"
Whether Co-pilot Yu truly lacked the strength to speak or had simply conceded, the back row fell silent.
Nearly an hour later, the plane landed at Fudu Airport.
As the aircraft slowly taxied toward the jet bridge under the guidance of ground crew, Ruan Sixian glanced back at Co-pilot Yu.
His clothes were completely drenched in sweat, his eyes were closed, his lips slightly parted as he struggled to breathe.
As soon as the plane came to a stop, an ambulance was already prepared. Medical personnel entered the cockpit to assist Co-pilot Yu out.
But at the cabin door, he suddenly turned back to look at Ruan Sixian. "H-help me with something."
"What is it?"
Co-pilot Yu said, "My phone password is six eights... Could you let my girlfriend know I'm safe later?"
Ruan Sixian nodded in agreement, and only then did Co-pilot Yu step out.
From previous flights, Ruan Sixian knew about this habit of his—he always sent a message to his girlfriend upon landing to let her know he was safe.
Captain Fan stepped out, watching as Co-pilot Yu boarded the ambulance, not forgetting to curse at him a few times.
At least they had landed safely. Ruan Sixian breathed a sigh of relief and went to find Co-pilot Yu's phone.
After calling his girlfriend to explain the situation, Ruan Sixian reached for her own phone.
As soon as she turned on her network, a call came through.
The number wasn't saved, but she knew who it was.
Whenever a World Airlines flight encountered an unexpected situation, the flight department would immediately notify him, so the only person who could accurately know the landing time and call was him.
However, thinking about his demeanor that morning, Ruan Sixian wasn't particularly eager to answer.
After letting it ring for a while, she finally picked up.
"Hello, President Fu."
"Landed?"
"Yes..."
There was a brief silence on the other end.
Fu Mingyu probably didn't yet know which pilot was in trouble, which was why he had called.Ruan Sixian lowered her head to look at her fingers, her thumb gently tapping against her fingernail. She was just about to say, "Don’t worry, your double annual salary is safe," when she heard him say, "Then come and file the report immediately after landing."
"...???"
Thinking that Fu Mingyu had called right away out of concern was really overestimating him.
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