The next morning, Ruan Sixian woke up to her alarm.

She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling for quite a while before pulling her consciousness back.

However, the moment she got out of bed, she couldn’t help but curse Bian Xuan for selling fake liquor.

Her head was pounding terribly.

When she walked into the living room, she froze, almost raising her hand to call the police.

What met her eyes were throw pillows that had fallen to the floor, shoes scattered here and there, a small blanket on the sofa hanging crookedly over the edge of the coffee table, and her bag overturned with its contents spilled all over the floor.

But after a few seconds, she regained her senses.

The state of her home wasn’t from a break-in, but from her struggle when Fu Mingyu forcibly carried her from the sofa last night.

Memories began to play back, and Ruan Sixian’s body seemed to unconsciously recall the sensations. Looking at the sofa, she remembered when Fu Mingyu picked her up, how their bodies pressed tightly together, and she couldn’t break free no matter how she struggled.

Walking to the door to put on her slippers, she recalled how he had encircled her from behind, reached out to hold her hand, with his chin at the side of her head—just a slight turn and she could see the curve of his jawline.

Looking back at her bedroom, she remembered when he leaned down over her bed, how she was enveloped in his presence, unable to move, while his dangling necktie swayed gently before her eyes.

Hiss…

Ruan Sixian hugged herself, vigilantly looking around.

Why was it that every time she looked at a corner, frames of Fu Mingyu would flash through her mind?

How had this dog of a man managed to fill her home with his shadows everywhere?

Ruan Sixian quickly put on her slippers and rushed into the bathroom for a shower.

The hot water washed away her fatigue and, along with it, the emotions of the past few days.

Last night she had drunk, vented her anger, and caused a scene. It was as if her heart had suddenly cleared.

The problems still existed, but the feeling of frustration had disappeared.

She dried her hair and returned to the living room to tidy up, finding a pack of cigarettes on the floor.

Picking it up, she saw that only two or three cigarettes had been taken out.

There was no need to guess whose it was.

Ruan Sixian put the cigarettes in the coffee table drawer. As she closed it, an image of Fu Mingyu smoking suddenly flashed in her mind.

Standing relaxed, one hand in his pocket, head slightly tilted, eyes lowered, his profile appearing and disappearing in the firelight.

He looked quite handsome.

Hmm?

Ruan Sixian suddenly froze.

She had never seen Fu Mingyu smoke before, so why would such an image appear in her mind?

Just then, the doorbell suddenly rang, interrupting Ruan Sixian’s thoughts.

She got up to open the door, and a delivery person handed her a bag.

“Hello, your breakfast. Please enjoy.”

Having experienced this before, Ruan Sixian wasn’t too surprised.

She checked the receipt, saw that it was indeed addressed to her, and accepted the delivery.

Inside was a bowl of lean pork porridge with vegetables, a cup of hot soy milk, and two date cakes.

Hmm…

It was the breakfast she usually liked.

Ruan Sixian took a sip of the soy milk, its sweet taste lingering on her tongue.

After thinking for a moment, she felt she should express her gratitude to Fu Mingyu.

So she found Fu Mingyu’s WeChat and sent him a message.

Ruan Sixian: Received the breakfast, thank you.

After sending it, she didn’t expect the busy Mr. Fu to reply immediately. She continued drinking her porridge while looking at the unread message.

Scrolling down the list, she saw that Si Xiaozhen had sent her a message twenty minutes ago.

[Si Xiaozhen]: Are you awake? Worried you’d oversleep and feel unwell, I ordered breakfast for you. Remember to eat, okay?

Ruan Sixian stared at this message for several long seconds.

???

!!!

It wasn’t from Fu Mingyu???

She immediately went back to Fu Mingyu’s WeChat and frantically tried to recall her message.

However, the very moment she released her finger, a reply came 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!!!

You don’t believe me, do you???

Ruan Sixian suddenly felt the soy milk wasn’t sweet anymore, and the porridge had lost its flavor.

How could Fu Mingyu be like this?

Yesterday, he was the one being presumptuous, and today he was making it seem like she was being presumptuous?

And he had that disbelieving look.

The more Ruan Sixian thought about it, the more upset she became. She took a photo of the breakfast and posted it on her Moments.

Meanwhile, Fu Mingyu stood by a hospital bed where He Lanxiang was having a warm conversation with her cousin.

The two women chattered endlessly. Fu Mingyu’s mind wandered as he stared at a flower on the branch extending through the window.

After who knows how long, he turned back to find He Lanxiang still talking non-stop. Her aunt seemed in such good spirits that she looked ready to pull out her IV and go on a three-day shopping spree in Milan with her.

Surrounded by topics he had no interest in, Fu Mingyu could only take out his phone.

Opening WeChat, the screen still showed his conversation with Ruan Sixian.

She hadn’t replied, so he exited and checked his Moments feed, where Ruan Sixian’s avatar appeared in the top right corner.

He clicked on it to see that half a minute ago, she had posted a photo of breakfast.

[Thanks for the breakfast, baby, love you muah @Si Xiaozhen]

Fu Mingyu understood what Ruan Sixian meant.

He narrowed his eyes, looking out the window again, feeling inexplicably irritated.

His gaze returned to his phone.

Fu Mingyu clicked on Ruan Sixian’s Moments page, wondering if she had posted any other subtle digs at him that he might have missed in the past two days.

However, as soon as he entered, Ruan Sixian’s Moments album background caught Fu Mingyu’s attention.

White background with black text, an extremely provocative line:

“Looking at my page again? Admit it, you like me.”

Fu Mingyu: “…”

He turned off his phone.

Such time-wasting things as Moments were indeed best left unviewed.

After the incident of mistakenly thinking the breakfast was from Fu Mingyu, Ruan Sixian thought he would seize this opportunity to flaunt his presence before her.

However, this time she miscalculated—Fu Mingyu was extremely quiet.

Of course, perhaps it was because he was busy. In any case, he didn’t appear again.

The next time they met was five days later, in the morning.

Ruan Sixian arrived at Shihang Airlines on time, preparing for her last flight before officially becoming a co-pilot.

The morning at Shihang was as busy as ever. Ruan Sixian, dressed in her uniform and pulling her flight suitcase, was passing by the Flight Department’s main conference room when the door suddenly opened inward.

Then, footsteps sounded.

Inexplicably, Ruan Sixian felt it was most likely Fu Mingyu.

She stopped and looked over, indeed seeing him.

The room behind the door was brightly lit, and the meeting attendees were silent, watching Fu Mingyu leave.

He seemed to be in a bad mood, one hand in his pocket, eyebrows slightly furrowed, striding out, making the surrounding airdrop by a couple of degrees.

Ruan Sixian stood less than five meters from the door, a position where she would inevitably cross paths with Fu Mingyu.

After a few steps, Fu Mingyu indeed saw Ruan Sixian.

However, their gazes only met briefly. Just as Ruan Sixian was about to open her mouth to greet him, he turned his head to listen to what his assistant was saying, no longer looking at her.

The group just walked past Ruan Sixian.

When Bai Yang walked out afterward, he paused, wanting to say hello. But seeing that Fu Mingyu had shown no reaction, he thought the two must have had another argument recently. They might be like fire and water right now, so it was better not to light the fuse that might blow him up into the most brilliant firework on the horizon.

After everyone left the conference room, quietness returned.

Ruan Sixian looked back at Fu Mingyu’s retreating figure, her brows slowly knitting together.

She carefully recalled if she had done something to offend him that night when she was drunk.

Had she hit Fu Mingyu?

No, she probably couldn’t have overpowered him.

Had she insulted him too harshly?

Probably not. He had insisted on following her inside and refused to leave; she had been quite polite.

Or had she said something that hurt his pride?

Wait, Ruan Sixian suddenly came to her senses.

Why was she reflecting on this? Fu Mingyu never played by the rules; how could she analyze his behavior patterns with normal thinking?

Besides, he could do whatever he wanted; it wasn’t her business.

She silently cursed herself twice, pulled her suitcase, and strode away.

Today’s flight was quite a coincidence.

Ruan Sixian’s last flight as a trainee happened to be with Captain Fan and Co-pilot Yu, the same crew from her first flight.

They had flown together several times in between and were quite familiar with each other.

After boarding the plane, Captain Fan and Co-pilot Yu sat in the front row, both looking relaxed.

Today they were flying from Jiangcheng to Lincheng, two segments, a familiar route with good weather conditions—everything was perfect.

After preparations were complete, they took off smoothly. Half an hour later, the plane entered cruise control with autopilot engaged.

Captain Fan held a cup of jujube tea and turned back to say: “Little Ruan, next week you’ll officially become a co-pilot. You can let the Flight Department know that I’d like to be the one to guide you on your first flight.”

“Oh, okay.” Ruan Sixian nodded, then fell silent again.

“What are you thinking about?” Captain Fan suddenly asked.

Ruan Sixian hesitated for a moment, then said: “Do you think, when a man suddenly…”

Halfway through her sentence, she noticed Co-pilot Yu’s face didn’t look right.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Co-pilot Yu was holding his right upper abdomen, his lips gradually turning pale.

“Ugh… I have some pain here.”

Then he said to Captain Fan: “I might have diarrhea; I need to go to the bathroom.”

Captain Fan nodded, putting on his oxygen mask as Co-pilot Yu stood up.

With the co-pilot gone, Captain Fan stopped chatting.

A few minutes later, Co-pilot Yu returned, and Captain Fan removed his oxygen mask, continuing their previous conversation: “Little Ruan, what were you saying about a man?”

Ruan Sixian didn’t answer because she had noticed something was wrong with Co-pilot Yu when he came back.

“Are you feeling unwell?” Ruan Sixian leaned forward to ask. “Your face looks terrible, and your forehead is sweaty.”

Hearing this, Captain Fan immediately looked at Co-pilot Yu.

What Ruan Sixian had described was an understatement—he couldn’t even sit straight, both hands tightly clutching his right upper abdomen, his face deathly pale, with large beads of sweat running from his face down to his neck.

“What’s wrong?” Captain Fan asked in astonishment.

Co-pilot Yu’s lips were completely colorless. He opened his mouth, taking a long time to speak: “I don’t… don’t know. This area suddenly hurts badly; I might not be able to make it to Lin… Lincheng.”

“Are you sure?” Captain Fan asked again. “Serious enough that you can’t make it to Lincheng?”

Co-pilot Yu tried to think.

But a second later, another wave of severe pain hit his right upper abdomen, and his whole body began to shiver.

“I don’t think I can…”

Ruan Sixian used a tissue to wipe the sweat from Co-pilot Yu’s face while checking 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.”

Precisely because Captain Fan’s wife had experienced this illness, he knew that in severe cases, it could be life-threatening.

A few seconds later, he said: “Little Ruan, switch places with him. You sit in the co-pilot seat, then call the No. 3 flight attendant to come take care of him. Have the safety officer replace No. 3, and ask the chief flight attendant if there are any medical personnel among the passengers.”

Ruan Sixian did as told. After a while, the No. 3 flight attendant came in with a message from the chief flight attendant.

“There are no medical personnel on this flight.”

Beside them, Co-pilot Yu was still moaning in pain. Captain Fan furrowed his brows, looked at him for a few seconds, and finally made a decision.

“Little Ruan, tell the chief flight attendant to inform the cabin that we’re diverting to Fudu Airport.”

“Got it.”

Soon, the cabin announcement was made.

At the same time, Ruan Sixian put on her headset and sunglasses looked at the instrument panel, and said: “We’re about thirty minutes from Fudu Airport, and we’re expected to be 1.5 tons overweight for landing.”

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.

Considering both Co-Pilot Yu’s current condition and airworthiness standards, she thought an overweight landing was completely acceptable.

If she were in the pilot’s seat, she would make the same decision.

But Co-pilot Yu, who could barely speak, voiced his opposition.

“N-no, an overweight landing will cause a safety incident, we can’t…”

“Shut up!” Captain Fan yelled. “I’m the captain, and I know what I’m doing! We’re already at takeoff weight, as long as the rate is controlled below 360 feet per minute, how can we not land safely? If anything happens, I’ll take full responsibility!”

But even after he finished speaking, Co-pilot Yu still disagreed, saying he could hold on until the plane burned enough fuel to be below the maximum landing weight.

In short, he did not agree to an overweight landing.

Captain Fan, usually gentle and soft-spoken, now spoke with a hardness that Ruan Sixian had never heard before.

Seeing that 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 it.”

However since the plane had no fuel dumping system, they could only find ways to consume fuel.

Ruan Sixian kept an eye on the instrument panel. When the plane descended to 15,000 feet, she asked: “Captain, shall we lower the landing gear now?”

Captain Fan nodded: “Do it.”

Lowering the landing gear wasn’t to prepare for landing; they were just trying to increase fuel consumption to get below the maximum landing weight as soon as possible.

The flight altitude gradually decreased, while Co-pilot Yu behind them could barely moan anymore.

Ruan Sixian comforted him softly: “Senior Yu, hang in there a little longer. It won’t be long now.”

There was no response from behind.

Captain Fan took a deep breath and said: “Little Ruan, prepare to use the speed brakes to further increase fuel consumption.”

Ruan Sixian was about to agree when the person behind who couldn’t even moan properly said: “N-no, we can’t!”

Captain Fan completely ignored Co-pilot Yu, who was becoming so anxious in the back that he was gasping for air, almost crying.

Shihang Airlines regulations stated that using speed brakes when engine thrust exceeded 66% would be classified as a QAR Level 3 incident. If this happened, it would seriously affect Co-pilot Yu’s future promotions, upgrades, bonuses, income, and more.

Although Ruan Sixian wanted to curse at these garbage regulations, she couldn’t completely ignore them, and she also couldn’t dissuade Captain Fan.

After all, on an airplane, the captain holds absolute authority.

Sure enough, Co-pilot Yu began struggling to say: “Any more reduc… reduction and it’ll be QA…”

Before he could finish, Captain Fan interrupted him: “Shut the fuck up! I’m saving your life right now! What’s more important, your life or the QAR?!”

Whether Co-pilot Yu had no more strength to speak or had finally given in the back row went quiet.

Nearly an hour later, the plane landed at Fudu Airport.

As the plane slowly approached the jet bridge under the guidance of the ground crew, Ruan Sixian turned back to look at Co-pilot Yu.

His clothes were completely soaked with sweat, his eyes closed, lips slightly parted, breathing with difficulty.

As the plane came to a stop, an ambulance was already waiting. Medical personnel entered the cockpit and helped Co-pilot Yu out.

But at the cabin door, he suddenly turned back to look at Ruan Sixian: “Do… do me a favor.”

“What is it?”

Co-pilot Yu: “My phone password is six 8s… Please let my girlfriend know I’m safe later.”

Ruan Sixian nodded in agreement, and only then did Co-pilot Yu leave.

From their previous flights together, Ruan Sixian knew about his habit of always sending his girlfriend a message after landing to let her know he was safe.

Captain Fan walked out, watching Co-pilot Yu get into the ambulance, not forgetting to curse him a couple more 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 touched her phone.

Just as she turned on her data, a call came in.

The number wasn’t saved in her contacts, but she knew who it was.

Whenever a Shihang flight experienced an unexpected situation, the Flight Department would immediately inform him, so the only person who could know the exact landing time and call her would be him.

But remembering his attitude this morning, Ruan Sixian wasn’t very eager to answer.

After letting it ring for quite a while, she finally picked up.

“Hello, Director Fu.”

“Have you landed?”

“Mmm…”

There was a moment of silence on the other end.

Fu Mingyu probably didn’t know yet which flight crew member had the problem, so that’s why he called, right?

Ruan Sixian looked down at her fingers, her thumb lightly pressing against her index fingernail. She was about to say “Don’t worry, your double annual salary is fine” when she heard him say: “Then come back immediately to file a report.”

“…???”

Thinking Fu Mingyu would call immediately to express concern was giving him too much credit.