When that definitive “Yes” fell, reaching Ruan Sixian’s ears clearly, she finally realized how inappropriate her conversation with Fu Mingyu just now had been.

Even He Lanfeng was eyeing them sideways.

Even if it’s a first encounter between a man and a woman, being forcibly paired up would make things awkward. This was especially true for Ruan Sixian and Fu Mingyu who saw each other constantly. Once the topic veered in that direction, the atmosphere inexplicably became delicate.

Moreover, this wasn’t the first time such a conversation had occurred. Ruan Sixian remembered once asking Fu Mingyu, “Do you want to be my boyfriend?”

At that time, Fu Mingyu hadn’t answered, and she had only asked the question out of momentary spite, not seriously.

But now, Fu Mingyu seemed to be plainly saying, “Try being my girlfriend and you’ll see what I’m like.”

Once she understood this layer of meaning, Ruan Sixian naturally closed her mouth.

But when awareness drifted in that direction, it became somewhat uncontrollable. Some illogical thoughts emerged, bouncing around in her mind.

She realized that after delivering that slap, her negative feelings toward Fu Mingyu seemed to have cleared away.

She didn’t dislike him so much anymore; in fact, he was quite nice in many instances, especially his temperament, which seemed particularly good.

Besides tolerating her unreasonable demands without limit, in many cases, what he did seemed to have long exceeded the boundaries of normal male-female interaction.

Like insisting on eating dinner at her home, like accompanying her to the police station, like going to the bar to find her that night because of a single message from her.

Ruan Sixian even recalled small gestures like him standing in front of her in the elevator to block a dog.

Looking at Fu Mingyu now without an emotional filter, she realized things had been off for a long time.

As these thoughts swirled, Ruan Sixian glanced at the primary instrument panel. The cold data on it promptly pulled her back to reality.

She frowned, saying coldly, “The instructor is still here, don’t talk nonsense. Otherwise, even if you’re the boss, we can order you to leave the cockpit.”

Fu Mingyu pressed his tongue against his cheek and smiled, turning to look out the window.

He Lanfeng twisted his mouth and wiggled his eyebrows, also saying nothing more.

For a moment, the cockpit fell silent.

There were two knocks on the cockpit door, and the chief flight attendant came in after making a PA announcement.

He Lanfeng cleared his throat, answered the PA, and said, “Let’s all have something to drink.”

The cockpit door opened, and the chief flight attendant entered, asking, “President Fu, Instructor He Lan, Co-pilot Ruan, would you like something to drink?”

Ruan Sixian and Fu Mingyu said simultaneously, “Coffee, no sugar.”

The air froze for a moment before He Lanfeng suppressed a laugh, “I see you two are quite in sync.”

After disembarking, Bai Yang had already arranged for a driver to take him and Fu Mingyu directly to Xi City.

The morning fog still hadn’t dissipated by noon. Traffic on the highway was at a standstill, and Bai Yang kept checking his watch.

During this period, Fu Mingyu had been staying up late for the flight quality monitoring reform, eating irregularly, which caused digestive problems. The doctor had instructed him to eat on time, but looking at the current situation, they wouldn’t make it for lunch before the meeting.

Today happened to be the International Import Expo, where major manufacturers from around the world came to bid. It covered aircraft engines, aviation equipment, special vehicles, cabin equipment, in-flight entertainment programs, and more. It was one of World Airlines’ important projects this year, expected to take up an entire afternoon of meetings.

As Bai Yang had anticipated, they arrived at the conference center two hours later, just in time.

The attendees and manufacturer representatives were already in place. The venue was packed but quiet and orderly.

The staff guided Fu Mingyu to the VIP seats in the first row. A nameplate was placed on the table. After he sat down, surrounding attendees came up one after another to exchange greetings.

Hands extended one after another, accompanied by self-introductions, without pause.

Only when the host on the conference platform began testing the microphone did the last person speaking with him leave?

Fu Mingyu sat down and adjusted his cuffs when another hand extended before him.

Looking up, his gaze immediately shifted away lazily.

“Why are you here?”

“What do you mean, why am I here?” Yan An sat down beside Fu Mingyu, turning the nameplate on the table to face Fu Mingyu, “Of course, I’m representing North Airlines to attend the meeting.”

Yan An’s appearance was unexpected to Fu Mingyu, yet it made sense.

In the past, the Yan family wouldn’t let Yan An attend such expos as a representative. Usually, Chairman Yan would personally attend or send his special assistant. But this year, Chairman Yan’s health wasn’t optimal, and no matter how idle Yan An was, it wouldn’t be reasonable for him not to attend.

Fu Mingyu had no interest in casual conversation with Yan An, so a glance in response was sufficient.

Yan An was also disinterested, looking at the content on the LED screen for a moment without much interest. He found chatting with Fu Mingyu more appealing.

“I heard you’ve been working on flight quality monitoring reform recently?”

Although the two didn’t get along well in daily life, in terms of work, the two companies had deep ties, and he had always gotten along peacefully with Yan An.

“Mm.”

Since Co-pilot Yu’s flight made an emergency landing in Fu Du some time ago, Fu Mingyu has been working on one thing.

He proposed that World Airlines would initiate a comprehensive reform of flight quality monitoring, overturning principles that had been in use for over twenty years. This wasn’t a secret within the airline industry and had stirred up considerable controversy.

But Yan An wasn’t surprised. Someone would have done this sooner or later; he just hadn’t expected it would be Fu Mingyu, who was about his age. “Why did you suddenly decide to do this?”

Fu Mingyu’s expression remained calm, as if discussing something insignificant, “I’ve wanted to do it since the year I took office. The recent incident with a co-pilot’s acute cholecystitis and an emergency landing was just a catalyst.”

Fu Mingyu made it sound easy, but Yan An understood how difficult this was.

In its early stages, the QAR-based flight quality monitoring indeed played a positive role in standardizing pilot operations and provided a management template for emerging airlines.

But in recent years, the consequences of QAR abuse have become increasingly evident, and these impacts far outweighed its positive aspects.

For example, frequent tail strikes and last year’s incident where an aircraft landed with only about 20 minutes of fuel remaining almost all pointed to the fact that QAR management and penalties had reversed priorities.

The reason was that pilots, fearing QAR penalties, would escalate a simple incident into a serious one.

In many people’s view, QAR should be used for technical analysis and training assistance, not for safety inspection departments to punish pilots.

But it was difficult for anyone to truly take this step due to its deeply rooted usage history and authority. To reform it required more convincing trial plans.

Yan An pessimistically shook his head, “Why bother? It’s thankless work. You can’t outplay those self-contained old fogies.”

Fu Mingyu stared at the LED screen, his gaze clear, but his tone held firm resolve, “Don’t speak too soon.”

As he finished speaking, the meeting officially began.

Nearly six hours into the meeting, it was reaching Yan An’s limit of endurance. He twisted his neck, his eyelids heavy with fatigue. Turning to look, he saw that Fu Mingyu hadn’t shown any signs of weariness throughout.

The person on stage had already begun the closing remarks. Bored, Yan An took out his phone and scrolled through it. Opening Weibo, he saw that World Airlines’ official account had updated a post one minute ago.

Pretending to be handling business, he clicked on it. It was a promotional Weibo post about World Airlines’ flight academy’s nationwide recruitment tour launch this year, accompanied by nine photos.

In the middle one, he immediately recognized Ruan Sixian.

After looking at the enlarged image for a while, he couldn’t resist asking the person beside him, “Does your company have the original version of this promotional photo?”

Fu Mingyu scrutinized Yan An inch by inch before turning away and speaking coldly, “No.”

Yan An was already accustomed to Fu Mingyu’s attitude and didn’t say anything, continuing to play with his phone.

But a few seconds later, he realized the tone of that sentence had been off.

He seemed to sense something, put down his phone, and tapped the table.

“Fu Mingyu.” He raised an eyebrow and said word by word, “I’ve been wanting to ask for a while, do you like Ruan Sixian?”

“Yes.”

The affirmative answer was as expected, without even a hint of hesitation.

Yan An laughed in disbelief, his mouth hanging open for quite a while, not knowing what to say.

“Fu Mingyu, you…” Yan An truly didn’t know what to say. After calming down for a moment and recalling previous events, he suddenly laughed again.

With Ruan Sixian’s attitude toward Fu Mingyu?

At least she was polite and gentle with him, but toward Fu Mingyu she was simply…

“Fu Mingyu, aren’t you clear about Ruan Sixian’s attitude toward you? Why are you joining this crowd?”

What attitude?

Just like that slap—after it was delivered and the handprint on his face disappeared, their grievances were completely written off.

But whenever he thought of her, sometimes his heart would sting, sometimes it would itch.

Rather than remaining in this neither-here-nor-there state, it was better to grasp it firmly. Then he would know whether it would turn into a needle piercing his heart or soften into a comfort resting in his heart.

Fu Mingyu raised his eyebrows, looking sideways at Yan An.

With the same tone, and the same sentence.

“Don’t speak too soon.”

“Achoo!”

At this very moment, Ruan Sixian in the employee cafeteria suddenly sneezed.

The cafeteria auntie asked, “Are you catching a cold, young lady?”

“No,” Ruan Sixian wiped her nose, “maybe someone is talking about me behind my back.”

She got her meal and carried her tray to find a seat.

The employee cafeteria in the evening was more crowded than usual. Besides flight crew, many office staff also came to eat, and there were hardly any empty seats.

Finding one of the last available tables, she sat down, but accidentally dropped her spoon.

Ruan Sixian bent down to pick it up, but just as she reached out, another hand picked up the spoon.

Looking up, she saw Yue Chen smiling in front of her.

“Little Ruan, what a coincidence.”

Since Ruan Sixian had last met him in London and shared a meal, they hadn’t had any private contact.

After returning, they weren’t on the same aircraft type, so there were no opportunities for collaboration. Moreover, now that he was with Jiang Ziyue, Ruan Sixian deliberately avoided him. Occasionally when they met at the company, she would only exchange necessary greetings without saying one extra word.

After all, Jiang Ziyue knew that Yue Chen had once pursued her, so less contact meant fewer suspicious circumstances.

But it’s hard to turn down someone with a smile, so in this situation, Ruan Sixian could only smile politely, “Coincidence.”

Yue Chen put the spoon he had picked up aside and asked, “Is this seat taken?”

Ruan Sixian shook her head, “Do you have a flight tonight?”

“Yes.” Yue Chen sat down, his gaze casually surveying Ruan Sixian’s face before asking, “Where did you fly today?”

Ruan Sixian answered concisely, “Lin City.”

“Oh, my hometown.”

The two chatted on and off like this, with a subtle awkwardness that both perfectly concealed.

“By the way, I’m getting married at the end of the year. I’ll send you an invitation later,” Yue Chen finally got to his main point after talking for a while.

“Congratulations.” Ruan Sixian picked at the chili in her tray, her tone relaxed, “Which month?”

“December 7th or 8th, I can’t quite remember.” Yue Chen said with a laugh, “I should just have it tattooed; otherwise, every time I’m asked, I get scolded when I go home.”

Ruan Sixian laughed too, though she was laughing at how there was such a thing as a playboy reforming. She never imagined that someone as flirtatious as Yue Chen would be so obediently tamed by Jiang Ziyue.

They were each laughing for their reasons, not on the same wavelength until a co-pilot passed by with a tray lightly coughed.

Yue Chen looked up, puzzled at this co-pilot.

He winked and jerked his chin to the right.

Yue Chen had a bad feeling and looked in that direction, indeed seeing Jiang Ziyue standing at the door with a dark face.

Yue Chen silently cursed his bad luck, said a brief goodbye to Ruan Sixian, and left with his tray.

At the door, Jiang Ziyue was in uniform, waiting for Yue Chen to approach.

She had been standing there for nearly fifteen minutes, and Yue Chen hadn’t even noticed her, his gaze completely fixed on Ruan Sixian.

The two seemed to be saying something, laughing so happily.

When she ate with Yue Chen, he never smiled like that, only looking down to play games.

“Finished eating?” Jiang Ziyue coldly looked at Yue Chen in front of her, “Why not stay and eat a bit longer?”

“What are you talking about all day?” Yue Chen was most annoyed with Jiang Ziyue’s tone. Just because he had many girlfriends before, now whenever she saw him talking to a woman, she would question him endlessly, “Don’t you have a flight soon? Hurry up and go eat.”

“What am I supposed to eat? As long as she’s full, I don’t need to eat.”

Yue Chen looked at her impatiently, “Why are you inexplicably angry? So I can’t even say a few words to a female colleague now?”

“It depends on which female colleague. Is she the same as others?”

“Fine, think whatever you want.”

“Think whatever I want? What am I supposed to think? Hiding in a corner to eat, afraid of being seen by whom?”

“If I was afraid of being seen, would I be eating with her in the cafeteria? Wouldn’t we have gone out to eat? You’re sick.”

Yue Chen’s tone was harsh, and his footsteps were even heavier as he strode away.

Jiang Ziyue caught up and tugged at his sleeve, “What do you mean? Have you been itching for it all along? Do you still like her? I know you men think what you can’t have is the best. Yue Chen, don’t forget you’re about to get married.”

“You’re mentally ill.” Yue Chen couldn’t even be bothered to talk and walked away.

Jiang Ziyue had a flight soon and couldn’t follow to argue further. She turned to look at Ruan Sixian, who was still leisurely clearing her tray.

In fact, since the day Ruan Sixian returned, she hadn’t slept well.

First, she feared Ruan Sixian knew about the rumors she had spread back then and would seek revenge.

Second, it was because of Yue Chen.

The fact that Yue Chen had pursued Ruan Sixian unsuccessfully had always been a thorn in her heart. She knew Yue Chen too well—he had too many tricks up his sleeve. As long as she wasn’t watching him, he couldn’t control his flirtatious mouth, especially with someone he hadn’t successfully pursued, seeing her day in and day out. So recently, she checked on him whenever she had time, often leading to arguments, but she never stopped.

But how could she prevent it completely?

When she just saw Yue Chen and Ruan Sixian laughing together, all the sense of crisis accumulated over these months exploded at once.

To make matters worse, when Ruan Sixian finished clearing her tray and came out, she still greeted her with a smile, “Were you looking for Captain Yue? He just left.”

Jiang Ziyue said coldly, “I know.”

Seeing her strange expression, Ruan Sixian couldn’t be bothered to say more and walked away directly.

But after a few steps, the person behind called out to her.

“What?” Ruan Sixian turned around, “Something else?”

Jiang Ziyue took a deep breath, trying hard to make her expression and tone calm enough.

“Little Ruan, we both know Yue Chen pursued you before.”

Ruan Sixian stopped walking, slowly turning around to wait for what she had to say next.

“But we’re getting married now, so—” she looked up directly at Ruan Sixian, “I hope you can keep some distance from him.”

Ruan Sixian tried hard to hold back but couldn’t help laughing.

“Sister, rest assured, I wasn’t interested in your precious darling before, and I’m even less interested now. You can keep him all to yourself.”

Such humiliating language paired with that smiling face made Jiang Ziyue laugh in extreme anger, coldly snorting and nodding, “Yes, an ordinary captain wouldn’t be good enough for you. Your standards are high. Why are you even sitting in the co-pilot’s seat? You should sit directly in President Fu’s car’s passenger seat.”

Ruan Sixian tugged at the corner of her mouth.

Awkward.

I’ve sat there before.