Blossom through the Cloud - Chapter 41

Chapter 41

The lights directly overhead blazed with stark brilliance, casting a sickly, ashen pallor across the faces of everyone seated around the table.

It was only then that reality fully set in. One by one, they exchanged stunned, bewildered glances and scrambled to their feet.

Jiang Ziyue was still frozen in place when Yue Chen jerked her upright. She stumbled, catching herself with a hand against the tabletop. Her face was drained of all color, and her lips slowly lost their last trace of blood.

Outside the private dining room, the corridor was exceptionally chaotic and deafeningly loud. The rich, heavy aromas of food and fine wine hung thick in the air, wrapping around the oppressive silence within the room and making it feel even more suffocating.

A long stretch of time passed. No one spoke; not even the faint rustle of shifting fabric broke the stillness.

Lin Hongji was still holding his wine glass, suspended awkwardly halfway between the table and his mouth. His lips parted and closed repeatedly. After a long moment, two words finally squeezed past them: "President Fu..."

Fu Mingyu had been leaning forward slightly in front of Ruan Sixian, bracing one hand against the table. At Lin Hongji's voice, his eyelids lifted. With a cool, detached gaze, he swept his eyes across the man, and Lin Hongji instantly snapped his mouth shut.

The air pressure in the room dropped even lower.

Ever since Fu Mingyu finished speaking, Ruan Sixian had remained completely silent. Suddenly, she picked up her bag and stood up, keeping her head down as she pushed past Fu Mingyu's hand and headed straight for the exit.

As she passed the table closest to the door, the people who had been gossiping about her just moments before all took a collective step backward, terrified of even brushing against her.

Yet, just as she reached the threshold, Ruan Sixian abruptly stopped, turned her head slightly, and said in a low voice, "Captain Lin, um... I never intended for your birthday gathering to turn into a mess like this. I'm sorry."

Lin Hongji looked as though he was on the verge of tears. Please, just leave me out of this. This genuinely has nothing to do with me.

As Ruan Sixian stepped past the doorway and vanished outside, the lingering gazes of everyone in the room remained fixed on the empty space she left behind.

Why had Ruan Sixian's aggressive aura suddenly plummeted? Her voice had been so soft and delicate. And if they hadn't misseen in the dim light, had her ears actually been completely red?

Was she putting on an act of feigned vulnerability right in front of President Fu?

Fu Mingyu did not immediately follow her out. The hand that Ruan Sixian had brushed away hung loosely by his side. He casually rotated his wrist, lifted his eyes to survey the remaining people at the table, and wore an unreadable expression.

"Did you see that?"

No one understood what he meant by those words. They only felt as though a taut string had been pulled tight inside their heads, straining until their jaws grew rigid.

Then, the moment Fu Mingyu spoke his next sentence, that mental string snapped entirely.

"Is this how you all make things harder for me?"

Though his tone carried a faint hint of helplessness, it was overwhelmingly laced with a clear, unmistakable warning.

When Ruan Sixian had still been in the room, his voice had held a trace of gentle warmth. But now, as he delivered this line, his tone and demeanor were chillingly calm—so placid it lacked any trace of temperature, resembling the deep ocean right before a tempest, concealing monstrous waves beneath the surface.

With that single parting remark, Fu Mingyu turned and walked out.

Lin Hongji desperately wanted to chase after him and say something, but first, his legs refused to move, and second, he had no idea what he could possibly say.

The private room plunged once more into a deathly stillness.

The silence was finally shattered by a voice coming from the table at the very edge of the room.

"Ruan Sixian's temper is actually huge."

As if jolted awake from a nightmare, everyone snapped their heads around to stare at Ni Tong.

Ni Tong was still trapped in a state of utter shock, her eyes wide and bewildered. "What on earth is going on? It turns out President Fu is actually pursuing her?"

She felt like an absolute idiot. She had once even gone out of her way to lecture Ruan Sixian on how to chase a man.

The moment she spoke, others immediately chimed in.

"I'll be damned... I actually thought she was just clinging to him as a fuckbuddy, but it turns out to be this? What are we supposed to do now..."

"What do we do? Did she hear everything we were saying just now?"

"Holy shit, I was planning to upgrade to purser this year! Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

"Whose bright idea was it to start spreading blind rumors in the first place?! Spouting off without knowing the facts, and now look—we're all going down together."

Amidst the chaotic bickering of the crowd, Jiang Ziyue bit her lower lip so hard it turned white, her fingernails digging deep into her palms as her breath escaped in ragged, strained gasps.

Suddenly, Yue Chen snatched up his wine glass and hurled it violently against the floor. With a sharp crash, the private room fell quiet again.

A spray of glass shards bounced against the top of Jiang Ziyue's foot. She jerked her head up, staring at Yue Chen with absolute disbelief, her expression on the verge of fracturing entirely.

"Happy now?" Yue Chen's face was flushed a dark, angry crimson that crept all the way down his neck, the veins on his forehead bulging visibly. "Didn't you hear me tell you to shut your mouth? Did you really have to be the only one running yours?!"

Red veins strained visibly in Jiang Ziyue's eyes as she shrieked, "Are you even a man?! I'll just quit, then! What is there to be afraid of with her?!"

"You fucking—!" Rage pushed Yue Chen to raise his hand. Just as his arm reached the top of his swing, the surrounding people swarmed forward to intercept him. Regaining a shred of sanity in that split second, he brought his hand down hard instead, overturning a nearby stool. "If you want to leave, get lost by yourself! Don't drag me down with you, dammit!"

Pilots like Yue Chen were in an entirely different position from Ruan Sixian.

Ruan Sixian had not been cultivated through the airline's special pipeline, so her contract terms were relatively loose. But pilots like Yue Chen had been signed to the airline the moment they were selected back in high school under a sponsored, directional training program. The exorbitant training costs had been completely covered by the airline, locking their contracts down so tightly that job-hopping was virtually impossible.

Even if he tried to force his way out by breaking the contract, the penalties would be steep enough to bankrupt him entirely.

Now that Jiang Ziyue had deeply offended their supreme superior, there was no guarantee it wouldn't splash back onto Yue Chen.

Since he couldn't switch companies, he would simply have to submit to whatever punishment was handed down.

On a minor scale, all his future flight schedules could be packed with short-haul routes—flying multiple legs a day. Within his total flight hours, the exhausting proportion of takeoffs and landings would skyrocket dramatically.

Or, the airline could simply have a quiet word with air traffic control. Whenever there was traffic flow control, every single one of his departures would be pushed to the back of the queue. Not only would he be trapped wearing down his youth inside the cockpit, but without a takeoff, there were no flight hours.

On a major scale, they could easily cook up an excuse to demote him to co-pilot. If they wanted to be truly ruthless, stripping him of his captain status for life wasn't entirely out of the question.

The more Yue Chen thought about it, the more terror gripped him. Remembering how gentle and soft-spoken Fu Mingyu had been toward Ruan Sixian just moments ago, he knew all too well that none of these punishments were beyond the realm of possibility.

He understood firsthand just how far a man could go for the woman he loved.

Especially when that man occupied a position of supreme authority, wielding immense wealth and power—there was simply too much he could accomplish.

If Yue Chen could figure this out, how could the other pilots fail to see it? Panic immediately swept through them as they began to fret over their own careers.

Right on cue, Ni Tong stepped up once again to break the suffocating deadlock.

After joining in on the collective panic for a moment and calming herself down, she offered, "It... it should be fine, right...?"

All eyes snapped toward her. Under the glaring spotlights, she took a hesitant step back and stammered, "I mean, I also... you know... had a few unpleasant moments with her myself, but she didn't... she didn't actually do anything to me..."

Was Ruan Sixian the focal point right now?

The real focal point was President Fu!

Too lazy to bother with Ni Tong, the group resumed their anxious fretting over their futures.

Meanwhile, the situation unfolding elsewhere was hardly more optimistic.

When Fu Mingyu walked out, Ruan Sixian was marching forward at a rapid pace, clutching her handbag as if walking on wind.

"Ruan Sixian."

Fu Mingyu called out from behind. Seeing that the person ahead refused to stop, he covered the distance in two long strides and grabbed her wrist.

"You—"

Before he could finish, Fu Mingyu's voice cut off abruptly.

He lowered his gaze to look at Ruan Sixian's face.

Ruan Sixian kept her head bowed. The moment she felt his touch, she violently shook off his hand and continued marching forward.

Such a scumbag.

A stinky, rotten scumbag.

After muttering a string of insults to herself internally, Ruan Sixian felt her wrist caught in a firm grip once more.

She spun around and gave a brief struggle. "Let go of me."

Unable to pull her hand free, she had no choice but to lift her chin and glare at him.

"I'll handle this matter," Fu Mingyu said. "There won't ever be rumors like this again. Can you calm down now?"

She continued to glare at Fu Mingyu in silence, offering no response.

Her mind wasn't even on that incident anymore.

Fu Mingyu urged, "Get in the car first, I'll send you home. It's going to rain soon."

With that, he glanced back. The chauffeur had been trailing slowly behind them the entire time and had now brought the vehicle to a stop right by the curb.

Taking advantage of his momentary lapse in attention, Ruan Sixian yanked her hand free and slapped him lightly across the back.

Assuming she was still furious over the earlier episode, Fu Mingyu turned, pressed his hands onto her shoulders, and said with absolute seriousness, "I told you, I will give you a proper account for what happened."

In the illumination of the streetlamps along the pavement, Fu Mingyu finally caught a clear view of Ruan Sixian's face—it was flushed as bright as a ripe apple, a rosy heat that faintly extended all the way down to her fair neck.

The two of them stood frozen in a staring contest, neither willing to speak first.

After a dozen seconds or so, Ruan Sixian suddenly delivered another slap to his shoulder.

The force wasn't devastatingly heavy, but it wasn't light either; it carried a distinct, emotional charge behind it.

Fu Mingyu frowned and drew a deep breath, feeling his patience slowly being worn thin.

"Say something," he murmured, his gaze dropping slightly. "Do you need to slap me a few more times to vent your anger?"

Ruan Sixian clenched her fists tightly.

Though she had no idea what she looked like at the moment, she could vividly feel her entire neck and face enveloped in a wave of heat radiating from within.

In short, she was certain her face was burning red to the roots of her hair.

"Bring your face over here, then."

Naturally, Fu Mingyu had no intention of literally extending his cheek for a beating.

He simply stared at Ruan Sixian, his dark eyes holding an unreadable depth.

Another stretch of silent eye contact ensued. Just as before, Ruan Sixian suddenly reached out, her palm pressing against Fu Mingyu's cheek to shove his head firmly to the side.

"Why on earth did you have to go and say those things in there?!"

Leaving those words hanging in the air, she rushed over to the curbside, yanked the car door open, and climbed inside.

That little "slap" she had pressed against his face had felt surprisingly soft, almost like the paw of a kitten.

The lingering warmth of Ruan Sixian's palm still lingered on his cheek. Fu Mingyu lifted a hand to brush lightly across his skin, then glanced through the car window at Ruan Sixian's indistinct silhouette in the passenger seat.

A moment later, a low chuckle escaped him as he turned and climbed into the car.

The chauffeur silently shifted into gear and drove toward Mingchen Residence.

The back seat was spacious. Fu Mingyu crossed his legs, loosened his cuffs, and glanced sideways at Ruan Sixian.

Ruan Sixian had pressed herself tightly against the far window, staring outside, but caught his reflection watching her in the glass.

"What is it?"

What is it?!

You actually have the nerve to ask?!

Ruan Sixian felt an overwhelming urge to lift her foot and kick him right out of the moving vehicle.

Do I usually look so unfazed and thick-skinned that you assumed I wouldn't feel any shame?

Dropping a line like, 'Didn't you tell them I'm the one pursuing you?' right in front of a room full of people—and all of them my coworkers, no less! Is that something a normal human being does?

Even though she knew perfectly well that Fu Mingyu had set his sights on her, having such a dynamic brought up in public was practically equivalent to a massive, full-blown confession scene.

Which woman wouldn't die of embarrassment?!

From the moment Fu Mingyu had uttered those words inside the private room, heat had surged straight into Ruan Sixian's chest, setting her entire face ablaze.

She hadn't even experienced emotional turbulence like this when she was arguing with Jiang Ziyue.

And yet, this rotten scumbag of a man was completely unbothered, his heart rate steady as he casually asked her what was wrong.

After inhaling a deep breath to stabilize herself, Ruan Sixian smoothed her expression, preparing to speak reasonably, when the man opened his mouth again.

"Everything I said today was completely serious."

Ruan Sixian: "..."

Even though an entire empty seat separated the two of them, Ruan Sixian felt as though the space around her had suddenly shrunk into a tight cage, with Fu Mingyu's presence wrapping entirely around her.

"Oh."

"Oh?" Fu Mingyu tilted his head to study her flushed expression, a hint of amusement playing in his eyes. "Does that mean you're agreeing to it?"

"Agreeing? Don't flatter yourself too much." Ruan Sixian lifted her chin as if hearing a ridiculous joke, letting out a cold scoff. "Go ahead and try your best. If you actually manage to win me over, I'll take your family name."

The moment the words left her mouth, Ruan Sixian suddenly choked, her brain going entirely numb with static.

The chauffeur in the front seat let out a sudden, involuntary cough, though it was impossible to tell whether he was trying to stifle a laugh at her expense.

Damn it...

Ruan Sixian squeezed her eyes shut in profound regret.

Had her brain fried today, or had all her common sense gone into hiding out of sheer mortification? How on earth did she manage to blurt out something so mentally deficient?

She had successfully added yet another layer of humiliation to her evening.

"You're right. Once I win you over, of course—"

"Shut up, Fu Mingyu!"