Blossom through the Cloud - Chapter 42

Chapter 42

The last breath of October swept past, and the weather instantly turned crisp and cool.

Entering November, the roadside leaves visibly turned yellow, the air grew dry, and some pedestrians on the street even began wearing down jackets.

Ruan Sixian's work environment was undergoing a parallel transformation.

She had been constantly busy with her F1 (First Officer Phase 1) examinations lately, squeezing in study time whenever she could. Sometimes, while sitting in the cockpit waiting for air traffic flow control to clear, she would still pull out her phone to review a few pages.

On the day her exams finished, she walked out of the testing center and checked the time. It was still early, so she decided to head to the employee cafeteria for a meal.

After getting her food and finding an empty seat with her tray, she had barely taken two bites when she noticed someone walking toward her.

Ruan Sixian looked up and recognized a familiar first officer, so she shifted her tray slightly to clear out some extra space.

To her surprise, the moment the first officer realized the person sitting there was Ruan Sixian, his face split into a wide grin. "Good afternoon, Xiao Ruan! Oh? How did I miss these braised pork ribs on your tray? Let me go take another look at the serving window."

Perhaps he had gone all the way to a cafeteria window in Siberia to look for those ribs. In any case, once he left, he never returned.

Ruan Sixian came to a delayed realization. Recently, her standing within the company could be summed up in a single phrase: In all the mountains, human tracks vanished; across ten thousand paths, male footprints were extinct.

Male colleagues—single or not—all maintained a delicate distance from her, as if desperate to stamp the words 'We are strictly professional colleagues' across their foreheads.

Even when she shared a harmless link on her Moments, not a single male colleague dared to give it a like!

Fine, Ruan Sixian finally understood. It took just a single sentence from Fu Mingyu to brand her with the label of 'Fu Family Property,' cutting off the source of any potential rivals entirely.

As long as she remained at World Airlines, no other man in the company would dare compete with the boss for his woman.

What an... impeccably straightforward way to pursue someone.

Yet this "Fu family brand" was not without its perks.

For instance, she had been assigned entirely to long-haul flights lately, and checking her roster showed the same schedule for the coming week.

Any pilot flying domestic routes hoped to land long-haul legs—not only because the hourly pay was higher, but because the rest periods were substantially longer.

Even the routine flow control seemed to undergo subtle shifts. Ruan Sixian noticed that her queue times grew shorter and shorter, and she was frequently given priority clearance onto the runway.

Looking at it this way, her branded status practically came with a glowing sign overhead that read: 'Fu Mingyu requests all departments to grant convenience and necessary assistance to the bearer.'

Ruan Sixian felt like she was currently functioning as a walking Fu-family "passport."

She even considered marching up to demand an explanation from Fu Mingyu: Doing this is completely inappropriate! You're abusing your power!

On second thought, however, this couldn't possibly be something Fu Mingyu had personally ordered. The blame lay entirely with how advanced the internet was; a single sentence only needed to pass through a satellite relay to travel across the globe, let alone within the confines of a single corporation.

Whether it was these people keeping their distance out of self-preservation or simply following the wind, it all acted like a pair of invisible hands, locking Ruan Sixian and Fu Mingyu together.

This suffocating atmosphere reminded Ruan Sixian of her high school days, when a certain boy had publicly confessed to her, creating a massive spectacle that the entire school knew about.

Furthermore, that boy happened to be an arrogant school bully who ran wild and unchecked, completely beyond the control of even the teachers. Thus, after his confession, every single boy who had previously tried to curry favor with Ruan Sixian vanished to the furthest corners.

The school was only so big, meaning the two of them inevitably crossed paths constantly. Coupled with one party's deliberate efforts, Ruan Sixian felt like those people were following her everywhere she went.

To make matters worse, the surrounding onlookers constantly egged them on, making it look as though something had already sparked between the two of them.

Back then, Ruan Sixian had been driven half-crazy by the ordeal every single day. Every time she encountered someone's teasing gaze or sarcastic remarks, she wanted to charge right over and punch them.

Yet what about now?

Ruan Sixian held her spoon and stirred the soup in her bowl.

She didn't seem particularly frantic... nor did she harbor any sudden urge to punch anyone.

Was there any real difference between Fu Mingyu's presence at World Airlines and that school bully's presence back in high school?

None at all.

Both were unbridled tyrants ruling over their respective territories.

Ruan Sixian figured it was probably because Fu Mingyu was her boss, after all...

Just as she was pondering this, a food tray was suddenly set down right across from her.

Wondering which brave colleague had the guts to risk life and limb to pluck this flower, Ruan Sixian felt a faint surge of satisfaction, believing her personal charm had finally eclipsed Fu Mingyu's tyranny.

When she looked up, however, the person sitting across from her was none other than Ni Tong.

As Ni Tong sat down, her expression was visibly uneasy. After darting nervous glances around the cafeteria, she finally spoke up. "Um... look... there's something..."

Ruan Sixian set her chopsticks down and looked up. "Spit it out."

Ni Tong didn't want to bring this up, but it had been weighing on her mind for ages, and she couldn't move past it without speaking.

The cafeteria was loud and crowded, however, so after hesitating for a long moment, she asked, "Have you finished eating? Do you want to go outside to talk?"

Ruan Sixian glanced at her twice, then finished her soup in one gulp. "Let's go."

The two walked outside, but the area remained packed, so Ni Tong steered Ruan Sixian toward a stairwell inside the office building.

"It's just... yesterday, my mentor got a complaint from a VIP passenger."

Ruan Sixian: "And?"

Ni Tong's eyes darted everywhere, her voice lacking any real conviction. "Well, you know, if it's just a regular passenger complaint, the company has to investigate it first to decide whether it's valid or invalid. But a complaint from a VIP goes straight through as valid, and then..."

Ruan Sixian checked her watch. "I'll give you one minute. If you don't finish by then, I'm going home."

Panic instantly seized Ni Tong, causing her to spill everything out at machine-gun speed like a startled chatterbox: "The truth is that incident wasn't even that big a deal before when something like that happened at most they just grounded you for a short while but my mentor actually got fired and I feel like this might have been President Fu's decision but it feels a bit too harsh I know my request puts you in a difficult spot but could you please say a word to President Fu not to fire her directly and leave some room for grace, please?"

Ruan Sixian: "?"

It took Ruan Sixian a full half-minute to mentally parse the punctuation in Ni Tong's breathless blur.

She reached out and patted Ni Tong's shoulder. "Hold on, did I do something recently to make you mistake me for some kind of saintly, benevolent fairy who holds no grudges?"

Ni Tong's face instantly collapsed, flushing a mortified crimson. She stammered for a long moment before muttering, "Oh, I get it... No, it's just that because of what happened last time, Brother Yue seems to have broken ties with my mentor too. She's almost thirty years old, if she loses her job now, what is she supposed to do!"

With that, she turned to storm off, but a sharp shout rang out from behind her.

"Ni Tong! What do you think you're doing?"

Jiang Ziyue stood holding a stack of documents—social security paperwork returned by the human resources department.

Standing on the stairs, she gripped the papers so tightly that the edges were wrinkled and crumpled.

This was the first time Ruan Sixian had seen her bare such raw, vicious hostility so openly.

Before she even moved, the stack of documents came flying through the air, slapping straight against Ni Tong's chest.

Ni Tong recoiled in shock, tumbling back into the corner as she stared at Jiang Ziyue in absolute terror.

"No... I was just—"

"Who asked you to beg for mercy on my behalf? Do you have nothing better to do with your life?" After snapping at Ni Tong, she whipped her head around to glare at Ruan Sixian. "And you—save your breath. I know you're hot stuff and I can't afford to cross you. Do you really think I can't survive if I stop being a flight attendant, and that I'd have to lower myself to begging you? In your dreams!"

Ruan Sixian spread her hands. "I didn't even say a word."

She found the whole thing utterly exhausting. She had never even glanced twice at Yue Chen, yet Jiang Ziyue had cast her as the ultimate imaginary rival from day one, leading to this complete and total falling out.

Was all that drama really necessary?

Jiang Ziyue stood higher up on the stairs, casting a condescending, sneering look down at Ruan Sixian.

"Don't get too full of yourself. Do you seriously think you're already the CEO's wife? You're still light-years away."

"Hold on, let's stop right there." Ruan Sixian felt she needed to clear this misconception up once and for all. "Fu Mingyu and I don't have anything going on. I am currently very much single, thank you."

Ruan Sixian was merely stating a factual clarification, but to Jiang Ziyue's ears, it translated straight into infuriating flexing: 'I haven't even agreed to his advances yet, but he insists on protecting me like this, what can I possibly do about it?'

"That's just because you're young and naive, thinking that someone chasing you means you're being held in the palm of his hand. Aren't men all the same? Right now he's treating you like a novel toy, but once the novelty wears off, who's going to remember your name?"

So annoying.

Ruan Sixian wanted to go home. She didn't want to exchange another word with her and needed a killer line to shut the conversation down permanently.

"Got it, got it. These days, let alone getting the raw rice cooked into

cooked rice, even if you pop it all the way into popcorn, whoever wants to run will still run off just the same, right?"

The moment those words dropped, exactly as Ruan Sixian anticipated, Jiang Ziyue's expression twisted into something truly magnificent.

What was Jiang Ziyue even thinking? This was the year 2019; nobody needed a man to survive anymore.

With a pilot's license in hand, where couldn't she fly an airplane? Did she really think Fu Mingyu's household held a monopoly on large aircraft?

Besides, she and Fu Mingyu didn't even have a single stroke of their relationship written down yet.

To preempt another round of verbal sparring, Ruan Sixian made a swift exit.

Though Jiang Ziyue's words hadn't left any deep impression on her, Ruan Sixian still mentally cursed Fu Mingyu twice.

That rotten scumbag—not only did he choke off her romantic prospects, but he also kept dragging her into unnecessary drama.

Right on cue, the scumbag in question sent her a message.

Fu Mingyu had been exceptionally busy these past few days, flying to multiple cities within a short span. Ruan Sixian had barely seen him and hadn't initiated contact with him either.

Instead, he was the one who kept calling her from time to time.

Calling was one thing, but he never had anything important to discuss; he would just bring up random, trivial daily matters, and then hang up after talking for barely a few minutes.

Yet every time she took those brief calls, Ruan Sixian found her heart acting strangely.

Precisely because they never talked about anything substantial, it felt all the more abnormal.

She had strong suspicions that he was slowly boiling her like a frog in warm water.

[Fu Mingyu]: Done with your exams?

Ruan Sixian typed out her reply while walking.

[Ruan Sixian]: Finished ages ago.

Before he could reply, Ruan Sixian sent another text.

[Ruan Sixian]: Did you fire Jiang Ziyue?

[Fu Mingyu]: Who is Jiang Ziyue?

Ruan Sixian: "..."

[Ruan Sixian]: The flight attendant! The one who argued with me that day, do you have the memory of a goldfish?

"I fired her."

A familiar voice sounded nearby. Ruan Sixian's steps came to an abrupt halt, and when she looked up, Fu Mingyu was standing in the evening glow. His figure seemed bathed in a thin layer of golden light, softening his sharp facial features considerably.

The exact moment her eyes locked onto his, Ruan Sixian felt her heart skip a heavy beat.

What are you skipping for? Why are you jumping like that?

He just admitted he fired her, didn't he? He didn't even say it was because of you—calm down, stop jumping!

Fu Mingyu: "Heading home?"

"Mm."

Fu Mingyu extended a hand toward her. "Let's go, I'll drop you off."

His movements were so effortlessly natural that by the time Ruan Sixian registered what was happening, her hand had already lifted, hovering just short of his palm.

Just like she thought—this man was definitely boiling frogs in warm water!

Determined not to let him see through her facade, Ruan Sixian instinctively slapped his hand away with a show of distaste.

"The weather is nice, I want to walk."

With that, she headed toward the main gate. Fu Mingyu silently matched her pace, walking side by side with her while the chauffeur trailed quietly behind in the car.

Ruan Sixian's stride remained slightly mechanical, yet Fu Mingyu continuously adjusted his speed to match hers.

"Fu Mingyu."

"Mm."

Feeling that she needed to clear this matter up so she wouldn't end up making assumptions like a self-absorbed fool, Ruan Sixian asked, "Did you fire her because of me?"

Fu Mingyu looked as though he found her question utterly baffling.

If it weren't for her, why on earth would he waste his precious time and energy managing a random, nameless flight attendant among a workforce of thousands?

"Obviously. Who else would it be for?"

Ruan Sixian froze for a fraction of a second, a strange, warm tingling sensation rippling through her chest.

She understood full well that for someone like Fu Mingyu, dealing with an issue like this took nothing more than a single glance, and subordinates would naturally handle the rest cleanly.

He didn't need to expend any real effort.

Even so, she could still distinctly feel that touch of unreasonable, protective favoritism.

Wait, no—after that incident, she had quietly asked around among a few familiar flight attendants, and discovered that no one in the company dared to whisper about those rumors anymore.

Not even in private.

Those flight attendants had told her that during every department head meeting, management explicitly emphasized that if any more gossip of that sort surfaced, everyone involved would be sent straight to HR to collect their severance packages—World Airlines wasn't short on that kind of money.

Fine, it wasn't just a tiny touch of favoritism.

She lifted her gaze to look at Fu Mingyu. "President Fu, your persona of being strictly professional and separating business from personal matters is starting to crumble."

"Little sister, you seem entirely lacking in self-awareness." Fu Mingyu turned his head to look at her. "You step out of line and run wild on my patience time and time again, yet you still think I keep business and personal matters separate?"

With a metaphorical slap, Ruan Sixian felt herself sinking helplessly into the warm water, completely unable to crawl back out.