Blossom through the Cloud - Chapter 51

Chapter 51

Finished the meal in just ten minutes. During this time, Ruan Suxian did not speak another word to Fu Mingyu.

She reasonably concluded that Fu Mingyu had just been subtly harassing her.

Yet he left her with no good way to retort, knowing that continuing the conversation would only steer it further off course.

Although the restaurant wasn't crowded, a couple was sitting close enough behind them to overhear their conversation.

He was, after all, the future heir of a listed company; flirting in public—was he even acting like a human being?

Fortunately, he wasn't in Shanghai, otherwise people wouldn't even know which trash can to throw him into.

Mercifully, on the way back, Fu Mingyu behaved impeccably without any verbal or physical harassment.

Ruan Suxian attributed this mostly to the fact that he took three phone calls during the five-minute car ride and had no time to say or do anything else.

It wasn't until the car entered the apartment complex that he finally had a free moment, turning his head to glance at Ruan Suxian.

"Where are you flying tomorrow?"

Ruan Suxian stayed silent.

Fu Mingyu asked, "What's wrong?"

"I'm saying, can you exercise some self-restraint?" Ruan Suxian felt her expression and tone were extremely serious, enough to serve as a warning to the man beside her. After all, now that they were boyfriend and girlfriend, they needed some heart-to-heart communication. "Mind the influence when you say things and all that."

"Hmm?" Fu Mingyu parked the car downstairs and turned to look at her. "What did I say?"

Bringing up that topic again made Ruan Suxian's ears turn red.

Luckily, she had let her hair down when she got off the plane, so Fu Mingyu probably couldn't see it.

"At dinner, what were you talking about?"

"The things said during dinner?" Fu Mingyu rested one hand on the steering wheel, a hint of a smile in his voice. "Weren't you the one who brought it up first?"

Ruan Suxian: "......?"

So saying that makes it my fault?

Fine then.

You're a good person, I'm not worthy. Forget me, next one please.

Ruan Suxian unilaterally broke up with Fu Mingyu in her heart, then feigned composure as she unbuckled her seatbelt, preparing to get out of the car.

Just as her hand touched the car door, the person behind her suddenly pulled her back, dragging her back in.

"I have matters to attend to and need to return to the company. Get to sleep early."

Ruan Suxian nodded at her ex-boyfriend. "Oh."

A moment later, Ruan Suxian realized her ex-boyfriend was still holding onto her.

Got it!

Are you still not going to let go?!

She turned around with a frown, abruptly meeting Fu Mingyu's deep gaze. That thin layer of anger instantly vanished completely.

This was perhaps the best illustration of how looking at that face alone could make all anger dissipate.

There were no lights on inside the car, save for the dim streetlights filtering in. Tiny dust motes drifted slowly through the beams of light, and even breathing seemed to become exceptionally slow.

When he leaned in close, Ruan Suxian subconsciously closed her eyes.

Instead of the anticipated kiss, however, she heard a soft chuckle.

Ruan Suxian opened her eyes. Fu Mingyu was very close to her, smiling as he asked, "Did you think I was going to kiss you?"

"......"

Scumbag.

Ruan Suxian felt flustered, bordering on embarrassment turned into anger, and slapped him right across the face.

Yet her hand was caught by him against his own cheek. He then leaned in closer, saying in a low voice, "I did want to kiss you."

As his words fell, he kissed her.

Very gently, very lingeringly, yet without clinging. Half a minute later, he opened his eyes, pressed her hand to stroke his cheek for a moment, and said in a low voice, "Good night."

Ruan Suxian walked to the elevator lobby, pressed the up button, and licked her lips.

She discovered that no matter the intensity of the kiss, Fu Mingyu could always lead her to inadvertently lose herself in it.

Based solely on that half-minute kiss, she decided to forgive Fu Mingyu, unilaterally reconcile with him, and sent him a message reminding him to eat dinner.

After going upstairs, Ruan Suxian took a shower, put on a facial mask, and sat on the sofa to browse her phone.

Feeling that the fact she had a boyfriend was something she should share with her best friends, she opened a WeChat group chat and sent a message.

[Ruan Suxian]: I successfully claimed a boyfriend today.

Half a minute later.

[Si Xiaozhen]: ?

[Bian Xuan]: ?

[Ruan Suxian]: ?

[Ruan Suxian]: What's wrong? Are you very shocked?

[Si Xiaozhen]: Not really, is it President Fu?

[Bian Xuan]: What kind of question is that? Could it possibly be anyone else? Is our Ruan Ruan the fickle type?

No wait, what do these two mean?

She herself felt it was so sudden that it took her a whole evening just to digest the fact that Fu Mingyu was now her boyfriend, alright?

[Si Xiaozhen]: So then, is it him or not?

[Ruan Suxian]: It is.

[Bian Xuan]: Look at that, I knew it.

Ruan Suxian: "......"

[Si Xiaozhen]: Ah! It really is President Fu! Hurry up and tell us in detail how it happened!

[Ruan Suxian]: What is there to tell? It's just how those things go.

[Si Xiaozhen]: I mean, I want to know how a CEO-type character confesses. Was it super cool and flashy?

Confession?

Ruan Suxian thought about it. Aside from tonight's line, "Don't you know what kind of style I like?", Fu Mingyu didn't seem to have offered a single proper confession.

No wonder she always felt something was missing.

Tonight's remark couldn't count.

Without a formal confession, she wasn't even sure what Fu Mingyu's intentions toward her really were.

He never seemed to have said a single word of "I like you" before jumping straight into action.

[Ruan Suxian]: None.

[Si Xiaozhen]: ?

[Bian Xuan]: As expected of a CEO, always pursuing efficiency. That confidence is dialed all the way up.

Truly confident indeed—he didn't even bother confessing when chasing someone.

The next morning, Ruan Suxian was still dwelling on this matter.

She felt she really was a bit stubborn, following someone away without even a single proper confession.

Not only was there no confession, but on the very first day of confirming their relationship, he had praised a female television celebrity's looks right in front of her.

Oh, and not just that, he could smoothly call out another person's name.

A name that even she, someone who frequently scrolled through Weibo, couldn't recall.

Ruan Suxian suddenly realized: did she know far too little about Fu Mingyu?

Other people taking on a boyfriend basically investigated their entire family registry, while she knew almost nothing except her boyfriend's name, age, and occupation.

However, a long-haul flight was scheduled for today, and these thoughts were forcibly pushed to the back of her mind the moment Ruan Suxian stepped into the Shihang Building.

Today's flight was heading to Xishi, and the assigned captain was a middle-aged man. Whether due to genetics or something else, he was in his fifties and his hair was almost entirely white.

Furthermore, he was an extremely stern man who didn't smile easily, barely speaking from the pre-flight briefing all the way up to boarding the aircraft.

Even upon entering the cockpit, he only muttered, "Let's hope nothing goes wrong today," carrying a tiny shred of distrust toward Ruan Suxian.

It wasn't Ruan Suxian's first time encountering such a situation, so she didn't take it to heart.

Yet, as if prophecy fulfilled, today's flight genuinely ran into trouble.

Seven minutes after takeoff, Ruan Suxian, seated in the co-pilot's seat, suddenly heard a loud bang.

She immediately turned her head to look at the captain.

The captain glanced at her as well, pressing his headset to listen carefully for any other noises.

By then, Ruan Suxian had already caught a whiff of a burnt smell.

"Captain, it might be a bird strike."

Meaning, the plane had collided with a bird.

Regardless of how massive an airplane is, it was genuinely quite terrified of birds up in the sky.

Even though a bird's volume was small, the airplane's speed was fast enough—especially during climb—that the kinetic energy generated from colliding with a bird was sufficient to destroy an engine.

Not to mention she could already smell the burnt odor, meaning the situation was far from optimistic.

This stern captain didn't say much at this moment either; he simply stared at the instrument panel and, after a moment of thought, made a decision.

"Contact the tower, let's turn back."

A 0.45-kilogram bird colliding with an aircraft traveling at 800 kilometers per hour could generate 153 kilograms of impact force, let alone the fact that they couldn't predict the bird's actual size now, and their airspeed was even higher than 800 kilometers per hour.

Turning back now was to ensure safety.

Although such occurrences were rare, they remained within a controllable range. At least the aircraft had another engine capable of ensuring flight, so Ruan Suxian didn't panic. She merely felt a touch of emotion that having only occupied the co-pilot seat for over half a year, she had already encountered two abnormal situations.

One diversion, one return flight.

Her resume was certainly getting quite rich.

What she didn't expect, however, was that the real trouble would begin after successfully turning back.

The flight's original schedule was to reach Xishi in three hours, with quite a few passengers making connecting flights.

Although the captain had notified the cabin half an hour after deciding to return, when the aircraft finally docked at Jiangcheng International Airport two and a half hours later, the passengers' emotions remained somewhat difficult to control.

A flight attendant walked into the cockpit, reporting that some passengers were blocking the cabin door demanding an explanation.

The captain sighed, rubbed his shoulders, and stood up saying, "Let's go, let's head out and see."

When necessary, the two of them had to stand outside with the cabin crew to apologize to the passengers.

Yet before Ruan Suxian and the captain even reached the cabin door, they heard the shouting of a middle-aged man.

His voice was exceptionally loud, laced with a hint of crying, completely drowning out everyone else's explanations.

Stepping outside, they saw it was indeed an extremely robust middle-aged man.

Ni Tong, serving as the purser for the flight, bowed and patiently explained to him over and over: "Sir, please calm down. This flight encountered a bird strike, and returning was entirely for safety reasons..."

"I don't believe a single bird could knock out a plane! Such a huge aircraft, who are you trying to fool?!" The man loudly interrupted Ni Tong. "How do you expect me to calm down? My father is currently lying on a sickbed back home, breathing his last breath, waiting for me to see him one last time. You people are going to make me miss my father's final moments..."

At this point, the man's emotions spiraled out of control, and he burst into a wail.

Ni Tong stated once again, "We will arrange a replacement flight as soon as possible."

"Replace, replace, replace! Can my father wait that long?!" The man could barely stand, swaying as he leaned against the cabin door. Seeing the two people in pilot uniforms coming out from behind, he immediately pointed at them and shouted, "I knew an old man and a woman were unreliable! All that talk about birds and sparrows, it's completely your own fault! You're going to make me regret this for the rest of my life! Do you people not have fathers?! You're going to make me miss the last chance to see my dad!"

Hearing these words, Ruan Suxian paused slightly.

She turned her head to look at the captain; his expression wasn't looking too optimistic either.

The woman accompanying the man was his wife. Her emotions weren't as agitated as his, and she felt somewhat embarrassed by his loss of composure, so she unscrewed a thermal water bottle and handed it to him. "Drink some water first. Is screaming here going to accomplish anything?"

The bottle contained boiling hot water. Handed to the man's mouth, his emotions calmed down slightly, and he blew against the spout of the bottle.

His wife turned to ask Ni Tong, "Then when can you arrange a new plane for us?"

Ni Tong exchanged a glance with the captain, frowning as she said, "That isn't certain right now. Based on past experience, if it's fast we might take off this afternoon, or perhaps..."

Before she could finish, upon hearing the words "take off this afternoon," the man glared with bloodshot eyes, hoisted the thermal bottle, and flung the water straight at Ni Tong.

Ni Tong shrieked, falling backward. Ruan Suxian reacted with lightning speed, grabbing Ni Tong by the arm and pulling her sideways. As a result, she prevented the boiling water from splashing onto Ni Tong's face, though Ni Tong's chest and Ruan Suxian's neck unfortunately did not escape unscathed.

The safety officer reacted fast enough to immediately step forward and subdue the man, but whether because another passenger in the panic tried to push forward or shoved the crowd, the water-pouring man tripped and tumbled to the ground, clutching the bottle.

In an instant, pandemonium broke out at the cabin door.

The scalding hot water instantly seared a large patch of skin, burning with intense pain amidst the chaotic shouts echoing in her ears. Ruan Suxian closed her eyes tightly, her mind buzzing.

"Assault! Assault! The airline is assaulting people! I'm going to file a complaint against you!"

Matters had their priorities, and the entire flight crew still needed to resolve the conflict with the unruly passengers.

The airport director and Shihang's operations manager both arrived, spending nearly an hour coordinating the situation.

When Ruan Suxian and Ni Tong emerged, the hot water on their clothes had long since cooled down.

Ni Tong only had water splashed on her chest, which was blocked by clothing, making her situation slightly better.

As for Ruan Suxian, the unfortunate spot was her bare neck, which remained crimson red.

They went to see the aviation doctor to check their condition and apply medication. Coming out, both of them carried an extremely low mood.

Ni Tong burst into tears of grievance.

"Who is even to blame for this? If that plane had a problem and forced a flight, would he want the whole plane to accompany him to the grave? How can there be such unreasonable people? Every single month, every single year, what on earth am I doing this for?"

She raised a hand to wipe away her tears, sobbing as she spoke, "Everything is judged by the passengers' standards. If 100 passengers say it's good, it can't compare to a single passenger saying it's bad and leaving a bad rating. And on top of that, we get yelled at, endure abuse, and develop chronic occupational illnesses. Whenever we rest, we run to the hospital for treatment. Who else gets a dense medical record book at such a young age like us? All the extra money we earn just gets handed over to the hospital."

Originally, during the mediation session, Ruan Suxian had been pointed at and scolded for quite a while. Now, with Ni Tong's complaints filling her ears, her mood dragged down even further.

Every time she sat in the cockpit, ahead lay the boundless sky, and behind lay the safety of hundreds of lives. The responsibility and pressure could usually be replaced by passion.

Yet when faced with such incidents where prejudice, distrust, and unreasonableness followed one after another, anyone would experience a surging tide of negative emotions.

However, Ruan Suxian was used to self-regulating her emotions, so right now she still had to comfort Ni Tong.

"Forget it, let them complain if they want. After verification, nothing will happen. You've already done a great job."

Walking to the elevator lobby, Ni Tong finally stopped crying, but the moment her phone rang and she saw it was a call from her mother, she immediately answered it with a tearful voice.

"Mom, I was almost driven crazy with anger today..."

All the way until the elevator ascended to the 14th floor, Ruan Suxian continued listening to Ni Tong pour her grievances out to her mother.

Ruan Suxian rubbed her nose, fished out her phone, and checked it—there was not a single movement.

Never mind calls from family.

What about her boyfriend? Where was her boyfriend right now?! Where was that mysterious boyfriend of hers whom she knew nothing about?

The elevator doors slowly opened, and the moment Ruan Suxian raised her eyes, she saw that mysterious boyfriend of hers—about whom she knew nothing—striding rapidly toward her.

Oh, he was still alive.

The instant he saw her, Fu Mingyu froze for a fraction of a second, then quickened his pace.

Ruan Suxian took a step out of the elevator.

Fu Mingyu stopped right in front of her, glanced at her neck without saying a word, grabbed her hand, and turned back around to leave, completely ignoring Ni Tong standing beside them and treating her entirely like air.

Ruan Suxian was pulled by him all the way into his office. Several assistants sat outside, all maintaining a strictly detached expression, pretending they hadn't seen a thing.

The automatic doors slowly slid shut right after Ruan Suxian stepped inside.

Fu Mingyu led her to sit on the sofa, stared intently at her neck for a moment, and then reached out to untie the buttons at her chest.

"?"

Ruan Suxian covered her neck in a split second.

"What are you doing?"

"Let me look." Fu Mingyu pulled her hand away, unbuttoned two buttons, parted her collar, and gently slid his fingertips across Ruan Suxian's skin. "Does it still hurt?"

Wasn't that a redundant question?

Ruan Suxian didn't answer.

Her hands, resting beside her thighs, curled up involuntarily.

Compared to the pain on her neck, she felt far more embarrassed right now.

With her collar pulled open, the strap of her black underwear was now exposed.

"What did the aviation doctor say?" Fu Mingyu looked for a moment, then methodically buttoned her shirt back up.

"It's fine, not serious."

Ruan Suxian looked up at him. "Um... I'm going to be reported."

"Hmm," Fu Mingyu said. "I know. It's not your fault, the complaint won't hold."

"Oh," Ruan Suxian asked. "Then what if he's a VIP passenger?"

VIP complaints went straight through with direct consequences.

"If he's a VIP, I can abandon impartiality for personal ties too," Fu Mingyu sat down beside her. "Besides, it's not the first time."

Perhaps because of this explicit phrase of "partiality," Ruan Suxian's emotions—which she had already managed to self-regulate—were coaxed right back out again.

That tiny bit of grievance from knowing it wasn't her fault yet still being blamed was suddenly magnified, slowly making her feel exceptionally wronged.

She lowered her head, turned her neck slightly, and uttered a low "Hmm."

"Turns out there are perks to being the boss's girlfriend."

"You're just realizing that now?"

Ruan Suxian looked up into his eyes, where her own reflection was mirrored in those pitch-black whirlpools.

The matter she had pondered last night began slowly circling in her mind: Fu Mingyu still owed her a confession.

Yet asking about it now truly felt a bit redundant.

"Fu Mingyu, I want to tell you something."

"Hmm?"

"If one day you don't like me anymore, give me a heads-up. Say it to my face, make a phone call, or send a text message—any of those is fine."

"......"

"I won't pester you, nor will I ask you for a breakup fee."

"......"

"But the double annual salary you promised me cannot be rescinded. It's clearly signed into the contract."

"......"

Ruan Suxian tugged at his tie. "Are you going to answer me or not? Deal?"

Fu Mingyu felt a minor headache coming on.

Usually, Ruan Suxian didn't look like the kind of woman who would endlessly pester someone with "Do you really love me?", but once she started asking questions like this, they were absolute death-traps.

How was one supposed to answer this kind of question?

Answer "Fine"—death.

Answer "Not fine"—death with no whole corpse left.

"Why are you cursing us to break up?"

Ruan Suxian tugged and shook his tie. "Just saying it casually."

Fu Mingyu paid no further attention to what she said, his focus entirely concentrated on the hand gripping his tie.

Did she genuinely not know, or was she playing dumb? Tugging and dangling a man's tie like that was an intensely seductive thing to do.

He leaned in closer, pinning Ruan Suxian's hand that held his tie so she couldn't move it around anymore.

"If you go seeking a new romance without giving me a heads-up first, I will—"

Ruan Suxian paused, staring at Fu Mingyu, who had closed the distance until he was extremely close to her.

Hold on, I'm talking to you about serious matters here; why are you leaning in so close?

"You will what?"

Fu Mingyu asked.

"I will—"

Send floral wreaths along a ten-mile street for you, and place your mourning hall right in the very center.

"Oh, just let it go, I suppose."

She finished speaking with a smiling blink of her eyes.