Blossom through the Cloud - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

However, Fu Mingyu had been wrestling with a headache lately.

Three years ago, when major airlines signed ACJ31 procurement contracts with Commercial Aircraft Corporation, the manufacturer had already begun planning to train pilots for the corresponding aircraft model, delivering the pilots right alongside the delivery of the planes. To put it more colloquially, when you bought an airplane, they bundled up a trained driver and sold them to you as a package.

Because the ACJ30 was Commercial Aircraft Corporation's first independently developed passenger plane, it garnered immense attention before it even debuted, while also bearing colossal pressure. Consequently, the training for its pilots was exceptionally rigorous.

During the initial screening alone, this batch of pilot candidates saw over ten thousand people eliminated, followed by wave after wave of brutal survival-of-the-fittest trials at the flight academy.

Yet even so, the capabilities of the successfully graduating pilots still varied greatly.

Therefore, as early as two months ago, major airlines had already rolled up their sleeves and launched a fierce scramble for pilots. Every single company wanted the absolute best candidates, as they represented one of the most robust guarantees for aviation safety.

By this stage of the game, the cream of the crop had already been thoroughly divvied up.

However, much like how every annual college entrance examination produced a top scorer, each cohort at the flight academy featured one ultimate top student.

At this very moment, only that single top student remained unclaimed, her final destination unknown.

"President Fu, the negotiations fell through." The new secretary, Bo Yang, walked into Fu Mingyu's office, his expression laced with awkwardness. "That top student's preference is still Beijing Airlines."

"Did she give a reason?" Fu Mingyu asked.

The flight records of that particular top student from this cohort were nothing short of breathtaking. Whether in theoretical knowledge or hands-on operational ability, she crushed her peers in every single exam, stepping over a crowd of heaven's favored children to firmly secure the number one spot. Even the instructors repeatedly praised that they rarely encountered such a formidable trainee, which was precisely why she had sparked such fierce competition among all the companies.

"None," Bo Yang replied. "We already offered the absolute best terms within our acceptable limits, and they are definitely not inferior to Beijing Airlines. But she still chose Beijing Airlines. It seems to be a matter of personal preference."

Fu Mingyu raised a hand, pressing two fingers against his forehead, and let out a soft click of his tongue.

"How about this," Fu Mingyu said. "Vice President Hu is also on a business trip over there. Tomorrow, you and Vice President Hu go make a personal visit."

Bo Yang straightened his collar and immediately went out to book the tickets.

Early the next morning, a call came through from the flight academy.

Fu Mingyu had just arrived at the company and was striding down the corridor when the executive secretary brought over a cup of coffee, gently placing it on his desk.

"President Fu, it looks like it's still a no-go." Bo Yang on the other end of the line had completely run out of steam. "She said Beijing Airlines' airplane meals taste better. What kind of reason is that? Our first-class head chef is Michelin-starred!"

Hearing this, it was clear she was just messing with them.

Fu Mingyu paused in front of the floor-to-ceiling window and asked, "Where are you right now?"

"Right outside their academic affairs office. Vice President Hu is still inside."

"Put him on the phone. I'll have a chat with him."

Bo Yang was stunned for a moment, then acknowledged the order and complied.

Fu Mingyu took a sip of coffee, and the line changed hands, though the person on the other end remained silent for a long time.

"Hello."

Fu Mingyu spoke first. "I am Fu Mingyu, Operations Director of Hengshi Airlines."

The other end remained quiet for a brief moment before a breezy "Hello, President Fu" drifted through.

Fu Mingyu paused.

A woman?

Suppressing his momentary surprise, Fu Mingyu turned around and sat down. "May I ask, are there any of Hengshi's conditions that you are unsatisfied with?"

The person on the other side spoke lazily, "There's nothing I'm unsatisfied with. It's just that Beijing Airlines' food tastes better."

Fu Mingyu considered himself someone who appreciated talent, and he could maintain a good temper even in the face of such a coy and demanding excuse. "That's simple. If you have the need, our head chef can prepare meals exclusively for you before every flight."

"That sounds like so much trouble."

"It's no trouble at all. Do you have any other thoughts?"

On the other end of the line, conditions were listed out one by one.

It took a full twenty minutes.

They weren't particularly nitpicky either; Fu Mingyu found them entirely acceptable.

While on the call, Fu Mingyu opened the detailed pilot profile folder on his computer, sorted them by flight record score, found the highest-scoring one, and saw a photograph attached to the profile under the appearance section.

Pilots had strict requirements regarding physique, so the attached photo was a full-body shot.

The person in the photo was wearing trainee uniform, with a slender and upright posture, standing beneath an aircraft wing in high spirits, exuding an exceptional aura.

Was she bare-faced?

Fu Mingyu zoomed in on the photo, looking at a face unadorned by makeup.

His gaze lingered and drifted for a moment, vaguely sensing a trace of familiarity.

Yet this feeling flashed by and was quickly dismissed by his own mind.

If he had ever laid eyes on this woman, he certainly would have remembered her vividly.

"President Fu, are you still listening? If you think this is too outrageous, let's just drop it. I guess I don't have a fate with Hengshi."

"What?" Fu Mingyu lightly clicked his mouse and closed the photo. "The signal was poor just now, didn't catch that."

The person on the other end seemed to chuckle softly. "I said, I want double the annual salary."

Fu Mingyu blurted out, "Deal."

This time, it was the person on the other end of the line who froze.

She hadn't expected him to be so straightforward.

"Are there any other conditions?"

"N-no, none."

"Then, happy cooperation?"

The person on the other side exhaled, seemingly regaining her wits, and said, "President Fu, do you really want me to come that badly?"

Fu Mingyu didn't know why she asked that; he only found his own patience today to be unusually, remarkably good.

Perhaps it was because he couldn't stand the sight of that smug, preening little President Yan from Beijing Airlines, who was always at odds with him.

Yet an image of that graceful figure beneath the aircraft flashed through his mind once more.

"Mm, very much looking forward to it."

"Then let me think about it some more."?

It almost sounded like she was still somewhat reluctant.

After the call ended, Fu Mingyu maintained his posture of holding the phone for a moment, lost in thought.

Could it be that Hengshi had a bad reputation in the pilot circle?

Logically speaking, that was impossible; Hengshi was undeniably an industry leader when it came to employee welfare and benefits.

Fu Mingyu put down his phone and pondered for a while, wondering where something could have gone wrong.

During the gap of waiting, he opened the resume once more.

Just as his mouse dragged over that photograph, his ringtone sounded again.

It was another call from Bo Yang.

Fu Mingyu paused for a brief moment, picked up the phone, and heard Bo Yang's voice on the other end.

"Something else?"

Bo Yang had scurried back out to the hallway, lowering his voice as he said, "President Fu, have you thought this through? Double the annual salary! Even though salaries are confidential, it won't be good if the other pilots somehow find out."

"I know."

"Then..."

"Keep an eye on the contract," Fu Mingyu instructed. "Route the other salary portion through my personal account."

"However..."

"Don't dawdle." Fu Mingyu didn't want to drag out the conversation with him. "It's just an annual salary; buying a girlfriend a bag for a year costs more than that amount. Go draft a dual contract later. Have the second part count as a private incentive contract from me, bypassing the finance department. The taxes will go through my accounts, too."

"She said she still needs to think about it, though."

"It's fine. Let her think."

Fu Mingyu loosened a button on his suit jacket and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

By four o'clock in the afternoon, seven hours had passed since that phone call ended.

Fu Mingyu had never felt that seven hours could stretch out to be so agonizingly long.

He sat in the conference room while a group of people talked over each other regarding the planning for the ACJ31's maiden flight, giving him a throbbing headache.

During the meeting, he glanced at Bo Yang twice and pointed at his phone, signaling to ask whether a call had come through from the flight academy yet. Both times, Bo Yang shook his head.

By now, the meeting had reached its final stages. The members of the planning department below all looked at Fu Mingyu, waiting for him to issue instructions.

Three proposal documents were laid out before Fu Mingyu, spread open one by one, but his gaze didn't land on them at all.

Silence descended upon the entire conference room for three full seconds, with everyone watching Fu Mingyu in trepidation.

His expression looked as though he had carved the words "You lot are unworthy of the ACJ31 aircraft I spent a fortune to buy" right across his face.

Just when everyone assumed he hadn't been listening at all, he finally spoke. "Team P1: Forty minutes of media coverage with zero focus, wasting so much time—just how much airport flow control will this disrupt? Team P2: Dull publicity, blunt expressions, blurred focus, and a complete lack of rationality in the choice of media channels. Team P3: Not a single shred of effective promotional concept. Multiply resources, cross-over creativity, and powerful execution—if you can't deliver these three things, don't bother submitting a proposal."

The conference room fell into absolute pin-drop silence.

"Meeting adjourned."

Fu Mingyu pushed aside the proposals in front of him, stood up, and said, "Resubmit the proposals next week."

Everyone held their breath as they watched Fu Mingyu leave. The three team leads returned to their seats with dark expressions to pack up their belongings.

Someone softly asked Bo Yang, "Is President Fu in a bad mood today?"

Bo Yang smiled helplessly and didn't speak, quickly taking two steps to chase after him.

At that moment, a phone ringtone chimed. Bo Yang paused to answer it, his expression gradually relaxing.

The person ahead of him glanced back, and Bo Yang flashed him an "OK" hand sign.

Fu Mingyu tilted his head to look at the blue sky outside the glass window, loosening a button on his suit jacket.

The contract was drafted very quickly and was finalized within a few days. Bo Yang specifically brought it over for Fu Mingyu to review.

Finding no issues with it, Fu Mingyu gave his approval, and Bo Yang sent it off to the flight academy.

This tough bone had finally been gnawed through. Bo Yang rubbed his shoulders and muttered, "Women and petty people are hard to deal with; the ancients truly never deceived me."

Just then, a call came through from President Yan of Beijing Airlines.

"Fu Mingyu, what underhanded tricks did you pull to snatch my person away?"

"Your person?" Fu Mingyu stood up, letting out a relaxed laugh. "Did she sign a contract yet for her to be your person?"

As the industry giants, the two companies competed fiercely while also complementing each other, and they each had a clear understanding of one another.

Yan Ang had exerted every ounce of effort into this matter, sending people to talk about career planning and dangling the condition of fast-tracking her to captain status—something pilots cared about most—as bait.

Precisely because his approach was too upright, he never anticipated that Fu Mingyu would simply smash the problem with money.

Yan Ang let out a cold laugh of anger. "Fine, I won't argue with you about this. Since she's yours now, just tell me—what did you rely on to poach her?"

Fu Mingyu replied, "My personal charm."

Yan Ang didn't even bother to roll his eyes and directly hung up the phone.

Fu Mingyu put down his phone, walked over to the window, and smoothed his brow. Even the endless drizzling rain outside suddenly looked pleasing to the eye.

Remembering something, he turned back and asked, "When is the ACJ31 arriving?"

Bo Yang replied, "Air traffic control has already arranged it. The first plane will take off at four o'clock on Saturday morning. Without any hitlocks, it will land at Jiangcheng International Airport precisely at six-fourteen."

Fu Mingyu nodded and asked again, "What about her?"

Bo Yang was stunned for a moment before realizing who "she" referred to.

"The flight academy said they don't want to waste any opportunities for observer jump-seat training, so she will be flying in with the crew. However, since the human resources and logistics departments don't work on Saturdays, she will complete her formal onboarding process on Monday."

Fu Mingyu turned around, sat back down, and opened a document in front of him before suddenly speaking again, "What time is the flight to Huacheng this Saturday?"

Bo Yang couldn't recall that detail off the top of his head. He pulled out his phone, took a look, and said, "Seven o'clock in the morning."

Fu Mingyu replied calmly, "Mm."

On Saturday, just as dawn broke, the eastern horizon took on a pale, fish-belly white hue.

The weather wasn't particularly good today; low-rolling cloud waves surged, obscuring the light of the morning star.

Few flights took off or landed at this hour, making it the quietest time of the day at the airport.

The departure hall wasn't short on people, but it was eerily quiet. Occasionally, there came the soft sound of pages turning. Adults were either looking at their phones or dozing off, while a few young children lay resting and sleeping in their parents' arms.

Fu Mingyu, accompanied by Bo Yang and two assistants, strode forward, cutting across the long corridor and heading straight for the boarding gate.

A long queue had already formed ahead, but the first-class lane remained clear, waiting for the very last first-class passenger to board.

Yet at this moment, Fu Mingyu raised his hand to check his wristwatch, his footsteps halting as he turned his head to look out the window.

The floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the terminal offered an unobstructed panoramic view of the apron, making even the ground indicator lights clearly visible.

Right at that moment, an airplane broke through the clouds at the edge of the sky. Its wings split the air as it descended with majestic force, touching down smoothly at the center of the runway with an eight-degree angle of inclination, racing forward like a bolt of lightning.

Even though the terminal insulated the roaring sounds, aviation professionals seemed to possess an inherent sixth sense. A group of flight attendants hauling flight cases instinctively halted their hurried steps to watch, and several passengers seated by the windows turned their heads in curiosity to follow their gaze.

They saw an aircraft on the runway sporting a pristine white base color, with a stylized golden phoenix painted across the fuselage. Its wings extended seamlessly along the aircraft's own wings, and the phoenix's tail swept high up at the rear, exuding an arrogant and imposing aura.

Fu Mingyu glanced at his wristwatch once more.

Six-fourteen, not a fraction off.

A shallow smile surfaced in his eyes as he stood right there until the moment the aircraft came to a complete halt on the apron.

Bo Yang checked the time and asked, "President Fu?"

Fu Mingyu tilted his head to look at him, raising an eyebrow.

Bo Yang cleared his throat. "Right, we still have time."

As they spoke, a small child in the departure hall shouted, "Daddy! What kind of plane is that? It's so pretty!"

The child's father turned out to be an aviation connoisseur. He picked the child up and carried him toward the window. "That's our country's very own airplane. See that golden phoenix? From now on, whenever you see one with that emblem, it's an ACJ31. It's amazing—it can land automatically even with clouds this low, and furthermore..."

The father's lengthy discourse was interrupted once again by a shout from the child. " Wow! The pilot is coming down!"

Just as Fu Mingyu's line of sight verified, a crew vehicle had already set up the boarding stairs, and the captain dispatched by Hengshi was the very first to walk out.

The view from the window was even broader, and Fu Mingyu slowly walked closer.

Bo Yang and the two assistants behind him exchanged glances, not daring to say much, and followed along.

After all, who wouldn't want to get a closer look at the plane their own company had spent a fortune on?

Fu Mingyu watched the aircraft cabin door. The captain had already descended a few steps, closely followed by the co-pilot. Fu Mingyu was familiar with both of them; they were the conversion crew members he had personally vetted and sent off for training.

And when the third person stepped out, Fu Mingyu narrowed his eyes.

The wind on the apron was fierce, howling past and whipping the hair on both sides of her face to flutter before her eyes, while also billowing her white uniform shirt outward.

She didn't rush down the stairs. Instead, she removed her pilot's cap, tucked it under her arm, stood right where she was, and tilted her head to scan her surroundings. Her gaze finally locked onto the large characters that read: "Jiangcheng International Airport."

"Whoa! Is that an older sister?" The child cried out again. "Is she a flight attendant? Why is she wearing different clothes?"

The child's father chuckled and hoisted him onto his shoulders to give him a broader view. "Haha, that's a pilot, too—a female pilot. Daddy is seeing a female pilot for the first time as well."

The child's voice caught the attention of several nearby passengers, and gradually, others walked over to the window to gaze at the uniquely styled aircraft.

Unconsciously, Fu Mingyu took another step forward, leaving less than thirty centimeters of distance between himself and the glass.

He watched her intently as she walked toward the terminal, her figure growing clearer by the second.

Her black trousers were pressed tight against her legs by the wind, every step she took clean and resolute.

The captain walking beside her seemed to be saying something to her. She tilted her head slightly upward, every trace of her smile radiating a vibrant, soaring energy that filled the space around her, eclipsing the presence of the co-pilot entirely.

Suddenly, she raised her head toward the terminal, looking straight in his direction.

Even though he knew she was merely observing the terminal building as a whole, the illusion of that intersecting line of sight caused Fu Mingyu's breath to tighten for a brief second.

"President Fu? The PA system is already calling for boarding."

Bo Yang's voice suddenly broke the silence beside him.

Fu Mingyu nodded, turned around, and walked toward the boarding gate.

After a few steps, he paused once more, looking back at the apron, only to see a crew transport vehicle slowly driving away into the distance.