Blossom through the Cloud - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The allocation of the two ACJ31 aircraft to the Jiangcheng base instantly sparked heated discussions throughout Hengshi Airlines. Although everyone had previously seen pictures in promotional videos, actually witnessing the aircraft's exterior in person still left them profoundly awestruck.

With one week remaining until the maiden flight of the ACJ31, quite a few domestic flight attendants began staring intently at the intranet backend, checking to see who the lucky ones were. After all, a maiden flight carried extraordinary significance; it would undoubtedly feature media interviews and reports, and it also signaled that superiors placed high importance on the assignment, entrusting it only to the most reassuring personnel.

However, Jiang Ziyuel was the most unflappable among all the cabin supervisors. A few days ago, when she went to Wang Lekang's office to collect her flight schedule, she happened to catch sight of her own name in the folder beside his hand. Knowing that her spot was secure, she simply prepared to happily go on a vacation to Spain with Captain Yue.

This was also a brief vacation for her following her transition from international to domestic flights.

Ni Tong still couldn't quite wrap her head around this. International flights were simply wonderful—long holidays, high pay, and the chance to travel all over the globe, unlike her own monotonous routine of flying four domestic legs per shift, which felt like she hadn't seen much of the world at all.

Yet since Jiang Ziyuel was currently passionately in love with Captain Yue and even getting engaged, wanting to return to family life was perfectly normal.

With a fiancé like that, she might just resign in a few years to become a full-time housewife.

Thinking about it, Ni Tong felt a tinge of envy. She also wanted to find a captain boyfriend, but looking around their massive airline, there surprisingly wasn't a single one who caught her eye.

Speaking of captains, Ni Tong suddenly sent a message to Jiang Ziyuel.

"Master, did you know that the pilot flying the ACJ31 in today is a woman?"

Given that Ni Tong had already heard about it, how could Jiang Ziyuel possibly not know?

"I know. What about it?"

Seeing her master remain so unconcerned, Ni Tong instantly felt like she was making a fuss over nothing, marveling at how composed other people could be.

"Ah, nothing much, just mentioning it. Have a pleasant trip!"

Noticing Jiang Ziyuel's lack of conversational drive, Ni Tong had no choice but to drop the matter and head back inside to drink with her friends.

The next early morning, before the sun had even risen, a lingering, gentle drizzle awakened the city.

The southern humid season was always like this; the air remained thick with unyielding mist, and freshly washed clothes refused to dry.

Fortunately, Ruan Sixian had just returned to Jiangcheng, and her clothes hadn't yet been put away into the closet. The close-fitting garments suited for this weather were still neatly packed inside her suitcase, ready to be taken out and ironed before wearing.

Moreover, the new apartment she had rented was a high-end complex completed just last year, equipped with excellent damp-proofing—not a single trace of moisture lingered on the walls. Furthermore, because of its proximity to the airport, quite a few airline executives and captains kept temporary residences here. The captain who had flown the plane back with her the other day lived right in this very complex.

Since it was still chilly, Ruan Sixian pulled out a hoodie and slipped it over her head. When her head popped out the top, her hair stood straight up in every direction.

Catching sight of herself in this state, Ruan Sixian couldn't help rolling her eyes at the mirror.

Come to think of it, she had truly been ruthless with herself.

Back when she first entered the flight academy, the daily physical training was so sadistic that even several grown men couldn't stomach it.

In particular, during the fixed-rolling machine training, where trainees were strapped into an iron frame and spun in circles with escalating acceleration, Ruan Sixian had initially vomited until the world went dark. Stumbling back to the dormitory, she not only had to rinse her mouth but also clean off the mess that had landed in her own hair.

Later on, she realized that styling her hair every day took up considerably more time than her male peers, so she resolutely marched to a hair salon.

She had nurtured this thick, smooth long hair for over a decade. Under her careful maintenance, even with perms, it remained free of tangles and split ends, causing the hairstylist to stroke the locks repeatedly and ask with visible reluctance, "Young lady, are you really going to cut it?"

Ruan Sixian nodded and said cut.

Then, hearing the crisp "snip" of the scissors, Ruan Sixian closed her eyes and drew in a sharp breath, her brows twitching slightly.

With a few cuts, strands of long hair fell to the floor. The weight on her head grew lighter and lighter, and Ruan Sixian squeezed her eyes shut even tighter.

When she finally opened her eyes and caught sight of the ear-length hair in the mirror, she nearly passed out on the spot.

Let's just pretend she was now a woman of broader horizons.

Gazing at her hair, which had since grown out to shoulder length, Ruan Sixian finished reminiscing about the past and got ready to head out when her phone suddenly chimed twice.

She picked it up out of habit and saw a WeChat message from Bo Yang.

[Bo Yang]: Are you reporting for your onboarding this morning?

[Bo Yang]: The airport highway is exceptionally congested this morning. You'd better leave a bit early, or take a detour.

The two had added each other on WeChat out of polite courtesy when signing contracts at the flight academy. Ruan Sixian had assumed this guy probably shared his boss's temperament and would spend his entire life quietly resting dead in her contact list, never expecting him to be quite nice enough to proactively show concern.

Just as Ruan Sixian was about to type a reply, another message came through.

[Bo Yang]: Where are you living? Do you want me to pick you up on the way?

Ruan Sixian pondered for a moment and asked: Are you by yourself?

[Bo Yang]: I'm in President Fu's car, right near the Minchen Apartments area.

[Ruan Sixian]: Then we aren't on the same route.

Not on the same route meant not on the same route, but that little word "then" carried a subtle nuance. Bo Yang automatically interpreted Ruan Sixian's meaning as her route from Minchen Apartments to Hengshi Airlines not aligning with theirs.

"She's not on the route near Minchen Apartments," Bo Yang turned to tell Fu Mingyu in the backseat.

Fu Mingyu nodded without making a comment.

The car slowly came to a halt at the exit of the residential complex. As the electronic security gate arm lifted open, Fu Mingyu raised his gaze to look outside the car window, his eyes suddenly freezing in place.

Noticing Fu Mingyu fixating on something through the rearview mirror, Bo Yang curiously followed his gaze.

Standing upright by the flowerbed by the roadside, holding an umbrella and seemingly waiting for a car, was none other than Ruan Sixian.

Dead silence descended inside the car.

Wasn't she not on the same route?

Had she somehow failed to recognize those brightly lit characters reading "Minchen Apartments"?

Bo Yang gave a dry cough, opened an iPad to pull up a meeting minutes document, handed it to Fu Mingyu, and pretended nothing had happened.

"President Fu, these are yesterday's meeting minutes."

Fu Mingyu took the iPad, flipped through two pages, and suddenly remarked, "Did you offend someone when you went to the flight academy?"

Bo Yang immediately reviewed his words and actions from back then. He considered himself always suave, well-spoken, never one to cross swords with others, and reasonably handsome to boot—how could he possibly have offended anyone?

Before he could answer, Fu Mingyu continued, "Pay more attention to your conduct in the future. Don't make a fool of me."

Bo Yang: "..."

Fine, if the boss said it was his problem, then it undoubtedly was his problem.

"Understood. I'll be more mindful from now on."

Ruan Sixian paid no attention whatsoever to the Cayenne that slowly pulled away. Seeing that the rain had stopped, she put away her umbrella and tucked it into her bag. When she looked up again, a taxi was pulling over to the curb.

Ruan Sixian checked the license plate, confirming it was the one she had booked.

Just as she was about to step toward it, a woman suddenly bolted out, lunging past Ruan Sixian to yank open the front passenger door.

Her abrupt motion startled Ruan Sixian into taking a step back.

"Driver, take me to Hengshi Airlines."

Ruan Sixian was dumbfounded by this sequence of events. Recovering her wits, she immediately grabbed the door handle just as it was about to slam shut. "Excuse me, I called this car."

The woman was frantically fumbling to buckle her seatbelt with her head down, completely ignoring Ruan Sixian. "Can you let me go first? I'm in a rush—I'm going to be late for a meeting!"

"No."

With one hand gripping the door and the other bracing the roof of the car, Ruan Sixian said, "Please get out."

Ni Tong clutched her seatbelt, her expression anxious and her tone impatient. She tried to yank the car door free, only to discover that the strength of the woman standing before her was unexpectedly formidable; she couldn't budge it at all.

Driven to desperation, Ni Tong pressed her palms together in a pleading gesture. "Could you please wait for a little bit longer? Can you do me a favor? I really have a very important meeting to attend."

A flight had experienced a safety incident in the early hours of this morning, prompting Hengshi to immediately issue a notice organizing a safety seminar requiring all cabin department personnel not on active flight rotation to attend in full.

"No." Blocking the doorway, Ruan Sixian spoke in an unwelcoming tone. "I have a very important matter to attend to as well."

Ruan Sixian wasn't actually in a rush; had this woman spoken to her politely from the start, she certainly would have yielded.

But cutting in line straight away meant she wouldn't step aside for anything in the world.

"I'm begging you, sister, really. Just help me out this once. Consider it doing a good deed, okay?"

Seeing that Ruan Sixian showed no signs of relenting, Ni Tong softened her voice, tugging at her sleeve to unleash a green-tea style attack: "Sister, I'm begging you, won't you help me out? I was out drinking with some friends last night and overslept this morning."

Her sweet-talking persona failed to sway Ruan Sixian, but it did elicit a chuckle from the driver. "Miss, this is an app-booked ride; I can't just take you instead, or I'll violate the platform rules."

Ni Tong: "..."

Simultaneously, Ruan Sixian flashed her phone screen with a smug smile, looking as helpless as she could.

Ni Tong quickly glanced back down the street, spotting no other taxis in sight, yet she had no choice but to unbuckle her seatbelt.

The moment she surrendered her spot, Ruan Sixian slid right into the back seat and slammed the door shut.

At that exact split second, Ni Tong heard the automated voice broadcast from the driver's phone app: "Passenger with the last four digits 6233 has boarded, traveling from Minchen Apartments to Hengshi Airlines."

"What the hell!" Ni Tong watched the car speed away, swallowing a mouthful of exhaust fumes, and stamped her feet in rage. "What kind of person is that?!"

Fortunately, another taxi arrived shortly after. Ni Tong flagged it down, urging the driver to step on the gas the entire way, and managed to arrive just before the designated deadline.

Yet what she hadn't anticipated was running into that exact same woman again right at the elevator lobby of the Hengshi Airlines headquarters building.

Ruan Sixian was equally surprised.

She glanced sideways at the woman standing beside her waiting for the elevator—truly a case of enemies meeting on a narrow road.

Looks like they would be colleagues from now on, huh?

"What a coincidence. You made it after all."

Ni Tong hadn't expected the other person to speak up first without waiting for her.

It was quite rich, really—clearly heading to Hengshi herself, yet refusing to share a ride even under such urgent circumstances, purposely leaving her choking on exhaust fumes.

A wave of irritation washed over Ni Tong, prompting a sarcastic retort: "Oh, what a coincidence. You're coming to Hengshi too?"

Ruan Sixian smiled and nodded. "Mm, I'm reporting to the personnel department."

Ni Tong arched a brow, scanning Ruan Sixian from head to toe with undisguised scrutiny.

Given that domineering, take-no-prisoners attitude when boarding the car earlier, anyone ignorant of the facts might have mistaken her for the company president's wife.

The elevator doors slid open. Ni Tong made to step inside, but Ruan Sixian beat her to the punch once again.

Ni Tong was completely out of temper, letting out a dry, exasperated laugh right at the threshold.

"Just graduated?"

Ruan Sixian nodded once more.

Ni Tong let out a light laugh and stepped inside. "Figures."

Only an inexperienced greenhorn wet behind the ears would act like this.

The two stood at opposite ends of the elevator car—one pressing the 12th floor for personnel, the other pressing the 14th floor for the conference hall.

Ruan Sixian kept her eyes lowered on her phone, while Ni Tong stood with crossed arms, watching her.

"Completed your line-training yet?"

"Not yet."

Ni Tong was asking a question she already knew the answer to.

Newly arrived flight attendants had to undergo a period of observer line-training, during which the senior attendant acted as their mentor. Regardless of how future job titles shifted, a hierarchical senior-junior dynamic remained firmly established.

Not to mention, she herself was a cabin supervisor.

"Even though things were a bit unpleasant back at the apartment complex, I happen to be a magnanimous person, so there are some things I feel compelled to point out to you." Seeing that Ruan Sixian ignored her, Ni Tong stepped closer to stand face-to-face with her. "Our industry places great emphasis on seniority. Since you're about to enter the line-training phase, keep your eyes peeled, learn to read the room, and understand the hierarchy of respect. Seniors are seniors; don't try to scramble for the spotlight everywhere you go, making things unnecessarily unpleasant for your mentor."

She pointed a finger toward the elevator doors. "Elevators are one thing, but once you're up in the air, you shouldn't try to rush to be first either. How do you expect your mentor to view you? How do you expect the cabin supervisor to view you?"

Ruan Sixian raised her gaze, locking eyes with Ni Tong for a brief moment.

This only fueled Ni Tong's annoyance.

What was with that look?

Before Ni Tong could flare up, however, Ruan Sixian let out a sudden chuckle.

It took Ni Tong a few moments to process it.

That laugh carried an unmistakable vibe of dimensional intellectual superiority, as if looking down at a misbehaving child.

Ni Tong sighed inwardly, thinking that unless she spelled it out bluntly, this person simply wouldn't get the message.

"We'll be working together constantly from now on. Let's make a proper introduction."

Extending a hand, Ni Tong spoke solemnly: "Cabin Supervisor of the Fourth Cabin Department, Ni Tong."

Ruan Sixian didn't move at first. Her gaze swept from Ni Tong's face down to her hand, clean and detached, devoid of any emotion.

Only then did she slowly raise her hand to clasp it.

"Flight Department Sixth Team ACJ30 Pilot, Ruan Sixian."

Ni Tong's hand gave a subtle twitch.

She stared blankly at Ruan Sixian, seemingly unable to process the words she had just heard.

With a ding, the elevator reached the 12th floor.

Ruan Sixian withdrew her hand and walked out.

Before the elevator doors closed, she turned her head back to add: "Oh, right, if you ever fly aboard my flights in the future, it's best not to drink alcohol within twenty-four hours before reporting for duty. I have zero tolerance for flight attendants showing up late."