Blossom through the Cloud - Chapter 64

Chapter 64

Ruan Suxian fastened her buttons and turned around as the room's warm lights spilled generously across her face and hair, illuminating her eyes until they shone as clear as water.

She smiled with her lips pressed together, curling her finger at the man standing before her. "Do I look good?"

Fu Mingyu raised his arm, his fingertips brushing against her epaulets before sliding down to her waist, pulling her tightly into his embrace and kissing her earlobe.

"That tickles." Ruan Suxian turned her face away to dodge him. "What are you doing?"

"Hm?" Fu Mingyu rubbed his chin against her cheek. "What do you think I'm doing?"

Resting her chin on his shoulder and banking on the fact that he couldn't see her expression, Ruan Suxian laughed freely. "Didn't you say you wanted to see me in uniform?"

Fu Mingyu's hand wandered restlessly across her waist. "Mhm, and I also want to see you take it off."

Once the mischievous impulse took root, it grew wild and unchecked.

Yet hearing those words whispered right beside her ear, Ruan Suxian still couldn't help blushing.

She pushed Fu Mingyu away, keeping her head lowered as she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, revealing a pair of burning red earlobes.

Her fingers caught the hem of her collar as she murmured, "Do you want me to take it off for you then?"

Before she could even finish untying the first button, her hand was caught by Fu Mingyu, who pressed it flat against her chest while his other hand cupped the back of her head, pulling her in for a heavy, crushing kiss.

Perhaps slightly lightheaded from the alcohol, and with him being far from gentle, Ruan Suxian lost her footing, and the two of them tumbled together onto the bed.

The night was silent, save for the occasional howling of the wind outside the window.

The sounds of ambiguous, lingering breath grew increasingly heated within the warmth-filled room.

Leaning over Ruan Suxian with his arms braced beside her head, Fu Mingyu kissed her repeatedly and thoroughly while her arms wrapped around his neck of their own accord, responding to him with eager, repeated initiatives.

He opened his eyes, his gaze hazy and blurred, and nipped gently at her lips as he spoke in a low, gentle voice. "Are you always this proactive when you've been drinking?"

His fingers brushed past her cheek, the skin beneath his fingertips radiating a faint warmth.

Ruan Suxian lowered her long lashes, which trembled slightly. "I suppose periods just naturally make people a bit more proactive."

"..."

The raw desire in Fu Mingyu's eyes vanished at a visible speed, his fingers freezing in place as if completely paralyzed.

He closed his eyes for a moment, calling out her name through gritted teeth.

"Ruan—Su—Xian!"

Ruan Suxian laughed until her eyes curved into crescents, hooking her arms around his neck to pull him down hard onto the bed right beside her.

Rolling over to lie prone on the mattress, she propped her chin in her hands and looked down at him. "I told you we could save it for another day, but you refused to act like a civilized human being and insisted that there's no time like the present. Can you really blame me?"

Tilting his head, Fu Mingyu squinted at her and reached out to pinch her chin. "Are you trying to play me to death?"

Ruan Suxian raised her chin with complete righteousness. "Is that any way for a human to talk? Who was it that opened my wardrobe and gave me only two choices—either I put it on myself or you put it on me?"

Fu Mingyu closed his eyes, furrowing his brow as he took a deep breath. Letting go of her chin, he slid an arm around her shoulder and pressed her down to lie against his chest.

Ruan Suxian wasn't about to stay completely still. After shifting around to find a comfortable position, she piped up, "Let me ask you something?"

"Go ahead." Fu Mingyu slid a hand down to her waist, answering offhandedly.

"I heard them talking today—that Auntie completely disapproved of your older brother's engagement and broke them up... Hey, stop moving your hands, that tickles!" Ruan Suxian slapped his hand away and continued, "And that she even made your brother so mad he stayed abroad for over half a year without coming back. Is that true?"

"False." Fu Mingyu let out a sudden chuckle, explaining before Ruan Suxian could press him further. "It's true that my mother demanded they break up, but that was because their relationship had already run into fundamental problems where they couldn't cut clean or resolve their entanglement. She's someone who always advises parting ways rather than forcing a reconciliation."

Ruan Suxian looked somewhat blankly at him. "Advises parting ways rather than reconciliation?"

"Mhm." Fu Mingyu twirled a lock of Ruan Suxian's hair around his finger, speaking of the matter without a trace of emotional coloration. "She believes that if two people are truly meant to spend their lives together, even a temporary separation will ultimately lead them back to one another while giving them a chance to reflect and settle down. But if parting ways only makes them feel lighter and happier, then there's no need to force things back to the starting point."

"Oh."

As Ruan Suxian thoughtfully turned those words over in her mind, she felt Fu Mingyu's hand wandering restlessly again, prompting her to smack his chest. "Stop moving!"

"What about your brother's girlfriend? Oh wait, his ex-girlfriend."

"Not quite sure."

"How could you not know?"

Fu Mingyu shot her a sideways look. "Why on earth would I pay that much attention to my older brother's ex-girlfriend?"

"Fair enough. So Auntie never once minded your brother's ex-girlfriend's family background or anything like that?"

Fu Mingyu hooked his palm around her chin. "Why are you overthinking all of this?"

Ruan Suxian stared unblinkingly at him. "I was just asking casually, am I not allowed to ask?"

"There's nothing I can't tell you." Fu Mingyu released her chin and said calmly, "It wasn't a matter of minding it; she never looked favorably upon them from the very beginning, though she never actively interfered either—until that final incident."

"Right, got it."

Ruan Suxian lowered her gaze, her fingers unconsciously flicking at a button on his shirt, tapping it over and over again in a way that scratched right at Fu Mingyu's—

"Ruan Suxian, if you aren't in a convenient condition, stop trying to provoke me." Fu Mingyu suddenly caught her hand. "Or is it that you're so exhausted today and yet still want to help me out?"

Ruan Suxian raised her head, pulling her hand free to give him a light punch. "Has your brain completely turned into libido?"

She wriggled out of his embrace, sat up, and got out of bed.

"I'm going to take a shower."

Fu Mingyu stared up at the ceiling, letting out a long sigh before sitting up as well.

"Are you heading home?"

Before stepping into the bathroom, Ruan Suxian poked her head out to ask.

"Hm?"

Holding his jacket, Fu Mingyu tilted his head to look at her with an ambiguous smile. "Want me to stay and keep you company?"

Ruan Suxian clutched the edge of the door, her eyes shining brightly as she watched him for a long moment before abruptly speaking up: "The door password is my birthday."

With those words, the bathroom door clicked shut.

Fu Mingyu stared at the closed door and chuckled softly.

Nearly an hour later, Ruan Suxian emerged wrapped in a bath towel with a dry-hair cap on her head. The moment she stepped out, she spotted Fu Mingyu sitting comfortably on her sofa wearing a light gray pajama set and reading a book.

He looked entirely at home, as relaxed as if he were in his own house.

He raised his eyes from the book. "Done?"

"Done." Ruan Suxian grabbed the towel at her chest, pulling it upward while giving Fu Mingyu a critical once-over. "You're pretty fast."

Fu Mingyu set the book down, the curve of his lips carrying a mixture of cold amusement and teasing provocation.

"Don't you know whether I'm fast or not?"

"..."

Ruan Suxian closed the door, changed into her pajamas, and didn't forget to shoot him a withering glare as she walked back out toward the bathroom.

After blow-drying her hair in silence, she walked straight back to her bedroom, burrowed under the covers, and switched off the light.

Outside the window, the moonlight swayed gently, spilling into the room through the sheer curtains.

When Fu Mingyu entered, he didn't turn on the light. His footsteps were extremely light, but Ruan Suxian seemed to sense his presence intuitively; knowing he had come in, she simply squeezed her eyes shut even tighter.

The mattress slowly sank on one side.

As Fu Mingyu lay down, all he faced was Ruan Suxian's back.

He reached out, wrapped an arm around her waist, and rested his chin atop her head.

In the darkness, the two of them whispered in low voices.

"Where is your next flight?"

"The day after tomorrow, Lincheng again. Why?"

"What time do you get back?"

"Assuming there are no delays, around six."

"Mhm, let me know when you land. Wait for me in the evening."

"..."

Ruan Suxian twisted her neck awkwardly, feeling deeply grateful that the darkness hid her blushing face; otherwise, Fu Mingyu would undoubtedly have found some excuse to tease her further.

"Actually, you don't have to phrase it like you're assigning homework."

It felt far too much like Fu Mingyu bluntly telling her: I'm going to ravish you that night, so prepare yourself.

Fu Mingyu closed his eyes behind her head and chuckled. "First, asking you to let me know is because the weather might be bad that day, and I want confirmation that you've landed safely. Second, telling you to wait for me in the evening is because I want to take you out for dinner to make up for New Year's Day."

Pressing his palm against Ruan Suxian's lower abdomen, he raised his upper body slightly to look down at her. "What kind of homework did you think I meant?"

"I'll... let you know when I land. Go to sleep, good night."--

New Year arrived early this year. Following the New Year's holiday, many universities had already finished their exams and begun winter break. Since Jiangcheng had a large population of out-of-town students who were gradually heading home, the flight traffic volume surged toward yet another minor peak.

"All day long it's just delays, delays, delays!"

Inside the first-class waiting lounge, a man paced back and forth anxiously. "And they won't even give a straight answer on when we're actually taking off!"

Outside, low-hanging clouds blanketed the sky. Though it was only just turning six o'clock, the sky looked darker than it usually did at seven or eight, seeming to herald the imminent arrival of a violent storm.

Such weather only added to the anxiety of passengers facing delayed flights.

A woman sitting a few rows back held a compact mirror. Though she was equally irritated, she wasn't nearly as high-strung as her cousin.

"What's the use of yelling here?"

The woman rolled her eyes. "If you've got the guts, go yell inside that office building across the way and make them arrange a flight for you right now."

The man turned around and glared angrily at her. "Aside from being sarcastic and snarky, what else are you good for?"

These two individuals were none other than two of the four people from the smoking area at Yan An's father's birthday banquet.

The woman was Jin Ya, and the man was Jin Xuan. As cousins, both of them had been in foul moods for days, and neither was willing to yield an inch to the other in verbal sparring.

"Where do I match your skill at running your mouth? If you hadn't failed to control your own tongue running wild with gossip that day, would you have brought all this trouble down on yourself?"

Jin Xuan planted his hands on his hips with a cold sneer. "Me running my mouth? As I recall, you were chiming right along with every word."

Jin Ya put away her mirror, too lazy to even look at him. "If you hadn't started the conversation by running down somebody else's girlfriend, would anyone else have brought it up out of nowhere?"

Seeing that he remained silent, Jin Ya scoffed again. "And what, you were just drooling because she's pretty? Even if she's gorgeous, she was never yours to begin with. Getting yourself into trouble was bad enough, but you had to drag a whole group of us down with you."

"Pretty, yeah, isn't it all just about being pretty?"

Jin Xuan stiffened his neck, sneering as he spoke. "How many beauties hasn't he seen? To guard her this fiercely, what does she have going for her besides a pretty face?"

Just as his voice trailed off, the airport PA system chimed loudly, announcing boarding for their flight.

Jin Ya stood up. "Fine, let's go. This is their territory, so shut your damn trap!"-

On the 16th floor of the World Aviation Building, inside the Operations Director's office.

Fu Mingyu stared intently at his computer screen, his brow twitching suddenly as he turned his head to look out the window.

Outside, torrential rain had begun to lash down at some unknown point, accompanied by thick, rolling dark clouds and howling gales.

He stood up, walked over to the window, glanced down at his wristwatch, and felt a quiet swell of unease tighten in his chest.

Returning to his desk, he opened the flight operations status monitor to check on conditions as he routinely did.

No sooner had the page loaded than a sharp, blinking red alert popped onto the screen.

Before he could even process the text clearly, Bai Yang's expression shifted drastically beside him. Staring at his own phone screen, Bai Yang blurted out, "President Fu, flight SH29345 has squawked the 7700 emergency code, and ground emergency protocols are currently being activated!"

As if refusing to believe his own eyes, Fu Mingyu whipped his head back toward his computer desktop.

The moment he read the flashing red characters on the screen, he stood up instantly, striding out of the office without even bothering to grab his jacket—Outside, Jin Ya and Jin Xuan had boarded the apron shuttle bus, assuming they would be boarding smoothly soon, only for the vehicle to grind to a halt midway across the tarmac.

After more than ten minutes of stillness, Jin Xuan's irritability flared up again.

Leaning against the window, all Jin Xuan could see through the torrential downpour was the blurry shapes of ground crew personnel in raincoats rushing across the intersecting taxiways.

"Damn it!" Jin Xuan slammed a fist against the bus door. "Are we even going to be able to fly today?!"

Unable to stand his constant squawking and fussing any longer, a female passenger glared at him in disgust and snapped, "Didn't you look at the airline app notifications? A flight just squawked the 7700 emergency code and is trying to land right here!"

The driver chimed in from the front, adding, "All other airborne aircraft are currently executing holding patterns and evasive maneuvers, so naturally we aren't going anywhere either."

Standing on her tiptoes, the female passenger craned her neck to look outside. "God knows if they'll manage to land safely... I heard it's an in-flight crew incapacitation with the first officer taking over controls, and out here we've got both gale-force winds and torrential rain..."-

Inside the World Aviation special operations van speeding toward the tarmac, Bai Yang stood directly behind Fu Mingyu, his voice grave and taut. "The tailwind on the primary runway is too strong, making landing impossible, but the cloud ceiling is too low to circle around to the opposite direction. Air traffic control has cleared the southwest-facing secondary runway. The aircraft is currently skirting around the eastern shore of Yunxing Bay, approaching from the direction of Linggun City toward Shilan. But if they take that route, the plane will be subjected to the massive, full-scale impact of a severe crosswind from the port side."

Through the cascading sheets of rain, Fu Mingyu watched a procession of ambulances and fire engines scream past, racing toward the active runway.