Blossom through the Cloud - Chapter 66

Chapter 66

Less than ten minutes after touchdown, aviation news flooded every platform.

Coupled with the theatrical release of a related aviation film, aviation accidents garnered unprecedented attention, and the incident instantly skyrocketed to the top of the trending searches.

Yet neither Ruan Suxian nor Fu Mingyu had the leisure to pay attention to any of that; this night was destined to be relentlessly, frantically busy.

Upon receiving the news, Yan An considered dropping by to check on the situation, but given the sour look Fu Mingyu invariably gave him, he decided against it, figuring he might as well just go home and watch the news.

When Fu Mingyu finally found the time to check his missed calls, alongside family members, he found a dozen calls from Dong Xian.

As he was debating whether to call her back, his assistant phoned in to announce that both Dong Xian and Dong Jing had arrived.

"Mhm," Fu Mingyu said. "Let them in in five minutes."

He stepped away to change into a clean set of clothes and tidy his hair. The office door slid open automatically, and the two Dong sisters walked in with eager haste.

"Where's Ruanruan?!" Dong Xian scanned the surrounding space. "Where is she?"

It was Fu Mingyu's first time seeing Dong Xian in such a state. Not only was her usual dignified composure entirely absent, but her clothes even bore smudges of multicolored paint.

Fu Mingyu walked up to her and said calmly, "Auntie, don't panic. She's fine; she's currently giving her report to the Civil Aviation Bureau."

With that, he gestured toward her, signaling for her to take a seat on the sofa.

Even after sitting down, Dong Xian remained utterly unsettled.

"I was in my studio tonight when my paint palette suddenly tipped over for no reason at all."

She spoke in fragmented sentences, her voice fluctuating in volume. "Then someone told me about the news today. Before I even looked at it, my heart started acting up uncontrollably, and I just had a feeling she was on that plane."

Bending forward to press a hand to her forehead, she whispered, "I just knew it was her."

Dong Jing sat beside her, rubbing her back reassuringly. "Ruanruan is fine, see? You don't need to worry anymore."

Fu Mingyu glanced at his wristwatch. Calls from various departments kept transferring through, with Bai Yang and the assistant standing by outside on standby.

Sensing that Fu Mingyu was exceptionally busy, neither Dong Xian nor Dong Jing wished to linger and cause a distraction.

"Let's go wait outside."--

At that moment, the entire World Aviation Building was as frantic as the Lunar New Year travel rush, with every floor and every workspace packed to capacity.

It was a night of collective overtime, and the Public Relations Department was especially overwhelmed.

It took a full three hours before Ruan Suxian finally emerged from the conference room, her ears ringing with a cacophony of overlapping voices.

She still had to hurry over to the Flight Operations Department to submit her report, but she managed to flag someone down along the way to ask about the captain's condition.

"He's fine, no major issues—vasovagal syncope, likely triggered by fatigue compounded by various chronic conditions he'd accumulated over time. There were notes in his medical records at the aviation clinic, but an episode like this is genuinely too abrupt."

Ruan Suxian didn't fully grasp the academic terminology, remembering only that the captain had initially experienced a brief bout of dizziness before his complexion gradually grew pale, his vision began blurring, his hearing deteriorated, and nausea and cold sweats set in.

Before he passed out, Ruan Suxian had feared he was suffering from some critical illness; seeing him abruptly close his eyes a moment later had nearly made her think the worst had happened.

"Will he still be able to fly in the future?"

Ruan Suxian asked.

"He can once he recovers, though he'll be placed on the priority medical monitoring list from now on."

The colleague hurried off immediately after speaking.

Ruan Suxian resumed her stride toward her office, pulling out her phone along the way to reply to messages from Si Xiaozhen and Bian Xuan.

Because subsequent news reports had explicitly published her name, her WeChat had instantly flooded with over a hundred messages. Lacking the time to respond to each one individually, she simply posted a brief update on her Moments to reassure everyone at once.

Exiting WeChat, she checked her call logs.

Among dozens of notification texts, a dozen or so were from Dong Xian.

After a moment's hesitation, she decided she ought to return the call.

Before she could dial, however, the person in question appeared right before her eyes.

"You're okay?"

Holding a disposable paper cup, Dong Xian stared blankly at Ruan Suxian.

"I'm fine,"

Ruan Suxian said.

This time, Dong Xian didn't follow up with anything else, and Ruan Suxian didn't know what to say either. The two of them simply stood face-to-face in silence.--

Meanwhile, stepping out of his office, Fu Mingyu spotted Dong Jing standing alone in the lounge area.

"Where's Mrs. Zheng?"

Dong Jing glanced around before replying, "I'm not sure. She said she was going to grab a glass of water just now and hasn't come back since. Do you think something happened?"

Knowing that the Civil Aviation Bureau officials had already departed, Fu Mingyu checked the time and figured Ruan Suxian must be wrapping up as well, so he dialed her number.

It went unanswered.

"She's probably with her," Fu Mingyu said. "Likely down the glass corridor across the way. Auntie, would you like me to have someone show you over there?"

Dong Jing had already started nodding before pausing to reconsider. "Actually, never mind. Let the two of them have a little time to talk."

The assistant poured Dong Jing a cup of warm water, and she sat back down.

The man beside her didn't leave either, gazing toward the glass corridor ahead, where two hazy silhouettes were faintly mirrored against the panes.

"Our Ruanruan has been acting like a tomboy ever since she was little..." Having weathered the harrowing scare, Dong Jing sat for nearly three hours and felt a bit too fatigued to remain standing on her feet, so she simply began talking to herself. "To be honest, if I were a passenger on that plane and knew a young girl was up there handling such a dangerous crisis, my terror probably would've doubled."

She chuckled softly at that. "And such a pretty girl, at that."

Bai Yang walked over with a liability waiver form, but Fu Mingyu remained standing motionless in place.

Struck by a sudden thought, Dong Jing looked back up at Fu Mingyu. "You know, she was originally supposed to be named Ruan Guangzhi."

Fu Mingyu: "..."

He lifted his gaze from the folder in front of him, remaining silent yet looking somewhat bewildered.

"Back when her mother was newly pregnant with her, she was terribly high-strung. The neighborhood elderly women, drawing on their experience, took one look at the belly shape and swore it was a boy, so her father picked out that name ahead of time. I still remember that line of poetry: To steadfastly anchor one's heart and broaden one's will, what is there to fear—isn't that how it goes?"

Fu Mingyu nodded with a neutral expression.

As for Bai Yang, upon imagining Ruan Suxian bearing such a name, he managed to keep from laughing aloud, though the corners of his brows twitched appropriately.

After signing the waiver, Fu Mingyu asked flatly, "Then how did she end up with her current name?"

"It was because the year she was conceived, her father got reassigned by the school to do volunteer teaching in a remote area. Her father wasn't the schmoozing type, so all the plum assignments went to other people, leaving him stuck in a godforsaken village where electricity had literally just been hooked up that very year. It took six months just for the entire village to get a single landline, and if you wanted to make a call, you had to book it in advance."

"So what could they do? He had a wife and an unborn child back home, so they wrote letters."

"They hadn't been married long back then, and suddenly facing such a long separation, her father wrote to her almost every week, sometimes every two or three days. Most of it was just mundane daily chatter that grew pretty dull after a while, but being newlyweds, the longing was real even if they were too shy to say it outright. So before signing off on every single letter, he added a little postscript: Thinking of Suxian."

"The day Ruanruan was born wasn't easy either. It was late at night, and my sister got up to grab a drink of water, tripped over something, and went into labor right then and there. There wasn't even time to get to the hospital; she had to deliver right at home. When I got the call, I was scared out of my wits, worried neither of them would make it. Thankfully, things turned out alright—look at her now, she grew up healthy and strong, and so tall too."

"When it came time to register the baby's name, they couldn't think of anything on the spot. As it happened, there was a stack of letters resting under the pillow, and a few of the neighborhood grannies accidentally knocked them scattering everywhere. When they picked them up and looked, they said this name was wonderful and carried deep meaning, so that's how she ended up with it."

Fu Mingyu smiled faintly.

"It sounds nice."

He sat down opposite Dong Jing across the desk and reached out to refill her cup with hot water.

"What about after that?"

He gestured toward the glass corridor across the way.--

Ruan Suxian was genuinely busy at the moment. The media had yet to disperse, and various departments were waiting on her and the flight crew to debrief on the details, so she hadn't lingered long with Dong Xian before moving on.

Dong Xian hadn't tried to keep her either; she had simply wanted to confirm with her own eyes that Ruan Suxian was safe.

Walking back to the waiting area outside Fu Mingyu's office with light footsteps, she caught the two individuals inside unaware of her approach.

"I still don't understand why she took her parents' divorce so hard. Perhaps she's just inherently stubborn by nature. But her mother really was far too busy during those years and practically couldn't spare any attention for her, which must have made it even harder to bear. Eventually, she didn't even want to see them much. By the time she reached university and could earn her own money through part-time jobs, she frequently wouldn't even answer phone calls."

Those were things Dong Jing could never truly wrap her head around, but after all these years, she couldn't be bothered trying to understand anymore either.

Catching sight of Dong Xian approaching in the reflection of the glass, she finished the water in her cup, stood up, and said, "I've been talking rather a lot today, mostly because I was thoroughly terrified. It was by a hair's breadth—she could easily have lost her life, and my heart's been fluttering ever since."

"It's not easy for a young girl to grow up stumbling along all on her own, earning her own living expenses, paying off her student loans, refusing financial help no matter what, while growing increasingly estranged from her mother and losing her father. Who knows what lies ahead for her? You remember to treat her well."

Fu Mingyu stood silently for a long moment, appearing to watch the two women leave, while inside, his chest churned with turbulence.

"It's not easy for a young girl to grow up stumbling along all on her own..."

"Growing up stumbling along all on her own..."

"Stumbling along all on her own..."

Dong Jing's words echoed in his mind like persistent tinnitus.--

Ruan Suxian didn't manage to leave until six o'clock the following morning.

Fu Mingyu ran half an hour behind her.

When the two of them climbed into the car and headed for the parking garage, the sky had yet to brighten, and the rain continued to pelt down relentlessly.

As soon as she buckled in, Ruan Suxian pulled out her phone, keeping her gaze glued to the screen without the slightest idea of what she was reading.

Fu Mingyu leaned back against the headrest, closing his eyes to rest.

The interior of the vehicle was warm and quiet, filled with the sound of his steady, shallow breathing.

Ruan Suxian turned her head to glance at him, noticing that his brow remained tightly furrowed.

"Even asleep and you can't relax."

She reached out a hand, intending to smooth away the crease between his brows, but the moment her fingertips brushed his skin, her wrists were caught in a grip.

Fu Mingyu opened his eyes and asked, "What is it?"

Ignoring him, Ruan Suxian kept her eyes lowered on her phone.

Drawing her hands down onto his lap, Fu Mingyu flipped her palms upward, threaded his fingers through hers, and locked them tightly together.

His knuckles were hard, pressing uncomfortably against Ruan Suxian's skin.

When she tried to pull her hands free, he only gripped her tighter.

"Are you a psycho?" Ruan Suxian muttered. "Let go or I'll scream."

She turned her head to glare at him, but meeting his gaze, she quickly averted her eyes.

Ruan Suxian felt as though this man's eyes possessed some kind of magic, acting like a vortex capable of sucking a person in, making her imagination run wild the longer she looked.

Returning her attention to her phone, she saw that #WorldAviation29345LandsSafely# had remained in the top three trending topics from last night straight through to this morning.

That success owed much to the buzz surrounding the newly released film, which had left the public hyper-focused on aviation news.

The combination of keywords—emergency landing, pilot, female, pretty—immediately rocketed #WorldAviationFemalePilotEmergencyLanding# to the top of the charts.

Tapping into the hashtag, alongside the official statement from World Aviation, numerous marketing accounts had begun reposting promotional photos Ruan Suxian had shot for the airline several months prior.

The unbridled flattery from lovely netizens practically made Ruan Suxian dizzy.

[Will the person under the promotional photoshoot who called female drivers a hazard please step forward and let me check if your face is swollen yet!]

[Wuwuwu, sister, how does one manage to marry you?]

[I thought she looked gorgeous when I saw her before, but I had no idea she was this badass. Sister is supreme!]

[Dare I ask this sister's sexual orientation? Do you accept an eighteen-year-old freshman sister?]

[Read through the detailed reports: executing an emergency landing under gale-force crosswinds and torrential rain, standing water causing hydroplaning, braking successfully at the very last second—I've only got two words: legendary.]

After glancing at her skyrocketing follower count on Weibo, Ruan Suxian slowly turned her head and gave Fu Mingyu a deadpan stare.

"I'm famous."

"Let's break up. I'll email you my resignation letter tomorrow."

"I'm quitting to debut as an idol and chase my husband."

Acting completely deaf, Fu Mingyu ignored every word she said.

The warmth of her palms slowly seeped into him.

"Aren't you tired?"

After waiting ages, that was the only question she got, leaving Ruan Suxian with a distinct impression of mockery akin to Aren't you tired yet? Wash up and go to sleep instead of daydreaming.

Speechless.

Though to be fair, she was indeed exhausted. Yet having spent the entire night strung out on nervous tension, she felt abnormally wired, lacking even a shred of sleepiness.

"Give me a raise and I won't be tired. No raise and I'll pass out right now."

"Mhm."

The car sailed through the rain toward Mingchen Apartments.

The highway's drainage system handled the downpour well, leaving the roads free of major puddles, but with no sign of the rain stopping, the driver steered straight into the underground parking structure.

"My mom came to look for me today, did you know?"

"Mhm." Fu Mingyu pressed the elevator button.

"The captain woke up, did you know?"

"Mhm."

"I'm currently holding onto a pig, did you know?"

Fu Mingyu shot her a sideways glance and reached out to tap her head.

"Turns out your vocabulary isn't limited to just 'mhm'."

Ruan Suxian unlocked her apartment door and blocked him outside. "I saw people online saying I deserve a bonus. Are you giving me one?"

Fu Mingyu stared at her without a word.

Ruan Suxian gave him a light kick. "Don't play mute when money comes up. The bonus—am I getting it or not?"

Fu Mingyu suddenly seized her hand.

"I'll give it to you."

He slowly pressed her hand against the left side of his chest.

"This is yours too."

A dense tangle of complex emotions surged within him, defying language as it crashed violently and fiercely into his heart.

"It's all yours. Do you want me?"

It was the darkest hour right before dawn. Outside the window, rain hammered rhythmically against the glass while the hallway's voice-activated lights remained illuminated overhead, casting shadows from Fu Mingyu's eyelashes yet failing to conceal the rich, devotional fervor burning in his eyes.

Ruan Suxian reached out, caught his tie, flicked it back and forth, and lowered her gaze to her own toes.

"I suppose I'll accept it then."

Before her words had fully faded, the man outside forced his way inside, the door slamming shut with a sharp bang. A wave of dizziness washed over Ruan Suxian as she was spun around, pinned against the door, and met with a sudden, scorching kiss.

The rain fell unceasingly outside, the wind howled, and with no lights turned on indoors, everything unfolded quietly in the dark.

Feeling his hands wreaking havoc, Ruan Suxian experienced a sudden flash of sobriety.

"It's broad daylight!"

Her clothes had already come undone, hanging loosely and disorderly across her shoulders.

"It doesn't matter."

Ruan Suxian: "???"

It certainly doesn't matter to you, but my landlord is coming over with people to install my new washing machine in a little while!!!