After resting for two days, Chen Jiayu noticed a familiar female voice greeting them through the tower’s frequency as they arrived in Beijing – it was Lu Yan; she was back. Chen Jiayu was in a good mood and chatted with Lu Yan in the brief time they had.
Just as he was pleased that he had completed his final flight on schedule and was getting ready to pack up and go home. Chen Jiayu passed a coffee shop and unexpectedly spotted someone he recognized walking toward him. Then, before his brain could react, his legs had already instinctively followed the person: “Wait a moment.”
Fang Hao was in a hurry to buy a cup of iced black coffee and didn’t pay much attention to his surroundings as he wanted to rush back to take over Lu Yan’s shift.
He was startled for a moment when he was unexpectedly blocked by someone. However, after a brief pause, he recognized the person approaching him. Chen Jiayu was too famous; you could sometimes see his face not only at the airport but even on Weibo.
However, Chen Jiayu didn’t look at Fang Hao’s face. Instead, he checked the identification hanging around the neck to confirm that he was an air traffic controller. Sure enough, his earlier intuition was correct.
Only then did Chen Jiayu call out Fang Hao’s name and calmly inquired, “Fang Hao, were you the air traffic controller on duty that day?”
Fang Hao probably guessed why he was being asked, but he kept a calm face: “When?”
Chen Jiayu felt Fan Hao was doing it on purpose and replied: ” When I was coming in for a landing last Friday night.”
Fang Hao didn’t intend to lie. If he dared to do it, he dared to say it.
“Ah, yes. Air China 1332?”
His memory was quite good, and he still remembered Chen Jiayu’s flight number and the series of events that had occurred during that time.
When Chen Jiayu heard the casual response as if it was no big deal, the frustration that he had managed to calm down for a week seemed to be surging again. “Although we didn’t declare a fuel emergency at the time, there was still a situation. The captain that was in front of us asked why you handled it that way… it seemed like you didn’t like us very much.” His tone was light and somewhat playful, but Chen Jiayu’s expression was rather serious.
Fang Hao couldn’t immediately grasp what Chen Jiayu was thinking, and his sharp eyebrows furrowed slightly. “At that time… there was a blown tire on Runway 17 Left, and two fire trucks were dispatched. An emergency landing has occupied another runway. You knew about this, right? If you didn’t know then, you surely know now. In that situation, who had the chance to figure out who’s who? First come, first served, that’s the rule. It wasn’t targeted at you specifically.”
He said this aloud, but in his mind, Fang Hao scolded Chen Jiayu silently. Did it mean he had to make concessions just because he recognized him? What kind of privilege was that?
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Fang Hao gave a wry smile; he wasn’t the type to be easily pushed around. He had moved beyond that stage a long time ago. Seizing the opportunity, he added, “Captain Chen, if you truly understand me, you wouldn’t be busy eyeing the ground and still managed to send me eight requests within a minute.” He wasn’t going to let Chen Jiayu off the hook so easily.
When did he make eight requests? Isn’t that too exaggerated? Chen Jiayu’s expression soured. However, no matter how senior or renowned a pilot was, their authority did not extend to air traffic control. Once in the cockpit, they had to comply with air traffic control’s instructions—take off when told to take off and land when instructed to land. That was the basic rule.
Chen Jiayu realized that he probably couldn’t gain any advantage over Fang Hao, so he conceded, “Fine, you’re right. Well… let’s just pretend nothing happened.”
He regretted his impulsive attempt to confront Fang Hao. It was a fruitless endeavor. He would have chosen a different strategy if he had known that Fang Hao was so unyielding. Perhaps offering gifts or red envelopes as a gesture of goodwill—although, in the pilots’ group chat, it was rumored that he couldn’t be won over even with gifts.
Holding the freshly bought coffee, Fang Hao glanced at his watch as if he were in a hurry and then sighed when he looked back again at Chen Jiayu. “Alright then. I’ll be on my way.”
Fang Hao felt relieved that Chen Jiayu wasn’t interested in continuing their argument. He didn’t want to make the situation too awkward since they both belonged to the same circle and would likely cross paths again.
Chen Jiayu nodded and watched as Fang Hao made his way through the bustling crowd at the airport. Only then did he realize that Fang Hao seemed different from their college days. His vague impression of Fang Hao back then was of a tall, skinny guy with dark skin who was into sports. Now, he noticed that Fang Hao had grown into a rather handsome figure, still tall and slender, with short hair, but there was a certain charm about him that he hadn’t noticed before.
However, it was clear that the bond between them as college seniors and juniors wasn’t a priority for the other person. Right now, he needed to resolve the issue at hand. So, he turned to Lu Yan for help.
Chen Jiayu sent her a WeChat message: “Yan’er, it seems like Fang Hao is trying to make things difficult for me.” This time, he was careful to type out the person’s name correctly.
Lu Yan stifled a laugh. She had a feeling that her guess was correct. Chen Jiayu must have suffered a loss from Fang Hao last Friday. She hadn’t managed to get the details from Fang Hao, as he was always tight-lipped about things he didn’t want to share. So she figured it wasn’t a major issue and made a casual guess, thinking it might be related to air traffic control, such as the long waiting times for aircraft or the order of takeoff and landing.
Chen Jiayu was used to being a comfortable captain, so occasional supervision might be unfamiliar. It’s normal if he’s not used to it, but why would he contact me on WeChat for such a trivial matter? Lu Yan found it somewhat surprising.
Of course, she wasn’t aware that Chen Jiayu suffered a loss once on the radio frequency and then another in person.
Lu Yan sent an emoji of someone covering their mouth while laughing: “Young Master Chen, you go ahead and stir things up; you’ll reap what you sow.”
Chen Jiayu: “…”
After a while, it was clear that he didn’t want to end the conversation like this, so he proactively asked, “Should I apologize to him?”
Lu Yan responded with a thumbs-up emoji. She knew Chen Jiayu wasn’t really considering an apology. He was just trying to maintain a good relationship to avoid future complications.
Chen Jiayu: “Send me his WeChat contacts.”
Lu Yan sent over Fang Hao’s contact card.
Chen Jiayu took a look, but it only showed a side profile with a background of mountains and rivers. It was hard to tell what he looked like from the picture. The name was represented by a square icon.
He thanked Lu Yan.
Thinking that the matter had concluded, Lu Yan suddenly said, “By the way, Jiayu, I need to tell you something.”
Lu Yan rarely used such a serious tone, and it made Chen Jiayu’s heart sink. “Hmm, what’s wrong?”
Lu Yan: “I’m going to Pudong, Shanghai. Probably leaving in about a month.”
Chen Jiayu made a guess, “Is it because of Brother Lei?”
Lu Yan’s boyfriend, Zhao Xinlei, was the owner of a tire company, and they had been dating for over three years. It was about time they settled down. Chen Jiayu had occasionally heard Lu Yan mention that Zhao Xinlei’s company had been doing a lot of business in Shanghai, so he wasn’t entirely surprised by her decision to accompany him. However, he didn’t expect it to happen so soon.
Lu Yan said, “Yeah, I don’t want to be in a long-distance relationship.”
Chen Jiayu sighed. Working in civil aviation, whether it was flying or air traffic control, always involved irregular schedules. Adding a long-distance relationship on top of that would indeed make it challenging. It was a practical concern.
From university to now, he had been living in the same city as Lu Yan for nearly ten years. She was one of his closest friends, so he genuinely felt a sense of loss.
After some thought, Chen Jiayu replied, “Sigh, I’ll miss you, but I’m happy for you and Brother Lei.”
Lu Yan sent a small heart emoji and then said, “I haven’t told my colleagues yet, so please don’t mention it to anyone else for now.”
Chen Jiayu understood and replied, “No problem. How about I treat you to a meal at ‘Ju Xiang Yuan’ in two weeks before you leave?”
Lu Yan said cheerfully: “That’s a must. I’ll organize it.”
Random translator comments: I got curious and googled “Ju Xiang Yuan.” It’s a real restaurant in Malaysia, but in China, it just implies a restaurant that specializes in Hunan province’s spicy cuisine. 🤤
Regarding Chen Jiayu’s comment about Fang Hao’s appearance:
出落得人模人样的: I translated this as “have him grown handsome or prettier” since I couldn’t find another translation for it. The direct translation was something like “have grown to be human-like” XD However, the first two words “出落 chu luo” mean to mature into, to blossom, or to grow (prettier, etc.). Initially, I wanted to write that Fang Hao has blossomed into a handsome man, but eeeehhh, it doesn’t really fit the tone.
Fang Hao is like a porcupine.
Chen Jiayu, you need to adopt a gentle and sweet approach ( and with a great backside) , in order to win their affection before you can be spoilt and pamper in Fang Hao style!
What hooked me into this story was mature slice of life description and I’m loving it.
Also lovely and rare to see healthy normal friendship between a guy and gal.
” mature slice of life” and PILOT was what hooked me. XD
Same here! Looking forward to this one 🙂
Thank You for the new chapter ٩(*ゝڡ◕๑)۶♥
Merry Christmas! 💜 Thanks for reading. 🙂
This encounter of theirs was too funny to me. Fang Hao could really care less for this captain who wants to cut the line!
Thank you for the update!
I see nothing wrong with Fang Hao’s attitude and identify with him a lot, perhaps I also have a prickly personality haha