First class.
This was the quietest region of the plane, as well as the most spacious and comfortable. There was plenty of space to breathe, the seats could stretch out 180 degrees, and passengers seated next to each other couldn’t bother each other.
When Qian Ai walked in, two of the four passengers were lying flat in their seats sleeping. All the window shades were pulled down, making the scene look especially tranquil. The message from the captain earlier had erased the last of their worries and now they were in the midst of their sweet dreams.
The third and sixth seats seemed to be occupied but were currently empty—one was probably Wu Sheng’s seat, and the occupant of the laid-back seat was nowhere to be seen; there was only a blanket lying there.
The passengers in the first and second seats were the only ones awake: Two girls, one elfin-looking with short hair just past her ears who was lazily fiddling with an empty cup, the other with glasses and shoulder-length hair and a cultured sort of air who was staring down at an e-reader, focused on reading.
Time was limited, so Qian Ai didn’t bother wasting time on small talk. He walked straight to the short-haired girl and tried to make his smile look the least threatening he could. “Hello, do you know the password to disarm the bomb?”
The girl jumped, startled, and whipped her head up. She freaked out, leaning as far back into her seat as she could.
Realising that his large stature was scaring her, Qian Ai took a few hasty steps backwards in an attempt to make himself seem less ferocious. “Lass, don’t be afraid, I’m not a bad person. I just want to know if you the password to the bomb.”
The girl didn’t seem to have calmed down in the slightest, but she still managed to ask, “Didn’t the bomb get disarmed already?”
The broadcast had said that the “suspects” had been caught and that the bomb was going to be disarmed in a short while, and twenty minutes had passed since then. It was completely logical for the passengers to assume that the bomb had already been dealt with.
Qian Ai had nothing to answer her with; it’s not as if he could tell her that the broadcast was just a lie. With nothing else prepared, he was left with no choice but to awkwardly change the topic: “I was just kidding, the bomb was dealt with, ha… haha, what was your name again?”
In the real world, this was probably the moment that the girl’s purse would come flying towards his face followed by a “you psycho!”, but this was Owl. At his sudden change of topic, the girl’s terror quickly evolved into a beaming smile and she replied, “Zhao Yi.”
Well, that was a simple name to remember¹.
“Are you on your way to travel, to school, to visit family, or to go home?” It was killing Qian Ai to have to take the conversation little by little when a little timer was ticking off in his head.
“Work.” The girl let out an unexpected bubble of laughter.
Qian Ai was caught completely unawares by this answer. “I thought you were a student…” he blurted out.
It wasn’t his perception that was off; this girl seriously looked young. At most 17 or 18.
“Shh,” the girl suddenly shooshed him, looking around with wide eyes to make sure no one was eavesdropping. When she confirmed no one was listening, she scooted closer to Qian Ai secretively. “Let me tell you a secret,” she said in a low voice, “I’m actually a magician.”
Qian Ai doubted that 100 percent, but he could only continue this extremely awkward conversation. “So can you make the bomb’s password appear by magic?”
“Can’t do that.” Zhao Yi shook her head with an amused smile on her face, following along with Qian Ai’s joke. “But I can make this appear.” And then somehow, the paper cup in her hands turned into a cake.
Golden yellow cake, covered in white cream. It was still warm, wisps of steam floating off the surface along with a sweet aroma.
“It’s yours.” Zhao Yi handed the tiny cake to Qian Ai with a smile.
Qian Ai kept repeating the mantra, “Don’t take food from strangers” in his mind, but his hands and mouth betrayed him by stuffing the cake in his mouth the second he got it and swallowed the entire thing into his stomach.
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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When he turned to the girl sitting next to her, he learnt his lesson from last time and just stood properly in the aisle like a flight attendant. “Excuse me, I don’t want to bother your reading, but I’m Qian Ai. What’s your name?” he asked politely.
The girl in the glasses looked up. Instead of going on guard, she answered, “Qian Er (2).”
Ah, so one of his own.²
“Are you also on a business trip?”
She lowered her eyes as if reluctant to answer the question. “For travel.” Her voice came out like a quiet sigh, laced with sorrow.
Qian Ai froze, but went straight ahead with his questions without any inhibition. “Traveling, isn’t that a happy thing?”
The girl smiled bitterly. “It’s a break up trip.”
Qian Ai had heard of solo traveling after a breakup, but a “break up trip,” what kind of new concept was that supposed to be…
“By yourself?”
“No, I told you, it’s a break up trip. Obviously with my boyfriend.”
He just knew it was a new concept!
“That’s him.” The girl pointed over to the fourth seat. Smiling gently, she said, “We agreed. After this trip, we’re breaking up.”
At first Qian Ai felt sorry for Wu Sheng, realising that he was seated between two lovers like a third wheel, but then he saw the lover in question, sleeping soundly without a care in the world, arms and legs splayed wildly in four different directions. He looked like even if the magpies built him a bridge, he wouldn’t take more than a few steps.
Qian Ai was too old to understand why you had to go on a trip together before breaking up. Wasn’t it better to just rip the bandaid off? Such as meeting one last time and then one person throwing a cup of coffee in the other person’s face, or turning around decisively in the rain, one person leaving on a bus while the other chased behind. Those were all pretty ceremonious breakups.
But anyway, none of that was important right now.
“Miss, I’ll leave you to your book. I’m going to talk to your boyfriend.”
His intuition told him that the bomb had nothing to do with this sad Miss Qian, so he moved on.
“Hey, wake up!” Qian Ai shoved the boy that seemed too busy sleeping to pay attention to his girlfriend. “Stop sleeping, wake up and talk to me!”
He didn’t know whether he was too forceful or whether the boy was too weak, but the next time he shoved the boy, the latter fell to the floor with a clunk.
The young man sat on the floor sleepily with an arm still hanging over the armrest. He seemed to have no idea where he was for a moment.
“Oi, look here.” Qian Ai didn’t express much patience or gentleness with him. “Are you here for travel?”
The boy seemed to come back to his senses and made his way up to his feet after struggling a few times. He glared at Qian Ai, confused. “Who the hell are you?”
“Qian Ai.” It was fine to answer truthfully; it’s not as if these people were going to follow them into reality.
But the boy’s face instantly darkened and his tone changed. “Even if you send your family members to me, it won’t work!” he shouted. “We aren’t even married, dating isn’t protected by the law. I already told you that I don’t love you anymore, when will you acknowledge this reality?”
Qian Ai was momentarily lost for words. There was really nothing he could say to that; he’d just been unlucky enough to share the same surname as the girl.
When two people are in love, every word drips sweetness like honey, and when they’re no longer in love, every word comes out like a knife. Miss Qian was silent, head lowered, but her shoulders shook, and if you listened closely, you could hear crying.
Having been single all twenty-nine years of his life, Qian Ai’s dream was to have a soft girl to dote on. How could he stand this? He momentarily forgot that this wasn’t the real world and slapped the young man over the head. “Can’t you talk nicely? And if you want to break up, just break up, what the fuck is a break up trip, do you have too much time on your hands?”
The young man studied Qian Ai up and down, quickly concluding that there was a sizable difference in their physical statures. At last, he reigned in his urge to retaliate and just held a hand over his head. “It was her idea!” he cried out. “You think I wanted this?”
Qian Ai shot a looked at Miss Qian, taken by surprise.
The latter finally looked up. Tear stains covered her face and her voice shook with hoarseness as she spoke. “Yes, I did request this break up trip, but I didn’t tell you to bring Xin Huan.” Her tone was especially quiet, but there was a trace of hatred in it.
Qian Ai’s eyes widened. Was this guy just trash?
The boy was stunned, having clearly not expected his soon-to-be ex to have such keen observation skills. But he quickly calmed down again, accepting the fact that he was caught. “I told you before,” he started, “I’m in the wrong for my feelings changing, but feelings can’t be controlled. I fell in love with her, like I’ve never loved someone before, to the extent that I would die for her. Understand? I can’t come on a trip with you behind her back, that would be betraying her!”
Qian Ai felt his entire understanding of the world and moral ethics shaken by the boy’s righteous declaration—what kind of messed up thinking was that?!
Miss Qian suddenly stood up and walked firmly over to the young man, tears still brimming in her eyes.
The young man’s stalwart attitude faltered a tad as if he knew how irrational his own thinking was and he unconsciously took half a step back.
But the girl stopped before she reached his seat, not far and yet not close. She stared at him. “You love her that much?”
“Of course,” the young man replied without hesitation.
He answered with such firmness and resolution, and his eyes sparkled with such vigorousness that even Qian Ai, who didn’t think much of him at all, couldn’t help but objectively admit that it was likely he really did love this “third party.”
This answer should have stabbed Miss Qian a second time, but suddenly, she burst out laughing in a gentle, somewhat sweet sort of manner. “You think she loves you?” she asked.
“Of course.” The same answer, the same firmness.
Miss Qian cocked her head to the side and blinked innocently. “Then how come in all this time we’ve been arguing, she’s been pretending to be asleep?”
This question stumped the young man, whose gaze traveled towards a passenger in a seat behind him.
Qian Ai also followed his line of sight in a daze, landing on seat number 5, where there was a vaguely human-shaped lump hidden beneath a blanket… What was going on? The current girlfriend, the mistress, and the trash boy bought consecutive seats for this break up trip?!
“Maybe, maybe she doesn’t want you to feel embarrassed,” Trash Boy said, coming up with an excuse for his ‘true love.’
Qian Ai couldn’t help but role his eyes. Even he knew that the third party was just pretending to be asleep because she didn’t want to get involved in the drama, and he’d never even dated anyone before. You’re willing to sacrifice your life for her, but she’s just using you as a temporary fling or a spare tire!
The girl let out a scoff. “You really think so highly of her, don’t you?” Miss Qian set off again, but not towards Trash Boy. Rather, she walked to Seat No. 4 and reached out to grab a hold of a corner of the blanket covering its occupant. “She’s afraid of you feeling embarrassed.”
Following her low, gentle murmur, Miss Qian yanked the blanket off.
Lying on the wide, spacious chair were a woman and a man, one on top and one down below. Their clothes were mussed and they looked pale with shock.
Thanks to his height, Qian Ai had a plenty good view of the scene where he was. The woman had slightly wavy hair, red lips, and a tiny waist, and the man was handsome and muscular.
Neither of them moved, frozen in their “intimate” position. Their eyes traveled first to Qian Er, briefly passed over a speechless Qian Ai, and finally landed on Trash Boy, whose face was twitching. “Hi.” They smiled awkwardly.
This slap in the face came too suddenly, coupled with the piercing of Cupid’s arrow. The young man’s legs faltered and his buttocks landed heavily back in his seat. He looked as if every cell in his body was rejecting this latest development in the situation.
At the same time, Qian Ai’s legs failed him and his buttocks fell into Wu Sheng’s seat. It was apparent now why Seat No. 6 had been empty. But—he was just joking when he made the comment about the spare tire and temporary fling! Did this scene have to unfold so dramatically? And how come those two didn’t make a sound during their passionate tryst? Did that damn blanket come with sound insulation?!
“How impressive of you.” Zhao Yi, who’d been gazing out the window, got up slowly and turned around to look at the man and woman behind her. Her face had lost its lively smile from earlier and instead looked rather scornful. “I thought you came with me to work.”
The sturdy man lost his composure and hurriedly shoved the woman off him, then struggled to straighten his clothing. “No, let me explain, we were just, it was just a heated moment…”
Qian Ai’s brain was throbbing. No one in his real life shared such complicated connections to each other. So the short-haired Zhao Yi and Sturdy Man were together, glasses-girl Qian Er and Trash Boy were another pair, the wavy-haired beauty cuckolded Qian Er and got Trash Boy’s true love, then had a “passionate moment” with Zhao Yi’s man?
Wasn’t it better to just live life simply?!?!
“Wait, Zhao Yi, don’t!” The sturdy man suddenly yelled in fear.
Qian Ai started, thinking the girl was going to do something foolish. He was about to lunge over to her, fully intending on stopping her no matter what self-harming weapon of choice she decided to subject herself to, but then he found that what was in her hand was that empty cup from before.
He stopped in his tracks, thinking that an empty cup was no big deal, but wait… hold on, what was her occupation again?
There was a flash, and the cup in Zhao Yi’s hand flipped over and disappeared. And then there came the roar of the king of the jungle from Seat No. 6. It was a roar that came down like a thunderbolt and caused a gust of wind to blow through the entire first class cabin.
Every single person was frozen in shock, not daring to move.
Qian Ai was the boldest, daring to at least suck in a deep breath of air, but his back moved unconsciously back into the seat and he did his best not to make eye contact with the majestic lion perched over in Seat Six. At the same time, he was trying to decide whether staying where he was and playing dead or picking up his legs and taking off would give him a higher chance of survival.
But neither choice seemed ideal, because this lion, who’d seemed so much like a giant kitty cat whilst asleep down in the cargo hold, was fully awake now and its sharp eyes were brimming with anger and ferocity. The golden-maned king of the lions.
He remembered now—Zhao Yi was a magician.
She should have specified that she was a bloody circus magician!!!
PFFT LOL POOR QIAN AI
I CANT BWAHHHAHHAHAHAHAHAAHAAA
Poor Qian Ai, he got first class and got all the drama!
thanks for the chapter! <3
Thanks for the chapter!
That was a wild chapter! 😂
Thanks for your hard work!
A simple love triangle became a love.. pentagon. All in the first 6 seats. And now a lion came to play. Wild:
This is the reason I love drama 😂