Business class.
When the passenger who discovered the bomb had first screamed, Wu Sheng had run directly from first class to economy and passed through business class without looking around. As such, this was his first time truly entering the business class cabin.
It was a glorious scene that greeted him.
All the window shades were open, leaving the area so bright that it looked like the office of a glassy high-rise. Not counting Kuang Jinxin, there were 15 other passengers, and they were all busy within their own seats, either working, tapping away at a laptop, clutching an iPad, napping, or murmuring amongst themselves. Between the swift tapping of keyboards and the occasional exclamation of someone struck by sudden inspiration, the cabin resembled an efficient, productivity-driven battlefield.
As Wu Sheng stood at the entrance of the cabin, a feeling struck him—Who would bring his laptop here? He wanted to work too!
But fortunately, he was a man with clear priorities. He took a few deep breaths and suppressed the hot surge of entrepreneur blood that pumped through him and set forward.
In business class, the aisles were wider and easier to walk through than in economy class. Each row had four seats, separated two by two on either side of the aisle. No one paid attention to the “outsider,” everyone was too focused on their own matters.
According to Kuang Jinxin’s information, everyone’s names here were ordered. Starting from Zheng Qi (7) and Feng Jiu (9), it went Chen Yiling (10), Chu Yiyi (11), Wei Yi’er (12)… all the way to He Eryi (21), Lu Er’er (22). The only exception was Seat No. 8, which was his own seat.
This lined up with the information from Xu Wang. Right before the bomb was discovered, he talked to five people whose names were Yin Yilingling (100), Mu Jiuba (98), He Jiuqi (97), Huang Jiuliu (96), and Pin Jiuwu (95). 99 was skipped because that was Xu Wang’s own seat.
If there were no other exceptions, Wu Sheng was willing to bet that the passengers he hadn’t talked with were also named with a surname plus some numbers. The surnames, if ordered from first class all the way down, probably followed how they were categorised in the Hundred Family Surnames.
Zhao Qian Sun Li, Zhou Wu Zheng Wang, Feng Chen Mu Wei, Jiang Shen Han Yang… all the way to He Mu Xiao Yin. These perfectly aligned with the first 100 names in the Hundred Family Surnames. When Wu Sheng was in high school, he’d once memorised it for fun and could still recite it to this day.
At first, he’d thought that the password and the passengers’ names were connected, but now it seemed that even if that were the case, all the passengers were named after numbers between 1-100, which meant it was impossible to come up with an answer just by thinking. It was still necessary to follow the cheat sheet’s instructions—To use their mouths.
Time was limited, so Wu Sheng decided to go with a “one versus multiple” “chat row by row” strategy. Except right when he’d begun conversing with the first row, he discovered why Kuang Jinxin couldn’t find a single clue despite having talked to the entire cabin.
“You’re a friend of Xiao Kuang’s?”
“That kid is so likeable, and he’s so knowledgable!”
“That’s right, after listening to him, I’m craving some tea.”
Apparently they’d begun discussing tea right after exchanging names—What kind of “conversing” did Mr. Kuang call this? It was more like preaching a sermon!
But his efforts weren’t completely futile. At the very least, he’d turned all the women in this row into his “jiejie fans,” which greatly benefited Wu Sheng, as he was not great at making friends.
As he continued with his aimless conversation, he kept closely observing the three people sitting in the first row.
Sitting by the window was Zheng Qi, dressed in casual clothing and studying a file on her laptop like she was writing on a document.
The empty seat next to her belonged to Kuang Jinxin.
Across the aisle was Feng Jiu, a myriad of graphs, pie charts, and the like illuminated on her iPad screen.
Beside her next to the other window was Chen Yiling, busy making corrections on her Surface with a pen.
Writer, Sales, Teacher.
It took Wu Sheng mere moments to deduce their professions. Their jobs didn’t make them any less suspect, but it gave his interrogation a direction to focus on. The corners of his lips crooked up, which was something he often did when he was feeling smug or had a plan. It meant everything was under his control.
He launched a barrage of questions—
“I always wanted to be a writer, but unfortunately I abandoned those dreams to be pragmatic. Can you tell me about your work?”
“What a coincidence, I work in Sales, we’re in the same field.”
“It must be difficult being a teacher, what do you teach?”
This was the definition of high efficiency; what took others three minutes to accomplish, he could accomplish all at once in one minute. This was what you called skill!
His torrent of questions didn’t seem to annoy the three ladies. Rather, they answered matter-of-factly—
Zheng Qi: “I’m not a writer, I’m just an experiencer and I’m writing in my ‘First Time Experience’ journal.”
Feng Jiu: “I work in Finance, you work in Sales, how is that the same field?”
Chen Yiling: “This is my son’s homework, the school requires parents to help their kids correct schoolwork…”
There’s a proverb, it goes, If you step too far, you trip easily.
Mr. Wu, who managed to make the wrong assumption thrice over, withdrew his three ideas in resentment and sat in Kuang Jinxin’s seat for half a minute in recovery. Then he patted his face, lifted his head, and was once again a smart, wise young man.
“Experiencer? I’ve never heard of that,” he attempted a second time. His tone made it seem like the person who’d gotten his face slapped earlier was someone else entirely.
“Actually, it should be ‘first time experiencer,'” Zheng Qi said with a smile. “I only record my feelings experiencing things for the first time. First time going in the sky, first time going into the sea, first time riding a train, first time riding a motorcycle, first time eating king crab, first time drinking a mojito, first time dating, first time kissing, first time—”
“Okay!” Wu Sheng cut her off right in time. As a single lad, it was bad enough getting tossed into this fiasco, but having to take dogfood from an NPC was just too much. “So this is your first time riding a plane?”
“Yup, I was scared before, because even though aeroplanes are the safest form of commute, if you end up in an accident, it’s inevitable death.”
“But you still ended up coming.”
“Since I’m an experiencer, I have to respect my career. I hope to provide others who are scared of flying some experience.”
Both Zheng Qi’s voice and attitude were candid and natural. For the moment, Wu Sheng couldn’t find anything suspect.
From Kuang Jinxin’s seat, he was technically adjacent to her and could easily see the text on Zheng Qi’s laptop via his peripheral vision.
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.
…It’s different from what I imagined. If you close your eyes, you can’t tell that you’re flying. Before taking off, I was afraid something “thrilling” would happen, but after we started flying, I almost want something to happen. To those who really want to experience flying, including myself, perhaps—
…It’s different from what I imagined. If you close your eyes, you can’t tell that you’re flying. Before taking off, I was afraid something “thrilling” would happen, but after we started flying, I almost want something to happen. To those who really want to experience flying, including myself, perhaps—
Ktf nfgalmji ilcf oijrtfv bc jcv boo joafg “qfgtjqr.” Qe Vtfcu mbeivc’a uefrr ktja Itfcu Hl kjcafv ab asqf joafg la.
Dea “P jiwbra kjca rbwfatlcu ab tjqqfc” rbecvfv abb rerqlmlber.
Ktf wlceafr kfgf oislcu ys, jcv atlr kjr bcis atf olgra qjrrfcufg lc yerlcfrr mijrr. Lf kjr ajxlcu abb ibcu; bqfgjalcu boo atja atbeuta, Qe Vtfcu rqbcajcfberis gjlrfv tlr tjcv jcv ajqqfv ilutais bc atf oijrtlcu wberf. “Ufgtjqr ktja?” tf jrxfv yiecais.
He didn’t bother hiding the suspicion in his voice. It would be better if Zheng Qi was pushed into a corner and became enraged, exposing herself.
But unexpectedly, she didn’t get mad. Instead, her happiness seemed to escalate and she exuded a kind of energy that implied, “I was just waiting for you to ask.” Her face was beaming, radiating eagerness.
“Tada~” Humming a little background tune in her throat, she reached beneath her seat and dug out a giant bag, presenting it before Wu Sheng like a precious treasure. “Guess what it is,” she said excitedly.
“A para…chute?” Wu Sheng had used one of these before in the States, but who in the world would parachute out of a plane in the middle of a flight? The cabin doors couldn’t even open due to the atmospheric pressure at their current height!
As he mulled this over with a completely stupefied expression, Zheng Qi had already hit the call button.
A flight attendant came over with a friendly smile. “Hello, how can I help you?”
Zheng Qi’s parachute was already strapped to her back. “Please open the window, I want to parachute out.”
The flight attendant blinked stupidly. She looked like this was the first time in her life that someone had ever made such a request.
Wu Sheng finally reacted and forced a laugh. “Stop joking…”
Zheng Qi tilted her head and looked at him with creased brows. “I’m not joking though? I told you, I’m an experiencer, I dedicate my limited life to experiencing limitless things. I’ve experienced riding a plane, now I plan to fly.”
Wu Sheng: “…” Xu Wang, Old Qian, Xiao Kuang, what do you guys do when you run into lunatics? It’s urgent, help!
“Tch, if you’re not gonna help me, whatever. I’ll do it myself.” Zheng Qi bent down and dug under her seat again. A moment later, there was a cordless drill in her hands.
Wu Sheng was about to lose his mind. Was the space beneath her seat an endless chasm?!
Zheng Qi, drill in hand, suddenly turned around and asked, “You ever heard of boring a hole into a wall?”
“Boring a hole to borrow light?” Wu Sheng responded instinctively.
Zheng Qi smiled. “Boring a hole to break a window.”
[If you notice the conversation spiraling out of control, cut it off, don’t keep talking———]
It was his own fault for not paying attention to this warning!
Zzzzz—
The drill made an explosive sound against the window.
Wu Sheng lunged for the lady’s wrist, all gentlemanly pretense out the window, and yanked as hard as he could until the drill was in his hands. He shut it off, cold sweat condensing all over his body.
Dissatisfaction was written all over Zheng Qi’s face and she opened her mouth to protest, but Wu Sheng was faster. “Your experience isn’t comprehensive!”
She froze, drill out of her mind. “Why do you say that?” she shot back.
You can insult my character, but not my work—Ambitious youth all had this same problem. Wu Sheng didn’t need to understand Zheng Qi, he only needed to understand himself, because they were the same kind of people.
“You’re just emotionally experiencing things, without any solid evidence,” Wu Sheng handed the drill to the flight attendant and indicated for her to put it somewhere secure before turning back and continuing, “You say experiencing flight via an aeroplane isn’t satisfying, but in what way? Cabin pressure, temperature, food, and being enclosed within a tiny space all have effects on someone’s experience during flight, have you included these details?”
Zheng Qi: “I…”
“What’s our current altitude? Between 7,000 and 12,000 meters. If you parachute out from this altitude, you’ll be a frozen corpse by the time you land. What’s our current cabin pressure? Standard atmospheric pressure is 101.325 kPa, the current cabin pressure is equivalent to that of around 2,000 meters above sea level. Use the forumla and calculate it for yourself. By the way, don’t forget to add me as a co-author on your work.”
“You—”
“Remember, everyone has emotions, anyone can write a few words and call it ‘experience.’ The only thing that will make you stand out and make up the core of your work is the hard data that supports your experience.” He patted her on the shoulders, “Go on and write, after you’re finished, call me. And then we’ll investigate the matter of breaking the window.”
Zheng Qi shut her mouth, having no comeback.
After an extended stare-off, a light bulb suddenly went on in her head and she swiftly removed the parachute from her back, swept her hair up in a ponytail, and began furiously typing away on her laptop.
Wu Sheng let out a long breath. His wits were the only reliable thing during crucial moments.
“Xiao Kuang is cute, you’re smart.” The remark came from across the aisle.
Wu Sheng turned around to see Feng Jiu. First Experiencer Zheng, now Accountant Feng.
She made for a smart, capable picture in her professional jumpsuit, light makeup, and pretty features. Despite the chaos in the plane, her hair was still combed back primly.
“She was about to put a hole through the window, if I didn’t start using my brain, we’d all be dead.” Wu Sheng cut straight to the chase. He’d noticed that none of these passengers followed a normal script. Her neighbour was literally about to parachute out of the plane, but her only reaction was to watch the drama calmly from the side. If he continued playing by proper social etiquette and acting polite, he’d either exhaust himself to death or die in some other preposterous way.
“It’s not her,” Feng Jiu suddenly said in a low voice.
Wu Sheng, thinking he’d heard wrong, asked, “What did you say?”
Feng Jiu chuckled softly. “I said, she’s not the one who put the bomb there.”
This time, he heard loud and clear. Wu Sheng tensed up immediately. “You know who the culprit is?”
But Feng Jiu shook her head. She picked up the cup next to her iPad and took a sip. “I don’t,” she said, “but I just know it isn’t her.”
“You think?” Wu Sheng asked, frowning.
“Yes, I think so.” Feng Jiu sent him a flirtatious smile. “You should trust a woman’s instincts.”
Wu Sheng: “…” He was really questioning the entire world right now =_=
“Oh right, how old do you think I am?” Feng Jiu asked randomly.
Wu Sheng stared at her strangely, but then studied her. “37, 38, or so,” he said truthfully after a while.
Feng Jiu laughed even harder. The red liquid in her tall glass shook with her chortling movements.
“You’re so sweet,” she said in amusement. Her voice was low and soft as she leaned her entire body close to Wu Sheng, as if about to reveal a great secret. “I’m sixty.”
Thank goodness there was an aisle between them.
Wu Sheng didn’t move, but he forced a gulp down his throat.
“Wanna know how I take care of myself?”
“I don’t, thanks.”
Women weren’t the only one with instincts, men had them too. Such as now, instincts told Wu Sheng to cut off this dangerous topic as soon as possible.
Feng Jiu pouted unhappily and sat back in her seat, going back to enjoying her wine—if the crimson red liquid in that glass was even red wine.
Wu Sheng looked past her at Chen Yiling.
The parent was still busy correcting her kid’s homework, and quite frankly, was looking like the most likeable person in this entire row.
In the next three minutes, Wu Sheng did his best to bring out the Xu Wang in him, walking as fast as he could, talking at the speed of lightning and going around the entire cabin like a thunderbolt.
Chu Yiyi (11): “Want to hear me sing a musical?”
Wu Sheng: “Not at all!”
Wei Yier (12): “Why do I have test tubes on me? I’m a chemistry teacher, one of my students asked if I could conduct an experiment generating gas within a closed environment, and whether it would affect oxygen distribution in the cabin. As a teacher, I feel just a simple answer isn’t enough, so I must conduct an experiment—”
Wu Sheng: “I’m taking your test tubes, sit back down!”
Jiang Yisan (13): “Shh, be quiet, otherwise my wife will realise I’m on the plane.”
Wu Sheng: “Why are you hiding from her?”
Jiang Yisan: “I don’t want to correct my son’s homework.”
Wu Sheng: “…”
Jiang Yisan: “You guessed right, my wife is Chen Yiling, actually we—”
Wu Sheng: “I didn’t say anything, thanks.”
Shen Yisi (14): “Mister, t-the bomb, is it gone? I’m so scared, wuwuwu…”
Wu Sheng: “It is, the captain already announced it. If you don’t believe me, don’t you believe the captain?”
Shen Yisi: “Yes, I do! Mister, I want candy.”
Wu Sheng: “Uh, I don’t have any—”
Shen Yisi: “Wuwuwuwahhhhh—”
Wu Sheng: “…”
After finally managing to get a mint sweet from a flight attendant and handing it to the little brat, Wu Sheng stood in the aisle, leaning against a seat back.
He took back his earlier words.
Lucky Kuang Jinxin, who was still just watching over their opponents; Mr. Kuang Jinxin, who got the Cheat Sheet notification but didn’t get any clues after all his chatting in business class, Mr. “I Just Preach About Tea” Kuang Jinxin, wasn’t stupid. No, he was straight effing blessed by the gods!
“Hey bro.” Someone tapped on his shoulder from behind.
Wu Sheng didn’t even have the energy to turn around. He waved a hand, “I don’t care whether you’re 15, 16, 17, 18 or whatever your name is, give me some breather time.”
The person didn’t leave. Instead, they came up close and whispered, “I know who the bomb culprit is.”
Wu Sheng froze mid-breath and whipped his head around. He met a smug, smiling face.
The face belonged to a young man about 27 or 28, dressed in a hoodie and sweatpants. His hands were in his pockets. He had handsome features, but his looks were ruined by the conceited expression in his eyes.
“Xu Erling (20).” He stuck out his hand.
“Wu Sheng.”
“I know,” Xu Erling shrugged, “I’ve only heard you say it a million times.”
Wu Sheng didn’t waste any time on formalities with him and simply dragged him to the space between business and economy class, where they could stand some distance away from both cabins. “You know who the culprit is?” he asked straight away.
Xu Erling shrugged casually. “I don’t only know who the bomb culprit is, I also know that the bomb isn’t even disarmed and that the broadcast earlier was just a distraction.” He smirked and waved a finger at Wu Sheng. “Your tactics are too childish, you might be able to fool everyone else, but me? Difficult.”
Instead of speaking, Wu Sheng just stared at him. He was struck by a sense of deja vu, as if he often saw this smug, conceited face—all the time, in fact—and he wondered why it was so familiar. Too familiar.
“That kid,” Xu Erling said, suddenly lowering his voice. He darted a look at Shen Yisi, sitting off in the distance happily eating his mint sweet. “He’s the bomb culprit.”
“… He’s six years old.”
“Washington chopped down the cherry tree at that age.”
“That story’s fake.”
“Edison used a mirror and did an appendectomy on his mother.”
“That story’s also fabricated.”
“Luo Binwang wrote Singing Goose at seven, Cao Chong weighed the elephant at five or six. Those are real, aren’t they?”
Wu Sheng: “You’re set on bringing up every single genius kid from ancient times to modern times just to pin the crime on a bratty kid?”
Xu Erling didn’t have an answer to that, but he stared at Wu Sheng for a long while and grit his teeth. “I don’t have any direct evidence, but it’s suspicious enough that a six year old is on a plane by himself!”
This time Xu Erling’s theory was just a tiny bit more believable.
Wu Sheng shot a look towards Shen Yisi in his bowl cut. Logic and emotions started to clash within him. “He’s really on this plane alone?”
“You talked to a bunch of people earlier, but you didn’t see his parents, did you?” Xu Erling said, “If you don’t believe me, go ahead and talk to the rest of them. None of them are his guardians.” When he finished and saw that Wu Sheng still looked hesitant, he went on, “I already asked the flight attendants, he’s the only one who boarded the plane. It’s too suspicious. I think this smells like crime.”
Wu Sheng’s mind was sharp. He remembered every single person he interviewed, and every word they said. But he was also feeling a little off kilter and for the moment, couldn’t continue thinking in that direction.
If Shen Yisi was the culprit… Shit, was he supposed to torture the password out of a child?!
Bang! Slam! Bong!
“Ahhhhhhhhhh——”
Sudden noises erupted from the direction of first class.
First class and business class on this plane wasn’t sectioned off simply with a cloth curtain, but with a white sliding door that, once closed, rendered the other side invisible.
But those sounds pierced through the door into the ears of every business class passenger.
Sounds of something heavy landing, of people falling, of items crashing around, women screaming, men hollering—Even though Wu Sheng was standing in between business and economy class, some distance away from first class, he could still hear each and every sound bright and clear.
Then with a ka——, the door slid open forcefully and a tall, powerful figure came through before shutting the door again and charging towards Wu Sheng with long strides.
Wu Sheng watched, dumbfounded, as Qian Ai came towards him. Besides confusion, he was also feeling slightly relieved; the kind of warm and fuzzy feeling you feel when running into a comrade in a dead zone.
Even though he knew that things were probably not going so smoothly in first class, at least there weren’t that many people. Statistically speaking, there was a lower likelihood of catastrophe, so Wu Sheng felt he had the right to complain to Qian Ai: “Old Qian, listen to me, after a bunch of insanity unfolded here, now I’m supposed to suspect an actual child, god I should’ve taken first class when we split tasks—”
“I’ll switch with you then.” Qian Ai had arrived before him by then and was clutching both of his hands.
“Huh?” Wu Sheng wasn’t understanding.
Qian Ai’s eyes stared at him like lasers. “Do you know how to tame beasts?”
“Hah?” Wu Sheng was even more confused.
Thump——
The sliding door opened again. But this time it didn’t slide open, it crashed open.
A powerful, majestic lion leaped up to the back of Kuang Jinxin’s empty seat and swept its eyes arrogantly through the entire business class cabin before letting out a roar that made the forests and jungles tremble!
Xu Erling reacted first, letting out a “what the fuck” before turning and running off into economy class.
He seemed to wake everyone else up, as all the business class passengers began screaming and getting up, running off so that the cabin was emptied out in an instant.
The majestic lion didn’t mind them in the slightest. All it cared about was Wu Sheng and Qian Ai. He stared at them—”stare” wasn’t even the right word, because the lion’s eyes were half-squinted like it ruled the entire world.
Well, if there wasn’t a 靠 (fuck) hanging around its neck, a 开 (–away) wrapped around its body, and a 啊 (ah) hanging off its tail.
Wu Sheng: “Old Qian, I need an explanation.”
“I was chatting, and chatting, and chatted it into being…”
“And this… outfit?”
“Words of Pearls!”
“?”
“Fuck, Go Away, Ah. Aka the gradual deterioration of my mental sanity.”
“That’s surprisingly not that bad.”
Qian Ai: “I also yelled ‘Help,’ ‘Don’t come after me,’ ‘I’m not the cheater’ and ‘Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah,’ but it got rid of and shattered those characters already.”
Wu Sheng: “…”
HAHAHAHAHAHA I CAN’T
LMAOOOOO!! My boy Qian Ai’s so relatableee!!!
thanks for the chapter! <3
It’s xu 20 isn’t it.. why would he know it’s not disarmed..