Wu Sheng and Qian Ai had planned that they would split up, but the lion hadn’t been in on the plan, so after they each went off to the side, it was still propelled by the momentum of its charging run and continued racing straight down the aisle.
In the few seconds it took Wu Sheng and Xu Wang to talk, the lion had reached the back of the plane. Its arrival set the passengers huddled back there screaming and scattering in all four directions.
Soon enough, the back of the plane was emptied out, leaving only its original occupants: Skinny, Handsome, Tall, and Fresh in the purple circle, and their overseer, Kuang Jinxin.
It was not until this moment that they came face-to-face with what had sent everyone running towards them.
Kuang Jinxin was stupefied by fear, stiff as wood, but he wasn’t standing directly in the centre of the aisle and thus, he was not the end target of the lion’s pounce.
What was directly in the path of the lion was the purple prison.
Skinny, Handsome, Tall, and Fresh were better described now as Pale, Pale, Pale, and Pale.
At the sight of the lion coming straight towards them, the tall one wailed, “I warned you people to stop the conversation if you felt something wasn’t right and to not keep going!!!!!!”
Hearing it for the second time, Xu Wang finally realised what the man had been trying to imply. He wasn’t trying to help his opponents with a friendly reminder, but desperately trying to save his own arse.
Before the last syllable of the man’s wail rescinded, the lion breached the purple circle at full speed.
In this instance, it resembled more like a fighting bull than a lion.
As if possessed, Skinny, Handsome, Tall, and Fresh lunged to the side, leaning their bodies flat on the ground. In fact, the purple prison was only meant to imprison their feet; they currently resembled four withered weeds in a potted plant—roots still in the pot, but bodies bent way outside the pot in all directions.
The lion rushed past the purple prison and crashed with force against the metal wall at the very back of the plane, emitting a resounding and deafening bang!
Skinny, Handsome, Tall, and Fresh were shaken from their close brush with death, but thankfully, all came out unscathed, save for the tall one, whose trousers were ripped where one lion claw scratched the cloth—it was his fault for having long legs.
Wu Sheng, who’d kept a close eye on the scene, suddenly shouted, “Old Qian, do your thing!”
He screamed with all his might, using up his dantian Qi, tremors traveling straight through his body to Xu Wang, who still had his arms around him.
Xu Wang took a deep breath, then secretly let it out, as he inconspicuously held Wu Sheng closer to him. The tip of his nose occasionally brushed against Wu Sheng’s clothing, the familiar scent of it sending him back to memories of Room 222, to memories now faded with the filter of time that evoked such a sense of longing in him.
His heart was jumping like popcorn, popping and crackling within his chest, but his face was tense and serious, revealing not a thing. He maintained his silent, still role of supporting a “teammate.”
It was not until Qian Ai started yelling that he was yanked forcefully out of his daydreams—
“8888888! 口口口口口口口!”
Qian Ai was in the seats on the other side of the aisle; his timid, hiding figure was a stark contrast to his loud, bellowing voice.
In the next instant, at the tail end of the plane—more specifically, right above the lion’s head, seven 8s and seven 口 (mouths) appeared out of nowhere!”
The sight stunned Xu Wang and sent Kuang Jinxin plus the other team members reeling. The lion, still out of its wits from the massive hit it’d taken, hadn’t recovered enough to notice.
The 88 and 口口’s locked onto each of the lion’s four limbs like nuclear missiles. One by one, the 口s looped over its body like hula hoops; three 8s interlocked themselves around its two front paws, three 8s interlocked themselves around its two back paws, and the last 8 tied its tail into a knot. The lion was completely bound and imprisoned, and not to mention it still hadn’t recovered from its prior trauma, so it would not be escaping anytime soon.
The other team’s members were dumbstruck. This ability, this outcome, this scene… was this a paid item?!?!
Despite his teammate’s praise and the other team’s surprise, Qian Ai was still cautious. He crawled out from the seats, took a deep breath, and bellowed again: “Steamed lamb cakes, steamed bear paws, steamed deer tail, roast duck, roast chicken, smoked pork, smoked duck, braised chicken, sausage, stuffed sausage!!!” ¹
Countless wooden block characters came falling from the ceiling, burying the bound lion in entirety so that it became a hill of Chinese characters.
The lion gave a measly fight, but ultimately gave up. Only loud puffs of coarse breathing could be heard from within the pile of wood as it expressed its fury.
Qian Ai let out a breath before coming carefully out from within the seats, eyeing the back of the plane.
He could have moved slowly, except beneath him, Ren 58, who Qian Ai had been sitting on the entire time, was over it. “Dude, do you mind doing your staring somewhere else?”
Qian Ai got up apologetically, all the while apologising profusely to the passenger he used as a meat pillow. On the other side of the aisle was the voluntary meat pillow Xu Wang, who maintained his position whilst looking up at Wu Sheng. “Who did you say was the owner of the lion?”
Their current position didn’t seem to bother Wu Sheng either, who went all in and put all his weight on Xu Wang. “Zhao 1,” he replied. He’d interrogated Qian Ai thoroughly in the midst of their escapade—”A girl in business class.”
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.
“Vtf uba mtfjafv bc ys j rmew ues?”
“Teq.”
“Ktf ilbc rtbeiv yf mtjrlcu joafg tlw atfc, kts ybatfg klat sbe uesr?”
“…Gb sbe rfglberis atlcx jcsatlcu lc atlr qijcf obiibkr cbgwji ibulm?”
“Vbggs, P’w ralii abb cjlnf.”
“Vjs, vbc’a sbe akb offi jkxkjgv ajixlcu ilxf atja?” Hljc Cl rabbv lc atf jlrif, rajglcu ja atfw ragjcufis. “Qts vbc’a sbe rajcv eq jcv ajix? Obbx ja tbk sbe’nf rdejrtfv atbrf qjrrfcufgr.”
“…” In his head, Xu Wang started kicking Qian Ai out of the plane 180 times without giving him a parachute; he was still having fun when he suddenly felt the weight on top of him disappear.
Wu Sheng stood up.
Xu Wang sighed internally and followed, although he continued forward and started heading out of economy class.
“Where are you going?” Wu Sheng asked, perplexed.
“To first class,” Xu Wang kept going without looking back, shaking out his joints, “Who knows how long those wooden characters can hold the creature? The person who tied the bell onto it has to be the one to take it off.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Wu Sheng turned to Qian Ai, saying, “You and Xiao Kuang keep watch here. If anything comes up, call us immediately.” Then he took off after Xu Wang.
Kuang Jinxin had no flipping idea what was going on; he was squatted on the ground, inspecting a nearby 儿 (er) character, picking it up with both arms, putting it around his neck and turning it in circles. He was completely immersed in what he was doing.
Qian Ai took one look at him, then glanced back to Wu Sheng’s quickly disappearing silhouette, and immediately lost all sense of security.
First class.
A short-haired girl sat calmly in Seat 1; a girl with glasses stood in a corner of the cabin, back towards everyone else; a man with “scum” written all over his face was behind her, quietly murmuring at her; another similar man with “scum” written all over his face but also with an ounce of “strong” was knelt before the short-haired girl, slapping himself across the face repeatedly in an exceedingly fake manner, his abysmal acting skills incredibly awkward to look at; and the only one sitting by herself was a wavy-haired, pretty lady in Seat 5, who wasn’t interacting with anyone but didn’t look so great either, with her pale face and smeared makeup. She’d clearly been through some fright, and she was staring out the window with terror in her eyes.
Xu Wang had never met Zhao 1 before, but he knew exactly who everyone was just by checking the seat numbers and quite frankly, observing the scene itself.
“Quit slapping yourself, your hands will die if your face doesn’t.” He approached the short-haired girl, yanking the “strong scummy” guy up and tossing him over to the side.
Zhao 1’s head was lowered. She wasn’t crying, but her eyes were despondent.
Xu Wang tilted his head, looking up at her face from an angle. His face broke out into a teasing smile. “Hello, you bad egg.”
Zhao 1, who was filled with suspicion over his sudden and random smile, froze at his words. “What did you call me?” she asked reflexively.
“A bad egg,” Xu Wang said, “You’re a magician, so the lion must trust you and like you, that’s why it listens to you. You two must be partners, must be friends, but you let it out to charge itself into a wall, regardless of anyone else’s safety or its own safety.” He blinked innocently. “What should I call you, if not a bad egg?”
For the first time, nervousness and genuine concern crossed her features. “Is it hurt?!”
“No blood, but it hit itself pretty hard, I’m sure it hurt.” Xu Wang sighed, “I bet it’s all internal injuries.”
Zhao 1 stood up in a hurry, wanting to head out, but Xu Wang got up as well and blocked her way.
“Wouldn’t it be better for you to send it back to cargo? It’s quiet there, there’s good airflow. It’s a good place for it to recover.”
Zhao 1 pursed her lips, not replying.
Xu Wang had no intention of excusing any of her emotions, including the unwillingness currently on her face.
He grimaced and then laughed helplessly. “You aren’t done getting revenge, so you don’t want to send your greatest weapon back yet, am I right?”
Zhao 1 looked up at him; this was the first time their eyes met.
“Who are you, really?”
The question came belatedly, but Xu Wang was happy to answer. His years working in real estate sales taught him one thing: As long as the customer was willing to talk, there were no contracts that couldn’t be signed.
“Xu Wang,” he answered easily.
Zhao 1 shook her head bluntly. “I don’t know you.”
“I don’t know you either, but I nearly died by a lion because of your heartbreak,” he deadpanned.
“I’m not heartbroken,” Zhao 1 maintained stubbornly.
That was the line Xu Wang had been waiting for. “If you’re not heartbroken, then who is all this drama for?”
Zhao 1’s eyes widened; she looked so ruffled that it somehow managed to look cute.
Xu Wang reached out to grab Strong Scum Guy again and opened his mouth to continue, but the other man broke free of his grasp.
“I’ve had enough of this, who the hell are you?!” He seemed to feel that just breaking free wasn’t enough so he gave Xu Wang an extra shove. A bellyful of anger had accumulated in him ages ago, but he didn’t have the guts to explode on Zhao 1, so now he’d found a perfect outlet.
Unprepared for the attack, Xu Wang tripped and fell.
And then Wu Sheng suddenly appeared, his face dark. He was about to butt in, but Xu Wang was already sending a flying kick at Strong Scum Guy’s sensitive region. “You cheating NPC, how dare you attack me?!”
The man let out a shriek of pain and staggered backwards, his face twisted in something between enormous pain and rage.
Wu Sheng stepped back and unconsciously put his hands protectively over his nether regions.
Over in the corner, Scum Guy #1 put a temporary stop to his “reconciliation” cajoling at his girlfriend’s backside and came marching over with an unfriendly face, likely on account of the fact that he and the other scum guy were both cheaters or something.
He headed straight towards Xu Wang with an ominous air, ignoring Wu Sheng completely.
But Xu Wang had his back to him, and he was busy dealing with Scum Guy #2, how could he have seen him?
Wu Sheng stuck a leg surreptitiously and generously out into the aisle, sending Scum Guy #1 flying magnificently. He landed with a heavy thud, face flat.
Xu Wang started, turning around in complete surprise. “What happened?”
“Dunno,” Wu Sheng replied, shrugging. “His shoes are slippery, I guess.”
Something didn’t add up, but Xu Wang didn’t have the time to ponder it. He turned back to his business and yanked Strong Scum Guy by the collar and faced Zhao 1. “Look closely, you could find a truck full of the likes of him from a dumpster if you spent all day looking. You should be setting off firecrackers to celebrate the fact that he cheated on you and thank him for sparing you! This is such a huge cause of celebration, why not toss him out and leave him far behind you? Do you have too much time on your hands, getting revenge on him? Aren’t you afraid he’ll cling to you and not let go?”
Strong Scum Guy was thoroughly miffed, but his lower waist was still throbbing in pain and he could only make a protesting motion; if he were to receive another kick, that would be the end of his baby-maker.
“And you,” Xu Wang let go of Strong Scum Guy and turned to the other scum guy sprawled on the floor, “Quit crawling on the ground, yes you, get over here.”
Scum Guy #1 had meant to come show his counterpart some support, but with the other guy already down, the last vestiges of his courage disappeared. He was currently playing dead as Xu Wang called his name.
Xu Wang was speechless. “Are you the one who got cuckolded right after you cheated?”
Scum Guy #1 jerked his head to the side. That summary of events was too accurate. So accurate that every cell in his body wanted to reject it.
An answer wasn’t needed; Xu Wang figured it out just from the guy’s face.
He pulled Scum Guy #1 and dragged him like a dead fish off into a corner, piled up next to Scum Guy #2. “You two find whomever you want, or hell, just get together yourselves. All in all, stay away from good girls in the future, they live in a different world and different dream, thanks.”
After disciplining the two scum guys, he turned and went back to Zhao 1. Without any warning, he asked, “What kind of men do you like?”
The girl was so flabbergasted by everything that had just happened that she unconsciously looked back at Strong Scum Guy.
Xu Wang turned her head forcefully away. “That’s a PASS, choose someone else!”
She blinked in confusion, but then began actually pondering the matter. “Outgoing, smart, easy to talk to…” she said slowly, a trace of shyness gathering in her eyes.
“That’s that then, I’ll help you find a boyfriend, you send the lion back into cargo.”
“…”
The matter was settled before Zhao 1 could even react, but Xu Wang was looking at her warmly, and it was an undeniable fact that he’d kicked the scum guy and helped her get revenge. She raised her hands and flipped them lightly.
In the blink of an eye, an empty cup appeared in her hands. She placed the cup back on her table and turned to Xu Wang. Her eyes were soft. “He’s gone.”
Xu Wang breathed out slowly. He started mulling over how to stall the matter of the “matchmaking”, at least until the bomb was disarmed. It wasn’t as if he could just spend all his time setting Zhao 1 up with people and pretend the bomb wasn’t there—but then Wu Sheng spoke up.
“Wait a second.”
He looked up to see Wu Sheng disappearing into business class. He was still wondering what was going on when Wu Sheng reappeared with a young man in tow.
“Xu 20,” Wu Sheng patted the guy on the shoulder, introducing him to Xu Wang, “outgoing, smart, extremely analytical, not only does he talk a lot, he also talks a lot. He’s a perfect match for her criteria.”
Xu Wang didn’t expect to have so much chemistry with Wu Sheng that the latter managed to provide a solution the very problem he was stressing over. Except—
“Mr. Wu,” he commented, staring at his teammate as if he had no idea where to even begin, “usually, when we use the words ‘not only,’ and ‘also,’ we use different descriptors in progression.”
Wu Sheng shrugged. “But I think emphasising it this way makes it stand out.”
“…”
Xu 20 interjected unhappily, “What did you drag me here for?!” Despite his question, he clearly had already figured out the gist of the situation with his quick thinking. Without waiting for a response, he glowered at Wu Sheng. “I’m not getting in a relationship until the bomb culprit is found!”
“Your suspect is six years old,” Wu Sheng rolled his eyes, pushing Xu 20 towards Zhao 1, “I think you should keep to dating.”
“You’re just afraid I’ll find the culprit before you do!” he protested. Insulting his deductions just made him unhappy, but obstructing him from his work really triggered his bottomline. “If you keep pushing me, I’m gonna be mad— Huh?”
Admidst all his grappling, he suddenly found himself staring into Zhao 1’s eyes.
The former was high-strung and agitated, the latter was silent and despondent, yet when their eyes met by chance, both of them felt it in their hearts.
If this were a scene in a shoujo manhua, flower petals would be flying all around.
“Er, um, I-I’m Xu 20.” He let Wu Sheng go—shoved him far out of the scene to be exact—and introduced himself after patting himself down.
Zhao 1 lowered her head and didn’t reply, but Xu Wang understood in an instant. This was probably going to work out!
He let out a breath, feeling a massive burden lifted from his chest and used his eyes to communicate with Wu Sheng: It’s settled.
Wu Sheng digested his message and then nodded in response. Now that this was settled, it was time to go back to economy class and make use of time.
However, Xu 20, who had started chatting with Zhao 1, suddenly stood up again and walked towards Wu Sheng in quick strides, surpassing Xu Wang and stopping before his target.
Wu Sheng studied the unexpectedly serious look on Xu 20’s face and raised a suspicious brow.
The other man cut straight to the chase: “I was purposely messing with you when I told you about Shen 14, I didn’t want you to find the culprit before me…”
Wu Sheng didn’t respond, having a feeling that Xu 20 hadn’t finished speaking yet.
As expected, Xu 20 leaned in closer to him. “I asked the flight attendants,” he explained in a low voice, “When they did their inspections before the flight, the bomb wasn’t there yet. So the thing had to have been put there after passengers started boarding. It was discovered right after takeoff, so the culprit must have taken the time to put it there when passengers were still boarding and busy with their baggage. One of the flight attendants who had been standing near the area helping passengers out said that when boarding had just begun, there were three people who loitered around the area the bomb was discovered, and not a single one of them is actually seated near the area. For that reason, they left an impression on the flight attendant, who found it strange.”
“You got all this info yourself?” Wu Sheng asked in surprise.
Xu 20 smirked, back to his arrogant, smug self.
“If you already got this far, and you’re afraid we’ll find the culprit before you do, why are you still telling me all this?” The logic wasn’t sound to Wu Sheng.
“Because he has something to focus on besides the culprit now,” Xu Wang interjected. His logical reasoning might not be strong, but he was especially skilled at reading people’s intentions and emotions. One look at the starry, blossom-eyed look in Xu 20’s eyes were enough to tell him that this “young detective”‘s life had turned down a new path.
“There are plenty of cases in the world; once this one is solved, there will be more. But opportunities to stop being single…” Xu 20 rubbed his nose, a rare flash of embarrassment crossing his features. After a moment, he cleared his throat and recovered. “Well, anyhow, I don’t want to be single for the rest of my life, so I’ll leave the rest to you guys!”
Wu Sheng looked at him, then looked at Zhao 1, finally comprehending. He didn’t expect that his random, spur-of-the-moment matchmaking to result in true love; it made him feel complicated, like someone who helps set other people up with wives and then goes home to realise he’s still alone.
“So who are those three people?” Xu Wang went ahead and asked, having no idea what Wu Sheng was spacing off for.
Xu 20 gazed up at him. “Jiang 32, Feng 61, An 79,” he revealed somberly.
I hope xu 20 and zhan 1 will be happy til the end of the flight
thanks for the chapter <3