Time until explosion: 02:10:04.
Jiang 32 would admit to the illicit drugs found in his possession, but wouldn’t admit to ownership of a little pamphlet?
The three of them gathered together and started flipping through the small booklet. The further they read, the less questions they had, yet the heavier their hearts became.
It was a promotional brochure—in other words, a gospel book. The book described the Master of Spiritual Zen as an omnipotent god. Believing in him would rid one of all calamities and illnesses and grant one’s soul immortality. The worst part was, the book provided a story detailing how believers could obtain eternal life:
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, a terminally ill villager was touched by the Spiritual Master in a dream. When he awoke, there was a small glass gourd hanging around his neck by a piece of red silk. It was less than a cun wide and transparent. Ever since then, the villagers converted to the Spiritual Master and sacrificed pigs, cattle, and lambs to him. Each time they sacrificed an animal, the gourd would fill with a drop of blood.
However, when there was only one last drop until the gourd would be filled, it wouldn’t fill no matter how many animal they killed. And so on the date the Spiritual Master was born (the fourteenth of September by the lunar calendar), the village hosted a large banquet and poisoned the food. In the end, one hundred or so villagers died and the last droplet of blood filled the gourd.
The Spiritual Master called upon the villagers for their “meritorious sacrifice” and blessed them with bodies free of physical ailments and immortality. As for the “sacrificed” victims, they became “chosen ones” whose souls ascended to heaven so they could follow the Master forever.
“What the hell is this?!” The matter gave Qian Ai goosebumps. He recalled the talisman on the cover of the booklet and got even more creeped out. “What a bunch of psychos, who would believe this shit?”
“You haven’t experienced any calamities or serious illness so of course you wouldn’t believe it, but those who live in suffering and desperately seek emotional comfort and sustenance easily believe these things.” Xu Wang had worked in sales for so many years. What he encountered the most were people and what he read the most were their hearts.
“September fourteenth by the lunar calendar…” Wu Sheng shut the booklet and looked at his teammates. “That’s today.”
“What are you implying?” Qian Ai’s eyes widened in disbelief as he stared back at Wu Sheng before glancing at Jiang 32, all the hairs rising along the back of his neck. “Don’t tell me this guy plans to bomb the plane and give everyone on this flight has a sacrifice to some Spiritual Master?”
Their conversation reached Jiang 32’s ears—although at this point, they weren’t exactly trying to hide from him—except he looked at them in horror. “This thing isn’t mine, it has nothing to do with me!”
His voice shook as he yelled and even the muscles on his face were shaking. The matter of ‘using every life on the plane as a sacrifice’ appeared to be doing a number on him.
But Qian Ai took his protest as the “desperate fanaticism of a follower” and grabbed the man’s collar in a rage. “It was discovered in your bag, if it’s not yours, what, is it ours?!”
Jiang 32 had middle-age weight on him, but he wasn’t tall. All the meat on his body added together amounted to only two of Qian Ai’s biceps. Held up by his collar, his feet were dangling off the ground, only the tips of his toes tapping the floor once in a while.
Xu Wang didn’t waste any time and used this moment that their opponent’s mental state was the most unstable to demand, “Password.”
Whether it was because of the thought of the entire plane about to be sacrificed or the fact that he was being severely misunderstood, Jiang 32 started weeping. “I really don’t know any password, I just brought some powder onto the plane. I would never dare to do something like bombing the whole plane…”
Xu Wang studied him for a good long moment and then sighed. “Old Qian, let him go. It’s not him.”
“But the booklet was in his bag…” Qian Ai didn’t want to give up. After two hours of torture, this was the first lead they’d gotten!
“His seat is far away from this area,” Wu Sheng analysed calmly. “Anyone can easily tamper with his bag.”
“But didn’t he get onto the plane late?” Qian Ai said. “If the overhead cabins were almost full when he got onto the plane, and he filled the last spot here, wouldn’t it be noticeable if someone else came rummaging through?”
Xu Wang suddenly recalled something and turned to his teammates. “What if, in the middle of the flight, bags and suitcases topple out of the overhead cabins?”
It took Qian Ai a while to digest the information, but Wu Sheng got it in an instant. “That happened? Who cleaned it up?”
“Two flight attendants, me,” Xu Wang paused. “And two other passengers.”
“Who?” asked Wu Sheng, impatient.
“I don’t know their names,” Xu Wang shook his head, although his eyes were shining. “but I can recognise their faces.”
And then came a call that broke the tense atmosphere—”Brother Xu, Brother Wu, Brother Qian!”—and settled the three of their hearts back down.
It was Kuang Jinxin, from the back of the plane.
Of course it was him; he had this mysteriously contagious zen aura about him that calmed people down as soon as they heard his voice.
They escorted the completely listless Jiang 32 back to his seat, put on his seatbelt, and then made their way swiftly towards Kuang Jinxin, thinking that the other team was starting something. When they got there though, all they heard was instrumental music floating out of the food service area.
The melody was gentle and soothing, but there was an urgent quality to the sound. It was the sound of a passenger call button.
“It keeps ringing, but I didn’t dare pick up.” Kuang Jinxin had witnessed all of Xu Wang’s ‘struggles’ in economy, he was too traumatised by the possibility of something crazy getting triggered. Plus he was aware of his own weakness in comparison with his teammates, so he decided to call them back for them to deal with the problem.
The other three exchanged glances. All of them had a bad feeling about this—if no flight attendant picked up after all this time, it was clearly a pit meant for them!
And yet even though a pit is a pit, in this great big world filled with pits, there’s a subtle difference in people’s curiousity and exploration of them.
Qian Ai raised his hand first. “It’s better not to add to our tasks, I say let’s ignore it.” His tone was amicable, but still visibly shaken from before.
“Let’s pick up.” Wu Sheng stuck his hands into his pockets. There was a facade of calm on his face, but his brows were furrowed in determination. “We’ve already been through so much, this one last round is nothing.”
Despite both men having said their part, none of them moved. Xu Wang suddenly felt like this was the moment of his calling; after all, weren’t they all waiting for him, their ‘team leader’, to make the call? Pride boiled within him, sending his blood surging through his body, which led to him reaching out directly to pick up the call.
Wu Sheng raised a brow in satisfaction.
Qian Ai clutched at his heart. It felt so bad being the outsider in the family!
At the same time, an old lady’s voice came buzzing out of the speaker. She spoke quickly, clearly filled with dissatisfaction. “How come I didn’t even get a blanket? Are y’all treating me like shit ’cause I’m just an old lady?! And listen up, the air conditioner is turned up too high! Don’t you know it’s easiest to catch a cold when you’re deep in slumber?”
The soft Wu dialect sounded like Torrential Pear Blossom Needles coming out of the old granny’s mouth.
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.
“Granny, don’t worry, give me your seat number and I’ll send the blanket to you right away,” Xu Wang coaxed in a hurry.
“Vfja cewyfg ws jrr, la’r rb fwqas vbkc tfgf, sbe pera rla ktfgfnfg sbe kjca.”
Ufgqifzfv, We Qjcu jrxfv, “Gbkc tfgf?”
“Ktja’r gluta, atf ilutar jgf rb yibbvs vlw, jcv atf qlamt yijmx vjgx lr afggloslcu.”
“…”
“Yt gluta, P jiwbra obguba. Qtja lc atf ibnlcu tfjnfcr lr kgbcu klat atlr qijcf? Cgf qfbqif jiibkfv ab yglcu ilbcr bc qijcfr? Ufbqif klii vlf lo la ygfjxr bea bo lar mjuf, sbe xcbk?!”
The three of them stepped back in unison, shoulder-to-shoulder, arm-to-arm, hand-to-hand, as if that was the only way to gather more warm Yang energy.
“Hello? Are you even listening to me? Hello—”
Clack.
Xu Wang pressed the END button.
“I told you not to pick up!” Qian Ai was on the verge of tears.
Wu Sheng was composed as if the incident didn’t bother him in the slightest, but even so, he shot a quick look through the corner of his eye to make sure the call was ended for certain before breathing in and out.
“Never mind, don’t be afraid.” Xu Wang gathered his wits and patted down the hairs that had risen along Old Qian’s back. “Just ignore this unimportant ‘supernatural call’ and let’s go back to looking for those other passengers.”
With the lingering cold from the cargo hold trailing after them, the teammates walked down the length of the plane twice before Xu Wang pulled the other two into the passageway between economy and business class.
“Did you find them?” Wu Sheng asked, reading the answer in Xu Wang’s face.
Xu Wang nodded.
Qian Ai swallowed nervously. “But your face looks like disaster is imminent…” He wasn’t much for reading people’s faces, but the authoritative look in Xu Wang’s eyes was impossible to ignore.
“Which seats?” Wu Sheng asked right away.
Looking up, Xu Wang replied, “61, 79.”
Qian Ai frowned. “Why do those numbers sound so familiar?”
“Feng 61, An 79,” Wu Sheng said somberly, “the two other suspects we were intending to interrogate.”
A few moments later, everything connected in Qian Ai’s mind. “What point is there to interrogating then?” It was obvious—”The culprit is definitely one of the two—wait.” Qian Ai’s face darkened. “Don’t tell me there are two culprits?”
Xu Wang and Wu Sheng didn’t reply.
Why not? There wasn’t a rule that said there was only one possible culprit.
It was impossible for Qian Ai to remain optimistic in the wake of their silence. “I don’t want to fight three versus two…” He sounded so desolate, as if they were the ones in the minority rather than the majority.
__
Time until explosion: 01:45:37.
All was quiet in the economy cabin save for the occasional flight attendant walking around, servicing the passengers.
At some point, two flight attendants stopped at two different seats as if just by coincidence, and both leaned down to speak with the passenger near them.
If you listened closely however, you would know that they uttered the same exact line: “Sir, excuse me. Your bag is taking up another passenger’s space, would you mind coming to move it?”
Each of the two passengers reacted in similar fashion, extraordinarily annoyed—
Feng 61: “There are assigned spots for bags?”
An 79: “Does it make a difference where I put my bag?”
But despite their protests, both of them still accompanied the flight attendants to rectify their respective issues, although one opened an overhead cabin right above him while the other walked two rows ahead to open the overhead cabin there.
Both of their belongings were sparse: Feng 61 had a double-strapped travel bag, and An 79 had a carry-on suitcase.
Right as they took down their bags, two silhouettes appeared out of nowhere—one lunged for Feng 61’s bag, the other grabbed An 79’s suitcase, and once captured, they took off running to the back of the plane!
The flight attendants had only been asked to request those two passengers to go to their bags. After all, it would have been impossible to pinpoint which bags belonged to them definitively, but the flight attendants were totally not expecting the ‘abduction’ that came after and were completely dazed with shock.
Feng 61 and An 79 reacted immediately, taking off after their bags, “Stop right there!”
But they were too late. When they reached the back of the plane, all they could hear were the toilet compartments on either side slamming shut. Unwilling to resign to defeat, they started banging on the doors, as if what had been stolen from them was not their bags but their lives. “Open up! Hurry and open the door!”
Within the lefthand bathroom, Xu Wang flipped the double-strapped backpack upside down, relieving it of its contents. A bunch of printed items scattered over the floor: small booklets, pamphlets, promotional brochures, and even a banner with “The Master of Spiritual Zen’s powers are boundless” printed across it. When they’d come up with this plan, Xu Wang had expected to find evidence in their bags, but he hadn’t expected this quantity.
Over on the right, Qian Ai tried with all his might but couldn’t get the zipper out from the password-protected lock on it. In the end he lost his temper and decided to stand on top of the suitcase and stomp up and down. In just a few seconds, the suitcase completely fell apart. Qian Ai pulled apart the disfigured pieces of the suitcase with a “hmmph” to reveal bundles of neatly packed clothing. The organisation was completely mismatched with the greasy An 79 banging on the door outside. Qian Ai flipped the suitcase over, all the clothing plopping to the ground. At the same time, a yellowish black sheepskin came tumbling out.
The sheepskin was about the size of an A4 sheet of paper. Drawn on it in dark brown was a scalp-prickling image of corpses all over the ground and rivers of blood flowing. In the sky, there was a person ascending upwards with a butcher’s knife in their hands. The drawing was simplistic, but the psychotic mania in the flying man’s eyes was still easily discernible.
Across the top in the centre of the sheepskin was the name of the painting: Sacrifice Into Immortality.
The incessant banging on the toilet compartment doors kept going until the nearby passengers were on the verge of ignoring it as background noise, when suddenly, both compartment doors opened at the same time.
Xu Wang’s arms were filled with the cult paraphernalia, Qian Ai had a sheepskin.
Feng 61 and An 79’s faces changed in an instant, losing all their former force. They took one look at the two men approaching them and hightailed in the other direction.
But Wu Sheng was waiting for them with a food trolley, and when he saw them approaching his way, he gave the trolley a shove and let it crash into them.
The skinny Feng 61 instantly catapulted into the air before crashing heavily onto the ground.
An 79, who was much sturdier, got knocked off balance and fell backwards until his butt landed right into the purple circle.
Tall, Handsome, Skinny, and Fresh moved their bodies out of the way but couldn’t move their feet; all four let out a simultaneous screech as the heavy man fell right on their legs, nearly fracturing their bones.
“Old Qian!” Xu Wang and Wu Sheng yelled at the same time.
Even before they’d come up with this plan, Qian Ai had already known the role he would play, and thus, before the other two called out his name, he already had six o’s called into being so that they entangled themselves on Feng 61 and An 79’s necks, three on each. The characters kept the two assailants imprisoned by their necks with no gaps at all from their shoulders to their chins. It made it impossible for them to have any sort of mobility in their heads so that all they could do was stare straight head from the shoulders up.
“The password,” Xu Wang demanded, approaching the two men, disregarding the other team still in the circle.
Feng 61 didn’t answer.
An 79 still had the mind to bargain, “Get these things off me first!”
Xu Wang bent forward, leaning close to them, and let out a sigh. “Taking them off isn’t a possibility, but adding more sure is.” He looked over his shoulder and called out in a placid tone, “Old Qian…”
Qian Ai didn’t move, but the two prisoners were already in so much pain from their predicament that they felt the terror in their hearts. More? Then their heads would completely separate from their bodies!
“0914—” They shouted, almost simultaneously.
Xu Wang exchanged a glance with Wu Sheng. 0914 was exactly the date of the cult’s banquet.
[Owl: Someone used <[DEF] Barrier Breakthrough> on you~~]
The notification in Xu Wang’s ear made his whole body stiffen, but he didn’t seem to feel anything happening to him. Beside him, Wu Sheng seemed to not have heard the notification at all. He was staring at Xu Wang questioningly. “What happened?”
“Not good!” Xu Wang sensed something and whirled around only to see that the purple circle imprisoning the other team was no longer there, and in the cold, fresh-looking one’s hand was an electric taser.
They had clearly searched their opponents’ bodies and clearly confirmed that their stationery boxes were empty, so how could they have items?!
Xu Wang couldn’t fathom it. Fresh Face was already grabbing onto Kuang Jinxin’s arm, as if meaning to use him as a hostage.
“Xiao Kuang—” Xu Wang took a step forward, but he was still too late. Fresh Face yanked Kuang Jinxin forcefully by the arm.
Except his hand slipped.
Fresh Face froze, the electricity crackling from the taser illuminating the flabbergasted look on his face.
By then, Qian Ai already reacted and leaped a great length in the span of a breath, his chest puffing up and down in anger. “Brother Wu was right! You had something planned all along by trading your information for us to not send you home! You just wanted to reap the benefits of our work!”
The other team’s members were all standing with their backs towards the purple circle. Aside from Fresh Face, none of the others had any weapons, but none of them would be easy to deal with sans the limitations of the prison. Their eyes were filled with antagonism, completely void of their buffooneries of earlier.
Wu Sheng, Xu Wang, Qian Ai, and Kuang Jinxin also gathered together and glowered back at them.
Fresh Face was still perplexed over his hostage-taking failure. “What did you do?”
Kuang Jinxin shot a look at Xu Wang, who shrugged. “Just tell him, so he acknowledges his own defeat.”
At his command, Kuang Jinxin revealed his white and glistening arms to the other team. As he showed them off, he explained smugly, “You couldn’t have imagined, huh? Brother Xu was afraid one of you’d grab my arm to take hostage of my stationery items, so he told me to use all the butter from the food trolleys on my arms. Tch, you think you can one-up Brother Xu? When he was selling real estate, you were still in your diapers!”
Wu Sheng: “…”
Qian Ai: “…”
Xu Wang: “Er, I think you should leave the threats to us.”
The other team were already readying themselves for a counterattack. Even though the first attack had failed, they were four versus four and not at a disadvantage. Not mention it wasn’t as if they really meant to kill anyone, they only wanted to submit the task…
Long Legs came marching forward without a warning.
Wu Sheng reacted quickest, immediately realising that the man was going to input the bomb’s password. He rushed to stop him, but was still a beat too late.
At this crucial moment, Qian Ai took a deep breath, getting ready to holler out more characters, but suddenly there was a breeze at his neck and when he turned, Fresh Face came upon him with the taser. The worst part was, it wasn’t out of power from its previous miss and was still sizzling with electricity.
Qian Ai moved aside too late—the taser landed right on him, and in an instant, he felt numbness spread through his body, which quickly gave way to immense pain. He couldn’t even feel his head.
“Old Qian!” Xu Wang called out in concern. He meant to go grab the taser, but as soon as he lowered his head, Skinny Pole came lunging towards him and knocked him down.
Skinny Pole was prepared. The second Xu Wang hit the ground, he grabbed Xu Wang’s arm in one motion and pushed his sleeves up. Xu Wang couldn’t wrestle himself free and could only watch as the long-legged opponent opened his stationery box from his wrist and clicked on “Cao Chong Weights an Elephant” to use for himself.
He had no idea whether items could attack their owners, but even if they couldn’t, they could still be used on any of the passengers. He knew what Skinny Pole was after—using up all his items so his stationery box was emptied out.
But something strange occurred.
“Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant”‘s icon didn’t disappear, and didn’t seem to have changed at all. Not even a flash. If not for the ever-vibrant icon still in the menu, it would’ve been easy to erroneously assume that the item was already in effect, which was why it didn’t react.
Xu Wang had no idea what to think of that, but Skinny Pole’s face was similarly masked in confusion, so he took this opening as an opportunity to shove the man aside forcefully. Qian Ai was still on the ground, not yet recovered. Kuang Jinxin and Handsome were having a stare-off, each just a step away from the other. Meanwhile, Fresh Face had benevolently decided to take the taser off Qian Ai.
In the middle of the cabin, Long Legs’ fingertip pressed “0”.
Smart strategising means nothing before those with nothing left to lose—It was undeniable that the other team took task submission a lot more seriously than they did. As if this wasn’t a “do our best” situation but rather, a “we absolutely must not fail,” life-or-death situation.
Their victory or loss rested on this one moment, and this single moment dragged in slow motion before Xu Wang’s eyes.
He watched Long Legs’ finger leave the 0 button, saw the dust particles that escaped into the air as the button bounced back in response to the contact, could see the wiggling of the flesh on his finger, watched as it slowly moved to the 9 button—
And then, just as Long Legs was about to hit 9, his finger froze, mere milimetres away.
Xu Wang felt a chill at the tip of his nose. He looked up, time returning to normal speed with the motion, and raindrops fell onto the corners of his eyes, streaming down his face.
It was raining. In the plane cabin.
“Fuck!” Skinny Pole suddenly howled in pain. As the raindrops fell onto his face, wisps of white smoke rose up from his skin. They didn’t pierce his flesh, but they scorched him, leaving behind red burn marks.
Handsome and Fresh Face weren’t doing any better. The pain sent them scattering for cover, ongoing battle completely pushed aside. But no matter where they hid, they couldn’t stop the rain from landing on them.
Near the wing, Wu Sheng had already knocked Long Legs down, the two of them a wrestling ball of arms and legs on the floor. Every once in a while, Long Legs let out an “aiya” as a raindrop scorched his skin.
Completely perplexed, Xu Wang reached a tentative hand out and caught a droplet, then mustered the courage to give it a lick. His tongue was unharmed but the rain was… salty?
He swept his gaze across the passengers. They were a miserable, wet mess, and everyone was using whatever they could to cover their heads: magazines, air sickness bags, clothes, blankets—but none of them were screaming in pain like the members of the other team.
The situation became obvious then. The rain seemed to turn into a corrosive liquid the second it touched their opponents; burning holes into their clothing, leaving behind red boils on their skin, causing them insurmountable pain. But for everyone else, including Xu Wang and Co., the rain was just rain.
“Fuck, Fuck this! Just because I’m a tiger that doesn’t roar, you, you think I’m… weak and stupid…” The words came out as a whimper, failing to evoke the fear in its listeners that it was meant to.
Xu Wang looked towards the voice only to see Xiao Kuang with tears streaming down his face, sobbing almost to the point of asphyxiation. Despite his tragic state, he was still hurtling out threats: “H-How dare you… tase my Brother Qian… he won’t, he won’t let you go even if he turns into a ghost…”
At the moment, Qian Ai was lying on the ground, his limbs not yet recovered from being tased. But his mind was conscious and he really wanted to let his team know: I’m still alive, Je suis vivant!!! ¹
Xu Wang understood then why Long Legs had hesitated for a split second before pressing 9. He had obviously, in that very moment, heard Owl saying in his ear—[Someone used <[ATK] Rain of Tears> on you~~]
So really, he hadn’t just instructed Kuang Jinxin to watch their opponents at random, it was planned. How does the saying go? You can’t bully righteous people, because they’ll zap your soul.
Kuang Jinxin cried for a full five minutes. In this span of time, he thought up all the sad, tragic things he could. But five minutes later, he had no more tears left to cry out.
Their opponents had already been scorched to the degree where their faces looked polka-dotted. When the rain stopped at last, they turned on Kuang Jinxin with glowering eyes filled with hate.
They didn’t even bother typing in the password anymore, just picked themselves up and started for the back of the plane.
With Wu Sheng still near the bomb and Qian Ai still lying on the ground, Kuang Jinxin and Xu Wang were the only ones present at the plane’s tail.
Long Legs flexed his wrists. “We didn’t want this to get nasty, but you asked for it.”
Handsome grit his teeth. “You can touch anything, but you shouldn’t have messed with my face!”
Skinny Pole raised his arms. “You heard of ‘an eye for an eye’?”
Fresh Face had somehow miraculously managed to pick his taser back up from the ground and it was currently making sizzling sounds, substituting his voice to express his desire for revenge.
The four of them got closer; Xu Wang took an unconscious step back and felt the metal wall of the plane behind him. He pressed “Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant” again but there was still no response. Beside him, Kuang Jinxin was still in a post-cry fog.
From the ground where he lay, Qian Ai shouted forcefully, “Come at me if you dare!”
The four stepped right over him, closing in on Xu Wang and Kuang Jinxin. When there was only two steps between them, Xu Wang suddenly held his breath and reached out to pinch Kuang Jinxin’s thigh. The boy let out a yelp, and his tears started falling again!
With his tears came the rain.
The other team was still traumatised by the first round of rain and let out a simultaneous “fuck,” their exclamation laced with rage, helplessness, and even a trace of pitifulness.
“Xiao Kuang, don’t blame me,” Xu Wang explained in a hurry, “this is all for the sake of the team.”
Kuang Jinxin didn’t even hear him, he was too busy pinching his arms, twisting his legs, engaging in various forms of self-harm in the most vulnerable places on his body.
“I mean bro,” Xu Wang reached out, trying to stop him, “you don’t have to be so brutal on yourself…”
Well alright then. Without any instruction from him, the kid was fully manifesting the proverb, “…hurting your enemy 1,000 times whilst giving yourself 800 bruises.”
It was like Kuang Jinxin had found some sort of enlightenment, because this time his tears came full-on, turning the rain from a slight drizzle to a torrential downpour to a thunderstorm. As the rain got heavier, the corrosiveness of the droplets became more intense.
The rain kept falling, but the atmosphere was the opposite of harmonious ². —Tall, Handsome, Skinny, and Fresh felt their bodies deforming. About five minutes later, amidst the “torrentially horrific” hot tears, they finally heard that familiar voice that sounded ever so sweet in that moment: Darling, I’ll let you go home early.
Finally catched up again (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧
No pitty for the four, just wanting to kill steal, eh? Go home~
Thx for the ch ٩( >ヮ<)۶
Ooh hope they don’t run into them again… not even IRL.
hahaha they messed with the wrong team! serves you right for trying to take their win without doing the work!
thanks for the chapter! <3
is c ao chong weighs an elephant a passive ability? i wanna know what it does c: