Tall, Handsome, Skinny, and Fresh disappeared amidst the torrential downpour without a trace, as if they had never been on the plane to begin with.
“They won’t…die, will they?” Kuang Jinxin’s throat was hoarse from crying, but he couldn’t help feeling concerned for their opponents.
Xu Wang didn’t reply, because in truth, he had no idea.
“No,” Qian Ai answered from where he was still sprawled on the floor. The lingering effects of the taser numbing experience he received prevented him from getting up, but thankfully, his speech had recovered. “This place is like that; as soon as the injuries you receive pass a certain threshold, it sends you home in advance. I got attacked by a bear once, got catapulted into the sky by a fish tornado another time, and both times I just ended up back in the real world.”
“Isn’t the fish tornado an item for you and your team members?” Xu Wang asked in confusion. “Why would you end up getting sent home by it?”
Qian Ai looked away. “I refuse to recall those memories.”
Over by the plane’s wings, the passengers, who’d not reacted whatsoever at the spontaneous disappearance of Long Legs, began complaining about the bomb with pale, terrified faces. “Didn’t the captain say the bomb was disarmed already? It’s been an hour…”
Wu Sheng didn’t even bother answering them. He quickly punched in the remaining numbers for the password: 9, 1, 4.
Time until explosion: 01:40:00.
01:39:59…
01:39:59.
The timer stopped.
Wu Sheng didn’t dare believe that it really was so simple, but he couldn’t prevent the euphoria that spread within him.
“What’s up, did it stop?” From the back of the plane, Qian Ai stood up with the help of Xu Wang and Kuang Jinxin on either side, teetering unsteadily but still concerned about the situation.
Wu Sheng took a breath and was about to respond, but then something flashed before his eyes. He lowered his gaze back onto the bomb reflexively. The timer, which had stopped just a second ago, had now started up again!
And—
01:39:49…
01:39:44…
01:39:39…
The numbers continued going down each second, but every second showed a loss of five seconds. The timer had sped up to five times its original speed.
Xu Wang, who’d been called over by Wu Sheng, let out an expletive. “Fuck! Are they trying to kill us?!” He couldn’t accept this reality; all he wanted to do right now was stomp the bomb into smithereens, password be damned.
“No,” Wu Sheng suddenly remarked, shaking his head repeatedly, “we were wrong. Those two aren’t the culprits.”
“If it’s not them is it me?!” Xu Wang wanted to kill someone.
Wu Sheng suddenly moved in close until they were nearly nose-to-nose. “They don’t have a blood gourd,” he explained, each word coming out clear and slow.
Xu Wang felt his throat go dry. “Blood gourd?” he repeated quietly.
Wu Sheng nodded. “Yes, the pamphlet stated that a blood gourd would appear for the sacrifice. It has to fill with blood as proof of the sacrifice, that’s the only way one can ascend to heaven. If they’re such obsessive believers that they would sacrifice the entire plane, it’s impossible that they wouldn’t have a gourd like the one in the story hanging around their necks. But when Old Qian put those circles over their necks, we didn’t see any red silk gourd.”
“Maybe they hid it?”
“If they had the mind to plan that far ahead, they wouldn’t have kept banging on the doors until we came out with handfuls of evidence before taking off running.”
“Times have changed and society has evolved. Maybe nowadays when people make sacrifices they use some other kind of device?”
“If you use logic from the real world to think about this matter, then you’ll find that it doesn’t make sense. Think about it, how can there be such a coincidence? You just happened to trigger all the bags into falling, and those two just happened to be the only passengers who came to help pick them back up? If this were the real world, how low would the probability be for both ‘eager helpers’ to turn out to be the culprits of a crime?”
As Xu Wang stared at Wu Sheng, the tumultuous frustration within him calmed and he felt logic slowly coming back to him. “So everything we’ve been given that is somewhat related to the main storyline has some use. The pamphlet specifically stated that the culprit is wearing a blood gourd, so it definitely means something.”
Wu Sheng let out a breath and then reached out a hand to give him a complimentary pat on the head. “You finally get it.”
Xu Wang had half a mind to shove aside the bastard’s paws, but because of his early temporary loss of composure, he felt he didn’t have the leverage to do so and decided to just let him be.
He truly respected Wu Sheng’s ability to maintain his rationality and calm no matter the circumstance, even if he never told the latter so. Back when they were in school, whenever Xu Wang came across exam questions that stumbled him, they would knock him off balance so much that he wanted to flip his desk over, and all his answers to the subsequent questions would be a complete disaster.
He once asked Wu Sheng how to get past this problem of his, and the matter-of-fact answer he’d gotten was: Step one, skip the difficult question and keep answering others; step two, when you’ve finished the rest, go back to the one you skipped.
It was like receiving no help at all.
Because even if he skipped a question, he would always be thinking about it, and it would still influence his performance on other questions. Not to mention, even if he went back to what he’d skipped, it wasn’t as if he’d suddenly figure out the answer.—That was what he’d asked Wu Sheng back then.
If he recalled correctly, they were sophomores in college at the time; Wu Sheng had given an arrogant flick of his bangs, his entire figure oozing seduction. And then he’d replied—Why would it affect me mentally? There’s no question in this world that I can’t solve, it’s only a matter of what order I answer them in.
“People are dying!!!!” All of a sudden, there came an ear-splitting shriek from the passengers, drawing Xu Wang back to the present.
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.
Wu Sheng was already up and moving, he ordered Xu Wang to “watch the bomb” before taking off for the back of the plane.
Heeding his orders, all Xu Wang could do was mimic the other passengers, straining his neck to see what was going on.
Feng 61 and An 79, who’d been sitting on the ground, were lying flat on the ground as several flight attendants did CPR on them.
Three minutes later, Wu Sheng came back, his face somber. “They couldn’t be resuscitated.”
Xu Wang was shocked, yet at the same time struck by a surreal sense of absurdity as real world emotions mixed with this fake world to form a jumbled experience.
“Poison,” Wu Sheng explained, “They took it too fast, Old Qian and Xiao Kuang could barely react in time.”
Xu Wang let his head drop into his hands. He had been expecting to get clues from the two captives, but now it was just fantastic. They had to start from scratch again.
Time until explosion: 01:20:04.
Suddenly, Wu Sheng asked, “How many more passengers in economy haven’t you spoke to?”
“I got up to Hua 55, there’re about forty-something left,” Xu Wang answered, not really seeing what he was getting at.
“It’s too late.” Wu Sheng glanced at the time. “If the timer is five times faster now, it’s going off in sixteen minutes. We’re gonna have to gamble.”
“Gamble what?”
“Everyone in first class has a storyline, and I’ve talked to everyone in business class already and not found anything suspect. There are more people in economy, so statistically speaking, the culprit is in economy.” He continued, “But we only have enough time left to do one task. Either you tell me everything you know about the people you’ve already talked to and we focus on finding clues, or we split up and go converse with the people you haven’t talked to yet. So it comes to a toss-up, you have to choose: Is the culprit among those you’ve talked to, or those you haven’t?”
If he were going off instinct, Xu Wang would’ve been sure that the culprit was a passenger he hadn’t yet spoken to. But after experiencing Jiang 32’s incident, it’d taught him a painful lesson and he’d done some self-reflection; so after much thinking, he raised his head and made his decision: “The culprit is someone I’ve spoken to before.”
Wu Sheng frowned. “You spoke to thirty-something people, and there are forty-some left. Are you sure you’re placing your bets on the smaller group?”
Shrugging, Xu Wang said, “I’m not sure, but if you want me to choose, all I can do is go off my gut feeling.”
Wu Sheng studied him for a few seconds, then crooked his mouth up into a smile. “I trust your gut, I believe in you.”
The words came so unexpectedly that Xu Wang’s heart felt sweetened and he nearly lost hold of his composure. Right as he was fighting an arduous battle with his eyebrows, a tiny child’s voice interrupted their conversation—“Mister…”
Xu Wang and Wu Sheng turned their heads simultaneously and found themselves staring at a five, six-year old boy standing by himself in the aisle, staring at them with round, wide eyes. His face was fresh and pink and adorable.
“Little 14?” Wu Sheng recognised the kid naturally; he had been number one on Xu 20’s suspect list, and even been compared to Washington, Edison, Luo Binwang, and Cao Chong.
“Mister,” Shen 14 seemed to have been looking precisely for Wu Sheng, and burst into a cute smile, “my gran says she’s cold and wanted me to come ask for a blanket.”
“Your grandmother?” Wu Sheng asked, surprised. “You aren’t on this flight alone?”
“Hold on.” Xu Wang suddenly patted Wu Sheng sharply on the shoulder until the latter turned around. He stared at him meaningfully. “Blan-ket.” He broke the word into deliberate syllables.
Wu Sheng got him all at once. A soft Wu dialect spoken like Torrential Pear Blossom Needles suddenly wafted through their ears.
“I’m not flying by myself,” Shen 14 answered obliviously, still smiling. “I’m flying with my gran, but we’re not sitting together. I’m up top and she’s down below, she says she has a lot of space down there but it’s just too cold.”
Xu Wang: “…”
Wu Sheng: “…”
The air suddenly stiffened.
An old lady, a little kid… the most terrifying elements of every horror movie ever TAT
“Mister?”
“Erm, how about this,” Xu Wang said, having finally recovered his voice, though his throat was still tense. He tried his best to sound amiable. “Little boy, why don’t you go to the back of the plane and find a flight attendant jiejie? She’ll have a blanket.”
Shen 14 listened carefully, then nodded his head vigorously. “Thanks, Mister!” And then he ran off.
The cabin lighting fell onto his small body, forming a long shadow that followed behind him. Xu Wang kept thinking that something would crawl out from the shadow. He followed the boy all the way to the back of the plane.
A flight attendant happened to be coming out of the food service area. Shen 14 seemed to call out to her, but it also seemed like he didn’t; either way, the flight attendant didn’t appear to hear him and stepped around him.
Shen 14 was left there all alone, looking helpless even from the back.
Feng 61 and An 79’s bodies had been moved into a corner by Qian Ai and covered with a coat. Kuang Jinxin and Qian Ai were the only remaining people at the back of the plane; one was watching over the bodies while also sweeping his gaze calmly across the entire scene, and the other had nothing to do—you could say he was helping Qian Ai keep watch over the cabin, but in reality, he was just randomly looking around.
Very quickly, Kuang Jinxin’s eyes landed on Shen 14. He immediately stepped up and bent down to chat with the boy, a friendly smile gracing his face. Qian Ai didn’t move, but he took notice of the interaction, listening in with his ears.
Wu Sheng and Xu Wang couldn’t hear their conversation from where they were standing, but they could see clearly as Shen 14 gestured wildly in all directions, and then Kuang Jinxin nodding in response before turning into the food service area. Nearby, Qian Ai clearly heard their conversation, because he was different from Kuang Jinxin; he’d heard the phone call from the old granny. His whole body was tense and there was a noticeable “I hate horror movies, why is this being forced onto me” grimace on his face.
Xu Wang and Wu Sheng let out a simultaneous sigh, sympathising with Old Qian.
In the blink of an eye, Kuang Jinxin came back out of the service area with a blanket for Shen 14. The little boy must have said a ‘thank you,’ prompting Kuang Jinxin to ruffle his hair with a smile.
As the boy walked back, blanket in his arms, Kuang Jinxin watched him go with a satisfied expression that read, ‘Respect elders and love children.’
He watched the little boy, while his three teammates watched him, a complicated feeling in their hearts.
——Luck was probably something connected to other things: Age, character, appearance, height, personality, hobbies. Some people tended to score top points in every aspect, there was no point in being envious of such people.
Time until explosion: 01:10:09.
“Maybe we can call for everyone to take off their clothes and see who has a blood gourd around their necks?”
“They would just remove it from their necks as soon as you called out, why would they wait for you to find it?”
“…I have no more questions.”
Xu Wang shut his mouth, then used half a minute to comb through his memories. He recounted to Wu Sheng the details of every conversation he had from rows 23-55, talking the fastest he’d ever spoken in his entire life, until he gave everything he had within two minutes flat.
Wu Sheng didn’t interrupt him, descending into a silence that lasted so long that Xu Wang was about to feel that all hope was lost, until he spoke of the last passenger he’d talked to, Hua 55—
“What did you say?” Wu Sheng grabbed Xu Wang’s wrist all of a sudden.
“What do you mean what?”
Frustrated, Wu Sheng repeated himself. “What did Hua 55 say to you?”
“He said he also wanted to experience a speedy burst of passion at 30,000 kilometres in the sky, but that he was a long pear blossom in the rain who couldn’t find his begonia…” Xu Wang rolled his eyes, really having no desire to recount that conversation. “Are you just interested in trivial stuff like that?”
Wu Sheng ignored the jab and kept on topic. “‘Also’? He ‘also wanted’?”
“So I guess he saw other people doing it.” As soon as the words came out, he made the connection and froze.
“Yes,” Wu Sheng said, “that’s it. Who did he see ‘doing it’?”
In all their interrogations, everyone’s storylines had revolved around themselves, such as ‘what my job is,’ ‘what I like,’ ‘my boyfriend cheated on me,’ et cetera, but rarely did anyone ever speak of someone else doing this or that.
With Wu Sheng, Xu 20 had done so. In the beginning Wu Sheng had simply assumed him to be playing some sort of detective-type role, until the other person had taken the initiative and through that, given the players three suspects.
With Xu Wang, there was only Hua 55 who’d brought up a completely random topic without being prompted. When his words were seriously considered, they weren’t that simple.
Who had Hua 55 seen?
“Which two people? I don’t even know them, how would I know their names?” Hua 55 stared at Xu Wang suspiciously. “How come you wanna talk to me all of a sudden? You certainly weren’t interested earlier.”
Wu Sheng moved in front of Xu Wang and stared down at Hua 55. “I’ll listen to you, come on, say whatever you want.”
Hua 55 stared up at him, gulping unconsciously. He decided that he preferred the gentleness of the other guy. “The dead one,” Hua 55 revealed.
Surprised, Wu Sheng asked, “The two of them?”
“No, one of them, and the other…” Hua 55 stood up, sweeping around the cabin before locking in on one particular region. He scooted in close to Wu Sheng and followed up in a low tone, “Over there, the one in seat 91. The two of them were ‘doing the thing’ in the toilet earlier. For a long time too, mind you.”
All at once, hope sprang back into their hearts!
Seat 91… Wu Sheng recited off the Hundred Family Surnames in his head—Yuan! Yuan 91!
“They were… in the bathroom, you saw them?” Xu Wang shot a look over at seat 91. Its well-dressed occupant currently had his eyes shut in slumber. No matter how you looked at him, he looked like an educated businessman.
“Two men go into the toilet at the same time, raise a rumpus, and come out ten minutes later. You tell me, besides that, what else do you think they were doing? Sitting on the toilet talking about life?” Hua 55 twirled his silvery-white hair and stared at him as if to say, Mate, how inexperienced you are. “The world is different now, these days men and women are equal, and MM/FF are equal too.”
There was no need to ask any further.
It didn’t particularly matter what Hua 55 thought An 91 and Feng 61 or An 79 were doing in the toilet. All they needed to know was that An 91 was at least connected to one of the two. In all likelihood, he could have gone to each of them into the bathroom to do their ‘evil scheming’ but only got caught by Hua 55 once.
Time until explosion: 00:29:59.
Qian Ai, Wu Sheng, Xu Wang, and Kuang Jinxin gathered at the back of the plane. Two rows in front of them was Yuan 91’s backside.
“Are we ready?” Wu Sheng asked.
Qian Ai nodded, then took a deep breath.
“Let’s go,” Wu Sheng and Xu Wang said at the same time.
Qian Ai didn’t go anywhere, but his voice was loud enough to pierce through the clouds as he hollered: “口口口口口!”
The nearby passengers turned around in shock at his screaming. But when Qian Ai’s voice faded, no characters appeared.
“Huh?” He refused to give up and yelled again, “口口881234567!”
Still nothing.
Christ, Qian Ai cursed. Of course it would stop working now.
“Qian Ai,” Wu Sheng suddenly lowered his voice so that only the two of them could hear, “Leaves of Distraction.”
If this item’s usage had anything to do with its name, then it would give the exact effect Wu Sheng wanted.
They hadn’t strategised around this item, and it was the last item in Qian Ai’s stationery box, but he didn’t hesitate. He used <[DEF] Leaves of Distraction> on Yuan 91.
Strong gusts of wind suddenly started up. Enclosed within it was a long, green leaf that headed straight for Yuan 91 like a willow dart. At the same time, Wu Sheng darted off at the speed of lightning.
The green leaf obscured Yuan 91’s eyes, and when he tried to pry it off with his hands, it didn’t budge at all, as if it was rooted to him.
At this moment, Wu Sheng arrived before him and immediately caught a glimpse of a piece of red silk sticking out of his shirt collar. While Yuan 91 was distracted by the leaf, he reached out and yanked on the piece of silk, successfully tearing it off.
He stared at the silk in his hands; as expected, there was a glass gourd strung on it. It was exactly the same as the pamphlet said, Yuan 91’s glass gourd was nearly full but for a drop.
Wu Sheng returned quickly to the back of the plane and congregated with his teammates once again. Yuan 91 finally pried off the giant leaf and turned towards them with a dark look in his glowering eyes. He no longer looked human, but like a fanatical devil.
“Give the gourd back to me,” he demanded in a low voice. He sounded like his voice had been cut with a knife.
Wu Sheng stared at him from afar. “If you want the gourd, give us the password.”
Yuan 91 didn’t respond.
The entire cabin seemed to follow his lead and fell into a dead silence.
Time until explosion: 00:16:39.
There was only a little more than three minutes left!
At last, Yuan 91 spoke again, in an even lower, sharp tone. “Let me say it one more time, give the gourd to me.”
Wu Sheng pressed his lips together. His face remained smooth, but inside, he was starting to fret. They didn’t have enough time, they couldn’t just face off with An 91 like this.
“Alright, here.” Xu Wang suddenly spoke, grabbing the red silk from Wu Sheng’s hand. Except when he picked the gourd up, his hand somehow slipped and the object fell straight through his fingers. The silk ribbon fell apart, the gourd slipped off the silk, and then it was falling, falling…
“Ahhhhhhhh!” Yuan 91 roared in rage, hurtling himself towards the back of the plane.
Suddenly, Xu Wang squatted down and caught the gourd a second before it hit the ground, holding it up with one hand. He threw Yuan 91 a warm smile. “If you come forward one more step, I’ll let it shatter.”
Yuan 91 used the entire force of his body to stop himself in his tracks some two metres away from them.
“You don’t have the means to bargain with us,” Xu Wang said in a low, hoarse voice, mimicking Yuan 91’s tone from before, making himself sound like a villain. He stood up and looked the other man in the eye. “Either you tell us the password and we give the gourd back to you—after all, you just need one drop of blood. If you fail this time, there’s still next time—or, you remain stubborn. But I guarantee we’ll turn this precious gourd of yours into ashes before the bomb explodes.”
“Ai,” Xu Wang sighed, switching back to his own voice. “With the gourd gone, I wonder which devil all the lives on this flight will be sacrificed to?”
“0893.” Yuan 91 couldn’t bear it any longer. He stared fixated on the gourd in Xu Wang’s hands, his eyes bloodshot. “I’ve already completed my sacrifice. With this flight, it’s exactly 999 lives. All returns to the beginning from number nine ¹, may the true Spiritual Master bless me with immortality.”
Xu Wang shook his head, no longer wishing to converse with a madman. Even knowing this was all fake, it unsettled him to think of the 893 lives that had been lost.
Meanwhile, Wu Sheng had already shot out, shoving Yuan 91 aside and arriving in the middle of the cabin.
Time until explosion: 00:00:59.
He took a deep breath, willed his fingers to be steady, and pressed the numbers one by one.
0
8
9
3
Time until explosion: 00:00:09.
He waited for a good minute, but the numbers didn’t change. The timer had stopped for good.
“Give me back the gourd!” Yuan 91 cried out in impatience, wanting his end of the deal.
Xu Wang kept his eyes on him and stretched his arm out, the gourd sitting perfectly in his open palm. Yuan 91 came forward to retrieve it with a gleeful expression on his face.
Just as he was about to pick it up, Xu Wang flipped his palm upside down.
The gourd fell to the ground, shattering blood and glass everywhere.
Oh no. It shattered. What a surprise.
»An old lady, a little kid… the most terrifying elements of every horror movie ever TAT« +1 lolololol
Of course he would destroy it, stupid villain lol
Thx for the ch ٩(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )و
I bet the old lady and the kid were his victims…
thanks for the chapter! <3