“No!!” Yuan 91’s voice broke into an unnatural pitch as it shook. He practically flew towards the gourd, but could only watch as it shattered into a million pieces. He squatted there, staring woodenly at the red blossoming across the ground, and after a long time, raised his head with his eyes popping out in anger.
Xu Wang saw the fanatic desperation in his eyes. But he waited, and waited, yet Yuan 91 simply watched him without moving.
With all four of the standing and Yuan 91 squatting, by all accounts they had the advantage, yet Yuan 91’s scrutiny gave Xu Wang the creeps.
And then suddenly, a foot came out of nowhere and knocked the unsuspecting Yuan 91 down with a flying kick.
“This isn’t a date, what’s with all the staring?” Wu Sheng scoffed, then instead of removing his leg, he stepped over so that he was on top of Yuan 91, pressing him down. He looked up at the passengers. “Anyone have a rope?”
Throughout the entire fight, all the passengers had clung tightly onto their seatbelts for fear that if they moved an inch, they’d be shot down in the crossfire, but now that a winner had been determined and it seemed like the winner was the good side, a shaky hand belonging to a passenger Xu Wang hadn’t talked to slowly rose up.
“Give it here,” Wu Sheng demanded bluntly.
The passenger was quite generous, digging through his bag for everything that could be of use to the team: ropes, whips, candles.
Wu Sheng: “…”
Xu Wang: “…”
Qian Ai: “…”
Kuang JinXin: “…”
Just how many “unique” lives were hidden on this flight?!
Wu Sheng took only the rope. The others, finally reacting, went to go help him. A few knots and ties later, they had Yuan 91 packaged neatly like a zongzi. Whether it was mere coincidence or just habit, Yuan 91 was conveniently located right where the purple prison used to be. It was truly a reliable location, with ever-changing prisoners.
After all that torture, Yuan 91’s head was lowered, all fanatical energy zapped out of him.
Qian Ai wiped the sweat off his forehead and sighed. “That’s it, right?”
“Dunno,” Wu Sheng replied.
“You don’t know?” Qian Ai tensed up again. “Don’t scare me.”
Xu Wang also turned to Wu Sheng in confusion.
“If that’s it,” Wu Sheng stared back at him and pointed to his ear, “why haven’t we heard the congratulatory message?”
“…..”
Xu Wang had no idea how to answer that. Quite frankly, in the aftermath of the ecstasy of having caught the culprit, he’d forgotten completely about it.
Just as they descended into a confused silence, a sudden bright light flashed across the plane’s windows, brightening up the cabin for just a second. The light was blinding, prompting all the passengers to shield their faces from it. And then suddenly, the plane began shaking tremendously.
Kuang Jinxin and Xu Wang fell to the ground instantly; Wu Sheng grabbed onto the doorframe of the bathroom compartment; Qian Ai balanced the weight on his feet, teetering sideways for a few seconds before steadying.
Yuan 91 didn’t appear to react, considering he was already wrapped like a zongzi and therefore no matter how much the plane shook, all that could happen to him was slipping right or left.
The team assumed this to be run-of-the-mill turbulence that would pass in time, but rather than stopping, the shaking simply got more intense.
Qian Ai suddenly slapped himself on the forehead. “Shit, don’t tell me those two pilots are messing around!”
“Words of Pearls”’s effect was already gone, who knew what those two would get up to once they regained freedom?”
“Xiao Kuang, Old Qian, watch Yuan 91,” Team Leader Xu Wang calmly issued their tasks. “Wu Sheng and I will go into the cockpit to take a look.”
“I should go,” Qian Ai offered, “I know them well.”
Xu Wang patted his teammate helplessly on the shoulder. “Typically, we refer to intimacy levels that are just a step above ‘hatred’ as ‘resentful,’ not as ‘familiarity.’”
Following a tremor that was strong enough to nearly shoot people off their seats, Xu Wang and Wu Sheng hopped into the rabbit hole in the food service area and speedily made their way towards the cockpit. As soon as they came out, all they could see were the pilot and copilot furiously maneuvering the plane, their actions not resembling criminal activity in the slightest and looking every bit like they were doing their best to get them out of this situation.
“The bomb has been disarmed,” Xu Wang said, making his way to the stand behind the pilot. “What’s going on now?”
“Seriously?” The copilot turned to him with an elated expression, clearly reveling in this sole piece of good news to grace the flight since the start.
“Where are you looking, keep your eyes straight ahead!” the pilot reprimanded, although he himself glanced quickly at Wu Sheng. The pilot didn’t know him, but clearly he saw some merit in Wu Sheng’s face, because he replied, “The plane just entered a thunderstorm region.”
“What then?” Xu Wang didn’t understand the mechanics of flight, but the words ‘thunder’ and ‘storm’ both sounded not so great. It was no wonder lightning kept flashing through the cabin.
The pilot stared straight ahead. “Nothing, we just keep flying.”
Xu Wang cleared his throat and tried to make himself nonchalant and respectful. “So er, you’ve got this, right?”
The pilot turned to him a second time. “Me, I’m a professional.” His voice was low and steady.
If Qian Ai had been standing there and witnessed the serious, somber look on the pilot’s face, he would’ve said something along the lines of, “Christ, you’re just faking stubbornness.”
But Xu Wang had never seen the pilot being chatty before, so he assumed that the man was a stoic, brusque character by nature, and thus, shut his mouth instantly and used his actions to express his respect for the pilot’s professionalism.
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.
When they returned to the back of the plane, Qian Ai and Kuang Jinxin asked at the same time, “What’s going on?”
“The plane is in a thunderstorm, so the turbulence will last for a while,” Wu Sheng said.
Qian Ai’s face darkened. “Isn’t the plane on autopilot? Why didn’t it detect the storm?”
“Will… Will it be dangerous?” Kuang Jinxin asked nervously.
“I can’t answer your questions, I don’t know how to fly a plane. But the pilot…” Wu Sheng looked at Xu Wang.
Xu Wang caught on and nodded. “Yeah, the pilot said he’s a professional.”
Rumble—
Crackle—
Boom!
Thunder roared, lightning flashed, and the overhead cabins flew open.
The four of them stared at each other as sweat gathered in their palms. This was really not looking great.
“Punishment from the heavens.” From the floor, Yuan 91 suddenly piped up quietly.
The thunderstorm stopped instantly.
No. It stopped in their ears, like the world suddenly calmed down and quieted so the only thing they could hear was the unsettling sound of Yuan 91’s low, hoarse voice.
“What did you say?” Xu Wang also lowered his voice deliberately. It was important to remain calm at all times in front of people like Yuan 91; otherwise you lost.
“Punishment from the gods.” Yuan 91 laughed. “You broke the gourd, ruined the sacrifice, ruined by cultivation, but also destroyed the Dao roots of all 893 people. Naturally you’re being punished for such a massive crime.”
He had such a calm demeanor that it made his prior fanaticism seem almost like an illusion. But if you looked closely, the craziness was all in his face, hidden in his eyes, rooted and sprouted within his bones.
“Dao roots…” Xu Wang wanted to laugh, but couldn’t. Even though talking morals with someone so crazy was pointless, he couldn’t help pointing out, “You should ask those 893 people if they agree with that sentiment… no.” Suddenly, Xu Wang shook his head and moved closer to Yuan 91. “You can’t ask them any longer. They’ve passed through this life and moved on to new ones. The only one going to hell is yourself.”
Yuan 91’s face suddenly split into a maniacal grin. “I placed three surprises on this flight and you guys just discovered one. Going to hell? I suppose we’ll all be going there together.”
Xu Wang froze. He hoped Yuan 91 was just spouting nonsense in the face of death, but he couldn’t control the anxiety rising in him.
Yuan 91 tilted his head to the side and began mouthing something soundlessly. Xu Wang didn’t figure it out at first, but Wu Sheng understood.
Yuan 91 was counting down: Five, four, three, two, one.
Wu Sheng seemed to grab hold of Xu Wang in an instant, instinctively protecting him with his body. And as soon as he grasped Xu Wang in his arms, a loud explosion sounded within the metal wall at the back of the plane. The resulting flying debris was sucked outside the plane forcefully—and a large hole had appeared at the back of the plane.
The airflow in the cabin immediately flew into chaos as the different atmospheric pressure inside and outside the plane sent all four of them into the air.
The cabin was depressurising!
The thought flashed through Wu Sheng’s mind and he reached out reflexively and grabbed onto the door of the bathroom before his body flew up entirely, stopping his trajectory towards the hole.
Xu Wang’s mind went blank when Wu Sheng grabbed him, but when the explosion occurred, his first instinct was to put his arms around Wu Sheng’s waist.
This action ended up saving him and their two other teammates—When he held onto Wu Sheng on his own, Wu Sheng was able to use both of his arms to hold onto the bathroom door, bringing his strength to a whole new level. Qian Ai and Kuang Jinxin flew towards him, and soon, it was Wu Sheng holding onto the other three, preventing them from flying outside.
The other passengers, having realised what happened, had started screaming, but none of them moved, because getting out of their seats meant being sucked out of the plane. All they could do was cling onto the seatbelts whilst worrying about the four of them.
At the moment, Wu Sheng was hanging onto the bathroom door, Xu Wang was around his waist, Kuang Jinxin was hanging onto Xu Wang’s calves, and Qian Ai had his hands around Kuang Jinxin’s feet. They were like four flags stitched together, flying parallel to the ground, and any of them could be blown out at any second.
Yuan 91!
Xu Wang suddenly remembered that guy and searched high and low before realising that the tied up zongzi was already at the hole, except he was tall enough that he was able to use his head and feet to stop himself from going through the hole.
But ultimately, that was completely inadequate. The four teammates watched as his body bent forward by the force of the air outside, until at last, the pull became too much and he flew out the hole.
The second he went flying, the harried expression on his face suddenly disappeared, replaced with a crooked smile. He stared at Xu Wang, Wu Sheng, Qian Ai, and Kuang Jinxin with that smile as the air took him out of the plane. If he was about to die, then all four of them saw clearly that he was smiling before his death.
The continuous loss of pressure within the cabin caused the oxygen levels to fall. The flight attendants didn’t dare release their own seatbelts, but they reminded everyone in loud voices: “Don’t panic, everyone put on your oxygen masks—“
Wu Sheng’s hands were starting to go numb. He knew that if they continued like this, he would lose his grasp eventually and then they would all end up outside.
In a pivotal moment, he glimpsed the rabbit hole on the ground.
Taking a deep breath, he tensed all the muscles in his body and put all his strength into his hands. And then slowly, he released one hand so that the only thing keeping him and his teammates flying off was the one hand still on the door. With his free hand, he began reaching for the edge of the rabbit hole.
His fingers were nearly there… almost… just about… and at last, a third of his palm crossed the edge of the hole. He hooked his fingers over the edge so that they were firmly grasped, and then began moving his other hand over as well, forcing the weight in his whole body to move from the door to the floor.
He used all the strength in his arms to push his upper body forward, until his whole body was in the rabbit hole.
Instantaneously, the feeling of depressurisation disappeared. All was normal in the rabbit hole. Wu Sheng landed inside, then pulled his string of teammates inside as well.
“Holy shit, I thought we were dead for sure!” Qian Ai was so traumatised, he fell right to the ground, not daring to move for fear of ending up in the air again.
In contrast, Wu Sheng was a lot more composed. Despite the strength he’d exerted, he sat up first and looked over at Xu Wang. “Are you okay?”
Xu Wang didn’t reply, face flat on the ground with only the back of his head showing.
Feeling perturbed, Wu Sheng reached a hand out, but before he could touch him, Xu Wang suddenly turned around. There were a million question marks on his face. “Why was he smiling?”
Slightly speechless that Xu Wang was still pondering the villain when they’d almost just died, Wu Sheng said, “That villager, after he poisoned the village, he died too. Three days later he was reborn, and that was when all his physical ailments disappeared and he acquired eternal life. So sacrificing your own body is the last step to ascending.”
“I know, so I understand that he wasn’t afraid of dying…” By now, Xu Wang had gotten up, but he was still confused. “but we destroyed the sacrifice. Whether he dies or not, he can’t becoming immortal anymore.” He shot a questioning look at Wu Sheng and asked, “But how come at the very end, he was smiling?”
Wu Sheng fell into a brooding silence, understanding what Xu Wang was getting at. Yuan 91 wanted to becoming immortal, but failed. He wanted to kill everyone along with him, but failed. His last expression should have been one of failure rather than happiness and peace.
Unless… he was still confident in making sure they all died.
“Three surprises,” the two of them came to a realisation at the same time.
The password bomb was the first surprise, the explosion was the second surprise, so what was the third surprise?
“Wait wait wait!”
The aeroplane suddenly began shaking furiously. Following Qian Ai’s shout, the four of them fell against the walls of the rabbit hole. Before they could make sense of things, the plane began descending! Not a normal descent, but free-falling like a broken lift.
They struggled their way into the cockpit.
“What is happening now?!” Qian Ai was going crazy, if he knew all this was going to happen, he would’ve quit from the very beginning!
“The explosion just set one of the engines on fire.” The pilot responded without looking back.
“Wasn’t the explosion at the back of the plane?” Kuang Jinxin asked. “Aren’t the engines below the wings? How could the explosion damage the engines?”
“There were two explosions just now,” came the response from the co-pilot. His voice wasn’t as steady as the pilot’s, and huge droplets of sweat poured down his forehead. “One at the tail, the other at the wing.”
The four players froze and looked at each other. So this was the three surprises? But the two explosions went off at the same time. Logically speaking, surprises followed each other; they weren’t supposed to be simultaneous.
Yuan 91 was already gone. They couldn’t get any answers now. Xu Wang could only hope for a safe landing. “Captain, it’s alright for one engine to be on fire… right?”
“Are these the three surprises?” asked Qian Ai.
Xu Wang stood up in frustration, looking around wildly. “The password bomb was number one, the explosion was number two, what is the third? Another explosion? Where? The second was at the tail—“
The pilot turned and gave him a “look.”
He nodded immediately. “I get it, you’re a professional.”
“Mayday, mayday,” the copilot called into his radio, making contact with the ground, “This is Flight XXXX, we’re in the airspace above XX Airport. Our tail is damaged and we’ve got an engine on fire, requesting immediate landing.”
Kuang Jinxin raised a hand. “Why immediate landing and not emergency landing?”
“Because we’re already at our destination.” Wu Sheng dug out his boarding pass, where the departure and arrival times were clearly printed, along with the destination airport, which happened to be the one the copilot had just mentioned.
“Landing permitted, landing permitted,” a voice sizzled out from the radio. To the four players, it was like magpies singing in their ears.
Soon, the plane began preparing for descent. The pilot and copilot became serious, and the other four in the cockpit felt their ears popping.
At some point, the sky outside the window had become bright again, but the sun wasn’t fully out yet so there was just a sliver of light.
As the plane got lower and lower, the scenery on the ground became more visible. Lights stretched out, narrow and dense, a motorway was visible, and in residential areas, the lights were scattered like stars.
“Main landing gear,” the pilot ordered.
The copilot immediately followed his instructions.
The four players didn’t understand flying, but they knew that take-off and landing were the most vulnerable moments of flight; the knowledge made them tense imperceptibly. No one spoke and they all held their breaths for fear that they would disturb the pilots’ work.
But alas, what was meant to come would always come—
“I can’t open the main landing gear!” The copilot clearly intended to sound calm, but he couldn’t hide the terror and stress in his voice.
None of the previous two incidents had made the captain lose his composure, but at the copilot’s cry, his face suddenly darkened. After several failed attempts to rectify the situation, the captain made an impromptu decision: “We don’t have enough fuel left, we’ll have to make a forced landing.”
The copilot looked as if the world was about to end. “With one engine on fire, we don’t have full control over the plane’s body. A forced landing is going to result in a massacre!”
“That’s better than everyone dying! Every survivor counts!” the captain shouted at the copilot. He picked up his radio and made contact with air traffic control, “Flight XXXX, we can’t get our landing gear down. Prepare for a forced landing.”
He said “prepare” and not “requesting,” because he had no intention on speaking any further with the ground. As soon as he expressed his intent to the tower, he tossed the radio aside and focused all his energy on controlling the plane.
So this was the third surprise.
Xu Wang had no idea how Yuan 91 had managed to tamper with the landing gear; all he knew was that he had never in his life experienced such a nerve-wracking flight. He clutched onto the back of the pilot’s seat. “I know you’re a professional…” He had no idea whether he was cheering the captain on or trying to comfort himself.
The captain was silent for a moment, then took a breath. “Let’s just hope for the best.”
Wu Sheng: “…”
Hljc Cl: “…”
Bejcu Alczlc: “…”
Xu Wang: “Don’t just randomly change your line right now!”
Flight altitude 50 metres.
30 wfagfr.
20 wfagfr.
10…
All of them reached out to grab tightly onto whatever they could, readying themselves for what destiny had waiting for them.
The moment the plane hit the ground, there was certainly a lot of shaking, but the piercing screech of the plane’s body rubbing along the tarmac, the smoke, and even any possible resulting fires… none of that happened. The plane slowed down normally; after a period of rolling along the runway, it came to a complete stop.
Xu Wang was bursting with ecstasy and couldn’t help slapping the pilot on the back. “I knew you could do it!!!”
The pilot let out a deep breath, but couldn’t help muttering in confusion, “The landing gear suddenly came down, how strange.”
The four players could care less whether it was strange or not; all in all, the red-eye flight landed safely, and there was nothing else they were afraid of. As long as they no longer had to be in the sky, they could handle anything on the ground!
When they got back to the main cabin, the flight attendants had gotten up and were instructing the passengers down the emergency slides. The plane body was damaged, the engine was still on fire; in these situations, the most important thing to do was get everyone out of the plane.
The four of them moved along with the passengers and experienced the “slide” for the first time. Outside the plane, there were ambulances and firetrucks waiting, as well as ground personnel who were already conducting their inspections in order to prevent a second mishap.
Wu Sheng had just left the slide and landed on the ground when he heard a familiar howling cry. He looked over and as expected, saw Shen 14. He was about to go to the boy when a young woman approached instead. She had the little boy in her arms in a few seconds and was gently coaxing him: “Don’t cry, mummy’s here.”
Parents can come into this world?
Suspicion sprouted in him, but Wu Sheng tamped them down. They had been through so much, there was really no point in trying to fit logic from the real world into this one.
Not to mention, the young woman and Shen 14 were practically clones of each other, they were obviously from one family.
Shen 14 buried his head into the woman’s arms and began crying harder. “Mum…Mummy, Gran… Gran’s gone missing…”
Xu Wang, who’d been wondering what Wu Sheng was looking at, came to join him. But he caught only the tail end of Shen 14’s words and felt so much regret that he wished he could turn back time.
The young woman had no idea what happened on the flight. All she could do was comfort her son, and through her words, they finally learned the entirety of Shen 14’s storyline—The little boy had wanted to go on holiday abroad, but his parents were busy, so his robust, healthy grandmother had taken him herself. But the old lady had come down with a sudden unexpected illness overseas and passed away. Shen 14 had gone alone on the journey home, along with the box of ashes in the cargo hold.
But now, the box of ashes was missing.
Not long before, a ground personnel who’d just made his way beneath the plane suddenly came back out with a blanket in his hands. His manager, who was standing outside giving orders, asked, “What’s that?”
“A blanket from the cabin, I suppose,” the ground inspector said in confusion, “but there seems to be something inside it… strange, I wonder how it got into the landing gear…”
As the inspector spoke, he undid the layers of the blanket, wanting to get to the bottom of the matter. And soon enough, he did. Because the blanket wasn’t wrapped that intricately; a few seconds later, the object inside peeked out. After which… a chilly wind blew past the two ground personnel.
It was an wooden urn.
Carved with intricately-designed flowers; the right side of the box was engraved with the characters, “Of fair hills and clear waters,” and on the left side were the characters, “Rest in everlasting peace.” In the very centre was the photo of an old woman. She was smiling, her gaze seeming to meet the eye of everyone who looked at her. Peaceful, friendly, warm.
“Gran!” Shen 14, who’d exhausted himself crying into his mother’s arms, suddenly started shouting in excitement, having noticed what was happening.
The young woman followed her son’s gaze and froze, stunned. Naturally, she wasn’t afraid of her own mother, but she had no idea why the wooden box, which they’d carefully checked in, had ended up here.
But Wu Sheng and Xu Wang knew.
The old lady complained, the old lady hated the cold, but the old lady needed a blanket to be able to comfortably squeeze herself among the cold landing gears of the plane, in order to save her grandson, and the rest of the flight along with him.
What would have happened if Kuang Jinxin hadn’t given Shen 14 a blanket when the boy had gone to the back of the plane? Perhaps the flight would have met a different ending.
In the end, despite all the culprits and all the chaotic instances in the stage, the main mission had simply been in the form of a loved one’s blanket and a little bit of kindness.
All at once, a long-awaited voice sounded in their ears—
[Owl: Congratulations on passing, 2/23 tasks submitted! Dear, see you tomorrow~~]
T/N: In the chapter where Gran’s urn was first discovered in cargo by the team, her photo was described as “unsmiling.” 
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awwww they were saved by grandma’s love!
thanks for the chapter! <3
I didn’t even remember that granny wasn’t smiling before :’D But well, granny saved the day ٩( >ヮ<)۶
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
Aw that’s actually super heart warming. A little bit of kindness and a caring grandmother ensuring her grandson and all the passengers a safe descent.
I knew that kid and his grandma were important