Although going overseas to receive an award was no big deal, Kang Mu Cheng was somehow worried about letting Jian Jing travel alone, so he simply arranged a business trip.
It was another long-haul flight. The only difference from before was that there were more people this time.
Kang Mu Cheng had to meet with American publishers this time for some collaborations, so he brought his assistant, secretary, translator and lawyer with him.
The one thing Dai An was most grateful for was that her boss wasn’t stingy. By all reasoning, the secretary and assistant could only sit in economy class - heavens, a dozen hours on a long-haul flight, sitting in the cramped economy seats could really take your life - but Kang Mu Cheng had her book business class seats.
At that moment, the flight had been delayed by 30 minutes, and Dai An was sitting in the soft chair of the VIP lounge without feeling rushed at all. A delay of working hours, how nice.
“Dai An,” she was too naive. How could a boss allow employees to get paid while slacking off? Kang Mu Cheng said to her, “Can you do me a favor?”
Dai An: Can I say no?
"Okay boss." She responded mechanically.
Kang Mu Cheng handed her an English original book: “Read this, when we meet that author, I might need your help."
Dai An: “...” Although her IELTS score was good, she hadn’t done any reading comprehension for a long time.
“Sure, Mr. Kang." Despite her inner turmoil, the corporate slave still agreed with a smile.
Of course, in addition to arranging for people to work, the boss also opened his laptop, not knowing what material he was looking at, with a focused expression on his face.
“What's the difference between working overtime in the lounge and working overtime in the office?” The little princess poured condensed coffee onto ice cream balls and asked mockingly.
Boss: “Working hours on weekdays cannot be called overtime."
Little Princess: "..."
Dai An: *sigh*!
She was annoyed and flipped open the English book, painfully gnawing on the raw text.
"Pat pat," a little brat wearing leather shoes ran back and forth in the smooth hall, giggling from time to time, like a chirping little duck.
Dai An silently turned her head.
A beautiful woman walked over and said to the little duck, "Baby, your mommy is calling you."
"Mommy." The little duck turned his head to a chair not far away where an elegant and delicate woman waved at him. He giggled and rushed over with open arms.
"Kids can be a little noisy sometimes." The beautiful woman sat down. Her jet-black, glossy hair shone under the light like silk satin, with a subtle, lingering fragrance.
Dai An secretly clicked her tongue. She had also seen quite a few beauties. The female president she saw a few days ago was a rare, bright and easygoing one, not to mention the little princess. But the woman in front of her had a different kind of beauty.
Although she was already in her thirties, almost forty, she had a very feminine charm while still retaining a girlish innocence, a contradiction yet harmonious.
"Kids, huh." She couldn't help but pick up the thread of the conversation, feeling that she shouldn't ignore the woman.
The male assistant was even more awkward, abruptly interrupting: "It's nothing, don't take it to heart."
The beautiful woman smiled at him: "Thank you for your understanding."
The male assistant was at a loss, almost standing up to bow.
Fortunately, the beautiful woman didn't say anything more. She glanced at Jian Jing and then looked at Kang Mu Cheng: "I feel like I've seen you before."
Kang Mu Cheng was nonchalant: "Nice to meet you."
"Maybe I remembered wrong." She apologetically laughed and casually walked away.
Dai An mocked the male assistant: “You’re blushing.”
Male Assistant: “Cough.”
Jian Jing smiled and asked, "Boss Kang, have you met her before?"
Kang Mu Cheng said, "No impression."
"Interesting," Jian Jing said. “This flight is going to be fun."
At that time, Dai An just glanced at her without fully understanding the implication. Only afterwards did she suddenly realize - what was so fun about this? It was more like a rollercoaster of emotions.
"Passengers flying from Peace City to New York on XXX flight, please pay attention...”
The broadcast rang, it was time to board.
Those in first class and business class could take the VIP passage and did not need to line up. They got on board very quickly.
It was Dai An’s first time sitting in business class. She was very interested in getting familiar with the various functions. Her boss asked the little princess, “There are still seats available, should I upgrade you?”
“No need.” Jian Jing was focused on playing one last game while there was still internet, not even lifting her head.
Kang Mu Cheng put her carry-on luggage up: “What did you bring that makes it so heavy?”
“Snacks.”
Dai An lamented: She made a mistake. After getting off work past 9pm last night, all the supermarkets were closed already. She only bought some sandwiches at the convenience store.
The passengers took their seats and the plane took off, climbing, bumping, stabilizing. Some people started going to the bathroom.
The flight attendants began handing out drinks.
The little princess asked for a glass of champagne and drank it all in one go, preparing to sleep.
Dai An silently put on her headphones, turned on the reading light, planning to finish the first three chapters of reading comprehension while she still had the mental fortitude.
Time flew by quickly.
She finished gnawing through the content of the first chapter and when she looked up, the little princess was already asleep. She was covered with a small fuzzy yellow printed blanket, especially cute and fluffy, with cat paw prints on all four corners.
The blanket was not properly covering her and one of the pink cat paw pads happened to fall right onto Kang Mu Cheng’s knee, creating a strong contrast with his crisp suit pants.
Dai An held back a laugh and took a photo with her phone. The boss glanced at her.
Dai An: Look down at book.
The boss grabbed the blanket and stuffed it back into the seat beside them.
The high-altitude environment itself made people feel drowsy and thirsty. Dai An unknowingly drank half a cup of tea and couldn’t hold back wanting to use the bathroom.
Business class and first class shared a bathroom. In theory, with only some thirty plus people it shouldn’t require much waiting. But Dai An waited and waited, somehow managing to snag an opening only after a good long while and hurried to relieve herself.
Coming out, she heard some passengers chatting.
“Miss, the coffee is too weak, please rebrew another cup.” A lady said to the flight attendant, while at the same time comforting her child, “Baby, be quiet.”
She took a glance over - crap, it was that naughty kid again.
He covered his ears, his voice shrill: “Mommy, I don’t feel good.”
“You’re bothering others,” the lady stroked his back. “Lower your voice a bit, don’t move around.”
Dai An quite admired this kind of parent. She handed over a piece of chewing gum, “Do you want this? It might make you feel better.”
“Thank you.” The lady politely accepted it and gave it to her child. “You can’t swallow this down, you know that right?”
The child laughed and snuggled into his mother's arms.
On the other side, a man took a photo out from his business card holder and stuffed it into the flight attendant's collar: "Call me if you want to get in touch."
The flight attendant revealed an awkward yet still polite smile: “Sir, anything else I can do for you?”
The man laughed. “I’ll wait for your call.”
Dai An covertly rolled her eyes and deliberately squeezed by, “Excuse me, please let me through.”
The flight attendant conveniently walked over to the next passenger's seat.
“Miss, what can I do for you?”
The woman in this seat was tall and slender, wearing red high heels and a facial mask, painting her nails, “Get me a bottle of mineral water, iced but not too iced.”
“Of course, ma’am.”
Dai An returned to her seat, sighing in relief, and continued flipping through her book.
Next, the flight attendant began handing out meals, hers included a bread roll, vegetable salad, creamy mushroom chicken soup, fried fish, steak, spaghetti, two small cakes, a fruit cup, and a cup of yogurt. If needed, the flight attendant could also provide an ice cream scoop, strawberry or vanilla flavored.
To be fair, it was a pretty decent meal.
Dai An decided to fill her stomach first before continuing to tackle the dreadful reading comprehension.
She noticed that the little princess did not get up to eat.
Her boss said, "We’ll wait until she wakes up."
Dai An and the assistant exchanged a gossipy look.
After they finished eating, many people chose to turn off the lights for a little nap or watch a movie. Dai An also couldn’t hold out and put on her headphones to listen to music and doze off.
She didn’t know how much time had passed. This time it was the soup she drank coming back to haunt her, forcing yet another bathroom trip.
Dai An glanced at the bathroom light. Red, but it quickly turned green meaning it was vacant.
She was overjoyed and hurried over, afraid someone else would beat her to it. In her haste she seemed to have bumped into someone but she didn’t care and rushed into the bathroom. Only after coming out did she remember to apologize but upon seeing the people at the seats still sleeping soundly, seemingly undisturbed, she prepared to leave.
Just then, Dai An suddenly felt something was off. She took another look.
The other party had their eyes closed, head resting on a soft pillow, their entire face conveying a feeling she could not describe, one that was also hard to put into words.
Dai An felt a chill down her spine, not daring to look any further as she hurried back to her seat.
"Dai An?" Jian Jing had woken up and was happily having her meal. She asked, "What's the matter? You look rather uncomfortable."
Dai An could not put her internal feelings into words, and was also afraid of frightening the little princess. She forced a smile: "It's nothing."
"Your body seems to say otherwise," Jian Jing took a sip of coffee and cut into her steak, sending it into her mouth. Perhaps finding it bland, she added a generous amount of black pepper. "Take a rest if you're unwell."
She glanced at the napping Kang Mu Cheng, and mouthed: "President Kang won't say anything."
Dai An shook her head, trying to focus her attention on her book. But the English letters jumped out at her like a disco, stubbornly refusing to enter her mind.
She finally could not resist saying to Jian Jing: "That passenger over there is weird."
Jian Jing stuffed some bread into her soup and asked: "What's weird about him?"
"He's completely motionless," Dai An confessed. "Really creepy. Could he be sick? Should we tell the flight attendant? What if he needs medical help and we have to make an emergency landing..."
To her surprise, Jian Jing seemed to have heard something interesting. She immediately put down her cutlery: "Which one?"
Dai An pointed in that direction.
Jian Jing got up, walking carefully yet swiftly over to that seat. She observed closely for a while, then took a glove out of her skirt pocket, put it on, and checked his pulse before prying his eyes open.
Dai An watched as her expression turned grave, and she immediately called over a flight attendant.
She did not know what was said, but snippets of conversation drifted over.
Little princess: "He's been dead for over an hour."
Flight attendant: "Good heavens!"
Little princess: "Initial assessment points to [poisoning]."
Flight attendant: "This can't be real."
Little princess: "There's something wrong with the drinks, the murderer could be on this plane."
The flight attendant swayed unsteadily.
"Calm down," Dai An was shocked to find the little princess completely unperturbed, abnormally composed. "Contact ground control first, get the police when we land. You and your colleagues should try to recall anyone who came in or out, see if we can narrow down suspects between rows 1 to 13.
Dai An could not help but glance around the plane.
This flight had first class, business class and economy class cabins. There were curtains separating business class and economy, with flight attendant stations in between.
That flight attendant was also highly trained, recovering quickly from her initial panic and getting straight to work.
Jian Jing stood at the front of the cabin, taking in the whole scene...
Toilet...Galley...
1...a..b..c..d..e...
2...a..b..c..d..e...
...
Rows 1-2 were first class, Rows 11-13 business class, 28 seats in total. But this flight was not full.
The deceased was seated at 1b, right in the passageway to the toilet and gallery.
