Referring to - 21

Chapter 21

When a loud "bang!" came from the right side of the plane, this passenger plane flying from S City to B City had already climbed to an altitude of 30,000 feet.

Lin Zixi had already dozed off due to tiredness from filming night scenes all night long, but he was suddenly awakened by this unusual sound.

"What happened?" He rubbed his eyes and turned towards Gu Zecheng beside him to inquire.

Gu Zecheng's face was very calm, and so was his tone of voice, but the words he whispered in young actor Lin's ear made people not calm at all—"The engine of the plane may have failed."

"Oh…. What?!" Lin Zixi was a little muddle-headed at first, but he almost jumped out of his seat when he reacted, "You mean the plane..."

He originally wanted to confirm with his dad if he had heard it wrong, but soon, the pungent smoke pouring into the cabin and the fuselage that began to shake violently proved that he had no auditory hallucinations just now.

This time, more than 200 passengers in the entire plane realized that the situation was not right.

A female flight attendant, who tried to sound unperturbed but was actually speaking in a trembling voice, made an announcement, waking up passengers to fasten their seat belts and take relevant safety measures. This announcement confirmed in a roundabout way that the BY2628 flight they were taking now had a high probability of becoming front-page news and lead story in every big media—with a headline that no one liked.

In an instant, frightened screams and helpless weeping came from the cabin behind like a raging tsunami. Even if the flight crew kept going back and forth in the cabin, checking luggage racks and reminding passengers to sit up straight in their seats, their expressions were tense, and their faces pale.

Lin Zixi had lived for more than 20 years in this life and gone through some storms, but this was the first time he encountered such a life-and-death crisis. Infected by the atmosphere in the cabin that was full of fear and desperation, he just couldn’t help but start letting his imagination run wild. 

In case the plane really crashed, would they change the script of The Legend of Concubine Ling and directly let Sun Yuwen be the first male while turning his role into the second male instead of changing the actor and re-shooting? He always thought of the missing Qiu Lianyi. Now that he also had an accident, he guessed Esther might obtain a name of ‘young actor killer’ and a nationwide legend of ‘whoever endorses it is unlucky’.

Young actor Lin brooded for a long time and eventually realized that dying in a plane accident when he was only in his twenties was actually not terrible. What was terrible was that when his mom, Mrs. Lin, looked at the victim list, she found that he was actually sitting together with his dad like the saying ‘the most important thing for a family is to be neat and tidy‘.... This would certainly provoke her greatly.

Thinking of that scene, Lin Zixi couldn't help trembling a little.

At this moment, a hand suddenly held his right hand, which was gripping the armrest of the seat tightly.

"Don't be afraid…. As long as the situation doesn't worsen, this plane should be able to fly for quite a long distance even with a single engine. We aren’t far from N City now, so as long as the captain doesn’t make a mistake in piloting the plane and the control tower is properly deployed, this plane will definitely make a safe emergency landing at N City’s airport." Gu Zecheng looked into Lin Zixi's eyes while holding his hand and said gently but firmly, "Don't be afraid, we’ll be fine." 

Lin Zixi suddenly felt that the speech uttered by the person next to him just now was the most pleasant thing to listen to in this world.

Just like a child who hid in his father's wide arms to seek refuge, his originally anxious heart was gradually comforted by Gu Zecheng's words and the warmth from his palm.

He blinked and confirmed to Gu Zecheng, "You really didn't lie to me?"

"I swear." Gu Zecheng pointed a finger to the sky.

But Lin Zixi still asked relentlessly, "What if you lied to me?" It was just that he did not realize it himself that the way he spoke was more like a child acting spoiled than questioning.

Nevertheless, Dad Gu understood that this young man beside him, whom had looked so vulnerable a moment ago but now was staring at him with bright eyes, was not distrusting him but merely asking for an assurance.

He smiled and held Lin Zixi's hand tighter, "If I lie to you, I’ll go to the Yellow Springs with you."

Lin Zixi was moved for a second and then reacted: his dad was just kidding, wasn’t he?!

Anyway, his heart had strangely and completely let go. It was not that he put his life and death outside the sphere of his consideration, he just firmly believed in Gu Zecheng's words—they would definitely be fine.

After that, young actor Lin began to look for someone to blame, complaining in a low voice in the ears of the man beside him, “You and I are people with Mercury retrograde, and you still made a bad joke about jumping off the plane while on board?!"

Big Boss Gu never expected that this fool did not even thank him after being calmed down by him; on the contrary, he began to lay the blame on him, and such a huge blame too.

He was not angry but felt funny instead, and he firmly refused to take the blame. "We can't jump off the plane. The air route from S City to B City doesn't pass above the sea, so even if the plane crashes..."

"Fuck!" Seeing his gold master daddy, who was as ‘unlucky’ as himself, was about to set up a deadly flag of ‘the plane crashes’, Lin Zixi was so frightened that he covered the other party's mouth with his left hand, "Bah, bah, bah! Children's words carry no harm, and everything is thriving!"

Gu Zecheng had lived until this age and was preached “children's words carry no harm” by someone who was much younger than himself. He could not help laughing all of a sudden.

The hot and humid breath sprayed on Lin Zixi's palm along with Gu Zecheng's laughter, making him faintly feel limp and numb.

For some reason, Lin Zixi's cheeks suddenly turned a little red, and he retracted his hand and hid it behind his back as if it had been scalded.

"You..." Just as he was about to tell his dad to stop laughing, he was interrupted by the flight captain's announcement.

"The crew has contacted the airport in N City, and the airport control center has started to prepare the runway for the plane to land. Please rest assured, we will land safely in N City within half an hour."

Most of the desperate aura that originally permeated the plane dissipated because of the captain’s words. The noisy cabin gradually quieted down, and the majority of the passengers began to pray while waiting for the ‘safe landing’ that came from the captain’s mouth.

Assistant Xiao Zhang, who had changed seats with Gu Zecheng, also calmed down. He put away the recording pen that had recorded his ‘last words’ for more than ten minutes and said to Lin Zixi in the row before him, "Brother Lin, I was almost convinced that I was going to follow you to flood Weibo's hot searches and entertainment headlines…. And without the company having to issue a press release and money."

Although young actor Lin had also thought about this before, noticing his dad's teasing smile, he still glared back and replied fiercely, "...Shut up!"

After that, Lin Zixi, just like the other passengers, began to wait quietly for the plane to land either safely or fatally.

Twenty minutes later, the plane, which had experienced a life and death situation shortly after departure, finally landed accurately on the runway of N City’s airport amid the bumps and jolts, and a huge cheer broke out in the cabin all at once.

Lin Zixi also let out a cheer and then realized that he and Gu Zecheng who were originally just holding hands had somehow interlocked their fingers.

But in the current festive atmosphere of escaping from danger without dying, he did not feel embarrassed by it. Instead, he wrapped his arms around his father's neck and said happily in Gu Zecheng's ear, "Fortunately, you’re here. Fortunately, you're here..."

Dad Gu was stunned, and after a few seconds of hesitation, he put his arms around the person in front of him, patted his back lightly, and did not stop until Lin Zixi withdrew from his arms.

Perhaps it was because the hug came so suddenly and lasted too long, until Gu Zecheng stepped out of the cabin, he could still sense the other person's body temperature and the faint scent of his perfume.

This scent was too sweet—Dad Gu reflected in his heart.

It was really too sweet.

TL’s note:

一家人最重要的是整整齐齐 = The most important thing for a family is to be neat and tidy, which means that after the death of the whole family, the bodies are all neatly displayed somewhere. Now it is often used to describe that people or things that appear in the family have suffered the same (bad) end. 

黄泉 (huáng quán) = the Yellow Springs; the underworld of Chinese mythology; the equivalent of Hades or Hell

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