Author: 颜凉雨 / Yan Liang Yu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 16: Division of Labor
Answers and explanations from the “veterans” have for the first time helped the “Fame and Fortune” mini squad, who have been blindly following the “Owl’s” rhythm, find their footing. Like a ship sailing through dense fog, suddenly the mist clears, allowing not only a clear view of the path they’ve come from but also a glimpse of the island ahead.
Right, there’s still the island ahead!
Xu Wang slapped his forehead. “Almost forgot!” He hurriedly leaned closer to the purple circle and asked Long Legs, “What exactly is in the third level?”
Unexpectedly, Tall Guy shook his head leisurely. “I can’t tell you now.”
“Now?” Xu Wang raised an eyebrow. “Then when can you?”
“When it’s almost five o’clock,” Long Legs explained systematically. “According to the agreement, we provide information, and you don’t send us back early. I’ve provided the information now, but whether you’ll really not send us back early, who knows. You hold the initiative, so of course, we need to keep some information as a guarantee of your compliance.”
He smiled amiably, but he was also transparently shrewd.
Stick Figure’s cunningness was written all over his face, but Long Legs’ was hidden under “calmness”. Xu Wang strongly suspected that, in reality, this guy was a wolf in sheep’s clothing*, a sly businessman.
*Pretending to be a pig and eating tigers (个扮猪吃老虎) Idiom referring to using scheming to deceive, deliberately pretending to be weak to let the opponent ignore you, and then taking the opportunity to win the final victory.
“Xu Ge, Wu Ge, I’m back.” Kuang Jinxin’s voice came from the “Clever Burrow”.
The moment he finished speaking, he had already climbed up, agile as a groundhog.
Seeing him alone, Wu Sheng asked in confusion, “Where’s Lao Qian?”
Kuang Jinxin subconsciously glanced at the four inside the purple circle, and considering the image in front of their opponents, some words must be chosen carefully. “Er, he’s… still discussing life with the captain!”
Inside the cockpit.
Qian Ai stood behind the captain and co-pilot’s seats, overseeing the flight path like a supervisor, occasionally tapping the shoulders of the two. “Hey, hey, you’re veering off. This way, this way. Don’t dive into that cloud cluster—”
The co-pilot wanted to turn around but couldn’t. His neck was restrained, and he could only beg in front, “Please look properly. I haven’t moved my hands at all, okay. It’s all on autopilot now…”
The captain, likewise, limited in movement, looked ahead with a tired spirit. “Sir, we’ve already made the broadcast as you requested. Could you please leave the cockpit? Not for anything else, but at least let us focus on flying and ensure flight safety.”
One against two, Qian Ai was a bit flustered and scratched his head, muttering, “I didn’t do anything. Besides, it’s all on autopilot, isn’t it…”
The captain said, “But your presence behind us is creating huge pressure. People under high stress can easily lose control, like suddenly switching to manual control, then deviating the route, engine shutting down, and the plane stalling…”
The more Qian Ai listened, the more he sweated, hastily interjecting, “Don’t threaten me!”
The co-pilot, enduring the pain, made a valiant effort to turn around. “It’s you who are threatening us!!!”
Then, he maintained the posture of fiercely turning back to glare at Qian Ai—his neck stuck, unable to move anymore.
It wasn’t that the co-pilot had any neck problems, but both he and the captain had been adorned by Qian Ai with “heavy shackles”. These were two wooden three-dimensional Chinese characters, similar in size to ancient shackles but even thicker, one “囡” and one “回”*, respectively, fitted around the two men’s necks like buckles, making even turning their heads difficult.
*Clarity: Child 囡, Circle 回. Note: These are the Chinese characters that have become three-dimensional, so look at the characters themselves, not at the meaning.
More importantly, these two “characters” were responsive to Qian Ai. If anyone tried to remove or destroy them, Qian Ai would be alerted.
The ability to create any three-dimensional Chinese character as a weapon through a shout—this was the reward he received in the first level, [(Offense) Words Like Pearls and Jade].
Unfortunately, for the three-dimensional characters he created, Qian Ai’s “sensory” and “elimination” powers were always present, but the “manipulation” power only existed at the moment of their creation. So, he could always sense if they were being touched or destroyed and make these space-occupying characters disappear anytime, but if he wanted to remotely move them, either as swords or shackles, the opportunity was only at the moment they were created.
But these were all details for later. At first use, Qian Ai felt the effects were utterly baffling—who could possibly fathom it!!!
To prevent the co-pilot from getting really hurt, Qian Ai quickly went up to “gently” turn his head back. Despite this, the co-pilot was still dissatisfied. “Couldn’t you have shouted ‘口*’ instead of ‘回’?
*Mouth.
Qian Ai tapped him lightly on the back of the head. “Such a big ‘口’, would that still be a shackle? That’s a necklace!”
Although the item’s effects were bewildering, both the captain and co-pilot seemed to accept it without barriers, which Qian Ai could only understand as “same worldview, same bunch of crazies.”
“From now on, until landing, is it all on autopilot? No need for manual control?” Qian Ai suddenly asked for confirmation.
The captain replied, “Manual control is needed for landing. Although autopilot can also complete a blind landing, given that landing is influenced by many factors like air currents, environment, ground conditions, etc., a tiny miscalculation can cause a huge accident, so switching back to manual control is safer for landing.”
Qian Ai didn’t know how to fly a plane, but since the captain said so, he believed him.
Taking a deep breath, Qian Ai shouted loudly four times, “000000—”
If one had to pick the biggest advantage of this stationery, it would have to be its immediacy. The [One Fell Swoop] and [Beyond the Nine Heavens] attacks they had faced, including Wu Sheng’s later [Wind That Sweeps Away the Clouds], were all one-off attack techniques. They were powerful but used up instantly. His stationery was a bit tricky to use and not always handy, and its lethality was even mood-dependent, but it had one good point—it was instantly available whenever he shouted.
As for how long this stationery could be used, whether its time effectiveness was measured in time, levels, or number of characters? Who cares? Isn’t there a saying, “When life gives you joy, revel in it; why bother thinking too broadly*?”
*This is a line from the poem Bringing the Wine by Li Bai.
As Qian Ai’s roar fell, six wooden three-dimensional Arabic numerals “0’s” instantly appeared out of nowhere, like a sudden downpour of numbers from the sky!
Qian Ai gazed at the “0”s, trying hard to squint and grimace, communicating his intentions!
The “0’s”, halfway to their descent, suddenly stopped. Then in the next moment, they scattered with a “whoosh” and firmly wrapped the captain and co-pilot in their seats, from chest to waist, then from waist to legs, three for each, firmly restrained, just right.
Shackles get!
Although the bomb’s countdown was four hours, and by all accounts, the plane should also fly for the full four hours, this was the “Owl”. Who knows if it might throw in an “early forced landing” twist, so it was better safe than sorry.
“I’ll come back to unlock you before we descend. And, I’m not a bad guy. I’m genuinely a righteous and passionate young man!” After summarizing everything in one breath, Qian Ai didn’t linger to see if the pilots understood. Feeling satisfied, he opened the round glass cover and crawled back into the “Clever Burrow”, quickly returning beneath the tea station at the tail of the plane.
“Wu Sheng,” Qian Ai called his teammate softly, looking up from under the hole. As soon as he saw Wu Sheng looking down, he immediately asked with caution, “Where are the other two?”
Qian Ai’s sense of crisis was always proportional to his robust physique.
“They went into the very back of the tea room. Been there for half a day now,” Wu Sheng first stated the fact, then added his reasoning. “They might be planning some shocking tactics, or maybe they’re snacking on airplane meals.”
Qian Ai continued, “Do you need me up there?”
“That’s a rather nonsensical question.” Wu Sheng squatted down, like a worried class teacher educating a stubborn student. “With three hours left until the explosion, and not counting us and them, there are still 92 passengers and 6 flight attendants. If we start questioning from the beginning, each person can only talk for 1.8 minutes. If we simultaneously question in multiple paths, the inquiry time for each passenger will double based on the number of us involved in the questioning…”
“No need to explain. I get it!” Qian Ai interrupted his teammate, climbing out with lightning speed, tackling his life’s first endeavor with speed as fast as the wind.
Wu Sheng watched him, not only getting it immediately but also acting on it and nodded in satisfaction.
Qian Ai smiled at him and then stretched his neck to peek into the tea room. “Xu Wang, Xiao Kuang, hurry up and come out when you’re done. We don’t have much time!”
More importantly, I miss you guys… TAT
Perhaps Qian Ai’s heartfelt call was too sincere, for not even a minute later, Xu Wang and Kuang Jinxin indeed came out. They didn’t carry anything in their hands, but they indeed looked like they had formulated some “secret tactic”. Before returning to the purple circle, Xu Wang even specifically put his arm around Kuang Jinxin’s shoulder, earnestly saying, “I’m leaving it to you.”
Kuang Jinxin patted his chest. “Leave it to me!”
Relieved, Xu Wang turned to see Qian Ai had returned, knowing the cockpit situation must have been settled. He didn’t inquire further about the “settling process” but directly addressed the current situation. “Xiao Kuang will guard those four, and the three of us will inquire about the password clues.”
“No problem,” Qian Ai readily agreed. “Where should I start?”
Xu Wang didn’t answer but looked at Wu Sheng—while not great at external communication, Wu Sheng was still trustworthy for internal planning.
Wu Sheng understood immediately, or perhaps he’d been eager to contribute after being sidelined for half the day, promptly saying, “Like I just mentioned, now there are 180 minutes left—no, 178 minutes now—a total of 96 people. If we proceed in three lines, it’s best to keep each person’s conversation within 4 minutes. This way, we’ll still have 50 minutes left for deduction and bomb disarming. If there are no issues…” He quickly surveyed the entire cabin, finally fixing his gaze on Xu Wang. “Lao Qian, you question the first-class cabin, I’ll take business class, you take economy class. After we finish, if there are no clues, we’ll continue in economy class.”
Xu Wang had no objections, just a simple lack of understanding. “Why am I assigned to the most crowded and chaotic economy class?”
“Why do you all ask such simple questions today?” Wu Sheng looked baffled. “You’re a chatterbox, and you talk fast.”
Qian Ai turned around, silently heading towards first-class to avoid being caught by the sports rep’s gratified smile—knowing he wasn’t the only one tortured by the class monitor, he felt balanced.
Just as Qian Ai, with an open mind, passed through the business class, Wu Sheng, who had been kicked, walked to the end of the economy class, and Xu Wang, who regretted only kicking once, also moved forward to the front half of the economy class. At that time, the handsome guy in the purple circle at the tail of the plane suddenly loudly reminded, “If you notice something is wrong, quickly end the conversation. Don’t linger—”
He really shouted with all his might. Not to mention Qian Ai, who had only reached business class; even if he’d entered first class, he probably could still hear.
Xu Wang heard it most clearly and felt the strongest sense of “concern” in the reminder. But this concern came from their opponents, so its authenticity and intention were rather delicate, and they didn’t have much more time to spend on those few.
Still, caution is never wrong, so they’ll heed it and act accordingly.
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