Legendary Captain

Chapter 208 Snitching

The following day at noon, Lian Shanxue and a group of flight attendants joined the crew and returned to Yunnan. Chen Fei and Lu Xinyu, who were originally scheduled to travel with them, were inexplicably switched to a slightly later flight.

Xu Xian sent a message to Lian Shanxue in the morning, and the two agreed on a time to meet at the company.

As soon as they got off the plane and arrived at the Star Travel Base, before they could even say a word to Xu Xian, Lian Shanxue and her group were taken away by various groups of people who had been waiting for them.

The pilots went to the flight department, the cabin crew went to the cabin department, and the security personnel went to the security department. Xu Xian watched as Lian Shanxue was taken away by people from the flight department right at the company gate.

However, Lian Shanxue happened to spot Xu Xian and gave him a reassuring look before leaving, which put Xu Xian at ease.

Since even Shanxue herself feels there's no problem, then there shouldn't be any major issues.

Bored, Xu Xian waited in vain for anyone, so he went to the duty building, booked a room, rested for a while, and waited for Lian Shanxue to finish her questioning before coming out to chat.

This time, the atmosphere of the conversation at Lianshanxue was completely different from yesterday. A large number of people were crammed into the conference room, and the sheer number of them was intimidating enough.

However, having already come to terms with it, Lian Shanxue felt nothing towards these fierce-looking investigators. She would simply state the facts and her own thoughts at the time, and she didn't care about the final outcome.

She had already earned enough money to treat her mother's illness, and being a pilot was no longer a profession that could restrict her.

With this mindset, Lian Shanxue appeared very composed when faced with all sorts of tricky questions from the Flight Department and the Safety Supervision Department.

The entire conversation lasted for more than two hours. Finally, the group of "interrogators" had run out of questions and let Lian Shanxue leave.

The conversation with the crew is only one part of the entire investigation process. Afterwards, there's verifying the cockpit voice and analyzing flight data. The whole investigation process will take at least ten days to complete. Then, the airline must submit all investigation reports to the regulatory authority. If the authority has any objections, a reinvestigation will be required.

The plane depressurizing and the captain falling into a coma is no small matter; at least for half a month, even the mountain snow will be unable to fly.

After leaving the conference room, Lian Shanxue first called Xu Xian. After learning that Xu Xian was still at the company, the two arranged to meet at a coffee shop in the company.

The coffee shop was on the first floor of the company. Lian Shanxue took the elevator downstairs and arrived, while Xu Xian had to rush over from the office building. So when he arrived, Lian Shanxue had already ordered her drinks and was waiting.

"Sorry, it took me a while to get dressed." Xu Xian didn't stand on ceremony. After sitting down, he picked up his coffee and took a sip, probably because he had walked in a hurry and his mouth was a little dry.

Seeing Xu Xian guzzling his coffee like that, Lian Shanxue sighed helplessly, "Did you take a nap in the staff quarters?"

"Yeah!" Xu Xian waved his hand. "Just waiting around with nothing to do makes people sleepy, so I just took a nap. If you hadn't called me, I could have slept until dinner time."

"Your sleep quality is really high!" Lian Shanxue took a sip of coffee, looking very ladylike. "Actually, you didn't need to come all this way. It's not a big deal."

"This isn't a big deal? Then what would be a big deal?" Xu Xian said with a smile.

"Like your emergency landing last time?"

Xu Xian was taken aback: "You've got quite the nerve!"

As he spoke, Xu Xian took another sip of coffee, this time not to quench his thirst, but to savor the taste. Upon tasting it, his brow furrowed: "So bitter?"

"Your coffee is still bitter? I specifically asked the barista to add extra milk, so the coffee flavor shouldn't be too strong anymore. You really can't stand even a hint of coffee?"

"I can't taste what a rich coffee flavor is, just like I can't understand what's so good about the fine wines my dad used to collect." Xu Xian chuckled self-deprecatingly. "It's like a wild boar can't eat fine bran; I'm just suited to drinking milk tea."

"Milk tea? I don't know if you have it here?" Lian Shanxue was about to order another one for Xu Xian.

Xu Xian quickly stopped him, "Never mind, never mind. But speaking of which, why is there so little coffee?"

Lian Shanxue raised an eyebrow: "Italian espresso, one sip and you're guaranteed to be energetic all day. Want some?"

As she spoke, Lian Shanxue pushed her cup directly in front of Xu Xian, showing no concern that she had already drunk from it.

"Forget about this, it's just a tiny bit, I won't take it from you." Xu Xian naturally pushed the cup back to Lian Shanxue: "Tell me about your situation, let me give you some advice."

"What's there to advise on? The outcome won't change anything. Just wait for the company to announce it." Lian Shanxue seemed quite nonchalant, as if she really didn't take the plane depressurization issue seriously.

Xu Xian said somewhat helplessly, "You seem to take it all in stride. Let's just treat this as a storytelling session and go ahead and tell us."

"You want to hear it? Okay then." Lian Shanxue leaned back in her chair. "It all started with a muffled thud."

When Lian Shanxue was telling Xu Xian about her story, she spoke with great enthusiasm, just like a storyteller. Xu Xian, as the listener, rarely interrupted and mostly listened quietly.

Even when he heard that Lian Shanxue had given her oxygen mask to the instructor, Xu Xian's expression only changed slightly, and he did not ask any further questions. In contrast, Lian Shanxue did not explain in detail why she did so.

The two seemed to have a perfect understanding; one spoke, and the other listened, achieving a unique harmony.

"Then the tow truck towed us to the parking spot. After arriving at the port, those who needed to be sent to the hospital went to the hospital, and those who needed to be disembarked got off the plane. We were taken to a hotel for the night by the manager of the Rongcheng base. After resting for a while, we were taken to the Rongcheng base for a talk." When Lian Shanxue explained to Xu Xian, she spoke much more simply, and finished in about half an hour. Of course, a large part of the reason was that Xu Xian was a very good listener and hardly interrupted Lian Shanxue.

The narrative flows smoothly from beginning to end, starting with the snow-covered mountains.

"Giving your oxygen mask to someone else? You're being incredibly reckless. Although it's not as thin as it is at 40,000 feet, it's still dangerous. You're too daring." Even though Xu Xian didn't object to Lian Shanxue's actions, he still broke out in a cold sweat.

Lian Shanxue blinked, then asked Xu Xian playfully, "If it were you, what would you do?"

"Me?" Xu Xian's mind raced for a moment: "I guess I just ignored the plane, unbuckled my seatbelt, and got up to reach for the oxygen mask over the captain's side."

"Aren't you afraid that the plane will enter a complex state due to lack of control during the process?"

"Tch!" Xu Xian let out a disdainful sneer: "Except for certain special and complex states, I can modify them all. But those complex states that cannot be modified are not something you can enter at will."

Extremely dangerous deep spirals and Dutch rolls can only be entered under specific circumstances; they cannot be entered automatically by the pilot simply leaving the aircraft unattended.

"Anything can be changed!" Lian Shanxue's eyes narrowed into two crescent moons with laughter; she seemed genuinely happy. "Aren't you afraid of biting off more than you can chew?"

"To be honest, how could I have slipped up?" Xu Xian said without changing his expression. It wasn't that he was thick-skinned, but that he genuinely believed he could change anything except for certain special and complicated situations; he was that confident.

"However, what you said is the same as what Lu Xinyu said," Lian Shanxue suddenly said.

Lu Xinyu had previously said that instead of taking off his own oxygen mask, he should ignore the aircraft, get up, reach for the left-side oxygen mask, and put it on the instructor. Then they could readjust the aircraft's status.

"Lu Xinyu? He mentioned him during your conversation yesterday?"

Lian Shanxue was taken aback: "How did you know Lu Xinyu was present during yesterday's conversation?"

She only remembered telling Xu Xian about their conversation at the Rongcheng base, without mentioning who she was talking to. How come Xu Xian pointed it out so directly?

Xu Xian glanced around to make sure no one was at the surrounding tables, then chuckled, "Didn't you nearly drive Lu Xinyu crazy yesterday?"

Lu Xinyu is, after all, the deputy general manager of the flight department. If there are people around, he can't openly say bad things about Lu Xinyu.

"Wait, where did you get this information from?" Lian Shanxue wrinkled her nose in slight annoyance. "You don't already know what I said yesterday, do you?"

To be honest, looking back now, what she said to Lu Xinyu yesterday was indeed a bit arrogant. Of course, she didn't regret it, but she felt that if Xu Xian knew what she said, it would affect her ladylike image in Xu Xian's eyes.

Xu Xian laughed and said, "My master and Chen Fei are always friends. Yesterday, Chen Fei told my master about how you upset Lu Xinyu. That's how I found out."

Security Director Chen Fei and Qin Zongyang weren't exactly best friends, but they did have some personal acquaintance. Knowing that Qin Zongyang and Lu Xinyu were sworn enemies, he told Qin Zongyang the gossip about Lu Xinyu's humiliation at Lianshanxue's place yesterday. Upon hearing that Lu Xinyu had been humiliated by a female Fei, Qin Zongyang was so smug that he even called Xu Xian to tell him this amazing news.

In truth, Xu Xian was rather indifferent to Lu Xinyu; he neither disliked nor liked her. He wasn't particularly interested in Lu Xinyu's humiliation either. However, seeing Qin Zongyang's continuous laughter, Xu Xian could only chime in with a few words, which made Qin Zongyang even more beaming. Just from that laughter, he figured he could eat two extra bowls of rice that night.

"I only know about this, but I'm not really sure about the specifics, which is why I'm asking you." Xu Xian wasn't interested in Lu Xinyu being roasted, but he was more interested in how Lian Shanxue roasted people.

"It's not like it's a big celebration, what's there to talk about?"

Xu Xian persisted, "But this is interesting! I really want to see how you infuriate people."

"No!" Lian Shanxue raised her eyebrows, clearly somewhat angry. "Lu Xinyu doesn't know how to speak properly. I was just teaching him a lesson. What's so interesting about that?"

"He's the deputy general manager of the flight department, after all. We should at least give him some face. There's no need to make things so tense." Xu Xian still believed in the traditional principle of making money through harmony.

"If he continues to be so ungrateful, his position as deputy general manager of the flight department is over. Does he really think he's some kind of chosen one? There are always people better than him, and he's nothing special. He has nothing to be proud of." Lian Shanxue snorted.

Compared to Xu Xian, Lu Xinyu's only advantage is that he joined the company a few years earlier and had a first-mover advantage; his other advantages are not worth mentioning at all.

Xu Xian said helplessly, "You should also control your temper a little and not be so impulsive."

Lian Shanxue quickly touched her face: "Do I look fierce?"

"I meant temper, not face." Xu Xian was speechless.

"It's not your face, so it's fine then." Lian Shanxue visibly breathed a sigh of relief, ignoring Xu Xian's comment about her temper, as long as her appearance was alright.

Xu Xian didn't have the patience to dwell on this issue anymore. In any case, Lian Shanxue's identity was relatively special. Although she was nominally a member of the Flight Department, she was actually from the Marketing Department. The leaders of the Flight Department couldn't really control Lian Shanxue.

"By the way, there's something I want to tell you."

"What's wrong?"

Lian Shanxue said, "Weren't you supposed to participate in the promotional video for our company's year-end celebration? My solo part is already filmed, and the remaining little bit is the part with you. Do you have time recently? I estimate I won't be able to fly for at least half a month. If you can free up some time, let's get this done. Your part isn't much, so it should be done in a day or two if things go smoothly."

Xu Xian got into some trouble before, and if it weren't for Lian Shanxue's help, he would have lost face big time. However, in return, Xu Xian needs to participate in the filming of Xingyou Airlines' year-end celebration promotional video.

Star Travel Airlines' year-end celebration promotional video still mainly features Lianshan Snow. Xu Xian only made a cameo appearance to slightly adjust the yin-yang ratio of the promotional video, so that the entire promotional video would not be just Lianshan Snow, making it seem like yin outweighs yang.

"A day or two is no problem." Since he had promised before, Xu Xian naturally wouldn't refuse, and it wasn't anything too difficult.

If Xu Xian has no problems, then things will be much easier.

"Then I'll talk to the higher-ups, and they'll contact the planning department to manage the schedule for you." Filming the company's year-end celebration promotional video is a legitimate business matter, and the planning department will definitely manage the schedule.

"By the way, when I went to see Mr. Li just now, I noticed a case about you on his desk. What's the story behind it?"

As the marketing director's confidante, Lian Shanxue was bound to have a word with Li Chuan about such a major incident as the plane decompression. However, they didn't talk for long before she went downstairs to find Xu Xian.

During their brief chat, Lian Shanxue noticed that Li Chuan had a promotional document for Xu Xian on his desk, which surprised her greatly.

Although Xu Xian gained fame after the forced landing incident on the Kunyang River, his reputation was mixed. It was really hard to predict the effect of vigorously promoting Xu Xian. Therefore, the marketing department put Xu Xian's brand development on hold.

But just a few days later, a promotional campaign about Xu Xian was launched, and it seems that it has gone beyond just a concept and has actually been implemented.

Puzzled, Lian Shanxue then asked Xu Xian.

"Oh, that."

Speaking of which, Xu Xian had seen the marketing campaign from the marketing department. After all, he was involved, so he had to know about it.

After watching the case, Xu Xian felt incredibly ashamed and wished he could disappear into the ground. In fact, the entire promotional video for Xu Xian's case was only three minutes long, which is quite short. This was only because Xu Xian is not a professional dancer, and a longer dance performance would be too demanding for him; therefore, the video was shortened to three minutes.

The video length isn't actually the main point; it's the description of the key points of the dance in the video that Xu Xian can't accept.

Campus style, cute style.

The main points can be summarized into these two points.

The idea is to have Xu Xian wear a high school uniform from a neighboring country and dance some really cute dances. Whether the movements are precise or not doesn't matter; that's not the point. The point is to be cute; cuteness is everything.

Honestly, the marketing team really nailed Xu Xian's physical features.

Xu Xian's appearance perfectly matches the current trend of feminine beauty standards, although Xu Xian himself doesn't like being described in this way. Moreover, although Xu Xian is in his twenties, his temperament doesn't appear overly mature; he has a youthful and energetic vibe, making him particularly suitable for campus-style outfits.

In this way, the overall effect of the promotional video will appear to be more childlike and appealing.

While "young" isn't always a compliment, it can significantly weaken the toughness Xu Xian previously displayed, reducing conflict and tension.

This is basically the result the marketing department wanted. As for creating a persona for Xu Xianli, they didn't even consider it because they simply didn't want to spend money on it.

After listening to Xu Xian's description of his promotional plan, Lian Shanxue almost burst out laughing on the spot. As Xingyou Airlines' top promoter, she could basically figure out the thought process of the marketing department's plan-makers.

To be honest, this tactic should work, but it just feels a bit shameful.

Although Xu Xian is only in his twenties, it's not too incongruous for him to play a teenager playing a high school student. At least in terms of appearance, Xu Xian has quite a bit of potential to play younger roles.

But those who don't know Xu Xian are fine, but those who know Xu Xian inside and out will probably have their worldview completely shattered if they see this film.

Xu Xian is a person whose appearance and inner self are extremely mismatched. Although his appearance is somewhat effeminate, he is a typical straight man, the kind of person who, without thinking twice, tells a girl to drink hot water if she has a stomachache.

For someone with such a strong, straightforward personality, to act young and cute would be pure torture.

"Sigh, those old foxes in the marketing department tried to fool me with all that talk about humanity and righteousness, and I actually fell for it without even realizing it. Now I'm really stuck in a bind," Xu Xian lamented repeatedly.

Now that he had agreed, it was difficult to go back on his word. Xu Xian was not the kind of person who broke his promises, but he felt extremely ashamed whenever he thought about this matter.

Lian Shanxue almost laughed until tears streamed down her face: "What did they say to you?"

"They said the Kunyang River emergency landing caused huge losses to the company, and I have to take responsibility. Now that there's an opportunity to salvage the company's image, they asked me if I would act. I said I wouldn't, and they said that if I didn't act, I wasn't a Star Wanderer. I said I wasn't interested in being a Star Wanderer, and they said that if I didn't act, I wasn't even human. They've gone this far, so I can't refuse anymore, right? Otherwise, they'll just expel me from the human race," Xu Xian said helplessly.

Lian Shanxue retorted with a snort, "Isn't it just that you feel guilty because the company lost a lot of money?"

Lian Shanxue's words hit the nail on the head, and Xu Xian's face flushed slightly.

It's a fact that the Kunyang River emergency landing incident caused Xingyou Airlines to lose a lot of money. Xu Xian isn't heartless; he must feel embarrassed! Otherwise, given Xu Xian's personality, why would he agree to film such a shameful video?

"Actually, the official loss of over 100 million is not that much. Every plane in our company is insured. Last time, in the Kunyang River incident, the insurance company paid out less than 50 million! So, you don't need to feel so burdened."

"Airplanes have insurance?" Xu Xian was completely dumbfounded; this was the first time he had ever heard of such a thing.

Lian Shanxue, on the other hand, didn't seem so surprised: "What era are we living in? What can't be insured? Is it really that strange to insure an airplane?"

Xu Xian clicked his tongue in amazement: "If they pay out 50 million at once, wouldn't the insurance company lose money?"

"No way! With such high premiums every year, the insurance company won't lose money. After all, serious damage to aircraft is rare. If it happened too often, the insurance company probably wouldn't be able to survive."

Xu Xian nodded: "That's right! The probability of something going wrong is still low."

"You'd better not say that."

Xu Xian was taken aback by Lian Shanxue's retort, but he had little room for rebuttal. He seemed to have no right to say that "the probability of something going wrong is still low."

"Since you're definitely going to shoot that film anyway, you might as well shoot it together with the film for the year-end celebration, so you don't have to run around to both places. From what you've said, the costumes, props, and sets for that case shouldn't be too complicated, so you don't need to prepare anything special," Lian Shanxue suggested.

Lian Shanxue did this because she felt that with her looking after him, Xu Xian wouldn't need to be too nervous. Otherwise, with no one she knew in the entire place, doing such a shameful act might cause Xu Xian to have a mental breakdown.

Xu Xian was indifferent to when the filming would take place: "Whatever you say, I'll leave it to you."

"Okay, I'll talk to the marketing department."

In the cabin sound review room of the Safety Supervision Department, Lu Xinyu and Cao Jinwen, the squadron leader, were both focused on monitoring the cabin sound of the Lianshanxue aircraft depressurizing.

Because Lu Xinyu had suffered a loss in front of Lian Shanxie yesterday, he didn't have much face to join her on the same flight back to Yunnan, so he simply took a flight at a later time.

After the plane landed, Lu Xinyu did not participate in the questioning about Lian Shanxue midway, but went straight to the cabin sound review room to begin the cabin sound review.

Since the Kunyang River emergency landing incident, Star Cruises has unilaterally increased the retention time for cabin audio recordings. Star Cruises' cabin audio can now record all audio content from the last hour.

As they listened, Lu Xinyu and Cao Jinwen stopped caring about the incident itself and instead focused on the fact that Shan Xue had mentioned a man's name, Xu Xian, several times!

It's not surprising that Lu Xinyu and Cao Jinwen were gossiping. This time, the captain lost consciousness due to depressurization, leaving only Shan Xue in the cockpit, with virtually no one to communicate with. Moreover, even in the limited audio recordings, there were no issues with Shan Xue's own cockpit voice.

From a pilot's perspective, at least, Lian Shanxue was perfectly fine. So, naturally, the two of them turned their attention to some strange things.

"Could it be that Lian Shanxue likes Xu Xian?" Cao Jinwen looked at Lu Xinyu speechlessly.

Lu Xinyu wasn't particularly interested in such matters of love and romance, but when Xu Xian was involved, something came to mind: "Do you think we should report this to President Wen?"

"President Wen? Which President Wen? No, you mean Wen Yi."

"Otherwise, do you think we should report it to the chairman?" Lu Xinyu said speechlessly, "Quickly make a copy of the recording."

When Wen Yiren visited Yunnan before, he came to Xingyou Aviation once and specifically asked Lu Xinyu and Cao Jinwen to report all matters concerning Xu Xian to him.

Lu Xinyu took the instructions from the eldest son of the Wen family to heart even more seriously.

(End of this chapter)