Legendary Captain

Chapter 333 Xu Xian's Old Wounds

The fact that the airborne tactics instructor kicked Xu Xian out of the cabin left Zhao Yanyue, who was sitting next to him, stunned.

Zhao Yan Yue's mouth gaped open, almost as if she were about to swallow a large duck egg, and she stammered, "Is...is this really okay? What if he doesn't open the parachute?"

"It's alright, he's already been trained, he's not a complete novice," the airborne tactics instructor said nonchalantly.

Even if Xu Xian were to be parachuted, there would be a basic procedure. First, there would be theoretical ground training, followed by simulated ground training, and finally, actual aerial training, where Xu Xian would be strapped to an instructor during the jump. Only after completing all these formal procedures would Xu Xian be allowed to parachute alone.

Just like flying, you first take theory classes, then simulator lessons, then instructor-led flights, and finally solo flights. The basic process is the same.

"Not a complete novice? What are you saying?" Zhao Yan Yue was speechless, emphasizing the word "completely." What does "completely a novice" mean? And what does "not a complete novice" mean?

"Don't worry, it'll be fine!" The airborne tactics instructor plopped down opposite Zhao Yanyue. "The parachute has an emergency deployment device. Even if he can't open it, it will automatically open after reaching a certain altitude. So, it's alright! I know your Luohang pilots are precious, but are you treating even a trainee like this? You're so worried about parachute training. If there's a real emergency later, forget about fighting on the battlefield, I reckon he wouldn't be able to handle the atmosphere alone, right?"

The airborne tactics instructor seemed to be quite sarcastic towards Xu Xian!

Zhao Yanyue was too lazy to argue with this instructor. Since Xu Xian could ensure safety, she decided to let it go.

The instructor, realizing he might have gone too far, stopped discussing Xu Xian and instead asked Zhao Yanyue, "Director Zhao, are you still coming back with us? If so, we need to apply in advance."

"No need!" Zhao Yanyue shook her head: "I'm not sure when I'll be back, so you don't need to worry about me. I'll just take a commercial flight back when the time comes."

This trip to Northeast China was completely unexpected, and there were no suitable flight times. Fortunately, Xu Xian was going to take her to Huining Airport, which wasn't too far from where Zhao Yanyue was going. So Zhao Yanyue quickly applied to board this flight.

Once she finishes her business, there's no rush anymore; she can just choose any commercial flight to return to Rongfu.

After Star Travel Flight 6333 landed, Yue Xinzhao yawned, removed his eye mask, and prepared to go back to economy class to retrieve his luggage. He also had some carry-on luggage behind him.

Just then, flight attendant number three came over and whispered to Yue Xinzhao, "Mr. Yue, if it's convenient, could you wait a moment? Our captain wants to thank you personally."

"Captain? That's unnecessary, it was just a small favor." Yue Xinzhao had no interest in the so-called captain's personal thanks. He figured he'd rather get off the plane quickly, check into his pre-booked hotel, and get a good night's sleep. After all, the journey from Yunnan to Binjiang took over four hours, a rather long trip, and Yue Xinzhao was quite tired. He could sleep in first class, but it wasn't comfortable, and his neck felt sore. He preferred the comfort of sleeping in a bed.

Flight attendant number three said, "Mr. Yue, please do stay. You've really helped us a lot this time. The captain said he must thank you in person."

Yue Xinzhao frowned. He didn't really care about the captain, but then he thought about how his sister would be working for Xingyou Airlines in the future, and it wouldn't be good for him to be too willful. He should give his sister's colleagues some face, so he nodded and said, "Alright then, I'll wait."

"Okay, it won't be long." Flight attendant number three was pleased to hear Yue Xinzhao's agreement and went back to the front cabin to report to the chief flight attendant.

Yue Xinzhao glanced back at the economy class. The load factor of this flight was only average, with visibly few passengers, so the delay shouldn't be too long. As expected, Star Travel Airlines' load factor still hadn't recovered.

Sure enough, when there were fewer people, the passengers got off quickly; in just a few minutes, almost everyone had left.

Perhaps seeing that the descent was almost over, Captain Tang Jian was the first to exit the cockpit, communicated with the flight attendants, and immediately located Yue Xinzhao's position.

At the time, Yue Xinzhao was playing on his phone. When he saw a person in uniform coming over, and after looking at the shoulder insignia and armbands, he guessed that this person was the captain of the flight. He stood up and greeted Tang Jian.

"Brother, we really owe you a lot today." Tang Jian sat down next to Yue Xinzhao warmly, patted Yue Xinzhao's shoulder, and gestured for him to sit down as well: "If you weren't here, and a fatal accident happened today, our entire crew would be in trouble."

The flight attendant had told him earlier that the passenger who nearly choked to death had swallowed an egg yolk. Since eggs were part of their first-class meals, this made things complicated.

They are unlikely to bear primary responsibility, but they will inevitably face some collateral liability. Moreover, given the current negative public perception of Star Travel, if news breaks of a passenger choking on food on a Star Travel flight, it will undoubtedly further damage their reputation.

"It's alright, I'm a doctor, and I just happened to run into them, I couldn't just stand by and do nothing." Yue Xinzhao was a little unaccustomed to Tang Jian's enthusiasm towards him: "Captain, I have some things to attend to, so perhaps I should head out now?"

"Is something wrong? Is it urgent?" Tang Jian quickly replied, "You've helped us so much, we definitely have to report it to the company. Also, if you don't mind, how about we have dinner together tonight? Your sister, Yue Shanshan, is also in our company, so we're all family here, let's get together."

In cases like Yue Xinzhao's act of kindness, airlines usually offer some form of gratitude after confirmation, such as promising to offer free flights in the future.

At such a critical juncture for Xingyou Airlines, Yue Xinzhao stepped in and resolved such a major hidden danger for Xingyou. It is only reasonable for Xingyou Airlines to repay him in some way.

Yue Xinzhao was in a terrible predicament. He had absolutely no interest in the company's thank-you gift, and as for having a meal together, that was pure torture. Aside from his sister, he barely knew anyone at Xingyou Airlines. Eating with strangers was pure agony for someone like Yue Xinzhao who disliked socializing. Thinking about this, Yue Xinzhao decided it was necessary to make it clear to the captain that the meal was really unnecessary.

By this time, the last few passengers had disembarked, leaving only the crew and Yue Xinzhao in the cabin. Yue Xinzhao glanced around and, seeing that everyone had left, decided to explain things to Tang Jian and then quickly leave.

"Captain, this is really a minor matter. We won't have to eat or anything." Before Yue Xinzhao could finish speaking, he looked up and saw the cockpit door open, and a beautiful figure stepped out. His eyes widened instantly.

"What? Dr. Yue?" Tang Jian asked, then suddenly noticed Lian Shanxue coming out and quickly introduced her, "It was Dr. Yue who helped."

Lian Shanxue walked over, smiled lightly, and nodded to Yue Xinzhao: "We meet again, Dr. Yue."

Yue Xinzhao's heart was pounding in his chest, and he was overjoyed. He hadn't expected that Lian Shanxue would still remember him. His mouth was practically stretched to his ears as he said, "Hello, Miss Lian Shanxue."

"While we were in the air, listening to the flight crew's report, I was truly shaken. Dr. Yue, you really helped a lot this time." Lian Shanxue spoke softly as always.

When the flight crew first reported that a passenger had almost suffocated to death, Tang Jian and Lian Shanxue felt as if they had also walked through the gates of hell.

Yue Xinzhao was almost completely captivated by Lian Shanxue, and hurriedly waved his hand: "Miss Lian Shan, you are too kind, too kind. It was just a choking, nothing at all."

Although it was almost the same thing, when Yue Xinzhao said it to Tang Jian, his tone and intonation were basically unchanged. But when he said it to Lian Shanxue, he was all smiles and excitement, as if he was trying to take credit in front of Lian Shanxue.

"How can this be considered a small favor? This is a life-saving act! Dr. Yue, it's just dinner tonight, it's no trouble at all," Tang Jian urged from the side. It was clear that Tang Jian was truly terrified this time. If someone really died on the plane, there would be endless trouble afterwards. Calling it a life-saving grace was no exaggeration.

At this moment, Lian Shanxue also advised, "If there's nothing urgent, let's have dinner together. It won't delay anything."

Yue Xinzhao's eyes lit up, and this time he nodded vigorously: "What important thing could I possibly have? Eating is great, I love eating the most."

Yue Xinzhao's reaction here was completely different from before; he didn't seem like a human being at all.

"Yue Shanshan's flight won't land for another hour or so. Let's go to the hotel together and wait there. Dr. Yue, why don't you come with us too? Anyway, Yue Shanshan will be going to the hotel first after she lands," Lian Shanxue said.

At this moment, Yue Xinzhao acted like a good child and quickly said, "Okay, okay, I'll do as you say."

Huining Airport Hospital, a doctor's office.

The doctor glanced at the stack of reports, took off his glasses, and stared at Xu Xian, whose face was somewhat bruised, asking, "Did you have an old injury on your forehead?"

"Hmm? Oh, right! I bumped my forehead on something before," Xu Xian said.

The doctor nodded: "No wonder. I knew your brain CT scan showed a slight bone spur in your forehead; it turns out you really were injured. What happened then?"

"It's nothing particularly serious, but it seems I experienced a brief period of mild memory impairment." Xu Xian didn't hide anything and told the truth.

"Memory impairment? Oh dear, then you've hit the memory center in your brain right now. You'll have to be careful from now on." The doctor advised, "Be more careful during training. You're pilots, not paratroopers. Is it really necessary to risk your life like this?"

The airborne tactics instructor muttered, "This body is too delicate. Doctor, will his old head injury be a problem?"

"It won't affect anything!" The doctor glanced sideways at the paratrooper tactical instructor. "Delicate body? Let me tell you, it's you people who are trained like your lives depend on it. More than half of my patients are victims of overly strenuous training. Are you saying all my patients are delicate bodies?"

Huining Airport is considered a large military airport in Northeast China. Otherwise, other small airports would only have a medical room, let alone a proper airport hospital.

Therefore, wounded soldiers from nearby garrisons with slightly more serious injuries would be sent here. This doctor had seen many injuries caused by training, and from a doctor's perspective, he believed that the current military training methods were too harsh, putting too much pressure on the soldiers' bodies, and that problems were likely to arise during training.

However, the airborne tactics instructors had a different opinion. "Sweat more in peacetime, bleed less on the battlefield"—this is an unshakeable truth. If a soldier can't even endure routine training, can he still be considered a soldier?

Of course, there's no need for the paratrooper tactical instructor to argue with the doctor. It's just a difference of opinion due to different personal stances. There's no right or wrong, and there's no need to dwell on it.

"Since everything's alright, let's go?" The instructor patted Xu Xian, signaling him to leave first.

Zhao Yanyue curled her lip and snorted, then followed the instructor out of the doctor's office with Xu Xian.

As soon as she stepped out of the office, Zhao Yan Yue began her sarcastic remarks: "Didn't you say it was foolproof? How come there were still problems?"

The airborne tactics instructor paused, turned around, and scanned Xu Xian's bruised face, his own features contorted in disbelief. "Hey Xu Xian," he said, "you guys are supposed to be fighter pilots, your hand-eye coordination should be top-notch! How come you can't even control your parachute?"

Xu Xian blushed and said, "It was my own mistake."

The parachute is equipped with control straps, which allow for some control over it. However, for some reason, Xu Xian just couldn't get it right. Today, during the jump, the canopy opened without any problems, but a major malfunction occurred upon landing.

Xu Xian, who had almost no control over his parachute, watched helplessly as he crashed into a large tree, suffering a terrible wreckage. After being found, Xu Xian was taken to the nearby Huining Airport Hospital for examination by his paratrooper tactical instructor and Zhao Yanyue, who were worried that something might have happened to him.

Ultimately, the responsibility for Xu Xian crashing into the tree lies primarily with Xu Xian himself, and it was quite embarrassing. Fortunately, however, no serious injuries were caused.

Xu Xian nudged Zhao Yanyue, signaling her to stop dwelling on the matter; the more he talked about it, the more ashamed he felt.

Zhao Yanyue snorted, but didn't say anything more.

However, aside from the skydiving incident, Zhao Yan Yue was more curious about something else: "What happened to your injury? You also lost your memory, and it all seemed quite serious."

"Oh, it all happened during a commercial flight," Xu Xian explained casually, without going into details, since there wasn't anything worth elaborating on anyway.

"Oh?" Zhao Yan Yue raised an eyebrow. "Which one?"

"You know that too?" Xu Xian was quite surprised, not expecting Zhao Yanyue to still seem to know him inside and out.

Zhao Yan Yue smiled and said, "How many people don't know Xu Xian of Xingyou Airlines? Tell me, which one is it?"

"It was that emergency landing on the Kunyang River," Xu Xian confessed. "In civil aviation, the captain and first officer each have a support frame on their side in the cockpit, with a flat panel on top. That time, we bumped into the flat panel, and that's how it got damaged."

"How could a collision with a flat surface cause this much damage?" Zhao Yanyue remembered that the skull in front of the forehead is the hardest part and not so easily injured; otherwise, there wouldn't be the concept of a header in football.

Xu Xian scratched his head, somewhat embarrassed: "I just smashed the tablet, it might have been a little bit heavy."

"A tiny bit?" Zhao Yanyue clicked her tongue in amazement: "You've really mastered the Iron Head Kung Fu, managing to smash a tablet like that. You're something else."

Xu Xian's face turned even redder: "I said this isn't anything to brag about, let's not talk about it. Don't you have things to do? Aren't you in a hurry?"

"No rush! The time has been changed to tomorrow morning." Zhao Yanyue said irritably, "You should have told me earlier, so I wouldn't have to rush like this. Really."

"So what do you say? Are you coming with me to the hotel or will you find your own place to stay?" Xu Xian asked.

"I found a hotel near the airport, so I'm not going to the base," Zhao Yanyue said, then called out, "Instructor Wang, how about we go out for dinner tonight? Do you know any good places around here?"

"You guys go ahead, I'm not going." Instructor Wang paused for a moment, then asked, "What are your tastes?"

"Something light, please."

"Then let's have Huai Dong cuisine. There's only one decent Huai Dong restaurant in the North District." Don't let Instructor Wang's strict self-discipline fool you; when it comes to good places to eat, he can rattle off a list: "The exact address is..."

……

As evening fell, the three of them went to their lodgings, after which Instructor Wang parted ways with the other two. Xu Xian, however, was not allowed to stay outside the lodgings due to upcoming training exercises, so he had to book a room at the lodgings' hotel.

Fortunately, Xu Xian belonged to the Luohang fleet, where management was not so strict. So after checking in, Xu Xian washed up a bit, changed into some clean clothes, and went to the hotel that Zhao Yanyue had booked with her.

Before leaving, Xu Xian even managed to sneak into the cafeteria to get a hard-boiled egg to rub the bruises on his face.

Xu Xian mainly has a patch on his forehead, but it's not very noticeable and shouldn't be too serious; it should disappear quickly.

Xu Xian and Zhao Yanyue did not ask the station to send a shuttle bus for them because the following itinerary was, strictly speaking, their private trip, and it was not appropriate to use public resources.

Finally, Zhao Yanyue found a car rental place and rented a car. The car rental industry is very developed now, so it's quite convenient.

The original plan was to go to the hotel first, but halfway there Xu Xian found himself really hungry, so he suggested to Zhao Yanyue that they go eat first and then go back to the hotel.

Zhao Yanyue didn't have any objections. Anyway, she didn't have much luggage, just a bag of documents. She didn't have much stuff, and she could just put it in the car later.

The two hit it off immediately and changed direction to head towards the restaurant.

On the way, Zhao Yanyue chatted with Xu Xian for a few minutes.

"Will the bruise on your forehead affect your flight the day after tomorrow?" Zhao Yanyue wasn't a professional, but she was also curious whether she could still fly with the injury.

"This..." Xu Xian gently rubbed it with a hard-boiled egg, but he didn't actually feel much pain anymore. "It should be fine. At worst, I'll go to the infirmary tomorrow and ask. If I can't fly, then we'll postpone it."

This long-distance relocation training is not that urgent; it is just a necessary part of the trainees' training and there is no specific time limit.

"It must take a long time to fly back from Huining, right?"

Xu Xian estimated, "Less than four hours, right? What's wrong?"

Xu Xian returned to fly the C-16, which is indeed capable of supersonic flight, with a top speed of Mach 2. However, it is a third-generation fighter and cannot maintain supersonic speeds for extended periods. Only more advanced fourth-generation fighters can maintain supersonic cruise. Therefore, the C-16 spends most of its cruise time in subsonic mode, making its speed significantly slower than the 737.

Huining Airport and Binjiang Airport are very close to each other. It takes about four hours for a 737 from Yunnan to Binjiang.

Considering that the flight from southwest to northeast is mostly with the wind, the return flight will be against the wind, so it will probably take about half an hour longer.

The distance between Dianyun and Rongfu is about forty minutes, so it should have taken Xu Xian less than four hours to travel from Huining to Rongfu.

"It's nothing." Zhao Yanyue smiled mysteriously: "Drink less water before flying, and... if possible, bring a small bottle."

These words immediately broke Xu Xian's composure, and he almost dropped the egg he was holding with his right hand.

"A small bottle?" Xu Xian's lips twitched a few times. This Zhao Yanyue not only looked mature, but also spoke quite fiercely. He didn't expect Ye Qing to like this type.

The words "small bottle" reminded Xu Xian of the long-haul flights he took during his commercial pilot training at flight school, often lasting three or four hours. The planes at flight school weren't like commercial airliners with toilets or anything like that. Based on the experience of his seniors, for long-haul flights, they always carried a small bottle, just in case.

The cockpit space of the C-16 fighter jet was also not impressive, and there was no toilet. Xu Xianzhen had previously planned to find a small bottle somewhere, just in case.

However, it's one thing for Xu Xian to think about it himself, but quite another for Zhao Yanyue to say it out loud. It's really unbelievable that Zhao Yanyue would say something like that, knowing even about something as trivial as the small bottle.

"I heard from Ye Qing that you probably won't be flying for very long. What's the reason? Would you mind telling me?" Zhao Yanyue asked.

Xu Xian's expression turned cold: "It's not very convenient."

Zhao Yan Yue didn't expect Xu Xian to be so direct, so she could only laugh awkwardly and say, "Never mind then, just pretend I didn't ask."

Before long, Xu Xian and his companion finally arrived at their restaurant. The place was bustling with activity; the business was booming. It was clear that the Huai Dong cuisine restaurant recommended by Instructor Wang was indeed quite excellent.

Xu Xian looked around the lobby and saw almost no empty seats, so he called over a waiter, just as he was about to ask if there were any vacant tables. But then a clear female voice came from behind him: "Waiter, are there any large tables left?"

Xu Xian was taken aback, turned around, and met Lian Shanxue's gaze.

(End of this chapter)