Chapter 8

Any normal person knows that if there’s a person lying under the wings of an airplane, it should be a dead person. The high altitude meant that there was a lack of oxygen and the extreme cold would directly lead to death.

And based on the shadow’s silhouette, this person had to be under the wing and not in the landing gear compartment, which was basically frozen in ice.

Xie Yuchen thought he was seeing things at first, but when he checked the other side of the plane, he found that something was wrong. There was no such shadow on the other side.

Black Glasses also noticed it at this time, and the two men looked at each other. “A stowaway?” Black Glasses asked

Xie Yuchen shook his head. If this kind of private business jet had a person hiding under its wings, it would have been discovered immediately upon take-off and wouldn’t have flown so steadily. It wasn’t like an A380, where it wouldn’t be a big deal if one side weighed more than fifty kilograms.

They couldn’t climb outside at this time, so Xie Yuchen asked the old lady if there was an off-board camera. As it turned out, there really was. Business jets were really considerate. They asked the captain to route the camera feed to the video conference partition on the plane—in fact, it was a big TV set—and found that the shadow wasn’t a person, but a chunk of frost.

The area under the wing was so heavily frosted that a piece of ice was sticking out. But this piece of ice was shaped like a human.

“What’s going on?” The old lady was a little scared, “Is it a coincidence?”

If something strange was happening, then there must have been something wrong. Xie Yuchen didn’t know what was going on, but he knew that there must be something wrong with it because it was too similar to a human.

Metaphysics was divided into many classes, and they were used to dealing with the folklore aspect of it. In true metaphysics, there were many unexplained phenomena that occurred. This phenomenon didn’t even have any logic or theory behind it but consisted entirely of what the ancients’ saw and felt. It reminded him of Tame Head (1), which he had heard was still in practice today, but it was just harder to encounter.

In reality, it was just that something strange and weird happened in a small place during your life.

“What if the frost continues to build up in this area?” Xie Yuchen asked Zheng Jingyin, who had called the captain.

“We’ll lose balance, which will slowly cause the instruments to misjudge the altitude,” Zheng Jingyin replied. “As a result, the pilot will give the wrong thrust when maneuvering and we’ll crash. But as long as you descend a little, the frost will melt.”

But he was also surprised at this situation because they had strictly adhered to the midair de-icing procedures. How could the wing be frosted like that?

“Maybe someone in Tokyo already knows that we’re coming and wants to take care of us in the air,” Xie Yuchen joked.

“How? By cursing us?” The old lady asked.

“I don’t know.”

The captain was very experienced and began to contact the tower while lowering the plane’s altitude and doing the special de-icing procedure. After forty minutes, however, the ice didn’t disappear but grew larger.

Its shape also began to change from humanoid to something resembling an evil spirit. The camera’s angle wasn’t good, so they couldn’t see the whole picture, but they could tell that it was a religious image.

The plane was also starting to shake from time to time. An announcement came over the plane’s speakers reminding everyone to take a seat and fasten their seat belts.

After a while, the captain obviously gave up trying and told the old lady that he would have to contact the nearest airport and land there to get the ice defrosted. He didn’t know what was going on, but this thing just wouldn’t melt.

Xie Yuchen felt very uneasy at this time.

He felt that there might be an accident if they landed halfway to their destination. It wasn’t without reason, though. If he was designing such a plan, then the time at which it would be implemented would definitely be when the aircraft was descending towards its alternate landing site. As a matter of fact, most airplane crashes occurred during take-off and landing.

Aircraft were relatively stable in flight, but taking off and landing required many maneuvering procedures. As a result, the aggressiveness of unfavorable factors was easily intensified.

He hesitated, thinking that it might just be in his head, but he still preferred to be cautious.

So, Xie Yuchen asked the captain to give him forty minutes. He used the onboard satellite phone to make a ten-minute conference call and then sat in a seat and continued drinking coffee.

In the end, the humanoid frost figure slowly disappeared and there was no need to divert their flight. Black Glasses, who had been watching cartoons on the plane’s TV, asked him without looking up, “What did you do?”

“I advertised on several big social media platforms in Tokyo that if someone was trying to find a way to crash the plane, they should note that if their plan was successful, then the caster would receive serious backlash.”

“That’s utter nonsense. It’s just feudal superstition.”

“Those who need such skills to kill others often use talented young people who don’t know the consequences. Most of these people have been deceived and just think it’s a joke, but what they do may really have an effect. “

“Do you believe it?”

Xie Yuchen looked at the wings of the plane. He really couldn’t bring himself to believe in things that he couldn’t see with his own eyes. Maybe it was just that the temperature suddenly rose and the frost melted off. Or maybe his warning was seen by someone in Tokyo who realized that he was being used, so he put a stop to it. Who knows? But to fight against this kind of thing, you should do everything in your power.

When he had his phone meeting just now, he asked some people to do a comprehensive investigation on the accounts of all the crew members and ground maintenance personnel at the airport they had departed from. He didn’t have deep contacts on the Russian side, so he had asked someone from the old lady’s family to handle it.

The captain could also hear them, so Xie Yuchen didn’t know which part of his threat had played a role.

The ground maintenance personnel could have just cut the wires to the de-icing device, or the captain might not have performed the de-icing procedure at all. Either way, it was enough to bring the plane down.

“Ordinary people have already had a nervous breakdown when confronted with this illusory power. Aren’t you a little too calm?”

Xie Yuchen paused, suddenly remembering the night when he was put in charge of the Xie family.

It had been raining heavily that day. The smell of blood was everywhere in the house, but he didn’t find any blood at all.

There was a stall outside the door that was selling sweet pancakes. At that time of day, the breakfast stall had already been set up, but what time was that?

“You’ve lived for so long and have seen more types of people than me. You should know that people are very simple, so human behavior isn’t all that difficult to predict. Most of them live in their own little cocoons, which both protect and suffocate them,” Xie Yuchen said.

Black Glasses continued watching the cartoons.

“So as long as it’s the result of human actions, you’re not afraid?”

“If fear is useful, then I really want to be afraid.” Xie Yuchen sighed. When Black Glasses finally looked up, Xie Yuchen asked, “Do we really have to discuss this? You’re very interesting in front of others but really boring in front of me.”

Black Glasses laughed, “Of course. Different people get treated differently.”

The plane started to descend—maybe they were finally close to Tokyo—and Black Glasses’ cartoons had finished. He sat up straight and finished his beer, “Is it night when we land?”

“Yes, it’s dark now.”

“That’s good.”

After landing, a lot of things may happen immediately so it was obvious why the night was better.

<Chapter 7><Table of Contents><Chapter 9>

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TN Notes:

(1) “Tame Head” (or Flying Head) is a type of black witchcraft that spread in East and Southeast Asia. Apparently after completing 7 levels, the practitioner would achieve immortality and his head (minus his intestines) would be able to fly around. Other than the flying head, it kind of reminds me of voodoo. Info here and here.

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Pic added 4/15/2023 (fan translation courtesy of me)