Chapter 563: Chapter 563: What I’m Super Worried About

Shiling’s Mom took Liu Shiling, Xiang Kun, Tang Baona, and Yang Zhen’er out for lunch in the afternoon, then dropped them off at the airport before taking her daughter to school. After that, she blissfully went home and took a nap. She had been working overtime every day and was completely exhausted. Thus, she relished the rare chance to take the afternoon off and get some sleep.

Of course, she still set her alarm to wake her up just before four in the afternoon so she could pick up her daughter from school.

For a long time, whether at kindergarten or during the first few days of elementary school, Shiling’s pick-up and drop-off were basically taken care of by Yang Zhen’er and Tang Baona, mostly Yang Zhen’er.

During the summer vacation, Xiang Kun and the others had even taken her to live in Chongyun Village for a long time, allowing her to basically relax and let go.

Moreover, she was very relieved to let Xiang Kun, Tang Baona, Yang Zhen’er, Old Xia, and Little Apple take care of her daughter. She knew that they genuinely liked Liu Shiling, who also really liked them.

This allowed Shiling’s Mom to concentrate on her work. In recent times, she had learned a lot from “Powers Entertainment” and felt herself growing rapidly. She felt that she was now somewhat deserving of the salary Zhang Qian paid her.

Although Tang Baona and Yang Zhen’er would not be in Pengcheng, and Liu Shiling could not go with them to Chongyun Village because of school, Zhang Qian still managed to solve the daily pick-up and drop-off problem for her daughter in advance. The company had just hired a new executive whose daughter also attended the same elementary school as Liu Shiling. So, they invited his wife to pick up Liu Shiling along with her own daughter as they lived in the same residential complex.

However, since Shiling’s Mom had already taken the day off, she decided to personally pick up her daughter after a long while.

At the school gate, she held her daughter’s hand and asked questions like “What did you learn in class today?”, “Did you make any new friends?”, and “Who is your favorite teacher?” as they walked among the crowd of students leaving school.

Upon seeing a well-known dessert shop, Shiling’s Mom suddenly asked, “Shiling, do you want some ice cream?”

Liu Shiling was taken aback. She glanced at the dessert shop and then looked up at her mom before asking uncertainly, “Mom, do you want me to do something?”

Shiling’s Mom could not help but laugh, “No! I just realized that it’s been a long time since I last bought you ice cream!”

Liu Shiling scratched her head: “But Sister Xian bought me ice cream just last night, and there’s still a lot of the same brand in our fridge.”

“Oh? Is that so…” Shiling’s Mom also unconsciously scratched her head. She hadn’t even noticed the ice cream in their own fridge.

Eventually, Shiling’s Mom still bought her daughter two boxes of different-flavored ice cream.

Back at home, Liu Shiling sat on a small stool in the living room, eating the leftover half box of ice cream next to the coffee table. Meanwhile, Shiling’s Mom sat on the sofa, watching her daughter eat ice cream while lazily scrolling through her social media feeds on her iPad and pondering what to cook for dinner.

After a long absence, Shiling’s Mom once again experienced her previous housewife lifestyle.

Suddenly, Shiling’s Mom’s attention was caught by a news article about a plane that had malfunctioned near Jianzhou Airport in Haixi Province. The engines had caught fire and the plane was plummeting straight down.

She clicked on the video, which showed a passenger plane belching smoke as it went down, as if it was going to crash directly into the mountains below. Fortunately, after falling for some time, the plane somehow managed to adjust its position and started to climb again. But seeing the smoking engine, anyone would be concerned about its subsequent fate.

Shiling’s Mom suddenly sat upright. She noticed in the comments below the video, someone mentioned that the plane flew from Pengcheng City.

It seemed like the incident in the video had just happened near Jianzhou Airport, and it was from Pengcheng. This tense Shiling’s Mom up immediately.

“Shiling, do you remember at noon during lunch, what time Sister Nana, Uncle Xiang, and the others’ flight was scheduled to take off?” Shiling’s Mom asked instinctively.

No sooner had she voiced out her question, she regretted it. She should not have involved Liu Shiling in this worry. If it were Xiang Kun’s flight, she couldn’t imagine how Liu Shiling would react.

But Liu Shiling had already heard her voice. She climbed onto the sofa and came over to her, watched the IPAD together, and then stated a four-digit flight number: “The flight Uncle Bald, Sister Old Fairy, and Sister Pretty took is this one.” She was particularly sensitive to numbers now. Whenever she heard a number, she would practice addition and subtraction, so when Sister Old Fairy mentioned the flight number to her during lunch, she calculated the sum of each digit and naturally remembered it clearly.

Upon hearing this, Shiling’s Mom’s face turned pale, because she had just casually glanced at the latest news about the plane accident from a media platform. They had announced the flight number of that plane. The last four digits were exactly what Liu Shiling just recited.

While watching the video footage shot by netizens on the media platform, Liu Shiling asked, “Mom, is this the plane Uncle Bald and the others are on?”

Shiling’s Mom wanted to lie to her daughter that it wasn’t, or say directly that she did not know. But right after the daughter announced the flight number, the video announced the flight number of the plane. She really could not lie blatantly and could only say: “Hmm… It may be. But you shouldn’t worry too much, your Uncle Xiang, Sister Nana, Sister Zhen’er… They are all such good people, God will definitely bless them, nothing will happen.”

But what surprised Shiling’s Mom a bit was, while watching the video of the smoking plane plummeting down on the IPAD, Liu Shiling didn’t show a worried or scared expression. Instead, she seemed purely curious.

After watching news videos related to the plane with her mom for a while, Liu Shiling suddenly got up and walked towards her room.

Shiling’s Mom was shocked and instinctively asked, “Shiling, where are you going?”

Liu Shiling turned her head and replied surprisingly, “I am going to do my homework. I want to finish the homework assigned by the teacher as soon as possible. I still have to learn drawing with Da Lu and Sister Pretty tonight.”

Shiling’s Mom involuntarily lifted the IPAD in her hand and asked, “Aren’t you… worried?”

Liu Shiling glanced at the IPAD and said, “Mom, you don’t have to worry. Uncle Bald, Sister Old Fairy, and Sister Pretty are on that plane. Nothing will happen to the plane; the other people on the plane will also be fine.”

Shiling’s Mom was a little confused for a moment. It took her two seconds before she said, “No… I mean, aren’t you worried about your Uncle Bald and them?”

Upon hearing this, Liu Shiling’s eyes widened a bit, realizing that she seemed to have answered incorrectly. So she quickly nodded and said, “I’m worried, I’m super worried about Uncle Bald and them. There is smoke from the plane, I’m super worried. But… I still have to do my homework.”

Shiling’s Mom was even more bewildered. Although her daughter said “I’m super worried,” from her expression, tone, and mood, there wasn’t the slightest sign of worry. If she didn’t know her daughter very well or wasn’t very clear about her relationship with Xiang Kun, Tang Baona, and Yang Zhen’er, she would have doubted if Liu Shiling was too heartless or cold-blooded.

“Well… Mom, can I go do my homework now? You should go cook, Mom. When the cooking is done, everything should be fine with Uncle Bald and their plane.”

Watching Liu Shiling walk into her room to do homework, Shiling’s Mom withdrew her gaze blankly. Of course, she did not go to cook, but continued to browse the news on the IPAD. She figured that her daughter must not have understood what it meant when a plane was in such a condition, behaving like that. She didn’t know that the plane might crash and there might be a danger to the lives of Uncle Bald and her pretty sisters. Yes, that must be it.

However, it wasn’t long before Shiling’s Mom came across a video posted by CCTV News Network. A CCTV reporter at the site of Jianzhou Airport was speaking excitedly: “… has landed safely; according to the information we’ve received, neither the crew nor the passengers died in this incident. Only three passengers sustained minor injuries and were shocked, and the pilot was seriously injured but there is no life-threatening situation…”

The video even briefly showed the process of the plane successfully landing on the airport runway, scenes of jubilation within the control tower, and a few clips of passengers sliding down an inflatable slide. Unfortunately, Shiling’s Mom couldn’t spot Xiang Kun or Tang Baona in either of the clips.

Still, this news was a great relief to Shiling’s Mom. Heaven be praised, Xiang Kun and the others are truly blessed, she thought to herself, relieved that they weren’t harmed.

She couldn’t help but think of the determination behind her daughter’s prediction. It sometimes felt like kids’ intuition could be eerily accurate.

Back in her bedroom, Liu Shiling closed the door behind her, sticking her tongue out at the custard pie that followed her in. “Almost forgot the confidentiality agreement,” she giggled. “I was a bit careless.”

The custard pie meowed in response, lazed over to its spot on the desk, curled up, and resumed its nap.

Liu Shiling then began removing her textbooks from her bag, preparing to do her homework.

Indeed, she was not worried even for a moment. In her judgment, dealing with a situation like the airplane’s should have been a breeze for Uncle Bald. There wouldn’t be any significant problems, let alone danger. The passengers on the plane and Uncle Bald could certainly protect themselves.

She didn’t even feel the need to confirm this with Alice. She was confident in her basic “judgment as a magician”.

In fact, she was more worried about herself than Xiang Kun, Tang Baona, or Yang Zhen Er.

She suspected that the airplane had been attacked by a monster like the one in Chongyun Village that had been injured and sparkled gold. The monsters were multiplying, and both Pretty Sister and Fairy Sister had begun to reveal their “magic talent”. She was just in first grade, and she had a long way to go to reach the junior high graduation standard set by Uncle Bald. She had to hurry up and improve, otherwise, when could she start helping Uncle Bald fight the monsters?!

As Liu Shiling was frantically working on her homework under her pressing sense of urgency, Shiling’s Mom entered, holding an iPad and said, “Shiling, I just saw the news. Uncle Xiang’s flight has landed successfully. They should all be safe now.”

Turning her head with a pencil in her hand, Liu Shiling blinked twice before saying, “Ah! That’s wonderful!”

Anyone could tell, even Shiling’s Mom who knew her daughter well — Liu Shiling was neither surprised nor delighted. She was just deliberately expressing her delight.

More question marks popped up in Shiling’s Mom’s mind, and she awkwardly leaned back against the door. Why would Liu Shiling do such a thing?

The custard pie on the desk couldn’t help but yawn.

…

In a private room of the Youlong Restaurant in Tongshi Town,

Xia Tianhuo was looking at a video reposted in You Meng’s WeChat Moments. Showing a plane with smoke trailing from its engine, seemingly about to go down, he exclaimed, “When did this happen?”

After he saw the subtitle of the video saying “near Jianzhou Airport,” he grew anxious, suspecting a certain possibility.

“Do you know the flight number of the plane Ah Kun took? I saw someone in my Moments saying that the plane was from Peng City. It can’t be the one Ah Kun took,” said You Meng with furrowed brows.

Xia Tianhuo grabbed his cell phone, dialed Old Xia’s number, and said, “Let me ask.” Soon after, his call with Old Xia went through. “Old Xia, have you arrived at Jianzhou Airport?” he asked.

“Yes, I’m here,” he replied.

“I see. I just saw a piece of news… well, it might just be a rumor… you see… Oh yeah, which flight did Xiang Kun and Yang Lao San take? What’s the flight number?” Xia Tianhuo stammered.

“I know what you’re talking about. It’s their flight,” Xia Libing answered simply.

Upon hearing Xia Libing’s confirmation, Xia Tianhuo was taken aback and he found himself momentarily at a loss for words while still on the call.

After a second of silence, Xia Libing continued, “That’s all. We’ll talk more when I’m back.” He then ended the call.

Seeing Xia Tianhuo in a daze holding his phone, You Meng hastily asked, “What is it, what did Old Xia say? Did he say anything about Ah Kun?”

“Old Xia said that Xiang Kun and Old Three were on that plane,” Xia Tianhuo responded blankly.

“What?!” You Meng sank into the chair next to him, his face turning ashen. He even forgot about the things he was supposed to handle in the kitchen.

At that point, Zhao Feng and Wang De’an had also walked over. After seeing the video on You Meng’s phone, they roughly figured out the situation – the plane Xiang Kun was aboard ran into trouble with its engine catching fire, and netizens even posted videos of it nearly crashing. The situation seemed to be quite grave.

Both of them were also stunned, completely caught off guard by the unfolding incident.

The four of them couldn’t manage any small talk and were nervously scrolling through related videos and news on their phones. Soon, You Meng’s wife, Liang Yulong, also showed up in their suite, anxiously waiting with them for updates.

In no time, Chu Xiuwen and Liu Caifu, who had just arived for dinner, joined them in the suite.

The atmosphere in the suite was quite heavy. But unlike the others’ anxiety, Chu Xiuwen’s feelings were somewhat tinged with expectations and a hint of anticipation.

“It successfully landed! The plane successfully landed! Nothing’s wrong! We’re all okay!” Liu Caifu, who had just seen the latest news, was the first to stand up. The others instinctively followed suit, gathered around, and started watching the video.

Only Chu Xiuwen, his lips curled up with a slight smirk, was brimming with a sense of “as expected” assurance.