2

Another night passed with eyes open until dawn.

At seven o'clock, Zhong Yan sat up in bed, feeling dizzy and disoriented. The first thing she asked Ji Feng was whether her mother had contacted him.

The monsoon said no.

As a teacher at Shishi Middle School, it wouldn't be difficult for Wang Xiangmei to find the contact information of her former students, but she hadn't taken any action after a whole night. This didn't put Zhong Yan at ease; instead, it made her even more uneasy.

She sent a message to her stepfather.

Action will lead to success: [Your mother called the boy's parents last night, but she seemed quite upset.]

She knew it; she knew her mother wouldn't let her off easily.

Instantly, all the breath caught in my chest.

She was like a balloon being constantly inflated, on the verge of bursting.

Her eyes stung and ached, and tears were about to well up. Zhong Yan ran to the window, opened it, and felt the damp sea breeze in the early morning. The tears still flowed down her cheeks.

It dripped onto the window frame and onto the back of my hand.

Ji Feng's parents endured unimaginable suffering, yet they were blamed and verbally abused because of her.

Why does Mom always have to embarrass her like this?

If you truly love her, why would you so readily shatter her self-esteem?

The phone kept sending notifications.

After a long while, Zhong Yan wiped her face and picked up her phone.

If you act, you will arrive: [Xiao Yan, your mother was also very sad last night and cried for a long time. She still has to go to work today.]

Action will lead to success: [Your mother's actions are somewhat extreme, but her starting point is definitely for your own good. There are reasons why she doesn't want you to study at the aviation university.]

"Where there's a will, there's a way": [I don't know if your desire to go to aviation university is because your father was an aircraft engineer, but the responsibilities of that job are too heavy. Your mother doesn't want you to study a related major because she's afraid you'll encounter the same thing as your father.]

"Walking will lead to your destination": [Actually, I shouldn't be the one to talk about your father's situation, but you've misunderstood your mother for a long time. She's been hiding it from you, afraid to let you know, and you've been blaming her because of it. Now that you're older, I think you should know the truth and stop wrongly blaming your mother.]

Cage: [What happened to my dad? Didn't he die of cancer?]

Action will lead to success: [Your father does have cancer, but...]

"If you act, you will arrive": [Check the news; there should still be more.]

Zhong Yan's father, Song Qiannan, is an aircraft maintenance engineer. He is very busy with work and often has to go out for training and is not at home. However, Zhong Yan and her father are very close.

Even before she was old enough to understand, she had read many science books about airplanes and spacecraft under her father's guidance. Her mother later complained that her father did not raise her as a daughter and wondered if he was biased towards boys.

When her father passed away, Zhong Yan was in the crucial stage of her high school entrance exam. Apart from watching the news, she basically didn't watch anything. Her mother strictly controlled her mobile phone, and she was only allowed to hold an MP3 player for English listening practice.

Zhong Yan opened a search engine, first entered the year, then the plane accident, and finally her father's name.

With these three keywords, the search engine can find information that meets the requirements from its vast database.

The first item listed is a news article.

The accident involving a Chang Nippon Airways UA-74 passenger plane on November 1, 2020, has resulted in the deaths of 53 people.

The article mentions information about pilots, crew members, and ground staff, including engineers who have performed maintenance on the aircraft.

The next news story has a chilling headline: "UA74 maintenance chief commits suicide; was there serious negligence?"

The engineer mentioned is not Zhong Yan's father, but someone else.

But Zhong Yan still remembers that he was her father's colleague and friend, and had once given her a model airplane as a birthday gift. He was a very kind uncle.

After carefully reading about ten pages of reports about the plane crash, Zhong Yan finally understood the cause and course of events.

While her father was hospitalized, the new maintenance engineer, unfamiliar with the UA74 model aircraft, allowed someone to use a maintenance order bearing his signature because he was going to visit her hospitalized father.

This aircraft, which had only been in service for three years, suffered this disaster during landing due to a combination of factors, including design flaws, negligence in maintenance, inadequate re-inspection, pilot error, and strong winds.

Five engineers, including my father, have inspected this aircraft, and my father has inspected the most.

They had repeatedly overlooked the crucial part that ultimately led to the plane crash.

They were just "lucky" enough not to encounter many unfortunate "misfortunes".

It is actually very difficult to determine the degree of responsibility in a complex accident, but both the maintenance supervisor who committed suicide and the father who was hospitalized suffered enormous psychological pressure.

"Where there's a will, there's a way": [After giving up treatment, your father passed away soon after. Your mother didn't want this to affect your studies and life, so she didn't tell you.]

Cage: [Thank you, Uncle. I understand.]

Cage: [Tell my mom I'll still retake the college entrance exam and try for the aviation university.]

Zhong Yuanxing received the reply and looked at his wife helplessly.

“Xiaoyan has grown up and has her own ideas. You can’t keep her tied down forever. She’s not going to do repairs, and she won’t follow in her father’s footsteps… There are many people working in aerospace now, and the job market is good…”

Wang Xiangmei got up angrily, grabbed her bag, and went to work.

/

Instead of going through Ji Feng, Zhong Yan sent a message directly to Ji's mother to apologize.

She didn't know what her mother had said, and she couldn't make amends with anything tangible, so she could only sincerely apologize.

Aunt Lin: [It's alright, Xiaoyan. I've talked to your mother about it. The majors at the Aviation University all have good job prospects and are suitable for girls. As long as you're interested, you'll definitely succeed.]

Cage: [Thank you, Auntie. I will persevere and try my best.]

Upon learning about her father's situation, Zhong Yan did not back down or become afraid as her mother had expected. Instead, she became even more determined to go to the university.

Although she doesn't know what she can achieve, she feels extremely honored to be a cog in the machine of this era.

If we have the opportunity to make progress in improving the safety of aircraft, the number of people injured or killed in flight accidents will be greatly reduced.

This can be considered as making amends on behalf of my father.

After feeding the baby seagulls in the Ji family's yard, Zhong Yan went back to the seaside and sat down next to the colorful wheel, looking at the sparkling sea.

The phone rang; I don't know when, but my mother had removed her from the blacklist again.

Are you coming back to school or not?

"I will go to the cram school to enroll on September 3rd."

"Are you determined to go against me? If you go to repeat a year, I won't give you a single penny."

"Okay, let's keep the money for your sister to spend."

After the call ended, Zhong Yan pursed her lips and sent another message to her mother.

Cage: [Mom, repeating a grade is something I've seriously considered. I won't put pressure on you or Uncle.]

Cage: [Therefore]

Cage: [Mom, can you let me choose this time?]

Instead of a reply from her mother, Jifeng sent a message.

WIND: [What are you doing?]

Cage: [Looking at the sea.]

WIND: [Watching the sea alone?]

Cage: [Yes, the sea is beautiful. I'm leaving soon, so I'll take a few more glances.]

Cage: [How did your checkup go?]

WIND: [Results won't be available so quickly]

WIND: [Are you having some troubles?]

Zhong Yan hugged her knees and swayed a few times, as if she were a small boat in the sea, rocking back and forth, a smile appearing on her face.

Cage: [Do you have eyes that can see a thousand miles or ears that can hear the wind?]

WIND: [Nothing else, just a keen eye for identifying problems]

Zhong Yan slowly suppressed her smile.

Cage: [Monsoon, I just found out why my father died.]

Cage: [I haven't told you yet, have I? My dad was an aircraft maintenance engineer, responsible for the inspection and maintenance of commercial aircraft. Because a major accident occurred on a UA-74 aircraft that he was responsible for repairing, he couldn't escape responsibility. Carrying such a heavy psychological burden, he couldn't fight off cancer and passed away.]

It took a while for the monsoon to reply.

WIND: [The UA-74 aircraft used the latest PT5000W engine from Paton, which was dominant in terms of power, fuel efficiency, and noise at the time. However, this engine had defects in gear materials, combustion chamber design flaws, easy peeling of the hot-end coating, and wear of parts. In addition, its overly complex and novel structure made maintenance difficult.]

WIND: [Sophisticated instruments are more difficult to iterate and upgrade]

WIND: [The updates to flight manuals and improvements to aircraft are largely based on repeated accidents.]

Zhong Yan realized that Ji Feng rarely wrote such a long passage; he was trying to comfort himself.

Cage: [I understand, that's why I want to be like you.]

WIND: [Same as me?]

Cage: [A safer aircraft design for the future.]

WIND: [Strong]

Zhong Yan hugged her knees and rocked back and forth, feeling much more relaxed.

Cage: [Did you know my mom called your mom yesterday?]

WIND: [Knows]

Cage: [Then why didn't you ask me?]

WIND: [Not needed]

WIND: [I believe in your choice]

Zhong Yan held her phone, the setting sun warming her back.

WIND: [The sun is setting, are you going home?]

Cage: [Are you going to rest?]

WIND: [Okay, I'll play some games.]

Boys of all ages can't live without games. Although Zhong Yan herself doesn't play, she has heard her male classmates discuss them.

Games can help you relax, relieve stress, and ease your emotions.

Cage: [Okay.]

Zhong Yan was about to switch to the window when her gaze fell on Ji Feng's last sentence.

Cage: [Wait, I have one last question.]

WIND: [Question]

Perhaps because he was already engrossed in the game, Ji Feng's answer was extremely brief, but curiosity prevailed, and Zhong Yan still decided to ask at this moment.

Cage: [Monsoon, why do you never put a period at the end?]

It took the monsoon a while to reply.

WIND: [A period indicates the end; the absence of a period means we can continue the conversation at any time.]

/

"Xiaofeng, aren't you tired? Close your eyes and rest for a while. Today's examination must have been very tiring."

Seeing her mother's cautious manner, Ji Feng obediently put down her phone, leaned against the pillow, and winked at her, "It's okay."

"Does your head still hurt a lot? Should we put some painkillers on it?" Mr. Ji asked as he tidied up the things he had brought.

The couple took care of their son themselves, running around doing everything they could to make him as comfortable as possible in the hospital room.

"The nurse said I can't keep getting the injections, it's okay, it doesn't hurt that much now," Ji Feng said.

"Hey." Lin Zhuyin sniffed, feigning a relaxed expression. "Yeah, the doctor said you're in much better shape than before. It seems relaxing on the island is helpful."

Ji Feng smiled and nodded.

"Do you still want these dried flowers?" Father Ji turned to ask him, holding a transparent model box in his hand. Inside the empty box, a withered and curled red rose was fixed with a metal bracket.

Although he couldn't understand why his son would go to the trouble of bringing an unattractive dried flower when he came to see a doctor, he still asked him seriously.

The smile on Ji Feng's lips faded, and as if he had tasted bitterness, shallow lines appeared between his brows.

"Help me find a bottle to put it in."

/

Friday, August 29, 2025

I'd delete the period from your life forever.