Chu Huainan received the call from his secretary while in the car on his way to the airport: his business jet had veered off the taxiway during its post-landing taxi.

Although everyone on board had evacuated safely with no injuries, flying back to Jianghu City from Beijing on time as originally planned was now impossible.

Secretary Wang Xiaojun, though young, was a quintessential corporate elite who excelled at crisis management. Over the phone, she patiently and thoroughly listed a series of alternative travel plans for him.

"Book me the earliest available flight."

Even though Yuannan Pharmaceutical was already in its fourth generation under his leadership, Chu Huainan was no stereotypical, pretentious rich heir who refused to fly commercial.

On the contrary, he had inherited something far more precious than mere shares and assets from his predecessors—a ruthless, wolf-like business acumen.

He was a classic pragmatist and a man of deep ambition.

Secretary Wang was also an absolutely efficient woman of action. Everything that followed went seamlessly.

When Chu Huainan checked his watch after boarding, he calculated that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, he would only be delayed by about ten minutes compared to his original schedule.

That was, of course, assuming there were no unforeseen circumstances.

"Dear passengers, our aircraft is fully prepared for takeoff. However, due to unexpected airway congestion, we must wait here in line for air traffic control to grant us clearance. The duration of the delay is currently undetermined. As soon as we have a confirmed time, we will notify you immediately via broadcast. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding."

Speak of the devil.

Chu Huainan sighed faintly. Since the air conditioning on commercial flights couldn't be adjusted individually, he pressed the call button to ask a flight attendant for a blanket.

A flight attendant in her neat uniform quickly appeared.

Before Chu Huainan could even speak, a young man sitting to his right suddenly leaned half his body over. "Hey, waitress! I was just about to call you!"

This aircraft was a new model. Even though it was a domestic flight, the first-class cabin featured semi-enclosed suite partitions. Because of this, Chu Huainan hadn't noticed he had a neighbor when he sat down. He followed the sound of the voice.

Despite wearing a face mask and sunglasses, one could easily tell he was a stylish, rather handsome young man.

Hearing herself being called a "waitress," the flight attendant's warm smile stiffened for a second, but she maintained the poised demeanor expected of a major airline's crew.

She cast an apologetic glance at Chu Huainan, told the loud young passenger, "Just a moment, please," and then turned back to Chu with a smile.
"Sir, how may I help you?"
"Could you please bring me a blanket?"
"Certainly, please wait a moment."

The flight attendant straightened up and switched off his call light. Her unhurried, graceful pace thoroughly irritated the ill-tempered passenger next door.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! I've been waiting forever!"

The flight attendant's expression darkened slightly, but not wanting to argue with a first-class passenger, she swallowed her annoyance and asked, "I apologize, sir. What do you need?"

She usually had no resistance against handsome young men, but this guy's bossy, arrogant attitude genuinely made her want to punch him.

"Go pour me a Singapore Sling."
The mask and sunglasses couldn't hide his unreasonable demeanor. "Also, when the hell is this crappy plane going to take off?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but we do not serve cocktails on this route. We only have canned beer, would that be alright? Also, the delay is due to an unforeseen incident causing airway congestion. We must follow the control tower's instructions. We don't have an exact time yet, but we will make an announcement as soon as we do."

The airway congestion was, in fact, caused by a business jet sliding off the runway—the very same jet whose owner was currently sitting right next to him, leisurely reading a newspaper.

Even through the lightly tinted sunglasses, one could see the young passenger roll his eyes dramatically.

"Then bring me a beer first. Flights with layovers are such a hassle; even a domestic transfer pisses me off! What kind of garbage service is this? It's bad enough the plane is trash, but you don't even have a proper drink menu."

Repeatedly insulted, the flight attendant finally reached her limit. "Sir, our aircraft is the latest Airbus model. It is not 'trash'."

But the unreasonable young man seemed to have finally found an excuse to pick a fight. He aggressively pulled down his mask. "What kind of attitude is that?"

Pretending not to hear him, the flight attendant turned around, muttering under her breath, "No attitude at all."
She was just one breath away from adding, I match my attitude to the kind of trash I'm dealing with.

Even without saying that last part out loud, it was enough to send the young man—who seemed itching for a brawl—into a furious rage. "With that kind of attitude, how are you even a flight attendant? Get your purser! I'm filing a complaint against you!"

The commotion in first class was loud enough that the chief purser pulled back the curtain and rushed over before anyone even called her.

She frowned reprovingly at the distressed flight attendant. "What's going on?"
The young flight attendant defended herself defensively. "It's not my fault. It's this gentleman—he... he's being completely unreasonable."
"Hey, why are you playing the victim? How am I being unreasonable?"

Next door, Chu Huainan, who had been trying to read his newspaper, frowned repeatedly at the farce.
It seems financial capability doesn't always buy good manners, he thought. This guy is an absolute hooligan.

"It's true. I didn't do anything. It was this gentleman..."
"What did I do to you, huh? Hey, for a pretty little girl, you sure spout a lot of nonsense! Keep running your mouth and see if I don't slap the life out of you!"

At this point, even the passengers in the rows ahead couldn't help but turn around to watch the drama unfold.

The hooligan was a man of his word. Rolling up his sleeves, he lunged to grab the flight attendant's arm. The young woman, clearly inexperienced with such aggression, shrieked in terror and struggled to hide behind the purser.
Seeing this, the purser hastily tried to intervene. "Sir, please! Use your words, keep your hands to yourself."

Refusing to let go of the girl's arm, the young man sneered, "Heh, I'm using my hands today. What are you gonna do about it?" As he spoke, he leaned closer to the flight attendant, a sleazy, thuggish smirk plastered on his face.

Suddenly, a hand clamped down hard on his shoulder from behind.
Turning his head, he met Chu Huainan's smiling face.
"Harassing a young girl in broad daylight... That's not a very good look, is it?"

Some people wear glasses to correct their vision, but others wear them as if to protect the world, installing panes of glass over windows to a soul that could easily bewitch anyone.

Chu Huainan clearly belonged to the latter category. He possessed classic, alluring peach-blossom eyes hidden behind gold-rimmed lenses. His appearance was the very definition of a handsome, well-dressed beast.

The young man paused, looking at him, but his mouth remained as unforgiving as ever.
"What? You think you're some pretty boy playing the hero?"

Before Chu Huainan could respond, a female passenger sitting in the row ahead—who had been glaring at the scene for a while—chimed in.
"Getting physical with women and wearing sunglasses inside an airplane cabin... What a real man!"

Mocked, the young man's face instantly flushed crimson. He aggressively yanked off his sunglasses.
"Whether I'm a real man or not is none of your damn business! What, Auntie? Trying to play the cougar? Did you forget to count the wrinkles on your face first?!"
"You psycho! You absolute lowlife! Who are you calling Auntie?!"
The well-maintained woman's sore spot was instantly trampled on. She was dressed elegantly and fashionably, her hair pinned up, sporting the latest designer silk scarf around her neck—clearly a woman who took pride in her appearance.

"I didn't name any names. Whoever answers to it must be asking for it!" The face beneath the sunglasses was unexpectedly handsome. Dark, bright eyes, a straight and sharp nose, and an air of cold, upright dignity between his brows.

Even Chu Huainan, who was accustomed to seeing all kinds of beauties and handsome men, couldn't help but be slightly taken aback.

Unfortunately, such a flawless face belonged to someone with an impossibly vicious mouth. "If you've got so much free time during menopause to stick your nose in other people's business, mind your own first, Grandma."

The woman, clearly used to being pampered, never expected her righteous intervention to be met with such a relentless barrage of insults. Instantly, like a maddened cat, she lunged at the young man, claws out, screaming, "I'll kill you, you filthy thug!"

With that, the first-class cabin descended into absolute chaos.
Even the passengers in the front rows of the economy cabin couldn't resist pulling back the curtain to peek.

The flight attendant who had first argued with the passenger, along with Chu Huainan, tried to hold back the hooligan who was now fighting a woman.

But the young man's seemingly thin arms were surprisingly long. Reaching past the two of them, he successfully grabbed the woman's silk scarf. The tangled scarf then snagged on her pearl hairpin, instantly pulling her elegant updo into a disheveled mess.

The veteran purser violently yanked the cabin divider curtain shut and shouted toward the air marshal stationed in the back, "Get the security officer! Tell him a passenger is causing a disturbance!"

The security officer arrived within three minutes. As soon as he got there, he saw a woman sitting in her seat with her hair in a mess, crying into a tissue over her face.

Chu Huainan was leaning over, politely handing her his own unopened bottle of water.
The woman accepted the water amidst her sobs, muttered a thank you, took a sip, and then turned her head to curse again, "Shameless thug!"

The instigator of the farce had put his sunglasses back on. He sat in his seat with his legs casually crossed in a flamboyant manner. Tilting his sharp chin up, he fired back refusing to show weakness: "Old hag who refuses to accept her age."
The woman slammed the water bottle onto the tray table. "You!"
But the security officer glared at them both, intervening. "Enough! We are taking off shortly. If this continues, I will contact ground police immediately and have all of you escorted off this aircraft."

Having just arrived, the officer didn't know the specifics of the dispute. He only wanted to stabilize the situation and de-escalate the conflict as quickly as possible.

Being yelled at by him only made the woman feel even more wronged, but not wanting to delay her trip, she swallowed her tears and cursed resentfully, "I won't stoop to the level of a psycho. I'll just consider it bad luck—like running into a rabid, biting dog on the street, or stepping in a pile of dog shit!"

"With garbage like you, even a dog would want to kick you if you fell on the street. Who wants to deal with you?" the young man retorted.

Seeing the young man still aggressively arguing back without yielding an inch, the officer raised his voice an octave higher. "Why are you still running your mouth? Do you really want to be kicked off this flight?"

The unexpected drama did, at the very least, help pass the boring delay.

Not long after, the plane took off.

Having just pulled his hooligan act and feeling like he had the upper hand, the young man seemed to be in a good mood. Before the cabin lights even dimmed, he took off his sunglasses, put on his headphones, and started watching a movie.

Taking advantage of his walk back from the lavatory, Chu Huainan couldn't help but steal a few extra glances at the young man, who was happily sipping his beer.

The youth's head was tilted slightly, the knuckle of his right index finger resting lightly against his lips, exposing a small tattoo behind his left ear where it met his neck. It was small but intricately designed—a cross wrapped in eagle wings.

As if immediately sensing he was being watched, the young man alertly tore his gaze away from the 90s mafia movie playing on his screen.

Their eyes locked for a few seconds. This time, the staring contest ended with a disdainful glare from the youth.

Yet, Chu Huainan didn't feel offended by the unfriendly attitude.

A face emerged ever more clearly from the depths of a memory he hadn't even realized he'd kept.

Gradually, it overlapped perfectly with the profile illuminated by the flickering glow of the screen before him.
The sharp jawline, the straight nose, the focused eyes, and that composed expression that looked as if it would never succumb to panic.

A brief but profoundly memorable conversation—lasting only a few seconds—that had lain dormant in Chu Huainan's memory suddenly echoed in his ears.

A similarly aloof young man had frowned slightly at him, a confident, arrogant light in his bright eyes. "They have guns. Go find some cover and hide for thirty seconds."

When the young man took down the enemy with clean, decisive strikes, Chu Huainan, who had been watching him the entire time, raised his wrist to check his watch.
Sure enough, it took less than thirty seconds.

The movie didn't keep the young man settled for long. Perhaps the plot was too melodramatic and boring, but he suddenly unbuckled his seatbelt, stood up, and popped open the overhead compartment, rummaging through it haphazardly.

Chu Huainan quietly adjusted his seat back to an upright position and shifted forward slightly so he could observe the man out of the corner of his eye.

After making a lot of noise but finding nothing, the youth stretched and sat back down. A moment later, he pulled his phone out of his carry-on bag.
The battery was below 20%.
He curled his lip in annoyance and fished out a black power bank from his bag.

All his rummaging had long since caught the attention of the other passengers.

"What are you doing? You can't use power banks on a plane."
Ignoring the warning completely, the youth tossed the phone—now plugged into the power bank—onto his tray table. He then grabbed his headphones, which he had haphazardly tossed aside earlier, and slipped them back on.

His movements were smooth and infuriatingly nonchalant.

The passenger who had tried to warn him was already disgusted by his earlier thuggish behavior. Ignored, he turned to the female passenger next to him—who had also been watching the young man's every move—and shot her a look that said, Can you believe this guy?

The female passenger, her makeup still ruined from crying, had turned on her reading light and was touching up her face with a powder puff. She mouthed the word "Trash." As she reached up to turn off the reading light, she pressed the call button.

The one who arrived was the same flight attendant the youth had argued with earlier. Upon hearing the woman's complaint, she followed her pointing finger.

Sure enough, on the tray table of the slouching hooligan sat a phone plugged directly into a power bank.

The flight attendant softly reassured the female passenger. Instead of trying to persuade the young man herself, she turned and walked straight into the forward galley.

Less than a minute later, someone else came out. This time, it was the chief purser.
Her tone was polite, but ice-cold.
"Sir, it is strictly forbidden to use a power bank to charge your phone during the flight."

The young man continued to do as he pleased. Turning a deaf ear, he adjusted his headphones, his eyes never leaving the screen.
He practically had stubborn and unrepentant written across his forehead.

The purser shook her head, speechless. Knowing further words were useless, she directly summoned the air marshal.

The air marshal, a man around thirty wearing a light blue shirt and khaki trousers, walked over, followed by the security officer.

The man didn't hold back. After speaking twice and receiving no response, he roughly yanked the headphones off the young man's head.

"What are you doing?" The youth finally looked up, irritable and glaring with the impatience of someone who hated being disturbed.

The man pulled a badge from his shirt pocket. It was a police badge.
The youth tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. "What, plainclothes? You think you're in a movie?"
"I am the air marshal for this flight, badge number 313956. We've received reports that you are illegally using a power bank. Please cooperate."
"Cooperate how?"
"Hand over the phone and the power bank."
"And if I don't?" The young man sneered contemptuously. "You think being a cop makes you special?"
"Watch your attitude! Hand it over."
"No. If you've got the guts, take it yourself! But let me tell you, if you dare touch it, I'll sue you for stealing my phone!"

The air marshal hadn't expected this well-dressed young man to be such an absolute rogue. With a look of utter disgust, he reached out for the phone on the tray table.
"I am wearing a body camera for the entire duration of this flight. You will be held responsible for your actions."

The young man slammed his hand down on the phone and raised his voice. "What, just because you're a cop, you can act like a thug and rob people?" He then shoved the phone and the connected power bank into his bag.

"I'm leaving it right here. If you're so tough, come get it yourself!"

Provoked, the air marshal didn't hold back either. With one hand, he forcefully pinned the young man—who looked tall and well-proportioned but was clearly no match in a fight—firmly against the seat. With his other hand, he violently yanked the bag out from under the youth's arm.

Naturally, the young man wasn't going to let it go easily. During the struggle, he accidentally knocked over the half-full can of beer on his tray table, spilling it all over his own pants.

The air marshal didn't intend to pin him down forever. Once he had the phone and power bank, he let go, tossed the bag back onto the youth's lap, and barked, "Behave yourself!"

However, upon a quick inspection, he realized the power bank was completely out of battery. He froze for a second.

The air marshal unplugged the phone from the dead power bank before handing the phone back to the young passenger. As he did, he added, "Even if it's dead, you still can't have it plugged in on a plane. It poses a risk to flight safety."

The young man looked down, pointing at the massive wet patch on his pants. He sneered, "So, splashing drinks on passengers is allowed on a plane?"

Without waiting for an answer, he stood up abruptly, his eyes scanning the area.
He noticed the bottle of water on Chu Huainan's tray table next door—the one that had only been taken a sip of.

Instantly, the bottle was requisitioned.

A second later, the air marshal and the security officer were both drenched in water.

Chu Huainan stared at the back of this young man who, ever since boarding, had been fully dedicated to causing trouble for absolutely everyone.

Does this count as assaulting a police officer? he wondered.

I will be updating daily from now on!

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Preview: The next chapter will be posted tomorrow morning at 9 AM.