After the Divorce, My Wife Is Impossible to Coax - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

An Zhaoyu leaned against the aircraft, waiting for Lu Shen to change clothes.

The team members were puzzled but didn’t dare ask too much, fearing a lecture.

“What is Doctor Lu doing here?” Only Jiang Qizheng dared to ask; he still didn’t have much respect for An Zhaoyu.

He just hasn’t been beaten down by reality yet, the team members complained internally, though they too were dying for an answer. The curiosity was eating at them.

An Zhaoyu ignored him, her gaze fixed on the locker room. Lu Shen was the same height as her, 172cm, and they had similar builds; her clothes should fit just fine.

She really doesn’t know how to respect people, Jiang Qizheng thought, arms crossed as he waited for her to embarrass herself later.

Lu Shen emerged after changing. An Zhaoyu’s uniform was mostly a good fit, and even the helmet size was appropriate. After giving her another look-over, An Zhaoyu reached out to adjust Lu Shen’s hair, as a few strands had slipped into the collar.

The search and rescue team members stared with open mouths. When had Captain An ever tidied someone else’s clothes? If a team member’s gear was sloppy, she usually sent them back to the locker room to fix it themselves—she never did it personally.

Even if the other person was Doctor Lu, this was bizarre.

Lu Shen didn’t pay much attention to it. The movement was so subtle and quick that An Zhaoyu had finished before Lu Shen could even think to dodge.

The two boarded the training aircraft one after the other. Lu Shen sat in the seat Wen Yuncheng had occupied earlier. This was her first time in a training plane. There were auxiliary controls in front of her, but An Zhaoyu had deactivated them, leaving only the primary displays and the necessary camera feeds active for her.

The auxiliary seat served two purposes: teaching and safety. For Lu Shen, she could see a feed of the main control panel, watching exactly how An Zhaoyu manipulated the joystick and which switches she flipped—a dizzying array of precision. For safety, if a trainee like Jiang Qizheng messed up in the primary seat, a veteran like Wen Yuncheng in the back could take over.

The aircraft took off smoothly.

Lu Shen looked up as the ground fell away rapidly. The sunlight piercing through the clouds grew blinding. The windshield and the side windows pieced together a complete aerial perspective of the cockpit. An Zhaoyu’s silhouette was right in the center, the backlighting outlining the Omega’s form with golden light.

Back in high school, when everyone was napping at their desks, Lu Shen would sometimes feel a sharp tap on her back. When she opened her eyes, she would see a colorful paper airplane on the floor.

The paper used for those planes was always from glossy, colorful English magazines. An Zhaoyu’s desk had been stuffed with such “unproductive” things. Lu Shen would bend down, pick up the plane, and flatten it. The English text was professional—Lu Shen, whose English was excellent, could easily recognize that most of them were news reports about aviation or extreme sports. By the end of a semester, Lu Shen had collected a thick stack of these colorful pages.

When it came time to apply for colleges, An Zhaoyu chose to be a pilot. She had sat there with a lollipop in her mouth, writing her exam and saying she was going to be the best pilot in a lazy drawl. Her classmates thought she was joking because her pre-differentiation result was “Omega.” Almost no Omega chose to be a pilot; they were rare in the field. She had just laughed along with them as if she didn’t care.

One day, the weight of a paper airplane felt different. Lu Shen unfolded it to find a special report on a flight competition champion. The “troublemaker” classmate had pasted her own two-inch ID photo over the face of the foreign champion. When Lu Shen looked back, An Zhaoyu had tilted her chin up with a defiant smile, as if the trophy were already hers.

That confidence was unshakeable, regardless of the skeptical looks of others.

Even though much time had passed, for some reason, that scene remained in full color in Lu Shen’s mind—the weather had been perfectly clear that day.

Lu Shen had discovered a secret about An Zhaoyu: this “Omega” who ranked at the bottom of the class and was the bane of every teacher’s existence wasn’t actually a hopeless student. How else could she fold professional foreign aviation journals into complex planes every day, or solve the most difficult exam questions on scratch paper with just a few strokes?

Lu Shen didn’t quite understand this calculated rebellion, but she never exposed her. If An Zhaoyu wanted to be the “troublemaker,” she let her. She didn’t understand why all the teachers tried so hard to persuade her to be “obedient”—was it just because she was going to be an Omega? Some teachers even said she would “settle down” once she differentiated.

Is Captain An settled down now?

The silhouette in front of her merged with the memories of the past. Lu Shen’s gaze moved between the transport feed of the ground and the screen showing An Zhaoyu’s hands.

From An Zhaoyu’s angle, she couldn’t see Lu Shen. She was fully concentrated on the dummy placed on the ground, her hands making minute adjustments to the joystick.

Hovering the aircraft steadily over the target was the first hurdle. Earlier, Jiang Qizheng and Wen Yuncheng could get the plane over the dummy, but the aircraft itself kept swaying slightly. To keep a helicopter perfectly still in mid-air, the lift must exactly balance the weight—and that’s just the starting condition.

After judging the acceleration, An Zhaoyu skillfully pressed the stick to the right, hovering the plane directly over the dummy. She maintained a high level of focus; because of wind and other external factors, she had to constantly input tiny adjustments to the control system. Due to the lag in aircraft response, corrections can easily overshoot, requiring the cyclic stick to be manipulated repeatedly to maintain a stable hover.

Though it sounded complex, An Zhaoyu had practiced it countless times until it was pure habit. The aircraft stayed perfectly still in the air, as if frozen.

Jiang Qizheng still looked defiant, but the veterans like Wen Yuncheng knew better. Those who knew the craft looked at the details; this hovering operation alone outclassed them eighty times over. The training field was silent, save for the sound of the engine and rotors.

Then, the bottom hatch opened. Several robotic grippers descended slowly and precisely grabbed the dummy by the neck, waist, and hips. Wen Yuncheng winced; why were those grippers so disobedient when he was at the controls?

The biggest fear in transport is spinal cord injury. Under An Zhaoyu’s control, the dummy’s torso was kept as straight and motionless as possible—it was an ideal execution.

The dummy was pulled into the aircraft intact. After a smooth flight to the destination, An Zhaoyu slowly lowered it back to the ground. Not a speck of dust was kicked up as it landed. The dummy’s posture hadn’t changed at all. Jiang Qizheng could only marvel inwardly, though he refused to show it, keeping his chin up stubbornly.

A perfect finish. After the plane landed, An Zhaoyu jumped down and commanded the line of team members.

“Practice exactly like that.”

“It was only a little better, she just didn’t drop it,” Jiang Qizheng muttered. Maybe this is the only thing she’s good at, so she uses it to show off? He couldn’t even see the difficulty of the maneuver. The simpler and more practical the operation, the more skill it required; that was called “basic mastery.” Wen Yuncheng wondered when he would ever reach the Captain’s level.

If it hadn’t been Lu Shen, the team would have fought over who got the auxiliary seat. Watching the Captain fly was a treat for any pilot; every move was like a masterclass—skilled, precise, and perfect.

Perhaps due to the pregnancy, An Zhaoyu felt a bit tired. Seeing Lu Shen safely off the plane, she walked toward the duty room to get some water.

“Buddy, keep that ego in check. We all went through this. The Captain will show you with her strength why she’s the Captain,” a good-natured team member said, patting Jiang Qizheng on the shoulder.

“She does this for every newcomer. It must be tiring, but watching her fly is a real thrill,” another added with admiration.

Does she demonstrate for every newcomer because everyone doubts her?

Lu Shen watched An Zhaoyu from a distance. The Omega captain had taken off her helmet, letting her burgundy curls fly free in the breeze. She was sitting at a computer, drinking water and checking something carefully, her long legs crossed casually. She had an air of effortless freedom.

“Doctor Lu, why are you here today?” With An Zhaoyu away, a few bold team members encouraged each other to dig for gossip. Dr. Lu was cold, but she wasn’t fierce; she wouldn’t give them a group punishment on a whim. The team was always concerned about the Captain’s love life—what kind of Alpha would be good enough for her? Would they need to have three heads and six arms?

Jiang Qizheng looked at their gossiping with disdain. This was a serious training ground. If it weren’t for an Omega captain, there wouldn’t be all this idle talk and restlessness. Places with Omegas are always full of trouble. Why can’t she stay home and raise children? He really couldn’t understand the An family.

“I’m leaving now,” Lu Shen said, heading to the locker room. She had already estimated when An Zhaoyu would need to rest.

“Wait!” The talkative members cursed. They hadn’t meant to drive Dr. Lu away!

“Where’s Doctor Lu?”

Sure enough, after reviewing her flight data, An Zhaoyu walked over. Seeing Lu Shen was gone, she began her interrogation.

“Doctor Lu said she had to head back,” Wen Yuncheng answered sheepishly, peeking at her, afraid she would start scolding them.

An Zhaoyu said nothing. She remembered that back in the plane, Lu Shen’s phone had been vibrating non-stop.

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