How could this be… Li Qingshu trembled.
How could this happen?!
She peered out the window of the private jet, but all she could see were thick black clouds as solid as steel plates, laced with lightning hidden within.
For a moment, Li Qingshu was speechless. A piercing scream stabbed into her ears, lasting several seconds before she realized it was her own.
Gathering her courage, she made her way toward the cockpit at the front of the plane.
The cabin was pitch black, impossible to see even her own hand in front of her face. It was only by the flickering flashes of lightning that Li Qingshu found the door handle and pushed it open to enter.
The pilot’s hands were clamped desperately onto the plane’s control yoke. The back of her shirt was soaked with sweat, her legs trembling uncontrollably, but her hands never let go. She hadn’t abandoned control of the aircraft.
“Can we… parachute out?” Li Qingshu asked the pilot.
“No chance. The weather out there… we might not make it down safely,” the pilot replied, her voice shaking.
In her more than ten years of experience, she had been trained to fly in rainy weather, but this was no ordinary rain. This was a violent storm—a thunderstorm!
She had watched helplessly as the clouds gathered at an unimaginable speed. Before she could react, they had enveloped the plane completely, trapping them like ants squeezed into a glass cup by a giant human hand, utterly powerless to resist.
Now, she couldn’t even tell which way was up. The conditions outside made parachuting impossible, and the odds of survival… The pilot ran the numbers in her head and let out a sigh.
The fact that the plane hadn’t been struck by lightning and plummeted from the sky yet was already a miracle. If she managed to fly them out of this, she figured she’d win the aviation world’s highest honor, the Polaris Award!
It seemed this calamity was fated for her.
This freak thunderstorm, this hellish flying environment—they were probably done for!
Just as the pilot was mentally preparing to let go and leave the plane to its fate, Li Qingshu suddenly remembered the key detail.
In this life-or-death moment, the last message from her eldest son surfaced in her mind.
He had told her to hurry back. Su Shang had made his move.
Was this the result of his intervention?
Could a human really control the weather, unleashing a disaster like this?
Li Qingshu had never witnessed Su Shang destroying the world. Up until now, she had viewed him as something akin to a vicious serial killer—terrifying, yes, but still within the realm of humanity.
Now she saw how wrong she was. No serial killer could compare.
This was far beyond human capability. Even firing cloud-seeding cannons nonstop at the sky couldn’t produce a scene like this.
And it had all happened in the mere minutes it took her to glance down, compose a reply, and send it. Su Shang… he probably wasn’t human anymore.
In ancient times, beings who could summon wind and rain—whether the Four Seas Dragon Kings or Lei Gong and Dian Mu—were all gods. Su Shang had to be at least on their level!
Once she accepted that, Li Qingshu felt a wave of relief.
If Su Shang’s earlier grumblings had felt like an insult before, now she was filled with nothing but gratitude.
He hadn’t killed her outright. He’d let her live until now…
From here on, no matter how much Su Shang griped about her, Li Qingshu wouldn’t utter a single word of complaint. If he wanted, she would even join in, echoing his criticisms of herself.
“Turn back,” she said, her voice heavy with exhaustion, laced with helpless resignation to reality.
“I know how to get out now. I’m not leaving. Turn us around and head back.”
It was clear she wasn’t getting away today. This downpour and Thunder Cloud were Su Shang’s doing, set up specifically to intercept her and prevent her private jet from leaving B City.
If Su Shang wanted her back, she had to go back.
His commands were absolute, not to be defied.
That was the status granted by overwhelming power. Su Shang no longer needed their affection—he didn’t care for it. What he demanded was their total obedience.
“Turn back? What are you talking about?!”
The pilot couldn’t believe her ears. Had Li Qingshu lost her mind?
She harbored some resentment toward her employer. If the client hadn’t gone crazy and insisted on taking off from B City right that instant, she never would have run into this mess—possibly dying here because of it.
And now this employer, who knew nothing about weather or flying, was spouting nonsense and telling her to turn back?
She had been flying straight ahead precisely to escape the Thunder Cloud trapping them. And now Li Qingshu wanted her to reverse course?
They had flown into the storm from that direction in the first place. Going back would just plunge them right into it again!
Absolutely not. No way back! the pilot thought.
She ignored Li Qingshu’s words. Her hands stayed put, making no move to turn.
Li Qingshu saw this and sneered inwardly.
“I said, fly back!” she ordered sharply.
“Fly back now.”
“You’re insane! You have no idea how to fly a plane. We’re all going to die here!” Under the crushing pressure, the pilot lost control of her emotions and lashed out.
“We won’t die. Just listen to me, and we won’t die.”
Li Qingshu said.
There was some inexplicable persuasive magic in her tone.
“Arcs of electricity are dancing across the plane’s fuselage, but we haven’t been hit by lightning even once, have we? Do you really think that’s normal?”
“That’s not something you can chalk up to luck,” Li Qingshu continued. “I know exactly what’s going on.”
“You…” The pilot stared at her in horror.
This employer sounded like she knew some secret behind it all. Was it possible this disaster was under her command?
What nonsense! No human could control something like that. Humanity hadn’t evolved to the point of defying the forces of nature!
“You’re right,” Li Qingshu said slowly.
She drew on the rhetoric she used to outmaneuver opponents in the boardroom, turning it toward the pilot.
“I don’t know the first thing about weather patterns or flying a plane.”
Truth be told, Li Qingshu had once considered getting her pilot’s license, but she’d been too swamped with work to find the time. She’d been so buried that she hadn’t even been there to watch Su Bingyao and Su Shang grow up—a neglect that had led to all this mess…
“But I do know one thing: if we turn back now, we live.”
The rock-solid certainty and confidence in her words inexplicably swayed the pilot.
“Besides, if we keep pushing forward like this, we might not make it out alive anyway. Didn’t you just say we’re doomed to die here? If that’s the case, what’s the harm in giving it a shot?”
What’s the harm in trying?
Fine—let’s try it!
The pilot clenched her jaw.
“Hold on tight!”
She wrenched the controls, swinging the plane around in a sharp U-turn.
Meanwhile, Luo Shang received a notification.
[She’s coming back,] the System said. [OK, no issues then?]
[None.]
Luo Shang tapped the armrest of his wheelchair thoughtfully.
Dark clouds blanketed their location, the sky spitting occasional raindrops on the wind.
[With weather like this, she couldn’t fly out even if she wanted to. Better that she heads back,] Luo Shang said.
[All right. The wind will die down soon, and the rain will let up. I have no interest in putting on this show with him in a downpour. Let’s call it here for now.]
[Oh, right—one other key player has hit a snag,] the System reported languidly.
Su Mingyao: ?
Oh, yeah—his husband, Shen Changqing. More precisely, his future husband. He was supposed to drop by to eavesdrop too.
But if it rained, he’d probably skip his stroll through the Su Family’s back garden. That meant he wouldn’t overhear the conversation between Su Shang and me, wouldn’t take an interest in me, and wouldn’t step in to help deal with Su Shang…
Su Mingyao had just reached that thought when the System chimed in again.
[Your summoning of the wind and thunder has made the other major figure from the original garden conference incident—Shen Changqing—think rain’s coming and decide to head home.]
[You didn’t mention that before,] Luo Shang said.
[You should’ve anticipated how it would affect the current Plot before making your move,] the System replied.
[That said, I’ve got it covered. He’s stuck in a Ghost-Hitting-Wall right now, unable to leave the back garden. Give it a moment, and I’ll nudge things so he ends up right behind the bushes at your spot—a perfect vantage for overhearing your chat with that guy.]
[Not bad, my good System,] Luo Shang said with a grin.
What a willing accomplice… Su Mingyao couldn’t fathom why Brother Yao thought so highly of it. He remembered Brother Yao praising the System to him before—had Su Bingyao been charmed by this bizarre entity?
[Of course. Finish up here quickly, and you can cut your vacation short and get back to work,] the System said. [I’ll support you every step of the way.]
Luo Shang: […Fuck.] He rarely swore, even in his thoughts.
Su Mingyao: …?!
Wait—it could get Su Shang out of here sooner??
Now that’s a world-class System! Brother Yao had been spot on!
