UAAG CH6

The next morning, a tall man with brown hair hurriedly arrived at the investigation headquarters, delivering the flight simulation video previously completed by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

Lina poured him a cup of hot water. “Reid has been waiting for you for several days.”

The brown-haired man lifted his head cautiously, glancing in Zhuo Huan’s direction. “Approvals are always necessary, and there were some flaws in the software simulation results that needed improvement.”

Bang—

In the spacious office area on the second floor of the investigation headquarters, everyone’s attention was drawn by the sudden impact, looking up toward the source of the noise. They saw the cold, sharp man kick his long legs forward, sending his swivel chair sliding backward until it crashed into the desk behind him, causing the documents on top to tremble slightly.

That was where the loud noise had come from.

The person responsible seemed to have no intention of explaining. He simply let out a light, cold scoff, stood up, and walked past Lina and the brown-haired man without even looking at them. He idly grabbed at his hair, which was tied up in a small bun, and walked over to Su Fei’s desk.

“Go get the data.”

Su Fei looked completely bewildered. “Huh? Me?”

At that moment, a tall, slender figure stood up and walked over to Lina.

Lina smiled helplessly at him. Fu Cheng took the hard drive and delivered it over.

Fu Cheng knew that this man’s mood must be absolutely terrible. He raised those cold, clear eyes, staring fixedly at Fu Cheng without a trace of warmth. It took a full two seconds before he finally reached out and took the hard drive from Fu Cheng’s hand.

For the entire morning, a thick, low-pressure atmosphere permeated the investigation headquarters.

It was at least a Category 12 hurricane of low pressure; no one dared to speak loudly, and the brown-haired man was on pins and needles.

By noon, Zhuo Huan had finished inspecting the entire investigation report. The brown-haired man let out a heavy sigh of relief. Not daring to look at Zhuo Huan’s expression at all, he found an excuse and ran off without looking back.

Zhuo Huan turned his head. “What kind of tea did you make for him?”

Lina smiled slightly. “Hot water.”

Zhuo Huan paused, then smiled with satisfaction for a long time.

Zhuo Huan: “Have you contacted McFly about the black box?”

Lina: “I thought you would contact McFly personally, Reid.”

Zhuo Huan: “It’s more convenient for you to contact them.”

“Alright.”

After briefly assigning work tasks to a few people for the afternoon, Zhuo Huan dug around in his desk drawer, found a lighter, and stuffed it into his pocket. He went downstairs, leaving the investigation headquarters.

Fu Cheng looked down from the second-floor window and saw him turn a corner, walking into a shadowed bend to light a cigarette.

“Do you want to go enjoy a wonderful lunch together before we start our afternoon work?”

Fu Cheng looked up and smiled at Old Joseph. “Sure.”

The two of them grabbed some sandwiches and went downstairs together.

They ran into Zhuo Huan at the stairwell as he was returning from his smoke. The heavy smell of tobacco clung to him like a gloom that refused to dissipate. He frowned, looking Fu Cheng and Old Joseph up and down, his gaze finally resting on the sandwiches in their hands.

“Lunch?”

Old Joseph smiled cheerfully. “Yes, just grabbing a quick bite so we can get to the hospital before one o’clock.”

Zhuo Huan turned sideways to let the two pass.

Once they had gone down the stairs, Fu Cheng looked back, only to see the man taking the stairs two at a time, disappearing up to the second floor in just a few steps.

“Do you think Reid is hard to get along with?”

Fu Cheng was suddenly startled and withdrew his gaze.

“No.”

Old Joseph shrugged. “Well, I have to say, I think he’s incredibly hard to get along with.” He winked at Fu Cheng. “Do you know Adrian? That EASA investigator who just left. He actually delayed delivering the video data for two whole days. I really admire him; he possesses extraordinary courage. I’ve never seen anyone dare to stand Reid up for so long. People like that usually end up thrown into the Atlantic to feed the fish. By the way, were you going to ask why the Atlantic and not the Pacific?”

Fu Cheng smiled faintly: No, I wasn’t.

Old Joseph answered his own question, revealing an envious look. “I heard Reid has a private island in the Atlantic!”

The two of them gnawed on their dry sandwiches.

Old Joseph: “We definitely have to eat something good tonight. It’s on the company expense account anyway!”

Fu Cheng seemed to suddenly remember something. He spoke as if casually: “Since Teacher Zhuo values efficiency so much, and the black box is currently with McFly, shouldn’t Teacher Zhuo be the one contacting McFly to get it as soon as possible?” He paused, then added calmly, “After all, Teacher Zhuo used to be the chief designer of the McFly F475.”

Old Joseph laughed heartily. “See, this is what you don’t know. Do you know what Lina’s last name is?”

Fu Cheng’s heart tightened, though his face remained unchanged. “I don’t know.”

“It’s Conte.” Seeing Fu Cheng’s astonished expression, Old Joseph was very satisfied. “Anyone can be a Conte, but in the aviation world, there is only one Conte—the Conte family, the second-largest shareholder of McFly.”

In the afternoon, Fu Cheng and Old Joseph arrived at Helsinki University Hospital.

Just before the two walked into the hospital, Old Joseph stopped and looked at Fu Cheng. His expression was solemn as he asked seriously, “Before we go in, I want to confirm two things. First, Fu, you know who the subject of our upcoming witness interview is, right?”

“I know.”

“Second, before the final results are out, no one knows the true cause of the crash of Japan Airlines JL917. Therefore, regardless of how public opinion views it, we investigators are absolutely, absolutely forbidden from injecting any personal emotion.”

Fu Cheng looked into Old Joseph’s light green eyes for a long time, then nodded.

The two entered the hospital.

The Japan Airlines JL917 crash resulted in the deaths of 136 passengers and 9 crew members, including one captain, two co-pilots, one flight engineer, and five flight attendants. The person Fu Cheng and Joseph were interviewing today was one of the surviving flight attendants, Yamashita Megumi.

Passing one ward after another, the two finally stopped in front of a single room. After knocking and receiving permission, they pushed the door open and entered.

The room faced south, and the dazzling sunlight shone through the floor-to-ceiling windows, soft and clear as a spring day. Fu Cheng couldn’t help but squint. After waiting a few seconds to adjust to the light in the room, he gradually saw the young woman lying on the hospital bed, looking out the window.

She had a small, delicate face, but her skin was pale, and she was shockingly thin. Because of her emaciation, her eye sockets protruded, making her almost unrecognizable.

Fu Cheng and Old Joseph walked up to her bed, but she seemed not to hear anything, continuing to stare quietly out the window.

The white bedsheet covered her lower body, but the quilt outlined only one left leg.

There was no right leg.

Old Joseph spoke in English, “Miss Yamashita, I am Joseph, and this is my colleague Fu Cheng. We called ahead. We would like to understand and confirm some information with you again.”

The woman turned her head woodenly to look at them. After a long while, she nodded.

Old Joseph’s tone was gentle. “If you feel any discomfort during the conversation, please feel free to bring it up at any time.”

His answer was Yamashita Megumi’s unchanging silence.

Old Joseph looked at Fu Cheng, and Fu Cheng nodded, turning on the voice recorder.

“May I ask where you were and what you were doing when the accident occurred?”

In the quiet room, only the ticking of medical instruments could be heard.

Just when Fu Cheng thought she wouldn’t answer, she spoke. “On JL917, I was a business class flight attendant. The plane was about to land. I was sitting in the forward cabin jump seat, waiting for landing.”

“Did you hear any unusual sounds?”

“No.”

“Did the captain’s announcement play, giving any special warnings?”

“No.”

After a series of questions, Yamashita Megumi’s answers gradually turned into “yes” and “no.”

Fu Cheng couldn’t help but look at Old Joseph.

In interview psychology, if the interviewee’s answers are reduced to only “yes” and “no,” it is generally very difficult to obtain useful information. Therefore, one should try to ask more open-ended questions and avoid closed-ended ones.

However, he believed that with Old Joseph’s experience, he would not make such a mistake.

The next moment, he heard Old Joseph ask, “When was the last time you communicated with the cockpit, and what was the content of the conversation?”

Yamashita Megumi: “I was a business class flight attendant; I was not responsible for communicating with the cockpit.”

After waiting a moment, Old Joseph spoke again, “When was the last time you spoke to Maeda Shosuke, and what was said?”

In an instant, veins bulged on that face, which had become skull-like from emaciation, and her eyes nearly split open. Yamashita Megumi lifted her head, staring dead at Old Joseph.

Old Joseph seemed not to notice. Like a patient elder, he spoke softly, “Maeda Shosuke, Japan Airlines JL917 co-pilot, with only 917 flight hours on the McFly F435. However, his flight assessment scores have always been excellent. I believe he was an outstanding young man.” Taking a photo from his pocket, Old Joseph looked at it himself first, then handed it to Yamashita Megumi. “Your fiancé was a very handsome young man.”

Yamashita Megumi took the photo with trembling hands. She stared unblinkingly at the flat-headed young man smiling brilliantly in the photo. After a long time, a huge tear smashed onto the photo, and her fingers pressed creases into it.

After a long wait, a hoarse female voice spoke amidst sobbing, “Two days before takeoff… noon on December 17th, was the last time I spoke to him. We had a fight, and I returned the ring to him. He was no longer my fiancé. He was a good man. It was me… it was me who abandoned him. I wasn’t worthy of him.”

The crying became uncontrollable again; she covered her face, tears streaming through her fingers.

She wept in grief, unable to speak.

Old Joseph and Fu Cheng watched quietly from the side.

Five minutes later, Yamashita Megumi, with a trembling voice, wiped away her tears and revealed a powerless smile. “His father owed a large debt. This debt wasn’t known to us until half a year ago when it could no longer be hidden. Shosuke was taught from a young age to be a man, to be responsible, and not to run from difficulties, so he voluntarily took on the debt.”

“We lived very hard these past six months. I wanted to help him, but I’m just a cowardly ordinary person. He never gave up. Even when creditors came to the door, he apologized very earnestly to them and promised he would definitely pay back the money. He did it; he paid back a lot, a lot of money, but there was still a lot, still too much.”

“I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it.”

Covering her face with both hands, Yamashita Megumi sobbed incoherently.

Suddenly, she reached out and forcefully grabbed Fu Cheng’s hand.

Fu Cheng was sitting closest to her, and at this moment, he seemed to become her life-saving straw.

She struggled, trying to kneel, but with only a weak left leg remaining, she couldn’t even get out of bed. So, her hands gripped Fu Cheng tightly, her eyes wide, looking at him with desperate hope, tears pattering onto the bedsheet.

“I beg you, believe him. Shosuke isn’t that kind of person. He wouldn’t seek death; he wouldn’t harm anyone’s life. Our breakup was entirely my fault. If he really wanted to die, wanted to take me with him, then why am I still alive? Why? Why am I still alive?”

“Shouldn’t the person who deserves to die most be me?”

“I abandoned him. I was afraid. Yes, Shosuke was so smart; there were so many ways to take me with him to die. He wouldn’t have left me alive. So it wasn’t him, it really wasn’t him. Please, believe him. It wasn’t him, it really wasn’t him.”

As if struck by hysteria, she repeated the same words over and over. weeping bitterly. Countless words of apology could not fill the hollow regret and despair in her heart. She could only say, again and again—

“He was a good man. He wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t do that.”

“It wasn’t him.”

“I deserve to die. I deserve to die…”

Her hands were suddenly held tightly, and the sound came to an abrupt halt.

Yamashita Megumi raised her head, her dry, peeling lips parted. Through her heavy tears, she looked at the young man blocked by layers of mist.

Fu Cheng held her hands back, his face calm, and spoke softly. His voice was very light, but every word was incredibly clear, soaking into her heart. Somehow, it quieted her down.

“I believe that in the final moment of his life, what he was thinking must have been—”

“If you could survive, that would be wonderful.”

The world suddenly fell silent.

Half an hour later.

The ward door closed behind them.

Fu Cheng was about to step forward when Old Joseph’s teasing voice rang out. “I thought you were going to say, ‘I believe it’s definitely not what the outside world speculates; he isn’t that kind of person.'”

Fu Cheng paused, turning his head to look at him, a smile appearing on his clean, fair face. “I thought it was you who told me just now that before the truth comes out, no matter what, we investigators absolutely cannot mix in personal feelings.”

Old Joseph laughed heartily. He patted Fu Cheng on the shoulder and was about to speak.

The black-haired young man, in that same smiling voice, continued, “Also, perhaps Maeda Shosuke really couldn’t bear the pressure of the debt and the broken relationship, and chose to commit suicide by crashing the plane?”

In an instant, the sunlight was obscured by dark clouds, much like a devil’s cold-blooded chuckle.

The smile slowly froze.

Old Joseph was struck dumb. After a long while, he muttered in a low voice, “What is up with young people these days?”

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