Chapter 292: One Hour to Take Off
“Yes. Why, of course, yes!”
The doubt immediately vanished from Minako Sakurai’s expression. In fact, she was almost worried that Meng Fan didn’t trust her. She a.s.sured him: “No matter what Meng Fan-kun wants me to do, I will use 200% of my power to accomplish it! I, Minako Sakurai, swear on it!”
“Minako, I don’t want you to promise.”
At this point, Meng Fan knew that he was too late to back out of his honey trap. He reached out and put down Minako’s raised hand. He then patted the back of her hand before exhaling. “Minako, I only said that because what I’m about to say is very important to the both of us. So I need you to be trustworthy, but at the same time, I also need you to trust in me.”
“Of course, I trust Meng Fan-kun!”
As he patted her on the hand, Minako Sakurai’s soul almost left her body. She grabbed his hand and pressed it against her chest. “Listen Meng Fan-kun, my heart won’t lie!”
The soft material under his hand was agitated by a violent heartbeat. This really made Meng Fan helpless. For a full second, he was stunned before retracting his hand. He then calmly said: “Minako, I trust you.”
Seeing Meng Fan blush, Minako Sakurai’s heart immediately filled to the brim with warmth. Even Meng Fan-kun was a real man capable of embarra.s.sment!
“Minako, that voice clip I just asked you to decipher was from a conversation between Mr. Shouto Takas.h.i.+maya and another unknown person.” Meng Fan got to the point. Of course, he’d filtered out some information; he wasn’t going to tell her he had obtained the sound clips from hacking from his broadcast a.s.sistant.
As he spoke, Meng Fan made sure that their surroundings were secure. There wasn’t anyone around, but there might be CCTV cameras and bugs.
As soon as he said this, Minako Sakurai’s expression perked up. She was suspicious as well.
Meng Fan continued. “Do you remember? Yesterday when we left the ‘Waterworld’ attraction and went shopping, I went to the bathroom. On the way there, I saw Mr. Shouta Takas.h.i.+maya. At that time, he should have been with three other people, but I saw him cautiously enter a house by himself with a strange look on his face.”
Meng Fan made this up, though he did indeed go to the washroom.
Meng Fan continued. “I thought something was off, so I carefully followed him and heard this conversation. Aside from that clip I just showed you, I heard Mr. Shouta Takas.h.i.+maya ask if things were ready and then hung up the phone. He then confidently said to himself that since it was scheduled for the day after tomorrow, the wretched man and woman would both be on the flight, so he could see them off together.”
“Oh, no!”
As she listened, Minako Sakurai gasped. Then, she covered her mouth and whispered: “Meng Fan-kun, the wretched man and woman he was referring to are Ohno-san and s.h.i.+n.o.bu! Oh right, a while ago you asked me about the two. Was it because of this?”
Meng Fan nodded. Good, he had successfully filled the gap.
Minako Sakurai was a meticulous person. She had aviation safety knowledge and understood the sensitivity of the crisis. As soon as she connected the dots between the flight cabin with the item number and Shouta Takas.h.i.+maya’s voice clip, she immediately looked at Meng Fan. “Meng Fan-kun, are you saying that Mr. Takas.h.i.+maya is planning to do something dangerous on the flight? Like a hijacking?!”
Meng Fan gestured for her to calm down and spoke. “Minako, let me finish. I also thought this was a possibility, so I became curious. When we left the movie set, I followed Mr. Takas.h.i.+maya for a while before realizing he had been mysteriously sneaking around to meet with someone else. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear what they were discussing, but they were very suspicious. I had all kinds of worries when I saw them, so I asked you. If I’m overthinking it, then that would be great; but your translation…”
“So Meng Fan-kun, you’ve been so busy because you’re stalking Shouta Takas.h.i.+maya?”
Minako Sakurai immediately brightened up, as if a knot in her heart had been untied. She then remembered that Meng Fan had decided to buy this flight and suddenly filled in the blank as to why Meng Fan would be worried for himself.
At this time, Meng Fan found two sheets of paper and took out his average-looking universal pen. He began to draw.
Meng Fan was fast at drawing and had Minako Sakurai mesmerized. My G.o.d, Meng Fan-kun knows how to draw, and he’s so fast, too!
Soon, Meng Fan was done. He handed the paper over to her and asked: “Do you recognize this person?”
Minako Sakurai looked at it carefully. “I don’t know his name, but I can confirm he’s an employee at the airport, and he’s responsible for monitoring the cargo handling of the plane cabin!”
From this, Minako Sakurai was certain that something dangerous was about to happen.
Then, Meng Fan drew another drawing. This time, he sketched out the appearance of the hijacker that was ingrained in his mind. He wasn’t able to complete the drawing entirely, since he was relying on his repressed memories to draw him. Afterwards, he said to her: “Just now, that was the person that Mr. Takas.h.i.+maya had been meeting with. This is the second person he met with. I’m not too sure what he looked like, so I could only draw what I remembered.”
Minako Sakurai shook her head. “I don’t know about this one.”
Meng Fan pretended to be deep in thought. “Maybe he isn’t an employee from the airport. Maybe he is… a pa.s.senger!”
“Meng Fan-kun, wait a minute.”
Minako Sakurai took out her phone and searched for about five minutes before receiving a file. It was the pa.s.senger list for the flight tomorrow of everyone who had purchased tickets. Naturally, they all had photos.
Minako Sakurai compared the photos and quickly secured her target, handing the phone to him. “Meng Fan-kun, is it this guy?”
Meng Fan immediately confirmed!
Minako Sakurai searched the time of purchase of the tickets. It was only an hour ago, which further confirmed Meng Fan’s deductions!
“c.r.a.p! What do we do now!”
Minako Sakurai was nervous and a bit disoriented. “I have to go back and report it to the managers!”
“Wait up, Minako.”
Meng Fan pressed down on Minako Sakurai’s hands and spoke. “Minako, I have an idea. Hear me out first before deciding. It might not be a stable plan, but I trust that you will give me solid advice.”
Minako Sakurai unwillingly parted with Meng Fan and returned to the hotel. She took a shower and then carefully played Meng Fan’s plan over and over again in her mind. It was a solid strategy. If it really was a mistake, they could minimize its impact. If it was real, then they could a.s.sure the safety of all the pa.s.sengers and staff on board, while also capturing the hijackers.
Of course, after thinking through it so carefully, the few logical brain cells left in her could at least confirm that Meng Fan wasn’t pulling a prank or trying to be a hero.
And Meng Fan had reminded her several times already of the warmth in her heart, which made it difficult to fall asleep.
Minako Sakurai couldn’t sleep at all. At this time, she didn’t dare meet with any of the other crew members, especially Shouto Takas.h.i.+maya. She was worried that she wouldn’t be able to control her emotions and expressions when she met with him. If he realized what she knew, then…
Minako Sakurai was overthinking, but her eyes suddenly lit up. “If I tell Meng Fan-kun of my anxieties and suggest that I’d feel safer with him close by… Then maybe I could still see him at this late hour!”
“No, no, no! I can’t do that!”
“It’s already so late. Based on my regular habits, I would never go out at this time. It would be bad if my strange actions attracted more unwanted attention!”
Thankfully, this girl tended to overthink. Otherwise, Meng Fan wouldn’t know what to do.
Meng Fan trusted Minako Sakurai, but he was still worried. Hence, he used what was left of his points and exchanged a black magic microphone — from the [Concert Killer] task bar, so he could redeem it multiple times — and put it inside Minako Sakurai’s necklace.
Minako Sakurai had said that this necklace was the only thing her grandmother had left her and that she wore it wherever and whenever possible. Meng Fan felt this was the best place to attach his black magic microphone.
If Minako Sakurai accidentally leaked something, or something unexpected happened, Meng Fan could put on his hat and short-circuit her brain. Then, he could interrupt her and prevent her from doing anything. This would protect her, as well as protect himself.
Afterwards, Meng Fan began to feel uncomfortable.
From his earphones, he could hear the various murmurs and moans of Minako Sakurai calling out his name, with other sounds accompanying her voice as well.
Meng Fan had once devoted himself to the Mikami G.o.d, but did not expect to be rewarded.
This really was the heavens rewarding him!
Thankfully, Minako Sakurai fell asleep after being tired out, her breathing steady through his earbuds.
The next day, Meng Caitang was finally free. She accompanied Meng Fan for the morning and shared lunch with him. She had planned to take him out in the afternoon as well, but Meng Fan had insisted on going off on his own to the airport and sketch as he awaited boarding. Meng Caitang knew Meng Fan was working on a manga, so after dropping him off at the airport, she took his advice and left early seeing him settle down into his drawing.
The plane was the last flight of the day to j.a.pan, and would take off at 10:20 p.m. He was scheduled to arrive in j.a.pan at five o’clock the next morning under the premise that the flight was able to safely depart .
Meng Fan continued to draw as he monitored the live stream a.s.sistant. He waited for the memorable hijacker to appear, who he now knew the name of thanks to Minako Sakurai: Alec Lall.
Time flew by, and it was evening in no time. Quickly, Meng Fan learned that Minako Sakurai and the rest of the crew were inside the airport around nine in the evening. He also saw Alec Lall and instructed his stream aid to pursue him. He then began to go through the check-in and security procedures.