Chapter 297: A Photo
Once all the pa.s.sengers boarded the plane, the seat a.s.signments were still the same as before.
Xu Enqi, En’en, found Meng Fan as soon as she could. After she checked with her parents, she walked over to Meng Fan, winking at him. Then she asked the middle-aged woman next to him, “Auntie, can I swap seats with you?”
The woman stood up with a smile, “Of course, you can.” She picked up the little girl and put her in the seat. “Here, the little princess should sit with the super hero. It’s the best.”
Everyone on the plane chuckled. After the traumatic event at the airport, everyone on the plane felt as close as family.
En’en’s parents came over and said with some embarra.s.sment, “Mr. M, sorry to bother you.” En’en’s mom reminded the girl, “If big brother is tired, don’t keep hara.s.sing him, okay?”
En’en nodded adorably and waved to her parents, “Dad, mom, go back to your seats. You can’t move around on the plane. Put on your seatbelt.”
Then, she took out two apples from her Peppa Pig backpack, one big and one small, handing the big one to Meng Fan. “Big brother, this is for you.” She made sure to lower her voice. “Your magic came from the apples.”
This is probably because she saw how Meng Fan calmly ate an apple after beating all the hijackers.
Her innocent words brought a new round of laughter.
The plane took off on time. En’en talked to Meng Fan constantly, while still acting politely and speaking quietly, as if she was whispering. After they talked for a while, she took out an iPad to watch a cartoon with Meng Fan. Coincidentally, the cartoon was “Adventures in the Forest.”
Meng Fan didn’t know “Adventures in the Forest” had already aired. It seemed to be popular too.
“Big brother.”
As they watched, En’en looked at Meng Fan and frowned. She asked, “Big brother, why does Uncle Crocodile’s voice sound like yours?”
Meng Fan laughed at the question. He voiced a lot of characters in this show, including Uncle Crocodile. He used mostly his own voice for Uncle Crocodile, so it’s not surprising that En’en could recognize him. He considered and replied, “En’en, you’re amazing. If you have a question, just ask.”
“What? Duck Teacher?”
En’en almost yelled when she heard Meng Fan’s new voice. She covered her mouth and stared at him in shock. “Big brother, do you know voice magic?”
Meng Fan was going to tell her these voices were all his, but since En’en brought up magic again, he just nodded and showed off the voices of the other characters.
“Wow, big brother is so cool!”
En’en happily clapped. Admiration filled her gaze.
It was late. After they watched two episodes of the cartoon, En’en pa.s.sed out on Meng Fan’s shoulder. Without Meng Fan pressing on the “help needed” light, the flight attendant brought over two blankets. It was obvious she paid attention to them the whole time.
…
By now, the press conference at the airport had finished. Word of the attempted hijacking spread at the speed of light and became top news at various media outlets.
Various agencies had also gotten involved in the investigation and follow-up work, such as the Singaporean government and Interpol.
Before the news came out, there was already some speculation about the incident. Many people had noticed the irregular events at the landing area. Theories of a possible hijacking also circulated. There were also a few photos from the incident which got leaked.
The theories and photos were all leaked by the pa.s.sengers. However, they weren’t leaked after signing the confidentiality agreement or after the pa.s.sengers were taken to the lounge, but while they took the shuttle from the landing area to the lounge.
The pa.s.sengers who shared the photos didn’t realize how serious the incident was, so they volunteered the leak when they signed the confidentiality agreement, hoping to avoid any responsibility.
The airport couldn’t do anything about it; their efforts in confidentiality left something to be desired. At least the leaked photos didn’t have frontal shots of Meng Fan. The airport could only tell the pa.s.sengers to delete the photos, and to try to work better in the future.
The media outlets cooperated by not releasing related photos.
However, one photo went viral.
In the photo, a tall man squatted down to comfort a little girl. Lights in the darkness shone on their silhouettes, making their details blurry, but the scene stunning.
In addition, the publicized information from the airport did mention a man who saved himself and others, so many people knew that the tall man in the photo was that heroic pa.s.senger, while the little girl was another hostage.
With such a backstory, the photo became extra meaningful.
The photo became even more popular.
Many names were given to the photo, including “Light of Singapore,””Light of Asia,””Light of a Hero,” of course, the most recognized t.i.tle of the photo was “An Anonymous Hero.”
Curious people always wanted more details; many people asked about and searched for this anonymous hero online.
The airport felt resigned about the public curiosity. They worked harder than ever in PR to protect Meng Fan’s ident.i.ty.
One famous singer, who had been kidnapped before, tweeted to her millions of fans, “Very touched about the Anonymous Hero photo, but more touched about the story behind the photo. This has to do with terrorism, however; so please, for the sake of the hero’s safety, stop retweeting the photo. Leave the light in our hearts. Stop trying to speculate and search for who he is. Even if you knew his name, don’t say it. He had helped to keep the airport warm. We should help protect justice.”
This tweet had no photos, only words, yet it still had a lot of retweets, comments, and likes, with most people agreeing with the celebrity, and hoping for all retweeted photos to be deleted.
There were quite a few celebrities and well-known public figures among the retweeters and commenters, one of whom was the actor who played Arya Stark in “The Game of Thrones.” She retweeted it with the comment, “No one!”
Asia definitely had the most discussion about this incident. People stopped guessing who the hero was but began debating which country he was from. Based on the blurry silhouette, the man was East Asian. He was either Chinese, j.a.panese, or Korean.
While Chinese and j.a.panese were still guessing, South Korea went ahead and confirmed the hero as from their country.
If Meng Fan knew this, he would be so frustrated.
If South Koreans realized who was really the hero, they would be frustrated too. After all, Meng Fan got on Hot Topics twice for beating South Koreans.