Chapter 274 - 208: As Expected of Lu Zigang

"Hello? Bingbing! What day are you coming over? Give your uncle a call when you get here so I can come pick you up! Hahaha!"

Good news lifts the spirits. The Lu Family was busy preparing for a wedding, and a festive mood had settled over more than half of Songxi Town.

Although they knew a plane had crashed, and that it had crashed within their own province, what did that have to do with ordinary folk like them?

It was enough to sigh about it a few times. With a wedding coming up, it was bad luck to keep bringing up such an unfortunate event.

When the call connected and she heard her uncle’s laughter, a sharp pain shot through Ni Bingyan’s eyes, but she couldn’t even cry.

"Uncle, I’m in Liucheng City..."

"What?"

Lu Zigang’s face went pale with shock!

’A plane crashed in Liucheng City. My niece is fine, so the one who isn’t...’

"Dad said he was coming early to help with my cousin’s wedding preparations. He figured you’d be busy and didn’t want you to have to pick him up from the airport, so he didn’t tell you beforehand."

There was only one flight from Rongcheng City to Liucheng City each day.

As everyone knows, with ground transportation, a passenger could just shout, "Driver, stop for a second!" and get off mid-route. Even on high-speed trains, you could always get off at an intermediate station.

A plane, however, offered no such option.

’He had departed but never reached his destination. What other reason could there be?’

Lu Zigang was completely stunned! His hand went stiff, and his phone fell to the ground with a CRACK, shattering into pieces.

He never imagined his brother-in-law would come so many days early!

When he’d heard about the plane from Rongcheng City crashing, he hadn’t been scared, mainly because the wedding was still several days away. His brother-in-law was so busy; there was no way he would have come this early.

Brother-in-law... Brother-in-law...

Lu Zigang’s eyes instantly reddened.

"Quick, quick! Let me use your phone!"

Snatching the phone from his wife, who was in the middle of a shopping spree, Lu Zigang quickly dialed Ni Bingyan’s number. Once she picked up, he steadied himself and tried to coax her in a gentle tone:

"Just stay put and wait for me, I’m on my way! Your uncle is here, so don’t be scared! I’ll be there right away!"

With that, he hung up.

He picked up the broken phone, removed the SIM card, pulled a new phone out of the bedside table, and inserted the card. Lu Zigang was about to start calling his friends to ask for information.

His friends were spread all over the country. Until he had concrete news, he would absolutely refuse to believe his brother-in-law was on that plane!

"What’s wrong?"

Seeing her husband snatch her phone to call Bingbing, his wife wasn’t annoyed.

"My brother-in-law was on today’s flight..."

Hearing this, his wife couldn’t sit still either.

"Hurry and get ready, let’s go over there now! Quietly tell our eldest, and have him keep it from his grandparents. We’ll go handle this discreetly."

’A plane falling from the sky was a rare event. If you encountered it, there was nothing to be done; after all, there was nowhere to run.’

Though their hearts were filled with grief, the child was still in Liucheng City. They had to get there quickly to comfort her.

’Her brother-in-law had been terribly unlucky, and there was nothing to be done about it now. The most important thing was the child!’

The couple made their arrangements, and in less than twenty minutes, they were out the door.

"It’s raining so hard, and it’s so late. Where are A Guang and his wife off to?"

Sleep comes less easily with age. The old woman heard the car leaving, lifted the curtain to peek outside, then got back into bed and muttered to her husband.

"Maybe they’re going to deliver an invitation to someone~ They’ve been doing that these past few days. You know how it is, business people are often too busy to be home. The only time to catch people is at night, so they have to go deliver them in the evening, right?"

The reason was plausible enough. The old woman didn’t feel alarmed and let the matter drop, beginning to dream about the bright future:

"A Xun is getting married soon. I wonder if we’ll be able to hold his child by next year?"

"Oh, honestly! It’s the middle of the night, and you’re just talking nonsense. You can’t say things like that in front of our granddaughter-in-law. Young people these days can’t handle talk like that; they’ll feel pressured to have kids."

"I’m not rushing them. Can’t I at least look forward to it?"

"To be honest, I’m looking forward to it too. Sigh... in this life, aside from our daughter passing away so young..."

"Now you’re the one just looking for things to say. Not another word, go to sleep!"

Lu Xun stood outside his grandparents’ door. Only when he heard snoring from inside did he furrow his brow and go look for his sister.

His grandparents went to bed early, but for his sister, this hour meant the long night was just beginning.

His sister had been busy drawing manga all summer. She was probably inspired by their cousin publishing an art book and wanted to publish a manga of her own.

To achieve this goal, she often stayed up past one in the morning.

When Lu Xun entered the room, Lu Yao was still hunched over her desk, drawing furiously.

Annoyed at being interrupted, Lu Yao was clearly not happy:

"Bro? It’s the middle of the night. Why aren’t you asleep? What do you want?"

Lu Xun gestured for her to be quiet, then quietly told her about their uncle.

"What?"

The moment the word was out, she instinctively clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Really?"

"How could I lie about something like this? Mom and Dad have already rushed over. I’m telling you so you don’t let it slip in front of Grandma and Grandpa. They’re getting old..."

Lu Yao nodded repeatedly, then furrowed her brow. "How is that possible? Why would Uncle be on that flight?"

Lu Xun stood up, sighed, and patted his sister’s head.

Tears started to fall from Lu Yao’s eyes.

"Don’t cry. You have to smile. We can’t let Grandma and Grandpa find out."

The siblings had always been very close to their uncle. This was an incredibly difficult task, but for their grandparents’ sake, they had to do it!

Never mind how heartbroken they were. Just over two hours after her phone call, Ni Bingyan saw her uncle and aunt arrive.

Lu Zigang really lived up to his name. On the way there, while his wife drove, he was on the phone constantly. By the time they reached the airport, he had already gotten an update on the search and rescue situation.

The two of them parked the car, rushed to find Ni Bingyan, and without a second word, pulled her into a long, comforting hug.

Just as Lu Zigang was struggling with how to tell her the news he’d gathered, he saw Shui Sulan give him a slight shake of her head.

’Lu Zigang understood at once. Bingbing’s prospective mother-in-law must have gotten the news long ago.’

’It made sense. If he could find this out, there was no reason she couldn’t.’

"You must be hungry, right? We brought some instant noodles. Want to make do with these?"

His wife was a sharp woman and immediately changed the subject.

The three of them had only eaten a little on the plane. It was now almost eight o’clock, so of course they were hungry.

Ni Bingyan didn’t feel like eating, but when she saw Sang Yuan and his mother looking at her with concern, she remembered they hadn’t eaten either and immediately agreed.

"Ai, your uncle and I took turns driving, rushing all the way here. My calves are cramping up now. Bingbing, could you help your Aunt Shui prepare the noodles?"

When she saw her aunt wink at her, Ni Bingyan finally understood.

’Sang Yuan and his mother had been with me this whole time, and I hadn’t even arranged a meal for them. I’ve been so thoughtless.’ She quickly agreed and went to prepare the instant noodles.

Seeing her leave, the four adults immediately shared the information they had gathered. It took them only two minutes to reach a consensus—

Since this had already happened to Ni Guangli, all they could do was wait for the official investigation results. The most important thing now was to comfort Ni Bingyan.

’When a family member meets with tragedy, those left behind can’t just give up on living.’

After they hastily ate their meal, her aunt began trying to persuade them to go to a hotel.

"Your uncle and I will wait here. You should take your boyfriend and his mother to a hotel to rest."

Ni Bingyan didn’t want to leave for even a moment, but Sang Yuan and his mother were in an unfamiliar place, which left her feeling conflicted.

Sang Yuan glanced at his mother. Seeing that she had no intention of leaving either, he quickly refused:

"No need, we’ll just wait here!"

’We can talk about leaving when we really can’t take it anymore.’

’If we leave now, what would Ni Bingyan think of us?’

Lu Zigang and his wife felt helpless but could only let them stay.

’But now, it won’t be so convenient to ask our connections for some not-so-official inside information.’

"Hey, come with me!"

Seeing his niece looking at him pitifully, Lu Zigang had no choice but to take her with him to find his good friend who worked at the airport.

And wasn’t this just proof that Lu Zigang lived up to his name?

Before long, he got some astounding news from his friend—Ni Guangli had never even boarded the plane!

The man they thought was certainly dead had, by a stroke of luck, escaped with his life. It was enough to make one ecstatic!

The system, of course, had a record of whether a passenger had boarded.

But the fact that Ni Guangli had been arrested needed to be kept confidential, so this record was not visible to the average person.

Lu Zigang’s friend, however, was high-level enough and had sufficient clearance to access it.

"Something like this happens, and they don’t even notify the family?"

Her uncle’s friend, whose surname was Wei, looked at Ni Bingyan with a surprised expression.

’After a plane crash, why would someone who never boarded be mistaken for being on the flight? And why wouldn’t they immediately notify the anxious family?’

Ni Bingyan was just as surprised, but in the next moment, she had no time for surprise!

’Who cared what had happened!’

’All I know now is that my dad is okay!’

’As long as he’s alive, what else matters?!’

’Let’s go! Back to Rongcheng City!’