Under the blue sky, a passenger plane traveled through a sea of clouds, slowly passing over the city.
“Kong Tian aviation cares for your every journey. Join our membership program to receive more discounts…”
A gentle voice came from the intercom.
Inside the cabin, it was quiet. Most people were scrolling on their phones. There was only the subtle hum of the air conditioning and the *gurgle* of wheels rolling down the aisle.
A man looked away from his laptop, rubbed the bridge of his aching nose, and peered outside to rest his eyes.
The next second, he froze.
“What is that?”
He muttered to himself, squinting at a small white sphere… suspended far away in the sky?
‘Is it a hallucination?’
“What’s wrong?” his wife asked while coaxing their child to sleep.
“Look… is there a ball over there?”
“A ball?” His wife leaned over and looked out the window. She rubbed her eyes. “There really is a ball?”
Just then, a catering cart passed their row. The woman thought for a moment and signaled the flight attendant.
“Is there anything I can help you with?”
“There’s a ball hanging in the air outside… will it affect the flight?”
The flight attendant blinked and bent down to look out the window.
“A ball? But… I don’t see anything?”
“Huh?” The woman quickly turned her head, but she only saw a mist within the sea of clouds. That small sphere from before had vanished into thin air.
“But my husband saw it too…”
The man nodded.
“How about this? I’ll report this matter, but we can’t rule out the possibility of it being some kind of hallucination. Is that all right?”
After getting their agreement, she pushed the cart further down the aisle toward the galley.
Once she set the cart in place, she sighed and looked at her colleague, who was bent over washing her hands. She began to wash hers as well.
*Splash, splash—*
Water flowed from the pipe and splattered into the basin. After finishing, she dried her hands and looked up, only to find that her colleague was still bowing her head, motionless.
“Xiao Ying?”
She tried calling out, but there was no response.
Concerned for her colleague, she walked over and placed a hand lightly on the other woman’s shoulder.
“Xiao Ying—”
The sound stopped abruptly when she saw the other’s face.
A large mass of white, writhing things was gushing out from the drain, sticking to the woman’s face and wrapping around it layer by layer. It looked like a clump of squirming white dough.
“Ah—!!”
She stepped back in terror, bumping into the oven on the table. Tableware was knocked loose and fell to the floor with a series of sharp *clangs*.
*Gurgle, gurgle.*
The dough began to squirm. A round eyeball with a dilated pupil emerged from within, staring at her intensely.
“Sister… Qiu…”
Then came the teeth, lips, and tongue…
*Snap.*
The mass of flour finally broke away from the drain, sticking entirely to the woman’s head as nine or ten more eyeballs sprouted out.
‘Run… run!’
She had to get out!
Scrambling up from the floor, she violently pushed aside the colleague blocking her path and ran toward the door. She had to leave this place!!
*Thud, thud, thud.*
Rushing to the door, she yanked it open. Just as she was about to burst out, she screamed and jumped back.
“Don’t come over here — !!! Get away!!!”
She screamed, but outside the door, a massive ball of white flesh was still squeezing its way inside.
Countless human heads surfaced from within it, opening their mouths.
Behind her, the colleague known as Xiao Ying grabbed her as she struggled. The white meatball on the colleague’s head opened its mouth and aimed for her skull.
*Crunch—*
***
A cucumber was sliced, falling into the sink. I reached out and, with lightning speed, grabbed a piece and stuffed it into my mouth.
*Munch, munch, munch.*
“Tastes good.”
“Great, your dinner is gone.”
“Eh… I’m sorry…”
“There isn’t a shred of sincerity in that apology,” Lu Xiu said, curling his lip.
“Then… what do you want me to do? I think I’m being very sincere. At least I left half of it for you.”
“Go, go! Stop hanging around the kitchen. Every time you come in, half the things go missing.”
I stuck my tongue out, jumped off the stool, and ran into the living room to continue watching anime.
“LIGHT MAGIC MISSILE!”
“I GIVE YOU LOVE AND TENDERNESS! GOODNIGHT, WORLD!”
“Yo, it’s Wululu. I didn’t expect you to have such good taste.”
Qu Le, who routinely came over for free meals, had appeared on the sofa at some point. He was waving two glow sticks in his hands.
I silently moved a bit further away from him.
‘I actually just wanted to eat something.’
“Yawn — “
Stretching, I curled up on the sofa and exhaled.
Since returning, our lives had indeed regained their peace. Or rather, the number of weird events had decreased significantly.
It was actually a bit hard to get used to; we didn’t know what to do with all this leisure time. Looking back, it seemed like many things had happened, yet also like nothing had happened at all.
The world was still the same world, and I was still the same me. My stomach had never been completely full.
My appetite had grown larger again.
The juicer I secretly ate the day before yesterday was probably mostly digested by now.
“…Following that, we have a breaking news update. The disappearance of Kong Tian Group flight KT990 has entered its eighth day.”
“This domestic flight from Haidong City to Linjiang City has yet to show any signs of wreckage or signals… Search and rescue efforts are ongoing. This station will continue to bring you updates.”
Unable to stand the visual pollution caused by Qu Le waving his glow sticks, I used my Changshe to press the remote and switched to the next channel.
Without Wululu, Qu Le exited his obsessed state and began rubbing his chin.
“Lu Xiu,” he called out to the figure busy in the kitchen.
“Speak,” Lu Xiu replied without looking back, mixing the sauce.
“The route between Haidong and Linjiang seems to pass through Bian Du, doesn’t it?”
“How should I know? I don’t study that stuff.”
“But for a domestic flight, a plane just disappearing silently like that… don’t you think there’s a ghost?”
“…A weird event?”
“It doesn’t seem like one. The news said the radar signal vanished instantly. Not even a piece of scrap metal was found…”
“It doesn’t look like a plane crash. It’s more like a disappearance. From existing to nothing, a complete erasure.”
*Clatter—*
Lu Xiu placed the mixed sauce into a steel bowl, added the cucumbers, and stirred them with chopsticks. The reflective surface of the bowl mirrored his appearance. “You want to investigate?”
“No, I’m just telling you. There’s no news from above yet, after all. I expect there’ll be a joint investigation later, searching together with several regional branches of the response division.”
“Fine.”
The cucumbers with soy sauce and vinegar were ready. Lu Xiu poured them into a bowl and walked out of the kitchen. “Time to eat, Sui.”
“Oh, oh… coming!”
I sat up from the sofa, ran to the dining table, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
Cucumbers… stewed mushrooms… and stir-fried pork with carrots…
They were all my favorite dishes!
The only slight regret was that there was an extra Qu Le.
But it didn’t matter!
As long as I ate faster than him, it would be fine!