Chapter 41 – Squeezing Together Despite the Inconvenience

Bian Ji looked at the message, his lips involuntarily curling upward, struggling to suppress a smile. He quickly called Yan Ankuo. “Don’t worry, I’ve already apologized, it’s nothing major, just a little deduction from my performance bonus this month.”

Nie Hang stood nearby, mouth agape, wondering who had been cursing alongside him earlier, imitating him with a sarcastic tone, “Just a little deduction from the performance bonus~”

Bian Ji kicked him, whispering for him to go home quickly.

“Is that Captain Nie?” Yan Ankuo had sharp ears.

“Yes, he’s here with me at the base.” Bian Ji asked, “Do you want to talk to him?”

Yan Ankuo shook his head, “No need.”

Nie Hang also heard this and said with self-awareness, “Alright, I’m the third wheel, right? I’ll leave.”

Bian Ji slipped a bottle of water into the hand he was carrying on his back as a form of consolation for enduring the heat outside with him for so long.

After Nie Hang walked away, Yan Ankuo spoke up, “If you’re unhappy now, you can yell at me, don’t force yourself to hold it in.”

Bian Ji laughed, “Why would I yell at you? It wasn’t you who complained about me.”

There was a sudden silence on Yan Ankuo’s end. Bian Ji assumed he was busy and didn’t disturb him, hanging up the call.

Unexpectedly, half an hour later, Yan Ankuo sent over a word document filled with annotations.

“I did some quick research on related cases,” Yan Ankuo’s voice recording was about half a minute long, “According to your company’s regulations, you did nothing wrong, so the company has no reason to act this way.” He highlighted the key points for appeal, “If necessary, I can help you with arbitration.”

“No, no,” Bian Ji hurriedly explained, “You may not know, the company takes complaints from platinum members very seriously, they usually won’t ignore or dispute them. This incident doesn’t really affect me, there’s no need to worry too much about it.”

“Ji,” Yan Ankuo sounded slightly displeased, “You submitted two reports for someone else’s uniform, why aren’t you more concerned about your own affairs?”

“I…” Bian Ji was taken aback by his words, “That’s different, it involved the safety of many passengers.”

“But you were following company rules, also for their safety,” Yan Ankuo said solemnly, “It’s unjustified for you to suffer as a result.”

Bian Ji’s mind went blank for a few seconds. This was the first time someone would say such words to him over a trivial complaint.

In fact, the flight attendant profession, while seemingly glamorous, had countless rules and restrictions. Passenger complaints were among the least significant of many troubles, so those within the industry — like Nie Hang and Qiao Yuan — would only complain to each other after hearing about it, as they were accustomed to dealing with such nuisances themselves.

Yan Ankuo was the first person to tell Bian Ji not to suffer because of this.

“The appeal process of your company isn’t public, but I think it should be similar to Qiao Yuan’s company. If the public comment period hasn’t passed, it’s still timely to submit now.” Yan Ankuo then sent over another document, “This is a draft, I’ve prepared it for you.”

Bian Ji looked at the long string of chat messages from the other side, feeling warmth in his heart and eyes.

“Understood, thank you,” Bian Ji replied, adding an emoji of a little dog giving a heart.

Yan Ankuo looked at the message from the other side, furrowing his brows, and turned to ask Yan Fanxuan, “Xiao Fan, do you have any cute emojis?”

Yan Fanxuan was shocked, “What are you going to do?”

“Just send them to me,” Yan Ankuo preferred issuing commands over explanations.

Fortunately, his sister was accustomed to his style of action and quickly sent him a series of emojis.

[Turtle walking quickly.gif][Cat giving a heart.jpg][Seal clapping.gif][Puppy winking.gif] Yan Ankuo expressionlessly long-pressed, selected all, and forwarded them.

Bian Ji looked at the series of responses obviously out of character for the sender, his expression disordered, replying with several “???”.

Yan Ankuo remained poker-faced, saying, “The turtle was a mistake.”

The next morning, the group set out for Yuhang together in Yan Ankuo’s car. For long-distance trips with many people, sports cars or new energy vehicles were unsuitable, leaving Yan Ankuo as the designated driver.

Getting into the car, Nie Hang found something odd, “Attorney Yan, why don’t you have any air fresheners or trinkets in your car, don’t you feel it’s empty?”

Yan Ankuo glanced at Bian Ji, “I used to have air fresheners, but I took them away when they didn’t suit my taste.”

Hearing this, Bian Ji didn’t say much, silently opening an orange app and, based on his understanding of Yan Ankuo, ordered an air freshener gift box that he might like.

Qiao Yuan usually had a rich variety of outdoor hobbies, enjoying hiking, camping, and mountain climbing, and was quite familiar with the mountainous areas around Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. He had climbed the mountain in Yuhang before with his team and thought it was great, so this time he brought a lot of camping gear into the mountains. Fortunately, Yan Ankuo’s extended car was large enough to accommodate everything.

The cicadas were chirping loudly in June, but the chill on the mountain hadn’t fully dissipated. Bian Ji wore a thin jacket, buttoning it up as soon as he got out of the car. Yan Ankuo took out the tent and camping table, calling for Qiao Yuan and the others to lend a hand.

“Does anyone know how to set these up?” The tent Qiao Yuan brought was specialized for mountain climbing, naturally more complicated than usual, “Let’s divide the work, it’ll be faster. Once we finish setting up, we can eat.”

“How many tents did you bring?” Nie Hang asked.

“Four,” Qiao Yuan squatted down, skillfully hammering stakes into the ground, shaking and stretching, the outline of the tent appeared, “If you don’t want to set all of them up, two people can squeeze together, it’ll be warmer.”

“No!” Nie Hang held back his laughter, “None of the four of us are straight, if we stay in the same tent, wouldn’t it be chaos?”

Nie Hang had a loose mouth, Bian Ji teased him with his words from his youth, “Heavens, you’re not? Don’t scare me!”

“Well, this…” Nie Hang coughed nervously, “I used to be, but that doesn’t mean I always will be, nobody can make definitive conclusions about such things, right?”

Bian Ji pressed on, “Really, Brother Nie, aren’t you as straight as an arrow? Back in school, you wouldn’t even enter the communal bathhouse, being kissed jokingly by someone could disgust you for half a day. What happened, are your thoughts wavering lately?”

Nie Hang couldn’t answer, impatiently saying, “Ah, go ahead, set up your tent!”

“Your ears are red,” Bian Ji pointed at his face, turning around and shouting loudly to Qiao Yuan, “Brother Yuan, am I seeing things? Look, are they red?”

Qiao Yuan was busy with his back to everyone and didn’t respond.

Nie Hang was annoyed, turning away and waving his hand, “Annoying! Attorney Yan, hurry up and pull him away!”

Bian Ji smiled without a word, subconsciously glancing at a certain someone. That person, unsurprisingly well-versed in the world, showed no unusual reaction.

Qiao Yuan cleared his throat, turning around naturally to change the subject, “Attorney Yan, do you know how to set up a tent?”

Yan Ankuo shook his head, “No.”

Nie Hang said, “Neither do I.”

Qiao Yuan suggested, “Then let’s split up, Attorney Yan and Xiao Bian together, I’ll be with Nie Hang?”

“Okay.”

Thus, the group started setting up camp with laughter and chatter, all quick learners, working smoothly together. Half an hour later, Qiao Yuan’s side had their tent up.

It was the first time Yan Ankuo was doing this, not as proficient as Nie Hang, but he caught on quickly. Bian Ji didn’t want him to do too much, running around on his own while Nie Hang watched them and laughed. Even Yan Ankuo felt embarrassed, stepping forward to offer help, but was rejected by Bian Ji.

“Bian Ji,” Yan Ankuo, amused yet exasperated, pointed at the two watching from the sidelines, “My limbs are still functional, I don’t need taking care of. Instead, the one who recently recovered is you.”

Bian Ji exclaimed, “Ah,” turning around and seeing the teasing expressions of his two friends, feeling embarrassed, standing up and saying, “No, there was nothing to help with just now. Now, there’s this frame I can’t pull out, why don’t you give it a try?”

Yan Ankuo approached to inspect the issue, spent some time fiddling with it, consulted the manual carefully, and ultimately confirmed the joint was broken.

“What’s broken?” Qiao Yuan, hearing the commotion, also came over.

Yan Ankuo pointed to the part that couldn’t open and close, “The frame won’t bend, the southwest corner can’t be propped up, it can only collapse.”

Qiao Yuan helped inspect for a long time, confirming that it couldn’t be restored, sighing, “Strange, I checked it before we came, maybe it broke due to the bumpy ride?”

“Any spare parts?” Yan Ankuo asked.

Qiao Yuan searched the car and shook his head.

“It’s fine, it’s just one corner that’s a bit lower, it’s not like it’s uninhabitable. Brother Yuan, you guys go ahead and get busy, I’ll finish setting up the rest!” Bian Ji, as always, played the role of the peacemaker, smiling as he secured the other corner.

Qiao Yuan hesitated, “How can that be? I’ll take this one, you go sleep in the already set-up one.”

“Aiya, it doesn’t matter who sleeps in it!” Bian Ji waved his hand, “Do you think we’ll get much sleep when we’re all chatting excitedly?”

Qiao Yuan refused, “No way, the temperature drops at night, it’ll definitely leak wind like this, it’ll be cold.”

Bian Ji said, “It’s fine, how cold can it be in the middle of summer? Besides, isn’t there a sleeping bag? I’ll just wear more clothes.”

The two were still arguing over who should sleep in the defective tent when Yan Ankuo listened for a while, slowly approaching, entered the tent to experience it, walked out, and said seriously, “This can’t be slept in.”

Bian Ji was about to argue, but Yan Ankuo pulled him over and continued, “Come to mine.”

“No,” Bian Ji, dragged into another tent by him, thought he wanted to switch, “Don’t switch! What are you being modest about? If I can’t sleep, neither can you!”

Yan Ankuo chuckled, “Who said anything about switching.”

Bian Ji looked at him in surprise.

He pointed to the space inside, “Squeeze together with me despite the inconvenience.”