Trembling in the Skies

Chapter 5: A Horrific Plane Crash

If you looked closely, it seemed as though the plane was heading straight for him at the top of the stone pillar. They really are out to wipe him out completely! It looked like it was all over. Li Teng now had only two choices left. One option was to take his own life by jumping from a height of over 1,000 meters. The other was to stand on his bed with his hands behind his back, gaze up at the sky at a 45-degree angle, and, with a spirit of courage and fearlessness, stare defiantly at the passenger plane diving toward him, sacrificing himself nobly. At least that would be a dignified way to die. Li Teng didn’t have much time left to make a decision. The commercial airliner was diving at an extremely high speed; in just over ten seconds, it had raced from the distant horizon to within striking distance of the stone pillar. Li Teng could even make out the captain operating the aircraft from the cockpit. If it’s heading straight for us like this, the captain must be doing this on purpose! A commercial airliner really is a colossal machine. He had never before come face-to-face with the nose of a diving commercial airliner at such close range, and now, suddenly confronted with this scene, Li Teng felt that the thing was truly terrifyingly massive. It was so massive that it could reduce Li Teng to dust in an instant. Just as Li Teng was desperately suppressing his inner fear and facing death with a spirit of bravery and fearlessness, the commercial airliner, about to crash into the top of the stone pillar, let out another muffled “boom!” The massive fuselage tore apart in an instant. It appeared to have been torn into three sections: the nose, the fuselage, and the tail. A vast number of passengers were hurled out through the cracks in the fuselage—some covered in blood, some maimed, and others still strapped to their seats. Li Teng could even hear their screams and cries of agony; soon, they scattered like flowers scattered by a celestial maiden, falling into the mountains, fields, and lakes outside the town below. The torn-apart nose and fuselage grazed the tops of the stone pillars, whizzing past on either side—one to the left, one to the right. They were likely only a few meters away from the stone pillars. The noses and fuselages, sweeping through massive air currents, nearly blew Li Teng off his bed. Fortunately, Li Teng sensed something was wrong, crouched down in time, and grabbed the bedrail, which prevented him from being swept away by the air currents. No sooner had the nose and fuselage roared past than a flight attendant—who had been flung from who knows where—spun through the air, screaming continuously as she hurtled toward Li Teng. A beautiful woman falling from the sky was certainly not a good thing for Li Teng right now. The flight attendant was coming at him so fast that Li Teng knew if she hit him, he’d either be killed on the spot or be knocked off the plane from a height of over a thousand meters and fall to his death. So there was no way Li Teng could even think about playing the hero to save her; instead, he immediately rolled and dove toward the foot of the bed, grabbing hold of the bedrail. The screaming flight attendant crashed straight into the headboard—exactly where Li Teng had been crouching just moments before. The immense momentum of her spinning body instantly shattered most of the headboard railing, but the impact also violently tore her body in two. The upper half of her body continued flying forward, still screaming, while her legs remained caught on the broken posts of the headboard railing. Just as Li Teng hesitated over whether to reach out and grab her feet, the tail section of the plane surged forward in pursuit of the flying flight attendant. As it slammed into the top of the stone pillar, it ripped away both of her legs—along with half of Li Teng’s headboard. The stone pillar—made of some unknown special material—remained completely unscathed after being struck by the tail section, though it began to shake violently. Li Teng, clinging tightly to the headboard support post, was nearly flung off several times by the pillar’s violent shaking. The nose and fuselage of the commercial airliner swept past the side of the stone pillar and continued hurtling forward at high speed, crashing into two separate hard surfaces several kilometers below the pillar, where they erupted in a deafening roar and were instantly engulfed in raging flames. The tail, however, had been deflected by the impact with the stone pillar and was flung toward a mountain about one kilometer away, before rolling into a large lake at the foot of the mountain. The mountain appeared to be covered with many tall trees, which should have provided some cushioning. It is unclear whether there are any survivors in the tail section. Even if the flight attendants, whose plane was split in two, fell into the large lake, it is highly unlikely they survived. For the human body, falling from such a great height, the difference between hitting the water’s surface and hitting a concrete floor isn’t that significant. Besides, she’s only half a person now. Even if she didn’t die upon impact with the lake, she couldn’t have lasted very long. She would die very quickly from excessive blood loss. It’s so tragic. How excruciating must it be to have your body violently torn in two? To think there’s actually someone in this world who’s suffered more than I have. The passengers in the nose and fuselage sections are certainly doomed; with such intense fire and thick smoke, no one could possibly survive. Nor could the passengers who were hurled from the broken fuselage possibly have survived. This must be an extremely horrific air disaster in which everyone on board perished. Li Teng’s heart was pounding wildly, and his body trembled uncontrollably. Thankfully, he’d reacted quickly enough just now; otherwise, he would have met the same fate as the flight attendant. Perhaps because the pillar was too tall, it shook violently and continuously after being struck by the tail of the commercial airliner. If the stone pillar had been knocked down, there would have been only one outcome: Li Teng would have fallen from there and been smashed to pieces. Fortunately, the pillar stabilized after only two or three minutes of violent shaking. The material of this stone pillar was definitely extraordinary; if it had been an ordinary pillar, an impact of this force would have shattered it into pieces long ago. Li Teng’s bed wasn’t so lucky—only three legs remained. The fourth leg, along with most of the headboard, his pillow, and parts of his quilt and padding, had been swept away by the tail of the plane. This heirloom wooden bed was simply well-made; even with only three legs remaining, it still didn’t tip over. Of course, this might also have had something to do with the bed legs being riveted to the top of the stone pillar. Although he wasn’t dead, the sight of the devastating scene before him left Li Teng feeling utterly frantic. Being trapped atop this stone pillar was bad enough, but the night before last, a thunderstorm had nearly struck him dead. He didn’t get struck by lightning, but he nearly froze half his life away. And today, of all things, he’s been caught in a plane crash! A plane crash is a plane crash, I suppose—but why did it feel like it was aimed directly at him? Who’s pulling the strings behind the scenes? “Don’t make me find out who you are!” “I’ll never let you off the hook, even as a ghost!” Li Teng screamed inwardly. Beneath the stone pillar, the flames where the nose and fuselage had crashed gradually faded, leaving only two massive columns of black smoke. The tail section floated on the lake’s surface for a moment before quickly sinking to the bottom and disappearing. “With a plane crash of this magnitude, rescue teams and investigators will be here soon, right?” “Once they get here, they’re bound to see this towering stone pillar.” “Once they spot this stone pillar, if they send a helicopter or a drone, they should be able to find me up here pretty quickly, right?” “Maybe this misfortune will turn out to be a blessing in disguise, and I’ll be rescued after all?” Looking at the two massive columns of black smoke rising from the ground, Li Teng felt his hope of being rescued reignite.