Chapter 250: Chapter 248: Scouting
Hearing the voice from the control tower in his headset, Fang Chenyi gave a slightly sheepish smile, then spoke into the mic.
"It was fine, it was fine... Just a standard maneuver, a standard maneuver."
Char, sitting beside him, was left speechless. After gathering his thoughts, he finally said to his boss:
"Oh, my dear boss, your skills are truly incredible. Compared to you, I’m still miles behind. I feel absolutely awful. It looks like from now on, I’ll only be fit to fly as your co-pilot."
Fang Chenyi froze, not quite understanding what the man was getting at.
Perhaps noticing Fang Chenyi’s confusion, Char sighed and continued.
"Oh, my dear boss, that ’smooth flight’ you mentioned... I really can’t pull that off!"
It took Fang Chenyi a moment to process, but after a bit of thought, he realized the old guy was teasing him. He shot Char an exasperated glare and chuckled. While switching the plane to autopilot, he shrugged and said:
"You do have a point. So, as you wish, you can be the permanent co-pilot from now on. And I think that Smith fellow is pretty decent. Why don’t we let him fly as the captain?"
The moment those words left his mouth, Char instantly backed down. A smile that looked worse than a crying face spread across his old features.
"Heh heh, boss, I was kidding, just kidding! My skills are so advanced—even if I’m a tiny bit worse than you, I’m still leagues better than Smith and those guys. Besides, with you as my role model, I’ll definitely learn from you diligently. I’ll even try to pull off a ninety-degree vertical takeoff next time!"
"Get the hell out of here! If you ever pull a crazy stunt like that while I’m a passenger, you’ll never touch a plane again!"
Char gave another sheepish grin. "Heh heh, rest assured, boss. I definitely won’t be like you. I’ll make sure to fly the plane nice and steady!"
’This old guy... Does he always have to be so snarky?’
As they were bantering, the plane finally stabilized. Only then did Principal Wang dare to unbuckle his seatbelt, get up, and head for the cockpit.
Hearing Principal Wang knock on the door, Fang Chenyi handed over the controls—already set to autopilot—to Char, then stood up and stepped out of the cockpit.
Seeing Principal Wang’s pale face, Fang Chenyi asked with a puzzled look:
"What’s wrong, Xiaocong? You get airsick?"
Principal Wang’s face darkened at Fang Chenyi’s words. ’Airsick? I was scared to death!’
For the remainder of the flight, Fang Chenyi had Smith go in and serve as Char’s co-pilot. He also sent Qi Xiaotian in to sit behind them and learn about flying from Char. After all, you can never have too many skills, and who knew when one might come in handy.
Perhaps still spooked by Fang Chenyi’s takeoff, Char and Smith flew completely by the book.
More than two hours passed in a flash. As he felt the plane gently land on the runway, Principal Wang could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
The words he’d been holding back the entire trip finally burst out: "Brother Fang, a commercial flight costs money, but your plane costs a man his life!"
With that, he bolted out of the cabin.
With both feet planted firmly on the ground, Principal Wang muttered to himself, ’It’s great to be alive!’
Fang Chenyi instructed Char to conduct a routine inspection of the plane, after which he would be free for the day.
Meanwhile, Fang Chenyi left the airport with Qi Xiaotian and Principal Wang. Just as they stepped outside, an Alpha pulled up in front of them.
As the car made its way to the hotel, Fang Chenyi gazed out the window at the relatively clean streets and couldn’t help but comment:
"I don’t see how this is any better than Huaxia. The architecture, in particular, seems completely chaotic. You’ve got these short, one-story houses crammed between skyscrapers. So even if it’s clean, the overall impression is just a mess. And what are those five or six people over there doing in the road?"
Following Fang Chenyi’s gaze, Principal Wang and Qi Xiaotian looked over. In the middle of the road, a section was cordoned off with tape. Inside, five or six men in clean-looking work clothes and hard hats were squatting lazily, half-heartedly fiddling with some small tool.
Before anyone else could speak, the Chinese driver at the wheel chimed in:
"Them? They’re doing road repairs."
Principal Wang was stunned and couldn’t help but ask:
"Road repairs? Like that? When in the world will they ever finish?"
The driver sighed.
"Hah, that’s just how it is here these days. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, everyone’s just milking the clock. A job that should take one hour, they’ll stretch it to eight. They might even put in for overtime just to finish it. Can’t be helped. That’s just the state of the economy here."
Fang Chenyi just smiled and shook his head without a word, thinking to himself, ’So this is the "abroad" that all those sycophantic, West-worshipping types are always dreaming of. This is the legendary "grass is always greener on the other side"...’
As the car continued on, the one thing Fang Chenyi found genuinely admirable was that whenever their driver saw a pedestrian, regardless of whether there was a crosswalk, the car would invariably stop and yield. He had to admit, that was pretty impressive.
After more than half an hour, the car finally arrived at a five-star hotel on the other side of Tokyo.
Since they had no luggage to speak of, Fang Chenyi got out of the car and walked directly into the hotel.
As he walked through the hotel entrance, every staff member he passed would greet him with a ninety-degree bow and a respectful welcome.
Fang Chenyi, ever polite, would nod in acknowledgment each time someone greeted him. This simple gesture improved the hotel staff’s impression of him considerably.
After getting to his room and resting for a moment, Fang Chenyi said a quick word to Qi Xiaotian, then got up and left the room alone.
Qi Xiaotian initially wanted to follow, but Fang Chenyi refused.
The reason was simple: Fang Chenyi was planning to go scout the area.
He was going to check if there were any good spots for "scrap picking" near the hotel.
He’d scout the locations first, then come back at night to see if the local "scraps" were any good.
After leaving the hotel, Fang Chenyi went for a stroll. Looking at the immaculately clean streets, he guessed, ’There must be a lot of trash collection spots around here.’
Sure enough, after a bit of observation, he found that there was a neat and tidy-looking recycling collection point every hundred meters or so.
Not only that, but the trash at these points was also presorted.
Fortunately, Fang Chenyi’s Japanese was excellent; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to make sense of the labels.
He watched for a while and noticed that all the nearby businesses disposed of their sorted trash at these locations.
[To be continued...]
