Spoiled by Love – Sweetheart, Don’t Tempt Me

G City is renowned for its unique landscape, with mountains scattered everywhere. The police car bumped along the winding mountain roads for a full hour before reaching a peak. It was the last light of dusk, with the sky a deep crimson, and darkness was about to engulf the remaining glimmers of light.

As they rounded the final bend and arrived at the summit, they saw a vast open space. In the middle lay a conspicuous white airplane, quietly resting there. Nearby, several incandescent lamps had been lit, and some workers in black uniforms were still dealing with the wreckage of the crashed plane. A group of police officers in uniform sat at the edge of the clearing, quickly eating their boxed meals.

When the police car came to a halt beside the plane, everyone paused their activities and stood up, gazing respectfully at the vehicle.

The car door slowly opened, and a petite figure jumped out. She looked at the plane’s nose, now reduced to ruins, and though she had thought she would be strong, tears uncontrollably streamed down her face. She bit her fingers, raised her chin, and gazed at the crimson clouds, as if seeing him piloting the plane down from the sky. Her body staggered a few steps, but thankfully Xiaoqiao supported her, preventing a fall.

“Girl, didn’t you say you would be strong, that you believed he was still alive? Don’t do this,” Gong Xiaoqiao urged through tears. Her friend’s inability to cope was precisely what they feared, leading them to conceal the truth.

Zhan Niantong wiped away her tears with trembling hands, saying, “Yes, yes, I can’t cry. He’s waiting for me to find him. I can’t cry.”

Seeing her mother cry again, Xiaomai, who was in Miqi’s arms, also began to cry. The fear that had been building inside her was too much to bear, and she rushed to her mother’s side, asking, “Mom, what happened to Dad?” At her young age, she didn’t understand the concept of a plane crash or disappearance; she just thought her father was missing, but it seemed more serious than that.

Unable to resist, Zhan Niantong hugged the little one tightly, tearfully saying, “Daddy is being playful, hiding around here, playing hide and seek with us. We need to find him.”

“Then Xiaomai will find him. I must find Daddy,” Xiaomai said, as she ran off to search for her father.

“Xiaomai…” Zhan Niantong’s heart skipped a beat, fearing something might happen to Xiaomai. She had already lost her husband; she couldn’t lose her daughter too. She hurriedly moved to chase after her.

Miqi grabbed her hand, “Sister-in-law, leave Xiaomai to me!” The little one had been bottling up her emotions for too long and needed something to do, or else the pressure might make her ill. With that, Miqi ran after Xiaomai.

With Miqi watching over Xiaomai, Zhan Niantong felt reassured. She knew she had to focus on calming down and doing her best to help find her husband.

At this moment, an expert who was handling the plane approached, carrying a black luggage bag, and handed it to her. “Mrs. Xia, this is Mr. Xia’s luggage.”

Looking at the familiar bag, she recalled how many times she had helped him pack it, yet now it remained while he was nowhere to be found.

Zhan Niantong couldn’t help but crouch down and gently touch it. As she unzipped the bag, a pink heart-shaped envelope caught her eye.

Her heart skipped a beat as she tremblingly picked up the envelope and opened it, finding a letter folded into a heart shape inside, just as she had anticipated.

“Dear Wife,

After hanging up the phone, longing floods my heart again.

I think of your smooth forehead, your autumn-water eyes,

your delicate nose, your little mouth,

everything about you, the picture of us together…

…

Longing builds a dam,

I call your name in dreams,

spilling from the tip of my tongue to my heart.

So, I light a memory,

and fully exhale a long, sweet

process of yearning.

Signed: Your loving husband… xx year xx month xx day”

Tears gushed forth, blurring her vision. The date was the night after she had jokingly said she would punish him by making him write a self-criticism letter.

She vividly remembered when she said she would punish him, he had asked with gentle eyes, “A love letter?”

She hadn’t thought much of it, but he had remembered and had written this love letter intending to give it to her personally.

“He’s so silly, so silly. I was just joking, yet he wrote me another love letter.” She laughed and cried, as if speaking to everyone and herself. Unable to resist, her gaze fell on the first line again, and as she read, her feet seemed to be drawn by some magical force, leading her toward the edge of the cliff.

The group, unsure of her intentions, did not stop her but followed closely behind until she was within five meters of the cliff.

Gong Xiaoqiao, unable to hold back any longer, rushed forward and hugged her tightly around the waist. “Girl, what are you doing? Are you thinking of something drastic?”

“No, no…” Zhan Niantong snapped back to reality, realizing she was standing at the cliff’s edge. Seeing the concerned and anxious looks from the crowd behind her, she felt a bit guilty and said, “I don’t know why, but when I saw this cliff, I couldn’t help but walk over. It was as if a force was pulling me forward.”

Suddenly, she seemed to have a revelation, her eyes lit up with joy as she exclaimed, “I know, he must be down there, he must be down there. I can feel him below, I have to go find him.” With that, she attempted to step forward again.

This frightened Gong Xiaoqiao terribly, and to stop her, she had to reveal a harsh truth. “You don’t need to go down there. He’s not below. Chengyi and the others started searching yesterday, and they searched all day and night but found nothing.” Pointing to the crowd of uniformed police officers behind, Gong Xiaoqiao continued to shout, “Look at them, they all just came up from the bottom of the cliff…”

As she looked around at them, each appeared disheveled, many with scratches from tree branches on their faces.

This harsh reality was like a saw, cruelly dismantling the hope she had painstakingly built. But she refused to believe it, because her heart was pounding so fiercely, each beat telling her he was down there. “No, he must be down there, I have to find him.”

The bond between husband and wife is truly mysterious. She couldn’t convince others, nor could she prove it to herself, but she felt his presence strongly. As long as he was nearby, she could sense him, and this feeling grew more intense as she drew closer.

Gong Xiaoqiao couldn’t understand her determination, holding her tightly to prevent her from moving forward. “Girl, don’t do this. I’m scared.”

At this moment, Xing Chengyi stepped forward. “Xiaoqiao, no, sister-in-law’s feeling might be right. Look over there…”

Following his gaze, they saw a row of small white dots flying from the horizon, getting closer. Soon, the distinctive roar of military aircraft reached everyone’s ears.

The crowd erupted in excitement.

“Xing Chengyi, what is that?” The anticipation seemed to infect Zhan Niantong, her blood boiling with hope. At this moment, she felt she could see the dawn of hope.

“This is a squadron sent by the Haicheng Military Region’s air force for support,” Xing Chengyi’s voice was tinged with excitement. “We suspect that brother might be at the bottom of the cliff, but the sinkhole is too treacherous. Our manpower alone can’t thoroughly search the entire area, so we requested support from the military air force. Now that they’re here, they can conduct a thorough search of the sinkhole. If brother is indeed down there, they will surely find him.”

For two days and nights, they had been tirelessly searching, with experts working amidst the debris. Typically, if the two people in the cockpit were destroyed along with it, there would be some trace left behind, like diamonds in rings or human DNA. Yet, miraculously, after two days and nights of work, the experts found no DNA traces of Xia Zhennan or the other crew members in the wreckage. This raised a significant possibility that caught everyone’s attention: perhaps, before the plane hit the ground, the two individuals in the cockpit had successfully escaped.

Though this was an extremely difficult feat, almost impossible, miracles weren’t unheard of. In everyone’s hearts, they preferred to believe in this miracle.

A miracle that could manage a plane losing signal and instruments failing, yet still ensure the survival of all onboard during a crash. Why wouldn’t they believe he could create another miracle?

Soon, ten aircraft circled above the flat ground, lowering ladders. A group of soldiers in blue air force uniforms expertly climbed down, standing on the ground. They took out tools from their combat packs and began preparations to descend the cliff, while the aircraft above flew over the sinkhole, systematically starting their reconnaissance.

Leading them was a young man whose shoulder insignia gleamed brightly. He approached the crowd, his voice booming, “From the satellite images, we noticed a small black dot beside the cockpit as the plane dove over the sinkhole. We believe this black dot is either Commander Xia or the pilot Stevens.” This was why the military agreed to support and dispatched the highly trained Eagle Squadron.