Глава 13

Та громовая птица так и не смогла вломиться внутрь.

Линь Сяо активировал электромагнитный щит системы, и глупая тварь отлетела на несколько сотен метров. Сейчас она, скорее всего, уже превратилась в высокогорную ледышку.

Но для людей в салоне настоящий смертельный кризис только начинался.

Воды не было двадцать четыре часа.

Воздух в салоне был сухим, как наждачная бумага.

С каждым вдохом из лёгких уходила последняя влага.

У бортпроводниц губы потрескались, а выступившие капли крови не успевали стечь — drying in scabs. Every breath carried away the last moisture from the lungs. But for the people in the cabin, the real deadly crisis had only just begun. Water had been cut off for twenty-four hours. The circulating air in the cabin was dry as sandpaper. Every breath took away the last moisture from their lungs. The flight attendants' lips had cracked, and the blood beads that seeped out dried into scabs before they could flow down. Someone tried to sleep to reduce consumption, but the burning thirst made their throats feel like they were stuffed with charcoal, and they couldn't sleep at all. Su Qingge leaned against the seat in the last row, clutching an empty mineral water bottle. The bottle was crushed out of shape by her grip. "Chief attendant... is there any water left?" A young girl crawled over, tugged at Su Qingge's skirt, her voice hoarse like a broken bellows. Su Qingge shook her head. She and the others had searched through all the passengers' luggage racks, even felt through the seat gaps. Even half a bottle of leftover water had been snatched and poured down someone's throat. Now, there really was none left. The one-way glass of the cockpit suddenly lit up. The originally pitch-black glass became transparent. Everyone's gaze was drawn to it like iron to a magnet. Lin Xiao sat in that luxurious leather seat, with cases of Evian mineral water piled at his feet. Those transparent square bottles refracted diamond-like luster under the light. An'an knelt by Lin Xiao's leg. She had changed into a clean men's white shirt, her hair smoothly draped behind her shoulders, her complexion rosy—she didn't look like the same species as the people outside. Lin Xiao held a freshly opened Evian bottle and handed it to An'an. "Drink." His voice came through the broadcast, clear and cold. An'an took the water bottle. She knew she was being watched. More than a hundred pairs of eyes were fixed on the water in her hand. That gaze mixed with jealousy, desire, and hatred could even penetrate bulletproof glass. But she didn't care anymore. An'an tilted her head back, put the bottle mouth to her lips, and gulped. "Glug, glug..." The audio equipment was very good, amplifying her swallowing sounds countless times. Because she drank too quickly, the clear stream overflowed from the corner of her mouth, slid over her chin, down her neck, and finally soaked that white shirt. Waste. This was a crime. Waves of swallowing sounds rose and fell in the cabin, but they could only swallow bitter saliva. "Is it good?" Lin Xiao asked. An'an put down the bottle, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and wore a fawning smile. "It's good, very sweet." Lin Xiao nodded. He bent down and pulled out another bottle of water from the box. "Pop." The sound of the bottle cap being twisted open was crisp and harsh. Lin Xiao didn't drink it, nor did he give it to An'an. He stood up and walked to an air valve on the right side of the cockpit. That valve connected to a water collection tank at the top of the cabin. It was originally used to collect condensation, but now it had been modified into a one-way passage. Lin Xiao aimed the bottle mouth at the valve. Poured. "Splash—" The clear water poured into the pipe, and the sound of it flowing along the metal walls was simply torture to those outside. The water did not flow directly into the cabin, but gathered beneath a metal filter on the front floor of the cabin. Water could be seen there, the moist scent could be smelled, but fingers couldn't reach in. "Ah—water! It's water!" A flight attendant in the front row went mad. She threw herself desperately at that metal filter, pressed her face against the cold floor, and desperately stretched her tongue toward the mesh, trying to lick up that tiny bit of splashed water. One took the lead, then a second followed. Four or five women crawled over on hands and feet, huddling together like wild dogs fighting for food. The sound of nails scratching the floor made one's teeth ache. "Don't push me! Get away!" "Give me one sip... just one sip..." Su Qingge watched this scene, and that helplessness surged in her heart again. She propped herself up on the armrest, stood up, staggered over, and tried to pull up the girl on top. "Don't do this! Stand up!" Su Qingge's voice was hoarse, almost unable to make a sound. "It's too shameful... we are humans, not animals... keep a little dignity, please?" The girl whose arm she was holding suddenly turned her head. It was a distorted face. Cracked lips, sunken eye sockets, eyes full of red blood vessels. "Dignity?" The girl flung Su Qingge's hand away with surprising strength. "Can dignity quench thirst?! Do you want to thirst us to death?!" Su Qingge was pushed backward and hit the cabin wall heavily. Her back hurt sharply. But her heart hurt more. No one paid attention to her. Everyone was staring at that metal filter, hoping for even one more drop of water to flow down. Lin Xiao closed the valve. The sound of water stopped. The women lying on the floor in the cabin raised their heads in despair, looking toward the cockpit. "Want it?" Lin Xiao sat back in his chair, playing with the half bottle of water he hadn't finished pouring. No one spoke, but that longing gaze said everything. "I don't keep idlers, and I don't do charity." Lin Xiao put his legs up on the control console, his tone lazy. "Want to drink water? It's simple." "Make me happy." "Tell a joke, or act out a skit. Singing and dancing are fine too." "As long as I find it interesting, I'll reward a bottle." After saying that, he placed the half bottle of water on the console, right in the center of the camera's view. The cabin fell silent. Although they had long been hungry and cold, making these flight attendants who usually thought highly of themselves perform like clowns was not an easy psychological barrier to cross. This was tearing off their last fig leaf and stepping on it. Su Qingge leaned against the cabin wall, gasping for breath. She wanted to shout at everyone not to listen to him, not to accept this insulting charity. But her throat was so dry it smoked, and she couldn't utter a single word. One minute passed. Two minutes passed. Lin Xiao was not in a hurry. He even had An'an open another bag of chips, crunching "crunch crunch." Finally, someone moved. A girl who looked very quiet stood up. She was an intern who had just joined this year; usually she blushed when she spoke, and did everything cautiously. She walked to the middle of the aisle, facing that black glass. "C-Captain." The girl's voice trembled. "I... I can make faces." No one laughed. Everyone looked at her with complicated eyes. The girl gritted her teeth, as if throwing caution away. She grabbed her own mouth corners and eyelids with both hands, pulled them hard to both sides, making an extremely funny and ugly expression, and even stuck her tongue out long. She didn't look human at all. Then, stammering, she told a joke. It was a dirty joke. A vulgar joke about pilots and flight attendants, the kind they would frown at if they heard it privately before. At this moment, in this closed, oppressive high-altitude iron coffin, coming from the mouth of a pure girl, it seemed especially absurd. In the cockpit. Lin Xiao laughed. Not because the joke was funny, but because the defense line of human nature collapsed so quickly. "Not bad." Lin Xiao pressed a button. A small delivery port under the console opened. "Clang." A 500ml bottle of Evian mineral water rolled out, all the way to the girl's feet. The girl was stunned for a moment. The next second, she pounced forward, clutching that bottle of water tightly to her chest, as if holding her own life. The surrounding crowd stirred. Countless greedy gazes lit up like green ghost fires. Just by making a fool of yourself and telling a dirty joke, you could survive? This deal was too划算. A new currency system was born. Lin Xiao looked at the restless crowd on the screen, took out another bottle of water from the box, and weighed it in his hand. "Next, who's coming?"