Those who travel back in time

Chapter 8 Li Mengfei

"Sit down first, and act naturally." Chen Qing pointed to the seat next to him. "Don't have any other thoughts. If you dare to shout or try to attract attention in any way, I'll have no choice but to use a knife."

Looking at Chen Qing's towering 1.8-meter height and then at that fruit knife, Li Mengfei didn't dare say anything and sat there trembling.

Chen Qing sat down next to Li Mengfei.

"My dad is Li Qilin, he's very rich, you can have as much money as you want, please, don't hurt me." Li Mengfei was almost crying from fright.

"I'm not here to rob you." Chen Qing put away the fruit knife. "I'm not here to hurt you either. As long as you cooperate, I guarantee you won't lose a single hair."

"Then what do you want?" Li Mengfei placed her suitcase between herself and Chen Qing, as if this would protect her from harm.

"I've already told you," Chen Qing said, her hand resting on the pocket containing the fruit knife. "I told you not to board UA632."

"Okay, I won't board. I promise I won't get on that plane," Li Mengfei pleaded. "Can you leave now?"

"I will leave, but not now." Chen Qing said, glancing at the B12 boarding gate again, and then suddenly stood up.

The little girl with pigtails... has disappeared!

Chen Qing was somewhat annoyed. She had intended to stop Li Mengfei first and then stop the little girl, but because her attention was focused on Li Mengfei, she hadn't noticed that the little girl had boarded the plane.

"Don't hurt me!" This action terrified Li Mengfei, making her pale with fright.

"Li Mengfei, don't worry, I won't hurt you." Chen Qing glanced at the boarding gate again before sitting down.

Do you know me?

"Li Mengfei was born on May 17, 2002. She attended Jiangxin Foreign Language School from elementary school to high school. Later, she was admitted to Jiangxin Conservatory of Music with excellent grades, majoring in piano performance. In her second year, she went to the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in Austria for a semester of exchange studies. She also obtained the Grade 5 certificate in piano performance from the Royal Academy of Music in the United Kingdom."

"Who exactly are you?"

"On July 8, 2002, which is today, you died in a plane crash on UA632." Chen Qing did not answer, but continued, "Your father, Li Qilin, could not accept your death and began developing a serum in an attempt to resurrect you. It was this serum that caused the emergence of zombies, which ultimately became a disaster that swept the entire world."

"You..." Li Mengfei opened her mouth, not knowing what to say for a moment. Could this person have a mental illness?

"Ms. Li Mengfei, traveling to Shanghai on UA632, please proceed to gate B12 for boarding as soon as possible," the airport announcement rang out.

Li Mengfei desperately wanted to heed the "call" of the radio broadcast and leave the dangerous psychopath beside her, but she didn't dare.

For Chen Qing, the little girl's face reappeared in her mind.

He really wanted to save the little girl.

However, he didn't get the chance.

Even if the little girl had seen him, she wouldn't listen to him and refuse to board the plane unless he did what he's doing now, brandishing a knife and threatening her.

But if that's the case, then there's no way to stop Li Mengfei.

Moreover, the little girl was queuing with her parents at the boarding gate, surrounded by many people. Even if she wanted to coerce him, it wouldn't be so easy; others would definitely stop her.

"It's not that I'm unwilling to save her, but that I can't, there's no way to save her," Chen Qing said to himself.

Before he set off, Xiande had told him that whoever he met in 2022 would be a dead person.

If they are dead, what is the point of talking about saving them?

"That's right, she's already dead. I don't need to save a dead person." Chen Qing shook his head, banishing the little girl's face from his mind.

Seeing that Chen Qing seemed a little "distracted," Li Mengfei held her breath, braced herself on the seat with both hands, and slowly shuffled to the side.

She moved only two centimeters before Chen Qing noticed. Before Chen Qing could say anything, Li Mengfei moved closer to Chen Qing again: "I won't do it again! I swear!"

"In a little while, once the plane takes off, you'll be free." Chen Qing glanced at Li Mengfei, but instead of flying into a rage as Li Mengfei had expected, her tone was very calm.

"Are you really just trying to prevent me from boarding the plane?" Perhaps because Chen Qing didn't hold her attempt to escape against her, Li Mengfei became a little bolder.

"right."

"Can planes really crash?"

"meeting."

"The zombies you mentioned, are they real?"

"Absolutely true."

"Can you predict the future?"

"I come from the future."

"What will the future look like?" Li Mengfei asked this not because she believed Chen Qing, but because she considered Chen Qing to have mental health issues. The best way to communicate with such a person is not to refute them, but to go along with what they are saying.

"I came from 2044. The world has basically been taken over by zombies. Only a small portion of humans have survived. Clean water and food are more valuable than human lives. It is a world more terrifying than a nightmare..." Chen Qing paused. When he mentioned "food," he couldn't help but think of the little girl again.

She helped him, but he could only watch her die.

"It's not that I don't want to save her, she's already dead." Chen Qing brought out the reasons she had previously used to convince herself, repeatedly reminding herself of them.

However, as the flight drew closer to its departure time, these reasons seemed to become increasingly unconvincing.

Couldn't they stop the little girl?

Yes, the little girl was surrounded by many people at the time, and her objective conditions were indeed not as good as Li Mengfei's when she was alone. But things can be done by human effort. How can you easily conclude that it cannot be stopped without trying?

People who are already dead don't need to be saved?

If this reason holds true, then there's no need to save the older brother either, since he's already passed away.

"This is the final announcement for passengers aboard Oneworld Airlines UA632 bound for Shanghai. All passengers who have not yet boarded, please proceed to gate B12 immediately. Boarding will be closing soon." The final announcement rang out.

Chen Qing's seat faced a huge floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall, from which he could clearly see the silver-white plane on the tarmac.

Chen Qing's mind conjured up the image of the plane taking off, catching fire in mid-air, landing, and the little girl dying.

As the jet bridge connecting the boarding gate and the aircraft door began to slowly move backward, Chen Qing suddenly stood up, didn't even glance at Li Mengfei, and ran away.

Li Mengfei was stunned. The man who had just threatened her with a knife and was spouting nonsense about the end of the world had run away as if he had seen a ghost.

Why is he running?

Immediately afterwards, Li Mengfei's tense nerves relaxed, and she was finally free.

After sitting in her seat for a while, Li Mengfei got up and began looking for airport ground staff.

She hasn't found it yet, but someone else has.

That's Chen Qing.

After running past Li Mengfei to a ground crew member, Chen Qing dropped a bombshell: "The plane can't take off, there's a bomb on board!"

Chen Qing still couldn't bear to let the little girl die. At the last moment before the plane took off, he thought of a way to save both Li Mengfei and the little girl—to stop the plane from taking off.