Chapter 891 The Husband of Ni Xuelei

I scrambled to the flight attendant's side, nearly crawling, as the plane shuddered violently. If I had stood, I would have been thrown around like a ragdoll. I reached her, saw her bloody head, and knew she was beyond saving. The surrounding passengers looked at me as I stood there. I flashed my police badge: "I'm a police officer!"

"Officer? Help us! Are we doomed?"

"Yeah, but I heard cold fronts usually don't cause planes to crash. How could we be so unlucky?"

"Maybe this one's different. *sob* I wish I hadn't boarded this lousy plane!"

"It's February 8th today. Did you hear? They say a flight to Hebei is supposed to have an accident on this day..."

"You mean the 208 Haunted Flight incident? Isn't that a movie?"

"You wouldn't know, but that movie was based on this event!"

"Ah... how could this happen? Are we really not going back?"

The passengers descended into panic, their faces etched with despair. I crawled back towards Xiaoxia Ling.

At that moment, he let out a cold laugh and said, "Bastards! They seem to be hypnotized! I'll calm them down first!"

"What?" I didn't react in time, but Xiaoxia Ling, at some point, had produced two syringes, one in each hand, and administered them. The two women, sedated, promptly passed out. The plane gradually quieted down, and the passengers began to converse. We showed our police badges, identifying ourselves.

Knowing we were police officers, they entrusted the situation to us. We first dragged the three women to the seats behind us, then kept watch over them. At our current speed, we would soon be landing at the Heilongjiang airport.

Everyone settled back into their seats, now just waiting.

It seemed we had prevented this annual plane crash. As the plane smoothly entered the runway, Liu Yuning, sitting next to me, said, "I really thought I was going to die just now. Luckily, you and Xiaoling were quick-witted."

"No, it's thanks to the pilots' good control. Otherwise, we would have already..."

As I spoke, the intercom crackled again: "Ladies and gentlemen, despite the various dangers encountered en route, your flight, China Eastern flight hu7377, has now safely arrived at its destination, Harbin Taiping International Airport in Heilongjiang. We kindly ask passengers to disembark in an orderly fashion..."

We all breathed a sigh of relief at the announcement. It had been a perilous journey, with one flight attendant dead. Huang Jiaqi likely wouldn't survive either. We arrested the other two women.

They were victims, but now they were suspects.

We helped them up and escorted them off the plane. We still had to take a car back. I wouldn't dare fly again...

It was the next morning by the time we brought Ni Xueri and Jie Manyun back to the Provincial Department of Guangming City. Both women had recovered.

Liu Yuning and I faced Ni Xueri in Interrogation Room No. 1.

I adopted a stern demeanor, staring at her and asking, "Ni Xueri, when did you join the Sky Punishers?"

"Sky Punishers? What's wrong with me? Why am I here?" Ni Xueri looked around, seemingly realizing for the first time that she was at the Provincial Department of Public Security.

I said seriously, "This is an interrogation room at the Provincial Department. You've committed a crime. You said on the plane, you're with the Sky Punishers!"

I opened the footage from the dashcam and showed it to her on my phone. Witnessing her frantic behavior on the plane, Ni Xueri exclaimed in horror, "Is that me? How? When did I board a plane..."

The Ni Xueri before me looked bewildered, her eyes filled with dread. She clenched her molars tightly, her face ashen, but this was a reaction of shock. Her micro-expressions seemed to tell me she truly had no recollection of any of it.

"This is footage of you on the plane. Watch it yourself!" Liu Yuning swiped through the images on a tablet. Ni Xueri said in astonishment, "Is that me? Why would I be on a plane? I don't think I've ever flown in my life. Am I dreaming?"

"Stop pretending, Ni Xueri. Don't think we'll believe you didn't board the plane just because of this. I'm telling you, every year around February 8th, there are similar crash incidents. This is no longer an accident, but man-made. And before these planes crash, certain chosen individuals appear, seemingly connected to the crashes. But because all those planes were destroyed, we couldn't find evidence. Besides you, Ni Xueri, the other two women are wives of victims from recent crashes. Do you think there are that many coincidences in the world?"

"I... I don't know, Officer Liu. My life has been miserable these past few years. Ever since my husband died, I've been in a daze, not knowing what I was doing. I was even in a mental hospital. Don't you know? So when I got on the plane, I might have been in an abnormal state."

We hadn't investigated this point Ni Xueri made. I quickly sent a message to the group asking investigators and technicians to verify. Then I continued, "Ni Xueri, I'll believe you for now, but watch this video!"

I showed her the footage from the black box from a few years ago, just before her husband's plane crashed. Seeing her husband's eerie expression before his death, Ni Xueri was terrified, but it also seemed to trigger some memories. Her eyes widened, she gritted her teeth, and her fingernails dug into her own skin, blood slowly trickling down her fingers. With eyes that seemed filled with hellfire, she burned into my gaze, my pupils almost searing. I regained my composure and asked with certainty, "Did you remember some fragments?"

"Yes, before my husband had his accident, he seemed to say something about Sky Punishers and destroying the world. And before the accident, he locked himself in his study. I haven't touched that study since. The floor was covered with candles, many books, and a skull. I didn't know whose it was. I asked him at the time, and he told me it was a specimen. Then he ignored me, locking himself in the study day and night. I listened at the door and heard him in the study, facing a corner, chanting something as if he'd gone mad..."