The Chinese Captain of the Blue Route

At 4:30 in the morning, Beijing in March was still sleeping under the gray-blue sky. The warm light of the guidance lights was scattered on the runway, like ribbons sprinkled with gold powder spread on the concrete. The lights in the terminal stayed up all night, shining on the apron through the huge glass curtain wall, illuminating several wide-body passenger planes parked on the bridge - including Air China's Boeing 777, 747, and an Airbus A320neo that had just completed pre-flight inspection. It will fly CA981 non-stop from Beijing to New York JFK in five hours. This novel and its characters are purely fictitious. Any similarity is purely coincidental and should not be imitated.