Chapter 14 I'm Rai

"We're here."

Li Tian lifted his head up from his cellphone and gazed outside the window.

They were temporarily parked at the airport main entrance for domestic departures. Many people with travel bags could be seen walking in and out of those entrance doors.

"What are we doing here?" he raised an eyebrow at Meilin sitting next to him.

She smirked at him with schadenfreude. "This is where you get off."

"What?" he asked in surprise. His head snapped back at the main entrance with the density of people in motion, and his face slowly paled at a growing thought. "No... You're not making me go out there!"

Meilin sniggered at her panicking cousin. Oh, how it felt good to see him this way. "You're already in disguise. The moment you left the estate, you were no longer Li 𝘛𝘪𝘢𝘯. Now, you are Li 𝘟𝘪𝘢𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨. Here are your documents."

She handed him a file that contained his new passport and identification. Still in shock, his hands held the file unconsciously.

She signaled someone on the outside and the door by Li Tian was suddenly snapped open. Not letting him have much time to react, the person pulled Li Tian out, reclosed the door, bowed, and went back to his original position in the front seat.

Pulled out of his shock, he stuttered, You-!"

"See you at arrivals up North, Xiaolang!" Meilin waved at him from the open window. "Make sure not to cause any trouble." She then said to the driver, "Hit it."

The car went in gear, and set off, leaving him in the dust in hysteria. One could still hear his cousin manager's laugh going off in the distance.

Li Tian visibly trembled. The emotions he was feeling were so complicated that all he wanted to do was scream! Wrath, humiliation, desperation, misery, and distress were all mixed up and bundled within his gnashing teeth.

His family... His damn family!!!

𝘈𝘈𝘈𝘈𝘈𝘈𝘙𝘙𝘎𝘎𝘎𝘏𝘏𝘏!!!!!

He yelled in his mind profusely, barely keeping himself from destroying the file in his hands.

They even left him with two big bags of luggage! Was he supposed to drag these bags with him himself!?

𝘋𝘈𝘔𝘔𝘐𝘛!

His breath was ragged, and even the onlookers started to notice his strange behavior. Not wanting to attract any more attention to himself, he took a deep breath and slowly released his hard grip on the file. The one thing he couldn't control was the twitch in his eye from trying to contain himself.

He opened the file and pulled out what seemed like a purple passport, their Nation's color. Opening it up, he read the details of his new identity. They had already gone through them the night before, and he had them all memorized, but it was still surreal to see it come to existence.

His new face was almost unrecognizable in the picture. Who knew a major change of hairstyle and a pair of glasses would make such a big difference.

Lifting his head up to look around, it finally dawned onto him; they really left him to fend for himself.

There were no secret securities, no earpieces or mics. He was completely alone.

A myriad of emotions went through his face but presently, he just had to suck it up.

The two bags were especially heavy, and he wasn't an idiot. There must be a way these commoners hauled their nonsense around. It didn't take long for him to spot a few people pushing their baggage on what looked like a trolley.

Not too far away from him was a long line of trolleys stacked together. He dragged the two bags a little closer and went to get one.

As he attempted to pull one out, it appeared to be stuck.

"What the?"

He put more strength into it, his muscles bulging from under his big shirt but it seemed to have absolutely no effect! The damn thing wouldn't budge!

What was going on? He wasn't THAT weak was he?

"Excuse me."

Li Tian snapped his head back to see a child, around ten years old waiting patiently behind him. He was about to ask 'What?' when he remembered who he was at the moment. So instead he lifted his head up in a nod and raised an eyebrow as if to question the intruding kid.

The young boy looked back at him semi-confusedly and walked up to the trolley. "That's not how you do it, Mister. You have to push down, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 pull it out."

The boy demonstrated and easily pulled out a trolley, causing Li Tian's eyes to grow wide.

If there was ever a moment, the Li Tian felt so embarrassed he wanted to hide in a hole, this would be that moment. And it hadn't even been five minutes since his family abandoned him.

"It must be confusing for people who haven't done it before. When you want it to move forward later, you also have to make sure you push the handle down first or it won't go," he continued to explain. He spoke with no hint of prejudice and was just interacting with a normal person that needed help. "You should try it."

Trying not to think much further, Li Tian did as was demonstrated and managed to pull the trolley out. He even tried to move it back and forth with no problem. It was actually so simple! He felt like smacking himself for being so stupid before.

The lack of such experience was definitely starting to show.

"You should have gotten it down, Mister. So I'll let you be. I have a flight to catch soon." The boy had already managed to stack his luggage onto the trolley while Li Tian was still busy experimenting with his own. He waved goodbye and hurried into the entrance.

Peculiar.

Li Tian didn't particularly dislike the kid. He watched as the black-haired boy disappeared into the building and realized... Where were his parents?

He didn't have much time to dwell on the thought though, because he realized that he was on a tight schedule. Within the file given by Meilin was also a list of things to be done before getting on the flight.

He had to first get himself to a check-in counter and get his bags checked.

Uuuuurrgghh... he moaned begrudgingly.

After getting his two big bags on, he pushed the trolley and headed into the airport.

.....

"Oof!" he grunted, as another person bumped into him within that narrow walking space. It took everything just not to glare at them, let alone blast his anger.

Seriously! How did people survive in these cramped flights!?

He looked at his ticket again and up at the seat numbers but they never matched! Just how far was his seat??

People pushed and shoved the further he got until finally, he reached the very back of the plane. It felt more empty which was a relief but the restroom just so happened to be close by. He grimaced at being in close quarters with strangers' excrement.

He got closer to the two back seats, both he assumed were unoccupied when he saw a bed of black hair pop out.

He reached it and a face looked at him in surprise.

"Oh, hello."

It was the young boy from before.

Surprised as he was, he didn't let it linger. He already looked like a useless fool once in front of the kid, he wasn't going to let himself appear that way again.

The boy was sitting directly by the window, and his own ticket clearly indicated the aisle seat, meaning he had to sit closer to the restroom. Li Tian tried to withhold his thoughts, zero emotion appearing on his face, but his body language unknowingly revealed otherwise.

"Do you want to sit by the window?" the boy suddenly asked him.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵?

How did the kid know? He didn't make it obvious, did he?

Not wanting to be babied by a child, Li Tian shook his head.

"I don't mind. I sit by the window so much that I get sick of it." Without waiting for a response, the kid got up and ushered Li Tian in. "I insist."

Li Tian felt embarrassed yet again. What was going on? He felt like he was being coddled like a child by someone years younger than him.

He pursed his lips but went to sit down in the window seat anyway, nodding his thanks to the seemingly polite boy. Trying to hide his slight embarrassment, he looked out the window, as if finding something interesting outside.

The boy looked at him curiously and sat himself down.

Not too long afterward, the domestic plane started to taxi, and a few flight attendants had taken their place for the safety briefing. Being his first time on a commercial flight, he understood that he was in need of some basics, so he tried to watch the demonstration ahead of him as best as he could.

However, it was absurd to Li Tian how anyone could actually see anything from where he sat. Why was there no tv screen on the seat in front of him? Wouldn't it be a lot easier to watch a safety briefing that way? He thought there would be a tv for him to use at the very least!

What cheap flight did his family book for him!?

Of course, he couldn't have known that domestic flights didn't offer personal tv screens due to the short flight duration. It was quite a small flight as well, with only one lane and three seats on each side. It was only the back row that had two seats to make room for the restrooms.

By the time the demonstration ended, the flight attendants went to check each seat to make sure all seatbelts were secure.

A young attendant finally reached the back end to where Li Tian sat and noticed his loose seatbelt.

When she tried to fix it, he roughly cringed to the side as if loathing her touch.

He didn't want these strangers' hands anywhere near him.

"I'm sorry, sir, but your seatbelt needs to be tightened," she looked at him apologetically. The young man still looked like a schoolboy and must have never had much contact with women, which she reasoned as to why he acted in such a way.

Li Tian tried to fiddle with his seatbelt, finding a way to tighten it but yet again it eluded him. No matter what he tried, he just couldn't seem to figure it out. His private plane never had such petty issues. They had shown how to do it earlier but it was at that moment that he got distracted with his thoughts on the tv.

In truth, he wasn't actually stupid. It was just that all his knowledge was more focused on the academic side that common sense somehow ended up baffling him.

"You pull this strap to tighten it."

It was the small kid beside him.

Li Tian glanced to the side and tried it himself. The results were instant.

The flight attendant smiled at the interaction. "Thanks for the help, Xiao Xue. Keep an eye out for this big brother okay?"

The boy pursed his lips at the name.

Unaffected by the child's displeasure, the flight attendant walked back to her station to get ready for takeoff.

When she was gone, the child muttered under his breath. "I'm NOT Xiao Xue..."

Li Tian raised an eyebrow and looked at the child beside him confusedly. If he wasn't this so-called 'Xiao Xue' then why did she call him that? Ultimately his curiosity got the better of him, especially realizing he couldn't get internet service now that they were taking off.

𝘚𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘯𝘰 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘵.

Noticing the big brother's look, he blushed in embarrassment. The boy peeked at him and decided to start a conversation. "We've run into each other twice now, that must mean something, right? I'm... Rai."

Rai raised his small hand up for a handshake.

𝘙𝘢𝘪? 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘢 𝘏𝘶𝘢𝘹𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦.

Glancing at the stretched-out hand, Li Tian decided it was fine to shake. It was just the hand of a ten-year-old boy anyway.

He grabbed the hand and nodded to Rai in acknowledgment.

Seeing how the big brother wouldn't say anything, Rai took the liberty in asking instead. "So what's your name, Mister? Or should I keep calling you Mister..."

𝘖𝘩, Li Tian realized. He couldn't run away from speaking much longer, so maybe this was a test for him before landing North. He should start practice speaking with strangers.

Softening his voice as much as possible, he parted his lips, "I'm... Xiaolang."

.....