Chapter 1
As the disaster loomed, Tiffany couldn’t handle the pressure anymore. She burst into tears, switched off her headset, and threw herself into my boyfriend James Sullivan’s arms, giving up on her duties.
In my previous life, Tiffany’s arrogance had led her to authorize a takeoff despite interference signals. The predictive radar had blared urgent red warnings, throwing the entire control tower into chaos. Hundreds of lives that could have been saved were lost due to the actions of Tiffany, who didn’t even have her full controller certification yet.
When the incident hit the news, it caused a massive uproar. The media demanded answers from our airport. To protect Tiffany, my boyfriend didn’t hesitate to throw me under the bus as a scapegoat.
Our manager, Henry Young, went as far as to tamper with the tower’s duty logs and bribe everyone to fabricate evidence against me. At the press conference, James publicly pinned all the blame on me.
Public outrage ensued. I was fired, blacklisted across the industry, and worse - stabbed 38 times by grief-stricken families of the victims.
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back on the day of Tiffany’s fatal error.
“What do we do, James?” Tiffany sobbed, burying her face in my boyfriend’s chest.
In my past life, Tiffany’s overconfidence had led to this disaster. The predictive radar’s urgent red warnings had thrown the entire tower into chaos. Hundreds of lives that could have been saved were lost due to the actions of an uncertified trainee.
This time, I wasn’t going to let history repeat itself. I strode to the control panel, put on the headset, and opened the radio channel to address the pilot:
“Eastern 5195, go around. Previous aircraft requested landing, climb and maintain 2100 feet on current heading…”
The entire tower fell silent as they heard my instructions, holding their breath so as not to disrupt the rescue effort.
After a long negotiation and with the pilots’ cooperation, the red alert was lifted. This time, those who had perished in my previous life would make it home safely to their families.
I switched off the headset, saved the recording, and handed over aircraft communications to a colleague. Then I turned and yanked Tiffany out of James’ arms.
A clear handprint appeared on Tiffany’s tear-stained cheek.
I was furious. This slap wasn’t just for my wrongful death in my past life, but for all the passengers and crew who had died because of her incompetence.
Tiffany stumbled and fell to the ground from the force of my slap. She cupped her cheek and stared at me in disbelief.
I pointed at the plane that had just narrowly escaped disaster.
“You idiot! An air traffic controller’s job is to ensure safety in the skies. You nearly sent hundreds of people to their deaths because of your stupidity!”
Tiffany’s tears fell even harder, her voice full of self-pity. “I… I was just nervous. It’s my first time directing takeoffs. I’m sorry…”
It was the same old trick. Ever since she started her internship, this was how she handled problems. She insisted on cultivating a “genius” image to impress everyone, but when real, critical work was entrusted to her, she’d make a mess of things and leave us to clean up after her.
Afterwards, she’d cry and act cute to beg for forgiveness.
But this time, hundreds of living, breathing people had nearly paid the price for her incompetence.
“Olivia, don’t be so harsh!” James protested.
I glared at him. “Oh, so now you decide to speak up? Weren’t you the one who confidently claimed she could handle this flight? Now that she’s actually doing it and messing up, she wants to run away!”
“What, do you think we all have a death wish? Do you want to go to prison with her?”
Henry Young, our manager, also stepped in, trying to muddy the waters and shift blame onto me.
“Olivia, you should have guided Tiffany more. You knew it was her first time directing.”
“Are you kidding me, Henry?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
Henry was taken aback, probably not expecting me to call him out so directly.
I coldly surveyed the two men shielding Tiffany: “So instead of addressing Tiffany’s incompetence, you’re blaming me for not teaching her properly?”
“She nearly cost hundreds of lives with her poor performance, and you’re still making excuses for her!”
“If I hadn’t stepped in to direct the flight, do you think you’d still be standing here talking to me so casually?”
“Do people actually have to die before you take this seriously? Or are human lives just meaningless to you?”
Henry stepped forward, displeased. “Olivia…”
I grabbed the operations manual from nearby and hurled it at his face.
“Have all those case studies of fatal errors in this manual been for nothing? You have the audacity to push the blame onto me! You know damn well whose fault this is!”
Both men’s faces showed a flicker of doubt, but they still chose to defend Tiffany.
“Don’t give me that genius nonsense! Tiffany was trained by you two. If she’s such a genius, how come you didn’t teach her properly?”
“Have you both been kicked in the head by a mule? Have you forgotten our duty to ensure air safety?”
I let out a cold laugh, looking at Tiffany being comforted in James’ arms:
“What you’re doing now isn’t just a dereliction of your professional duty, it’s a blatant disregard for human life! If you want to keep arguing with me, don’t expect me to show any mercy!”
It was clear to everyone that I wasn’t going to let this slide.
Seeing my determination, the two men didn’t dare say anything more.
I fixed my gaze on Tiffany and ordered: “For the next two months, you’re going back to train with the new batch of interns. Just you, alone. You’re not allowed near the controls until you pass the training!”
“Do plenty of simulation exercises and learn how to handle emergencies properly!”
“And I want to see your written reflection at Monday’s meeting. You’ll read it out loud.”
With that, I turned to leave, not wanting to look at Tiffany any longer.
“Wait!” James clearly wanted to argue for Tiffany’s sake. “Tiffany was part of the rescue too. You can’t take all the credit. Put her name on today’s incident report.”
Looking at his shameless expression, I couldn’t help but respond sarcastically:
“Sure, I’ll add her name. And next time she messes up, you can take responsibility for her.”
“Olivia! You… If it weren’t for Tiffany, you wouldn’t even have this achievement-“
I cut him off with a scornful laugh.
“Oh right, I should be thanking her for screwing up so I could clean up her mess!”
“She doesn’t even have the basic psychological qualities needed for air traffic control, let alone actual directing!”
“And you, repeatedly acting like this is all perfectly fine. How pathetic can you get?”
James, unable to argue back, could only glare at me with a red face.
Tiffany’s tears seemed to have opened floodgates. She looked at me defiantly:
“Olivia, I know you’ve always had issues with me, but aren’t you going too far today?”
I drawled in an exaggerated tone:
“Oh, so you know I have issues with you? Then why don’t you stay out of my way instead of always causing trouble!”
“If you want credit for this, you need to earn it. Though I suppose running away in a crisis is quite a talent too.”
“Don’t worry, if you want to keep being useless and coasting by, just make sure you have someone to take the fall for you when things go wrong.”
As I finished, I pointedly looked between James and Henry.
Both men’s faces twisted as if they’d swallowed a fly. I let out a cold laugh and strode away.
Back in my office, I was about to get some water when Henry obsequiously opened the door, ushering in Manager Sanders with James and Tiffany in tow.
One look at them and I knew what this was about.
An inquisition.
I let out a derisive laugh. “Shouldn’t Manager Sanders be in training right now? How do you have time to visit a lowly employee’s office?”
Manager Sanders was in his fifties and had worked at the airport for most of his life. He was known for squeezing every penny he could out of us underlings.
In short, he was an old fox who loved being flattered. I couldn’t be bothered to play nice with someone like him.
Seeing my attitude, Manager Sanders immediately let out a contemptuous snort.
“If they hadn’t told me you were bullying your coworkers, I wouldn’t have known you thought your authority was greater than mine!”
“Bypassing me to order Tiffany back to training?”
“You clearly don’t respect my position!”
I waved my hand, feigning innocence. “How could that be? I was just educating a junior who made a mistake, as a senior should.”
Manager Sanders looked at me with disdain. “It was Tiffany’s first time directing. Mistakes are normal. You could have just said a few words.”
“Besides, she’s not even your intern. It’s not your place to discipline her.”
Before I could respond, James jumped in to attack me.
“Olivia, can’t you see how hard Tiffany has been trying? Even though it was her first time directing, she studied a lot of materials to prepare.”
James said this without a hint of shame or guilt.
“Since James has vouched for her, Olivia, you shouldn’t keep harping on this issue,” Manager Sanders blatantly took their side.
“And in your current state, you’d better take some time off to reflect on your actions.”
I scanned over each of them, finding it all absurd.
Especially James. I only regretted how blind I had been in my past life, believing his sweet talk and giving up a high-paying job to come here and deal with this nonsense.
With a last shred of hope for fairness, I spoke up, “So you’re really going to side with someone who made such a serious mistake?”
“This is clearly your fault,” Henry declared self-righteously.
“Well, well, you’ve really opened my eyes,” I laughed bitterly.
“Olivia, we don’t have time to humor your tantrum. Pack up your things and get out now.” Manager Sanders was clearly impatient to be done with this.
“My, what an impressive display of authority.”
A casual voice suddenly cut in, like a drop of ink exploding in water.
Manager Sanders turned back irritably, but his face instantly drained of color.
The CEO had arrived, respectfully accompanying the man who had spoken.
“Olivia, I was wondering why you weren’t answering my calls. Turns out you were tied up with this paper tiger,” the man said.
I have to admit, I was surprised too. In my past life, William Taylor hadn’t appeared at this point.
William was my childhood friend. Our families were next-door neighbors, and we grew up together. But when he came of age, he told me his parents had been raising him frugally to keep him from becoming spoiled, when in fact their family was extremely wealthy.
At the time, I laughed and said he must have gone crazy. The next day, he was sent abroad to study, and their house next door was emptied out.
After several years apart, William still had that same carefree attitude.
William walked up to me and looked me up and down. “Why so quiet? Did they upset you?”
I shook my head. “No. What brings you here?”
William shrugged. “I called but you didn’t pick up. I was going to have you take me out for a welcome-back meal. Since I own a bit of stock in this airport, I pulled some strings to come in.”
At the mention of stock ownership, everyone present was shocked.
I also noticed Tiffany’s eyes flash with greed from where she was hiding in the back.
Seeing this, I couldn’t help but smile. “As it happens, I’ve just been suspended. I can take you out to eat now.”
The CEO, clearly an old fox, coughed twice and pushed Manager Sanders forward.
Manager Sanders, quick on the uptake, turned to me with an ingratiating smile. “Oh Olivia, I had no idea you had such influential friends! Ha ha, talk about a misunderstanding between colleagues!”
“Please, be the bigger person and forgive me this once.”
William turned to me with a smug look, as if to say: “See how I came back to give you face?”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at him.
Before I could speak, Tiffany stepped forward meekly. “Olivia, please forgive Manager Sanders. He was just being hasty.”
“Since your friend just got back, I happen to know a few nice restaurants. I’d be happy to take you both as an apology.”
What a clever calculation.
William covered his ears and leaned towards me. “Dude, can she stop forcing that voice? It really doesn’t sound good.”
Tiffany had always cultivated an image of a soft-spoken genius air traffic controller prodigy. William’s casual “dude” and “doesn’t sound good” nearly made her mask crack.
I also smiled faintly. “Too bad, I tend to hold grudges.”
“You heard her,” William said, putting an arm around my shoulders.
The CEO, seeing there was no room for negotiation, immediately shouted at Manager Sanders: “We don’t need someone who bullies the weak and fears the strong like you. Pack your things and get out!”
“Alright, let’s go get some food,” William said with satisfaction, pulling me towards the exit.
As we passed Manager Sanders, I saw his eyes fixed on me with a venomous glare.
I knew this matter was far from over.
After leaving the airport, William took me to a hot pot restaurant I’d been craving recently, according to my social media posts.
I looked at him curiously. “So why did you come back?”
William grinned as he ordered. “I just felt like coming back. Surprised?”
“I’ve gotta say, I nearly had a heart attack when I heard the air traffic controller’s voice on the plane.”
“Good thing I’ve got nine lives. Plus that controller was super professional, or I might’ve been a goner.”
Hearing this, I had a sinking feeling. “What exactly did you hear the controller say?”
William looked confused. “Something about Eastern 5195, go around. What’s wrong?”