After presenting their boarding passes, they were led by a young ground staff member to a sofa seating area inside.
By sheer coincidence, the middle-aged man and young woman from earlier were also there, having breakfast.
Enemies meeting face-to-face sparked immediate tension. When Ma Lan saw them, she rolled up her sleeves and marched straight over. The man, surprised to see her, was taken aback, as a first-class ticket from Jinling to Malé, the capital of the Maldives, cost nearly 70,000 yuan.
He thought to himself, “Damn, with my wealth, spending 140,000 on tickets already stung. I didn’t expect this shabby family of four to afford first-class tickets. They must have some means.”
Seeing Ma Lan head straight for the couple instead of sitting down, Xiao Churan tried to stop her but failed. Ma Lan’s arm slipped out like it was greased, shaking off Xiao Churan’s hands with a sidestep, and strode towards them.
The man and his wife were eating, their table laden with food from the lounge’s excellent selection. The woman was busy taking photos from various angles for her social media, while the man, spotting Ma Lan approaching, put down his chopsticks warily, unsure of her intentions.
Ma Lan deliberately slowed her pace, stopping about a metre away from them, a distance she deemed safe in case the man tried to hit her, giving her room to dodge.
Xiao Changkun, worried she’d get into trouble, whispered, “Honey, wait for me, I’ll go with you!”
Ma Lan waved him off dismissively, saying lightly, “No need, Grandma Ma’s taking them on solo today!”
Then, with her arms crossed and a sneer, she muttered, “Oh my, first time in first class? Acting like you’ve never seen anything before, grabbing a whole table’s worth of food. What, trying to eat your ticket’s worth in one breakfast?”
The man’s face flushed with embarrassment. He hadn’t meant to take so much, but his newlywed wife kept piling it on. The lounge had a wide selection, including a made-to-order counter, so she grabbed bread, desserts, shrimp dumplings, and every Cantonese dim sum staple, even ordering two bowls of wonton noodles.
He knew his wife couldn’t eat it all; she was just indulging and gathering material for her social media. Ma Lan’s taunt left him momentarily speechless.
The woman, however, looked up and scoffed at Ma Lan, “You again? I paid for this, so what’s it to you how much I take?”
Ma Lan smirked, “I know, you just want to snap some photos and videos to show off on social media, right? Don’t think I’m looking down on you, but how many times have you even flown first class?”
The woman snapped angrily, “How many times I’ve flown first class is none of your business! Besides, my husband usually travels by private jet. We’re only slumming it in first class with people like you because we couldn’t book a jet this time, alright?”
“Oh, please!” Ma Lan pulled out her phone, scrolling as she sneered, “Listen to you brag, acting like you’ve actually flown on a private jet. With that beat-up Bentley your husband drives, his wealth might stretch to a cheap domestic charter at best. I know some private jets do discounted return legs, short trips for maybe tens of thousands or even less. But an overseas private jet charter? That starts at over a million per flight. Can your husband afford that?”
The man thought to himself, “How does this old hag know so much?”
