Put Some Muscle Into It

After Li Zhi operated the controls, the plane completed its turn and avoided the airspace over the main urban area.

But because its attitude had not been corrected in time, the plane continued turning after completing the maneuver, its nose slowly swinging back toward the main urban area.

And because it was continually losing altitude, the plane now posed an even greater threat to the main urban area!

If it could not be shot down before entering the airspace above the main urban area, then even if it was brought down afterward, it would still have a serious impact on the area.

And because of its low altitude, members of the public might well see and film the airliner being brought down by a missile. Public opinion and the questions people raised would be an even bigger problem!

If not for Li Zhi, Lei Hu would have ordered the plane shot down without hesitation.

But now there was hope. Even if it was only the faintest sliver, Lei Hu could not bring himself to snuff it out with his own hands.

When faced with a choice, unless the outcome was perfect, no one could know whether they had made the right decision, because there was always a better possible outcome!

Time slowly passed as Lei Hu hesitated.

"Good. Now pull it up slowly! Don't shake it. You'll need to put some muscle into it! You know how to pull it, right?"

The plane had been losing altitude the whole time, and it was already very low. They also needed to leave enough altitude for trial and error, so he had to pull up as soon as possible.

"I know!"

Li Zhi did know some simple, basic operating principles. After all, he hadn't read those books for nothing.

But on his first attempt, Li Zhi actually failed to move the control stick.

With the powerful momentum of the dive and no copilot to help, pulling up a plane descending at such speed took a great deal of strength!

No wonder he'd said, "You'll need to put some muscle into it."

On his second attempt, Li Zhi put every ounce of strength he had into it and finally managed to pull the control stick. But he seemed to have used a little too much force. Although he succeeded in pulling the plane up, its rate of climb seemed a little high.

Nothing went wrong with the plane, though the passengers in the back didn't have a very good experience.

Still, at least the plane had begun to climb instead of continuing to plunge.

The change in the plane's altitude was also detected on the ground in real time.

By now, the airliner had reached the edge of the main urban area. Its climb was undoubtedly good news for Lei Hu; otherwise, he really would have had no choice but to give the order to "shoot it down."

As the plane entered the airspace above the main urban area, Lei Hu no longer had to agonize over whether to shoot the airliner down.

Lei Hu had never been an indecisive man. Perhaps his earlier hesitation had been another choice he had made.

"Good. The plane's in good shape now, so leave the controls alone for the moment. We need to hurry and get you familiar with the aircraft."

"The airspeed indicator, gyroscope, attitude indicator, and the others are right in front of-"

"I know the instruments, and I'm fairly familiar with them too!"

Li Zhi interrupted Wu Lei without ceremony. He really was fairly familiar with these things. Whether on a fighter jet or an airliner, the basics were much the same, so there was no need to waste precious time explaining them.

"All right, report your current flight parameters!"

Wu Lei didn't dwell on why Li Zhi knew about such relatively obscure things. Instead, he tested him directly to see whether he really understood them.

"Current altitude is 3,500, heading 121, speed 560."

Li Zhi's report wasn't very standard, but the figures were correct. At least he really could read the instrument panel.