Trek MH370

Long flight MH370, and the ten years experienced by the families of passengers.

Text: Xie Mengyao

Edited by Zhang Yue

Figure | (Unless otherwise noted)

Rich and poor

March 8, 2014, was the day MH370 changed its route — the Malaysia Airlines plane that took off from Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of the morning with 239 people on board, turned off its communications system in the middle of the morning, made an unauthorized U-turn in the South China Sea, and mysteriously disappeared as it flew into the southern Indian Ocean — and the day that the fate of many people was reversed.

MH370 has 154 Chinese passengers. They represent different aspects of society: a group of prestigious painters from Jiangsu, a business tour group of elderly people from Beijing, a number of young people working in Singapore, and tourists and business travelers of different professions and statuses. Just because of a ticket with the same gate printed on it, their families have been linked by fate ever since.

The raindrops of bad luck fell on them indiscriminately. The poor, the rich, the people who grew up in misery, the people who grew up in honeypots.

Wei Shouhou, a 25-year-old native of Shijiazhuang, was about to study for a master's degree in finance in Melbourne. Before the start of school, my parents came to Australia, and they traveled for half a month. It was a rare family time, "very happy and unforgettable". Young people are ambitious and want to make a career out of the "more mature financial system in the West" after graduation. The parents embark on the return journey and they will be transiting in Malaysia. My son has traveled back and forth between China and Australia before, and has taken this flight many times. Before the transfer, they talked on the phone, and the son went to sleep. When he woke up, the original world was shattered.

Bao Lanfang, who was born in 1952 and used to be a watch workshop worker, felt that she had suffered a lot in the first half of her life. When the teacher's lover was affected by his father during the "Cultural Revolution", he was expelled from school and sent to the frontier. The husband and wife have been separated for many years. She continued to work hard, and finally transferred her lover back to the factory in Beijing in 1985. The family lived in the hutong of Beijing's Second Ring Road, and she trained her son to become an engineer. It's going to be a good day in the future, she thought. The son's family of three got on that plane.

"I can't tell you how difficult my life is, both physical and spiritual," Bao Lanfang said, "I don't know how difficult it will be in the future. 」

Bao Lanfang

That day, Bai Xuanfu set off in the dark, and at half past five in the morning, he and his daughter went out and drove to the airport. The wife is a photography enthusiast and often travels abroad with a long gun and a short gun, and every time she comes back, her husband picks her up at the airport. This time, she went to Nepal, and the return flight was transferred from Malaysia, and she is expected to arrive in Beijing at half past six. As the minutes passed, Bai Xuanfu stared at the big screen, and the MH370 his wife was riding in kept showing that it was in a state of delay. Later, there were no words on the screen. He didn't wait for her, and the day ended in darkness.

The family was arranged to wait for news at the Lido Hotel, where they spent more than 50 days. The news was chaotic and contradictory, but the plane was never seen. They are just a group of ordinary people, and in the face of such a disaster, they also show the appearance of ordinary people. The hotel was full of quarrels. Family members quarreled with Malaysia Airlines staff, hotel attendants, and volunteers. "It may be ugly to say that, they were suffering so much because I was a victim, so I could do anything to vent my grievances to anyone. A young family member said.

A family member recalled that during the communication meeting with the Malaysian side, some people were entangled in some minor links. "On such a critical questioning occasion, he said what time I went to the canteen to eat, but he didn't give me food. At the time, we thought it was ridiculous. She said. But Jiang Hui is different. He graduated in communications and worked in a mid-level position in a communications company with a background in aircraft communications. "Jiang Hui is the only one who can stand up and ask some more professional questions, which can be regarded as more rational. Jiang Hui's mother was on that plane.

Jiang Hui in 2014

Reporters flocked to him, and by chance, Quan Yi became the most special one among them. He was in his early 30s, sick-looking, but a die-hard faction. Reporters can't enter the meeting, he always squatted at the door to keep the first news. A family member saw that he was familiar with him and gave him a room card. Since then, he has a "pass" and is able to move into the Lido and mingle with his family around the clock. Gradually, they became acquainted. His news organization also gave him enough support to allow him to stay in Lido, even though in the later stages, the news gradually fell silent and a large number of media outlets withdrew. He writes every day.

At that time, when reporters interviewed family members, they often felt like they were traveling through different worlds. Sometimes, you're in the rooftop clubhouse of the Ritz-Carlton, with fruit bowls and snacks on the table. Sometimes, you rush to an unheated shanty house on the outskirts of the city for 50 yuan a month, and there is a smelly ditch right outside the door. But to solve the mystery of Malaysia Airlines, social status and money are useless. In order to facilitate communication with all parties, in the first few years, many family members from other places rented houses in Beijing. For Jiangsu peasant couple Feng Zhishan and Xie Xiucui, the shantytown is one of the few options they can afford.

In the first year or two, there were often dinners between the families, once a week or two, and they could always find various reasons. The owner of a public company, who wears a Patek Philippe watch, never thought of hiding anything. "The clothes you wear, the cigarettes you smoke, your spending habits, you can't hide these things. He said, "There is no difference between how much strength you have, or how much social status you have, and everyone has a common name called Malaysia Airlines family." But the inner hurdle he needed to pass was that, as a consistently dignified, reserved entrepreneur, he was afraid of letting everyone see his drunken embarrassment. Later he realized that hiding was more painful. From then on, he was drunk every time he drank, and drunkenness became a temporary relief.

Shirakutomi

Kwon was often called to parties, and he was the only person present who had no relatives to be associated with the passengers on board. The report stopped, but his friendship with his family grew stronger. Zhao Benshan was interviewed by him and gave him a handwritten calligraphy and painting, and he turned his face and gave Bai Xuanfu a gift. Li Eryou, a farmer in Handan, Hebei Province, gave him a bag of yams, but he felt that it was more precious than calligraphy and painting. Once, Bai Xuanfu was drunk and had nowhere to stay, so Kwon Yi took him back to the rental house, went to sleep on the sofa by himself, and gave him the room. The next day, Bai Xuanfu woke up and scolded, "Your bed is too bad, young man, why did you get mixed up like this." 」

Another thought flashed through Kwon Yi's mind. When Li Eryou slept at the West Railway Station, he also invited him to sleep at home. "A rich man and a common man don't sleep in the same bed with me, what's the difference? Quan Yi thought, "The fate is the same. 」

Family member Li Eryou shows the train ticket to and from Beijing for ten years.

Stagnation and differentiation

Sixteen days after the incident, Kwon Yi witnessed a collective emotional breakdown among the family members. On that day, the Malaysian side announced that the plane had terminated in the southern Indian Ocean. Hundreds of family members rushed out of the conference room, "Smashing and robbing, beating people, beating those security guards, losing their minds." Quan Yi said.

But he understands that he has covered many catastrophic events, and he knows what it means to be traumatized. After those previous incidents, the conclusion of the investigation and accountability will always come, and that is also the moment when the report ends. "The plane can't just disappear for no reason. If it doesn't come out for a month, it doesn't come out for two months, and there must be a result for a month or four months. Eventually, he thought, everything would be clear.

But today, we know that this is how the story goes: MH370 is still a big, utter puzzle. The wreckage does not prove what happened, some doubts have never been explained, and the discovery of the wreckage has led to more doubts, and its authenticity has not been widely recognized by the family community.

As early as the Lido Hotel, the family members set up a family committee, with a different division of labor and an orderly organization. The Bar Association even gave relevant guidance during the establishment of the Parent Committee. Later, the Parent Association ceased to operate, and through the WeChat group, the family was in close contact.

The family members are unanimous, and one of the words they often use is, "find someone". Whether it is going to the airport center for a meeting, reflecting the demands to the relevant units, going through legal procedures, or staying up all night to study the materials, it is all to get people back. In this sense, the gathering of family members is not only an emotional healing meeting that supports each other, but also a continuous marching action team.

After the incident, family members gathered at the Lido Hotel

The questions raised by the family members in the early stage are collected on 47 pages of A4 paper. Seeing these problems, you will feel how much hard work the family has put into it. Some of the questions look like an interview outline for a feature article, focusing on the details – "Which flight did the Maldivian residents pick up the fire extinguisher belong to?", "From the satellite data, there were two phone calls, was the telephone network used at the time a public communication or a standalone Inmarsat phone, what was the specific model, where was the call located?"

Some of them, like court inquiries, focus on the chain of evidence – "Prime Minister Najib said that the communication system was artificially shut down, what is the evidence to support it?" and "Please provide the Malaysian side with the secondary and primary radar footage mentioned on pages 6-7 of the interim report. Please coordinate with the Indonesian authorities again and release the radar footage from the early hours of March 8, 2014, instead of simply saying that they did not see it. 」

There are also some like product manuals, which have technical terms that I don't understand at all - "On page 40 of the MH370 Comms file, it is mentioned that the GES ID (octal) is 301, where does this number represent the ground satellite station?" "The 120,000 square kilometers of the area previously searched was based on the first satellite phone BFO at 2:40 (MYT) and the aircraft was inferred to have turned south. Some analysts have asked how the Malaysian technicians think that the plane was not flying horizontally at that time, and do they still think that the plane has turned south?"

Some of the phased results that were thought to be staged at the time are only some kind of self-consolation in hindsight. For example, the boarding video, the family made a request to the Malaysian side for more than two years, and finally obtained it through other channels (in fact, it was only a security video), which did not help to reveal the truth.

Some minor issues on the list have been resolved. But the big issues that have rallied the focus of public opinion are still hanging. "Why did the Malaysian side wait for eight days in the South China Sea to search and rescue the aircraft when it knew about it?" "Why didn't Boeing, as an aircraft manufacturer and a member of the search strategy team, explain whether the MH370 involved product quality and design flaws?"

One question can lead to many more questions. All questions can be reduced to one question. Where is MH370?

Initially, it was assumed that there must be an answer to this question. During the Spring Festival of 2015, the first Spring Festival after the incident, family members sent red envelopes. Bai Shufu made a generous move, and one shot was 188 yuan. "There's no reason, if you're not happy, you'll be happy, and you'll be happy, like a nervous disorder. Xu Jinghong, whose mother was on the plane, recalled. The amount she sent was not that large, but roughly calculated, it totaled sixteen thousand. They agreed that those who grabbed the red envelope with a mantissa of 6 would then send 20 yuan, and the solitaire continued. The snatching of red envelopes often goes on until midnight. Later, some people remembered that they couldn't help but feel ironic, the red envelopes created a sense of festivity, and everyone seemed to be deliberately carnival, wishing the disaster to end as soon as possible, but they didn't know that the long days were still to come.

On July 29, 2015, a piece of flaperon wreckage belonging to the MH370 aircraft was found on Reunion Island, providing new clues for the previous fruitless search for an unsolved aviation case, and also stirring up great waves within the family - if it is believed that the passengers are still alive, what does this wreckage mean?

MH370 wreckage and wing wreckage found on Reunion Island Source: Visual China

The families began to split into two factions. One faction denies the existence of the wreckage, arguing that it is part of a conspiracy theory. Again, the focus is on "finding people". They continued to push the government for diplomatic representations and questioned Malaysia Airlines. The other faction is more rational, knowing that if the wreckage is true, the bubble of hope for a complete forced landing has been punctured.

In order to confirm the authenticity of the wreckage, Jiang Hui took action. In October of that year, he and two other family members went to Reunion Island at their own expense, found the shore cleaner who found the wreckage, talked to him and explored the seaside, Jiang Hui confirmed that it was indeed an ordinary person who accidentally found a piece of plane wreckage, there was no conspiracy, and it had nothing to do with any organization. By 2017, more than 20 pieces of wreckage of the same model were found around the world (3 of which can be 100% confirmed to be from MH370 through part coding), and Jiang Hui also found one in Madagascar himself.

The denial of the existence of the wreckage was enraged. They believe that Jiang Hui and others are doing this to divert the attention of public opinion and cater to lies. A Shandong uncle named Wen Wancheng became Jiang Hui's chief critic, and his only son was on the plane. Some old things have also been turned over, including the Spring Festival in 2015, more than 20 family members used group donations to protest in Malaysia, everyone slept in the bunk to save money, but Jiang Hui arranged a single room for himself on the grounds of carrying a lot of equipment. The two sides changed from different views to personal grievances, and in Jiang Hui's separate lawsuit against Malaysia Airlines and its lawyer, Wen Wancheng provided the other party with secretly recorded video evidence against Jiang Hui.

In 2016, a new divergence emerged again. Before the two-year statute of limitations expires, the choice of litigation and settlement is in front of the family.

The primary purpose of those who choose to sue is not to pay compensation. Looking ahead, they are here to hold them accountable. Looking back, for the sake of the true fulfillment of the international aviation convention, the search and humanitarian care will not stop. Litigation is also a means of gaining attention, and if no one continues to act and families fear, MH370 will be forgotten.

At that time, according to the settlement agreement proposed by Malaysia Airlines, the settlement amount of 2.52 million yuan (the original amount was 2.5 million yuan, because this figure was like an insult and was rejected by the family), was paid by Allianz Insurance Company in Germany. After reconciliation, the biggest disadvantage to the family is to give up all accountability after the truth emerges.

No one thinks it's fair, but those who choose to accept it have their own struggles: some because of the financial embarrassment caused by the loss of the breadwinner of the family, some because of the mental wear and tear of not being able to sustain themselves, and some because of unspeakable external pressures. But in the eyes of some who refuse to reconcile, it is a betrayal of the passenger and family groups.

Reconciliation has become a sensitive topic, and close family members do not inquire about each other. But when Wen Wancheng threw a settlement list that he had collected from nowhere into the group, the deep-sea bomb exploded. Suspicion grows. Someone said something hurtful. Gradually, some faded out. The party turned into a clique.

October 11, 2014, Jinan, Shandong. Wen Wancheng and his wife live in the villa purchased by their son. Lao Wen insisted that the passengers on MH370 would return safely.

Media attention is also gradually eroded. In 2017, I went to Kuala Lumpur to attend the 3rd anniversary rally of the MH370 incident, and I was the only domestic author present. A local Chinese journalist told me that the repercussions of the rally in Malaysia were far lower than the cross-border audition of "The Voice of China".

Most of the first reporters who reported on Malaysia Airlines have changed careers. There are fewer and fewer media outlets that follow a piece of news for a long time, regardless of the cost. As for Quan Yi, an old friend of the family, who was transferred to the management post, he still thinks in his heart, "I am a journalist in my bones, and I don't need you to approve of me." 」

The relationship between families and the police is also changing. In 2014, clashes occurred from time to time, and many family members were detained. By now, they have become old acquaintances with some police officers and know how to be considerate of each other. At the latest court session, the police also cooperated in opening a venue for foreign media to cover the trial. A policeman relayed to Jiang Hui that his mother knew about his mission and told him that if you don't take care of these family members, come back and slap you. "We've retired several cops. Jiang Hui said.

Back to the present, the 10th anniversary of MH370's disappearance, a new writing has appeared from scratch. But making an appointment with a family member is not an easy task. "I don't want to talk about it, it's the same as it was 10 years ago. I conveyed it to a small group of family members, but I didn't get any response.

When she met me later, Xu Jinghong reminded me of another tragedy that also happened 10 years ago – the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014 when it was hit by a missile, and she said that the families of MH17 passengers were lucky in a way. Because there is an endgame to the event. "Their pain may not last as long as ours. 」

"We seem to be completely still on March 8, 2014, nothing has changed. Xu Jinghong said. "It's been a big circle, it's always been there, it's always been where it is. 」

On March 8, 2014, MH370 was "delayed". Source: Visual China

More than sadness

Usually in an unfortunate event, the day of the accident is the most painful day in the life of the person involved in the news. But MH370 is different. The real pain didn't happen on that day, it was only the beginning of the pain.

Xu Jinghong, a tall man with neat short hair, is an outspoken person and, in some ways, a cynical person. In November last year, when the trial finally began in Beijing after seven years of the family's lawsuit against the family, a round of reports was published, in which she posted a screenshot of the report in a communication group of more than 400 people between the family and the media, questioning the use of the word "happy" to describe the family's feelings about finally looking forward to the trial. "Which media boss explained to the family? Which family member is very happy? Why is it happy? It's time to spend family members again? I'm really convinced of you. 」

In fact, this is Jiang Hui's original words in an interview. "Have fun in the bitterness, or you won't live for ten years. He explained in the group.

A family member said, "The words are inappropriate, 'comfort' or 'comfort' is more appropriate. 」

The misunderstanding was resolved, but Xu Jinghong did not intend to stop there. "So far, I am neither relieved nor comforted, I am still speechless except speechless! I don't want to swear but there is really nothing to say, our group of people are gone, this generation of parties is gone, it's done!"

You can feel her resistance to the media. "I hate the feeling of stir-frying us for two days at the festival, completing your performance, using us as a plate of cucumbers to stir-fry, and then throwing it away when it cools. It's not that you don't have it, don't admit it. She stared straight at me, complaining that she was pouring out at any moment. But she is also worried that the incident will be forgotten, "and I am afraid that others will overconsume us, and I am afraid that others will not consume us".

She didn't want to be labelled as a "Malaysia Airlines family" for the rest of her life, but she couldn't help it. Those feelings come back all the time. Sitting in the courtroom at the beginning of the trial, she felt like a clown, imagining the inner lines of others: "These people are the families of 370, you see how pitiful they are. So much so that the judge asked the family members to explain one by one, and when it was her turn, her mind was blank and she couldn't say a word. Meeting me was a deliberate decision (she asked Kwon to accompany her out of fear of losing control), and she still couldn't escape the scrutiny: "Is the wound scabbed? 」

In Xu Jinghong's mother's home, there are recipes written on the wall, and because her mother has lost contact, the bottles that have not been used for a long time are covered with dust.

When the MH370 event hovers through chaos, the world is split into two, the people in it, and the rest of the world. Seeing some MH370 reports and comments such as "I was young at that time, I am working now", knowing that netizens have no malicious intent, Xu Jinghong was also uncomfortable. None of the family members could listen to the condolences of others and say that they felt the same way, but how could they feel the same way if they had not experienced it firsthand? On one occasion, when an official met with family members, he used this word, and some people's emotions were aroused and they asked him to withdraw this sentence. Commonly used words of consolation, such as "get out of the pain and start over," can be counterproductive when applied to them. Some people also resented the encouragement of others to be strong, "I'm a victim, why do you make us strong?" The friend asked Xu Jinghong, "How is your matter, is it done?" She gritted her teeth and replied, "No result." But I thought, "What do you mean it's done?"

"[I] was forced to be part of a collective. Xu Jinghong said. "There was a time when I had a special hate. There is often a surging of nameless anger. Any character with 370 will irritate her, driving to see the license plate number in front of her, "I can't wait to rear-end it". She kept withdrawing from the family group and being pulled back, constantly blocking others and letting them out. Sometimes it's because of a word you don't like to hear, sometimes it's just because of a whimsy in your head, or there's no reason at all.

Her irritability can ripple through the people in her life. At the end of the day, the atmosphere at home becomes tense, and everyone pretends to treat it as an ordinary day. No one dared to mess with her. After the emotion, there is endless guilt. How innocent are friends, how innocent are children, she thought. March 8, the day of MH370's disappearance, coincided with her wedding anniversary, which had not been celebrated in 10 years, "sometimes I feel very unfair to my husband". She felt that her negative energy was pulling the other family members' hind legs, and she became more and more afraid to speak in the group.

A year after the incident, she wore an airplane marked MH370 tattooed on her arm. It was an impulsive decision. When the husband saw this, he was furious and thought she was hurting herself. She didn't even bother to explain, and replied directly, "Can you handle it?" Every time she took a shower, it was a reminder, and she was stung repeatedly. The youngest son once saw her and asked her if it hurt, but she just told him that he could not follow suit, and he cried uncontrollably. Seeing this, the sensible eldest daughter was anxious, so she pulled her younger brother out and scolded her. They never discussed Malaysia Airlines-related topics.

Xu Jinghong's tattoo.

The Malaysia Airlines incident was like a black hole, sucking her energy out of the pipeline. She used to be a translator, but shortly after the incident, she was unable to work and quit. She couldn't help but click on every message in the family group to read. I know that my mood will become bad after reading it, and I know that I won't miss anything even if I swipe it over, so I am unwilling to block it. After reading the message, she immediately deleted it manually, as if only by doing so could she reduce the burden a little.

She thinks that it is more difficult for Chinese family members than foreign family members who have faith, because they have no sustenance. When the family members went to the Lama Temple to pray for blessings, she didn't take a single step, and there was clearly a plaque of "Six Paths of Reincarnation", "Don't you want your family members to be alive?"

She believes that this incident changed her worldview, "I used to think that the whole world is full of good people and all people are kind, but through 370, I even feel that the world is full of malice". "I'd rather care for stray animals than people," she said. I don't think it's worth it, it's not worth it in the world. 」

Of course, there is an element of anger in this. In fact, she is a gentle, generous, and easy-to-get along person. Always invite everyone to dinner and reconcile conflicts between discordant family members. When she talked to me about Kwon Yi, she first put herself in his shoes, because of the amount of time and emotional investment, "in fact, he was very hurt".

But who should be hated for the MH370 incident? Xu Jinghong couldn't find a target.

After the incident, speculation that Captain Zahari hijacked the plane was rampant. But after the investigation was launched, the evidence against him was ruled out. At the third anniversary rally, I met with Zahari's friend and public defender, Zhang Fuming, who was not ostracized by other family members. Malaysia Airlines (MAS) went bankrupt and restructured in 2015 and Malaysia passed domestic legislation (i.e. Bill 765) and Singapore Malaysia Airlines (MAB) does not inherit debts. The domestic office address was moved from Beijing to Shanghai, and the responsible personnel were changed. MH370, which Xu Jing wore on his arm, was canceled forever as a flight number. In a sense, the entity's "enemies" vanished out of thin air.

In the follow-up of the incident, the family made many accusations against the Malaysian side, and they begged for some minimum mercy, their demands were answered, their questions were answered, and some measures could be more humane (the investigation report provided by the Malaysian side is not available in Chinese). However, the relevant international and domestic forces have not intervened strongly. Petition letters have been lost.

Grief is, of course, an overwhelming emotion. But the pain of the families never stops with grief. They have the loneliest feeling in the world, and they can't find a sympathetic friend outside the group. Xu Jinghong is just one of the samples.

Xu Jinghong

fighter

Listening to Jiang Hui's stories over the years, you are easily moved by his persistence and bravery. He described the most difficult journeys in the lightest terms. When it comes to searching for wreckage in Africa, the sun makes the sand hot, and he can only "walk on tiptoes, but the blood is alive, and the stasis is dissolved". Resting under the stump, he encountered a poisonous snake, "Li Eryou said to run, and the two of us ran back. I've interviewed him many times over the years, and I've never seen him cry. Even when talking about sad things, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth from time to time. The only fluctuation is, he admits, that before every interview, he suffers from insomnia.

Sometimes, it's some kind of naivety. He once told me that he wanted to do a drift test in the southern Indian Ocean through crowdfunding, dropping beacons along an arc of sea where experts predicted the planes would land and seeing where they could go. He also wants to launch a network signature asking the White House to publish radar signals from military bases to know the trajectory of MH370. I wouldn't understand that this was some kind of big talk from him. He did a lot of detailed deployment. These plans were ultimately aborted.

He's the one who tries to hold everyone up. Kwon remembers that on the day the first wreckage was found in July 2015, the families were extremely saddened. That night, Xu Jinghong was very drunk, and Jiang Hui sent her home, settled down, and rode away on a bicycle. Watching his back disappear into the night, Kwon Yi thought, "Both of them are the same identity, what a lot of energy he has to bear. 」

"I think he's quite forbearing, very restrained. It's very uncomfortable to keep that sanity all the time, and it's better to vent it. Xu Jinghong said, "He must have internal injuries, he digested them himself, and he wouldn't let others know." 」

The law is Jiang Hui's weapon. He has participated in lawsuits in the United States and Malaysia, and has also filed five or six Malaysia Airlines-related lawsuits in China, including a lawsuit against Malaysia Airlines' lawyer for the right to reputation, claiming only 154 yuan, and nearly 10,000 yuan in translation and notary fees. All the lawsuits that have been concluded so far have failed.

According to his current rhetoric, he has a new weapon, a weapon that no one else can ever take away and that the weak have equally: time. "The media, the law, and the government are not something we can control, and we can't control it ourselves. Time is our only weapon, so sticking with it is the best choice. 」

On April 25, 2014, in Beijing, in front of the Malaysian Embassy in China, Jiang Hui and some of his family members read a protest to the staff of the Malaysian Embassy in China.

The more bad news, the more optimistic he becomes. In recent years, I've seen him say things like these on social media: "No, any news in the future is good news. Jiang Hui can find a positive angle on any topic, and he is not even afraid that MH370 will be slowly forgotten, at which point his argument will suddenly turn to grandeur: "Humanity has been able to reproduce until now for two reasons: one is curiosity, and the other is love. Analyze what the hell is going on, are you curious, curious? It's going to definitely move this thing forward. 」

When I asked him where his optimism came from, he gave me a different direction to think about: "If there is only one way to go, whether you are pessimistic or optimistic, you have to take this path. Are you willing to walk optimistically, or are you willing to walk pessimistically?"

Some of the changes happen because he is in action. At his request, the reception of family members was transferred from the window of the State Bureau of Letters and Calls to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2018, when the Malaysian side was about to release the "Final Investigation Report", he received information in advance that if this name was used, the international investigation team would be disbanded logically in accordance with the Montreal Convention. After his protest, the name of the report was changed to "Security Investigation Report". It was a small victory that no one noticed. However, this name change did not change the outcome of the dissolution of the investigation team.

As a son, Jiang Hui is blameless, but as a father and husband, Jiang Hui is worried. He was fired from the company in 2015 (after several years of lawsuits, he eventually received a sum of compensation) and never worked again. "Sit and eat the sky," he half-joked. He told me that he had relied on his savings to invest in the years, but according to Quanyi, Jiang Hui had also worked part-time at home, such as turning his home into a pickup site for Pinduoduo, such as customer service.

Consciously or unconsciously, he disparages his former work. If MH370 had never happened, he said, he would probably still be in that company, "maybe a little higher, but the kind of life that is not as good as a cow and a horse, the same as a worker on the production line, you have been working there all your life." In his view, living a meaningful life is now.

When he was a professional manager, he had to use the latest mobile phone every year, and now he has not changed it for six years. "I used to care about the things I cared about, pomp, face, and interpersonal relationships, but now I don't care about it. He said. But he also stressed that his family's standard of living has not been lowered. He has a lot of time to spend at home with his daughter.

But how can there be no debt? "Does everything he go out to do is to spend his own time? His time is family's, right? He is not alone. What's even more terrifying is that he doesn't know it. Xu Jinghong said.

In 2014, Jiang Hui's daughter was only 5 years old. As she grew older, they never talked about Malaysia Airlines, and he never explained to her what he was doing. But one day, she suddenly mentioned to him, "Dad, isn't it time for you to work?"

"Your dad doesn't work and gets money. He relayed his answer to me. "We can't lose face, but we can't go into too much detail about the specific things. 」

I told him about a news client named Guo Li, who lost the understanding of his wife and daughter because of a protracted and more serious rights defense, and cut off contact with him. Jiang Hui said that he was avoiding this kind of ending, and he also had a thorough measure, "I bought a lot of insurance for my daughter, and with or without me, she will have an income when she becomes an adult." But Golly's story clearly hit him, and for a while he expressed some confusion, and when the conversation turned elsewhere, he took the initiative to pull it back. "The Guo Li you just told me about makes me feel very uncomfortable. It's worth it, it's not worth it, it's light, it's heavy, he muttered to himself repeatedly. It was a moment of vulnerability that he revealed by extreme chance.

On September 4, 2015, in Beijing, at about 1 o'clock in the morning, Jiang Hui, who had just sent a drunk Xu Jinghong home. On the same day, French prosecutors announced that the ailerons found on Reunion Island were confirmed to be from the missing flight MH370.

In the eyes of the media, he is the spokesperson for the family of Malaysia Airlines and has a relevant professional background. Actually, he built some kind of filter. He worked for a communications company, but in a sales rather than technical role. The theories learned at university are thousands of miles away from the concrete practice of searching for aircraft. "He learned later, all kinds of techniques, parameters, where (the plane) goes, the ocean currents ......," Quan Yi said.

"I think he is suspected of being put up and down, and he is praised too high by everyone, and he can't get out, which is very unfair to him. Xu Jinghong said. Jiang Hui said that the path he chose had nothing to do with the group, "I dare to say to myself that I can get to where I am today. 」

He believes that no one is born a fighter, or rather, "everyone is actually a fighter", and under certain conditions, is stimulated with energy. The driving force that drives him forward is actually very simple, to give an explanation to his mother on the plane. But he was also lonely. When I asked him about any other family member like him, who is still doing research and investigation, he only mentioned one name: Wen Wancheng. Although they still hate each other.

But even if he is as persistent as Wen Wancheng, ten years have left traces on him.

In the early years, I was deeply impressed by Wen Wancheng's incompatibility with other family members. Whoever has a different philosophy from him, he attacks him. He also said, "I will look for my son, and I will kill anyone who stops me from looking for him." 」

By the tenth year, many hard things had become soft again. In the past, the younger generation talked about the possibility of reorganizing the family, which caused confusion and resistance among the older generation. "Between the concubines, between the parents and the daughter-in-law, there is a lot of hatred. Quan Yi said. But in a recent phone call, Wen Wancheng told me that he even advised his daughter-in-law: "Your husband, my son, is unlikely to come back, you see you find another one." 」

During the Lantern Festival, he had a reunion dinner with his in-laws. "Daughter-in-law, do you know who I'm spending money on now?" he said to her.

"Spend your money. The daughter-in-law replied.

"No, it's all your money. Every point spent is yours, and the next point saved is yours. We will grow old one day, and I will have to rely on you. The last property of the two old men was left to my daughter-in-law. 」

Jiang Hui in 2024.

kill

Over the past decade, 2018 has been a year of extreme frustration for families, with blows one after another.

In May 2018, the search for MH370 by the U.S. undersea exploration company Ocean Infinity was halted, and it was the last search to date. In July, the International Investigation Team released the "Safety Investigation Report" on MH370, which is the de facto final report with nothing new, but is a repetition of the interim report issued every year before, and the real cause of the disappearance of the aircraft cannot be determined, "third party intervention cannot be ruled out". At the end of the year, the international investigation team was disbanded and the reception of the airport center was closed.

The families expect justice from the law, compensation in the form of a judgment rather than a humiliating settlement (even if some of it is paid to the lawyer), and the most conservative expectation is that there will be a chance to discuss the doubts that have been hastily brought up or never responded to in the communication with the Malaysian side and Boeing. They were ready for a long battle, but the end came sooner than expected. In October 2018, the family lost an administrative lawsuit against the Malaysian government (because each person had to pay court fees of up to 100,000 yuan in the second instance, the lawsuit was not continued). In November, a civil lawsuit filed by the family against Boeing in the United States was dismissed by the court of first instance on the grounds of "forum non conveniens" (a decision upheld by the Court of Appeal in 2020). The lawsuits failed in an almost silent way, making little splash in the media.

In 2018, Li Xiuzhi was gone. Her daughter was a passenger until she died, and she renewed her daughter's mobile phone every month. The message of condolence grew in the group. In the years that followed, I saw several reports of the death of family members in the large group of Malaysia Airlines families.

Ye Lun is easy to impress, he weighs more than 200 pounds, his legs and feet are inconvenient, he always hitchhikes Jiang Hui to the reception of the airport center, and later because of his different views on the wreckage, he is estranged from Jiang Hui. Yellen died in April 2023 at the age of 57. The person who posted the message wrote: "He went to that paradise where he was not lost and was reunited with his parents. This sentence constitutes a sad paradox: Yellen is a conspiracy theorist who believes that his parents are secretly being held at the U.S. military base in Okinawa.

On December 20, 2014, in Beijing, three female family members hugged and cried at a dinner party for some of the missing Malaysia Airlines passengers. Behind the dining table, Jiang Hui sat next to his family member Ye Lun (second from left).

I noticed that Yellen's bad news came, and there were only a few sporadic messages in the group. "In the past, I would say a polite word in the group, but I didn't have that day. What to say, what not to say, I don't know, I'm confused, I don't know how to comfort the old people in the group. Bai Xuanfu said.

"What can I say, it is nothing more than to make everyone sadder. Xu Jinghong said, tears rolling down her cheeks, "I think everyone's mood should be very heavy and heavy. Over the years, at least a dozen family members have died, including her father. Some of the bad news wasn't posted in the big group.

Xu Jinghong will always remember what her father said to her when he was dying: "You see that your mother's matter has no result, and she is unwilling." 」

After his father died, one day, Xu Jinghong had an idea to make a tomb for his mother and let his parents be buried together. She told Kwon Yi lightly, hoping that he would take pictures to make some records. Kwon Yi knew that the decision was heavy, and she was seeking a kind of ritual of farewell. But the matter was stuck at a point, and she couldn't force herself to go to the court to pronounce her mother's death.

The life and death of MH370 passengers is not only a cognitive issue, but also a legal issue, involving all aspects of the annual review of private cars and the transfer of real estate. In the eyes of some, having to go for a death certificate is like killing a loved one with your own hands. As a result, a significant number of people (who are almost all elderly parents) prefer to believe that "people are still alive."

You could say that they don't think this way out of love or hope, self-persuasion or despair, but also out of some kind of rational logic. Jiang Hui said: If there is only one way to choose, are you willing to walk optimistically or pessimistically? Since all kinds of speculation cannot be confirmed, would you rather believe in the conspiracy theory that people are alive, or believe in the crash verdict that people are dead?

The bad news is that you can't escape reality, the happiness of the past is gone, and the pain is there. Your doubts can't be answered, but more will be derived. Time loss is not felt in days, but in minutes and seconds. You may be portrayed as some kind of spectacle, where others only see the thoughts you hold onto, but cannot understand what you have been through, what has put an innocent ordinary person in this situation. The good news is that you have gained some kind of spiritual support. You perceive the child's presence in another place on the planet. You have hope. You can redefine time because you own the future.

When you believe that people are still around, the feedback you get is almost positive. Not long ago, Bao Lanfang's classmates had a reunion, and five or six family members told her: "Baozi, believe it, the child will definitely be fine and can come back." 」

In the early years when I was in contact with family members, I met those who believed in it. In 2017, I stayed at Wen Wancheng's house, and his wife, Li Jiping, cooked noodles for me. Talking about the new home she moved into, she spoke Shandong's dialect and said in a flat tone: "The floor is simply laid, and I will redecorate it when my son comes back." I still can't forget the look of her determination at that moment. At that time, I went to see Dai Shuqin, a retired worker. She was tired and weak, but when she talked about the "evidence" that her sister was still alive, she held her head high, and the dark clouds on her face disappeared, gradually changing into an expression that was almost elated.

This conviction sets up challenges for counselling. "I talked to some psychiatrists, and they said that the premise of psychological assistance is to have a bottom line, accept the death of a family member, and then resume building on that basis. Jiang Hui said. When the Malaysia Airlines representative refused to provide psychological assistance, he reasoned this: "There is no way to do it. These family members are all convinced that they are still alive. 」

On June 30, 2015, in Beijing, some family members of the missing Malaysia Airlines passengers gathered together. A family member's lover got drunk at the party and repeated the phrase over and over again: "I want to live a normal life. 」

Over the years, have there been fewer believers? On the other hand, the number of people participating in group activities has dropped dramatically. In the past few years of the epidemic, the anniversary has been held online, and only thirty or forty people participated. But Bao Lanfang has always been there.

Today, every Thursday morning is the time for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to receive family members, and the unheated reception room has replaced the closed airport center as a new meeting place and heating place for family members. There are more than a dozen, and as few as eight or nine family members gathered, and Bao Lanfang's two sons and her in-laws accounted for four places.

In July last year, one of the four places was missing, and Bao Lanfang's wife died.

"Without 370, nothing would have happened, and my lover would have been fine. Bao Lanfang said. Her husband is a strong man and always encourages her. On the first day of the accident, he didn't panic and told her, "If only the hijacking. She looked up at her husband, "Really?" Husband is more than 1.8 meters tall, and she is used to looking up at him. The child will be fine, the husband said, he then mentioned that his son's due date was delayed for more than a month before he was born, and in the end he did not land safely.

They all believe that people are still there. In order to appease the mother-in-law who lives with them, the couple weaves a complete set of lies. The old lady lived in this white lie on her deathbed.

I can't tell when Bao Lanfang discussed the whereabouts of the plane with her husband again, and her husband became less talkative. "It's just what you think, I hope so. He said, "Just wait." After that, the flame of optimism was extinguished in him. His eyes became cloudy and glazed. He told her that the person was still alive, but he should not come back, and "he would not let go". She didn't expect her husband, who "plays everything" and was physically strong, to decline so quickly.

Her husband died suddenly in July last year. On that day, it was Bao Lanfang's birthday, and her husband said that the cake was saved for tomorrow, "I still eat your birthday noodles".

On the day of her husband's funeral, she didn't shed a single tear. When she said goodbye, she was very calm and swore to her husband that she must go down and let the child come back. It was a moment when she had to be strong, and she had to hold on. I didn't have to worry about anything before. She didn't even have a mobile phone, and the two were inseparable, holding hands. "He's taking me everywhere, and I can't figure it out," she said. Later, when she had to "find someone", she learned to use a smartphone.

There are some such screen names in the family's WeChat group, revealing the connection with the plane: "Turning evil into good fortune" and "Go home safely"...... They are all parents of their children. Bao Lanfang's name is "Sanxiang Kaitai", and the number three represents the son, daughter-in-law and little grandson. She reposted a large number of singing and dancing videos on the video number on her circle of friends, which was deliberate, and she used this way to tell relatives and friends, "I'm fine, I'm fine".

When I contacted her, she was very cold, and most of the family members did not place their hopes on the media. But when they met, she became the most enthusiastic old lady in Beijing that is usually seen. Seeing that the collar of my down jacket was open, she naturally stepped forward and pulled it tight. She had already had breakfast, but she still wanted to take me to a long-established restaurant nearby. Back at her home in Hutong, she kept stuffing me buns and milk. Finally, she looked at me, "If you have any questions, just ask. 」

No questions are asked, and the conversation continues. She remembers to me her deceased husband, and whatever she says, she always goes there. The years that were separated by the Cultural Revolution. How much he loves to eat her cooking. She woke him up in the middle of the night to talk about Malaysia Airlines, and he was with him no matter how sleepy he was. Others persuaded her to think more about his disadvantages, you don't want him anymore, she cried out, you don't understand him, he has no harm. She knew what I was talking about, but she didn't mention her son much. The old sorrows are still there, untouched, and the new sorrows have been covered.

Bao Lanfang, who now lives alone.

A "new" story

Combing through the media coverage of the family over the years, I realized that there seemed to be some kind of deviation. The people interviewed by the media are always the ones who are still looking for and continue to speak out. Although they also have different philosophies, they are essentially the same people. And those who have long gone on their way will not be interviewed by the media and will be difficult to find. Are we unintentionally heroizing one choice at the expense of others? What kind of decade have those who have made the other choice, and have they really chosen to move forward?

Wang Le gave me the opportunity to see another path. It may seem like a new story, a contrast to the persistent group, but at the same time, it can also be seen as a testament to why all of the above pain and suffering is so great.

Wang Le's wife was a journalist and a friend of mine. She once told me a secret about her family: her mother-in-law (i.e., Wang Le's mother) was on that plane. It sounds unbelievable, and it makes people sigh that the MH370 incident is not news, but a specific pain in a friend's family. On the occasion of the 10th year, I asked to talk to Wang Le. After sending the message for more than half a month, he agreed.

What should I do with my grandmother and what should I do with my father? Wang Le said that was the first thought that came to his mind after the incident. Because of the quarrel between the parents, when the mother went to Malaysia to play, she told her son not to talk about it. He needed to explain it all to his father from the beginning, and it wasn't something that could be explained in a few words. He needs to take care of many aspects and cannot let his father remain guilty for the rest of his life.

From the beginning, he was physically alienated from the rest of his family. In order to escape the extremely oppressive atmosphere, they did not stay in the free room provided by the Lido Hotel for a day, preferring to take a taxi to and from the press conference every day. Next, the sense of alienation occurs on a psychological level. "I don't think it's useful to huddle, and I don't want to let this interfere with my normal life, my family's normal life. He never joined the family group. My father was in the group and did not participate in group activities frequently enough, and was ridiculed by some family members, "Why haven't I seen you before? Why do you care so little about your family?" Wang Le resisted even more.

He quickly accepted the realization that "his mother is gone". Essentially, because of my own powerlessness, "This matter is far beyond our control and understanding, and I can't find an answer to it. On the other hand, if you believe the rumors, the fact that his mother is still alive on an island is a more difficult picture for him to accept. "She has high blood pressure, diabetes, and no medicine. Even if she's still alive, do you think it's going to be better? How is this person being abused? Isn't that more painful than not having it?"

His judgment of the plane, on the contrary, echoes some kind of conspiracy theory speculation, "Flying to a certain altitude, everyone is suffocated and unconscious." Finally the plane crashed, and everyone ended up without any pain. The difference is that he doesn't dwell on whether there was a hijacking and why.

On the second anniversary of the disappearance of MH370, the families of the passengers went to the Lama Temple to burn incense and pray for their loved ones.

I have asked many family members the same question, which day has been the most painful since the incident. Jiang Hui told me that it was Qingming Festival, which was the most difficult day of the year for him to deal with. He can't worship his mother—that is, he acknowledges that her mother is dead, and he can't pretend that nothing happened. Bai Xuanfu mentioned the Mid-Autumn Festival in 2014, which was supposed to be the day of reunion, but it was on a sad timetable, a full half year after the incident.

Only Wang Le chose March 8, 2014, the date of the incident. "The transition from boy to man," he said, "no greater pain can hit me. 」

According to him, he got some kind of calm. His loved ones did not show up in the situation that worried him. In the summer of 2014, my 79-year-old grandmother signed up for a tour to Greece. She insisted on going alone. Later, his father briefly entered into a relationship, which he felt both awkward and gratified. My own life is also constantly turning pages. In 2016, he gave up his stable job in Beijing and went to Shanghai to start a business and open a boxing gym. Before the pandemic, he went to the United States to study. Later, he became a mixed martial arts agent. The last time I saw him on the internet, he was standing next to Zhang Weili.

He told me that if it weren't for the MH370 incident, he wouldn't be where he is today. After the incident, he often had a kind of empathy, "If my mother was here, what would she let me do?" He thought, his mother must not want him to live in tears. Every subsequent step is a subversion of the previous life, and it means a kind of abandonment and restart. When he can't figure out a problem, when he encounters difficulties, his mother's voice will always come to his mind and turn into a blessing. "My son can be stronger and be able to move on. 」

The happiest day of his life came after the event. It was an ordinary weekday morning, and he and his wife went to get their marriage certificate without any ceremony. On the way out of the Civil Affairs Bureau to eat at the restaurant, his wife chatted with her parents, who walked alone without his mother. But in those few minutes, he suddenly felt a strong sense of well-being that he had never experienced before.

He has had a very good relationship with his mother since he was a child, and his mother once talked to him about "Water Margin", saying that the only person he likes is Lin Chong, because he loves his wife. Now he lives in Las Vegas, where his son was born last year. "Since I was a child, my mother taught me to take care of my wife and take care of my family. Now I'm going to do these things well, and I'm going to follow her teachings. If she can feel it, she can see it, good son, it's a good job. 」

Last year, Netflix released a Malaysia Airlines documentary. He saw it, thought about it, and still didn't click on it. "If there is something substantially new, there will definitely be an overwhelming amount of news on the Internet. So look at what it's doing, forget it, just come and go. He even went so far as to say that it was outside of his daily routine, "It's only been almost ten years since you said it."

But he also has his persistence. He always only said that his mother was gone or gone, and he didn't use that word. "It's not that it's hard to hear, it's that it really doesn't prove that she's dead. He said. After the U.S. lawsuit failed, his family did not join the lawsuit in China — a form of protection for a peaceful life — but also did not accept a settlement. "Who knows what will be discovered ten years later, what will be discovered twenty years later, whether there is some so-called conspiracy, or it has been declassified, of course I have to reserve my right to do so. 」

Let life go on and accept that the person with whom we should have spent our lives is gone, will there really be less pain than denial and acceptance? And even if there is less pain, can all kinds of questions about airplanes disappear from my mind? Even if the doubts disappear, is this a kind of evasion and self-deception? I gave up asking questions. Wang Le is the most direct victim, not the prisoner being interrogated. I'm grateful to him for telling the story, he didn't have to go through this, he didn't have to appeal to the media. Ever since he spoke, I've been sweating for him. What does this kind of disclosure bring to him? When the public has become accustomed to entering the story in a particular way, will the new path bring challenges to emotional acceptance?

There is a flaw in his self-consistent narrative. He was used to empathy, and one day, it occurred to him that what would happen to his mother if the transposition happened in another situation - he was the one on the plane?

The story will completely change, and the legitimacy of all previous arguments will be lost, he thought. "Maybe for a mother, her son is her last or greatest hope. She's over half a hundred years old, and she won't go on like me. She's going to do whatever it takes, I'm just going to get my son back, I just want to know where you got my son. 」

"I'm sure she's 10,000 times more painful than I am. He said.

Hu Xiufang, a family member of the missing passenger, collected all the children's toys in the sorting box. Her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, who was only 3 years old at the time, were on flight MH370.

their own way

As the exchange deepened, I gradually realized that there was no clear line between the family members. Conspiracy theorists vs. positivists. Those who stand still and those who look ahead. Conciliatory and action-oriented. Various characters are bundled and intertwined. These definitions are also vague, vague and varied. Signing a settlement agreement does not necessarily mean that the search for truth has stopped. Leaving the group early does not necessarily mean that the right to accountability is waived. In the face of one of the biggest unsolved cases in the history of aviation, there is no experience that can be taught, and everyone is exploring their own path.

Because of some unspeakable secrets, Bai Bolt Fu accepted the Malaysia Airlines settlement agreement very early. But making peace with oneself is another matter. The management of the business has basically been put down, the social interaction has disappeared, and he is immersed in sadness. In order to follow up on the plane's leads, he and several other family members went abroad several times to visit the field.

Since returning from a trip to Africa with Jiang Hui in 2017 to search for wreckage, he has realized the insignificance of his individuality. He thought that the wife on the plane would not want to see such a husband. "No matter what happens to my lover now, I have to move forward with my children. 」

He tried to find something to change. The first move is to leave the old life scene, move out of the old house, and keep the belongings of your lover in a box. In this way, he thought, he might be able to reduce his own suffering. This does not mean the collapse of the alliance, nor does it mean the end of the relationship, he just quits the dinner and replies less and less in the group. After that year, he did not attend the annual party in Kuala Lumpur.

Complicated aeronautical data is no longer the focus of his attention. I have more time to go back to my hometown to visit my mother-in-law. From two or three times a year, it was adjusted to once a month or two. "Don't let them feel like their daughter is gone, losing a whole home. 」

One weekend, he took the initiative to say to his daughter, let's go to Tanzhe Temple. It's a trip for the first time in a long time. Along the way, father and daughter were actively talking. There were still moments when he remembered his wife, and he told himself that she just didn't have time to spend with us today. In the temple, he made a wish, but did not find true peace of mind. Was it a happy day? Maybe it was pretended, and that kind of happiness was not the same as the happiness of three people together.

"It's not like pretending once, if you pretend to be ten or a hundred times, it's like it after a long time. He said.

A few years ago, her daughter gave birth in the United States, and during the confinement, Bai Xuanfu went to take care of her for a month. There was a happy event in the family, and he should be happy, but he fell to the bottom of the dark valley. He cooks every confinement meal, takes care of the baby, does laundry, cleans. There is no challenge to him, and he will not just consult experienced relatives. The hard thing is that he always thinks of his wife. It would be nice if she were. At night, he secretly cried and did not let his daughter know.

At this year's company's annual meeting, Bai Xuanfu came to the stage to give a speech, and he caught a glimpse of a person in the audience, with a silhouette and face like his wife. He remembered that 10 years ago, his wife had also participated in a company event, and he also took pictures of her. Emotions were surging, and he ended his speech early.

About three or four years ago, Xu Jinghong decided to wash off the airplane tattoo on her arm. Washing was far more painful than the lines, she couldn't help but shiver, and the whole arm was swollen, and it was even harder, after three or four washes, there were still some outlines of the plane. Is this a metaphor? It hurts and is harder to let go than to memorize.

In the eyes of the outside world, this is a kind of self-torture for her. But the act of washing the tattoo itself has a certain meaning for her. She needs to move forward, she needs a kind of closure.

Since the death of her father, she consciously found a way to restart her life, quit smoking and drinking, and learned to write, paint, guzheng, and dance, in which she got a seemingly happy mood. She tried all kinds of outdoor sports, cycling, going out to sea to fish, and almost died after climbing a wild mountain and losing temperature. The aftermath of the catastrophe gave her many feelings to let go of "self-grasping".

Is the epiphany real? She sometimes wonders if she is just hiding her ears and "using other things to control her time to think."

At the end of last year, her former boss called her to ask about the situation. After a gap of nearly 10 years, she returned to work. "I can't say I came out, I didn't come out. She said.

After the plane wreckage was discovered, Xu Jinghong accepted the judgment that the man was dead, but in the last two years, she has returned to the track of conspiracy theories, "My mother has always lived well". "When did I tell me that the plane was found, I thought it was time to cover the coffin. She said.

On January 6, 2017, Xu Jinghong lay on her father's coffin, did not cry or speak.

Ten years later, Wei Shouhou is no longer the ambitious young man who is about to study a master's degree in finance in Melbourne. The master's program has not been taken for a day. The dream of breaking into the West has long been drifted away. He rushed to Beijing the day after the incident, and since then his life has come to a standstill, and he hardly goes out except to "find someone". Much later, at the persuasion of his family, in order to distract himself, he found a job as a bank front desk teller in Shijiazhuang. He needs to smile at his clients, which was very difficult for him at one point, "I can't do that".

He closed himself off for many years. He resisted marriage. Until a few years ago, I met the right person. Once the relationship was confirmed, he decided it was time. So he said it all, what he had held in his heart all these years and did not speak. His complete story. She took his hand and stared into his eyes. He cried.

"She said to come with me and go down with me to find our parents. He recalled.

He has always had a habit of texting his parents. At first, it was sent every day, and later, it was sent every once in a while. In 2024, he will be upgraded to become a dad. The exchange continues.

"Mom and Dad, I have a child, I must nurture him well. I hope you can meet your grandchildren one day. 」

Ten years ago, after the incident, Jiang Hui packed all the photos of his mother, received them in a box, and never opened them again. "It was only when this incident came to light that I felt like I could face my mother's picture. 」

His ambition to this day is to establish an MH370 search fund. According to the previous idea, the scale of the capital should be "200 million US dollars, and according to the low and medium yield of 5%, the interest should be 10 million yuan" to meet the cost of hiring people and boats. Now, he has narrowed the target to 90 million yuan — a request written in a lawsuit filed against Malaysia Airlines in China — and instead offered a reward for a search, with a third party paying after finding the plane.

He compared to two previous large-scale underwater searches: the 2015 trilateral joint search, which took more than a year, cost US$150 million, and covered an area of 120,000 square kilometers, and the 2018 Ocean Infinity search, which took only 100 days and tens of millions of dollars for a similar area. He judged that with the advancement of science and technology, the cost of search will become lower and more efficient, and it is only a matter of time before the aircraft is found. His other conclusion is bolder: "In another 5 or 10 years, our families will be able to cover the search (cost) at their own expense." 」

There is very little that Bao Lanfang, 72, can do. She can't afford to study and investigate like Jiang Hui, and she doesn't even try to take the subway, because the route makes her confused. All she can do is come to this temple in Beijing's second ring road to burn incense and pray for MH370 passengers on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar calendar. Three incense sticks, two candles, she raised them above her head in turn and bowed a few times. She has been doing this series of actions for nearly 10 years. During the lockdown, she put the incense at the closed temple gate.

On the morning of February 23, 2024, Bao Lanfang was incense.

There is also a 109 bus to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs every Thursday. But it doesn't mean that for the rest of the week, Bao Lanfang will be able to live a normal life. "These people who come to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs basically can't, they must have something in their hearts. They called themselves "Sister-in-law Xianglin."

In that reception room, even the seats remained the same, and Bao Lanfang sat next to her mother every time. "What's the good thing?" was the family's opening statement. It's not that there's any news, it's not that there's any progress. The word they use is, good things. A family member will take a picture and post the video to the group. Often, only Xie Xiucui from Lianyungang – who is also a passenger's mother – will follow the following sentence: "Big brother, old sister, you have worked hard. For those family members who only spoke in the group, Bao Lanfang still had a whisper, "It's very unaligned, they are all waiting to pick fruits to eat." 」

Recently, Bao Lanfang had an urgent wish to donate 20,000 yuan to Tzu Chi Taiwan. She asked Jiang Hui, asked Quan Yi, and asked me again. At the Lido Hotel, Tzu Chi volunteers accompanied the families and brought a lot of comfort. In the following years, there were too many disappointments, and the kindness encountered at the beginning became precious. Before her husband died, she always said that when the matter was resolved, she must donate a sum of money. Her husband is gone, and she doesn't want to wait any longer.

It's not a small amount of money. Her money is saved. I don't take a taxi when I go out, but buy groceries on Pinduoduo. Once, a family member should have sent the wrong group, reminding her in the big group that a supermarket sold potatoes for 1 yuan, 2 cents, and 8 pounds. But she didn't want to receive the big money, the settlement of 2.52 million yuan. Jiang Hui persuaded her that it was better to take the money and take out 500,000 yuan from each family to make up a search fund. She said that I could take out 500,000 yuan, but I couldn't borrow it. Can't touch your pension, Jiang Hui said. He never mentioned it again.

In the end, Kwon Yi once again brought up a name: Wandering Fish. It was the screen name of a girl whose husband was on a plane. At that time, everyone regarded her as a little sister to protect. For several years, she fell into severe depression and lost weight to sixty or seventy pounds. "Walking Fish" told about his longing for her husband on the plane on Weibo, which has touched the hearts of countless netizens, and in 2019, Weibo stayed at the last one: The person who told me "Promise to be the king, I will keep it for a lifetime", maybe, really, will not come back......

As a friend, Kwon Yi witnessed the rebirth of "Walking Fish". She had a lover. She took him to meet Kwon Yi. She got married. Entering 2024, she will welcome a child. Quan Yi wants to take a set of faceless silhouettes for her with a big belly, and she will have the opportunity to exhibit in the future. He believes that it represents hope and beauty. She agreed, but refused at the last minute.

She said she didn't want her children to know the whole thing. Her real name will not be known to the public. There are some things that will never be forgotten, but she will also continue to live as an ordinary person who is not talked about.

(At the request of the interviewee, Wei Shouhou is a pseudonym)