Chapter 32: Lu Mingfei

Lu Mingfei once believed that if he was salty enough, no stray cat would bother biting this salted fish of his.

But life is a lover of bold flavors—the saltier you are, the more life loves to bite you.

What dragon-slaying, what saving the world.

Those were never things for a waste like him to do; being a hero comes at a price.

His greatest wish was to earn some money, find a girl he loved, take over the newspaper stand by the gate of his neighborhood, and live a life of comfort forever.

At the senior year graduation party, that red-haired girl named Chen Nuotong made a dazzling entrance, pasting swan feathers onto this ugly duckling with glue, making Lu Mingfei leave behind a legend at Shilan High.

But that wasn’t the real him.

The “S” rating must have been a mistake.

Lu Mingfei always told himself that.

If he had to say what set him apart from others, it was probably his ability to make a deal with a self-proclaimed “little devil” who claimed to be his brother.

No matter what wish you had, as long as you gave up one-quarter of your life, he could grant it.

But what kind of person was Lu Mingfei? A coward with no ambition, no drive—what could possibly make him trade his life for a devil’s deal?

There was. He had already made two deals.

After each deal, he walked on eggshells, terrified of falling into Lu Mingze’s trap again.

But in the end, he found that only Lu Mingze could pull him out of the pit he’d walked into.

He’d thought it was just Lu Mingze’s joke, but it turned out to be a cross-world messaging tool.

What kind of mindset could produce a novel like this? Lu Mingfei wanted to point a Desert Eagle at the author’s head and ask: What enmity? What grudge?

Lu Mingfei curled up his legs, his eyes dull and vacant.

“04.24, went to Tokyo Skytree with Sakura. The warmest place in the world is at the top of the Skytree.”

“04.25, went to Meiji Shrine with Sakura. Someone was having a wedding there.”

“04.26, went to Disneyland with Sakura. The haunted house was terrifying, but since Sakura was there, it wasn’t scary.”

“Sakura is the best.”...

Sometimes he truly felt exhausted, but he couldn’t stop to catch his breath.

“Hirai.”

He didn’t know what mindset to use to face this girl.

When he saw himself mistaking her for Nuonuo, Lu Mingfei was so embarrassed he could have built a castle with his toes.

A girl who loved anime and games, who shared so many interests with him—so Lu Mingze, you little bastard, set me up with a Tokyo love story!?

But that girl...

Really fell in love with him.

And he was still running away, just like before.

In twenty years of life, she was the first girl who ever liked him.

He didn’t understand why anyone would like a loser like him—a princess out of reach falling for a passing extra.

This wasn’t fairy tale material.

Yet, that girl truly loved him.

On the check in the hands of the Head Whale, in the corner, written in his familiar handwriting: Uesugi Hirai.

That girl bought ten thousand flower tickets just to make him stay.

He pulled a pillow from the bed and hugged it, not knowing what emotion he felt at that moment.

His heart felt clenched, his mind flooded with the book’s descriptions.

In the book’s final ending, he walked unsteadily, like a puppet whose spring was about to run out.

Every time, he was so broken; every time, he failed to protect what he wanted to protect.

In this theatrical life of his, every gain was accidental; loss seemed the norm.

Lu Mingfei got out of bed, put on his shoes, listlessly grabbed a coat, and picked up the silver aluminum-magnesium alloy suitcase Lu Mingze had prepared for him.

At the front door, Chu Zihang had already been waiting for him for a while.

“Did you pack your luggage?”

“Yeah.” Lu Mingfei nodded, expressionless.

Chu Zihang assumed Lu Mingfei was down because of Caesar and Nuonuo’s engagement.

“What I said before still stands.”

As Lu Mingfei was putting his luggage away, Chu Zihang suddenly spoke up.

“Huh?”

“Cut the axle.”

“......”

Brother, I’m touched, but can we please stop fixating on Caesar’s axle?

Lu Mingfei forced a smile: “Brother, I had a nightmare and didn’t sleep well.”

Last night, Lu Mingze put on a dragon-fishing show in his dream and woke him up in the middle of the night.

Later, he got an extra multiverse chat group and spent the whole night reading *Dragon Raja 3*.

“Mm, let’s go. You can sleep on the way to Chicago Airport.”

Probably not—I’ll have to keep reading *Dragon Raja 4* soon.

“Here.”

After getting in the car, Chu Zihang handed Lu Mingfei a carton of milk and a loaf of bread.

“Thanks, Brother.”

He remembered I hadn’t eaten breakfast and brought me food—Brother Chu is too thoughtful. Not worth the quarter of my life I spent saving you.

Sip~

Lu Mingfei sipped milk and chewed bread in the car, thinking how tragic Xia Mi was—they actually suited each other so well, except one was a dragon, and a dragon king at that.

Who wouldn’t love such a warm-hearted brother?

If Lu Mingfei were a girl, he’d love him too.

Wait a minute!

Lu Mingfei shuddered.

*Dragon Raja 1* and *Dragon Raja 2* had already happened, so he hadn’t read them closely—but suddenly he remembered a line he’d skimmed at the beginning, describing Xia Mi.

“Female version of Lu Mingfei.”

The bread nearly choked him.

“Water.”

He took the mineral water Chu Zihang handed him and gulped it down.

“Ha—.”

After catching his breath, Lu Mingfei shifted his thoughts elsewhere—if only this chat group had arrived two years earlier.

Maybe then, many things could have changed.

No, maybe nothing could have changed...

Old Tang, Xia Mi...

If the future could be changed, if the script could be rewritten, that would be wonderful.

But is it really that easy?

Others might escape, but Lu Mingfei couldn’t.

For Lu Mingfei, running away was shameful and useless.

He couldn’t escape.

From the moment he stepped onto the Cassell campus, he was trapped in this vortex.

With his intelligence, he shouldn’t have overthought so many things, so often he chose to ignore what seemed unreasonable.

“Black Swan Port,” “Zero,” “Renata,” “Authority.”

When these things appeared before him from a god’s-eye view, could he still ignore them?

Several hours later.

The black Gulfstream G550 roared with deafening noise; on this flight from Chicago to Japan, there were only three passengers.

Lu Mingfei leaned back in his seat; this time, no drool dripped from his lips, and he didn’t rest his head on Brother Chu’s shoulder for Caesar to silently judge inside his mind.

People’s joys and sorrows are not the same; Lu Mingfei only felt that life’s hardships came in wave after wave.