[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-i-the-system-protagonist-joined-a-cross-dimensio":3,"chapter-i-the-system-protagonist-joined-a-cross-dimensio-i-the-system-protagonist-joined-a-cross-dimensio-chapter-32":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","I, the System Protagonist, Joined a Cross-Dimensional Chat Group",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2292692,4485,"Chapter 32: Lu Mingfei","i-the-system-protagonist-joined-a-cross-dimensio-chapter-32",32,"\u003Cp>Lu Mingfei once believed that if he was salty enough, no stray cat would bother biting this salted fish of his.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But life is a lover of bold flavors—the saltier you are, the more life loves to bite you.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What dragon-slaying, what saving the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those were never things for a waste like him to do; being a hero comes at a price.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But that wasn’t the real him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The “S” rating must have been a mistake.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mingfei always told himself that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter what wish you had, as long as you gave up one-quarter of your life, he could grant it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was. He had already made two deals.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After each deal, he walked on eggshells, terrified of falling into Lu Mingze’s trap again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But in the end, he found that only Lu Mingze could pull him out of the pit he’d walked into.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d thought it was just Lu Mingze’s joke, but it turned out to be a cross-world messaging tool.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mingfei curled up his legs, his eyes dull and vacant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“04.24, went to Tokyo Skytree with Sakura. The warmest place in the world is at the top of the Skytree.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“04.25, went to Meiji Shrine with Sakura. Someone was having a wedding there.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“04.26, went to Disneyland with Sakura. The haunted house was terrifying, but since Sakura was there, it wasn’t scary.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sakura is the best.”...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sometimes he truly felt exhausted, but he couldn’t stop to catch his breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hirai.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t know what mindset to use to face this girl.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When he saw himself mistaking her for Nuonuo, Lu Mingfei was so embarrassed he could have built a castle with his toes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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!?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But that girl...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Really fell in love with him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And he was still running away, just like before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In twenty years of life, she was the first girl who ever liked him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t understand why anyone would like a loser like him—a princess out of reach falling for a passing extra.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This wasn’t fairy tale material.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet, that girl truly loved him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the check in the hands of the Head Whale, in the corner, written in his familiar handwriting: Uesugi Hirai.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That girl bought ten thousand flower tickets just to make him stay.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He pulled a pillow from the bed and hugged it, not knowing what emotion he felt at that moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His heart felt clenched, his mind flooded with the book’s descriptions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the book’s final ending, he walked unsteadily, like a puppet whose spring was about to run out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every time, he was so broken; every time, he failed to protect what he wanted to protect.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this theatrical life of his, every gain was accidental; loss seemed the norm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the front door, Chu Zihang had already been waiting for him for a while.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Did you pack your luggage?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yeah.” Lu Mingfei nodded, expressionless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chu Zihang assumed Lu Mingfei was down because of Caesar and Nuonuo’s engagement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What I said before still stands.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Lu Mingfei was putting his luggage away, Chu Zihang suddenly spoke up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Huh?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Cut the axle.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“......”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Brother, I’m touched, but can we please stop fixating on Caesar’s axle?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mingfei forced a smile: “Brother, I had a nightmare and didn’t sleep well.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Last night, Lu Mingze put on a dragon-fishing show in his dream and woke him up in the middle of the night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Later, he got an extra multiverse chat group and spent the whole night reading *Dragon Raja 3*.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mm, let’s go. You can sleep on the way to Chicago Airport.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Probably not—I’ll have to keep reading *Dragon Raja 4* soon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Here.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After getting in the car, Chu Zihang handed Lu Mingfei a carton of milk and a loaf of bread.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Thanks, Brother.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sip~\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Who wouldn’t love such a warm-hearted brother?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Lu Mingfei were a girl, he’d love him too.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wait a minute!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Mingfei shuddered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>*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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Female version of Lu Mingfei.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bread nearly choked him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Water.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He took the mineral water Chu Zihang handed him and gulped it down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ha—.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After catching his breath, Lu Mingfei shifted his thoughts elsewhere—if only this chat group had arrived two years earlier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Maybe then, many things could have changed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No, maybe nothing could have changed...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Old Tang, Xia Mi...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the future could be changed, if the script could be rewritten, that would be wonderful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But is it really that easy?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Others might escape, but Lu Mingfei couldn’t.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For Lu Mingfei, running away was shameful and useless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He couldn’t escape.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the moment he stepped onto the Cassell campus, he was trapped in this vortex.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With his intelligence, he shouldn’t have overthought so many things, so often he chose to ignore what seemed unreasonable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Black Swan Port,” “Zero,” “Renata,” “Authority.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When these things appeared before him from a god’s-eye view, could he still ignore them?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Several hours later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black Gulfstream G550 roared with deafening noise; on this flight from Chicago to Japan, there were only three passengers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>People’s joys and sorrows are not the same; Lu Mingfei only felt that life’s hardships came in wave after wave.\u003C\u002Fp>",1173,"2026-06-20T04:17:29.700Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","b26d502f94e42fa288def6bde6275449c17eae962b78ff98fdfb8574ae27c2d4","i-the-system-protagonist-joined-a-cross-dimensio-chapter-33","i-the-system-protagonist-joined-a-cross-dimensio-chapter-31",720,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fi-the-system-protagonist-joined-a-cross-dimensio-cover.jpg"]