Chapter 6: The Senior Brother Gave Way Too Much

"Hiss, my memory is still decent..."

Lu Mingfei gasped in pain, answering blankly, feeling a bit bewildered.

What did "you remember him" mean?

Given the strength with which Chu Zihang was gripping him, and this tone, it was as if remembering that man was some kind of bizarre occurrence.

"Sorry."

Chu Zihang realized what he was doing, hurriedly let go, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly opened them again.

"Can you tell me in detail?" he asked, or more accurately, he was pleading.

"In detail... actually, at first, I just heard classmates gossiping." Lu Mingfei began dribbling the Basketball amidst the sounding countdown warning, trying hard to recall as he dribbled.

"At first, someone said that you, Senior Brother Chu, were really rich, sometimes having a Mercedes, sometimes a Maybach, and even equipped with different dedicated drivers!

Then someone retorted, saying 'You don't know what you're talking about, the one driving the Mercedes is indeed a driver, but the one driving the Maybach is Senior Brother Chu's dad; last time he heard that man call Senior Brother Chu 'son' with his own ears.'

After that, someone said, 'Huh? No way, I think that middle-aged man looks just as obsequious as the driver of the Mercedes,' and then someone else retorted, 'What do you know, that's a father's love for his son'!"

"After hearing that gossip, one time we were dismissed early, and at the school gate, I curiously took a few looks at your father. At the time, your father was leaning against the car lighting a cigarette, and noticing me, he even asked if I wanted one.

Later, I saw him a few more times, but only from a distance."

Lu Mingfei finished in one breath, adding a compliment while he was at it.

"If you ask me, even though your father looked a bit disheveled, he was clearly just putting on an act. He was definitely a total badass!"

Of course, with Lu Mingfei's essentially non-existent ability to judge people, he obviously couldn't tell that the "middle-aged man was a badass," it was just a casual compliment... but it was a fact anyway.

How could a man who wasn't a badass afford to drive a Maybach? Could he have produced a heaven-defying genius like Senior Brother Chu by genetic mutation?

Chu Zihang took a deep breath, almost certain this wasn't made up... asking an underage middle school student if they wanted a cigarette was exactly the kind of thing that man would do!

"... His name is Chu Tianjiao." After a moment of silence, Chu Zihang said.

"The name itself sounds badass!" Lu Mingfei exclaimed.

Chu Zihang thought to himself, of course it was badass. Who would have guessed that a full-time driver and deadbeat uncle who loved eating braised pork intestines could at any moment pull the demon blade Muramasa from the door of a Maybach, drive the Maybach toward the God-King Odin, and even jump out to perform a flying slash!

That was something that happened five years ago; that stormy, typhoon day, they entered the Nibelungen... only Chu Zihang came out.

But the matter went far beyond that.

Chu Zihang soon discovered that Chu Tianjiao hadn't just disappeared in a Physics sense; the Nibelungen was like an abyss that devoured everything, stripping away everything related to Chu Tianjiao, even memories.

Except for Chu Zihang, no one remembered what Chu Tianjiao had done.

It was as if that man was just an ordinary driver, with no presence before the divorce, and none after. The only time he appeared was that stormy day, "the first time" he drove to pick up Chu Zihang from school, and then died.

People around him were all saying it was fortunate Chu Zihang was fine, and that the man was better off dead since he was incompetent anyway... mistakenly thinking Chu Zihang's ugly expression was just because he had suffered a huge shock.

That was all.

But how could that be all!

After the divorce, that man had come to pick up Chu Zihang many times; so many people had seen him, so many people knew... how could they all have forgotten?

Yet the more Chu Zihang verified, the more alarmed he became.

Surveillance records? None. Work history? None. Including others who had dealt with Chu Tianjiao... they only knew such a person existed, but when asked for details, everything was blurry.

Chu Zihang buried everything in his heart. He found the Cassel College that Chu Tianjiao had mentioned, verified the existence of Death Servants and the Nibelungen, and just when he thought he was about to find the answer...

Everything was blank.

In Cassel College, there were no traces of Chu Tianjiao ever existing.

Logically, at this point, an ordinary person would suspect there was something wrong with themselves, but Chu Zihang was a firm person; he firmly believed it wasn't he who had a problem, but the whole world that was wrong—

Since gods existed, it wasn't impossible for them to modify the world's files, data, and memories!

At this point, Chu Zihang had already determined that in this world, only he—as someone who was also in the Nibelungen at the time and had faced the God-King Odin—still remembered Chu Tianjiao.

But now... Lu Mingfei remembered too.

Chu Zihang had a deep impression of Lu Mingfei because on that stormy day, he had thought about calling Lu Mingfei to give him a ride, but Lu Mingfei had run off into the rain before he could speak...

So, logically speaking, Lu Mingfei should have had absolutely no memory of Chu Tianjiao!

But Lu Mingfei not only remembered him several times, he could even accurately describe Chu Tianjiao's characteristics.

What was going on here?

Could it be that he was just making it up, and a blind cat had bumped into a dead mouse?

"Lu Mingfei..."

"Senior Brother, I'm here!"

Lu Mingfei was practically ready to stand at attention and salute. In his eyes, Chu Zihang's facial expression was as solemn as if he were about to announce a major event that could affect world peace.

"Can you sketch?"

"No..." Lu Mingfei immediately deflated, laughing sheepishly.

"Hmm." Chu Zihang nodded. "You keep practicing, I'm going to buy paper and pens."

Before Lu Mingfei could even shout, Chu Zihang trotted away.

So did he hear me or not? I said I can't, I can't!

Lu Mingfei grumbled to himself, and under the countdown warning, he once again immersed himself in practicing his Jump shot.

Excluding the fatigue factor, Lu Mingfei actually quite liked playing Basketball now. In just under two hours, his 【Basketball】 Proficiency had already risen from 13 to 52!

The visibly rising Proficiency, instantly fed back into his body's mastery of technique—except for when he first played StarCraft, Lu Mingfei had never felt it so clearly.

Immersed in it, he didn't even notice that Chu Zihang returned quickly, sat to the side, and began sketching with paper and pen.

【Warning, the 【Dinner】 plan time has been reached, please execute immediately...

Considering the next plan requires physical condition, rest time has been allocated, based on physical fitness and real-time status... Countdown, one hour】

Amidst the warning sound, Lu Mingfei stood at the two-point line and took his final Jump shot; with a "swish," it went through the net!

"I feel like I'm terrifyingly strong right now!"

Although his physical state could be described as exhausted, Lu Mingfei was beaming with joy and glowing with energy.

His gaze shifted, and he quickly noticed Chu Zihang putting away his pen nearby, causing him to freeze instantly.

Could it be...

"Finished training?" Chu Zihang asked.

"Yeah, yeah, finished, thank you Senior Brother, I'm getting ready to go eat dinner..."

"No rush."

Chu Zihang walked forward holding several sheets of paper.

"Take a look."

"This..."

Lu Mingfei was somewhat flattered; after cautiously taking the papers, he froze again, "This?"

"How is it?" Chu Zihang asked.

"Uh, Senior Brother, your sketching skills are really high! It's just... do I actually look like this?"

Lu Mingfei asked blankly, not quite daring to believe that the middle-aged man drawn so vividly on the paper was himself.

Chu Zihang was silent for a long moment, "This... is not a drawing of you."

"Oh, oh, oh, I thought so!" Lu Mingfei suddenly realized.

"If you want one, I'll draw you one later."

"Yeah, yeah, thank you Senior Brother!" Lu Mingfei nodded repeatedly; if this favor were auctioned off, it would probably fetch an astronomical sum from those rich boys and girls at Shilan Middle School, it would be a waste not to take it!

"Wait, then who is this sketch of?" Lu Mingfei realized.

"My father," Chu Zihang said.

Lu Mingfei fell silent all of a sudden, and after looking at the sketch twice more with some uncertainty, "This... maybe I remembered wrong? Or I recognized the wrong person, he doesn't seem to look like this..."

It couldn't be that Senior Brother Chu's sketching skills were just too poor, right?

Chu Zihang did not speak, but instead withdrew the sketch from Lu Mingfei's hand and replaced it with another.

The middle-aged man drawn on it had changed again.

Only then did Lu Mingfei understand; so Chu Zihang was having him look at sketches to identify people!

Senior Brother is truly upright on the surface, but cunning at heart, treating him like a Japanese person!

It's just... why do it this way?

Lu Mingfei couldn't figure it out, and didn't think too deeply about it, just blindly identifying them.

"Not this one, not this one either..."

When Chu Zihang changed to the fifth one, Lu Mingfei's gaze suddenly locked on, and he handed that sketch back to Chu Zihang.

"Right, it's this one! Senior Brother, I didn't recognize it wrong, did I? My memory is actually pretty good!"

Chu Zihang didn't speak, just lowered his eyes.

The hand holding the paper trembled slightly, then quickly returned to steady.

"Many thanks."

Chu Zihang raised his eyes, looked at Lu Mingfei, and said earnestly.

"Small matter!"

Lu Mingfei waved his hand, feeling quite dashing, and kept moving his feet, "That, Senior Brother, I really have to go eat dinner..."

Even if Lu Mingfei had no knowledge of Fitness, he still knew that one shouldn't do strenuous exercise shortly after a meal.

Even the Schedule had proactively allocated rest time!

So he had to finish eating as soon as possible, then use the remaining time to rest for a while.

Lu Mingfei's thinking was very simple; he felt that today's lucky meeting with Senior Brother should end here.

It was already a huge favor that Senior Brother was willing to spend his precious time teaching him Basketball, he couldn't possibly still have the nerve to sponge a dinner off him, right?

But what Lu Mingfei didn't expect was—

"What do you want to eat?"

Chu Zihang stepped forward to follow, taking the initiative to speak.

"My treat."

"This, I haven't earned this, Senior Brother..." Lu Mingfei was uncharacteristically embarrassed.

If it were someone else in class treating him, he would have already been wiggling his butt and fawning over them, but Chu Zihang... Senior Brother gave way too much!

To the point that Lu Mingfei was muttering to himself, worried if Senior Brother had ulterior motives—

After all, it was well-known that Chu Zihang kept his distance from women. So many pretty girls and wealthy young ladies liked him, yet he walked through the flowers without a single petal sticking to him!

It wasn't as if such rumors hadn't started in school before, but they had been thoroughly suppressed by the girls who couldn't accept it.

"You have earned it."

Chu Zihang said flatly, and asked again.

"What do you want to eat for dinner?"

What was this feeling of a tyrant saying "I say you've earned it, so you've earned it"? It was truly a case of his word being final and allowing no refusal!

Anyway, Lu Mingfei couldn't think of any merit he had, so he could only scratch his hair.

"Anything is fine, just needs to be quick..."

(End of chapter)