Dragon Raja; Chapter 51: The City of Bronze (2)

Dragon Raja

“If I were you, I would go to Stanford.” Lu Mingfei shrugged. “Why would I come here if I’m accepted by Stanford?”

“But don’t you want to be with the world’s top people?” Bradley turned back in confusion. “If I went to Stanford, I wouldn’t be able to meet people like you.”

“Someone like me?” Lu Mingfei pricked up his ears to listen to the wind-like sound behind the music while talking to Bradley, “What kind of person am I?”

“Creating a new world?” Lu Mingfei wondered if this matter had anything to do with him. He waved his hand, “This matter belongs to Obama, really, he just won the Nobel Peace Prize, I saw it on the news.”

“Kiran said so.” Bradley moved closer to Lu Mingfei, “Kiran never says the wrong thing, his words are ‘prophetic’.”

“Prophet? Word spirit?” This was the second time Lu Mingfei heard of this concept. Finkel said that this was an ability of the dragon language, which could forcibly impose a rule in a small area. However, Lu Mingfei was a little skeptical about this. If this ability really existed, it would be a bug, just like the magical prop in Doraemon’s pocket across time and space. If someone’s word spirit was “wealth”, wouldn’t it mean that every time he ate, he could just say “I’m the richest man, and I can get whatever I eat for free” and he wouldn’t have to bring money?

“He never said the wrong thing, and he never praised anyone, but he praised you.” Bradley whispered, “He was my good friend since childhood. Every time he predicted something, it would come true. Some people were afraid of him and thought he was a lunatic, so they sent him to a mental hospital. He was very depressed for a while, and I was the only one who accompanied him.”

Lu Mingfei couldn’t help but look in the direction of Kiran. The handsome Indian student turned around and greeted Lu Mingfei, as if he had really anticipated this gaze.

“The Freshman Association all supports you,” Bradley said sincerely, “The Lionheart Club and the Student Union have been trying to recruit people from the freshmen for a long time, hoping to strengthen themselves, but Kiran told us that we should not disperse, we should wait, and someone will emerge to lead us. We were all skeptical at first, until we heard that they found an ‘S’-level freshman, and that’s you!”

Bradley was silent for a while, covering his face with his hands, leaning his elbows on the desk, and crying silently.

Lu Mingfei was shocked. “Damn it, why is he crying? Am I the savior? Is he so moved to see me?… Oh, yes, he said he has been with that Kiran. Is he in a mental hospital? Are these people short-circuited in their brains?”

“Please accept my condolences… Being sad is not the solution…” Lu Mingfei tried to comfort Bradley, but the matter was a bit tricky, as it seemed that Bradley had no reason to be sad.

Bradley placed his hands flat on the desk, revealing his face filled with tears, his eyes with a heavy sadness that penetrated time… Then he no longer cared about Lu Mingfei, and began to write on the white paper with his head down.

“Damn it… He’s not moved by seeing me… It’s because the exam has started!” Lu Mingfei became alert.

“They’ll use fast-paced music to drown out the dragon language, so you need to focus and listen for the undertone in the bassline—that’s the dragon spell. Others will experience the ‘Vision’ effect when they resonate, which will manifest unusually, but don’t panic. If you can’t resonate and don’t experience Vision, it doesn’t matter. Just listen carefully and copy the answers I gave you.” Finger’s words were now coming true.

Lu Mingfei quietly rolled up his sleeve, revealing a row of eight small sketches drawn with a ballpoint pen on his arm. These were the answers to the eight questions. The abstract drawings were hard to memorize, so he made cheat sheets. The most primitive methods were sometimes the most effective against high-tech proctors. He could pretend to scratch an itch, using his body to shield his arm from the cameras, and destroying the evidence would be quick—just spit into his palm and wipe it off. He had learned this trick from Su Xiaoqian, the little diva. She would copy cheat sheets on her thigh and then wear a short skirt to the exam—the proctors knew where the notes were but didn’t dare call her out on it.

He perked up his slightly twitching ears and sure enough, beneath Michael Jackson’s high and bright voice, he seemed to hear someone chanting softly—like a curse, yet also like a hymn.

“Word Spirit: Prophet.” Halfway through listening, Lu Mingfei understood, and without another word, he immediately began drawing on the blank sheet.

The other students had stopped whispering; the atmosphere in the classroom had turned eerie. Some people sat in a daze, as if they had just lost their entire family; some wandered aimlessly in the aisle, their eyes vacant, like Qu Yuan by the banks of the Miluo River or like other walking corpses. A girl had jumped onto the podium, sketching wildly on the whiteboard, though she didn’t realize her marker had long since run dry. Another charming girl shouted “Hallelujah,” her face filled with joy as she danced gracefully. It was clear she had practice, her movements enchanting, but what was eerie was that she wasn’t dancing alone—it seemed as if an invisible man was leading her. She cast a look full of affection toward that unseen partner.

The students were all in their own worlds, oblivious to each other, utterly absorbed in their experiences, leaving Lu Mingfei drenched in cold sweat.

The world had gone mad, but it hadn’t taken him along.

There was one exception, however—the girl who looked like an ice sculpture. Amid the chaos, she sat quietly, her back straight like slender bamboo, appearing as calm as Lu Mingfei.

Calm in a way that seemed almost strange.

“How did you feel when you first heard the Dragon Spell?” Lu Mingfei asked Finger.

“It was like a hole was opened in the forehead and someone poured water into it. The space became like countless threads, which suddenly erupted and pierced through time. At the end of time, there was a woman crying.” Finger said, “I don’t know why, but I suddenly felt very sad and cried, and naturally wrote down the answer.”

Lu Mingfei pondered for a long time and didn’t know what that strange feeling was, but now he believed that Finger saw strange things and heard strange noises at that time, because Finger did pass the exam, and the people around him were no less crazy than Finger.

“Concentrate, concentrate.” Lu Mingfei forced himself to calm down, looking at the small note in his hand, and concentrating on listening to the sound of ancient ritual singing, like flowing water. Finger taught him several times, but Lu Mingfei really couldn’t remember those completely irregular sounds, so he used Chinese to remember the sounds.

Although this practice is indeed a bit blasphemous to the giant dragons of the ancient mythological era, it is indeed the most reliable for Lu Mingfei, who has completed his early English education by memorizing “BUS” as “Dad Si”, “BIKE” as “Bai Ke”, and “PEN” as “Pen”. Lu Mingfei’s powerful imagination amazed Finger, for example, “The emperor is an idiot”, “There is no sound when sesame seeds fall to the ground, so it is quiet”. The rational thinking of the Germans was impressed by the ancient skills of the Chinese. In fact, when Lu Mingfei was in the TOEFL class at New Oriental, the teacher also taught that “CHRISMA” (leadership charisma) can be remembered as “CHINA-RISE-MAO”, “China has risen”, which is abbreviated to “CHRISMA”. Of course, there is leadership charisma, right? Lu Mingfei once again proved the power of exam-oriented education in China on behalf of all Chinese students. In comparison, the standardized tests of Americans are just some foreign tricks. The motto of Chinese students is – I don’t need to understand, I just need to get the answer right.

“By the timing, the resonance should have appeared by now, right?” Yashiro Toyama asked anxiously, holding a medical kit outside the classroom. “I’m ready; if the mental impact is too severe, I can rush in to provide emergency aid.”

“They should be able to handle it. This group of students seems to be of good quality,” Professor Manstein said. “By the way, Nono, I remember you were quite calm during your 3E exam. It seemed like ‘Vision’ was nothing new for you.”

“That’s because my first experience of ‘Vision’ happened when I was very young; I got used to it by the time of the 3E exam,” Nono replied.

“What was your first experience?”

“My mother was lying in bed when a shadow came and took her soul away—she died,” Nono said.

“Oh? Such a vivid Vision is rare. Most people just see a chaotic mess of lines and some indescribable faces,” Professor Manstein said, intrigued.

“More vivid than you can imagine. Not only did I see someone take my mother’s soul, but I also saw their face clearly,” Nono said, leaning against the wall, her head turned, staring at the end of the corridor.

“I heard the wind, the wind all over the world.” Professor Manstein said in a low voice, “Nono, do you students feel that the education at Cassell Academy is cruel? Few people feel happy when they first hear the dragon spell and come into contact with the true nature of the world. If you had known this earlier, wouldn’t it be better not to unveil that veil of warmth?”

Nuonuo shrugged, “I don’t care. Everyone wants to see the truth, even if it is cruel. Just like what I saw, it is true. Someone took away my mother’s soul and I saw that person’s face clearly!”

Lu Mingfei was not sad at all. With the three magic weapons of associative memory, a pair of pointed ears and a small strip on his palm, he easily picked out eight dragon spells from the covered music. Finkel proved his good character with facts. Everything was consistent with what he said. Cassell College turned out the test questions from eight years ago, adjusted the order, and re-tested them. Lu Mingfei used all the eight answers that he bought at a high price without wasting any of them.

Finger reminded Lu Mingfei that he didn’t need to answer all the questions, he just needed to be able to correctly interpret eight dragon spells and he could choose any advanced course. If he tried hard to answer ten questions and keep his status as an “S” grade student, it might arouse suspicion of cheating.

“Concentrate, concentrate! The victory is near!” Lu Mingfei had already finished seven questions.

Finger had indeed proven to be a good swindler. Cassell College had really dug up the exam from eight years ago, shuffled the questions, and used it again.

“Downgrading to ‘A’ level only means that the credit limit is reduced to 60,000 US dollars. Caesar and Chu Zihang are both ‘A’ level, and ‘A’ level is already very good.” Finger has the thinking of a Chinese philosopher. He urged Lu Mingfei not to climb to the top of the mountain in one step. Anyway, for most people, the result of climbing to the top of the mountain is to go down the mountain, downhill. It is better to leave a step for the future and stop to eat some barbecue.

Next to him, Kiran didn’t know how many questions he’d answered, still crying quietly with a sad smile. He was reminiscing about his revolutionary history with Lu Mingfei, recounting how he was born in a poor area of Queensland, how his father, a drunken Indian doctor, often beat him and his mother, and how his poor grandmother had planted a pomegranate tree behind the house, only to die before the fruit had even ripened. , and the pomegranate tree planted by his poor grandmother behind the house, and his alcoholic father and beaten mother.

Lu Mingfei was getting tired of him, but Kiran’s sincerity made it hard for him to cut him off.

Kiran wiped his tears and continued to write his answers. “No, no, Mom, I was wrong, I was wrong.” he muttered to himself. Behind the light music, the sound like flowing water, a woman singing, and the low hum of an organ continued. The classroom was in a mess.

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