The tenured professors nodded in agreement.
The heavy doors of the hall creaked open, allowing a beam of sunlight into the gloom.
Lu Mingfei, seated by the door, turned his head and saw that deep crimson uniform skirt, dark red long hair tied with a white silk ribbon, deep red suede high-heeled boots, and the four-leaf clover earrings glinting silver by her ears.
This made him feel as if he had returned to more than a year ago. Back then, his world was small, confined to that southern city in China. This little red-haired witch had pushed the door open in the same way, letting the light in. She stood in the light, her beautiful eyes full of pride. Like an angel descending with a sword in hand, she had violently torn a hole in his world. Otherwise, Lu Mingfei wouldn’t be sitting here today, mingling with a bunch of hybrid reptiles in this meeting.
He smiled dumbly.
“Move over, make some space for me.” Nono kicked him.
The audience erupted into murmurs. The girlfriend of the Student Union President had arrived late, and she was wearing the crimson uniform of the Lionheart Society, taking a seat on the Lionheart side! Meanwhile, Caesar, seemingly unaware of his girlfriend’s arrival, continued listening to music with his noise-canceling headphones, entirely engrossed.
“Why are you here?” Lu Mingfei murmured.
After that long, hot summer had ended, the connection between him and Nono had broken, like a kite with its string cut. He hadn’t even received a birthday message from her, even though Nono had promised she wouldn’t forget… Then the news came that Caesar had submitted an application to be engaged to Nono. Was it because of the engagement? The new bride was busy preparing her dress for the engagement ceremony, and she was rarely seen around campus.
Honestly, he didn’t want to see her anymore. He admitted he was envious, jealous, and resentful—he even blamed Nono a bit. She had been inexplicably loyal to him, always giving him faint glimmers of hope, but then disappearing in an instant, as she had never made any promises. If that was the case, why give him hope at all? Wasn’t the girl who sold matches also killed by too much hope? Lighting a match, saying, “Wow, a roast turkey!” then lighting another, “Wow, a cake!” then lighting yet another, “Wow, Mommy!” But none of these hopes were realized, and the girl eventually perished.
If the match-selling girl had spent her time looking for a warm place to stay instead of clinging to hope, she might have survived that cold winter night.
In the end, hope that’s destined to be lost is nothing but poison.
Lu Mingfei had decided to avoid Nono from now on, at least until he could firmly establish in his mind the image of “Caesar’s fiancée,” and then he could face her and wish her a happy marriage.
But in the end, he couldn’t avoid her. He looked up and saw her, his heart trembled, and all he could say was this meaningless phrase.
“Why are you here… weren’t you gone already?”
“Why shouldn’t I come?” Nono raised an eyebrow.
“This side is for Lionheart; Caesar’s over there,” Lu Mingfei whispered.
“I know,” Nono pointed at the Student Union representatives all dressed in black. “I just prefer red.”
Lu Mingfei was stunned. He knew Nono liked red—she liked it so much that even when eating ice cream, she chose to top it with strawberry sauce because it matched her hair color. But could hair color really decide someone’s allegiance?
“Victory is in our hands!” The vice principal beamed. “With this, our side’s quality and quantity of beauties both exceed the opposition!”
“But we can’t be sure if those old guys judge victory based on the cheerleading lineup,” Finger said.
“It’s not about what the old guys think—they’ve already lost the ability to judge beauty. The key is to strike at Andrew’s morale! Shouldn’t a middle-aged creep hate it when the opponent’s cheerleading team is more glamorous than his?” The vice principal swayed his hips and winked at Andrew from afar, striking a classic Michael Jackson groin-grab pose—even Finger found the provocation quite vulgar.
“Order! Gentlemen and ladies, please reduce unnecessary disputes. The core of this hearing is whether the college has made a major mistake in lineage evaluation, bringing a dangerous lineage into campus.” King Solomon spoke sternly. “This is one of our greatest taboos. In ancient times, we established the ironclad statutes based on the ‘Abrahamic Blood Covenant.’ to eliminate unclean bloodlines among us. These statutes are still in effect today. On the day of your admission, you signed to abide by these rules, and thus we are all bound by them…”
Only now did Lu Mingfei understand what that harsh clause he signed upon enrollment actually was.
“Everyone here has both human and dragon aspects—white and black, good and evil, love and hate, peace and slaughter coexist in our veins. We are neither purely good nor purely evil. We have the ability to kill, but we must not have the desire to kill. Remember, we stand on the side of humanity. Only when the goodness of humanity within us triumphs over the evil of dragons can we be considered companions. If anyone cannot suppress that evil and allows their soul to be consumed by the desire for power, then they become our enemy.” King Solomon closed the heavy tome. “At that moment, our covenant ends, and our swords will point towards the one who falls into the abyss.”
Everyone placed their hands over their hearts, showing their reverence for this sacred code.
“Bold of you, Ricardo, to sit on Chu Zihang’s side as a Student Union member. Aren’t you afraid Caesar will beat you up?” Nono whispered.
“Who isn’t afraid of getting beaten by the boss? But a person has to have some loyalty—Chu Zihang has been good to me.” Lu Mingfei shrank back. “And this is life-threatening stuff.”
“Nonsense! How could that be your reason? Your reason should be that you stand with your senior sister!” Nono glared. “Remember, you’re my little brother, not Caesar’s!”
Lu Mingfei stared at her blankly, trying to decipher some hidden meaning from her beautiful, bossy face, but there was none. She was simply beautiful and bossy, her eyebrows raised defiantly. The faint fragrance from Nono’s body lingered in his nose, and he suddenly realized that at this very moment, he was sitting right next to Nono. Heaven knew why just now he had felt as though he was far away from her.
“Brother! See the situation clearly! Right now, Nono is with you, and Caesar is on the other side. This girl is closer to you than she is to Caesar!” A little figure in his mind was urging.
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