Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 231: Men’s Flower Arrangement (14)

Dragon Raja 3

Over the next two days, Humpback Whale remained anxious, wondering which of his treasured hosts the “queens” would choose to shower their attention upon. Whichever one fell into their clutches… it wouldn’t be too bad a fate. In fact, it seemed like a fortunate one.

But the situation took another unexpected turn. The queens didn’t lay a finger on any of Humpback Whale’s prized hosts. Instead, the club suddenly ordered its advertising trucks out on the streets. The staff waited at the outskirts of Shinjuku, ready to find the people the queens were after. Caesar thought running into Takamagahara’s advertising truck was a coincidence, believing no one could have predicted their path. But if he had taken a closer look at the fleet, he would have realized: there were thirty identical trucks, each stationed at different entry points to Shinjuku, handing out discount flyers. No matter which route they took, they would inevitably run into one of them. This fleet of thirty trucks was as thorough as the net the Yamata no Orochi had cast to hunt them down. Long before they reached Chizuru-cho, this host club had already begun reeling them in.

It seemed the earlier assumption wasn’t entirely correct—the queens hadn’t bought Takamagahara for the current hosts but to promote the men they had chosen. It was like an aging CEO buying a film production company just to promote a goddaughter.

The boys appeared to be cornered, pursued by the yakuza, which made it the perfect time to win them over. They had yet to realize they had already fallen into the queens’ trap. It would be a process of taming: using money to tempt them, an environment filled with desire to erode their resistance, and finally, extracting their repayment. It wouldn’t take long before these fledgling hosts would be crying in the queens’ arms, swearing their eternal loyalty to them… Indeed, being a host meant they could never escape the grasp of these enchantresses. The youthful dreams of these beautiful boys would be buried in the graves the queens had already dug for them… Humpback Whale felt that sacrificing Basara King, Ukyo, and Little Sakura to save the host club was immoral, but what choice did he have? To continue the flower path for men, this was necessary.

He sighed heavily, slapping his bald head.

It was late at night, and the champagne party continued. Lu Mingfei stood alone on the terrace, gazing at the Genji Heavy Industries building two blocks away. Thinking back to the night they had been at the Shoushin Temple, eating sashimi and chatting nonsense, Lu Mingfei still felt that Chisei was serious when he said he wanted to sell sunscreen. Yet this guy, who claimed he wanted to give up his family’s leadership to sell sunscreen, had left them stranded in the depths of the abyss… The world was so complicated, far too complex for someone like Lu Mingfei to understand.

He sat down by the edge of the terrace and felt like he was back on his uncle’s rooftop.

So much time had passed—he had gone to college, killed dragons, met the world’s top elites, and survived death multiple times… Yet he still felt like his existence didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Everyone else had grown up, but he remained a child, stumbling behind them, trying to learn how to speak and act like them, but always a step behind. By the time he caught up, they were already gone.

Suddenly, he heard a faint squeak from his waist. Surprised, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small yellow rubber duck. His last memory in the ocean was of this rubber duck, and the girl across from it. Her dark red hair had floated in the water, the solitary light from her diving helmet illuminating her face… The sea was pitch black, but she was bathed in a soft glow… She looked so much like Nono—not the real Nono, but the Nono in his memories. Every time she appeared, she descended like an angel.

At the time, Lu Mingfei had really thought he was going to die, and that the girl in front of him was just a hallucination in his final moments. But even then, he swam toward that vision without hesitation.

People need to hold onto something to feel like they truly exist, even if it’s just an illusion.

When he woke up on the beach, he found the little rubber duck still clenched in his hand. So the hallucination in the depths of the ocean had been real—there had really been a girl who looked like Nono, who had saved him, given him the diving helmet, and handed him the rubber duck. In that moment, he must have seemed so foolish to her. He hadn’t even introduced himself, like a clumsy bear rushing to embrace her… and he’d cried like a fool.

When answering the question, Lu Mingfei wasn’t trying to bluff—he just couldn’t find the right words at the time, so he stammered his way through it. He couldn’t recall any love in his memory that could be considered “without regrets.” Finally, he thought of that moment when Nono swam out of her diving suit, smiling as she sealed him into the suit herself. Behind her, the shadow of the dragon loomed gracefully. It was the closest moment they had ever shared in his life. Lu Mingfei wanted to cry out loud, wanted to rush forward and hug her tightly. But he felt he had no right—he was just a junior under her protection, so what right did he have to cry for her, knowing she was about to die? And what right did he have to embrace her? So, he just stood there dumbly as Nono completed the task, pushing him into the diving bell… There was no regret, and there was no love.

But what if this were a love story without regrets? At this point in the story, the climax would come—the moment to prove his resolve and courage. He should have fiercely grabbed the little witch’s wrist, kissed her forcefully as a confession. They were underwater—no one could speak, and no one needed to. He would have pinned Nono’s hands behind her back and shoved her into the diving bell, no matter how she struggled. In the end, it would be him, not her, pierced through the heart by Norton, while the diving bell carried Nono safely to the surface. In this story, there wouldn’t be any need for the superpowers that the little devil provided—love was the kind of thing that didn’t require superpowers at all. It only needed courage and determination. The moment Nono fell in love with Caesar was likely the moment he fired his gun and jumped off the building. Lu Mingfei had always wanted to be like that too—to love a girl in such a bold, fearless way, without caring about the future or even the risk of breaking his legs. In that moment, he would love her with all the grandeur he could muster.

But throughout his life, he had always been afraid, always hesitating. Sometimes he really hated himself for being that way.

He squeezed the rubber duck, and it let out a “squeak,” as if mocking him.

Series Navigation

<< Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 230: Men’s Flower Arrangement (13)Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 232: Sakura and Red Lotus (1) >>