Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 424: The Boss Lady (4)

Dragon Raja 3

“We need to take her to the hospital!” Caesar said. “This kind of wound needs immediate attention. I’ll go get the car.”

“No, it’s best not to move her. Call an orthopedic surgeon to the club for emergency surgery and get the shrapnel out of her knee first,” Chu Zihang said. “She needs to lie flat immediately. The metal shrapnel is grinding against her bones.”

“Why didn’t she tell us sooner about such a serious injury?” Lu Mingfei was equally anxious, quickly helping her lie flat on the sofa.

“I had to make sure you weren’t planning to leave right away. If you leave, I’ll have to walk, and then there won’t be time to see the doctor,” Zero said softly, slightly opening her eyes. It was hard to believe that even in this situation, her gaze was still so clear. “I can’t be useless. Useless people are abandoned.”

Lu Mingfei felt a stir in his heart. For some reason, this sounded familiar to him. Who had said something like “useless people” to him before? Was Zero, who had always been so excellent and hardworking, so afraid of being abandoned her whole life?

“Is she really only 19?” The doctor was packing up his toolbox, stuffing the blood-soaked cotton balls and gauze into a trash bag.

“That’s what her school records say. Don’t you think you’re asking too many questions?” Caesar tapped the doctor on the head with his Desert Eagle. “Don’t go around running your mouth after you leave, or I’ll knock out all your teeth.”

“I understand! I’m an old friend of Mr. Whale, and I know how to keep secrets!” The doctor nodded and bowed.

Caesar didn’t want Yamata no Orochi to know that they had an injured person who couldn’t move, so instead of taking her to a public hospital, he asked Humpback Whale to bring in this well-known private doctor. The doctor’s attitude was impeccable, and his skills were top-notch. He even spoke fluent English and Chinese, and many high-profile visitors to Japan had been treated at his clinic. He swore that since it was a friend of Mr. Whale’s who was injured, he would do his best to treat them. As for the cost, he didn’t even mention it. But Lu Mingfei still felt uneasy, remembering rumors about how a Japanese doctor had poisoned Huo Yuanjia to death, so the entire time, the doctor was performing the surgery with four guns pointed at his head.

The surgery mainly involved extracting the fragments of a broken sword embedded in Zero’s knee bone. Lu Mingfei watched in horror as the doctor cut open the wound, revealing white bone, and used steel pliers to pull out the tightly lodged sword fragments. Then, he cleaned and disinfected the wound before rebandaging it.

At one point, the doctor suggested transferring Zero to his clinic for surgery, as he hadn’t brought enough anesthetics, not expecting the injury to be so severe. Zero asked Lu Mingfei to bring her a bottle of vodka from the bar. She opened it and drank half the bottle in one go.

“Let’s do it here. I’m already halfway anesthetized.”

It was the first time Lu Mingfei had seen Zero drink, and her tolerance seemed on par with Enxi’s. Throughout the surgery, Zero remained awake, saying nothing and only drinking. Her translucent skin gradually flushed as she drank, turning her into a warm, rosy pink.

“She’s only 19, yet she’s been through so much.” The doctor sighed as he left.

“Been through a lot?” Lu Mingfei was taken aback.

“In my many years of practice, I’ve learned that everyone is born fragile and afraid of pain. Only those who have suffered can endure more. It’s not that they don’t feel pain, but they can tolerate it better,” the doctor said, sounding world-weary. “Life’s not easy for anyone.”

When Lu Mingfei returned to the room, Zero was already asleep. He touched her forehead—she was in a deep sleep, with a slight fever from the infection.

“You should stay with her. She’ll feel safer with you here,” Chu Zihang said.

“That sounds awfully meaningful…” Lu Mingfei quickly defended himself, “There’s nothing going on between me and Her Majesty.”

“I’m not saying there’s anything between you two. But she doesn’t seem to be hostile towards you. Did you know she hates physical contact?” Chu Zihang said.

“What do you mean?” Lu Mingfei was confused.

“I heard from Susie that among the girls, she’s called the ‘Vacuum Queen’ because she refuses to touch anyone, like she has a cleanliness obsession. When she goes to the library, she lays out a mat on public seats, and after flipping through books, she immediately washes her hands. The girls say she acts like she wishes she could live in a vacuum, so her popularity isn’t great. But she specifically asked for you to catch her, which means her obsession doesn’t apply to you. She feels safe with you,” Chu Zihang said. “Or maybe she thinks you’re… clean.”

“Senior brother, you should be more careful when talking about things like this! Even if I don’t care about my reputation, girls still do!” Lu Mingfei couldn’t believe it. It seemed like Chu Zihang was implying the Ice Queen had some feelings for him, but when they had dinner together, the Queen had said nothing the entire time, just focused on devouring her dessert. All Lu Mingfei could do was silently offer his own dessert to her as well.

“It might not be about feelings. Sometimes people see someone as a kindred spirit and trust them because of that. Either way, she trusts you.” Chu Zihang turned and left, leaving Lu Mingfei alone in the room.

Despite being exhausted, Lu Mingfei couldn’t sleep. He pulled up a chair by the bed and watched over the sleeping Zero.

The blanket was pulled up to her neck, and her sleeping posture was so rigid it was almost like she was ready to be laid to rest, but it made her look secure. Zero was actually a very vigilant person, like a cat. When a cat arrives in a new place, it roams around, sniffing everything, looking for a “safe spot.” Sometimes it hides under the bed, other times in a cardboard box. You can’t predict what a cat considers “safe,” but there’s no doubt that wherever a cat falls asleep is a place it deems safe.

Without a doubt, Zero felt very safe right now. The only person still awake in the room was Lu Mingfei.

How long does it take for a cat to feel safe around a person?

A few days ago, another cat-like girl had felt safe with him. He had slept in the bathtub while the cat-like girl slept on the bed—a luxurious bed, with seductive curves.

Thinking about it this way, maybe he wasn’t completely without charm. Even that Arabian princess who had spent a fortune at the auction had kissed him on the cheek.

But no matter how much Lu Mingfei thought about it, he realized he had never really liked Zero, because Zero wasn’t cute at all. She was so excellent and perfect, like sunlight covered by a glacier. She had straight A’s in every subject, was an exceptional dancer, and her beauty rivaled Nono’s, plus she could cook. She was always polite, never showing any signs of displeasure, and didn’t have any of the typical issues that girls have, like pettiness or jealousy. But she didn’t smile, nor did she seem to feel sadness. Even if you stared at her, you wouldn’t be able to tell whether she was in a good or bad mood.

To her, life seemed to be nothing more than silently passing through time, without caring about happiness or sadness, likes or dislikes.

Zero was like a perfect puppet, but even Pinocchio was more endearing—at least Pinocchio could lie, and his nose would grow longer.

The closest Lu Mingfei ever got to Zero was at the ball at Amber Hall, where they danced a tango together. But thinking back now, Lu Mingfei felt he was nothing more than a prop—Zero would have dazzled the entire hall even without him as her dance partner. In reality, she was performing a solo, with Lu Mingfei tightly controlled in her movements. Many people at the ball speculated that Zero was trying to establish her authority within the student council by deliberately choosing the worst dancer as her partner, showing that she was the Tango Queen regardless of who she danced with.

She danced so well, but no one had ever seen her practice. Her dance skills were probably honed in front of a mirror.

As dawn broke, Lu Mingfei stood up to close the curtains so the sunlight wouldn’t shine on Zero’s face. When he turned back, Zero had her arm outside the blanket. People with a low fever covered in such thick blankets probably wouldn’t feel comfortable, so Lu Mingfei gently placed her arm back under the covers and opened a small gap in the blanket to let some air in. He caught a glimpse of her pale body for a brief moment, but without thinking, he sat back down on the chair, lost in thought. It took him a while to realize how gentlemanly he had been. After all, he was the type of guy who would get worked up just seeing a beautiful girl in a light summer dress. During those days living with Uesugi Erii, he had felt far more restless than now—though with Erii’s terrifying power, any inappropriate thoughts would have been quickly obliterated.

But Zero? The little queen was truly amazing, wasn’t she? She wasn’t a monster, just a beautiful girl from his class. Why didn’t he feel anything for her?

Lu Mingfei couldn’t figure it out, just as he couldn’t understand why he liked Nono. Maybe it was simply because when he was so cowardly, Nono had been so wonderful—when she pushed open the doors of the screening room, it was like lightning tearing through the dark sky, with an angel gracefully descending.

Series Navigation

<< Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 423: The Boss Lady (3)Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 425: The Boss Lady (5) >>