Dragon Raja 4; Chapter 91: Young Schoolmates (7)

Dragon Raja 4

“I’m talking about that girl you brought back. She’s not the one we met in Japan, right?”

“That girl hasn’t contacted me in a long time,” Lu Mingfei replied softly.

“She was a sweet girl, but I imagine dealing with a big Japanese family is tricky. Would you have to marry into their family and change your name?”

“No, that won’t happen, Uncle. You’re overthinking it.”

Lu Mingfei quickly changed the subject. “Uncle, you’ve met Senior Sister before, remember? You two had breakfast together at the Regent Hotel.”

“Oh, right! Now I remember! She’s a good girl too, isn’t she?”

“What makes you think that, Uncle?”

“She may not enjoy socializing, but isn’t she still sticking around for you?”

“And how’s the situation with the Japanese yakuza?” his uncle asked.

“I have nothing to do with the yakuza, Uncle. Don’t make wild guesses,” Lu Mingfei had no choice but to lie.

“Fine, fine. You youngsters have seen the world. You don’t want us old-timers poking around. As long as you’re fine. Have you thought about coming back to China for good?”

“What could I even do back here?” Lu Mingfei thought to himself. I’m trained to slay dragons. I doubt there’s any job that fits my skill set.

“Things are really developing nicely here at home now,” his uncle said, pointing toward the brightly lit CBD. “They’re upgrading the area into a free-trade zone and building a stadium for 50,000 people. If you live in the CBD, it’ll be like living abroad. You can be back home in an hour if you want to visit. They’re short on talent in the free-trade zone right now. With your international experience, you’d ace the civil service exam. If you want more freedom, start your own company. There are policies in place to support returning overseas talent,” his uncle licked his lips. “Then, find a nice girlfriend. Don’t go for a foreign girl, too open-minded.”

“Uncle, you mean Zero and Isabel? They’re just friends, I swear.”

His uncle grinned. “Your senior sister could be considered a foreigner too. She’s a Chinese girl with foreign citizenship—same mindset as the foreigners. But your old classmates, now they’re great. Chen Wenwen’s so gentle, but too bad she’s with Zhao Menghua now. You weren’t around these past few years, and that lucky Zhao kid swooped in. Then there’s Su Xiaoqian—she’s not bad either. Marrying her is like marrying into a whole fleet of mines.”

“Uncle… shouldn’t the men of our Lu family have some backbone? Isn’t it bad to live off a woman?”

“Even if the meal is soft, we can still eat it hard!” His uncle laughed. “I think Su Xiaoqian wouldn’t mind. She was supposed to have dinner with some government officials tonight, but she ditched them just to see you.”

“Uncle, you’re so successful—you built everything from the ground up. How could I have the face to live off someone?” Lu Mingfei cleverly buttered up his uncle.

His uncle waved his hand dismissively. “At the end of the day, people always come back to where they started. Cars, houses, pretty girls—that’s all there is to life. What bigger ambitions could you have?”

Suddenly, Lu Mingfei felt a bit lost. Yeah, when did protecting the world become my responsibility? The saying goes, “If there’s no butcher Zhang, does it mean we have to eat rotten meat?” Similarly, without Lu Mingfei, wouldn’t Cassell College’s mission to slay dragons continue anyway? He didn’t have any personal grudges against dragons, and even Herzog, who’d truly wronged him, might not even count as a dragon. A life back home sounded as wonderful as his uncle described. Now that his uncle was a respected figure in town, all those distant dream girls he once couldn’t touch were now within reach. Just look at Su Xiaoqian tonight—so beautiful, with her fluttering lashes like the wings of a bird. This was a real, tangible girl he could hold, while in that other world, Nono remained oceans apart from him.

But in that world of dragons, I still have my dance troupe. And if I leave the college, who’s going to share midnight snacks with Zero? She doesn’t have many friends there…

“Just take a step back, and you’ll have a happy life, brother,” a voice said from behind him. “Who says you have to fight against the current?”

“Finally decided to show up?” Lu Mingfei sobered up instantly. When the devil comes knocking, one must always be on guard.

The boy in the black suit sat at the edge of the rooftop, facing the direction of the CBD, his silhouette bathed in the tidal wave of city lights.

An invisible force seemed to pause time—rain droplets hung frozen in the air like ice crystals, even the smoke from his uncle’s cigarette was suspended in place. A swallow hovered above Lu Mingfei’s head, its bulging eyes reflecting the city now locked in stasis like spherical lenses.

Lu Mingze rotated his wrist, and suddenly a beautiful blue basketball appeared in his hand. He hurled it towards Lu Mingfei, the ball whistling through the air at incredible speed.

Without panic, Lu Mingfei calmly extended his hand and caught the missile-like ball with one hand. His body jolted as the force was absorbed by his well-trained muscles and skeletal system, transferring it down to his feet, cracking the cement floor beneath him. As he twirled his fingers, the ball began spinning on his fingertips. Lu Mingfei looked at it in surprise—he’d barely touched a basketball before.

“You’ve inherited Chu Zihang’s legacy and gained new skills,” Lu Mingze patted his chest, instantly changing into a red jersey. “Come on, let’s have a match.”

He snapped his fingers at the distant clock tower, resetting the frozen clock to zero. The hands began to move again.

Lu Mingfei launched into action, his mind naturally flooding with all sorts of basketball techniques. The two darted across the rooftop, scattering the suspended raindrops as if caught in a blizzard. The score fluctuated, and their game became as intense as an All-Star match, each high-level technique on full display, and every point scored brought immense satisfaction. The more Lu Mingfei played, the more exhilarated he felt, his frustrations from recent days seemed to dissipate, at least for now. When the clock chimed, he was leading Lu Mingze by one point. It felt like Lu Mingze had deliberately let him win, and Lu Mingze even pulled out a pack of spicy snacks, saying it was his prize for winning.

The two sat on the rooftop, sharing the snacks. Lu Mingfei said, “Save it. I’ve got a lot of problems lately, but I’m living an interesting life. I’m not looking to die yet.”

“Do I seem like such an ungrateful devil? With Senior Sister traveling the world with you, why would you want to die? I’m here to offer you a gift this time, big brother.”

“I don’t need any gifts. Just give me some free intel. You mentioned I inherited Chu Zihang’s legacy. So you remember Senior Brother?”

Lu Mingze avoided a direct answer, “Let me ask you something. To you, is the Nibelungen real? Or just a dream?”

Lu Mingfei was caught off guard. By logic, fictional spaces shouldn’t be considered real, but he’d been to the Nibelungen beneath the Three Gorges and in the Beijing subway, experienced its reality, and even brought things in and out of it. How were those places different from the real world humans were familiar with? If someone were born in the Nibelungen, wouldn’t they view the human world as a dream instead?

“Anything that affects your perception of the world is real to you. From that perspective, dreams are real too because they influence your consciousness. You could think of the people and events in your memory as a long, long dream, or as experiences in another world, with you being the singular point between those two worlds. Likewise, you could believe that Chu Zihang is real, or choose to deny his existence.”

“Am I in some kind of parallel world?” Lu Mingfei didn’t quite understand. “Is this a parallel universe?”

“It’s hard to explain, but something is definitely wrong with the world. I may not be able to protect you anymore, which is why I’ve prepared a retirement plan for you.”

“I haven’t even graduated yet, why would I need to retire? Who’s giving me a pension? What would I even do in retirement? I can’t do anything but fight.”

“I can give you a chance to choose again, to open the door you once closed. All it takes is a small price, and you can return to your old life.”

“Everyone says I’m crazy, but I think you’re worse off than I am…”

“I once opened the door to your past for you. That summer night at Aspasia restaurant, if you had chosen to be with Chen Wenwen, you could have returned to your old life,” Lu Mingze said softly. “Embrace the past, and you embrace the life you had.”

Lu Mingfei recalled that rainy night and was stunned. “But I got into Senior Brother’s car… If I hadn’t, I would have returned to my old life?”

The scene flashed vividly in his mind—Chu Zihang’s car parked outside the restaurant. Inside, it had just been him and Chen Wenwen, their gazes meeting with a hint of unspoken feelings. It was as if they were back in their senior year of high school. By then, Chen Wenwen had already broken up with Zhao Menghua, and Lu Mingfei hadn’t yet formed any real ties to the world of dragons. When he applied for withdrawal from school back then, it would have been just a simple mind wipe, erasing the memories of that year. Chu Zihang had been waiting for him to decide. If he had stayed and finished dinner with Chen Wenwen, Chu Zihang would have driven off.

“Following the current logic, you got into President Abdullah Abbas’s car, but if you hadn’t, you would’ve gone back to your old life.”

“Can we not talk about that cursed man? Stop going in circles.”

Lu Mingze patted his shoulder. “If you want, I can let you stay in this city, living an ordinary life. The college’s pursuit team will never come after you. You can choose whoever you like, do whatever work you enjoy. Don’t want to work? Choose Su Xiaoqian. You’ll inherit dozens of mines and become the chairman of Su Mining. You won’t even need to handle anything yourself—your wife, dressed in Dior and Louboutin heels, will manage everything for you, big or small, and still come home to pamper you. Want to relive your high school romance? Choose Chen Wenwen. Want a cozy family life? Go for Liu Miaomiao.”

Lu Mingfei stayed silent for a long time before responding, “You said I could choose anyone I like, but you didn’t mention my Senior Sister’s name.”

“She’s not included, of course. She doesn’t belong to this world. She’s on the other side of the door, just like Finger.”

“If I agree, then Chu Zihang will never exist again, right?”

“That’s the price you have to pay for a happy life. There can’t be two top dogs at Shilan Middle School. Chu Zihang will be completely erased.”

Lu Mingfei gazed at the distant sea of lights. “Yeah, without Chu Zihang, I get to live this great life. Otherwise, which girl would come chasing after me? It’s like I found a winning lottery ticket on the street with no name on it. Why should I return it to anyone? It’s a gift from the heavens.”

“You’re catching on, big brother. I’m proud of you,” Lu Mingze clapped his hands. “It’s a winner-takes-all world. Why care about anyone else?”

Lu Mingfei gently patted the little devil’s head. His hair was soft and fluffy, like a gentle little cat.

“But he’s my friend. We’ve been through life and death together. Without friends, wouldn’t life be lonelier than a fish trapped in a tank?” Lu Mingfei shoved him off the rooftop.

Something incredible happened. As Lu Mingze fell backward, his body left the edge but hovered in mid-air.

He still wore that playful smile. “Brother, how cruel. We’re family. Why hurt each other over outsiders?”

“A devil that dies from falling off a rooftop—how embarrassing would that be?” Lu Mingfei waved him off. “I’m just tired of hearing you babble. I’m rejecting your offer, simple as that.”

“I knew you wouldn’t agree.” The little devil sighed. “Then remember my final warning. Take one more step forward, and you’ll be caught in the fate of the world, swept away in its current.”

The pause was lifted. He fell into the wind and rain, his laughter echoing through every corner of the city: “When dusk falls, the monsters will all march to the battlefield!”

The rain began to fall again. Cars weaved through the streets, and people without umbrellas ran in the downpour. As his uncle ran, he shouted, “Lu Mingfei, what are you standing there for? Can’t you see it’s pouring?”

Lu Mingfei quietly stared into the darkness below, the devil’s laughter still echoing in his ears.

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