Five years old Lu Mingfei

Chapter 152, 149. Love is sacrifice, giving, and willingness.
Xia Mi angrily slapped his forehead: "What nonsense are you spouting? Do you think I'd really do anything to you?!"

She gritted her teeth and glared at him: "You know you're wrong, but you're still unrepentant. You won't even say sorry?"

Lu Mingfei hung his head and whispered, "I don't want to say sorry, I want to be worthy of you..."

This contradictory yet sincere demeanor both amused and exasperated Xia Mi, and she couldn't help but soften her heart, swallowing back the words of question that were on the tip of her tongue.

Fingel gasped. His junior brother was truly a master of mind control, turning the tide with just a single sentence.

But to say he did it on purpose doesn't seem quite right.

After all, the way his left and right brains were fighting each other really didn't seem like acting.

"Then do something worthy of me..." Xia Mi covered her forehead, feeling like an incompetent wife.

Lu Mingfei took a deep breath: "I don't want to make any reasons or excuses for what I've done. Although I'm hopelessly wrong, I don't intend to change it..."

Fingel was shocked. Had Lu Mingfei gone mad?! The situation was clearly looking great. He could have just said a few sweet words to Xia Mi and the matter would have been over, right? Why did he suddenly reveal himself? Was he going to confront Xia Mi?

"I'm doomed," he thought. "Junior brother, I only wanted to set your harem ablaze, but you're just adding fuel to the fire yourself."

Xia Mi squinted and spoke to him in a cold tone for the first time since they met: "I don't understand what you're trying to say."

Fingel felt a little relieved. His junior sister Xia Mi still held onto old feelings and gave him a way out. As long as he wasn't stupid, he'd take the plunge.

Lu Mingfei seemed to have used all his strength, squeezing his voice from deep in his throat: "What I meant was, if I could, I would want to satisfy my greed and possessiveness—"

"What about me?" Xia Mi interrupted him.

She said expressionlessly, "You want me to share you with them—people whose names I don't even know?"

"Chu Zihan can accept all of this because in your heart, she will always be the one you love the most."

Xia Mi pointed to her chest: "My heart is completely filled with you, but what I receive from you is only a tiny fraction of it..."

She said, enunciating each word clearly, "Is this fair?"

Lu Mingfei ran his fingers through his hair, pulling it up again and again, then combing it down again and again.

The oppressive atmosphere made Fingel tremble slightly. Fujiwara Kansuke had left at the beginning and cleared the area around him, leaving him alone in the audience.

He wanted to run, but his legs wouldn't move.

After about a minute, Lu Mingfei finally spoke, a helpless bitter smile on his face, his voice a little hoarse: "I originally thought that no matter how difficult this matter was, I would be determined to persuade you, but I didn't expect to waver at the very first step..."

His expression slowly hardened: "Xia Mi, do you know, I really want to spend the rest of my life with you, or with my senior sister, or with a girl who likes me and whom I like. I don't ask for much, I'll be satisfied with just that."

"However, things never go as smoothly as I expect. I went from one extreme to the other, and I don't like either of those two lives..."

“But now, if you ask me to give up this kind of life, I can’t do it,” Lu Mingfei said calmly.

Xia Mi just stared at him blankly, without saying a word.

After a while, she turned to leave.

Lu Mingfei grabbed her hand, preventing her from leaving.

Xia Mi whispered, "Let go."

Lu Mingfei ignored her words and instead gripped her hand even tighter, his knuckles turning slightly white from the force.

Xia Mi didn't struggle. She seemed exhausted, her slender shoulders slumped slightly, and her voice was as soft as a feather: "That's enough, isn't it? I know you're in a difficult position. I'm leaving. It's better for everyone."

Lu Mingfei asked hoarsely, "Where are you going?"

“Going back to Beijing, no matter what, I’m Jormungandr, the Dragon King. I’m not going to be homeless,” Xia Mi said casually. “Go where?” Lu Mingfei gripped her hand tightly.

Xia Mi chuckled softly: "I will remain a widow for you for the rest of my life, until I die."

Lu Mingfei fell silent.

Xia Mi waited quietly.

Time slowly passed, and the silence that could not solve the problem eventually had to end.

The young boy pleaded in a low, almost inaudible voice, yet every word struck Xia Mi's heart like a hammer blow: "Please don't go, I beg you..."

Xia Mi's eyes widened in an instant. She turned around in disbelief, her golden pupils blazing with fury in the dim light: "Who do you think you are! What do you take your dignity for?! What kind of emperor in this world begs from others!"

Lu Mingfei laughed instead: "I want Xia Mi to stay by my side forever, but I have nothing to keep you here, not even enough love to give you. I think, at least my dignity still has some value..."

"Even if I were to become emperor, I would probably be like King You of Zhou or King Zhou of Shang, who loved beauty more than his kingdom," he said with a smile.

Xia Mi threw herself onto his shoulder.

Lu Mingfei was knocked back half a step before regaining his balance. Then he felt a small patch of fabric on his shoulder quickly become wet—warm tears seeped through the fabric onto his skin.

Xia Mi's tears fell heavily, yet almost silently. Only the slight trembling of her shoulders and suppressed gasps betrayed her emotions. She gripped the back of his shirt tightly, the fabric crumpled between her fingers.

"Bastard, scumbag, idiot!" she sobbed as she cursed him, each word slurred with a heavy nasal tone, sounding less intimidating and more like a wronged accusation.

"I don't want to leave at all. I want to be with you. I don't want you to beg me. Just lie to me, say a few things I like to hear, and make me happy, okay?" Xia Mi sobbed and complained to him through her tears.

Lu Mingfei pulled Xia Mi into his arms, his arms encircling her slender back, gently patting her back like he was soothing a baby: "It's all my fault, bite me a couple of times to calm down..."

Xia Mi shook her head vigorously on his shoulder: "No!"

She nuzzled Lu Mingfei with a tender look on her face, saying, "You're so, so good. I like you. I'm not angry at all."

Lu Mingfei was taken aback.

The next second, he was still wondering why Xia Mi had suddenly become so direct. When he saw that her earlobes had turned completely red after she said those words, and that blush spread from her ears to her fair neck, he realized that she had been suppressing her shyness to say them.

"Yes, I like you too, I really like you." Lu Mingfei's lips curled up slightly.

Xia Mi raised her head, blinking her long eyelashes, which were covered with tears. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, repeating this several times before finally speaking, her voice as soft as a mosquito's hum: "...I also want to ask you for a favor..."

"Huh?!" Lu Mingfei was shocked.

Xia Mi blushed, looking like a kitten whose tail had been stepped on. She glared at him fiercely, but her reddened and wet eyes diminished her ferocity: "So you're allowed to beg me, but I'm not allowed to beg you?!"

Regardless of what Lu Mingfei thought, Xia Mi had only one reason for using the word "beg"—to even things out with him. If both sides spoke, it would be the same as not speaking at all.

Lu Mingfei took a deep breath to calm the surging emotions in his heart.

"You said."

Xia Mi didn't speak immediately. Her wet eyes stared straight into Lu Mingfei's eyes. After a long while, she said with an unprecedented pleading tone, "Promise me, never say the word 'please' again, no matter who it is, even if it's Chu Zihan, okay?"

Lu Mingfei was somewhat dazed: "...I promise you..."

He almost blurted out, "Can't I say it when I propose?"

After listening to the whole thing, Fingel, who had been lying on the ground pretending to be dead and praying that the two people hadn't discovered he was still alive, suddenly twitched at the corner of his mouth.

Damn it, bigamy is illegal, you know that?!

(End of this chapter)