Lu Mingfei Development Program

Chapter 567 The First Bride
"It's great..." The girl's emotional voice came from behind, causing Uesugi Nanruo, who was already embarrassed and dared not look up, to stiffen.

Lu Mingfei looked back and was somewhat surprised to see another red-haired girl here. The sun slid down from the treetops, and mottled light and shadow fell on Chen Motong's body. The silver four-leaf clover pendant on her ear reflected the brilliant light, like bubbles on the seashore in summer that could dissipate at any time.

Then, the foam suddenly exploded. In the splashing water, he saw this scene...

It was a mountain that towered into the clouds, hidden at the end of the world. Its peak was as black as ink, piercing the sky, as if even the stars were within reach. Even dragons could not climb up the steep cliffs, as if the existence of this mountain itself was a rejection of the world.

The lonely throne stands on the top of the peak, simple and desolate, as if it has existed since the beginning of the world.

There was no one on the throne, but an ancient ceremony was taking place in front of it.

She was dressed in a bright red wedding dress, like a bride waiting to be married, standing quietly before the throne. A thin red veil gently covered her head, like a layer of hazy mist, covering her face.

That blurry face made Lu Mingfei feel strangely familiar, as if he had called out to her softly many nights before. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not see the girl's face clearly or call out her name, as if the girl and her name had been forgotten by time.

The red veil swayed gently in the breeze, like a curtain drawn by the forgotten time, outlining her outline vaguely, as if she would disappear into the eternal darkness in the next second.

This was a wedding with no witnesses, in a corner so quiet that it seemed forgotten by the world. The bride stood alone in front of the throne, her bright red wedding dress looking particularly dazzling in the darkness, like a frozen flame.

There was no one on the throne. The groom who was supposed to be sitting on it was like an illusory phantom. He had never existed, but seemed to have always been there.

There were no guests at this wedding, no bells ringing for blessings, and even the wind held its breath. The red light flickered, stretching the bride's shadow long and casting it on the cold ground, like another lonely soul.

The face under the red veil is still blurry, as if the wedding itself is a forbidden secret, destined to be buried deep in time and abandoned by the world.

With an inexplicable throbbing in his heart, Lu Mingfei was eager to see the bride's face to see what her expression was. Was she crying for the wedding that was not allowed?
What he thought in his heart became a reality. The frozen wind resumed its flow, blowing up the red veil that covered the bride's face. The long red hair bloomed in the darkness like a flame. Lu Mingfei saw the person's face clearly, and also saw her eyes clearly.

That crimson gaze was indescribably fragile, just like her, like a piece of porcelain that had been sealed in dust for a thousand years and would shatter at the slightest touch.

"Ah... you're here." As if the person who had been waiting for a thousand years had finally arrived, the bride smiled slightly, and then disappeared into the boundless darkness like a burst of bubble.

……

"It's you..." Lu Mingfei said softly, but he forgot who he was talking about.

"It seems that my arrival makes you unhappy." Chen Motong's blushing eyes swept over, especially lingering on Uesugi Nanryusei, who was blushing so much that he could not face others.

Her expression gradually turned teasing: "But I won't apologize for this."

As she spoke, Chen Motong sat down at a corner of the tablecloth, picked up the half of the sandwich that Uesugi Wangshu had just cut, and started eating it. She choked a little, picked up the nearest teacup and took a sip, then looked at the four people who were silently looking at her.

“Don’t worry about me. I will keep it a secret for you.” She patted her chest and assured Lu Mingfei, “No matter if it’s Lucrecia or Chu Yuzhen, even if they hold a knife to my head, I will never tell anyone what I saw and heard today.”

Chen Motong winked at Lu Mingfei: "Don't worry about my promise. I've said that I will support you with all my strength."

"…That's not the problem." Lu Mingfei looked at her with some confusion, "Don't you think you're being a little too natural?"

"What else?" Chen Motong asked him with her head tilted. She pointed at the three sisters of Xiangshan, "They are my distant cousins... Although our blood relationship is quite distant, just tell me if it's true or not."

Then she looked at Lu Mingfei again: "And you are the one I decided to support. If I can't face both of you naturally, then there will probably be no one in this world that I can deal with generously."

"You accidentally revealed the fact that you have few friends." Lu Mingfei said softly.

Chen Motong smiled slightly: "Be more confident. It's not that I have very little confidence, but it's almost the same as none. People like me with a weird temper, the people who get along with me are also weird, right?"

"Susie might not be happy to hear this." Lu Mingfei glanced at the girl who openly admitted that she was weird.

"Xi Niu..." Chen Motong showed a thoughtful look, and then sighed, "Sometimes I also feel that it's a bit of a waste for such a good girl to be my friend."

"You have a unique evaluation of yourself." Lu Mingfei said, and then looked at the cup in her hand, "But before that, can you put down the cup in your hand? I used it."

Chen Motong looked at the cup in his hand belatedly and said with sudden realization: "So it was you who used it. I was wondering why there was so little water."

She finished the sandwich in her hand in two or three bites, drank the remaining tea in the cup in one gulp, picked up the teapot and refilled it, and respectfully placed it in front of Lu Mingfei.

"I'll pour you another cup, so we're even now." Chen Motong nodded to Lu Mingfei. The silver four-leaf clover beside his ear swayed slightly, and the reflected brilliant light made Lu Mingfei vaguely see the dark throne again.

This seemingly nervous girl didn't seem surprised by his sudden arrival when he was supposed to be in Sunan. She didn't ask him about his experience in the world behind the door, or what happened to Odin who had set his sights on her...

It was as if all that was already in the past and was not worth her thinking about it for even a second.

Lu Mingfei knew from a long time ago that Chen Motong was a strange girl in every sense. At school, some people called her the Red Witch, which was not a Witch like Uesugi Eri, but a Witch who was unpredictable, difficult to get along with, and didn't want to get along with others.

But what Lu Mingfei was concerned about now was the scene that accidentally flashed before his eyes when he looked at the girl. This seemed to be a change that had occurred after he found his heart. The strange wedding in the dark was not just a momentary trance.

"Nono, aren't you in the branch base?" Uesugi Wangshu made another sandwich and handed it to the girl who looked hungry.

Chen Motong took it and took a bite: "It's too boring there, everyone there is as boring as Chu Yuzhen. I couldn't stand that kind of atmosphere, so I ran away."

Lu Mingfei, who was deep in thought, looked up when he heard this: "Hey, I don't agree with that." Chen Motong grinned at him: "Take back what I said before, it's 'Chu Yumei is not boring except when she is with you'."

"Most people at Kassel Academy have serious personalities. People like those in the equipment department who are often offline are the exceptions." Uesugi Nanryusei, whose expression had returned to normal, joined the conversation.

Although her blushing face was also seen by this distant cousin, she was still grateful that she showed up at this time to ease the atmosphere. Otherwise, she didn't know if she could have a normal conversation like what happened just now.

Chen Motong looked at Sugino Nanliusheng and said, "Let me give you a piece of advice. Don't expect too much from the academy. It is literally a school for the insane. There is one more thing I need to tell you..."

Under Uesugi Nanryusei's somewhat inexplicable gaze, she suddenly smiled: "You don't have to deliberately talk to me to divert attention. You can continue to act like a spoiled child. I can't see anything."

There was no answer, and Uesugi Nanryusei was stunned. She suddenly realized why this distant cousin had the seemingly unpopular title of Red Priestess.

Miss Uesugi's face from bottom to top was like a red-hot boiler, and then a stream of hot steam exploded above her head.

“Nono, you can’t do this!” Uesugi Wangshu looked at Chen Motong, who had successfully played a prank, with a serious expression. “Although my sister is a little shy and won’t take the initiative, it’s still fun to tease her...but she is my sister, you can’t go too far!”

These words from her younger sister, which sounded more like a public execution than a rescue, completely crushed Uesugi Nanryusei. She covered her face with her hands, trying in vain to hide her blushing face.

As for Uesugi Eri, she had already taken out her spare portable game console and invited Lu Mingfei to have a long-awaited online battle.

……

The Uesugi sisters settled in Florence at the Four Seasons Hotel in the city center. The hotel was transformed from an old Renaissance palace, and it is like a colorful but historic photo, perfectly preserving hundreds of years of splendor and elegance.

In this classic hotel where history and modernity interweave, the most anticipated thing, apart from the hotel's decoration that almost gives a sense of time travel, is the famous Italian spa service.

Ancient Rome's obsession with bathing is no less than that of today's Italians with pizza and pasta. The most extant ancient relics in Rome are bathhouses. The Uesugi sisters, who also come from Japan, a country of bathing, naturally have extremely high requirements for bathing.

This is one of the few places in Florence that can meet their needs.

The spa is hidden in the deepest part of the hotel. It is said to have been converted from an ancient monastery. It is also a historic building full of Renaissance glory.

Warm spring water gushes out of the marble pool slowly, with steam rising and a faint fragrance. The sculptures and murals by the pool are faintly visible under the soft light, as if telling the story of this city hundreds of years ago.

Lu Mingfei lay in the warm spring water, feeling the warmth that was more comfortable and easier to obtain than the sun. Florence is a city without natural hot springs, but human wisdom and the ancient Romans' desire for bathing are enough to overcome it all.

Outside the window, the sunset in Florence dyed the sky golden red, and the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore was looming in the twilight.

"It's so nice..." Chen Motong, who was lying by the pool, sighed for the second time today. She picked up the highball glass on the tray and toasted to the setting sun.

She didn't tie her hair up, letting her iconic red hair float on the water, spreading like seaweed, or like a dancing flame burning in the water.

So, why did Chen Motong soak in the water with him so naturally in this bathing area that was only open to the three Uesugi sisters? Lu Mingfei was also thinking about the answer to this question.

"Are you still thinking about the three sisters?" Chen Motong turned around and winked at Lu Mingfei, "You have to work harder. I think they are much easier to deal with than Lucrecia and Chu Yuqi."

Lu Mingfei raised his head, through the mist, and looked into the pair of eyes that were as red as her hair: "No, I was thinking about you."

Chen Motong was stunned for a moment, and her pale face, which originally had a teasing expression, was now filled with surprise: "That... that's really surprising."

"I was wondering how you could lie in the same pool with me with such a natural look on your face." Lu Mingfei asked his doubts.

Sighing silently, Chen Motong couldn't tell whether it was disappointment or surprise in her voice: "I thought it was something else... Why should I be embarrassed? I am wearing a swimsuit, which makes me feel quite conservative. And the pool is so big, do I need to be shy like the eldest sister of the Uesugi family?"

Lu Mingfei looked at her silently. She was indeed wearing a swimsuit, but it was completely unrelated to the word conservative. It was a red bikini. If it was a thin-skinned young lady from the Uesugi family, her whole body would be red like a cooked crab, waiting to be tasted.

Chen Motong's figure was relatively average among the girls Lu Mingfei knew. However, this did not mean that the sight of her lying in the bathtub like a mermaid would not make people's nose bleed.

...Unfortunately, Lu Mingfei is no longer the Lu Mingfei of the past. Such erotic scenes can no longer bring much visual stimulation to him.

Noticing that Lu Mingfei didn't say anything, Chen Motong dove into the water and emerged from Lu Mingfei's side like a small fish: "What are you thinking about?"

Lu Mingfei frowned as he looked at the wound on her chest that ruined her beauty, but was still hideous after healing: "You forgot the pain after the scar healed, right?"

The first time he saw the girl's vulnerable side was when she was swimming in the Yangtze River diving area and nearly drowned. At that time, he saw that the wound was dark red and looked like it was about to bleed.

"You're still here, at worst we can just try again." Chen Motong poked Lu Mingfei's chest twice, looking a little conflicted.

"What are you doing?" Lu Mingfei looked at her puzzledly.

Chen Motong withdrew his hand, with a look of regret on his face that was a little red because of the hot water: "I was wondering if I could poke your chest muscles so that I can recall the feeling of leaning on them when you pulled me out that day."

"Do you think it's possible..." She looked at Lu Mingfei with some anticipation.

"No." Lu Mingfei refused decisively.

(End of this chapter)