Dragon Clan: Lu Mingfei Returns from Japan

Chapter 615: A Taste of Both Sour and Sweet

Su Xiaoqiang initially thought Lu Mingfei couldn't understand Portuguese, and in a moment of deep emotion, she couldn't help but whisper in his ear, revealing her true feelings. Unexpectedly, Lu Mingfei actually remembered those words and has remembered them ever since.

What does this feeling feel like? It's like...

Well, Su Xiaoqiang can't quite put her finger on it.

In her heart, it seemed that no metaphor could describe the sweetness and joy she felt at that moment.

If I had to put it in perspective, it's like eating a very, very sweet candied hawthorn. The shy, sour taste, like a hawthorn, that Lu Mingfei brought up again is just a garnish of the sweetness of the outer candied shell.

Rather, it is precisely because of that touch of shyness that the sweetness in my heart spreads even more beautifully.

Life needs both sweet and sour to be flavorful. The same goes for love.

"So what if you know? It's no big deal. Anyway, I was just telling you."

Su Xiaoqiang's tone was quite dismissive, as if it were no big deal, but the beautiful blush on her face made her words seem rather unconvincing.

Lu Mingfei continued to tease his girlfriend: "Is it really nothing serious?"

"Of course!"

"Then I want to hear you say it to me again, Qiangqiang."

"..."

"uh-huh?"

It's actually quite strange. Sometimes, when Su Xiaoqiang is with Lu Mingfei, she naturally blurts out sweet, soft words of love. But right now, when faced with Lu Mingfei's teasing, she stammers and becomes embarrassed. This is probably the difference between actively flirting and passively being teased.

Seeing his girlfriend's blushing face, Lu Mingfei stopped teasing Su Xiaoqiang and changed the subject, saying, "Hey, what kind of roses are those over there? And why are they white?"

Upon hearing this, Su Xiaoqiang also raised her feverish little face and looked into the distance.

"Oh, that's a 'white ruby,' a rather rare variety."

"Let's go take a look over there."

As Lu Mingfei spoke, he stood up and extended his hand to Su Xiaoqiang. After hesitating for a moment, Su Xiaoqiang obediently placed her hand in Lu Mingfei's palm and was pulled up by the boy.

Lu Mingfei walked in front, and Su Xiaoqiang followed behind like a well-behaved little wife. The two held hands, their fingers tightly clasped, swaying gently through the early summer garden.

A soft, sweet voice came from behind, this time in Chinese. The girl no longer needed to be as subtle and veiled in expressing her feelings as before.

"I like you the most, Mingfei."

……

"What? Aren't all the flowers in here in bloom? Why can't it be open to the public?" The girl who was with Chen Jiajia stood outside the curtain wall, looking at the closed entrance of "Dream Garden" through the glass curtain wall and muttered.

It's understandable that she'd complain. If the exhibition hall was closed because the flowers weren't blooming, that would be fine. But the problem is, looking through the glass wall, the roses are clearly in full bloom. Why won't people go in? It's really baffling.

Chen Jiajia was quite relaxed about it: "It's okay. There are other exhibition halls in the flower show, and we may not be able to see them all today. If you want to see them, we can come back on the weekend. The exhibition halls should be open to the public by then."

That makes sense, but girls are still a little annoyed. It's like going to the zoo, specifically to see the panda enclosure, which is the most popular and central attraction, only to be told that the pandas are sick and therefore closed to the public.

You will naturally feel that you've wasted your trip.

"Let's go check out the other exhibition halls. We haven't even started our sketching assignments yet. We have to hand them in to the teacher after we meet up this afternoon," Chen Jiajia suggested.

Although the girl was unhappy, she nodded in agreement to Chen Jiajia's suggestion. After all, the exhibition hall doors weren't even open, and you couldn't just force your way in.

Among the boys in the group, the one who was leading the group did not follow Chen Jiajia. Instead, he walked to the gate at the entrance of the exhibition hall with his hands in his pockets and kicked it with his foot: "This gate isn't very high. It looks like you can easily climb over it."

The show-off mentality is ingrained in the bones of spoiled brats, and given that they are in middle school and in front of pretty girls in their class, the urge to show off naturally surfaces.

"What do you want to do?" Chen Jiajia asked somewhat warily.

"Jiajia, would you like to go inside and take a look?" The boy turned around with a grin: "We can help you climb over there."

"unnecessary."

"Don't be a coward, there's no one else around. Let's sneak in and take a look, no one will know."

"There are surveillance cameras all around here."

Chen Jiajia suddenly regretted agreeing to go to the flower show with these boys from her class… These guys were so unruly. She should have known they'd only cause trouble. The other girls in the group thought to themselves, "Why are all these boys in the class so immature… Or do they really think it's cool? Don't they know Jiajia prefers more mature guys?"

Honestly, we're all from the same school. Why are the boys in my class so different from seniors like Chu Zihang and Lu Mingfei? Those kids in my class are so immature. Or are the boys in the college entrance exam preparation class just more mature than the boys in the art class?
The girl pouted, took Chen Jiajia's arm, and was about to tell her, "Jiajia, let's ignore them and just leave."

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw it...

"Lu Mingfei... Senior Brother?"

"Huh?" Chen Jiajia was still a little confused.

The girl suddenly stood up straight, tugged at Chen Jiajia's arm, and looked through the glass curtain wall at the rose garden inside 'Dream Garden': "Jiajia, look quickly, isn't that Senior Brother Lu inside!"

Chen Jiajia naturally knew Lu Mingfei. She couldn't guarantee the same for the boys, but among the girls at Shilan Middle School, Chen Jiajia felt there shouldn't be a single girl who didn't know Lu Mingfei…

Because of the serialized novel, "Lu Mingfei's Youthful Romance Story Is Definitely Problematic (Original Title: About the Fallen Lu Mingfei and His Life on Thin Ice)," it went viral among the girls at Shilan High School.

Although compared to Chu Zihang, who has a wealth of impressive achievements, Lu Mingfei's fame rivals Chu Zihang's based on just one serialized novel, which seems a bit unfair.

However, it would be impossible for Lu Mingfei to gain so much popularity among female readers simply because he is the protagonist of the novel.

After seeing the novel on the Shilan Middle School forum, many girls came to visit, pretending to casually pass by the door of Class 2, Grade 1, but secretly inquiring about which one was Lu Mingfei. Then they would see the boy in the corner of the classroom, the morning sunlight shining through the classroom glass, the reflected light spots falling on his face.

"Handsome" is actually a very superficial adjective. If you only have a good impression of someone because they are handsome, it means that your understanding of that person will always be limited to their appearance, and you will have no other knowledge about them.

However, Chen Jiajia felt that no girl would deny Lu Mingfei's handsomeness after making eye contact with him.

His handsomeness wasn't the sculpted, exquisitely handsomeness of Chu Zihang, but rather a subtle, understated charm. Like a boy whose face was obscured by his bangs; like a boy carrying his cello to the empty audience; like a figure walking further and further away in the rain on a stormy day, the rain falling like a curtain outside the eaves, the raindrops like wisps of smoke.

"Like cherry blossoms, beautiful yet fragile, the moment your eyes meet, you will subconsciously feel sorry for him."

This is a summary of Lu Mingfei's temperament from a comment on the forum.

Such people are often destined to have many romantic encounters, and he was indeed destined to have many. During his junior high school years, Liu Miaomiao, a very popular piano prodigy and school beauty, had already secretly fallen for him and made their relationship public, cutting off any chance for other girls to have designs on him.

This is actually a good thing, as it keeps most girls, including Chen Jiajia, from having any feelings for Lu Mingfei beyond admiration and prying, and prevents them from having any further thoughts.

Therefore, when Chen Jiajia heard from her best friend that she had seen Lu Mingfei, her first reaction was:

"How could Senior Brother Lu be here? School isn't closed today."

"No, no!" The girl anxiously pointed in a certain direction: "Jiajia, look over there!"

Although she didn't believe Lu Mingfei would be here, Chen Jiajia still looked up in the direction her best friend was pointing.

Then she saw it...

"...It really seems to be Senior Brother Lu?" Chen Jiajia was stunned.

There was only one distant figure, but that was enough. Countless girls at Shilan Middle School brushed past Lu Mingfei, only catching a fleeting glimpse of his passing figure when they turned around.

“Right, right!” the girl said. “But why is Senior Brother Lu at the flower show? Aren’t we supposed to have classes today? And isn’t ‘Dream Garden’ closed off?”

"I already said that..." Chen Jiajia complained.

"Wait, Jiajia, look! Doesn't it look like Senior Brother Lu is carrying a girl on his back?"

Yes, there was one, and she saw him too. Lu Mingfei walked along the muddy path blooming with roses, chatting and laughing with the girl he was carrying. The melancholy and broken boy's smile was indeed as gentle as she had imagined.

however--

"That girl, isn't that Senior Sister Liu?" The girl's voice suddenly lowered, as if she felt she had discovered something extraordinary.

They all knew Liu Miaomiao, of course. Although as girls they weren't particularly interested in school beauty rankings, the top-ranked girls on those lists were all well-known figures in the school. Liu Miaomiao, in particular, was a guest at various school parties, and her piano solos were always the grand finale.

And the girl Lu Mingfei was carrying on his back...

"That looks like... Su Xiaoqiang?" Chen Jiajia replied in a low voice, but how could she be here with Senior Brother Lu? And Senior Brother Lu was carrying her on his back.

Just as Chen Jiajia was filled with curiosity and some unbelievable thoughts were beginning to emerge in her mind.

She suddenly saw... Lu Mingfei suddenly turned his head and kissed Su Xiaoqiang.

……

(End of this chapter)