Dragon Clan: Lu Mingfei Returns from Japan

Chapter 712 IF Side Story: A Daily Romance Without Dragons (4)

After walking along two roads and turning a corner, you'll find the newly opened milk tea shop. Although it's said to be next to the school, it's actually quite a distance away. Lu Mingfei stopped his bicycle in front of the milk tea shop, and only then did Liu Miaomiao loosen her grip on his waist slightly.

"We've arrived," Lu Mingfei reminded them.

"Yes, I know." Liu Miaomiao lowered her eyes and nodded gently, as if reluctantly letting go of Lu Mingfei's waist.

Lu Mingfei also got out of the car and moved to the awning of the milk tea shop. Liu Miaomiao held the strap of her schoolbag and followed behind him.

At that moment, Lu Mingfei saw a familiar face looking at him and Liu Miaomiao through the window, revealing a meaningful smile.

Lu Mingfei looked at Deng Zhuoyi and immediately shook his head in denial, trying to indicate that things weren't as Deng Zhuoyi described. She waved her hand downwards, giving him a knowing look.

Lu Mingfei was about to explain to her when the short-haired, pretty girl sitting next to her smiled and greeted him first. Lu Mingfei was taken aback; he hadn't expected that the person sitting opposite Deng Zhuoyi was actually President Su Qian.

Lu Mingfei and Liu Miaomiao entered the store, each ordered a milk tea, and went straight to Deng Zhuoyi. Deng Zhuoyi got up and sat down with Su Qian, making room for Lu Mingfei and Liu Miaomiao.

"Hello, I'm Susie."

"Yes, hello, I've seen you at the freshman welcome party. My name is Liu Miaomiao."

While Susie and Liu Miaomiao were greeting each other, Deng Zhuoyi leaned over and whispered to Lu Mingfei, "I asked you two if you were boyfriend and girlfriend before, and you wouldn't admit it. Now I've caught you red-handed."

Lu Mingfei recalled his intimate actions with Liu Miaomiao in the car earlier and was momentarily at a loss for words: "...It was purely a misunderstanding..."

Before he could finish speaking, Senior Sister Su tilted her head and smiled at me, saying, "Junior Brother Mo, your girlfriend is very pretty."

"No, no..." Liu Miaomiao blushed and shook her hand, showing a rare moment of hesitation and looking at a loss.

"No, you've misunderstood. We're not dating," I quickly explained.

"Hmm...really?" Both of them looked rather skeptical.

“Really!” Liu Miaomiao and I nodded in unison.

"Wasn't it because you were shy that you hid it from us?"

"No!" This time, he and Liu Miaomiao shook their heads together again.

Senior Sister Susie stared at Lu Mingfei for a long time. Lu Mingfei felt like he was being pierced by her sharp gaze before he finally looked away, smiled, and took a sip of his milk tea: "Well, if you say it's not, then it's not."

Lu Mingfei let out a sigh of relief, then, as if noticing something, asked, "By the way, Senior Sister Susie, did you know each other before? How come you came to the milk tea shop together?"

Senior Sister Susie nodded: "Yes, we've known each other since we were little. Our families have business dealings, so we're practically childhood friends. We're just here to wait for someone."

“If you’re waiting for someone, then we’ll be going now and won’t disturb you any longer,” Lu Mingfei said.

"It's alright, you all know that person."

"Hmm, we know each other too?"

As they were talking, the sound of the milk tea shop door opening rang out. Susie nodded to Lu Mingfei, then stepped aside and waved to him and Liu Miaomiao behind them. A series of light footsteps then approached them.

Su Xiaoqiang.

When Lu Mingfei saw that the person who came was Su Xiaoqiang, he was stunned for a moment. It seemed that she had already gone home, not only because her schoolbag was not with her, but also because she was no longer wearing her school uniform, but a sky-blue knee-length dress that exposed her fair shoulders and calves, and she was wearing the same sandals as yesterday.

At the same time Lu Mingfei saw Su Xiaoqiang, Su Xiaoqiang also saw him. When their eyes met, Mingfei was stunned for a moment, but when her eyes fell on Liu Miaomiao, her expression immediately dimmed, and she quickened her pace to walk over.

"You've arrived." Senior Sister Su Qian smiled at Su Xiaoqiang.

"Um."

Su Xiaoqiang nodded expressionlessly: "What did you call me here for?"

…………

What happened after that, neither Liu Miaomiao nor I knew. As Su Xiaoqiang sat down, Deng Zhuoyi gave Lu Mingfei a wink. Lu Mingfei immediately understood, took Liu Miaomiao's hand, and he and Deng Zhuoyi each made an excuse to leave, giving them some space.

Su Xiaoqiang and Su Qian arranged to meet at a milk tea shop, and on the way there, Lu Mingfei kept wondering about their relationship: they shared the same surname, could they be sisters? But they didn't look quite alike...

Lu Mingfei couldn't figure it out, so he had to give up thinking about it. Liu Miaomiao walked silently beside him, her steps not as quick as usual, but deliberately light.

Although she didn't know what was going on, she could tell from the atmosphere that it wasn't going to be a pleasant experience, so she deliberately slowed her pace and didn't speak to Lu Mingfei again.

"call--"

Lu Mingfei let out a long breath, clearing his mind of all thoughts unrelated to him. Seeing that he had snapped out of his reverie, Liu Miaomiao leaned over and tentatively asked, "You... seem a little troubled. Are you bothered by something?"

“No.” Lu Mingfei scratched his head. “I’m just a little curious.”

We returned to the crossroads; it was time for the two of us to part ways. After making a call to the family driver, Liu Miaomiao looked at Lu Mingfei, hesitant to speak.

Seeing her expression, Lu Mingfei stopped and waited for her to speak. She blinked: "Remember to log on to QQ tonight."

"Hmm?" Lu Mingfei blinked. "That's it."

"That's it, you idiot!"

Liu Miaomiao bit her lip, then waved and ran towards the intersection ahead. After only a few steps, she turned back twice and repeated, "Remember, remember!"

Liu Miaomiao dashed across the intersection and quickly disappeared into the crowd.

After finishing his homework, Lu Mingfei turned on his computer. Just then, a friend with a Hello Kitty profile picture logged on, and the name "Liu Miaomiao" flashed on the screen in a rather dramatic way.

I hesitated for a moment, then clicked on the profile picture: "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just that I noticed this afternoon you seemed quite bothered by what happened with Su Xiaoqiang," Liu Miaomiao replied listlessly. "You seem... quite troubled?"

"No, I was just a little curious."

"Really?"

"Hmm," I said, "So, Liu Miaomiao, what exactly is it that you need?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the chat window before a reply came: "Did I ask too many questions? I'm sorry, I was actually trying to ease your worries."

"Well……"

The chat window suddenly went silent, then my phone beeped with a multimedia message file named "Liu Miaomiao." After I clicked to accept, my phone suddenly received several photos.

Lu Mingfei opened it and took a look, instantly feeling his nosebleed about to start.

The first photo is of Liu Miaomiao striking a cute pose, with delicate makeup and an adorable expression.

The second photo was even more provocative; it was a full-body shot of Liu Miaomiao in an evening gown. This time, Lu Mingfei finally saw the background clearly, and it looked like a photo taken during a piano exam.

The third card... the fourth card... seven cards in a row.

Lu Mingfei could even clearly hear his own heartbeat, thump-thump-thump. After taking a deep breath, he sent a question mark to the other person on QQ. The other person replied: "These are some artistic photos I took last year when I participated in the piano grade 10 competition. I've never shown them to anyone before. I'm showing them to you today as an apology... You can't show them to anyone else! How about it?"

Lu Mingfei didn't know how to answer, so he could only say, "It's very beautiful..."

"I... I didn't ask you if it looked good..."

Lu Mingfei could even imagine Liu Miaomiao blushing on the other side of the computer: "I wanted to ask if you accepted my apology?" Before he could reply, Liu Miaomiao sent another message: "Um... do you really think it looks good?"

Lu Mingfei didn't know how to reply, so he simply sent an "Mm".

"Alright, you've seen my photos, so it's time to grant my request, right?"

"Forehead……"

"Are you going to back out? I've never shown that set of private artistic photos to anyone before; you're the first."

"..."

"So you agreed?"

Lu Mingfei felt like he'd fallen into Liu Miaomiao's trap, but since he'd actually seen those photos, he could only reply, "Mm."

The other side replied with a smiley face.

"Then tomorrow at noon, pretend to be my boyfriend and come with me to the music club. That club president is always trying to get close to me, it's so annoying."

"???"

Lu Mingfei was stunned for a moment? Pretending to be a boyfriend? What kind of bizarre plot twist is this in a campus romance comedy?

"No going back on your word!" Liu Miaomiao emphasized in a message.

"Why me?" Lu Mingfei asked.

"Because you're the only guy I'm close to at school."

Liu Miaomiao's answer was impeccable. Lu Mingfei had no choice but to reply, "Alright then..."

"Okay, thank you."

Liu Miaomiao paused for a moment: "Since you agreed so readily, if you play the role of my boyfriend well, I'll pay you an extra reward later..."

"What kind of compensation?"

"Hmm, you'll see then~"

……

The next morning, after breakfast, Lu Mingfei had just reached his building when he saw Liu Miaomiao, dressed in her school uniform and carrying a backpack, waiting for him downstairs. They were going to school together that day, something they had arranged the night before. After all, they were pretending to be a couple, so the act had to be as convincing as possible.

"Well, um, I was thinking that going to school together would make us seem more like a couple..."

That's what Liu Miaomiao said at the time.

Lu Mingfei felt that Liu Miaomiao's words made sense, so he agreed.

"Good morning," Liu Miaomiao greeted with a sweet smile.

On his first day of school, a girl was waiting for him at his doorstep. For some reason, a strange feeling welled up inside Lu Mingfei. He coughed twice to hide his unease and greeted Liu Miaomiao, "Good morning..."

"That……"

Liu Miaomiao looked up at Lu Mingfei, her eyes sparkling, then suddenly reddened. After stammering for a while, she finally managed to utter a few words: "Then, can I call you Mingfei at school?"

"Well……"

"Look, we have to change how we address each other so others won't know we're now boyfriend and girlfriend...!"

"Ah..." Indeed, if it weren't made public, the music club president who was always bothering Liu Miaomiao wouldn't believe it.

But Liu Miaomiao suddenly called out her own name...

After a long silence, Lu Mingfei nodded slightly, and Liu Miaomiao's flushed face lit up with a happy expression: "Mingfei?"

“…Miaomiao?”

"Mmm," Liu Miaomiao replied. I then offered my elbow to Liu Miaomiao.

"What's wrong?" Liu Miaomiao looked at Lu Mingfei, who suddenly reached out his hand to her, puzzled.

"Let's go to school hand in hand."

Lu Mingfei blinked and smiled naturally: "Isn't this kind of thing normal between boyfriends and girlfriends, Miaomiao?"

Upon hearing my words, Liu Miaomiao's face, which had calmed down considerably, flushed again, and she became unusually shy: "Such an intimate way of addressing me..."

"Isn't that a correct way to call it?"

“Yes…!” Liu Miaomiao looked up at Lu Mingfei, a brighter smile than ever before on her face, and placed her hand in Lu Mingfei’s arm: “Mingfei~”

Lu Mingfei rode his bicycle, carrying Liu Miaomiao to school.

In my memory, during my three years of junior high school, there seemed to be times when Liu Miaomiao and he walked together for a while on her way home from school. But this seemed to be the first time the two of them had gone to school together.

Along the way, Liu Miaomiao wrapped her arms around Lu Mingfei's waist and pressed her body against his back.

Lu Mingfei straightened his back nervously, feeling the soft touch of Liu Miaomiao's body behind him.

After all, she was a popular piano prodigy at Shilan Middle School. To be honest, Lu Mingfei didn't even know when his relationship with Liu Miaomiao had become so close. A mediocre student who loved playing games and a wealthy, academically gifted, and aloof beauty—they seemed like they came from completely different worlds.

However, a chance encounter at a junior high school Christmas party seemed to gradually bring Lu Mingfei and Liu Miaomiao closer together. Adding to their affability, they were in the same class, sat close to each other, and coincidentally, their student ID numbers were next to each other when they were assigned student IDs.

As time went by, Lu Mingfei suddenly became one of the few male friends around Liu Miaomiao when she entered her senior year of high school.

Lu Mingfei stopped the car in front of Shilan Middle School and said to Liu Miaomiao behind him, "We're here."

Liu Miaomiao nodded, removed her hand from Lu Mingfei's waist, and lightly jumped out of the car.

The moment the two appeared at the school gate, they immediately attracted the attention of many people.

Lu Mingfei then got out of the car, turned it around, and drove towards the school's parking shed. Liu Miaomiao took a few steps forward and walked towards the teaching building in the opposite direction. Halfway there, she suddenly turned back and called out to Lu Mingfei, "Mingfei!"

"Hmm?" Lu Mingfei turned to look at her. "What's wrong?"

She took a deep breath: "Honey, I'll wait for you at the classroom door."

"..."

When Liu Miaomiao called out, everyone around stopped and stared at her and Lu Mingfei. The area around Liu Miaomiao and Lu Mingfei seemed to freeze in time.

As Lu Mingfei endured the complex mix of ambiguous and hostile gazes from those around him, a girl walked past him. Unlike the others, she didn't stop, nor did she even glance at Lu Mingfei.

Su Xiaoqiang.

……

(End of this chapter)