Lu Mingfei, become the King of Elden!

Chapter 239 Fellow Patients
"Actually, my parents rarely interfere with me."

Xia Mi walked aimlessly with her hands behind her back, her eyes losing focus among the ancient artworks.

I thought you were very pampered at home.

Lu Mingfei said it offhand.

"why?"

Xia Mi asked.

Lu Mingfei was taken aback by her question.

Why? This question seems to need no reason.

Xia Mi looks like the kind of girl who was born to be cherished. In mythology, she would be an elf surrounded by beasts from birth, and her smile is like sunshine.

She turned back and continued walking slowly forward, her voice light and airy, as if talking to herself:

"Senior brother, you've seen my file, so you know I have an older brother, right? He's mentally challenged, and my parents always have to stay home with him, so they just let me grow up on my own."

They often skip my parent-teacher conferences, even though I always get the highest score in the class, even though I win a gold medal in the math Olympiad, they don't care anymore.

Are they free-range?
Lu Mingfei pondered the word, feeling as if no one had ever cared about him before?
The seats at parent-teacher meetings are always empty. The teacher says his grades are a liability, and his uncles and aunts, needless to say, see him only as someone who receives a monthly allowance from a bank card.

Nobody cares about him.

The two unknowingly walked into a relatively quiet exhibition hall, where more modern artworks were displayed.

Xia Mi stopped in front of a painting. It was Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks".

In the scene, a small restaurant that stays open all night resembles a lonely, glowing fish tank on a dark street. Inside, three strangers sit without exchanging a word with each other, surrounded by the cold night and empty streets, exuding a sense of loneliness.

Xia Mi gazed at the painting quietly for a long time. The enormous glass window in the painting seemed to separate the inside from the outside into two incompatible worlds.

“Sometimes I feel,” she suddenly whispered, her voice as fleeting as dust in an exhibition hall, “that I’m a bit like them.”

"He also looks a bit like...my brother."

"It looks like we're in the same bright place as everyone else, but actually there's a thick, unbreakable layer of glass between us. He's on the other side of the glass, and I'm on this side. My parents are outside, busy trying to keep the lights on in the room, afraid they'll go out or break."

“We are twins. My brother was born 6 hours earlier than me. Because I didn’t come out for a long time, the doctors and nurses were so worried that they forgot to take care of my brother. He couldn’t breathe and suffocated for half an hour, so he became mentally disabled.”

Xia Mi said:
"So Mom and Dad said my brother gave me the opportunity, and since he's also very smart and talented, I should do better than everyone else because half of my success is due to my brother... No matter how hard I try, I won't get praised..."

She turned her head to look at Lu Mingfei and asked:

"Senior brother, do you have any other older or younger brothers or sisters at home?"

Lu Mingfei scratched his head and said somewhat vaguely:
"Well, I guess so, I have a younger brother."

Is a cousin considered a younger brother?
Although he never treated that ball-shaped kid as a younger brother, and that "ball" never called him "brother" once.

Compared to this "Lu Mingze", the other devil "Lu Mingze" is more like his younger brother. At least he is a good actor and on the surface he can be considered to have a "brotherly affection" demeanor.

"So, are you and him close?"

Xia Mi asked.

Lu Mingfei shook his head:

"No." "But I really like my brother."

Xia Mi said.

"Maybe it's because I spent ten months with him in my mother's belly that he's so clingy to me. He can't stay still, and when his parents can't do anything about it, he'll quiet down as soon as I talk to him."

For a while, he couldn't see me. He thought Mom and Dad were hiding me, so he threw a tantrum, but it wasn't because he was having an episode. Later, I went to see him in the hospital. He was lying in bed, staring intently at the ceiling, refusing to sleep. But when he saw me, his eyes changed instantly. I took his hand, and he sniffed it. He thought the smell and appearance were right, that it was definitely his little sister, and then he fell asleep holding my hand.

Xia Mi smiled:

"Just like a little puppy. Wouldn't you love your own puppy?"

Is it a puppy?

Lu Mingfei suddenly remembered that night during his freshman year of college.

At that time, he was still very weak. When the dragons invaded, he would hide in the swimming pool in fear. There he met a handsome boy with a small face, light eyebrows, and a pair of clear black eyes, but his gaze was empty. His naked body had a pale white color, and his ribs were exposed because he was too thin.

"I'm not here to see you, I'm here to see my brother. Have you seen him?"

The boy asked him this question.

It looked like a skinny, small dog that had gotten lost from its owner.

Later, the boy died, and his brother also died.

After being severely injured by the Philosopher's Stone shot from between Lu Mingfei's eyebrows, the boy was killed by a massive amount of live ammunition; his brother tried to avenge him underwater, but Lu Mingfei shattered his "core" with "Rage".

Lu Mingfei remained silent for an even longer time. The exhibition hall was quiet; he could hear his own breathing, and the footsteps of other visitors in the distance were indistinct.

Things in this world are always as chaotic as a ball of yarn, with grudges and affections intertwined, people killing each other, dragons killing each other, and even hybrids killing each other.

He suddenly said:
Do you know how I feel right now?

Xia Mi's eyes widened, filled with curiosity.

He continued:
"It's like you're walking down the street and you see a guy wearing a striped shirt. You feel a sense of kinship, walk up to him, extend your wristband, and say, 'What a coincidence, you also escaped from this mental hospital,'"

Lu Mingfei shrugged:

"Then we're fellow patients."

Lu Mingfei's analogy was so unique that even Xia Mi was taken aback.

Her eyes, which always held a smile, widened slightly, as if she hadn't expected such a response. Then, she chuckled.

"After all, mixed-race people are more prone to producing extreme lunatics and mentally ill individuals."

Lu Mingfei shrugged:

"Junior sister, you're neglected by your parents, and I, your senior brother, am simply uncared for by them. Coincidentally, we happen to be in the same mental hospital."

“However,” Lu Mingfei suddenly said, “in the end, your senior brother is still someone who hates tragedy. I’m always arrogant, and I always think that it would be great if everyone in the world were happy.”

He paused, then laughed as if mocking himself, but there was no warmth in that smile.

"But you know, that idea is stupid, right? It's like expecting all the NPCs in a game to follow your script. Unfortunately, this crappy game in reality doesn't even have a save/load function."

(End of this chapter)