Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from Japan

When I arrived at the auditorium of Shilan Middle School, the rehearsal for the evening's performance was in full swing, with the instructor supervising from the sidelines.

Although Lu Mingfei and Chu Zihang secretly changed the program, they couldn't participate in the rehearsal because school teachers were present throughout. Their first time on the gala stage was also their official performance.

Seeing Lu Mingfei arrive, Chu Zihang waved to him from a distance, standing beside the stage. Lu Mingfei jogged over to Chu Zihang.

"Wait for me here." Chu Zihang pointed to the backstage area. "I'll go in for a bit."

“Okay.” Lu Mingfei nodded.

Chu Zihang lifted the curtain and walked into the backstage area through the logistics staff passage. When he came out, a tall girl with a sweet face and exquisite makeup was following behind him.

The girl was wearing a floor-length blue evening gown, with sparkling rhinestones on her high heels. Her outfit made her look quite mature and sophisticated, but she followed behind Chu Zihang like a little tail.

Lu Mingfei immediately recognized her; she was the senior student in charge of hosting the school anniversary gala, a student majoring in broadcasting and hosting who had won awards in many competitions in China and was said to have been admitted to the Communication University of China without taking the entrance exam.

The host was still backstage memorizing the script when suddenly a shadow loomed over him. In the instant he looked up, he saw Chu Zihang, the junior he had a crush on for two years, walking towards him.

She suddenly felt a pang of panic. On one hand, she thought it must be a misunderstanding on her part, and that Chu Zihang might just be passing by. On the other hand, she hoped it wasn't a misunderstanding... Just as she was feeling anxious, Chu Zihang stopped in front of her.

"Hello, Senior Sister Wu," Chu Zihang said.

She was stunned for several seconds before she reacted to Chu Zihang's soft and sweet "Senior Sister": "Chu, Junior Brother Chu, what's wrong?"

"It's not convenient to talk here," Chu Zihang said. "Could you come outside with me for a moment?"

"Huh?" Her heart skipped a beat, and she cautiously scanned her surroundings. Sure enough, people were passing by backstage every now and then.

She nodded and said, "Okay." Her voice was so nervous it sounded like it was about to drip water.

Her heart was pounding. She didn't know why Chu Zihang wanted to see her, but since it was something that couldn't be said here, it must be a very secret.

There is a legend about the anniversary celebration of Shilan Middle School: couples who confess their love to each other during the anniversary celebration will surely find happiness and never be separated.

Although it's just an unreliable legend, many students still choose the school anniversary to confess their feelings every year.

Thinking of this, her heart pounded even harder. She lowered her head and followed Chu Zihang out. When she looked up again, she saw Lu Mingfei, the most popular student in the first year, standing in front of her.

"This is Lu Mingfei, a junior student in the first year of high school."

After Chu Zihang finished introducing her, he turned to Lu Mingfei and said, "This is Senior Sister Wu, the host of the school anniversary gala."

She suddenly froze, wondering what was going on. Wasn't Junior Brother Chu calling her out to confess his feelings? And what was this Junior Brother Lu all about?

While she was still in a daze, she saw Chu Zihang pull out a brand new program list from his pocket and hand it to her. He then told her that he wanted to change the program for the school anniversary celebration and perform on stage with this junior student, Lu. However, the application period for the program had passed, so he wanted to adjust the program content privately. He hoped that she could cooperate and expressed his sincerest gratitude to her.

She hadn't expected that Chu Zihang had specifically called her out for this reason, which had ruined all her mental preparation.

“But isn’t that against school rules?” she asked.

"It's alright." Chu Zihang shook his head. "I saw your performance in the provincial host competition, and I believe in you."

She thought to herself, "Is this a matter of ability? Is this a violation of school rules?" But when she met Chu Zihang's focused, almond-shaped eyes, the words of refusal that welled up in her throat were swallowed back down. In the end, she could only blush and her heart was pounding as she replied with a simple "okay."

Lu Mingfei watched from the sidelines, clicking his tongue in admiration. He thought to himself that his senior brother was the most popular when it came to romance. He was awesome and arrogant; any pretty girl in the school would be his darling.

Especially the senior brother with the poker face and his charming eyes, which contrasted sharply with his icy poker face, were simply a weapon to attract girls. Which girl could resist his glance?

……

After securing the host, the senior student, everything was ready for the school anniversary celebration.

October 28th was a Saturday, a day when Shilan Middle School is usually closed. However, many students still arrived at school very early today.

October 29th and 30th are the school anniversary celebration days. Tomorrow, the anniversary activities of Shilan Secondary School will officially begin, but the decorations for a few classes or clubs are not yet complete.

Therefore, many students will crowd onto this last day before the school anniversary to work overtime on their assignments.

Lu Mingfei sat in the activity room of the literary society, flipping through the school magazine that he and Chen Wenwen had created together.

The first few pages of the school magazine introduce the glorious history of Shilan Middle School, while the middle section is a guide to the school anniversary celebrations, which specifically introduces which classes and clubs, and what types of activities they hold.

Unfortunately, the Literature Club was one of the few clubs that hadn't finished setting up, so Lu Mingfei had to go with Chen Wenwen to the Literature Club's activity room on Saturday, his day off, to set up the venue.

It was only after arriving at the literary society that Lu Mingfei belatedly realized what had happened.

Damn, I don't think I'm a member of the literature club?

Chapter 179 The First Day of the School Anniversary (1)

Yesterday, Chen Wenwen told Lu Mingfei that the club's venue wasn't set up yet and that she would have to come over today, so Lu Mingfei reflexively ran over.

After arriving at Shilan Middle School, Lu Mingfei realized that he had never joined the literary society.

Logically speaking, the literary society should be full of talented people. Although these people may not have much enthusiasm or reverence for literature, and might know nothing about editing the society's journal, surely they could help with decorating the society's offices?

However, Chen Wenwen seemed to have only told Lu Mingfei about setting up the venue. Even Zhao Menghua was unaware of it. And Lu Mingfei subconsciously agreed.

It was as if both Lu Mingfei and Chen Wenwen had already tacitly accepted that he was a member of the literary society.

Setting up the venue wasn't too difficult, since club activity rooms don't need to be decorated with various visually appealing themes like classrooms. Simply blowing up a few balloons and hanging up some colorful decorations is basically enough. The more tiring part was placing the school magazine on it.

Because the literary society's school magazine was produced with funding from the student council, it contained a map of the school, information on class distribution, and activities organized by various classes and clubs. Therefore, it also served as a guide for the school anniversary celebrations.

The school had set up distribution points at the main gate and several other locations for visitors to pick up the school magazine for free. This meant Lu Mingfei and his team had to place the magazines there one by one.

Fortunately, Lu Mingfei had a bright idea and ran to the back of the cafeteria to get a handcart. The two of them pushed the cart and placed the school magazines one by one.

"Alright, these are the last batch of school magazines. We can leave after we put them all away." Chen Wenwen looked up at the sky. "I hope it doesn't rain tonight."

Lu Mingfei stumbled, thinking, "Little sister, don't make such a bold prediction! In anime, it usually rains the day after the main character says that." Although he checked the weather forecast yesterday and it said the next two days would be sunny, everyone knows how unreliable weather forecasts are.

"By the way, Lu Mingfei," Chen Wenwen suddenly asked. Ever since her birthday, Chen Wenwen had been calling Lu Mingfei by his name directly.

"Tomorrow is the school anniversary celebration. Is there anywhere you'd like to visit?"

"Places I want to visit..." Lu Mingfei suppressed his inner complaints and thought as he pushed the cart.

For students like Chen Wenwen, who have just entered Shilan Middle School from other schools, the school anniversary celebration format of Shilan Middle School may still be quite novel to them.

However, Lu Mingfei had already spent six years at Shilan Middle School and three years at the Japanese Light Novel World, participating in three school festivals. This kind of school anniversary celebration had long lost its appeal for him. He was more interested in spending time with Liu Miaomiao.

He had originally planned to accompany Liu Miaomiao to browse the stalls that interested her tomorrow, but plans changed. Liu Miaomiao suddenly told him a couple of days ago that her parents were coming to visit the school tomorrow. So the plan to browse the exhibition with Lu Mingfei had to be postponed to the day after tomorrow.

"There's nothing in particular I want to go shopping for," Lu Mingfei said truthfully. "I might help sell cookies or something in the classroom."

Chen Wenwen gave a soft "oh," though she was actually a little surprised.

Tomorrow is the first day of the school anniversary celebration. She originally thought that Lu Mingfei would browse the stalls with Liu Miaomiao, but Lu Mingfei said that he would sell cookies in the classroom.

It's a real pity. She had originally planned to find out which stalls Lu Mingfei and Liu Miaomiao would visit, and then secretly follow them to gather material for her article.

For some reason, the person who commissioned her to write the article hasn't sent her a new outline for the past two weeks. The forum is practically overflowing with calls for updates.

She was bored herself, so she could only record the little things that happened between her and Lu Mingfei during this time and rewrite them into novel episodes similar to side stories, just to keep her writing skills up.

However, for some reason, she became obsessed, and in the side stories she wrote, the protagonists were no longer Liu Miaomiao or Su Xiaoqiang, but her own name.

It's actually a very strange experience. Watching the character I created, who shares my name, gradually develop feelings for the male protagonist that go beyond friendship through the accumulation of everyday moments, yet hesitate to acknowledge these feelings due to their respective social statuses. I want to escape while simultaneously wanting to embrace them.

She would read a paragraph after writing it, and each time she read it, she would feel a sense of immersion, as if she were experiencing it herself, as if the character she was writing about was really her.

Then she would immediately close the Word page, choose to take a shower to calm down, but her heart was still restless.

……

Fortunately, just as the weather forecast predicted, Chen Wenwen's prediction came true: the weekend would be a clear and sunny day.

In the classroom of Grade 1 (2), Lu Mingfei sat with several other girls in front of the glass display window... The display window was filled with all kinds of cookies.

This is their class's dessert shop project. The cookies they sell are known as "school beauty handmade". From Chen Wenwen's cookies to Liu Miaomiao's geometric cookies to Su Xiaoqiang's bear cookies, the styles are varied. Even Lin Huihui, who is half a school beauty, did not hesitate to borrow her name and released a butter cookie made by Lin Huihui.

But in reality, these cookies were all sourced from a classmate whose family owns a chain of dessert shops. The glass display case was also moved from his house, and the XX Dessert Shop stickers were still on.

It seems that the children of these capitalists are all business geniuses, having developed the idea of ​​using the campus belle's IP and fan economy to generate revenue at such a young age.

After all, the three school beauties plus Lin Huihui, who is almost a school beauty, already have enough admirers to make up three-quarters of all the boys in the school. A few dozen kilograms of cookies? It's nothing.

The ideal was far from reality—the business in Lu Mingfei's class wasn't doing too badly, but sales only reached the average level, far below expectations. Most people were attracted by the signboard, looked around, and then left; less than one-tenth actually made a purchase.

Wearing a chef's uniform for baking, and whose family owns an accounting firm, Deng Zhuoyi sat behind the glass window, racking her brains, unable to figure out which step had gone wrong.

Lu Mingfei, meanwhile, stood idly fanning himself, thinking to himself, "With you buying so much stock all at once, it's no wonder business is so bad. Don't you understand the principle that the scarcer something is, the more valuable it becomes?"

Which school beauty has nothing better to do than hand-make dozens of kilograms of cookies for you? And the cookies are all so perfectly shaped, tasted, and colored—it's obvious a high school girl couldn't have made them, right? Anyone with eyes can see these cookies were bought wholesale, okay? Besides, given Xiao Tiannv's personality, how could she possibly make bear-shaped cookies?

But... maybe not?

After all, Lu Mingfei had been inside Xiaotiannv's room and knew that Su Xiaoqiang had an entire wall covered in cute selfies, and her bed was piled high with all sorts of Disney pillows. Perhaps Xiaotiannv was just that kind of person—outwardly arrogant but inwardly spoiled.

However, upon suddenly thinking of the Little Fairy, Lu Mingfei's expression darkened again.

Although Deng Zhuoyi's plan backfired and she bought too many cookies at once, if one of Liu Miaomiao, Su Xiaoqiang, or Chen Wenwen were to sit in the classroom as a salesperson, it would likely attract quite a few male customers.

Today, Liu Miaomiao was accompanying her parents on a tour of the school. Her father was a prominent figure in the city's business community, and her mother was a pianist who was quite well-known throughout the country. It was said that the school leaders had personally received her parents.

Chen Wenwen, who also serves as the president of the literary society, is always stationed in the society's activity room, receiving visitors.

As for Su Xiaoqiang, Lu Mingfei didn't even know if she came today. He hadn't seen her yet.

"Squad leader, ya-lo-ha!"

The sudden greeting startled Lu Mingfei. He snapped out of his reverie and saw Lin Huihui standing before him, dressed in a rather anime-style maid outfit, hands behind her back, tiptoeing. She was even wearing cat ears and a cat tail today.

Lu Mingfei stared at it for several seconds, but still couldn't figure out where the cat's tail had been stuffed.

"How's business, class monitor?" Lin Huihui smiled brightly. "How's business?"

Lu Mingfei curled his lip: "As you can see, it's much worse than your class."

Perhaps the concept of a maid café was too ahead of its time, because Lin Huihui's class was bustling with customers all morning, with people queuing up from the classroom door to the hallway. In contrast, the business of the neighboring classrooms was worlds apart, and could only be described as dismal.

Lin Huihui's eyes swept around the glass display case. "It looks like none of these have ever been sold!"

"Who said that!" Deng Zhuoyi, standing nearby, retorted indignantly, "We've already sold more than a dozen servings in just one morning."

The cookies are packaged in bags, each weighing approximately 200 grams.

"So how many cookies do you have in total?" Lin Huihui asked.

Deng Zhuoyi immediately deflated, her gaze shifting guiltily to the side: "Big, about a few hundred portions...?"

"Isn't this the same as not selling anything at all?" Lin Huihui sighed, then suddenly turned to Lu Mingfei and said, "How about I help you, class monitor, as a salesperson for a while?"

"You want to be the sales clerk?"

Lu Mingfei looked Lin Huihui up and down: the white dress that didn't go past her knees, the skirt that revealed her absolute territory, the maid outfit with lace trim, and the cat ears and tail... she didn't look like a dessert shop saleswoman at all. If you didn't know, people would think she was the mascot of Comic Market selling doujinshi.