Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from Japan

As if suddenly remembering something, Liu Miaomiao sat up straight in her seat and gently grabbed Lu Mingfei's arm, startling Lu Mingfei, who thought she had remembered something.

"What time is it now?" Liu Miaomiao asked anxiously.

"What time is it?" Lu Mingfei didn't expect Liu Miaomiao to ask this. He glanced at the taxi meter and replied, "9:15 PM."

"It's still early." Liu Miaomiao breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing her body back in her seat, but her eyes looked around the window as if searching for something.

Just as Lu Mingfei was about to ask Liu Miaomiao what she was looking for, Liu Miaomiao suddenly waved her hand and said, "Driver, could you please pull over to the side of the road?"

The taxi waded through the puddles on the road and pulled over. Liu Miaomiao opened the car door, shielded her forehead with her hand, and skipped and jumped out into the rain.

The streets were filled with pedestrians with umbrellas, so Lu Mingfei's gaze quickly lost sight of Liu Miaomiao, leaving only a hazy rain and mist in his vision.

Aren't you going to chase after them?

Lu Mingze smiled as if he were encouraging someone, revealing a small canine tooth on his lips, and swayed his legs as he crossed them.

Lu Mingfei rolled his eyes. "Why would we chase after her? Are we afraid she'll get lost?"

"That's hard to say. The capital city is both small and large. On average, a person in this city travels 26.4 kilometers a day, takes 17.3 subway stops, and passes by 397 people."

If you let a girl wander off today, she might get completely lost in this maze tomorrow. Brother, do you know how easy it is for people to get lost in a crowd?

"I know, I know." Lu Mingfei said impatiently. "I have my own plans. I've been watching my watch since she left. If she hasn't come back in ten minutes, I'll go out and check on her."

"Isn't ten minutes a bit too long?"

"Okay, okay, five minutes it is."

Lu Mingfei glanced at the temporarily suspended billing machine. "It's 9:18 now. If Liu Miaomiao hasn't returned by 9:20, I'll go out and look for her—you suddenly ran out just to say something like this?"

"Of course not." Lu Mingze shrugged. "The reason I'm out at this hour is obviously to get a late-night snack."

"Late-night snack?" Lu Mingfei was taken aback. "Where would you get late-night snacks from?"

"It'll be available soon, remember to save some for me." Lu Mingze smiled mysteriously, then suddenly changed the subject, "Speaking of which, I'm still very curious, brother, why did you choose to have Xia Mi cover up Liu Miaomiao's memory? I thought you would refuse."

Lu Mingfei sighed softly.

“Do you think I want this?” Lu Mingfei said. “But just like Xia Mi said, it’s not a good thing that Liu Miaomiao remembers these things. Most of the people I know who are associated with dragons have been quite unlucky, so I don’t want to drag Liu Miaomiao into this.”

Lu Mingze smiled and nodded, "Brother, you've really grown up. You've even learned to have your own opinions. But by the way, I also support your decision to temporarily erase Liu Miaomiao's memories."

Lu Mingfei was taken aback; the little devil had actually agreed with him for once.

"Why?" Lu Mingfei asked.

"It's just like playing a visual novel. If you raise the affection level of a certain heroine too high all at once, you'll only end up in a pure love route with a single heroine. Only by deliberately controlling the progress of each heroine's conquest and maintaining a delicate balance between them can you achieve a harem ending."

Lu Mingze shrugged, "If we win over Liu Miaomiao now, it will be much harder to win over the other girls."

"Pah! Pah! Pah! You're always thinking about filthy things!"

"I'm thinking of you, brother."

Lu Mingze pouted, "Even Zhao Menghua could mediate between Chen Wenwen and Liu Miaomiao, so why can't you, brother? Is Zhao Menghua better than you? Brother, haven't you ever thought about the life of an emperor with three palaces, six courtyards, and seventy-two concubines...?"

Lu Mingfei suddenly stopped talking because he realized that no matter what he said, the little devil could always find a set of fallacies to refute him.

"See, see, brother, I've convinced you. You're already fantasizing about having women on both sides."

Lu Mingze grinned mischievously as he put his legs down. "Alright, alright, enough joking around. I'm about to go. You should hurry up and chase after your girl. Even if she doesn't get lost, it's not gentlemanly to let a girl get soaked in the rain."

In an instant, Lu Mingze vanished, disappearing as abruptly as his words. The meter resumed ticking, displaying the time as 9:18:43. Lu Mingfei hesitated for a moment.

Before the meter even reached 9:19, Lu Mingfei gritted his teeth, pushed open the car door, and rushed into the rain.

He was going to find Liu Miaomiao.

The moment the car door opened, Lu Mingfei almost bumped into Liu Miaomiao.

"What are you doing out here?" Liu Miaomiao blinked gently, holding a bag in her hands. Her bangs were stuck to her forehead by the rain, and even her eyelashes were covered with raindrops.

"I saw you hadn't come back for so long, so I came out to check on you."

Liu Miaomiao chuckled and pushed Lu Mingfei back into the car.

"Hurry up and go inside, look how soaked you are. I'm not a child anymore, do you think I'll get lost?"

As she spoke, Liu Miaomiao got into the car and slammed the door shut. Her rain-soaked clothes clung to her body, outlining the girl's graceful curves.

Lu Mingfei stood up straight and, avoiding looking at Liu Miaomiao, averted his gaze.

"You got wet too?" Lu Mingfei retorted. "What did you buy?"

"You mean this? Here."

As Liu Miaomiao spoke, she smiled and stuffed the bag in her hand into Lu Mingfei's arms.

Lu Mingfei caught it, and was taken aback: "For me?"

"Yes, open it and take a look."

When Lu Mingfei opened the bag, he found a beautifully packaged box inside, with a blue ribbon tied in a knot.

Through the plastic shell, you can see a small and exquisite cake inside. Above the "Happy Birthday" blessing, the pinyin "Lu" is squeezed crookedly in cream.

"I was actually planning to go back to the hotel earlier and prepare a bigger cake for you, but I accidentally slept until now. I can only buy one from a random cake shop on the street. The 'Lu' on top is what I squeezed out, so you can't say it's ugly!"

As Liu Miaomiao spoke, she blinked, letting raindrops drip from her eyelashes, tilted her head, and smiled sweetly:

"Happy birthday, Mingfei."

Chapter 47 Destinies Heading in Different Directions

The three-day, two-night graduation trip may sound short, but it was actually even shorter. There were still many attractions in the capital that they hadn't visited before Lu Mingfei and his friends had to start their journey home.

On the bus to the airport, the atmosphere was completely different from the relaxed and cheerful atmosphere when we first arrived in the capital. Everyone was unusually quiet.

Several girls, including Qiao Yiran, were crying their eyes out.

"Waaah... Miaomiao... I don't know when we'll be able to hang out together again... Waaah..."

Qiao Yiran buried her head in Liu Miaomiao's arms like a child, crying her eyes out, her nose even turning red. Liu Miaomiao gently patted Qiao Yiran's back to comfort her.

"Don't cry. Even if we go to high school, we can still hang out. Or if you miss me, you can just come to my house. You know my address anyway."

"That's what they say, but I still can't bear to part with you. If I'm not there to watch over you during high school, what if some idiot snatches you away?"

"Achoo!" Lu Mingfei, who was sitting next to the two, suddenly sneezed and then touched his nose.

Why did I suddenly start sneezing? Could it be because I got caught in the rain yesterday and caught a cold? But it was only a light rain, it shouldn't be that bad.

Qiao Yiran suddenly looked at Lu Mingfei with a sense of alertness.

"I just cursed that pig who only wants to grope Miaomiao, why did you sneeze?"

“A cold won’t do,” Lu Mingfei said matter-of-factly.

"I don't believe it. There must be something fishy going on. I felt something was off when you carried Miaomiao back to the hotel yesterday. Did something happen while I was away?"

"What are we going to do if Liu Miaomiao twists her ankle and can't walk? I can't exactly make her hop back to her room, can I?"

"Okay, okay, stop arguing."

Liu Miaomiao smiled and intervened in the conversation between the two, "Yesterday I really had to thank Mingfei. My ankle was so badly twisted, I really don't know how I would have been able to get back to the hotel without him."

"Mingfei?!"

Qiao Yiran's pupils dilated in shock, her eyes darting suspiciously back and forth between the two of them. "It's only been a day, no, only an afternoon since I last saw him, and Miaomiao you're already calling him by his nickname?"

Liu Miaomiao was taken aback, and two blushes belatedly rose to her cheeks.

Yeah, why would I call Lu Mingfei by his name directly?

It all felt so natural and natural, as if that was how I had always called him.

Lu Mingfei was also taken aback, only then realizing the change in how Liu Miaomiao addressed him.

It seems that after emerging from the Nibelungen subway line 1 in Beijing and waking up, Liu Miaomiao has been calling herself "Mingfei".

Because Liu Miaomiao had called him that before in Nibelungen, Lu Mingfei hadn't noticed the change in address at first. It was only after Qiao Yiran's reminder that Lu Mingfei realized it.

He then recalled what Xia Mi had said to him in the Nibelungenlied.

……

"I can indeed use my mental abilities to erase this part of her memory for you. However, I must remind you, senior brother, that I can only erase 'memories,' not 'feelings.'"

"What do you mean by excluding 'feelings'?"

“Mental abilities can only operate at the conscious level, while liking someone is a subconscious behavior. If your girl has already fallen for you, even if I erase the memory of her liking you, she will still have feelings for you. She will just forget why she liked you in the first place.”

……

Could it be because of this? Because Liu Miaomiao subconsciously felt that she should be called Mingfei, so even though she had no memories of the Nibelungen, she would subconsciously call herself by her own name?

Was sending herself a birthday cake yesterday a subconscious act, or was it something she had planned to do all along?

Regardless, yesterday will be one of the most unforgettable birthdays he has ever had.

Liu Miaomiao's voice continued to come from the side:

"It's just a form of address, nothing more. We're not strangers to Mingfei, it's normal for friends to call each other by name."

"Whatever you want, hmph. Anyway, Miaomiao, you need to be careful. Beware of fire, theft, and warm-hearted men. Don't waste your life on him too quickly." Qiao Yiran said, glancing at Lu Mingfei.

"Don't waste away for her too quickly? What does that mean?"

Qiao Yiran chuckled mischievously: "What's the line before 'I've grown thin and haggard for her sake'?"

What is the preceding line to "I've grown thin and haggard for her sake"?

Liu Miaomiao actually tilted her head and thought about the previous line of the poem. After a moment, Liu Miaomiao's face turned completely red. She bit her lip and tickled Qiao Yiran's ticklish spot with a mixture of shame and anger.

"Well, you naughty girl, you actually dare to joke with me like this! Let's see how I deal with you!"

"Hehehe... Miaomiao... I was wrong... Haha... Stop... Hehehahaha... I can't take it anymore..." Qiao Yiran huddled in her seat, begging for mercy as she tried to hide.

At this moment, the sky outside the window is clear, and the summer air is cool and refreshing. No one remembers that it rained last night. The bus sped by in the height of summer in 2006, carrying the fates of some of them in different directions.

……

It was already 5 p.m. when I got home. My aunt and uncle had already come home from get off work, but Lu Mingze was still at his tutoring class and hadn't returned yet. My aunt was chopping minced meat in the kitchen, while my uncle was sitting on the sofa in the living room reading the newspaper, with a countdown to the 2006 WCG China event printed in the margins.

"Mingfei, you're back."