Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from Japan

"There are indeed things I'd like you to help me buy, but they're not products."

"If it's not a product, then what is it?"

"Sports lottery".

"Sports lottery?" Su Xiaoqiang thought for a moment. "You want to buy World Cup tickets? But the World Cup just ended, didn't it? And sports lottery tickets are sold on the mainland, why go to Hong Kong to buy them?"

"The sports lottery I want to buy isn't available in mainland China yet," Lu Mingfei explained.

What he actually wanted Su Xiaoqiang to buy was e-sports lottery tickets.

Although esports was listed as the 99th official sport by relevant departments in 2003, there is no esports betting in mainland China due to the relatively backward development of esports events.

However, Hong Kong is different. As an international metropolis, Hong Kong has always been more open to new things and also has legitimate e-sports betting.

With the 2006 WCG China Regional Qualifiers just around the corner, Lu Mingfei checked online and found that the official lottery institutions in Hong Kong currently offer sports betting related to the WCG China Regional Qualifiers.

Lu Mingfei, who planned to make his fortune through esports, was struggling to find a way to go to Hong Kong when Su Xiaoqiang mentioned she was going there in August. What a coincidence!

"Sports lottery for esports?"

The three girls asked the question in unison.

"Yes, I'll have to trouble you, Su Xiaoqiang, to help me buy it then."

Su Xiaoqiang squinted, a little curious. She only knew that there were all kinds of games on the computer, but she had never heard of these games or competitions.

"Is he reliable?" Liu Miaomiao was a little worried. She knew that Lu Mingfei didn't actually have much pocket money. "What if he loses?"

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. If we lose, we'll consider it a contribution to CN esports."

Lu Mingfei thought to himself, how could he possibly lose? It's hard to say about other events, but he knew the results of the interstellar competition by heart.

"Aren't you afraid that after you win the money, I'll run away with it?" Su Xiaoqiang turned his head and asked.

"No, I believe you."

He knew that Su Xiaoqiang was very wealthy and not a greedy person; she probably wouldn't even look at his paltry sum.

"Okay, since you trust me, I'll buy it for you. Contact me on QQ later and tell me how to buy it."

“Okok.” Lu Mingfei made a gesture.

After finishing their conversation, Su Xiaoqiang glanced at her watch and stood up.

"It's almost noon. I have something to do this afternoon, so I have to go now. Lu Mingfei, are you coming back with me, or are you going with them?"

Lu Mingfei originally thought that since he had nothing else to do and would have to spend time alone with his cousin Lu Mingze when he got back, he might as well stay and accompany Liu Miaomiao and the others for a stroll.

As a result, Qiao Yiran also pulled Liu Miaomiao to stand up, "What a coincidence, we also have things to do this afternoon, shall we call it a day? We can chat on QQ later."

Su Xiaoqiang nodded and said, "Okay."

After saying goodbye, Qiao Yiran took Liu Miaomiao's hand and left. As they walked away, Liu Miaomiao's soft voice could be heard:

"Yiran, what are we doing this afternoon?"

"Don't worry about it. Also, be more assertive in front of Lu Mingfei in the future, and don't always give in to him..."

Listening to Qiao Yiran's words, Lu Mingfei thought to himself that she was helping Liu Miaomiao guard against him.

However, he also felt that the little girl was a bit too obedient to him.

……

Questions about the timeline.

The original novel has two timelines: 2004, when Lu Mingfei was in his third year of junior high school, Typhoon Dandelion made landfall; and 2005, when Lu Mingfei was in his first year of senior high school, Typhoon Dandelion made landfall.

Both timelines conflict with Lu Mingfei's graduation from high school in 2009.

Although I initially intended to follow the 2004 timeline, the more I wrote, the more chaotic the timeline became, severely impacting my writing. Even determining the ages of several characters became difficult (Liu Miaomiao was only 13 years old in 2004...).

Therefore, starting from this chapter, the timeline of this book will be uniformly corrected to Typhoon Dandelion making landfall in 2006, when Lu Mingfei was in his third year of junior high school. This aligns with the setting that Lu Mingfei graduated from senior high school in 2009.

Because too many changes at once will result in the book being shut down, the earlier changes will be completed gradually over several days. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Chapter 56 The Disappearance of Chu Zihang's Father

After saying goodbye to Liu Miaomiao and the others, Lu Mingfei and Su Xiaoqiang took a taxi together.

Su Xiaoqiang gave the name of a residential area and then asked the driver to make a detour from the Hanting Hotel bus stop on Wuliqiao Road and drop Lu Mingfei off.

As the taxi wound its way up the overpass, Lu Mingfei was still a little nervous. He recalled the day Typhoon Dandelion made landfall, when he, his senior brother Chu, and his father had mistakenly wandered into Nibelungen. The cold and desolate atmosphere of that rainy night seemed to rush towards him again.

Fortunately, these were just his overreactions. The taxi smoothly entered the Punan Bridge, with surrounding vehicles rushing past and constantly brushing against each other.

So when you stay in a city for a long time, it actually becomes very small, and everywhere you look becomes a memory.

Lu Mingfei looked out the window, and Su Xiaoqiang looked at Lu Mingfei.

Because of her appearance, Su Xiaoqiang has met quite a few boys. Since kindergarten, boys have been jealous of her, and this became even more pronounced in middle school when everyone around her was experiencing heightened hormones.

Many people find Su Xiaoqiang very charming, and one of the sources of this charm is that Su Xiaoqiang is very mature, much more mature than girls of the same age.

This maturity is not only physical, but also partly psychological. Her style of doing things always has an arrogance and domineering air that is inconsistent with her age.

Only Su Xiaoqiang herself knew that she was actually immature at all, even childish to the point of being ridiculous. It's the age of "chuunibyou" (a Japanese term for adolescent delusions of grandeur), only everyone's "chuunibyou" manifests in different ways.

She's a bit eccentric and withdrawn, which is why many people find her independent, self-assured, and incredibly cool.

But isn't being a loner and having a chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) just being a chuunibyou?

Actually, being a loner with a childish sense of self-importance is more childish.

So when she met Lu Mingfei at the internet cafe, although he seemed a bit silly and could chat with anyone, he gave her a feeling of loneliness.

She thought she had found her kindred spirit; Lu Mingfei was just as withdrawn and eccentric as she was.

But just now, when Lu Mingfei looked out the window, she seemed to sense true loneliness from him.

Su Xiaoqiang suddenly felt a little lost, so she stretched out her foot and kissed Lu Mingfei's calf with the tip of her foot.

"Damn it, what are you doing?" Lu Mingfei turned around abruptly after being kicked by the little fairy.

"Why pretend to be so melancholy?" Su Xiaoqiang crossed her legs, rested her elbow on her knee, and propped her chin on her hand, scoffing at him. "It doesn't fit your persona."

"So what kind of persona should I have?"

"Someone who gets free food and drinks at an internet cafe by helping others play games?"

Lu Mingfei thought about it and realized that it really was the person he was in his previous life.

"Hey, I'm asking you something," Su Xiaoqiang said, "Why are you buying esports lottery tickets? To make money?"

"The main reason is to support CN esports, and the secondary reason is to make some money." Lu Mingfei remained true to his original aspiration.

"What will you do with the money you make?"

“There’s a lot to do,” Lu Mingfei shrugged.

"for example?"

"Don't tell you."

Su Xiaoqiang pursed her lips, thinking that boys this age are probably only thinking about buying new phones or gaming equipment, what else could they be thinking about?

"I actually really wanted to go to Japan."

Lu Mingfei looked out the window at the sky and suddenly murmured something.

……

CBD center, skyscrapers.

Carrying his briefcase, Lao Lei found the hotel where Jiu De Mai was staying, based on the message she sent him.

As a landmark building in the city's CBD, this skyscraper has 88 floors, of which floors 53 to 87 belong to a five-star hotel called InterContinental Preux, and the top 88 floor is a bar called FOX.

In such a high-end setting, it would be quite inappropriate for Lao Lei to wear his faded black work shirt anymore.

For this reason, he even dug out a black Armani suit he had bought when he was in school from his closet.

Although it looks a bit wrinkled because it wasn't ironed, at least the buttons can still be fastened.

He pushed open the door and, following Mai Shude's text message, took the elevator to the bathhouse on the 52nd floor.

In room 5214, through a bamboo door with a distinctly Japanese style, he could vaguely hear laughter coming from inside.

He took a deep breath and gently knocked on the door.

The laughter stopped abruptly, and after a moment, a voice came from inside: "Wait a minute."

Then came a series of clattering sounds. A minute or two later, the bamboo door was pushed open, and a misty fog drifted out. A group of young women wearing "hot spring house" uniforms emerged from the fog, carrying items such as buckets, towels, and brushes.

As they passed by Lao Lei, they nodded and greeted him. Lao Lei nodded back.

Only after no one else emerged from the fog and a sweet, languid voice said, "You can come in now," did Lao Lei go inside and close the door behind him.

"Coming to a bathhouse dressed like an insurance salesperson, is this the typical way of doing things at Kassel College?" Mai Shude chuckled sarcastically.

She sat on a wooden bench, wearing a bathrobe that simply concealed her shapely figure, tied only with a half-sash around her waist, revealing a pair of alluring legs beneath the yukata.

She wore a pair of wooden clogs, her feet still wet from a recent foot bath, and her toenails were painted with dark purple nail polish, creating a striking contrast with her snow-white instep and the faint blue veins visible on it.

Perhaps because she had been soaking her feet for too long, her face looked somewhat flushed.

Old Lei looked at his outfit and realized it was indeed out of place with the environment.

"There's no way around it, we Chinese people wear shorts when we take a bath, I can't possibly come to see you shirtless, can I?"

"What does it matter? As long as you have the guts."

Old Lei shrugged, and Jiu Demai moved over, making room for Old Lei to sit down at one end of the wooden chair, about half a meter away from Jiu Demai.

"You said you made some progress on the phone and wanted to see me." Mai Shude crossed her legs. "I hope you won't disappoint me."

Old Lei patted his small briefcase: "Don't worry, everything's in there."

As he spoke, he placed his briefcase between the two men on the wooden chair, turned the combination on the digital scroll, and with a "click," the lock popped open.

Full of anticipation, Mai Shude stepped forward to take a look, only to find a few strange little notebooks and a few test papers.

"What is this?" Mai Shude asked, completely bewildered.

"I don't know if you have this in Japan, but in China it's called the 'Elementary School Student Quality Report Handbook.' We get one every year, and it records your grades for each exam that year, as well as comments from your teachers and parents. You also have to write a self-evaluation."