Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from Japan

Old Lei casually picked up a book, opened it to the first page with names, and said, "This is Chu Zihang's. I went through a lot of trouble to steal it from his elementary school archives."

“No, but there are similar ones.” Mai Shude shook her head. “What’s the use of this manual?”

"Look here." Old Lei flipped to a page in the middle, unfolded it, and handed it to Jiu Demai.

When Jiu Demai looked at it, she saw that it was the comments page of the handbook. The teacher's comments at the bottom were written densely, and the praise and admiration for Chu Zihang were overflowing. It was as if the teacher wanted to fill every space between the words with the word "excellent".

But another place is quite strange.

"The parent comments section is blank," Mai Shude pointed out the problem.

“That’s right.” Old Lei nodded, then pulled out several other handbooks, turning to the comments page of each one. Some had parent comments written on them, while others did not.

"The comments written by parents were all signed by Su Xiaoyan, who is Chu Zihang's mother."

Old Lei said, "But none of the handbooks have Chu Zihang's father's signature. The report handbooks either only have Chu Zihang's mother's comments or are completely blank, including these sealed exam papers of Chu Zihang, which only have his mother's signature..."

Mai Shude continued, "So you suspect that these blank spaces were originally comments written by Chu Zihang's father, but they disappeared for some unknown reason."

“That’s right,” Old Lei said. “The parent’s comments are stamped, so there should be comments written on them, but this is indeed blank. Only the comments were erased, but the stamp is still there. I don’t know how they did it…”

"It's almost as if this person's existence has been completely erased from this world," Mai Shude murmured.

The two fell silent simultaneously. Neither of them could imagine the immense power required to completely erase a person's existence.

This is simply... a power that only beings of the first generation or higher can wield.

"What else did you discover?" asked Mai Shude.

"That's all for now. I've searched all the possible clues and places." Old Lei spread his hands. "But the more coincidences there are, the more it confirms what you said about Chu Tianjiao. He may have actually existed, but we don't know why he disappeared."

"Do I need you to tell me that Chu Tianjiao ever existed?" Jiu Demai crossed her arms. "So, you came to me just to tell me something I already know?"

"Don't rush me, I haven't finished speaking yet," Old Lei said. "Although I've searched all the places I could, there's still one place I haven't looked for."

Mai Shude was a smart woman: "Norma's database?"

“Bingo!” Old Lei said, “However, although I participated in Norma’s construction project, the person in charge of this project is someone else. If I want to retrieve someone’s file from Norma’s deepest database, I still need his help.”

"Can you get in touch with him?"

"I can give it a try." Old Lei gestured with his hand, making a "rubbing money" motion. "It's this..."

Mai rolled her eyes and said irritably, "The money will be transferred to your Swiss Bank account later. It's an advance payment of $100,000. The rest will depend on your performance."

"Very good, very good." He chuckled sheepishly. "But actually, it's not that I want money, it's just that smoothing things over requires some money to pave the way, there's no other way."

Mai waved her hand back, indicating that she didn't want to hear him continue.

“However, on another note,” Mai suddenly said, “if Chu Tianjiao’s existence has been erased even from places like the ‘Elementary School Student Quality Report Card,’ then how could Norma’s database still contain his file?”

"I studied hacking. Once the data on a computer's hard drive is formatted and then rewritten with other materials, the original data will be completely erased and cannot be recovered no matter what technical means are used."

Old Lei shrugged. "But Earth is not a computer, and the laws of physics are not commands for a computer. The universe is a vast and infinite entity, far more precise than a computer by +∞."

I believe that no one can completely erase a person's existence. As long as they truly existed, they will always leave some traces.

I even think that if we just asked Chu Zihang himself, we could find out if he had a father named Chu Tianjiao. I don't know why we had to go through all this trouble.

"There are reasons why we do this."

Suddenly, Mai Shude seemed to have been sitting for too long and was feeling a little sleepy, so she stretched and yawned, her wooden clogs swaying lightly.

"If you can find Chu Tianjiao's file, you just need to bring it to me."

Old Lei realized this was a way of telling him to leave, so he stood up from his chair and said, "Okay, I'll contact you again once I have the results."

Mai Shude cupped her face and smiled, "I'm waiting for your good news."

Chapter 57 Genjiro

It was around 2 a.m. when I got home.

Lu Mingfei originally wanted to check the specific start time of WCG and also send a message to Su Xiaoqiang to ask when she was going to Hong Kong.

However, Lu Mingze, who was round and chuckled, occupied the only old and broken laptop in the house and was happily watching "KO One".

At that time, Wang Dadong and Yan Guanlun had not yet fallen out. They not only acted like brothers in the drama, but also liked the same female character at the same time.

Chen Yiru, on the other hand, had already shown his gossipy nature, watching Wang Dadong and Yan Guanlun in the drama with an air of pure amusement.

After weighing the options, Lu Mingfei decided to choose Lu Mingze over paying for his own internet access and finding a way to get rid of him.

"Hey, Lu Mingze, you're home?"

Lu Mingfei feigned surprise and sat down next to Lu Mingze.

Lu Mingze was taken aback. "I don't have tutoring today, so where are you if you're not at home?"

"Oh, I remember now, there seems to be such a thing. Have you eaten yet?"

Lu Mingfei knew that Lu Mingze was also a life idiot. He was used to being waited on hand and foot by his aunt and was the kind of person who wouldn't even turn around to eat a pancake if you hung it around his neck.

If I were home alone, I probably wouldn't have cooked dinner by now.

Sure enough, Lu Mingze patted his stomach and said, "Not yet. Now that you mention it, I am a little hungry."

Lu Mingfei slapped his thigh. "You should have told me you were home earlier, Lu Mingze! The Wallace on XX Road was having a promotion today, four burgers for ten yuan, plus fries and a Coke. I ate there by myself at noon and almost ate too much. If you had told me you were home, I would have brought you two burgers."

When Lu Mingze heard about the hamburger, he got anxious: "Can you eat that much by yourself? Why didn't you leave some for me?"

"I didn't know you were at home," Lu Mingfei said innocently, spreading his hands. "Go check now, maybe there are still activities going on."

"I'll go take a look right away."

Lu Mingze jumped off the chair in a hurry, slipped on his slippers, and rushed out the door with a "thud" before he even had time to put on his shoes.

After watching Lu Mingze leave from the bedroom window, Lu Mingfei calmly sat down in front of the computer.

Opening the relevant section on Tianya Community, the first thing you see is the news that Su Hao, the three-time champion of Warcraft in China, was surprisingly eliminated in the WCG Xi'an regional qualifiers.

Fortunately, the regional competitions have just begun, and the China regional qualifiers will not start until August 4th.

Today is July 20th, which means the competition will start in about two weeks.

"I wonder when Su Xiaoqiang went to Hong Kong."

Log in to QQ and find RoseiraSu's ID in the contact list.

Lu Mingfei looked at his QQ name, which was still the old-fashioned "Mingming," and after thinking for a moment, he changed his nickname to RicardoLu, following Su Xiaoqiang's format.

Lu Mingfei typed: Are you home yet?

RoseiraSu: We've arrived.

RoseiraSu: ?

RoseiraSu: Damn, what kind of name is that?

Lu Mingfei: My English name is Ricardo, and Lu is my surname.

RoseiraSu: Ricardo, my foot! Does David Ricardo even know you're calling him by his name?

RoseiraSu: Also, could you please change your QQ name? It feels really off-putting.

Lu Mingfei: Isn't this great?

Lu Mingfei: None of that matters. I'd like to ask when you're going to Hong Kong?

RoseiraSu: It should be around the end of July or the beginning of August... You should change your QQ name.

Lu Mingfei: Is it possible to go to Hong Kong Island before August 4th?

RoseiraSu: If you don't change, I'm not going to talk to you anymore.

Lu Mingfei: Surely not?

Unexpectedly, Su Xiaoqiang really kept his word. After waiting for several minutes, Lu Mingfei still hadn't received a message from the other party. Helpless, he changed his QQ name again, adding an "M" to the middle of RicardoLu.

Lu Mingfei: Ricardo M. Lu, is this okay?

RoseiraSu: At least it looks better than before.

RoseiraSu: Why go to Hong Kong before August 4th? When does the competition start?

Lu Mingfei: Yes.

RoseiraSu: Okay, I'll go two days early. Remember to teach me how to buy it.

Lu Mingfei: Okay.

RoseiraSu: That's all for now. I have something to do, let's talk later.

Asuka's profile picture quickly went gray.

With the start date of the WCG confirmed and Su Xiaoqiang's departure date for Hong Kong set, all that remains is to wait for that day to arrive.

If Lu Mingfei remembers correctly, in the 2006 WCG StarCraft qualifiers, the Chinese team that qualified were Lx, 66, and Jaystar. Sun Yifeng once again finished fourth in this competition, failing to qualify for the World Championship.

Lu Mingfei emptied his piggy bank of every last penny he had and combined it with his spare change, managing to scrape together a little over two hundred yuan.

With this little capital, even if I buy a four-in-a-row, I'd probably only make around two or three thousand yuan.

This amount of money is more than enough to buy a no-name brand mobile phone, but if you want to go to Japan, it probably won't even cover the cost of a plane ticket.

What excuse should I use to borrow some money from my senior brother with facial paralysis and Liu Miaomiao?

Actually, if Lu Mingfei had just told Liu Miaomiao that he wanted to buy lottery tickets and asked to borrow some money from her, she probably would have lent it to him. However, Lu Mingfei didn't want to leave Liu Miaomiao with the impression that he was "not doing his proper job."

Moreover, Liu Miaomiao has been acting strangely lately, being unusually obedient to him.

"Let's find the senior brother with facial paralysis first!"

Lu Mingfei opened his friends list and found Chu Zihang's QQ.

Chu Zihang's profile picture was completely grayed out, it was unclear whether he was offline or invisible.

Lu Mingfei tried sending a message, but received no reply. He was probably offline.

After closing the chat page, Lu Mingfei idly browsed his friend list. Suddenly, his brows furrowed, as if he had realized something. He scrolled to the top of the friend list and slowly slid down the slider.

No.

No.

Still nothing...