Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from Japan

When Sakura Yabuki turned around and looked back in the original direction, she had already lost sight of that person's back.

"No, I didn't see anything."

Sakura Yabuki shook her head and said with a smile.

……

After dropping off Su Xiaoqiang, he ran into Erii. Plus, it was rush hour around 5 or 6 pm, so by the time Lu Mingfei got home from the airport by bus it was already 7 pm.

I got home late, but luckily my aunt was working overtime today, and my uncle doesn't really care about his curfew, so I was spared a scolding.

After sweating profusely, Lu Mingfei took a shower before eating dinner.

Lu Mingze monopolized the broken laptop, while Lu Mingfei, with nothing to do, lay on the bed, thinking about Erii.

He was actually quite surprised himself. He originally thought he would run over and shout to Erii to acknowledge her, but he didn't expect to be so restrained.

However, not recognizing each other is the more correct approach. After all, Erii, the tortoise, and the others don't know her yet at this point in time. It would be strange for her to try to get close to them.

Should I run up to them and tell them I'm from the future, hold Erii's hand and say I almost married you in the future, and then hold the giant tortoise's hand and say I was your brother-in-law in the future, and almost became your brother-in-law?

People will just think you're crazy and then have airport security take you away, right?

Fortunately, it's 2006 now, and there are still five years until 2011. There's plenty of time, and everything can still be done in time.

"If only Kassel College had some kind of gifted youth program," Lu Mingfei sighed to himself.

Go in and study early, get to know Principal Caesar and the stoic, useless senior students, and then lead your elite troops to storm into Japan and catch Herzog off guard.

The reason he, his stoic senior, and Caesar suffered setbacks in Japan back then was largely because they were at a disadvantage due to information asymmetry. They were betrayed by the entire Japanese branch, which cut off all their support.

If they had been prepared in advance, they would have been much more at ease dealing with Herzog.

Moreover, in this life, I am the one who controls the information.

Herzog probably doesn't realize that he knows her completely.

Lu Mingfei stretched out his right hand towards the ceiling and then clenched it into a fist.

Erii, wait for me.

In this life... I will protect you.

Chapter 71 My Senior Brother's Righteousness

July's end slipped away in the blink of an eye, and as my aunt turned the calendar on the wall to August, the 2006 WCG China Regional Finals were just around the corner.

At the beginning of August, the facial paralysis senior finally replied to Lu Mingfei's message, and the two arranged to meet at their usual place, Open Mind, the following afternoon.

Actually, Chu Zihang originally wanted Lu Mingfei to book a place, since Open Minutes wasn't close to Lu Mingfei's home, and it had taken Lu Mingfei quite a bit of time to get there the last time they met. However, Lu Mingfei insisted on refusing, saying that meeting at Open Minutes would be fine.

It wasn't that he was being polite to his expressionless senior brother, but Lu Mingfei genuinely didn't know of any suitable places near his home to discuss business with people.

We can't exactly invite Senior Brother Chu to the Xinyu Internet Cafe, can we?

The next day at 1 p.m., after a quick and simple meal, Lu Mingfei set off.

Since it wasn't his first time visiting Open Mind, Lu Mingfei spent less time on the road this time. He arrived before Chu Zihang did.

Although Lu Mingfei arrived at the store early, he didn't go in but stood at the door waiting for Chu Zihang.

Chu Zihang arrived at the store about ten minutes later. Seeing Lu Mingfei standing blankly at the door, Chu Zihang frowned and asked, "Why don't you go in first?"

"Haha, we'll wait for you to come in."

“Actually, it’s completely unnecessary.” Chu Zihang walked forward and opened the door for Lu Mingfei. “Next time, if you come first, you can go in first.”

Lu Mingfei scratched his head and went into the store, not revealing that he had actually waited for him to come in together because he was broke.

As soon as they entered, the coolness inside the store dispelled the summer heat on Lu Mingfei's body. The wind chimes at the door jingled as before, as if welcoming their arrival.

Just like last time, Lu Mingfei and Chu Zihang deliberately found a corner seat to sit down.

"By the way, I brought the money. Do you want it now?"

As soon as he sat down, Chu Zihang spoke.

Previously, Lu Mingfei had already explained to Chu Zihang online that he had an urgent matter and wanted to borrow some money from him.

Chu Zihang directly asked Lu Ming how much he wanted to borrow, without asking what Lu Ming wanted the money for or when he would repay it.

Lu Mingfei thought for a moment: "Let's do it now, so we don't forget later."

"Row."

Chu Zihang nodded and took out a small stack of thin paper wrapped in a plastic bag from his tennis bag and handed it to Lu Mingfei.

"See if this is enough. If not, just let me know," Chu Zihang said.

"Enough is enough."

There were many upsets at the 2006 WCG. Even if you just bet on the few matches where Lu Mingfei remembers the results, a thousand yuan could have turned into a hundred thousand.

Lu Mingfei wasn't greedy; he only wanted to earn enough to cover his rent for the next three years and a trip to Japan. Borrowing a thousand from his stoic senior and another thousand from Liu Miaomiao seemed like more than enough.

Lu Mingfei took the money from Chu Zihang and stuffed it directly into his backpack.

"By the way, senior brother, you mentioned before that you went back to your father's hometown during this period. Did you gain anything from it?"

Chu Zihang shook his head.

"No results?"

"No," Chu Zihang said. "We didn't find anything."

Lu Mingfei frowned: "It can't be that bad, can it?"

“Yes, I also find it strange,” Chu Zihang said. “I have never heard my father talk about my grandparents, but I have heard him mention the name of the middle school he attended, and that he was a prominent figure in the school back then.”

But I worked out my dad's graduation date, then sneaked into the archives and found the graduate registration form from that year, but I couldn't find my dad's name there.

"Could it be that you've made a mistake in your calculations?" Lu Mingfei asked.

"That's what I thought too. Although it's unlikely. But just to be on the safe side, I went through the graduate files for the three years before and after the time I estimated, but I still couldn't find my dad's name."

Lu Mingfei was taken aback: "Three years in total, plus the ones from that year, isn't that a total of seven years? How long did it take you to go through seven years' worth of graduate files?"

"It did take some time," Chu Zihang nodded. "I sneaked into the school archives every night, and it took me about a week to go through a year's worth of files."

"So you spent seven days checking those files?"

"No, it was fourteen days. After I couldn't find my father's information the first time, I was afraid I had missed something, so I went through it a second time."

As expected of the most outstanding student in the history of Kassel College, Senior Brother Killer is indeed a natural-born agent.

As soon as Chu Zihang described it, Lu Mingfei could picture himself leaning against the wall of the archives room in the middle of the night, a small flashlight in his mouth, opening a confidential bag and flipping through those complicated forms page by page.

However, Lu Mingfei wasn't too shocked by Chu Zihang, after all, he was someone who had weathered many storms in his previous life. He had done far more outrageous things to kill his senior brother in his past life.

"So, you've been staying in your father's school's archives room all these days?" Lu Mingfei asked.

"I only stayed there at night, and rested in a nearby guesthouse during the day," Chu Zihang said. "Unfortunately, I didn't gain anything."

Lu Mingfei moved closer to Chu Zihang, patted him on the shoulder, and comforted him, "Think of it this way: maybe not gaining anything is a kind of gain too?"

"Is not gaining anything a kind of gain?"

Chu Zihang repeated these words to himself several times, then suddenly put his hand on his chin and lowered his head in deep thought.

"You're right, perhaps not gaining anything is also a kind of gain."

Lu Mingfei was taken aback. He had only meant to comfort his stoic senior brother, but seeing Chu Zihang's Conan-like contemplation, it seemed that he had really remembered something.

Lu Mingfei felt that this scene deserved background music:

“All those casual words cleared up my doubts…”

"Thank you for reminding me. I'm starting to get a better idea now." Chu Zihang nodded. "My dad was right. When I encounter something I don't understand, I should definitely ask you."

Lu Mingfei simply nodded: "I'm glad I could help you."

After all, he didn't really know what he had actually helped Chu Zihang in any way.

The main problem was that he didn't know what Chu Zihang was investigating, so he couldn't help Chu Zihang analyze it.

However, he didn't ask Chu Zihang if he needed help. He knew that the expressionless senior brother was a straightforward person, and if he really needed help, he would definitely ask.

……

After chatting for a while and getting two pieces of cake, Lu Mingfei and Chu Zihang said goodbye at the door.

Today, I didn't encounter anything like Chen Wenwen at Openmind.

Lu Mingfei counted them up; since summer vacation started, he'd run into one or two female acquaintances every time he went out. Today was unusually normal. He almost thought he'd been blessed by the god of visual novels.

After getting off the bus smoothly, Lu Mingfei first found a bank near his home, intending to deposit the money his senior brother with facial paralysis had lent him into his card, and then transfer it to Su Xiaoqiang later.

The bank card was opened in his uncle's name when he paid his tuition at school, and later it became the bank card that Lu Mingfei linked to his QQ account. He would occasionally use this card to top up his QQ coins or game points.

He went to the self-service deposit machine, took out the stack of money from his backpack, and unwrapped the plastic bag.

Then he exclaimed "Holy crap!"

Inside the plastic bag were twenty red bills? Two thousand yuan?

My senior brother is so righteous!

Chapter 72: Match Day Begins

Lu Mingfei knew that his senior brother was a very independent person.

Although he appeared to be incredibly successful, he always felt like he was living under someone else's roof, and he would avoid asking his stepfather for money whenever possible.

He lent me 2000 yuan right away, which is quite generous of him.

Now that his senior brother has already lent him an extra 1000, should he borrow another 1000 from Liu Miaomiao? Lu Mingfei was pondering this question.

Borrowing an extra 1000 yuan is an investment in his future. But the main issue is that he's currently in a rather ambiguous relationship with Liu Miaomiao. Asking a girl for money during this ambiguous period makes him feel like a jerk.

Never mind all that, I'll just transfer this 2000 yuan to Xiaotiannv first.

Lu Mingfei pulled out the bank card number that Su Xiaoqiang had given him in advance and transferred the 2000 yuan that he had just deposited into the bank card to Su Xiaoqiang.

As soon as I got home and logged onto QQ, Su Xiaoqiang sent me a message.