Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from Japan

There are only twenty-five students in Lu Mingfei's class, which is the standard for elite schools.

High-end schools typically have small class sizes, so even group photos tend to be sparsely populated.

The teacher sat in the first row, the girls stood in the second row, and the boys stood in the third and fourth rows.

Whether one stands in the middle or on the edge depends primarily on their position within the class, except for those who are exceptionally tall or short.

For example, Liu Miaomiao stood in the very middle of the girls' row, while Lu Mingfei could only stand on the very edge of the fourth row.

"Lu Mingfei, what are you doing standing so far to the side?"

As soon as Lu Mingfei steadied himself, Liu Miaomiao's voice came from below him.

“I…” Lu Mingfei replied, “to take a group photo.”

"You don't need to stand so far apart when taking group photos."

Liu Miaomiao waved to Lu Mingfei, "Why don't you stand behind me, Lu Mingfei? There's no one behind me anyway."

The class monitor was eager to try his luck at the seat behind Liu Miaomiao, but as soon as he took a step, he heard the entertainment committee member Liu Miaomiao give the seat she had been dreaming of to the loser Lu Mingfei.

After the initial shock, he was even more astonished, his eyes darting back and forth between Liu Miaomiao and Lu Mingfei, wondering when Lu Mingfei had hooked up with Liu Miaomiao.

Moreover, it was Liu Miaomiao who took the initiative to ask Lu Mingfei to stand behind her.

Not only were the boys shocked, but the girls were also surprised. They wondered why Liu Miaomiao, who was known for her cool and aloof personality and whose pets included beagles and German Shepherds, was suddenly so enthusiastic about the stray dog ​​Lu Mingfei.

Seeing Liu Miaomiao smiling and waving at him so warmly, Lu Mingfei had no choice but to go down the steps and walk behind Liu Miaomiao.

Liu Miaomiao nodded and looked straight ahead again.

Lu Mingfei looked down and saw the Hello Kitty hair clip that Liu Miaomiao had on the end of her hair.

Suddenly a gentle breeze blew by, blowing a few strands of hair from Liu Miaomiao's temples toward Lu Mingfei. The fragrance was faint, like the scent of some kind of high-end shower gel or shampoo.

Countless gazes, all wanting to kill him, came from around Lu Mingfei.

Ok.

Like a thorn in my back, like sitting on pins and needles, like a fishbone stuck in my throat.

It only took a dozen minutes from standing in place to taking the group photo, but it felt like an eternity to Lu Mingfei.

"Lu Mingfei, our group is having dinner together later, why don't you come too? We can go see a movie after dinner."

"After taking the photos," Liu Miaomiao said.

Lu Mingfei waved his hand: "No... my aunt has already cooked my meal."

Actually, it's fake. Today is a workday, and his uncle and aunt are not home at all. Lu Mingze is also in class, so he is all alone at home.

I was just taking a picture behind Liu Miaomiao, and the stares from the side were practically piercing my spine.

If he were to have another meal with her, he'd probably be wanted by Liu Miaomiao's followers all over the school.

But all of that is alright. Lu Mingfei doesn't really care what others think of him now. He's actually more concerned about Liu Miaomiao.

If I go out to eat with her later and she starts asking me about my senior brother, that would be a bit troublesome.

Lu Mingfei has picked up some of Houtarou Oreki's obsessive energy-saving habits.

……

The class monitor, clutching the two movie tickets he'd squeezed until they were sweaty, remained silent as he watched Lu Mingfei decline Liu Miaomiao's invitation.

He was one of the earliest members of Liu Miaomiao's fan club and a loyal supporter of Liu Miaomiao. He fell in love with her when he first entered junior high school.

Which boy in the class doesn't have a crush on Liu Miaomiao?

Even her volunteering to be class monitor was just so she could have more work-related interactions with Liu Miaomiao, who was the entertainment committee member.

However, he knew that there was an insurmountable gap between him and Liu Miaomiao.

This gap is not just about family background, but about a kind of "glamour".

Some people are born to stand in the spotlight, while others can only squeeze into the background no matter how hard they try.

Moreover, many people in the class also know that the person Liu Miaomiao likes seems to be Chu Zihang, the legendary student from Shilan Middle School who is a year ahead of them.

So he could only silently bury his feelings in his heart and wish Liu Miaomiao could find the happiness she wanted.

But even the humblest affection always carries a sliver of hope.

For the class monitor, his small wish was to stand behind Liu Miaomiao when taking the graduation photo.

If things could go further, he hoped to watch a movie with Liu Miaomiao one more time, even just once, so that his youth would be complete.

But for some reason, Lu Mingfei had some incredible luck. It was something he desperately wanted, yet Liu Miaomiao repeatedly invited him to do it.

What's even more infuriating is that Lu Mingfei actually dared to refuse Liu Miaomiao!

"His crimes are heinous... This scoundrel deserves to die!"

The class monitor immediately took out his phone and angrily logged onto the Shilan Middle School forum.

Chapter 10 This scoundrel deserves to be killed, Lu Mingfei

The Shilan High School Forum was originally an unofficial forum created by alumni of Shilan High School who were admitted to Tsinghua University in previous years, modeled after Tsinghua's "Shuimu Tsinghua BBS".

The forum was originally established to help younger students answer their questions and share experiences and lessons learned regarding further education.

As its reputation grew, more and more students from Shilan Secondary School flocked to the forum. In addition, the atmosphere on the internet became increasingly abstract, and the forum gradually went astray.

It has become a place for students to chat and have fun, and also serves as a flea market and a place to exchange homework answers.

Of course, times have changed, and the forum's administrators are no longer the same group of senior students who created it. The current top administrator is also a graduate of Shilan High School, with the ID Lei Xiuyuan, and is known as Lao Lei.

Some say that Lao Lei was also a top student when he was in school, consistently ranking first in his grade at Shilan Middle School, much like Chu Zihang is now.

However, some people say that Lao Lei is not a top student at all, because they have found out that Lao Lei did not graduate from Harvard or Cambridge, nor from Tsinghua, Peking, Fudan or Shanghai Jiao Tong Universities, and he did not even attend a 211 university in China. Instead, he attended an unknown private diploma mill in the United States.

However, regardless of whether Lao Lei graduated from Tsinghua or Peking University or from a diploma mill in the United States, no one questions his ability to be a forum administrator.

Because he created the greatest list in the history of the forum—the List of Those Who Deserve to Be Killed.

……

Old Lei, sporting enormous dark circles under his eyes, stared at the large headphone screen that glowed in the darkness.

If you connect Shilan Middle School and Lu Mingfei's home with a line, then the illegal internet cafe where Lao Lei works is a point on that line.

The internet cafe was filled with smoky, oppressive smoke, the long fluorescent lights casting a hazy white glow through the acrid smoke. Several people who had stayed up all night lay sprawled on their chairs, drooling and snoring. Sunlight couldn't penetrate because the few windows were covered with game promotional posters.

The power strips and network cables on the ground crisscrossed like landmine fuses. A cheap speaker was playing music, but you couldn't tell what song it was. The music was drowned out by the sound of people banging on keyboards and shouting. All you could hear were two large black exhaust fans on the wall spinning "whoosh whoosh whoosh" as they tried to blow air out.

"Old Lei, I'm going back now. Remember to put up the new game poster later."

After the boss finished tallying yesterday's accounts, he put the money into his pocket and called out to Lao Lei.

"Oh." Old Lei nodded blankly, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

With a creak, sunlight streamed in a few inches through the crack in the door.

Old Lei was momentarily stunned by the sudden influx of sunlight. He squinted, but the sunlight was immediately blocked out again by the closed door.

A life of darkness and despair.

Old Lei stretched, took out some glue from the drawer, and picked up a stack of MapleStory game posters behind him.

At that moment, the computer beeped, indicating that a new post had been published on the forum.

Old Lei went over and took a look.

"On the Fallen Lu Mingfei and His Life of Walking on Thin Ice... What the heck?"

Out of curiosity, Lao Lei clicked on it and laughed. It was a long proclamation, which detailed Lu Mingfei's countless crimes.

The story mainly revolves around how he approached Liu Miaomiao, a beautiful piano student at Shilan Middle School, how he hooked up with her, how he received various invitations from her, and how he feigned indifference to reject her.

"Interesting." Old Lei stroked his chin.

With another creak, Lu Mingfei pushed the door open and entered, deftly avoiding the wires on the ground as if clearing landmines.

"Network administrator, turn on a computer," Lu Mingfei said to Lao Lei, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

Old Lei looked up at Lu Mingfei and suddenly revealed a meaningful smile.

"Well done, kid. I really didn't see that coming."

"???" Lu Mingfei looked completely bewildered.

"Nothing." As Lao Lei spoke, the smoldering cigarette butt bobbed up and down with his mouth movements. "Why did you come so late today? Did you skip class?"

"No, no, I graduated in June and I'm on summer vacation now."

"A junior high school student, even after graduation, is still a kid. Does his ID card say he's an adult?"

"Hehehe, you're an adult now, why would you still need to come here?"

Old Lei chuckled, returned to the front desk, and opened a drawer. Inside were a densely packed pile of small pieces of paper cut from cigarette boxes, each with a mysterious eighteen-digit number written on it.

He took one out of the pile of scraps of paper.

"a couple of hours?"

"Let's drive for two hours first."

Old Lei frantically pressed a few buttons on the switchboard.

"Password 123456, try to sit further inside, they're cracking down hard lately."

"I know."

"By the way, want to try this?" Lao Lei pointed to the pile of MapleStory promotional posters on the front desk. "It's a game from Korea, it just launched in China, and a lot of girls are playing it."

"Oh, oh, oh." Lu Mingfei nodded. "I'll try again later. I'll play a couple of rounds of StarCraft first."

"Row."

Lu Mingfei pattered upstairs. Old Lei took a deep drag on his cigarette, then stubbed it out in the ashtray. He reopened the Shilan Middle School forum, found the previous post, and marked it as featured and pinned it.

After finishing everything, he showed a satisfied expression, picked up the stack of posters and went out, humming a little tune, using the cute chibi characters from MapleStory to cover up the sexy female character from A3 that he had put up a few months ago.

A few hours later, the rumor that "Lu Mingfei rejected Liu Miaomiao" spread throughout several QQ groups and forums of Shilan Middle School.

An hour later, the latest "List of Those Who Should Be Killed" was released, and a new name, "Lu Mingfei," appeared in the top fifty.