Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from EVA

Nuonuo forcibly led Lu Mingfei into a food stall on the street corner.

It was the liveliest time of night, with incandescent lights swaying under the awnings and the air filled with the aroma of cumin-flavored meat skewers and cheap grease.

The owner was a chubby middle-aged man, standing in front of the oven, sweating profusely.

An ordinary boy in an old T-shirt and worn-out sneakers sat opposite a sophisticated and elegant girl in designer clothes with flowing red hair. As soon as the two sat down, the men at the surrounding tables quieted down their drinking games and all turned to look at them.

Nono pulled over a sticky, red plastic chair and sat down. She grabbed the greasy, reflective laminated menu and waved it boldly at the owner: "Boss! Fifty skewers of lamb, twenty skewers of chicken feet, one serving each of grilled leeks and grilled eggplant, and three pounds of spicy crayfish!"

After thinking for a moment, she added, "Bring over a dozen chilled draft beer! The coldest they can be!"

"Alright! Just a moment, beautiful lady!" The boss was taken aback by this generosity and quickly responded loudly.

Nuonuo reached for the plastic cup on the table, but Lu Mingfei took the cutlery first.

He tore open the packaging and tossed their bowls and chopsticks into a plastic basin. He poured in boiling hot tea, then methodically stirred and washed the chopsticks in the water. Next, he took two tissues and carefully wiped the greasy tabletop in front of Nuonuo clean before placing the hot bowls and chopsticks beside her.

Finally, he folded a square dry tissue and placed it under her glass to prevent condensation from spilling onto the table.

Nuonuo stared at the spotless bowls and chopsticks, then leaned back slightly.

"What are you doing, acting like you're taking care of a kindergartener?" She looked at Lu Mingfei suspiciously. "Street food stalls are all about eating dust, don't be so fussy."

"I'm used to it." Lu Mingfei withdrew his hand.

Soon, the kebabs and crayfish were served.

Nuonuo peeled crayfish with her bare hands, her fingertips covered in red oil. She ate a bite of crayfish meat followed by a sip of ice-cold beer, sweating profusely as she exclaimed how satisfying it was.

Lu Mingfei poured himself a glass of warm water and chewed a piece of roasted lamb very slowly.

Nono suspected the kid was faking it, but Lu Mingfei was genuinely eating slowly and deliberately. Since there was no rush to board the plane and risk his life, he naturally wanted to eat slowly.

"I'm telling you," Nono downed half a glass of beer in one gulp, "what's going on with you?"

Lu Mingfei looked up: "What's going on?"

"I really don't understand you anymore." Nono pointed at Lu Mingfei with a stick. "You were clearly a standard good-for-nothing high school student, how did you suddenly turn into this... world-weary old man? Professor Guderian said you were a dragon-slaying genius, but you don't even want to step into Kassel. I also want to ask you, why didn't you reply when I asked you to play a game of StarCraft on QQ?"

Lu Mingfei put down the bamboo skewer and wiped his fingers clean one by one with a tissue.

"I wasn't in the mood for playing games at the time." Lu Mingfei stared blankly at the distant neon lights. "It's hard for me to explain to you."

"Don't pretend to be profound." Nono tried to forcefully break the atmosphere that made her uneasy. "Even if you're not nervous, don't look at me like I'm some kind of lost little girl. It's really annoying."

"Don't always be so aggressive." Lu Mingfei looked at her and pushed a can of room temperature herbal tea next to Nuonuo, blocking her from picking up the fourth can of iced pure beer.

"Come on, if you're so skilled, why don't you use it on Chen Wenwen?" Nuonuo wiped her mouth.

"I've already told you I don't like her."

"Well, I wasn't going to give this to you. Here, it's the recommendation letter your parents wrote for you." Nono pulled an envelope out of her bag and slammed it on the table. "They are also honorary alumni of Kassel College, and they hope you will follow in their footsteps."

Lu Mingfei was stunned.

He stared at the envelope, a moment of blankness flashing in his eyes.

"My...parents?"

"Oh, are you so touched you want to cry?" Nono narrowed her eyes. "Don't pretend, your big sister is right here. It's not shameful to be a little cowardly sometimes."

Lu Mingfei was genuinely caught off guard.

Having stayed there for so long, he had come to accept that everyone was an orphan. Rei Ayanami was a clone, Asuka's mother went insane and hanged herself, and Misato Katsuragi's father died in Antarctica.

The only exception is Shinji Ikari, but his father, Gendo Ikari, who wanted to melt all of humanity, would have been better off dead.

Oh, his mother is gone too.

"What's wrong?" Nono frowned. "Are you so excited you've gone mad?"

"I almost forgot... my parents are still alive. Oh right, I still have parents."

Nono gasped, looking at him as if he were mentally ill: "Are you crazy?! Who would forget that their parents are still alive?!"

Lu Mingfei opened the letter. The contents were very short. It wasn't addressed to him, but to the school, asking him to use connections to get him admitted through connections.

He has parents. Parents who are alive, who haven't gone mad, who haven't died in Antarctica, and who aren't hiding in underground labs plotting to complete the human instrumentation.

This is probably the best news I've ever heard in my life.

He put the letter in his pocket and casually made a hellish joke: "I thought my parents had died long ago in the Second Impact... or that they were some kind of mad scientist hiding in an underground laboratory, figuring out how to extract my soul and stuff it into a monster."

"Clang!"

Nono's beer glass fell directly onto the table, spilling beer all over the floor.

"What kind of twisted, sadistic protagonist-torture plot is in your head?!"

"Over-interpretation, artistic embellishment." Lu Mingfei chuckled dismissively and stuffed the envelope into his pocket.

Nono rubbed her throbbing temples, grabbed her bag, and prepared to end this torture: "The letter has been delivered. You rejected Cassel, so you can continue being your loser uncle here."

Lu Mingfei nodded, stood up, and prepared to pay the bill. He used to live with Miri and the others, and he was the one who managed the money.

The shopkeeper greeted us with a smile, calculator in hand: "It's two hundred and twenty-eight in total, but I'll give you two hundred and twenty."

Lu Mingfei reached into his pocket, his fingers touching the envelope, but when he reached deeper, there was nothing there. Only then did he belatedly realize that he was now a poor student who hesitated for a long time even to buy a game magazine, and that he had spent all his remaining pocket money that afternoon buying compressed biscuits at the supermarket as emergency supplies.

Under the sour gazes of those shirtless burly men at the tables, Lu Mingfei calmly pulled his hand out of his empty pocket.

He turned to look at the red-haired young lady opposite him and said:

"I have no money."

Before Nono could react, he pointed to the pile of lobster shells: "And you ate most of them, so you should pay the bill."

Nono was stunned.

"You dare ask me to order three pounds when you have no money?!" Nuonuo laughed angrily, gritting her teeth as she pulled three red bills from her wallet, slammed them on the table, and glared at the shopkeeper. "Keep the change!"

The shirtless men at the next table, already green with envy, were so shocked they dropped their edamame into their plates. They had initially thought it was just a case of "good cabbage being eaten by a pig," but it turned out this "pig" was actually here to freeload!

Lu Mingfei asked the shopkeeper for eighty yuan in change and put it in his pocket as a way to pay for his trip to the airport.

This set of movements is fluid and natural.

After carefully putting the change away, Lu Mingfei turned his head, ignoring Nuonuo's murderous glare:

"As for the invitation from Kassel College... please pass on my message to Professor Guderian."

"I'll go to Hakone and then I'll give him a clear answer."

After saying that, he put his hands in his pockets and, under the astonished gazes of everyone present, turned and walked gracefully into the night.

-----------------

Late at night, Regent Hotel, Executive Suite.

At the conference table in the suite, Ye Sheng and Aki Shude were quietly checking flight information. Their shoulders were very close, Aki's cheeks were slightly flushed, and Ye Sheng's eyes couldn't help but drift towards the girl's hair.

The air was just the right amount of stickiness.

Nono dragged her feet, pushed open the door, and threw herself into the leather sofa like a corpse.

Upon hearing the door open, the two immediately separated as if electrocuted and stood up straight.

"Nono, you're back." Ye Sheng coughed lightly, trying to cover up his embarrassment.

Nono sprawled on the sofa, staring blankly at the ceiling. "God..." she murmured, "Thank God, I've finally seen humans."

"Lu Mingfei... doesn't he seem human?" Aki wondered.

Nono rolled her eyes and pointed at the awkward pair: "I mean, I've finally seen normal teenage boys and girls, exuding that pink, sour smell! This is what a living person should be living."

Jiu Deya suddenly stood up, stammering and waving her hands: "No...no, what nonsense are you talking about! Ye Shengjun and I are just partners! The academy rules strictly prohibit specialists from..."

"Alright, alright, stop with your blatant attempts to cover it up. Even a blind man could see you two are mutually attracted." Nono rolled her eyes.

Ye Sheng quickly changed the subject: "What exactly is the situation with Lu Mingfei?"

"The situation is, he's definitely going to Japan in the next few days. You'd better help him get a visa, otherwise he might actually try to hijack a plane if he has a mental breakdown."

Ye Sheng was stunned: "Is he serious?"

"More real than pearls."

Looking at the cautious pair in front of her, Nono suddenly sighed.

"so……"

Nono adopted a more mature and authoritative tone: "Ye Sheng, Ya Ji."

"Here!" The two of them instinctively straightened their backs.

"If you like someone, confess your feelings quickly; if you want to be together, do it sooner rather than later."

After saying that, Nuonuo pushed open the bedroom door, leaving the shocked Ye Sheng and Aki standing there.