Lu Mingfei: Don't call me a loser, call me a hero.

In Brooklyn, New York, a young Asian man with a rather comical appearance finishes his day's work and returns to his rented apartment near the light rail line.

New York City had already awakened from its slumber. The light rail roared past, shaking the buildings so much that even plugging your ears couldn't keep you quiet.

Fortunately, he was already used to the noise, so he put on his headphones, turned on his computer, and prepared to play a few rounds of intense and exciting StarCraft.

Once you're tired of playing, you can ignore the noise and fall asleep.

Since he couldn't find anyone to play with on MSN at that time, he simply logged into QQ.

He is an American of Chinese descent who speaks Chinese. Although he is doing very well in Brooklyn, New York, he is also full of curiosity about his hometown across the ocean.

I figured out how to establish contact with them on my own, and I spent a lot of time surfing the Chinese internet.

It should be nighttime in China now, and there are quite a few people playing games. He plans to find some skilled players to spar with.

As soon as he logged onto QQ, someone invited him to join a StarCraft game group.

He didn't recognize this person. Judging from the chat history, it seemed to be a player he had previously beaten. This time, the player invited him to join the group, saying that there were experts in the group who could beat him to a pulp, and that if he had the guts, he should go and challenge them.

Such provocation was intolerable to him, so he immediately joined the game channel and his first words were:

"Who's the best fighter here? Want to fight me?"

Those still online late at night are all veterans. When they see a newcomer joining the group, they think they should welcome them. But they never expected the other party to be so arrogant, saying that they would beat the group's strongest.

Then a busybody immediately chimed in, "Newcomer, don't be so arrogant. If you want to fight our strongest, you have to prove you're qualified first."

The young man, nicknamed Lao Tang and sporting a panda avatar, immediately sensed that this group was extraordinary and might actually have something special. He realized that they needed to prove themselves before challenging the strongest.

However, having been invincible in Brooklyn, he truly didn't believe that any random person from this group could take him down, confidently stating:

"How can you prove it?"

"Simple. He just needs to fight the youngest, least experienced, and least qualified one among us. If he wins, he'll be qualified to challenge the best one in the group."

"That's right, we'll pick a weak one for you, so you won't accuse us of bullying a newbie later."

"How about it? Do you dare?"

People in the group were all egging him on, and although Old Tang didn't want to bully the weak, the atmosphere had reached this point, so he immediately agreed.

"Come on then, who's afraid of who?"

Soon, with the encouragement of many users, a large-headed bear avatar with the nickname "Mingming" appeared:

"Um, I'm not very good at this game, so please go easy on me."

Old Tang assured him, "Don't worry, I'll only use half my strength."

And then that was it. Old Tang went from using 50% of his power to 100%, and even when he unleashed his full power of 50% at the end, he still couldn't turn the tide.

From a single game to a best-of-three format, and then to a best-of-five format.

Each time he was just a hair's breadth away, and each time the opponent seized the opportunity to wipe out Big Head Bear's base just when he was about to destroy it.

After losing three games in a row, Lao Tang finally realized that there are always people better than him, and that his gaming skills, which made him the king of Brooklyn, were no match for the bottom player in this group. His attitude immediately made a 180-degree turn.

His willingness to admit his mistakes and correct them won the favor of everyone in the group, who accepted this somewhat arrogant newcomer who became humble and polite after being scolded.

Only Lu Mingfei smiled silently and accepted the friend request from the newcomer who had been kept in the dark by his buddies.

Old Tang: "Brother, you're really good at StarCraft. Let's practice together sometime and improve together, striving to beat everyone else and become the strongest!"

"No problem, no problem, you're pretty good too." Lu Mingfei wasn't just trying to make Lao Tang happy; in reality, Lao Tang's skill level was indeed quite good, probably ranking in the top five in the group.

I was new here and got tricked by the guys in the group into skipping the mobs and elite monsters and going straight for the strongest boss.

"Want to come again?"

"Come."

While Lu Mingfei and Lao Tang were enjoying a sweet duo queue, Lu Gucheng on the other side was feeling completely overwhelmed.

After his nephew left, his wife and children calmed down, and he finally had the opportunity to learn the details of what had happened.

According to Lu Mingze, Lu Mingfei took his anger out on him after getting into a fight, but Lu Gucheng knew what kind of person his son was, and it must have been Lu Mingfei who started the trouble first, which is why his nephew got angry and attacked.

Moreover, given the nephew's submissive nature, the only way to provoke him would be to target his older brother and sister-in-law. So it must be that brat Lu Mingze who spoke ill of his parents.

He wanted to press his son to tell him what hurtful things he had said, but his wife was too protective of him, saying that it was Lu Mingze who was hit, not Lu Mingfei, and even questioned him about whose father he was.

What is Lu Gucheng supposed to say?

If anyone dares to say a word more, his wife will accuse him of having an affair.

There was nothing he could do but let the matter drop, selectively ignoring the injuries on Lu Mingfei's face and the footprints on his back.

He had initially thought that his nephew had only made a momentary lapse in judgment and would return once he calmed down.

As a result, he waited until after 10 o'clock, but no one came back. He finally got anxious, changed his clothes, and went to look for the person.

His wife, who was already looking haggard, tried to stop him, but he shut her down with, "Do you want the whole neighborhood to be talking about how we drove Mingfei away tomorrow?"

He drove around in his BMW for over an hour, but didn't see a single person.

He wanted to look for Lu Mingfei in places he frequented, but upon reflection, he realized he had no idea where his nephew could go besides internet cafes.

I couldn't find anyone at the internet cafe, and the manager said he hadn't seen them at all.

Now he finally panicked and went back to his wife to discuss whether to call the police or ask the teacher if Lu Mingfei would seek help from the homeroom teacher.

And then he got scolded again: "Lu Mingfei is just lazy, not stupid. He's such a grown man, doesn't he know how to find a hotel to stay in?"

Lu Gucheng frowned: "But he has no money on him, why would he stay in a hotel?"

He knew perfectly well that his wife was always finding excuses to cut his nephew's allowance, and that she hadn't even given him his allowance for this month yet.

At this moment, Lu Mingze poked his head out of the room again and shouted, "He has plenty of money, enough to buy a game console, but he won't even let me take a look!"

He had actually seen what was in Lu Mingfei's bag when they were struggling earlier, but he hadn't said anything, just to salvage the situation for his parents now.

Upon hearing this, Lu Gucheng and his wife instantly understood the whole story.

It's likely that Lu Mingfei somehow got the money to buy a game console, then got into a fight with some thugs from the internet cafe, and when he got home, Lu Mingze wanted to take it from him, which is why he got angry.

"See? I told you he didn't learn from anyone good; he's always running off to internet cafes!"

Compared to his wife's worries, Lu Gucheng was more afraid that his eldest nephew would go astray and he would not be able to face his brother and sister-in-law.

But it's getting late, and we can't find anyone if we go out to look for them. Since my nephew has money, he shouldn't be sleeping on the streets.

Let's wait and see how things go tomorrow. Maybe Mingfei will come back when he runs out of money.

Besides, he still has to go to school eventually. We can ask Mingze to go to his class and see if he runs into him. If so, we can call him back. There's nothing a family can't talk about.

And so, Lu Gucheng successfully convinced himself, but for some reason, a sense of unease kept creeping into his heart, and he tossed and turned for half the night before finally falling into a deep sleep.

When he left for work on Monday morning and took Lu Mingze to school on his way, he noticed that the people in the neighborhood were looking at him and his son strangely. It was clear that the news of Lu Mingfei running away from home the day before had already spread.

He felt somewhat ashamed, but he couldn't explain it, so he could only pretend not to see it.

I took my son to school, told him to call Lu Mingfei if he saw him, and then went to work with peace of mind.

Just as I finished the meeting and was about to slack off for a while, I received a call from my wife, saying that Lu Mingfei was back.

He even brought a lawyer!