Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

For some reason, this scene stirred something within Lu Mingfei's heart.

The sound of water in the bathroom gradually stabilized, becoming a continuous and even sound.

Hot water flows over the body, slides down the curves of the spine and legs, and finally splashes at the bottom of the bathtub.

A pristine white porcelain bathtub and a cast-iron Venus faucet; warm red wall lamps cast a soft, hazy glow through frosted glass; white steam should be slowly rising from the bathroom, enveloping Erii. A yellow rubber duck is probably floating on the water, gently swirling with the ripples.

Lu Mingfei pressed his forehead against the cold floor-to-ceiling window again and closed his eyes.

Frillie reopened "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," turning back to the latter half of the Battle of Red Cliffs. The east wind had arrived, and the scene of burning the chained ships was reaching its climax. She was watching the part where Zhou Yu waved his command flag at the bow of the ship, where the river wind was biting.

Lu Mingfei suddenly felt that he probably understood why Erii had been sitting in front of the French windows for so long.

Sometimes the outside world itself is enough: rain, birds, the changing traffic lights, the movement of clouds. No need to speak, no need to communicate; simply watching quietly is a luxury in itself.

For someone who has been confined to a building for twenty years, these empty moments that ordinary people find so boring that they have to fill them with their phones are probably the most precious freedom that Erii possesses.

Chapter 758 Once Loved

Bored, Lu Mingfei picked up the remote control from the bedside table and started changing channels.

The remote control for the love hotel always had an inexplicable sticky feel to it, and the gaps between the buttons were probably filled with all sorts of unknown traces left by previous guests. He didn't want to delve into the composition of those things at all, and just pinched the edge of the remote control with the tip of his fingernail, flipping through channels one after another.

Japanese television late-night programming is rather lackluster.

A shopping channel is promoting an optical device that claims to remove all body hair in one go, with the female host repeatedly shouting "unprecedented lowest price ever" in a voice raised eight octaves; on a variety show channel, a group of idol group members in bikinis are playing darts, screaming in unison every time they miss; a news channel is broadcasting an emergency rainstorm warning for Tokyo, with a spokesperson for the Meteorological Agency announcing to the camera with a face as if facing a major crisis that the rainfall has broken the record for the past fifty years, urging citizens to stay indoors as much as possible and be wary of landslides and urban flooding.

Lu Mingfei continued scrolling down.

Honami Suzuki's face took up the entire screen.

TBS is rebroadcasting "Tokyo Love Story." The screen is bathed in the warm yellow hues characteristic of the 1990s, like an old photograph subtly soaked in tea stains. Honami Suzuki, playing Rika Akana, stands in front of an office window, wearing the era's signature padded-shoulder suit and high-waisted jeans, her long, tousled hair casually draped over her shoulders.

The smile on her face was one that an entire generation of Japanese women would later take to beauty salons with stills from the drama, demanding a replica. The curve of her lips was so precise that even the number of teeth exposed was just right. Her eyes curved into two crescent moons, her eyebrows were gently raised, and her whole person was like a small ball of flame that burned tirelessly.

Lu Mingfei's finger, which was on the channel changer, stopped.

On the screen, Aunt Suzuki Honami was reciting her classic line. Lu Mingfei mentally called her "Auntie" because, if he counted on his fingers, he wasn't even born when the show first aired, and Suzuki Honami, who was in her early twenties back then, was now a woman over fifty.

But on the screen, she is forever twenty-five years old, sealed in the film of 1991, like a passenger left forever on the platform by time.

She said, "It's impossible to love someone for a lifetime. Love is just a fleeting thing. But I will cherish my love for you, and your love for me; I will often savor those memories. The thought of what tomorrow will bring with this love prevents me from loving anyone else. Because of that past self, I am who I am now, and I can be content with my own company!"

Lu Mingfei stared at the screen, the remote control slipping from his fingers.

This is an older Japanese drama series that premiered in 1991, starring Honami Suzuki and Yuji Oda. Yosuke Eguchi, who later became a huge star, was just starting out at the time and played the second male lead.

In this drama, Suzuki plays Rika Akana, a white-collar worker who always smiles like the summer sun and is deeply in love with her timid colleague Kanji Nagao.

Uncle Wanzhi is a young man who came to Tokyo from a small county to make a living. He is honest, dull, and indecisive to an outrageous degree. In some ways, he is just as cowardly as Lu Mingfei himself.

But what Uncle Kanji truly cherishes in his heart is his high school classmate, Rimi Sekiguchi. Aunt Rimi is a gentle and virtuous kindergarten teacher with eyes that always have a hint of water in them, and she always looks down at her fingers when she speaks.

The entire drama revolves around this love triangle, with twists and turns and many ups and downs.

One moment, Uncle Kanji and Aunt Rika were so in love they were practically dying for each other, hugging and kissing in the snow. When Rika returned from her business trip to Hokkaido, she even brought Kanji a little snowman she had made herself. In the blink of an eye, Uncle Kanji and Aunt Rimi were looking at each other with teary eyes, saying that he could never forget the unrequited love they had in high school that never had a chance to blossom.

Yosuke Eguchi's character, Comrade Mikami, would occasionally jump in and cause trouble. He was a dashing medical student who had flirted with both Rika and Rimi, making the whole situation even more chaotic.

This TV series took the whimsical aspects of capitalism to the extreme. In 1991, Tokyo's white-collar workers would sit in front of the TV every night without fail, laughing along with Rika, feeling conflicted along with Kanji, and going through countless sit-ups between excitement and heartbreak as the story unfolded.

Yet, this very drama actually moved Lu Mingfei deeply back then.

It's kind of embarrassing to admit. He was already a high school student when he watched this show. Normally, a high school boy should scoff at such an old-fashioned romance drama and turn to watch action manga or sci-fi blockbusters instead.

But around that time, a wave of nostalgia for Japanese dramas inexplicably swept through their high school circle of friends. It started when someone posted a thread on the school forum titled "A List of the Most Heartbreaking TV Drama Endings of the 20th Century," with "Tokyo Love Story" topping the list.

Lu Mingfei watched the entire series at an internet cafe near the school, which took two weekends and a total of about thirty hours. During that time, he ate twelve bowls of instant noodles and an uncountable number of spicy snacks.

The internet cafe is perpetually filled with the mixed smells of secondhand smoke and foot odor. There's always someone playing "Yulgang" or "World of Warcraft" at the next computer, and the clattering of keyboards and the hoarse shouts of team commanders shake the floor.

In that environment, Lu Mingfei, wearing cheap headphones that cost ten yuan a pair, cried like a dog in front of a fourteen-inch CRT monitor.

Even today, he can still hum the melody of the theme song perfectly.

The song is called "A Love Story That Happened Suddenly," written by Kazumasa Oda. The intro is an interweaving of piano and harmonica; the piano is clear and bright, while the harmonica is husky. The two sounds intertwine, like morning dew sliding off the tips of bamboo leaves.

Kazumasa Oda sang in his ever-clear voice: "That day, that moment, that place, if I hadn't met you—"

Every time he heard this sentence, Lu Mingfei would feel something indescribable.

It's not sadness, nor regret. It's like standing at the end of a very, very long road and looking back. Every step you've taken is clearly visible, but there's no possibility of walking it again.

Because that drama starred Honami Suzuki as Rika Akana. Not Honami Suzuki, but Rika Akana.

The only evidence that this fictional character lives in this world is the eleven episodes of a TV series broadcast on television, which together take up no more than ten hours of screen time.

But for every minute of those ten hours, she wore a smile that never faded, like the early summer sun. She always smiled and encouraged herself, repeating, "Wanzhi will definitely fall in love with me in the end, I love Wanzhi, Wanzhi loves me," carrying the weight of the whole world in her big backpack, which was bulging with love, hope, and local specialties she had casually brought back for Wanzhi on her business trip.

Lu Mingfei occasionally heard girls laughing and greeting their boyfriends in the school corridors, and for a moment he would think it was the voice of Rika Akana.

But in the end, Rika Akana got tired, didn't want it anymore, and left.

The television was showing that episode. Rika was sitting on a train leaving Tokyo, the setting sun crashing down outside the window, turning the entire carriage into a vast ocean of orange-red. Half of her face was illuminated by the afterglow, while the other half remained in shadow.

She casually pulled out old photos from her bag—photos of herself and Kanji together, taken on the beach in Odaiba, in the snow, and in a small bar in Shinjuku. In every photo, she was smiling like a little sun, while Kanji had a blank expression, making it impossible to tell whether he was happy or unhappy.

The past scenes flashed before her eyes, the past sounds echoed again, and the girl who was always smiling finally quieted down. She rested her head on the car window, her shoulders began to tremble slightly, and then tears fell.

Tears slid down her cheeks, one by one, and flowed down her face into the corners of her mouth. She didn't wipe them away or make a sound. She just wearily pressed her forehead against the glass and watched the scenery rushing past outside the window.

The setting sun outside the window visibly sank, its color fading from orange-red to deep red and then to dark purple, before finally being swallowed up by the horizon.

The train continued forward, and the scenery continued to recede into the distance.

This was the first time Lu Mingfei had learned that unrequited love stories existed in the world. He sat on the worn-out plastic chair in the internet cafe, staring at the slowly scrolling cast and crew credits on the monitor, unable to come to his senses for a long time. The sounds of keyboards and shouts of battle all around him disappeared, leaving only the ending theme song of Kazumasa Oda playing on repeat in his ears.

He thought to himself, "What is this all about? All this fuss and all those heart-fluttering moments, all for nothing?"

Aunt Rika even brought a little snowman all the way from Hokkaido to Uncle Kanji as a gift! In the freezing cold, she took off her gloves and used the warmth of her palms to warm Kanji's face. The little snowman was placed on the windowsill, wrapped in a small red scarf.

They were still hugging and kissing each other in the snow!

For once, that coward Kanji took the initiative and pressed Rika down on the snow to kiss her. After the kiss, the two lay side by side on the snow, looking at the gray sky, their breaths mingling and inseparable.

Didn't we all say "I love you" to each other so many times? Didn't we pinky swear? Didn't we promise that even if I called you from the top of the Himalayas, you would appear in front of me immediately? Didn't you promise to bring me some hot oatmeal?

So many promises, so many words spoken with such force, each one seemed to be etched into the other person's heart.

So all those words were just empty talk?

A slightly chilly rain is falling outside the window, echoing the torrential rain in the Tokyo night sky across time and space.

Lu Mingfei remembered that he listened to the ending theme song on repeat four or five times. Every time he heard Oda Kazumasa hit the highest note in the chorus, his heart would clench, as if it were being gently squeezed by an invisible hand. Outside the internet cafe, it was a damp and cold November night. The streetlights cut the rain into short, silvery lines, and occasionally one or two pedestrians wrapped tightly in coats would hurry by on the street.

He suddenly realized that this was reality.

Not all love stories have a happy ending. Not everyone who says "I love you" ends up together. Not every smile lasts until the very last line of the story.

Some things are destined to last only a moment, like the instant fireworks explode at their highest point, like the fleeting moment before snowflakes melt in your palm, like the slight tremor at the corner of Akana Rika's mouth when she pulls out old photos on the train.

That moment is over, and that's it. You can cherish it, you can replay it in your mind again and again, but it will never come back.

Some things are just said, nothing more.

For example, I love you.

For example, I'm waiting for you.

Chapter 759 I Don't Want to Fall in Love with Anyone But Frillien (Part 1)

The long night was like an endless tunnel. Lu Mingfei lay in the darkness, his mind churning with all sorts of thoughts.

The downpour outside the window intensified suddenly, the raindrops pounding against the floor-to-ceiling glass in a dense, muffled thud, as if someone were lying on a rooftop, pounding their fists against a giant drum.

Erii had finished showering and changed into another set of pajamas, the second one Lu Mingfei had bought at the convenience store. It was a light blue one with white bunnies printed on it, from the same series as the previous pink cherry blossom one, just in a different color.

Her hair wasn't completely dry, lying damply on her shoulders, with water dripping intermittently from the ends, leaving small, dark water stains on the shoulders of her pajamas. She leaned back over the coffee table and continued fiddling with the dolls, as if the project interrupted by her shower had to be resumed immediately, allowing no delay whatsoever.

Barbie was still sitting steadily in the driver's seat of the red car, while Master Yoda lay alone on his checkered bed.

Erii rested her chin on her hand and stared at them for a long time, then gently pushed the toy car with her fingertips, making it slide forward about three centimeters and stop right in the shadow cast by the teacup.

Frillie is still reading "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," and the plot has progressed to Guan Yu's defeat at Maicheng.

Her brows furrowed slightly, and she turned the pages much slower than before, probably because this part of the story was quite unpleasant for her.

Lu Mingfei has no one to talk to.

He had turned off the TV long ago, but the image of Rika Akana bursting into tears still lingered on his retina, like a shadow that lingered long after being burned by a bright light.

He lay on his back on the round velvet bed, his hands behind his head, staring blankly at the huge mirror in the center of the ceiling.

The mirror reflected the entire room without any hesitation—warm red lighting, a coffee table piled with dolls, a red-haired girl hunched over the coffee table, an elf magician curled up on the sofa flipping through a book, and an ordinary person with his hands behind his head and an empty gaze that was almost mentally challenged.

The purpose of installing mirrors on the ceiling in these love hotels is self-evident, but Lu Mingfei had no interest in thinking about it at all. He was just staring at himself in the mirror, feeling that the person looked both familiar and unfamiliar.

Memory is a murky river, but at certain moments it suddenly becomes crystal clear, allowing you to see every single pebble on the riverbed clearly.

He remembered a night long ago, before he came to Japan and before he met Erii.

Back then, he was just a freshman at Kassel College, living a carefree life. His biggest anxiety was whether his GPA would fall below the cutoff score set by Frillian next month, and his greatest joy was sneaking over the wall with Fingel in the middle of the night to eat skewers at the late-night food stalls near the school gate.

He remembered one night going out for a late-night snack with Finger at an open-air barbecue stand outside the back gate of the college. The owner was a retired Texas executive officer who could grill a piece of beef to eighteen different degrees of doneness.

After downing two bottles of beer, Fingel became completely unstoppable. Of course, he's always been talkative, but alcohol can elevate his talking from "a lot" to "a tsunami."

He slammed his hand on the table and began to boast about his romantic history in a weathered tone.

“Junior brother,” Fingel said, holding a half-eaten chicken wing, grease dripping from his fingers, “Back in my undergraduate days, I had countless touching romances with female students. Every single one made me want to break free of the shackles of feudal ethics, but the problem was, there were no feudal ethics to bind me. None! It was all empty! Not even a celibate nun I had to sneak over at night for a secret rendezvous with! What a waste of all my romantic genes!”

Lu Mingfei was engrossed in eating a plate of grilled chives when the owner smeared a thick layer of incredibly spicy chili sauce on them, making him sweat profusely from the spiciness.

Without looking up, he replied, "Even if I believe you've dated many female classmates, that only proves you're undeniably a scumbag. A Casanova's core strength lies in being able to hang himself on a crooked tree! When you're enjoying romantic moments with your new love, don't you ever think of the moonlight on the night you and your ex pledged your lives to each other?"

Lu Mingfei said this with utmost seriousness.

Because that's truly what he felt. The person he liked was Frillie, although getting the word "like" out of his mouth was harder than pulling a tooth. Every time he tried to use the word "like" in his mind, his cheeks would burn, like a primary school student standing in front of the teacher being called on to recite a text but forgetting the next line completely.

But the feeling was so real that he was completely unwilling to imagine it would change.

Fingel put down the chicken wings, took a napkin and slowly wiped his fingers, his expression suddenly turning serious. The seriousness on his face, which screamed "unreliable," was extremely incongruous, like a monkey suddenly donning an archbishop's robes.

“No, no,” he said, quoting classical texts. “The philosopher Heraclitus once said, ‘You cannot step into the same river twice.’ This statement profoundly reveals the ever-changing nature of all things.”