Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

Several shop assistants surrounded her, like a group of bridesmaids surrounding a bride, carefully adjusting the folds and drapes of the tulle.

The shop manager stepped forward personally, held the two corners of the veil with both hands, and with all the ritualistic sense he had accumulated over twenty years in this industry, slowly lifted the veil in front of Lu Mingfei.

Lu Mingfei rubbed his eyes, then rubbed them again.

He could hardly believe what he was seeing.

The person sitting there was indeed Erii, without a doubt Erii. Her facial features were the same as before, and her bone structure was the same as before, but after two hours of magical treatment at the beauty salon, she looked like a completely different person.

The beauty that had always been hidden by her shrine maiden outfit and her straight, long hair, and that had been overlooked by everyone, was finally fully revealed.

Erii seemed to be enveloped in a soft halo. Layered, side-swept bangs replaced her previous straight, brow-length hair, and a few stray strands were carefully picked out and hung down at her temples, outlining the contours of her face and making her features appear incredibly soft. Her long hair was cut short to her waist and dyed a very light brown, which was illuminated by a faint golden hue in the sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows, spreading across her shoulders and back.

"How does this look? The hairstyle is based on a forest theme, the makeup has a touch of bohemian style, and the lip color is the highlight of the whole face. Doesn't it immediately remind you of the texture of jelly and ice cubes stacked together?" The shop manager stood next to her, her hands folded in front of her, her tone full of undisguised pride in her work.

Lu Mingfei couldn't tell whether this makeup style was bohemian or Montgomery; he wasn't even sure which region's style those two terms referred to.

His aesthetic education mainly came from the daily operational training at the Takamagahara host club and the short videos he would occasionally watch, so the scope was extremely limited.

But Erii's face was so vibrant and soft, with a thin layer of blush on her cheeks that looked like a light pink that naturally shone through her skin. Her eyebrows were shaped into two long and gentle arcs, and the subtle highlight on both sides of her nose made her features at least one level more three-dimensional.

She yawned repeatedly, rubbing her eyes with the back of her fair hand. Her lips, glistening in the sunlight, had a texture resembling a mixture of jelly and ice, full, moist, and slightly translucent.

"If you're not satisfied, we have a second option!" the store manager said, keeping a close eye on Lu Mingfei.

“Yes…yes…” Lu Mingfei nodded blankly.

He mechanically pulled out his wallet, and according to the pre-arranged terms, all other high-end services were free; he would only pay for the haircut, counting out 2,700 yen and handing it to the shop manager.

The store manager accepted the banknotes with both hands, his movements as solemn as if he were receiving a medal.

He then took out a shopping discount card from his wallet and stuffed it into Lu Mingfei's hand.

"How can such a beautiful girlfriend wear a men's shirt?" the store manager said earnestly. "There's a pretty good shopping mall nearby. Use my card to pick out a few clothes for her, and you'll get a 30% discount!"

Lu Mingfei's hand was warmly shaken by the store manager. Then, the entire store's staff lined up to see them off to the door, with applause and blessings following them all the way to the street corner.

Erii yawned again, rubbed her eyes, and looked down at her newly dyed hair.

Frillie reached out from behind and poked Lu Mingfei with her finger.

Lu Mingfei turned around, and a line of light-colored words floated in mid-air: Where to go next?

Chapter 771 The Broadcasting Team

"Makeup session completed, hairstyling session completed. The bride and groom have left the beauty salon and are heading to target number two, which is a shopping center located in Minami-Aoyama." The voice from the front-line broadcast vehicle was crisp and clear, with the sounds of traffic on the streets of Minami-Aoyama and the occasional chirping of birds in the distance faintly floating in the background.

"Received. The shopping center is clearing out customers. You can enter the store in five minutes." The assistant in charge of on-site coordination in the dispatch center replied into the microphone, typing on the keyboard with all ten fingers at the same time, updating the message into the shared operation map in real time.

"Received. Taxi number one has picked up the bride and groom. Traffic is currently clear. We expect to arrive at destination number two in ten minutes." The dispatcher in charge of taxis raised his hand to report, and three green dots on the screen were slowly moving across the streets of Shinjuku.

“Received. The shopping center has been cleared out ahead of schedule, and you can enter the store at any time,” another assistant who was in charge of liaising with the mall replied.

"The Tokyo Metropolitan Meteorological Bureau just updated its forecast, and the fine weather is expected to continue until 10 p.m. tonight. Disneyland can be arranged as a follow-up destination, which is about 10 kilometers away by car."

"Received. Make Disneyland the third target and lure them there with discount coupons. Notify the Disney broadcasting van that we need them to open the VIP lane there."

"Received. The Disney VIP lane is ready to be activated. The fourth broadcast van will arrive in advance to guide the process."

The shortwave radio crackled as various parties exchanged information on the encrypted channel. Every instruction was compressed to the bare minimum, with not a single superfluous word or unnecessary pause.

The two broadcast vans were closely tracking the movements of Lu Mingfei, Frilian, and Erii.

A silver-gray Toyota van was driving about two intersections ahead of them, tasked with rushing to the next destination and setting up a perimeter; a dark blue van followed about 100 meters behind them, tasked with covering their retreat and recording their movements throughout.

Five additional broadcast vans are stationed in various areas of Tokyo, including Shibuya, Ginza, Roppongi, Odaiba, and Asakusa—each corresponding to a backup target. If any unexpected situation arises at the planned destination, the nearest broadcast van can complete the deployment of the new location within fifteen minutes.

The three taxis formed a mobile fleet that circled the nearby streets at a leisurely pace. On the surface, they were just ordinary taxis, but in reality, the drivers were all specially trained dispatchers, and miniature cameras and intercom modules were embedded in the headrests of the back seats.

The three vehicles maintained a distance of about 500 meters from each other, forming a floating encirclement with Lu Mingfei and Erii as the center, with a radius of about two kilometers.

If Lu Mingfei and Frilian had any decent counter-surveillance experience, such as being professionally trained intelligence personnel or fugitives extremely sensitive to being tracked, they should have noticed long ago that there were always one or two taxis with their vacant lights on circling around them aimlessly. As soon as they stopped slightly on the street to show their intention to hail a taxi, those taxis would silently glide up to them within thirty seconds.

Unfortunately, they had absolutely no experience in counter-surveillance.

Lu Mingfei even sneezed loudly in front of the beauty salon, then rubbed his nose, completely unaware that in those three seconds of his sneeze, the three assistants in the dispatch center simultaneously adjusted the audio sensitivity of their respective monitoring devices to ensure that his subsequent conversation would not be swallowed up by ambient noise.

Unbeknownst to him, the manager of the beauty salon he had just left was sitting in the staff break room, sipping hot tea and receiving a payment from a mysterious film production company in a gold-rimmed envelope that read "Thank you for being our first customer of the day." The amount was roughly equivalent to three months' worth of the beauty salon's revenue.

Mai Shude was dressed entirely in black today. The black suit was sharply tailored.

She stood by the window with her arms crossed, facing away from the sunlight streaming into Shinjuku, her profile as sharp as a knife just drawn from its sheath.

She exuded the air of a decisive and efficient female director. If an unsuspecting person were to walk in at that moment, they would definitely think she was a documentary master who had won the highest awards at the three major international film festivals, directing a live-action film that would affect the fate of humanity.

In reality, she was simply leading a group of highly skilled experts to guide a boy with an inner monster and a girl with an outer monster through the world's grandest date without them even realizing it.

The Casanova Kenji Takemiya was promoted to assistant director on the spot. He occupied the desk in the very center of the hall, which was originally Su Enxi's temporary workstation. On the desk were the half-eaten bag of potato chips she had eaten the night before and two empty cans of energy drinks.

At this moment, he rested his hands on the edge of the table, leaning slightly forward, his posture somewhere between a creative director and a battlefield commander, guiding the torrent of ideas from all the experts present. Various romantic, pink-hued schemes poured out from their pens. Fashion stylist Shunji Kumagai sketched drafts on his tablet with lightning speed, his pen tip almost sparking—probably the highest productivity he had ever achieved in his career.

"Cinderella's skirt disappeared around the corner of the castle, and the prince found her glass slipper on the steps. Disneyland is the ideal spot to conclude the nighttime show. When the light show in front of the new Cinderella Castle reaches its climax, arrange for them to stand on the bridge directly opposite the castle. That location is universally recognized as the best vantage point by all the visitors in the park, with a visual impact that rivals the highlight of any romantic movie." Kenji Takemiya tapped the Disneyland map spread out on the table with a slender black pen, the tip pointing to a spot below the castle icon.

"Could the fireworks be set off earlier, just as they step onto the bridge? We need the first firework to go off just as they reach the center of the bridge."

“Yes, we have a team already discussing adjustments to the fireworks sequence with Disney,” the dispatch assistant replied, raising his hand.

"Very good. As the fireworks went off, the background music for the light show switched from the regular tracks to a purely instrumental version of 'A Sudden Love Story.' Lu Mingfei had already heard this piece on TV yesterday. A sense of familiarity would form in his subconscious, but he wouldn't realize where this familiarity came from. He would only feel an inexplicable stirring at the bottom of his emotions." Kenji Takemiya's pen drew a smooth arc in the air, as if tracing an invisible cluster of fireworks.

As for the originally slated assistant director, Su Enxi, her romantic history was so clean it was like a freshly opened A4 sheet of paper, so in this situation she was left to stand aside.

She huddled in a folding chair in the corner of the hall, about ten meters away from the core meeting area, right at the edge of everyone's field of vision.

On the small coffee table in front of me was a cup of instant noodles, steaming hot, and next to it, the iPad screen was lit up with real-time Nasdaq quotes.

Su Enxi is the kind of person who supposedly makes tens of millions of US dollars flow through her fingers every minute. When she's busy, she wouldn't even bother to bend down and pick up a Maybach that fell to her feet. In the past, when she led dozens of traders to wreak havoc in the international futures market, she could drive the exchange rate of a small country down to the circuit breaker level in a single morning.

But at this moment, she could only use disposable chopsticks to stir the noodles in her cup of instant noodles, which had become bloated from soaking. Occasionally, she would lift her eyelids to look at the bustling scene in the center of the hall, and then lower her head again to trade her overnight US stocks.

This unexpressed sentiment was regrettable; Su Enxi could only huddle in a corner like a little girl, secretly envying the friend who had taken the doll.

No, not a friend, but that dashing Kenji Takemiya. For some reason, the more confident and at ease Kenji Takemiya was in front of others, the stronger the tightness in her chest became.

She picked up a mouthful of instant noodles with her chopsticks, chewed it thoroughly, and then sold 500 lots of Nasdaq index futures on her iPad.

"The shopping is over. They received Disney VIP discount coupons from the mall and just got into a taxi, heading towards Disneyland." Kenji Takemiya walked to the window and handed a stack of newly printed photos to Mai Shutoku.

The photos were still warm, just coming out of the photo printer one after another.

Mai took the photos and looked through them one by one.

All the photos were taken by the store staff while the clothes were being tried on. Of course, the staff didn't know that they were actually "temporary staff" planted in advance by the production team. They just thought that the store was holding a "best customer street photography" event, so they took extra effort and found the right angle and lighting for each photo.

The same girl in the photos looks different every time.

She stood among the clothes racks, wearing a turtleneck sweater and jeans; sat gracefully on the sofa in the lounge area, wearing a dark purple patterned kimono; stood in front of the dressing mirror, wearing a black velvet dress; and tilted her head slightly towards the camera, wearing a white sleeveless fitted dress.

Each outfit is like a brand new skin, and with each new skin she puts on, she learns the corresponding expression for that character.

Mai Shude flipped to the last page.

In the photo, Erii is wearing a light blue summer dress, the hem of which falls just to her knees, tied at the waist with a thin belt. Her long hair is draped over her shoulders as she stands in front of a floor-to-ceiling window. Her face is still not fully awake from sleep, her expression languid and blank, her misty red eyes squinting in the sunlight.

Indifference and innocence, two seemingly contradictory forms of beauty, are perfectly blended together at this moment.

Mai Shude stared at the photo for a few more seconds. She knew that this kind of thing was completely uncontrollable, innate; the destructive power evoked by that face and that expression combined was something that no makeup artist or fashion stylist could create out of thin air.

When beauty reaches a critical point, it ceases to be mere decoration and becomes a weapon—something that others will be willing to obtain or hold onto regardless of the consequences.

“It’s beautiful,” she said.

Chapter 772 Trying on Clothes (Part 1)

When Lu Mingfei cautiously crept into the shopping mall, the store was eerily quiet.

The automatic door slid open silently in front of him, and a warm breeze carrying the scents of high-end fragrance and brand-new fabrics rushed out, washing over his face.

Lu Mingfei craned his neck and peered inside, wondering if he had gone to the wrong place, or if the store was not open at all today.

The huge first-floor store was brightly lit, with every spotlight shining precisely on the merchandise on the display shelves. However, apart from rows of sturdy black-clad sales clerks, not a single customer could be seen.

The shop assistants behind the cashier had their hands folded in front of them, their posture as neat as a guard of honor waiting for inspection.

Just as Lu Mingfei was about to step back and check the opening hours sign at the entrance, he saw the black-clad shop assistants turn around almost simultaneously, face the entrance, and then file out, forming two straight lines on either side of him before bending down at the same time.

It wasn't the perfunctory nod or bow, but a standard 45-degree bow, with each person's upper body forming a parallel angle with the ground, and they remained in this posture for two seconds before straightening up.

Lu Mingfei was so shocked by the grand display that he took half a step back, subconsciously turning his head to look behind him to make sure that no important figure was standing right behind him.

But behind him was empty except for Frilian and Erii.

Frillie scanned the store's displays with her calm, ancient eyes, while Erii yawned and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, completely unaware that the two rows of people in front of her, bent over at a 45-degree angle, were there to greet her.

Describing this reception as merely "warm" is not quite accurate; a more fitting description would be "serving a queen with the utmost attentiveness and care."

It is said that all of this is because the beauty salon manager is a regular customer of this shopping center, and he goes on shopping sprees here every few days. Customers he introduces are all treated as top-tier VIP clients.

These words were spoken personally by the store manager to Lu Mingfei, and the tone was so sincere that it was impossible to doubt them in any other direction.

Lu Mingfei had a vague feeling that something was not right, but before he could sort out the thought, he was surrounded by a group of shop assistants and pushed into the store.

The half-finished glass of mint water in his hand was seamlessly replaced with a brand new one, and a genuine leather sofa appeared beneath him. He sank into the soft leather cushions, and a small catwalk lay across his face, its pure white surface reflecting the light under the spotlight.

Six or seven meters long mobile clothes racks were pushed from the left and right sides to Erii's side. The clothes hanging on each rack were so densely packed that even Lu Mingfei, who was used to seeing brand-name clothes when entertaining guests in Takamagahara, was dazzled.

Chanel's classic little black dress, with a neckline adorned with a delicate circle of pearls; Burberry's trench coat, its honey-colored cotton fabric shimmering warmly under the light; Max Mara's leopard-print skirt, each leopard spot meticulously arranged; Dior's evening gown, its hem embroidered with a profusion of petals; and then there's Gucci's printed shirt, Prada's silk wide-leg trousers, Valentino's studded high heels…

Lu Mingfei secretly squeezed the wad of banknotes in his pocket. The more than 700,000 yen that Chu Zihang had given him was lying safely in his wallet, slightly damp from the cold sweat on his palm. He wasn't sure if this money would be enough.

He was overthinking it; the treatment he was receiving was as good as that of a prince on vacation.

With a glass of minty ice water in her hand, a genuine leather sofa beneath her, and a runway in front of her, the shop assistants, like a group of maids surrounding a queen, held up all sorts of clothes and compared them to Erii. After comparing them, they all turned to him, awaiting his judgment.

Two shop assistants, both dressed in black uniforms, stood on either side of Erii, holding up clothes hangers. Two others squatted on the ground, measuring her leg length and waist circumference with soft measuring tapes, while a third stood to the side, holding a tablet computer to record data at any time.

Lu Mingfei only needed to nod slightly and say "OK," or wave his hand and say "NO," and the shop assistant would register each item he nodded for, then carefully guide Erii into the fitting room. Every few minutes, the curtains of the fitting room would be solemnly pulled open from both sides by the shop assistant, and Erii would come out.

Lu Mingfei realized that he was repeatedly witnessing a magic trick. The girl was still the same girl, and her skeleton was still the same skeleton, but every set of clothes she wore seemed to have a completely different filter on her soul.

In one moment, Frillie is Audrey Hepburn in "Roman Holiday," standing in front of a dressing mirror in a white shirt and A-line skirt, tilting her head to examine herself in the mirror, her expression carrying a kind of curiosity that comes from just learning how to look at the world.

In a flash, she transformed into Megan Fox from Transformers, wearing skinny jeans and a short motorcycle jacket. As she stood on the runway, all the lights in the store seemed to unconsciously focus more on her.

Then she transformed into Gabriel Anwar from "Scent of a Woman," wearing a black backless dress. When she turned around, her shoulder blades were faintly visible under the light, almost causing Lu Mingfei's mouthful of minty ice water to go into his trachea.