Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

Lu Mingze, not the little devil, but the biological son of his uncle and aunt, dragged his suitcase and was the last to sneak into the room, plopping down and taking over the single sofa by the window.

He ripped off his rain-soaked sports jacket and tossed it onto the sofa armrest. He unscrewed the bottle of mineral water provided by the hotel and gulped down half of it. Then, he grabbed the remote and frantically pressed buttons on the TV, switching between Japanese variety shows, news, and weather reports, never stopping for more than a few seconds on any one channel.

"Mingze, did you see clearly? Does that water cost money? Let me tell you, don't touch the food and drinks in the room! Things in the hotel are several times more expensive than outside!" The aunt's sense of urgency was like an arrow already on a bowstring, as if Lu Mingze wasn't unscrewing a mineral water bottle cap, but rather pulling the pin on a grenade in front of her.

In her mind, a hotel room is a minefield full of traps. Every can of cola in the refrigerator and every small bag of chocolate beans in the minibar is a carefully planted mine, just waiting for some careless guest to step on it, and when they check out, there will be an extra charge on the room bill that can make someone's heart stop.

"Hey! What's the big deal about drinking a bottle of mineral water? It's a rare trip abroad, let's enjoy ourselves!" The uncle sprawled out in the middle of the bed against the wall, comfortably twisting a few times, the mattress springs creaking beneath him. "Westin is Westin, this bed is just different! Look at this pillow, it's down!" He buried his face in the pillow, uttering muffled praise.

At the Westin Hotel in Ebisu, my uncle and aunt's family checked in amidst a raging storm.

The front desk quoted 32,000 yen per night in cash. My aunt was so distressed that she was about to turn around and leave with her suitcase when my uncle grabbed her.

As he pulled his aunt toward the elevator, he whispered, "We can't skimp on money that needs to be spent," and then muttered a few words in his aunt's ear.

Auntie finally let go and booked the twin room. According to their original plan, today should have been the last stop of this tour group. After shopping in Ginza, they were supposed to take a bus to Narita Airport to catch their flight away from Tokyo.

Unfortunately, a once-in-a-century storm brought the airport to a standstill, causing all flights to be indefinitely delayed or even canceled.

With the cherry blossom season in its final days, Tokyo is overflowing with tourists. Hotels in Ginza, Marunouchi, and Shinjuku are packed with stranded tourists from all over the world, leaving only a few vacant rooms in high-end hotels like the Westin, where the price per night is outrageously expensive.

The counter price for temporary check-in was several times higher than that for online booking. My aunt was extremely unwilling, but it was impossible for her to drag seven or eight suitcases and a bunch of luggage around in the wind and rain to try her luck.

Since it was a rare opportunity to come to Japan, my aunt had already informed all her colleagues, relatives, and friends, and everyone asked her to bring back things from Japan.

Shiseido skincare products, handmade trinkets, Meiji chocolates, Canon point-and-shoot cameras—whether for others, for personal use, or as gifts, my aunt would buy as much as she could. Even if there was only enough space to barely fit a hand in her suitcase when she opened it at the hotel, she would still fill it with two packs of stockings.

These things would cost a lot more to buy in China, so my aunt is hoping to save on travel expenses by carrying more things back with her.

However, despite all their careful planning, they overlooked the fact that the airport would be flooded, and these large boxes of spoils, which had been a money-saving tool, suddenly became a heavy burden on their escape route.

"I should have gone to Thailand. Don't you have a colleague at your company's office in Thailand? We could have asked them to send a car to pick us up, saving us from paying tens of thousands of yen for a night's stay here," the aunt said, still feeling the pinch over the room fee.

"How can Thailand compare to Japan? Besides, Thailand isn't cheap these days either," the uncle said seriously, sitting up from the bed. Then, he lowered his voice and pointed to the next room, a subtle "don't give me the hint" look on his face. "And we came out with Jiajia and her family, so of course we have to let them see our family's strength!"

Following her uncle's finger, the aunt glanced at Lu Mingze, who was frantically pressing the remote control with his head down, and finally fell silent.

Every mother has extraordinary courage to spend money on her own son. Lu Mingze's crush on Jiajia has been going on for more than a year or two. This time, the two families arranged to travel together. From the moment his uncle and aunt booked the tickets, they were determined to make their son look good. They made arrangements all the way from Pudong Airport to Tokyo.

Lu Mingze shouldn't be in Tokyo at this hour; he should be sitting obediently in a classroom at the University of Austin.

Last year, he received an acceptance letter from the University of Austin, which made his aunt proud for months. Wherever she went, she would steer the conversation toward "Our Mingze is going to study in the United States," her tone full of triumph and triumph.

But that damned American visa officer just wouldn't look at him, insisting that Lu Mingze seemed to have an intention to immigrate, and ruthlessly rejected his visa application.

The sky had fallen. It would be too late to retake the college entrance exam in China. By September, everyone else had already started school, but Lu Mingze was still stuck at home playing computer games.

The aunt cursed the visa officer's ancestors for eighteen generations, from his great-grandfather to his great-grandson who hadn't been reincarnated yet, but all the cursing couldn't change the fact that the visa was rejected. So she had to go to a study abroad agency for help.

The agent said that the admission letter wouldn't be invalidated just because you didn't register, and it could still be used next year. However, having a visa refusal record makes it much harder to get a visa again. The safest way is to spend some money to have Lu Mingze travel to a respectable place in a developed country, so that his passport will have a good entry and exit record. Then, he'll have a better chance of getting a US visa.

So, this trip to Japan during cherry blossom season was planned.

My aunt weighed the options carefully several times, and still concluded that Japan was the cheapest and most convenient option, with shorter flight times, easier visa processing, and the yen's exchange rate had been steadily declining recently. Plus, Jiajia's family was traveling with them this time.

Jiajia's real name is Chen Jiawei. She is one year younger than Lu Mingze and also studies at Shilan Middle School. She also received an acceptance letter from an American university.

The aunt looked Jiajia up and down several times and was very satisfied with her. She was pretty, had a gentle temperament, and her grades were above average. Most importantly, her family background was very satisfactory.

Jiajia's father is the head of the personnel department at her uncle's workplace, a position of real power where the promotions of everyone in the company are entirely in his hands.

The two families met for the first time at a parent-teacher conference at school. The aunt held Jiajia's hand tightly the whole time, as if afraid that the girl would suddenly grow a pair of wings and fly away.

She kept praising Jiajia, saying how good she was, and subtly hinted that she would be completely at ease if Mingze could find a girlfriend like Jiajia. She was worried that once he arrived in Austin, he would never meet a high-quality Chinese girl again, and she was extremely anxious about it.

Chapter 810 The Lu Mingze Family (Part 2)

Jiajia's dad slapped his thigh and said, "That's right! Our Jiajia is also going to study in the United States. I'm always worried that she won't be able to find a reliable Chinese boyfriend there. I'll have to bring her back a foreign son-in-law."

Our Chen family has finally managed to raise such a beautiful and healthy cabbage; we can't just stand by and watch foreign pigs eat it!

Jiajia's mother, observing closely from the side, had already seen through her aunt's thoughts.

Although the uncle's position is significantly lower than Jiajia's father's, both families' children are going to the United States. If they can fall in love and take care of each other on the other side of the ocean, it wouldn't be a bad thing.

Jiajia's mother was an open-minded woman, and she knew perfectly well that once her daughter went abroad, she was like a bird spreading its wings. Far from the reach of the emperor, even a hundred prohibitions from her mother across the ocean wouldn't make a difference. Rather than letting her randomly meet boyfriends of unknown background, it was better to find her someone she knew well right now.

Looking at Lu Mingze's honest and unassuming appearance, he didn't seem like the type to bully Jiajia.

And so, the Chen and Lu families have become as close as relatives who have been visiting each other for generations in the past few months.

Lu Mingze and Jiajia were also taken by their parents to see several newly released Hollywood blockbusters. The two were arranged in the middle to "cultivate their relationship," while the four parents stood guard on both sides, making it look like they were escorting a shipment of valuable goods that needed special care.

Lu Mingze himself didn't care much about Jiajia. Jiajia was pretty but not seductive at all, unlike Su Xiaoqiang, the school beauty of Shilan Middle School, who was a stunning sight just standing in the corridor, making people want to kneel down and shout "Your Majesty!"

Moreover, Jiajia had been pampered since childhood, and spoke softly and steadily, as if she had rehearsed each sentence three times in her mind before uttering it. This was far less melancholic and poetic than the "marks of the setting sun" that had kept him up at night on QQ back then.

Uncle was absolutely happy for Jiajia, but the only thing that bothered him was that his own promotion had to be achieved through his son's connections, which was a significant blow to the self-esteem of a middle-aged man.

So he would occasionally say a few words in Lu Mingze's defense, saying that young people should be free when they're together, and we can't do that feudal, arranged thing.

The aunt immediately retorted: "What's wrong with Jiajia? Why do you two look down on her? It's already a great honor for us to marry into the Chen family! You should consider this: if you were capable enough to become a powerful director yourself, people would still flock to us wanting to marry into our family!" The uncle shrank back and immediately cowered.

Watching Jiajia and Lu Mingze sitting side by side on the sofa whispering to each other, the aunt felt a sweet warmth welling up inside her, with only one thought in her mind: her son had finally made her proud.

There was always a thorn stuck in her heart, and that thorn was Lu Mingfei.

To be fair, she didn't initially have that much ill will towards Lu Mingfei. It was true that there was another person in the family to eat, but the living expenses that were sent from overseas every month, after deducting Lu Mingfei's expenses, still left a considerable surplus. This money allowed her uncle and aunt to move to a bigger house and also got Lu Mingze into a private school with expensive tuition.

Although Lu Mingfei was an idiot who was impossible to like, there was no need for his aunt to be at odds with a teenager. The real obstacle she couldn't get over was Lu Mingfei's mother, Qiao Weini.

The Lu family only has two daughters-in-law. Qiao Weini always has the air of a social elite, dignified, elegant and classy. Any photo of her could be on a magazine cover. As for her aunt, she always gives outsiders the impression of a housewife who revolves around the stove. Whenever there is a family gathering, she is only fit to shrink in the kitchen to wash vegetables and chop onions.

Auntie had been holding this in for most of her life, and she just couldn't swallow it.

So she dreamed that Lu Mingze could make her proud and let out all the pent-up frustrations she had accumulated over the past half of her life.

Everything was going according to Auntie's plan until that old, crazy professor suddenly appeared.

That old man named Guderian claimed to have come from some American private aristocratic college, and flew all the way to China just to interview Lu Mingfei.

But what kind of interview was that? Guderian's obsequious face at the time made it seem like he wanted to kneel down on the spot to meet Lu Mingfei, praising him as electricity, light, the only myth, a superhero sent by God to save all mankind, and begging Lu Mingfei to study at their college with a full scholarship in his hands.

Lu Mingfei, who had lived an ordinary life for six years, suddenly started to stir.

He not only recovered all the lost territory, leaving nothing behind, but also cruelly crushed Lu Mingze.

As for Aunt's state of mind at that moment, to paraphrase a classic line from a very famous Japanese anime—"That day, Aunt finally remembered the fear that had once been dominated by Giovanni, and the humiliation of being imprisoned by the stove as a housewife."

From that point on, Lu Mingfei was unstoppable.

When classmates reunite, the school heartthrob senior in a Porsche personally escorts them, and when they treat others to meals, they always choose those top-notch restaurants in the city whose names alone make aunties' wallets tremble.

On one occasion, his aunt casually asked him to help chop a radish in the kitchen. He simply lowered his head and sent a text message. In less than ten minutes, the college's logistics staff drove up to their building in a black car, dressed in uniforms and white gloves, to help in the kitchen.

The aunt saw more and more clearly the projection of the malice that had oppressed her for half her life in Lu Mingfei.

Finally, one day, the aunt could no longer tolerate it and publicly broke off relations with Lu Mingfei.

Almost a year has passed since then, and Auntie has not answered a single call from Lu Mingfei. Even when Lu Mingfei occasionally calls back from abroad, she is determined not to answer.

Not only that, my aunt never answers any international calls that appear on the screen, and she also strictly forbids my uncle from answering them.

In the stillness of the night, Auntie lay stiffly on the bed, staring at the ceiling. She imagined that Lu Mingfei and his family were probably already reunited in America, eating fried eggs and drinking freshly squeezed orange juice in a bright and clean detached house, driving a shiny luxury car, and looking at her watch—all of which were luxury brands she couldn't even name.

Giovanni, dressed in designer clothes she'd swept up from Fifth Avenue in New York, fluttered about like a timeless butterfly.

Looking down at herself for most of her life, trapped between the stove and the laundry basket, her youth turned to dust, she couldn't help but burst into tears, soaking half her pillow. She wanted to howl to the sky, but there was no one around to answer her.

It wasn't until Jiajia emerged from the water like a savior specially arranged by God that Auntie regained her confidence and strength to live from the mire.

No matter how capable you are, Joey, you might not be able to find such a virtuous and reliable wife for Lu Mingfei, right?

So Auntie relentlessly pursued Jiajia, and after several months of continuous efforts, she finally launched a full-scale attack a month ago: taking advantage of the opportunity to help Lu Mingze get a visa and accumulate exit records, she invited Director Chen and his family of three to travel to Japan together, ostensibly to enjoy the cherry blossom season.

According to the aunt's calculations, this step was the decisive blow. Her son had climbed up a little bit with Jiajia, but as long as they broke through that thin layer of paper under the fluttering cherry blossoms, the timing, atmosphere, and mood would all be perfect, and she figured Jiajia's parents wouldn't turn against them on the spot.

What was supposed to be a perfectly good trip turned into Tokyo's worst rainstorm in a century.

The female news anchor on TV, her eyes squinting from the wind, stood on the breakwater every day, shouting hoarsely that the tide level had broken historical records again. The cherry blossom trees in Tokyo were battered to pieces by the wind and rain, their pink petals swept away by the rain into the drains, swirling in the eddies at street corners before disappearing without a trace.

The family was constantly soaked; their clothes wouldn't dry properly no matter how long they hung them in the hotel room, and their shoes would fill with water after just a few steps outside. They looked more like a group of refugees fleeing a disaster than on vacation.

However, Uncle and Lu Mingze, those two spendthrift old men, didn't care at all. In their eyes, Tokyo in the midst of the storm had a kind of beauty that they never saw on ordinary days. The streets were flooded, and the neon lights reflected on the water, turning the whole street into a flowing impressionist oil painting. Every morning when they opened the window, they could see a thick layer of pink petals that had been knocked down by the rain floating on the surface of the Tama River, flowing downstream and leaving a gorgeous cherry blossom ribbon.

Jiajia's parents didn't complain at all. After all, all the expenses for this trip were covered by their aunt, from airfare to hotel to every meal. Their aunt didn't ask them for a single penny.

Uncle and Lu Mingze were both lounging on the incredibly soft bed at the Westin Hotel, dozing off, their snores rising and falling like two pigs rolling in the mud.

My aunt stood alone by the window, legs spread apart, hands behind her back, gazing at the Tokyo city swallowed by the torrential rain.

The afterglow of the neon lights pierced through the layers of rain and shone on her face. At that moment, her aunt's back and expression unconsciously exuded an aura of "the wind is howling and the Yi River is cold," as if a seasoned general was standing under the enemy's overwhelming barrage of arrows, making a final pre-battle simulation.

This final push is absolutely necessary! This last layer of paper must be pierced! We must win over Jiajia no matter what!

No matter what kind of once-in-a-century rainstorm it is, no matter what kind of airport closures or flight cancellations it may be, no one can stop the Lu family from getting married!

With the amazing tenacity that a housewife had honed through repeated failures, the aunt secretly made a solemn vow in her heart.

Chapter 811 The Storm Is Brewing

The helicopter formation struggled to navigate through the heavy rain.

Above us was a sky thick with dark clouds, as heavy as if it had been cast with molten lead. Occasionally, a silent flash of lightning would streak through the gaps in the clouds, illuminating the rugged Red Stone Mountains below.

All of them were CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters, their black paint almost blending into the clouds deep in the rain, with the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force's Rising Sun flag temporarily painted on their fuselages.

Each helicopter has a high-strength steel cable hanging from its fuselage. The eight CH-47s are arranged in a trapezoidal formation, and they must work together to keep the same behemoth steadily suspended in mid-air.

An oversized engineering container, covered by a camouflage tarpaulin, resembled a giant steel sarcophagus tightly bound in mid-air by iron chains.

From the lead pilot at the very front of the formation to the special forces machine gunner at the very back, no one in the entire crew knew what was inside the container.

They received an emergency dispatch order in the early morning and took off from the Ground Self-Defense Force air base in Hokkaido. They first flew north to Aomori Prefecture, the northernmost part of Honshu Island, where they loaded the giant container at a military supplies reserve hidden deep in the Shirakami Mountains—a place they had never heard of before. Then they turned south, traversing the entire island of Honshu, with their target being the mountainous area upstream of the Tama River west of Tokyo. For the entire morning, they cut through half of Japan from north to south, avoiding densely populated areas of major cities as much as possible, choosing routes entirely over sparsely populated mountainous and open fields.

However, when they occasionally passed over the highway, the giant container hanging below the formation would slowly glide by at a low altitude of less than 100 meters, causing countless private cars to pull over and brake suddenly. The people in the cars would take out their mobile phones and frantically take pictures of the incredible huge black shadow in the sky.

The parents, their hearts pounding, guessed that it was probably some kind of top-secret weapon being secretly mobilized, while the children excitedly leaned halfway out of the car window, pointing at the black silhouette receding into the rain and shouting in a high-pitched voice: "Gundam!"

Genjiro sat in the most prominent command seat in the cabin of the CH-47 at the very front of the formation, wearing a plain black suit without any markings, with a long, black-sheathed sword lying across his lap.

This position was designed from the outset for the one who gives orders, and officers in Self-Defense Force uniforms were currently bustling around this top leader of the Japanese underworld.

The communications soldier handed him an encrypted telephone receiver, the navigator spread out a 1:50,000 military contour map in front of him, and the meteorological sergeant handed him a revised wind shear data every few minutes.