Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

Lu Mingfei could even feel those ruby-like pupils slowly receding like the tide at dusk, leaving the sea behind and forever remaining on the dried-up mudflats.

"I really like this world..." Erii wrote these words just before the sun completely disappeared. Lu Mingfei breathed a slight sigh of relief. It seemed she really liked the scenery here. Driving for four hours and 400 kilometers to get here hadn't been in vain.

“But the world doesn’t like me,” Erii continued writing. She hugged the giant Rilakkuma, her eyes lowered, her eyelashes casting two faint shadows on her cheeks.

Lu Mingfei didn't answer, nor did he know how to answer. He had never been good at comforting others.

“I’ve caused trouble for everyone, and I’ve also caused trouble for Sakura. I was too willful to run away from home. I should have gone back a long time ago. But I’m still very happy.” Seeing that Lu Mingfei didn’t answer, Erii continued writing on her own, becoming more and more anxious as she wrote, until she stopped showing the notebook to Lu Mingfei.

She wrote furiously by the last glimmer of crimson light on the horizon, the pencil tip making a continuous rustling sound on the paper. It was a silent monologue she was writing to herself.

Then her pen suddenly stopped, and a hand reached out from the side and gently pressed on the back of her hand that was holding the pencil.

“No,” Lu Mingfei said.

Erii was stunned.

“No,” Lu Mingfei repeated.

Erii looked up and met his eyes.

Lu Mingfei tilted his head to look at her, his expression unusually serious, unlike anything he'd seen in the past few days.

"Don't think you can understand the world just because you've been out here for a few days. I've lived in this world for twenty years, and I'm still confused. I often can't even find my direction in life. You think you understand the world after just a few days out?"

Erii lowered her head somewhat awkwardly, clutching the hem of her dark purple skirt with both hands.

For the past few days, Lu Mingfei had been completely obedient to her, telling her to eat when he asked her to, and to get in the car when he told her to, without ever uttering a single word of dissent.

She felt that she had probably said or done something wrong, but she hadn't had time to figure out exactly what she had done wrong.

Frillie watched this scene quietly from the sidelines.

She sat on a rock not far away, closer to the cliff, closed her well-worn travel book, and clipped it with a bookmark.

She stood up and walked over slowly, her long silver hair being tousled by the mountain breeze, with a few strands brushing against Lu Mingfei's shoulder.

She walked up to Erii, bent down, reached out, and tucked a strand of deep red hair that had fallen beside Erii's face behind her ear. Then, she drew a line of words in the air with her fingertips.

“He’s right.” Erii gazed at the line of text floating in the deepening twilight, radiating a soft silver light, and after a long while, finally nodded.

“The size of this world depends on how many people you know. Every person you meet makes the world a little bigger for you,” Lu Mingfei began again, his voice slower and deeper in the twilight. “There are many, many cities in this world: Tokyo, Paris, Cairo, London, Istanbul. But many of these cities are just names on a map to you. You haven’t been there, and there are no people you want to see there, so they don’t really belong to your world. There are also many, many people in this world, but you don’t know any of them, and they don’t belong to you either. The same goes for the delicious food, fun activities, and beautiful things in this world. The world that truly belongs to you is actually very small; it’s just the places you’ve been, the food you’ve eaten, the sunsets you remember, and the friends who care about you, whether you live or die.”

"What is a good friend?" Erii wrote on a piece of paper.

"It's the kind of guy who will believe you no matter what and stand by you no matter what."

After Lu Mingfei finished speaking, a sudden surge of immense sorrow and intense bitterness welled up from his stomach, choking him and making it almost impossible for him to utter another word.

He didn't know where that emotion came from. It wasn't sympathy for Erii, nor fear of the chase in Ebisu's rainy night, but a more ancient grief, as if it had been sealed behind a door for a long time, and was finally shattered by the words themselves.

It seemed he had friends in some earlier, earlier moment of his life, but they were all gone. He forced himself to finish what was stuck in his throat.

“If the world truly doesn’t like you,” he said, “then the world is my enemy.”

The moment those cold and arrogant words left his mouth, he seemed to hear a very faint and familiar sneer from the mountain wind behind him.

Lu Mingze, that little devil who forever lurks in the deepest part of his consciousness, seems to be using all his sarcasm and self-mockery to give him a long, mocking sigh.

He turned around abruptly to look behind him. Only fallen cherry leaves swirled and were blown about by the mountain wind beside the campfire. There was no sign of the little devil.

“I want. A good friend.” He turned around, and Erii stood there with her notepad held up, waiting for his reply.

Lu Mingfei reached out and gently touched her smooth skin on her forehead, which was slightly cool from the evening breeze. He thought to himself, no matter what kind of princess you are or what kind of blood flows in your veins, your social experience is pitifully shallow.

Even though you don't say anything, anyone can tell what you want at a glance. It's written all over your eyes.

“I am your good friend, and you will have many more good friends in the future.” Lu Mingfei wrote these words neatly on the notepad, and then drew a crooked thumbs up at the bottom.

After he finished writing, he placed the pencil back in Erii's hand and gently closed her fingers one by one on the pencil. He did all this naturally, and then he remembered something else—Frilian.

When he said those words, all he could think about was Erii, but the person who made him understand the principle that "the world gets bigger with each new person you meet" was only related to another girl from beginning to end.

The first time he experienced this feeling was in that late-night convenience store, where a silver-haired elf silently accompanied him as he bought hot milk for a girl he didn't know.

He carefully concealed his unnoticed affection amidst these interconnected events, but he knew clearly from which moment it began to sprout.

Frillie stood behind them and put away the book she carried. She looked at him and suddenly wrote a word in the air.

That was a word she left behind with the quietest silver light, which only he could see clearly.

What she wrote was—"Hmm."

Lu Mingfei swallowed all the bitterness he dared not utter and turned back to Erii.

The last rays of the setting sun finally faded completely on the horizon, and the fiery clouds in the sky faded from crimson to dark purple. The dark purple was gradually swallowed up by the night, and overwhelming darkness swept in from the mountain ridge overhead.

In this darkness, Erii's eyes shone brighter than ever before.

She crawled slowly toward Lu Mingfei like a kitten, warily scrutinizing his expression. If he showed even the slightest sign of rejection, she would quickly withdraw and run away.

This was the first time in her life that she had taken the initiative to get close to someone. She didn't know if this closeness would be allowed, or if it would cause her to be hurt like the things she had said before.

Lu Mingfei wanted to turn around and run away. He could tell what she was going to do, and he didn't know what to do with his hands and feet.

But he really didn't want to disappoint the girl again.

So he took a deep breath, putting all his strength into maintaining his sitting posture, clenching his fists and placing them on his knees, watching intently as Erii moved toward him.

They were only a step or two apart, but it felt to him like a thousand years had passed.

Just as Lu Mingfei was about to collapse, Erii opened her arms and gently hugged his neck.

At this moment, the sun completely set, and the whole world sank into darkness. It was no longer the embrace of two people, trembling with fear, sharing a similar plight on the long, rainy street in Ebisu yesterday.

At this moment, the girl's limbs were cold from the impending separation, but Lu Mingfei could clearly feel tears silently falling from her face, slowly seeping into his ears, which were chilled by the mountain wind.

He suddenly realized something: Erii's feelings for him were not trust.

Further away, Frillie had turned away, quietly watching the sea sink into the night for them.

Chapter 833 A Grand Escape Under the Sun (Part 6)

"Do you see that?" Mai Shude asked, watching the two people embracing tightly on the high cliff through her scope.

In night vision mode, the two silhouettes appeared as faint green outlines against the dark sky. The girl's deep purple skirt was constantly fluttering in the mountain wind, while the boy's back was taut, like a tree that had been blown by the sea wind for many years but had never fallen.

They had been in this position for so long that a fine mist, like water rising from the sea, had condensed on Mai's aiming scope, which she had to gently wipe away with her thumb.

"The resolution is a bit low, so it's not very clear, but it's still very moving," Su Enxi's voice came through the Bluetooth headset. In the background, you could faintly hear the crisp "pop" of a champagne bottle being opened, as the expert team was celebrating in the control room.

"The wedding venue is all set up. Manager Haneda from Meiji Shrine just sent confirmation that the 800 white doves are in place and the flower arrangements are complete. However, I just received another piece of information: Caesar has made contact with a human smuggler. The smuggling ship will depart from Tokyo Bay tomorrow morning, bound for Fujian, China. They agreed to meet at the pier at 4:00 AM. So the question now is, where will they go tomorrow morning? To the wedding venue at Meiji Shrine, or to the smuggling ship in Tokyo Bay?"

“Whether he takes a girl to the wedding or on a human smuggling boat depends on whether he sees himself as the groom or the tamer of a monster,” Mai Shude said softly, moving her finger away from the focus knob on the scope.

“It’s beautiful,” Su Enxi suddenly said after a long silence.

“Yes, no matter the outcome, this moment is still beautiful. That’s enough,” Mai Shude replied softly.

She looked away from the scope, leaned against the motorcycle's cool fuel tank, and gazed up at the night sky after the rain. The night sky over Shikoku was much brighter than in Tokyo, with the Milky Way faintly visible across the horizon.

For once, she didn't keep the two people locked in the crosshairs of the scope, but instead let them quietly finish their final embrace.

Under the same night sky, a Toyota family car, emitting smoke, was parked on the main street of Baijinji Town.

As night fell, the shops along the long street gradually lit up. The white paper lanterns hanging under the eaves looked like beads scattered along an invisible line, casting a warm glow on the entire stone road.

Caesar stood directly under one of the lanterns, devouring the sea bream rice he had just bought from a roadside shop, his chopsticks moving rapidly.

"You still have the leisure to eat at a time like this?" Chu Zihang slammed the hood of the Toyota shut.

The coolant leak has been temporarily repaired, but the wear and tear inside the engine is still a serious concern.

"Without a major overhaul, this car will never be able to run another 500 kilometers. How did we end up with such a faulty car? We've completely lost track of Lu Mingfei too."

“Because sea bream rice is a local specialty here. This restaurant mostly uses red sea bream, and the meat is sweeter than any I’ve ever had in any izakaya in Tokyo.” Caesar took another bite of grilled mackerel. The skin was charred crisp by the charcoal fire, but the meat inside was still surprisingly tender and moist. “Grilled cape mackerel is the same. It’s a type of mackerel unique to the Seto Inland Sea coast of Shikoku. You’ll understand once you take a bite.”

“It’s already 6:30 pm. They have to get to the dock by 4 am tomorrow, but we’re still about 500 kilometers away from Tokyo. I don’t have your appetite,” Chu Zihang said coldly, looking at him.

"What's there to worry about? They have almost a whole night to drive back to Tokyo. Let alone a Porsche 911 with over 300 horsepower, even a light motorcycle could easily complete the trip. We didn't really lose them. Their burgundy convertible is still parked safely in the open-air parking lot outside town. I touched the hood when I passed by, and it's completely cold. They just went up the mountain to watch the sunset. The mountain tram had already stopped running before we arrived, and we can't exactly go up the mountain in the dark to look for them."

Caesar peeled a perfectly grilled mackerel from the bamboo skewer and put it in his mouth. "I shouldn't have taken her so far. You're right, no one can say for sure that she's in a stable condition right now. If she gets out of control on the mountaintop, no one can stop her."

“But it’s beautiful here, isn’t it?” He handed another lunchbox to Chu Zihang, a rare moment of gentleness appearing between his fighting and complaining. “If I were planning this trip, I would also save the most beautiful sights for the last day. That place should have a name, not just some random parking lot, or a service station by some highway, but a place where once you get there, you’ll feel that the long journey was worthwhile. After driving over 400 kilometers, crossing the strait to this small town, and seeing such a beautiful sunset for the first time in her life, that girl would probably feel that this journey was worthwhile too. That’s what travel is all about. You have to push yourself to the limit until you’re completely exhausted before you’re willing to go home. That’s the proper ending for a trip.”

"Try it. The locals have a unique way of cooking it: they grind up fresh fish and grill it with rice. After grilling, they pour a broth made with bonito flakes and kelp over it and eat it while it's hot. It's really good, I'm not kidding."

Chu Zihang gave Caesar a cold look and took the still-steaming lunchbox.

Leaning against the smoking Toyota, under the flickering light of the paper lantern overhead, they finished their box of local sea bream rice in the deserted countryside of a foreign land. It started to rain again, but it was a light, misty sun shower that didn't get anyone under the eaves wet.

The night is already deep.

In the distance, the lights in Meijinji Town began to go out one by one. The rural towns in Japan are not much different from those in China. The residents work at sunrise and go to sleep as soon as it gets dark.

The tide was quietly rising, and the black waters pushed white edges against the pebble beach in front of the station. Occasionally, the moonlight would ignite the shells, reflecting the shadows of small shrimp or crabs. They were washed ashore by the tide and then rustled and crawled among the pebbles.

These little creatures were tossed about by the successive waves, but once they regained their balance, they relentlessly continued to climb toward land.

The gravel beach shimmered with their faint reflections, like a dense mass of stardust.

The sea area next to Baijinji Town is very calm, and tsunamis never cross the headland to reach this area, so people felt at ease building this small train station right next to the coast.

The reason why "Tokyo Love Story" chose this small station as a filming location was probably just because it was located by the sea.

Aside from that, it has nothing else to offer. It's just a rather simple white cement platform with a few slender iron streetlights standing on it. The streetlights cast a cool, silvery-white light that makes the rails along the edge of the platform reflect a bright, shimmering blue light.

Lu Mingfei squatted on the edge of the platform, his hands in the pockets of his hunting jacket, gazing at the gravel beach.

Erii squatted on the pebble beach below the platform, teasing the small shrimp and crabs washed ashore by the tide with a small stick. She had left her black high-heeled Roman sandals on the platform, and was squatting there barefoot in Lu Mingfei's sneakers, her deep purple skirt half-wet by the seawater.

Whenever a little crab brandishes its pincers at her stick, she looks up at Lu Mingfei and holds up her notepad with the name she had just given the crab.

Caesar and Chu Zihang had already retreated from the foot of the mountain to the edge of the town in the dark, and were now squeezed into an old wooden house overlooking the sea, about two hundred meters away from the small station.

The cabin was originally intended for tourists to escape the heat and enjoy shaved ice in the summer, but the doors and windows were already tightly closed this season. The two of them squeezed in through a hole in the wire mesh on the side, and Caesar peered through the gap in his binoculars at the two aimless young men on the platform.

He still had half a grilled dried squid he brought from the grilled fish restaurant in his mouth, chewing it with a smacking sound.

After descending the mountain, Lu Mingfei and Erii ordered everything on the menu at the only Japanese restaurant still open in town, from grilled chicken skewers to grilled mackerel, from teppanyaki udon noodles to the last dish of sea bream rice.

Midway through the journey, a fishing boat returned to port at night, and the fish market owner delivered a lively flounder, fresh out of the water, directly to his shop on his motorcycle.

This is an old custom of local fishermen: the biggest and freshest fish on each boat is sent directly to the best restaurants, bypassing the wholesale market. The goal is to make a profit for both parties: one side wants the best fish, and the other side pays the highest price.

Ordinary diners can't afford this kind of fresh fish delivery service; only tourists from other places with deep pockets will be willing to place such a generous order.