The Boy Chosen by the Gem!

The Boy Chosen by the Gem!

Morning sunlight spilled over the windowsill. Lu Mingfei was awakened by his alarm and the snores of his cousin, Lu Mingze.

Still groggy from waking up, Lu Mingfei nevertheless remembered the treasure beneath his pillow and reached under it.

But his hand found nothing. Lu Mingfei, who had been half-asleep moments ago, instantly woke up. He hurriedly lifted the pillow, only to find an empty bedsheet with a few creases.

It was gone!

In the crack beside the bed? No! Under the bed? No! There wasn't even a trace of pink to be found.

"What are you doing so early in the morning, tearing the place apart?" His cousin Lu Mingze, sleeping on the top bunk, had been woken by the noise of Lu Mingfei searching around. He sat up and said impatiently.

"Have you seen a gemstone necklace about this big?" Lu Mingfei quickly gestured with his hands. "Pink. I put it under my pillow."

"Did you sleep your brain out?" Lu Mingze was also grumpy from being woken up. Hearing Lu Mingfei, he said disdainfully, "Where would you get the money for a gemstone necklace, let alone one that big? If you're not sleeping, get lost. I still need another five minutes."

Seeing that, Lu Mingfei said no more. People might have believed that he'd won a gemstone necklace from buying Xiaoshuo Hui at the Stationery Store, but now that the necklace was gone, no one would believe him no matter what he said.

"Could I really have dreamed it?" Lu Mingfei began doubting himself. Though his cousin Lu Mingze was definitely a lousy person, he wouldn't steal things. He had probably remembered wrong.

Just then, his aunt's lioness-like roar shook through the concrete walls, telling Lu Mingfei to call Lu Mingze out for breakfast.

Lu Mingfei scratched his bird's-nest hair and could only set the matter aside for now. He called Lu Mingze out, finished breakfast with him, then picked up his backpack and headed to school.

Before leaving, Lu Mingfei checked once more. It really was gone.

The school day passed quickly. The liberal arts class didn't have the high-intensity calculations of the science classes; most of the material could be memorized by rote.

Lu Mingfei propped up his chin and watched the sky outside the window, occasionally glancing at the lovely figure seated in front of him. Just like that, the day passed.

As the end of afternoon classes approached, the sky gradually darkened, and Lu Mingfei began to feel uneasy.

Sure enough, once the dismissal bell sounded over the broadcast system, moisture began to gather in the air. Before long, it turned into a downpour falling from the sky.

Standing at the entrance to the school building, Lu Mingfei looked at the curtain of water pouring from the eaves like a waterfall and sighed.

He had been so busy searching for the necklace before leaving that morning that he'd forgotten his umbrella.

Watching his classmates leave one after another, either under umbrellas or picked up by their parents in cars, Lu Mingfei shamelessly sidled up to Su Xiaoqiang, who was about to get into her car, and forced out a fawning smile. "Little Fairy, do me a favor and give me a ride?"

Su Xiaoqiang looked him up and down. Lu Mingfei was soaked like a stray dog by the roadside, and she burst out laughing. "Sure. You can run errands and bring me snacks for a week."

Delighted, Lu Mingfei quickly agreed. "Yes, Your Highness. Whatever you say."

A few years ago, it had also rained heavily after school. He had also asked Su Xiaoqiang whether she could give him a ride, but her answer had been, "It's not on my way."

It seemed that being Little Fairy's lackey these past few years had at least earned him some goodwill.

Just as Lu Mingfei was about to get in the car, something appeared in the corner of his eye.

Lu Mingfei froze and turned toward the small alley by the school gate. For some reason, his vision was exceptionally sharp now, and he could clearly see the pink gemstone necklace lying in the muddy water of the alley.

"Fuck!" Lu Mingfei muttered, rubbing his eyes.

It was still there. He hadn't seen wrong!

"Are you getting in or not?!" Little Fairy urged impatiently. She wasn't even going the same way as this idiot. Giving him a ride was already an act of immense mercy, and he was still dawdling.

Lu Mingfei hesitated only briefly before apologizing to Su Xiaoqiang. "Sorry, I suddenly remembered I left something behind. You go ahead."

"Are you screwing with me?! Get lost!" Before Lu Mingfei could leave on his own, Su Xiaoqiang thoughtfully gave him a send-off with the sole of her shoe, then told the driver to leave.

Lu Mingfei didn't mind. He patted the muddy print off his backside, held his backpack over his head, and ran into the alley.

"This is strange. I clearly saw it at the entrance before. Was the alley always this deep?" He jogged for a while, only reaching the spot where the necklace lay after the street outside had disappeared from view.

He gently picked it up, shook off the mud and rainwater clinging to it, and looked up at the sky.

It really was the same pink gemstone from his memory—crystal clear, identical even in design.

"This is strange. How did it end up here?" Lu Mingfei muttered. Before his words had faded, a bone-chilling sensation crawled up his spine and spread throughout his body.

Almost instinctively, Lu Mingfei ducked sharply. At the same moment, a black claw swept past his scalp and slammed into the cement wall beside the road, blasting out fragments.

When Lu Mingfei raised his head again, he saw a figure. No—he should have called it a humanoid monster.

Black scales covered its entire body. A pair of golden eyes lit up like gas lamps, filled with hunger.

Drool dripped from its mouth onto the asphalt, corroding small pits into it and releasing a nauseating stench of blood.

Lu Mingfei had no doubt that the monster before him would pounce and tear him apart in the next second.

"Fuck!" His heart pounded like a drum as Lu Mingfei turned and ran.

With an inhuman howl behind him, Lu Mingfei could clearly feel that the monster was rapidly closing in.

Lu Mingfei regretted it terribly. No matter how valuable the gem was, it wasn't worth more than his life! If he'd known, he would have pretended not to see it. Then he would be sitting in Little Fairy's car right now, enjoying heated seats he might never get to sit in again for the rest of his life as he rode comfortably home.

He could already hear the claws tearing through the air behind him. In that moment on the brink of death, no one saw the same golden glow as the monster's—no, an even more brilliant golden radiance—ignite in Lu Mingfei's eyes. Something was about to emerge, yet it was suppressed by the eerie pink light emanating from the necklace clenched tightly in his hand.

Time suddenly "stopped." Even after all the bizarre events Lu Mingfei had experienced today, he was so shocked that his mouth hung open.

Countless raindrops floated in midair. The sound of wind beside his ears stopped in an instant. Turning around, Lu Mingfei could even clearly see the traces left by the monster's swinging claw cutting through the air, as well as the water sliding through the gaps in its scales.

"Could this be?!" Lu Mingfei's brain had never worked at such an overload. In that instant, he thought he had finally awakened a superpower.

"Not quite." A voice rang out in the frozen time, answering the question in Lu Mingfei's heart.

Lu Mingfei abruptly turned around and saw a pitch-black humanoid creature with no facial features standing in midair.

It said, "Are you the one chosen by the 'Pink Heart'?"

Pink Heart? Lu Mingfei froze for a moment, then remembered the gemstone necklace that had been bothering him all day. It really was shaped like a pink heart.

"Is it this?" Lu Mingfei quickly held up the necklace in his hand. He had been gripping it so tightly that faint pressure marks remained on his palm.

"That's it." The black figure laughed happily. "It chose you."

"Then what does it do?" Lu Mingfei grew excited.

Is it finally happening? He had waited for this day for a long time. Though what he had always imagined was perhaps a helicopter descending from the sky to pick him up, with a group of men in black suits and sunglasses entering the venue with the cold composure of CIA agents from a movie. In deep voices, they would say, "Mr. Lu Mingfei, this is no time to watch the Spring Festival Gala. The organization is calling for you." They would put Lu Mingfei in a black uniform and long trench coat, then escort him out of the venue beneath the eyes of his classmates. Outside, a pitch-black helicopter would roar, its enormous rotors whipping up a gale that sliced across their faces like blades. At that moment, whether it was the pretty Liu Miaomiao or the boys dancing, they would all stop and stare blankly at Lu Mingfei's departing back.

But this supernatural development was obviously even cooler! Although it lacked the crucial element of "everyone else looking at him with envy," Lu Mingfei was already satisfied.

Bring it on already. Whether it's superpowers or a divine artifact recognizing its master, I can accept it all! "It's very simple." Lu Mingfei wasn't sure whether he had heard wrong, but he felt like the black figure was holding back laughter. "This gemstone can grant you the power to transform, enough to destroy the monster in front of you."

Ah! Right! This was it! This was exactly the feeling!

Lu Mingfei had watched plenty of Kamen Rider shows. He knew the routine inside out!

Lu Mingfei was so excited he nearly fainted. "How? I mean, how do I transform?"

"Since it's your first time, and the situation is urgent, you only need to hold the gemstone and shout 'Transform'." The black figure—Chu Ke—said cheerfully, "Go, young man! Transform magnificently and defeat it! This is your 'trial'! I am your 'familiar.' If you pass the trial, call for me afterward. I will guide you down the road ahead."

As soon as he finished speaking, the figure dissolved into the air like ink and vanished. The frozen time disappeared along with him.

When Lu Mingfei came back to his senses, he was still in a running posture, with traces of terror lingering on his face.

The figure had vanished too suddenly, and Lu Mingfei could not tell whether it had been real or merely a hallucination before his death.

Listening to the sound of claws tearing through the air and the beastlike roars beside him, Lu Mingfei gritted his teeth. A dead horse was better than no horse at all!

He abruptly stopped, faced the charging monster head-on, clenched the gemstone in his fist and held it before his chest as he shouted:

"Transform!"

New author, new book—please support it in every way!