Christmas (1)

Lu Mingze was taken aback. Why did Lu Mingfei have time to eat in the cafeteria today? He had never seen him here before; he remembered hearing that Lu Mingfei was being kept by a wealthy woman and always went out for grand meals at noon.

Then, feeling a bit guilty, Lu Mingze patted his chest and said, "Come on, I'll take you guys to meet my cousin right now."

Everyone was incredibly curious about the legendary Lu Mingfei. Usually, no one dared to disturb him, but since his younger brother was vouching for him, they figured it should be fine to go and say hello.

The group walked over to Lu Mingfei's table together.

Lu Mingfei was in the middle of his meal when he suddenly felt a dark cloud looming over him. He looked up to find his cousin, Lu Mingze, leading a small army toward him with a menacing air.

He hadn't offended the kid lately, had he? Could it be that he'd discovered he was "Scar of the Sunset"? Lu Mingfei felt a sudden pang of guilt.

"Cousin, some friends from my class want to meet you," Lu Mingze said, also feeling a bit sheepish.

Lu Mingfei let out a long sigh of relief. So that was the only reason they were looking for him.

"Hello everyone, I'm Lu Mingfei. It's nice to meet you," Lu Mingfei said with a smile.

"Hello, Senior Lu. I'm Shu Ya, your brother's classmate. I'm Liu Yue, and I'm..."

Lu Mingze's female classmates introduced themselves to Lu Mingfei, one by one, looking quite reserved.

After a few minutes of chatting, Lu Mingfei encouraged them to study hard, and they took their leave. As they walked away, they were still swooning: "Senior Lu is so gentle, and so handsome!"

Su Xiaoqiang watched Lu Mingfei chat with them in silence, stuffing her face with rice before suddenly blurting out, "Senior Lu, you're so handsome!"

Lu Mingfei froze completely. He tapped her forehead with his finger and said irritably, "Don't you start with that sarcastic tone!"

"Hehe!" Su Xiaoqiang responded to Lu Mingfei with a wide, beaming smile.

Back in the classroom, Su Xiaoqiang pulled a gift box from her bag and handed it to Lu Mingfei. "Here, this is for you."

"What's this?" Lu Mingfei was confused.

"Dummy, it's Christmas Eve today!"

He unwrapped the box to find an apple inside.

Lu Mingfei fell silent, not saying a word.

"What's wrong?" Su Xiaoqiang asked, puzzled.

"Wait for me!" Before the bell rang for class, Lu Mingfei bolted out of the classroom.

Su Xiaoqiang wondered what had gotten into him. A while later, she saw Lu Mingfei return with a bag full of apples.

"I don't have any gift boxes, so I'll just give you two apples!" Lu Mingfei said, pulling two apples from the bag and handing them to Su Xiaoqiang.

Then, he took the apple Su Xiaoqiang had given him and took a huge bite.

"So sweet!"

"By the way, you bought a whole bag. Are you going to take the rest home to eat?" Su Xiaoqiang asked.

"Hehe, you'll see in a bit," Lu Mingfei said mysteriously.

During the break, Liu Miaomiao walked over with a beautifully wrapped Christmas apple and handed it to Lu Mingfei, whispering, "Lu Mingfei, thank you for saving me that night."

Lu Mingfei took it with one hand, and to Liu Miaomiao's surprise, he pulled an apple from his bag and stuffed it into her hand. "No need to thank me. We're all classmates; take this home and eat it."

Next came Chen Wenwen, who walked over with her head down, softly handing Lu Mingfei a small, exquisitely wrapped gift box. Dressed in a white cotton dress, she gripped the hem of her skirt tightly, seemingly waiting for Lu Mingfei to say something.

Lu Mingfei simply pulled another apple from his bag and shoved it into her hands. Chen Wenwen walked away looking completely bewildered.

A strange phenomenon began to unfold as the girls in the class lined up one by one to receive apples from Lu Mingfei.

After Lu Mingfei received the apples they gave him, he would tear off the packaging and toss the fruit into his bag, keeping them separate from the apples he was giving away.

Su Xiaoqiang watched, dumbfounded, and asked Lu Mingfei, "There are so many apples! Why are you unwrapping them and putting them in a bag?"

"Give me a break. There are so many people giving me apples; if I don't unwrap them, how am I supposed to carry them home? Besides, I won't waste all these; I'll slowly finish them when I get home."

As he spoke, Lu Mingfei took another bite of an apple.

School ended. Lu Mingfei walked ahead, and after Su Xiaoqiang finished packing, she caught up and walked by his side.

"Hey, hey, listen to me. Tomorrow is Christmas, and I'm going to prepare a gift for you. You have to prepare one for me too—you can't be as perfunctory as you were today!"

After the two parted ways, Lu Mingfei thought to himself on the road, What should I give as a gift tomorrow? What a hassle.

The next day, Lu Mingfei looked out the window. It was snowing, and the weather seemed to have turned cold.

"Sweet, sweet~ You smile so sweetly~ Like flowers blooming in the spring breeze~ Blooming in the spring breeze~"

Lu Mingfei's phone rang. He checked the screen; the caller ID showed "Miss Su."

He answered the call. "Hello? What made you decide to call me this early?"

Su Xiaoqiang's pleasant voice came through the line. "It's snowing today, and I figured it would be a hassle to get to school, so I came to pick you up at your place. Look downstairs."

Lu Mingfei walked to the window and looked down.

Su Xiaoqiang was standing in front of a car, waving both hands at Lu Mingfei. Her face was full of smiles as she mouthed the words: Hurry down!

Lu Mingfei smiled and waved back, signaling that he would be down in a moment.

"Aunt, I won't be eating breakfast today; I'm heading out!" Lu Mingfei said, quickly getting dressed and rushing downstairs.

"Lu Mingfei, that child, why the rush? With such heavy snow today, I was planning to have you take both Lu Mingfei and Lu Mingze to school!" Aunt complained.

Uncle offered some comfort, "Lu Mingfei has his own ideas. I'll just take Lu Mingze over later."

"If only Lu Mingze were half as good as Lu Mingfei, sigh!" Aunt sighed.

Lu Mingze sat to the side, head bowed, eating silently, not daring to retort.

Lu Mingfei went downstairs and saw Su Xiaoqiang standing in place, stomping her feet and blowing warm air onto her hands; she looked quite cold.

"Why aren't you waiting in the car? Isn't it warmer in there?" Lu Mingfei asked.

"Hmph, I just wanted to be outside. Do you have a problem with that?" Su Xiaoqiang huffed.

Lu Mingfei raised his hands in surrender.

Today, Su Xiaoqiang was wearing a pink knit sweater underneath an off-white padded jacket, paired with jeans, looking beautiful and shivering in the cold.

"You're just wearing jeans; aren't you cold?" Lu Mingfei asked with concern.

"These are fleece-lined, I'm not cold at all, okay!" Su Xiaoqiang retorted.

The two bickered as they got into the car, while Uncle Chen sighed to himself, President Su, if you don't step in soon, your daughter is going to be gone!

During P.E. class, Su Xiaoqiang dragged Lu Mingfei along to build a snowman, naming it Feifei, which drew a round of teasing from Lu Mingfei.

"Sss~, my hands are so cold!" Su Xiaoqiang's hands were frozen bright red.

"That's what you get for being terrible at this yet loving it so much." Lu Mingfei looked at Su Xiaoqiang with a smile.

"But my hands are really freezing, they're going numb!" Su Xiaoqiang rubbed her hands together, looking pitiful.

"Simple."