Don't Love Me, It'll Never Work

On Saturday, Lu Mingfei slept in and enjoyed every minute of it.

What a relaxing life!

Lu Mingfei stretched. He'd been back for three days now, and no longer had to fight every single day like he used to.

Those days of fighting a Hollow one day, a Soul Reaper the next, and an Espada the day after that were gone for good. Lu Mingfei was very happy about it.

At noon, his aunt made a whole table of food: ribs, cola chicken wings, mapo tofu, braised eggplant, and more. Lu Mingfei dug into the ribs with gusto. His aunt really was a good cook.

Lu Mingfei loved this kind of traditional Chinese food. Remembering what it had been like living in the Seireitei, he enjoyed his meal even more.

"Don't eat so fast. I don't usually see you enjoying your food this much. Is today's cooking really that good?"

For some reason, his aunt felt especially cheerful as she watched Lu Mingfei wolf down his food.

"Of course! Your cooking's even better than the food at restaurants, Auntie!" Lu Mingfei gave her a thumbs-up without missing a bite.

His aunt was even happier to hear that.

Then she noticed Lu Mingze sitting there, looking glum as he ate.

"Lu Mingze, look at your brother. Why do you eat like you're being punished?"

"Don't put it that way. Maybe Mingze just doesn't have much of an appetite today," his uncle offered.

"Ugh!" Lu Mingze sighed and bent over his meal again. He was wondering why Scar of the Sunset hadn't logged on for the past two days. Was she upset because he'd kept failing to meet her in person?

Lu Mingfei had no idea that Lu Mingze was so down because of him.

That afternoon, Lu Mingfei decided to go to an internet café.

"Auntie, I'm going to hang out at a classmate's house this afternoon," Lu Mingfei called as he headed out.

"Got it. Oh, we're out of salt, so pick up a bag on your way home," his aunt reminded him.

"Mm-hmm," Lu Mingfei replied, nodding repeatedly.

At the internet café, he turned on the computer and logged into QQ. He checked to see whether anyone had sent him a message recently. Chen Wenwen had sent one the night before last, asking if he had something to do that afternoon and why he'd left in such a hurry.

Lu Mingfei thought for a moment, then replied, "Sorry, I haven't logged into QQ in a while. I just saw your message."

He clicked to close the chat window.

Then he checked the Literature Club group, where they were discussing what time to go to the city library on Sunday. He closed that window too.

Finally, after a moment's hesitation, Lu Mingfei logged into "Scar of the Sunset."

"Greedy Snake, I'm moving soon. I'm moving to America. I don't think we have a future together, and besides, I can't handle a long-distance relationship. Don't love me; it'll never work. I won't be using this QQ account anymore, so don't wait for me. —Scar"

After typing the message, Lu Mingfei clicked send and logged out of the QQ account "Scar of the Sunset." He probably wouldn't log in again. Hopefully Lu Mingze would forget about her soon.

He sighed for a couple of minutes. Then a panda avatar with a rather smug-looking face popped up. The ID was Old Tang.

"Bro, want a match?"

Lu Mingfei remembered him as a top player from the gaming group. Old Tang lived in New York, America, and was Chinese-American. He was probably surnamed Tang, so everyone called him Old Tang. He wasn't actually very old. Apparently, he'd grown up in America, so his spoken Chinese wasn't very good, though he could type just fine.

Apart from sometimes thinking a little too highly of himself, Old Tang had no real flaws.

His life goal was to become the first Indiana Jones—the hero of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

"Let's do it!" Lu Mingfei replied immediately. He hadn't played StarCraft in ages, and wondered how rusty he'd gotten.

He lost three games in a row, mostly because he hadn't played in so long and was still getting a feel for the controls. Now, though, he finally felt warmed up.

"Bro, you're actually pretty good. It's just that I'm ridiculously overpowered!" Old Tang sent him a message.

Even through the screen, Lu Mingfei could feel how pleased with himself Old Tang was.

"Yeah, right. Let's play another," Lu Mingfei said with a cold laugh. This time, he got serious.

Old Tang, all the way across the ocean, shook his head too, then accepted the challenge out of loneliness.

After the game, Old Tang fell silent. He'd lasted only fifteen minutes, and it looked like Lu Mingfei had still been holding back.

"Again."

But Old Tang wasn't ready to admit defeat, so he sent another message.

Time flew by.

Old Tang finally typed "GG." He'd lost six games in a row. Lu Mingfei was an absolute monster. How had Old Tang never noticed he was this good? He could go pro!

Old Tang typed indignantly, "Genius, carry me in multiplayer!!!"

Lu Mingfei accepted with a smile, completely unfazed. By then, plenty of people in the internet café had gathered behind him to watch.

Everyone marveled at how ridiculously good Lu Mingfei was. Some people even offered him bottles of Nutrient Express in exchange for his advice. It was a perk reserved for the great Lu.

Around here, it was fair to say that wherever Lu Mingfei went, he ruled the internet café. He was its king, worshipped by everyone! Countless people had challenged his throne, but they'd usually met with nothing but defeat.

Before he knew it, evening had arrived.

"Boss, I'm logging off!"

"Sure thing!" the owner replied with a cheerful grin.

With everyone watching him respectfully, Lu Mingfei walked out of the internet café, feeling refreshed.

Somewhere else.

"See you!" Su Xiaoqiang waved goodbye to her friends.

Su Xiaoqiang walked along, softly humming a tune. She was wearing a white DKNY shirt and jeans, with a limited-edition Burberry trench coat over them. She had quite the air of a confident, mature woman.

She'd just treated her friends to dinner. As long as someone acknowledged that she was the big sister, Su Xiaoqiang was always happy to oblige.

One of her friends often felt bad about letting Su Xiaoqiang pay and would say, "Let me treat you this time." Su Xiaoqiang would roll her eyes and ask, "Does your family own a mine?" The other girl would reply, "My dad's in the trading business. We don't own any mines."

"Then why are you paying?" Su Xiaoqiang would say, slapping her father's supplementary platinum credit card down on the table. So everyone called her the Little Goddess, the darling of heaven.

Her phone rang, and Su Xiaoqiang picked it up.

"Uncle Chen? Mm-hmm, I've finished dinner with my friends. You don't need to come get me. I'll head home on my own in a bit. I'm not far from home, so I can walk."

After hanging up, Su Xiaoqiang wondered where she should go tomorrow. Should she go to the library and read with the Literature Club members?

Come to think of it, she was in the Literature Club too.

Never mind. Lu Mingfei had made a good point yesterday: going to the library to read was pretty boring. It was the kind of thing only artsy girls like Chen Wenwen were into.

Thinking about Lu Mingfei, Su Xiaoqiang still found the whole thing absurd. In just one day, he'd gone from an ugly duckling to a swan.

Even stranger, for some reason, Lu Mingfei had rejected Chen Wenwen yesterday.

Come to think of it, weren't there kind of few people on this road tonight?