Don't Love Me, It Won't End Well

Saturday, Lu Mingfei slept like a log.

How cozy!

Lu Mingfei stretched his limbs. It had already been three days since he returned, and here, he no longer had to fight every single day like before.

The life of fighting a Hollow today, a Soul Reaper tomorrow, and an Espada the day after was a thing of the past, and for that, Lu Mingfei was very grateful.

At noon, his aunt prepared a table full of dishes: pork ribs, cola chicken wings, mapo tofu, and braised eggplant. Lu Mingfei shoveled the ribs into his mouth; his aunt's cooking was still quite excellent.

Lu Mingfei loved this kind of purely Chinese home-cooked meal. Thinking back to his life in Seireitei, he found the food tasted even better.

"Don't eat so fast. I don't usually see you eating with such gusto. Is the food today really that good?"

Watching Lu Mingfei wolfing down his food, his aunt felt inexplicably happy.

"Of course! Aunt, your cooking is better than any restaurant outside!" Lu Mingfei gave a thumbs-up without stopping his meal.

His aunt was even more delighted to hear that.

Then, she noticed Lu Mingze eating his meal in a gloomy, dispirited manner.

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

"Don't say that. Maybe Mingze just doesn't have much of an appetite today," his uncle offered, trying to mediate.

"Sigh!" Lu Mingze let out a sigh and continued to bury his head in his food. What Lu Mingze was thinking about was why Scar of the Sunset hadn't been online for the past two days. Was she angry because he hadn't been able to meet her?

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

In the afternoon, Lu Mingfei planned to head to the internet cafe.

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

"Got it. Oh, by the way, we're out of salt. Bring back a bag when you return," his aunt instructed.

"Mm-hmm." Lu Mingfei nodded repeatedly.

He arrived at the internet cafe.

Opening the computer and logging into QQ, Lu Mingfei checked if anyone had sent him messages. There was one from Chen Wenwen sent the night before last, asking what he had been busy with that afternoon and why he had left in such a hurry.

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

He clicked the mouse to close the chat window.

Next was the Literature Club group chat, where they were discussing when to go to the city library on Sunday. He dismissed that as well.

Finally, after a moment of contemplation, Lu Mingfei logged into "Scar of the Sunset."

"Snake, I'm moving soon. I'm moving to the United States. I don't think we have a future, and besides, I can't handle a long-distance relationship. Don't love me, there's no result. I won't be using this QQ anymore. Don't miss me. ---Sunset."

After typing this out, Lu Mingfei clicked send, then logged out of the "Scar of the Sunset" QQ account. He figured he wouldn't be logging in again, and he hoped Lu Mingze would be able to forget her soon.

After sighing for two minutes, a rather annoying-looking panda avatar popped up. The ID was Old Tang.

"Brother, want a round?"

Lu Mingfei remembered this guy was a high-level player in the gaming group. Old Tang lived in New York, USA, and was of Chinese descent. His surname was likely Tang, so everyone called him Old Tang. Although Old Tang wasn't very old, it was said he grew up in the United States, so his Chinese wasn't very fluent, though he could still type online.

Old Tang had no other flaws besides occasionally being a bit full of himself.

His life goal was to become the next Indiana Jones, the protagonist of the adventure films.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Lu Mingfei replied immediately. Come to think of it, he hadn't played StarCraft in a long time; he wondered how rusty he had become.

He lost three games in a row, mainly because he hadn't played in so long and was still getting a feel for the controls. Now, Lu Mingfei felt his touch finally returning.

"Brother, you're actually pretty good, it's just that I'm a bit overwhelmingly strong!" A message flashed across the screen.

Even through the screen, Lu Mingfei could feel Old Tang's smugness.

"Heh, one more round," Lu Mingfei sneered. This time, he started to take it seriously.

Far across the ocean, Old Tang shook his head, choosing to accept the challenge with a sense of lonely grandeur.

After the round, Old Tang fell silent. He had only lasted fifteen minutes, and it looked like Lu Mingfei still had energy to spare.

"Continue."

Old Tang didn't want to believe it, so he sent a message.

Time flew by.

Old Tang typed "GG." He had lost six games in a row. This guy Lu Mingfei was practically a monster. How had he never noticed he was this strong? He could probably go pro!

Old Tang typed indignantly: "Great God, please carry me in multiplayer!!!"

Lu Mingfei accepted with a smile, calm and composed. By now, many people in the internet cafe had gathered behind Lu Mingfei to watch.

Everyone marveled at Lu Mingfei's monstrous skill. Some, hoping to receive his guidance, even obediently offered him a bottle of Nutri-Express—the exclusive tribute for the Great God Lu.

In this area, it could be said that no matter which internet cafe Lu Mingfei went to, he was the ruler, the emperor of the cafe, worshipped by all! Countless people had tried to challenge this throne, but they usually only met with defeat.

Time slipped away until evening.

"Boss, logging off!"

"Coming right up!" the internet cafe owner replied with a grin.

Stepping out of the internet cafe amidst everyone's respectful gazes, Lu Mingfei felt a wave of refreshing clarity.

Elsewhere.

"Goodbye!" Su Xiaoqiang waved farewell to her friends.

Su Xiaoqiang hummed a light tune as she walked down the street. She was wearing a white DKNY shirt and jeans, layered under a limited-edition Burberry trench coat, exuding the aura of a sophisticated older sister.

She had just treated her friends to a meal today; she never turned anyone down as long as they acknowledged her as the "big sister."

Some people often felt embarrassed about constantly eating on her dime and would offer to pay, but Su Xiaoqiang would just roll her eyes and ask, "Does your family own a mine?" When they replied that their father worked in trade and they didn't own any mines, Su Xiaoqiang would retort, "If you don't have a mine, why are you trying to pick up the tab?" She would then slap her father's supplementary platinum credit card onto the table. That was why everyone called Su Xiaoqiang the Little Goddess—a daughter of heaven.

Her phone rang, and Su Xiaoqiang picked it up:

"Uncle Chen, yeah, yeah, I've finished eating with my friends. You don't need to come pick me up. I'll head back myself in a bit. I'm not that far from home; I can just walk back!"

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

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

Forget it. What Lu Mingfei said yesterday was actually quite right; reading in a library was pretty boring. Only a literary girl like Chen Wenwen would be into that sort of thing.

Thinking of Lu Mingfei, Su Xiaoqiang still felt it was a bit absurd. In just a single day, Lu Mingfei had transformed from an ugly duckling into a white swan.

What was even stranger was that she didn't know what had gotten into Lu Mingfei yesterday—he had actually rejected Chen Wenwen.

Come to think of it, weren't there a bit too few people on this street tonight?