Don't Just Crouch There

Oh no!

Lu Mingfei's vision went black. There was no way he could explain this now.

"Could someone have broken in?" His uncle and aunt exchanged a glance, then cautiously approached and opened the bathroom door.

Lu Mingfei followed behind them, holding his head.

The moment they opened the door, his uncle and aunt—and even Lu Mingfei—were stunned.

Before them was a girl with long dark red hair, wearing a white off-the-shoulder dress. She was crouched on the floor with her hands over her head, a Little Yellow Duck perched on top of it.

She looked as though she thought that if she just crouched there with her head covered, no one would be able to see her.

His aunt felt like she couldn't breathe. Then she silently stared at Lu Mingfei. His uncle looked at him as though he couldn't believe Lu Mingfei was that kind of beast.

"Who is she? Where did she come from?" His aunt stared at Lu Mingfei, expressionless.

You little rascal, Lu Mingfei! You said you were too tired to go shopping, but it turned out you were hiding a beauty away in your room!

And you even lied to me! His aunt suddenly felt her place in the family was under threat. She waited for Lu Mingfei to explain himself.

His uncle also looked at Lu Mingfei in dismay and shook his head, waiting for an explanation.

"All right, Erii, get up. You don't have to crouch there anymore." Lu Mingfei stared at Erii, at a loss for words.

Hearing Sakura call her, Erii lifted her head and furtively glanced at the people in front of her.

Lu Mingfei didn't know whether to laugh or cry. How could she still think no one could see her at a time like this?

He walked over and took the Little Yellow Duck off her head. "It's all right now. You can get up."

Only then did Erii stand. She looked at Lu Mingfei, unsure what she was supposed to do.

"Um, Uncle, Aunt, this is all a misunderstanding!" Lu Mingfei hastily put on a wronged expression.

"How is it a misunderstanding? Explain yourself." His aunt pressed him.

"You come all the way to Japan, and instead of enjoying yourself, you actually go looking for that kind of—" His aunt was furious and heartbroken, but couldn't bring herself to finish.

"What?" Lu Mingfei was taken aback. What did his aunt mean?

"Don't play dumb! Did someone give you a card, and then you couldn't resist and, and called for special services?" His aunt finally spelled it out.

Lu Mingfei nearly spat out his drink. What on earth was going on? They thought he'd called for special services?

"Please, both of you, calm down. It's not what you think. I really didn't call for any services. This is Erii, my friend." Lu Mingfei explained, caught between laughter and tears.

"Is that true?" His uncle stepped forward and asked.

"Do you really think I'm that kind of person?"

His uncle and aunt thought about how Lu Mingfei had been lately, then remembered how he'd been before. He really wouldn't do something like this—not at either stage of his life.

"Then how did you meet your, uh, friend?" his uncle asked.

"We met playing games. I've told you about Old Tang, right? Erii, Old Tang, and I are all friends in the same group. Old Tang's from the U.S., and Erii's from Japan, so she came to visit me while I'm in Japan."

Lu Mingfei told his story with a perfectly straight face.

His uncle and aunt vaguely remembered Old Tang. Lu Mingfei had mentioned he was a Chinese American living in the U.S.

His uncle pulled Lu Mingfei aside and asked, "Does this girl trust you that much? She came straight here to see you?"

Lu Mingfei nodded repeatedly, then cleared his throat and stepped between them. "Uncle, Aunt, this is Erii, my friend. She came to visit me today. Erii, these are my uncle and aunt."

Erii obediently nodded, picked up her little notebook, and wrote, "Hello, Uncle. Hello, Aunt."

Then she showed it to them.

His uncle and aunt were both stunned. They were surprised not only that this pretty-looking girl couldn't speak, but also that she seemed to think they could read Japanese!

"My uncle and aunt don't speak Japanese. We're Chinese," Lu Mingfei explained to Erii.

She blinked, then quickly wrote in Chinese, "Hello, Uncle. Hello, Aunt."

This girl knew Chinese too?

Erii knew Chinese too?

Lu Mingfei and his uncle and aunt were all equally surprised.

Erii, meanwhile, hadn't realized what was surprising about it. Her older brother had once told her about his time studying at Kassel College, where Chinese was all the rage, so she'd taught herself the language.

"Hello, hello," his uncle replied hurriedly.

The girl was not only pretty but seemed very well-behaved, too. It was just a pity she couldn't speak.

"She only came to visit me today. Don't read too much into it. She'll leave tonight." Lu Mingfei smiled at his aunt and uncle.

His aunt still felt that her place in the family had taken a bit of a hit, but she held back in front of their guest.

Once they got home, she'd show Lu Mingfei who was in charge of the household.

It was a little strange. The bathroom held not only such a pretty girl, but also a pile of boxes. Judging from the packaging, they looked like expensive designer clothes she'd bought while shopping.

Seeing his aunt's suspicious gaze, Lu Mingfei quickly stepped in and said, "Her family has plenty of money. I went shopping with her today, and those are the things she bought."

His aunt nodded. Lu Mingfei clearly didn't have that kind of money.

"All right, let's move everything out," Lu Mingfei said to Erii.

Then the two of them carried out all the things they'd stuffed in there earlier and put them in the room.

His uncle and aunt helped out too. They really didn't understand why Lu Mingfei had kept it from them. Did he think they'd eat him alive?

"Hmm? What's this?" His aunt spotted a pillow. She turned it over and saw a girl wearing a maid outfit.

"Lu Mingfei, can you explain what this is?" His aunt took out the Asahina Mikuru body pillow and looked at Lu Mingfei.

"Oh, that kind of body pillow? She bought them." Lu Mingfei silently pointed at Erii, wearing an expression that said it had nothing to do with him, as if he didn't even recognize the pillow.

Then Lu Mingfei took the Asahina Mikuru body pillow from his aunt, pulled out the C.C. body pillow too, walked over to Erii, and stuffed them into her arms.

"She likes watching anime and stuff in her spare time," Lu Mingfei explained solemnly.

Erii hugged both pillows and looked quite happy. His aunt finally believed him. Lu Mingfei had gotten into so much trouble today that she'd started suspecting everything.

After all that, Lu Mingfei and Erii finally left the hotel with Lu Mingze and Jiajia.

The four of them walked out of the hotel. Lu Mingfei looked utterly world-weary; in the end, he'd still been dragged out. Erii, on the other hand, was beaming with excitement. She got to go out and have fun again.

Lu Mingze kept marveling that his cousin really was something else—he had girls of this caliber keeping him company wherever he went. Jiajia kept glancing at Erii. The older girl, with her dark red hair and red eyes, looked like she'd stepped right out of a manga. She was so beautiful.