Lu Mingfei's Distant Realm (2)

After finishing his part-time swordsmanship performance for the day, Lu Mingfei rode a bicycle borrowed from a youth center coach, chewing on a whole-wheat dinner roll. With seven hundred-yuan bills newly tucked into his pocket, he stopped in front of a newly opened couture cake shop.

The two coaches were decent people. Not only had they added twenty yuan to his daily pay, they had also paid him seven days' wages in advance, saying they would give him a red envelope later.

Then... after wandering inside and checking the prices, Lu Mingfei slunk back out.

He had come to the wrong shop. He was too strapped for cash to afford anything there.

He might have to attend some university in the United States later, and tuition would be a major expense. He needed to save up beforehand just in case. With his academic grades, he might not be able to get any grants or allowances.

He had once assumed that Cassell College, with its mixed-bloods, valued bloodlines and strength, so he had not been too worried. But after returning from Beijing Subway Station, he realized something was off.

Pazzi was stronger than Caesar and absolutely had S-Rank abilities, yet he seemed to be nothing more than a secretary in the Gattuso Family.

Fingel had been able to chase Pazzi through the subway, yet he called himself a loser. When Genji Heavy Industries had been mentioned, he had also been described as Cassell College's deadweight.

Those two, with such high combat power, seemed to be doing pretty badly... Could the mixed-blood world still judge people by their academic grades? The thought made Lu Mingfei break out in a cold sweat.

How was a guy too broke to attend college supposed to go slay dragons, kill Deadpools, and make friends?

Then again, that did not seem right either. Fingel had said his computer science grades were excellent.

Lu Mingfei could not figure out what Cassell was really about, so he prepared to keep riding and look for another cake shop.

He would scout things out in advance and plan how much he needed to spend in the near future.

His birthday was July 17. Now that he was on his own, he had to buy himself a cake. Seven days after his birthday was July 24...

"Big brother, are you going to buy me a cake?"

A faint voice suddenly came from the back seat of the bicycle.

Without even turning around, Lu Mingfei knew who it was. "Go away, go away. Are you, this poor relative who eats and takes whatever he can get, really related to me by blood?"

It was strange how familiar he had become with this devil. It had happened for no apparent reason, yet somehow it had felt completely natural.

"I know you're short on money, big brother, so I came specifically to help you. Today, I'm bringing you wealth. All I need is a hug." Lu Mingze looked aggrieved.

After considering it, Lu Mingfei still refused the devil's gift. "It's not like I'm desperately broke. As long as I have enough for travel expenses, it'll be fine. Once I get to college, I have one last way to make money."

Lu Mingze asked doubtfully, "What way?"

"Don't you know what I look like? Of course I'll sell scandal merchandise about myself." Lu Mingfei glanced at Lu Mingze sitting behind him. "Fingel said he made eight thousand dollars from the rumors about Chen Wenwen and me. If I, the person involved, make up a persona and publish my own rumors, wouldn't I earn even more?"

"...Big brother, you really have no bottom line anymore."

After sighing, Lu Mingze reminded him, "But that little money won't be enough. Cassell is a capitalist paradise, full of rich young masters and heiresses with filthy blood flowing through their veins."

"We'll see... It's still uncertain whether I'll even go to Cassell. In some places, wealthy people can keep lions, call them big kitties, and spoil them like family. But when they see lions in the wild, every one of them will pull out a hunting rifle without hesitation." Lu Mingfei lowered his eyes. He did not have much goodwill toward that school that had been secretly watching him.

Of course, he knew the money he was earning was insignificant to a place like Cassell College.

"You're far more than a lion now. When lions encounter too many hostile hyenas or hunters, they still retreat after a standoff. But you? You'd snap off two branches from the neem tree beside you and charge in to go all-in. You're practically a Tyrannosaurus with its eyes tied shut."

Lu Mingfei sensed something off. "I feel like you're putting me down in secret. When things look bad and it's not time to fight, I run faster than anyone, okay? I'm not stupid. And is Tyrannosaurus really a good comparison in a dragon-slaying university?"

"Don't worry. According to my reliable insider information, when you enroll at Cassell College, you won't be the only dinosaur friend there. You'll also see Triceratops, Troodon, Parasaurolophus, Copper Dragon..."

Before Lu Mingze could finish, Lu Mingfei cut him off. "Did you slip some weird dragon in there? Don't try to fool me. I read dinosaur encyclopedias when I was little."

Something poked him in the waist. Lu Mingfei turned and saw Lu Mingze holding a document with both hands like a little secretary.

"Boss, sign here. This is money I'm delivering to you, a gift in return for the meteor shower you showed me last night."

"..." Lu Mingfei opened it and saw Uncle and Aunt's names. It was a lawsuit seeking accountability for failure of guardianship.

"You only need to sign it. It's fine if you don't, as long as you make your stance clear. After that, it'll be my business. The fierce 'lawyers' I arranged are already outside their residential complex, itching to get started. We'll recover your child support—the things that were originally yours."

Lu Mingze handed him a pen and pointed out the hard-to-understand clauses one by one. "Actually, Uncle thought about looking for you once today. You don't have a phone, so he couldn't call. He wandered around outside the residential complex twice before his wife forcibly called him home to pick vegetables. His only haul from going out was two bags of salt, a box of discounted bagged milk, and half a pound of Guangdong sausage. They had four dishes and two soups today. They ate quite well."

"That sounds like a pretty fruitful outing. 'Only haul' isn't the right way to describe it. Sometimes he reacts pretty slowly. Just have Lu Mingze send me a message on QQ... I mean my cousin. Though Lu Mingze would definitely tell Aunt anyway." Lu Mingfei hesitated, his pen hovering over the paper.

If it had only been Aunt, he definitely would not have hesitated. But faced with Uncle, he found himself unable to write. That somewhat cowardly middle-aged man did care for him to some extent; he just never dared, nor wanted, to make his wife angry for the sake of his nephew.

Maybe it was understandable, but there was no need to understand it.

Everyone had their own path. From now on, they should just avoid one another.

"Leave half for them... Forget it, I don't know how much there is exactly. Just make sure they don't go into debt because of this."

"Big brother, you're really too kind. If they're willing to cut back on major expenses, they won't go bankrupt and can still live happily. But fortunately, I'm not such a kind person. I don't like anyone big brother knows sharing my name." The devil giggled. "As long as you don't care about them, it doesn't matter."

It was hard to go from luxury to frugality, and even harder to restrain one's desires.

People accustomed to spending lavishly found it difficult to return to their old way of life. No one in that family could calmly and naturally adjust their lifestyle. In terms of personality, their ending had often been decided long ago.

"I... I'm sorry. My ability to handle things still needs work." Lu Mingfei caught a faint hint of Lu Mingze's unspoken meaning. After thinking it over, he seriously met Lu Mingze's amused eyes.

After a moment of thought, he signed his name. "But don't do anything unnecessary and waste either of our time. I don't want any contact with them anymore. One side sheds its burden, the other gains a new life, and everyone runs toward a better future—that's a pretty good script. If you mess around, I'll feel guilty instead... Can you bring me my old mouse?"

It was the mouse he had always used and could not bear to replace. He also did not want his cousin to throw it into the trash after he left.

The devil only smiled without speaking. It was impossible to tell whether he had listened to the part about not messing around.