Lu Mingfei had once thought that as long as he was salty enough, no stray cat would ever take a bite out of a salted fish like him.
But life was a fan of strong flavors. The saltier you were, the more it liked taking a bite out of you.
Slaying dragons, saving the world...
Those had never been things a loser like him should do. Being a hero came at a price.
His greatest wish was to earn some money, find a girl he loved, take over the old man's newsstand at the entrance to his neighborhood, and live a life free of worries about food and clothing.
At the senior year graduation party, that red-haired girl named Chen Nuotong had made a dashing entrance. She had glued the feathers of a white swan onto him, an ugly duckling, and let Lu Mingfei leave behind a Legend at Shilan High School.
But that wasn't the real him either.
There had to be some mistake with this S-Class thing.
That was what Lu Mingfei had always told himself.
If there was anything that made him different from everyone else, it was probably that he could make deals with a "Little Demon" who claimed to be his younger brother.
No matter what wish it was, as long as he paid one-quarter of his life, the Little Demon could grant it.
But what kind of person was Lu Mingfei? A coward with no ambition and no fighting spirit. What could possibly make him trade his life with a Demon?
There was something. He had already made two deals.
After every deal, he always walked on thin ice, terrified of falling into Lu Mingze's trap again.
But in the end, he discovered that whenever he fell into a pit, only Lu Mingze could help him out of it.
He had thought it was a joke Lu Mingze had made, but it turned out to be a cross-world chat tool.
What kind of mindset did it take to write a novel like this? Lu Mingfei really wanted to press a Desert Eagle to the author's head and ask what grudge they had against him.
Lu Mingfei curled his legs up, his eyes somewhat vacant.
"April 24th. Went to Tokyo Skytree with Sakura. The warmest place in the world was at the top of Tokyo Skytree."
"April 25th. Went to Meiji Shrine with Sakura. Someone was holding a wedding there."
"April 26th. Went to Disney with Sakura. The haunted house was scary, but Sakura was there, so it wasn't scary."
"Sakura is the best."
Sometimes he really felt tired, but he had no way to stop and catch his breath.
Erii.
He didn't know what kind of attitude he should take toward that girl.
When he saw that he had treated her as Nono, Lu Mingfei had been so embarrassed he could have dug out a castle with his toes.
A girl who liked anime and video games had so many things in common with him, so Lu Mingze, you little bastard, arranged a Tokyo Love Story for me!?
But that girl...
She really had fallen for him.
And he was still running away, just as he always had.
In twenty years of life, she was the first girl who had ever liked him.
He didn't understand why anyone would like a loser like him. A lofty, unattainable Princess had fallen for a passing extra like him.
That wasn't a fairy tale at all.
Yet that girl liked him exactly that much.
The signature on the check in Humpback Whale's hand had a familiar handwriting in the corner: Uesugi Erii.
That girl had bought a hundred thousand flower tickets just to make him stay.
Pulling over the pillow from the bed and hugging it to his chest, Lu Mingfei didn't know what he was feeling at that moment.
It felt as though his heart had been clenched, and his head was filled with the book's descriptions.
At the end of the book, he had walked away unsteadily, like a wind-up doll about to run out of spring.
Every time, he was this pathetic. Every time, he couldn't protect what he wanted to protect.
In this theatrical life, every gain he had was accidental, while loss seemed to be the norm.
Lu Mingfei got out of bed and put on his shoes. Listlessly, he picked up a coat and lifted the silver aluminum-magnesium alloy suitcase Lu Mingze had prepared for him.
At the Gate, Chu Zihang had already been waiting for him for a while.
"Finished packing?"
"Yeah." Lu Mingfei nodded without much emotion.
Chu Zihang thought Lu Mingfei was down because Caesar and Nono were engaged.
"What I said before still stands."
As Lu Mingfei put down his luggage, Chu Zihang suddenly said it.
"Hm?"
"Chop off his axle."
"..."
Senior Brother, I'm touched, but can we stop fixating on Caesar's axle?
Lu Mingfei forced out a smile. "Senior Brother, I just had a nightmare and didn't sleep well."
Last night, Lu Mingze had put on a show in his dream about fishing for a giant dragon, startling him awake in the middle of the night.
Then a Heavens Chat Group had appeared in his mind, and he had spent the entire night reading "Dragon Raja 3."
"Mm. Let's go. You can sleep on the way to Chicago Airport."
Probably not. I'll still need to keep reading "Dragon Raja 4" later.
"Here."
After they got in the car, Chu Zihang handed Lu Mingfei a box of milk and a piece of bread.
"Thanks, Senior Brother."
He knew Lu Mingfei hadn't eaten breakfast and had even brought him some. Senior Brother Chu was way too thoughtful. Saving you with one-quarter of my life wasn't in vain, Junior Brother.
Slurp~
Lu Mingfei drank milk and ate bread in the car, thinking it was such a pity about Xia Mi. The two of them had actually been a good match, but one of them was a Dragon—and a Dragon King at that.
Who wouldn't love a senior brother this warm and considerate?
If Lu Mingfei were a woman, he would love him too.
Wait!
Lu Mingfei shuddered.
The events of "Dragon Raja" and "Dragon Raja II" had already happened, so he hadn't read much of them. But he suddenly remembered that, when he had casually flipped through them at first, there had been a line describing Xia Mi.
Female Lu Mingfei.
The bread nearly choked him.
"Water."
Lu Mingfei took the bottled water Chu Zihang handed him and gulped down a mouthful.
"Ha—"
After catching his breath, Lu Mingfei turned his thoughts elsewhere. It would have been nice if this Chat Group had come two years earlier.
Then perhaps many things could have been changed.
No, perhaps nothing could have been changed...
Old Tang, Xia Mi...
If the future could be changed, if the written script could be rewritten, that would naturally be wonderful.
But could it really be that easy?
Others might be able to run, but Lu Mingfei couldn't.
For Lu Mingfei, running away was shameful and useless.
He couldn't escape.
From the moment he stepped into Kassel Academy, he had been unable to escape this vortex.
With his intelligence, he shouldn't have been considering so many questions in the first place, so he often chose to ignore things that seemed unreasonable.
"Black Swan Port," "Zero," "Renata," "Authority."
When these things were laid out before him from God's perspective, could he still ignore them?
Several hours later.
The black Gulfstream G550 gave off an ear-splitting roar. There were only three passengers on this flight from Chicago to Japan.
Lu Mingfei leaned back in his seat. This time, no drool ran from the corner of his mouth, nor was he leaning against Senior Brother Chu's shoulder for Caesar across from him to silently comment on.
People did not share the same joys and sorrows. Lu Mingfei only felt that life's hardships came wave after wave.