"You may have misunderstood the college's mission, Mingfei. We do not negotiate peace with dragons."
Angers's narrowed eyes were as sharp and menacing as blades, but he could go no further.
"I'm not asking for peace talks. I only want you to guarantee his survival and fabricate an identity for him," Lu Mingfei said helplessly.
"You want me to keep a secret? From whom? The Board of Trustees?" Angers smiled, but showed no sign of relaxing. "You seem to trust me more."
"Because you're more single-minded," Lu Mingfei praised him bluntly. "I can't be sure what goals Hybrids have beyond slaying dragons, but you would absolutely make a wish to the devil if it meant killing them."
"Also, I killed one of the two brothers who were the Bronze and Fire King."
Those words brought Angers back to his senses.
He elegantly folded away his knife, and time around them returned to normal.
"That's very different from what you reported to Mans."
"I chose to trust you partly because you seem to know more. For example, you know I can kill a Dragon King." Lu Mingfei met his eyes.
"And you did, didn't you?" Angers smiled.
Chapter 37: Cooperation
"An S-rank is already beyond the scope of students, or even professors. My clearance in Norma's database lets me view almost every Hybrid file the college has investigated." Lu Mingfei remained between Angers and Constantine. He had no doubt that if he gave Angers the slightest opening, the man's folding knife would be buried in Constantine's heart a second later.
"So you want me, the only other S-rank besides you, to help you shelter a dragon?"
Lu Mingfei shook his head. "His situation is complicated. At the very least, he is no longer a dragon, either physically or mentally."
Angers looked thoughtful, his figure standing straight in the strong wind. "He used to be a dragon?"
"I took his Great Rune," Lu Mingfei explained calmly.
He knew Angers was the best possible partner because he was driven purely by revenge. And precisely because Angers's thirst for revenge was so intense, honesty was the only way to persuade him.
But to his surprise, Angers neither looked astonished nor pressed him on what "Great Rune" meant.
The straight-backed old man abandoned his attack stance, walked slowly back to his seat, and gestured for Lu Mingfei to sit opposite him.
"Once a dragon loses its power, it is already dead," Angers said calmly.
"So we can negotiate?" Lu Mingfei accepted the cup of black tea Angers filled for him and downed it in one gulp.
"When a Dragon King truly dies, a Dragon Bone Cross is formed. The Secret Party possesses the technology to refine a Philosopher's Stone from a Dragon Bone Cross." Angers glanced at Constantine. "In other words, I need to run a test using his bones and blood. If what you say is true, then of course we can cooperate."
"After all, I only need them dead. Every last one." Angers smiled.
"All right." Lu Mingfei let out a relieved breath.
"Before we discuss the details, indulge my curiosity. What would you have done if these negotiations had broken down?" Angers had noticed the change in his expression.
"Taken this guy and escaped. I might have become an enemy of both you and the dragons. That would have been tough." Lu Mingfei sounded rueful as he turned the bone china teacup between his fingers, but there was no fear on his face.
To him, that situation really seemed to amount to little more than extra hardship.
Angers offered no judgment on his "arrogance," merely saying, "You guessed correctly. The Secret Party is not simply a charitable foundation devoted to slaying dragons. They would hunt you down at any cost for what you possess."
"What about you?" Lu Mingfei asked.
"I'm old. I've lived long enough. Seeing the dragons perish in my lifetime would be enough." Angers shook his head.
After that, the two entered lengthy negotiations.
In the end, the core bargain was that Angers would keep the secret, while Lu Mingfei would join the fighting whenever information about a Dragon King became available. The remaining terms mostly concerned Constantine. For instance, Constantine would have to cooperate with biological research conducted by Angers's people and have miniature explosives implanted around his heart. Only then would he receive the identity of an A-rank student named "Wang Wei."
Lu Mingfei had chosen the name, aiming for something believable and ordinary.
"Oh, and I want the privilege of not having to attend all your classes. I'll choose which ones I take," Lu Mingfei added at the end.
"Not skipping all of them?"
"Your courses do have their merits," Lu Mingfei assessed.
"Haha, what a deeply flattering appraisal." Angers smiled wryly. "Then I have a condition too. You'll need to teach a practical combat course."
Lu Mingfei did not agree outright. "I'll teach when I choose. You can't make it mandatory."
"I'm shouldering pressure from the entire Board of Trustees, and you can't even be bothered to teach a few classes?" Angers raised an eyebrow. "Then I'll add one final condition. You must help me instruct two outstanding young people on Free Day."
"No problem." Lu Mingfei extended his hand and shook Angers's.
Professor Mans's work in the Three Gorges soon shifted from exploration to salvage. It continued for roughly half a month, with even the local Hybrid families joining in by the end.
During that time, Angers not only had to negotiate with the Hybrid families but also oversee the mission's progress. The Board of Trustees sought updates from him, and even the half-year financial statements were sent over from distant Cassell College.
By the time the situation stabilized, another stretch of time had passed. Only then did Angers take Lu Mingfei and Constantine back to Cassell College aboard his private plane.
The passenger jet cruised at high altitude through steady air currents. The window shades were lowered, and only warm lighting illuminated the cabin. Angers drank in the forward cabin, while Lu Mingfei and Constantine sat facing each other on sofas.
Constantine turned toward the only window with its shade open. As he gazed at the endless sea of clouds and the azure sky so close at hand, nostalgia filled his eyes.
Lu Mingfei had tried interrogating him before meeting Angers, but he seemed to remember nothing beyond vague impressions of living with his older brother in White Emperor City.
"Well? Remember anything yet?" Lu Mingfei opened his eyes after resting with them closed.
Constantine shook his head, then cupped the glass of apple Fanta before him in both hands and lowered his head to take small sips.
Finding anything besides alcohol and plain water aboard Angers's private plane was no easy task. Still, it seemed even a Dragon King enjoyed an icy, sugary drink that tingled on his tongue.
"I hope you'll recognize your brother when you see him." Lu Mingfei was not disappointed.
Whether Constantine was lying or not, Angers had already promised he had a way to make him tell the truth, and even remember things he had forgotten.
The aircraft shuddered slightly and began to bank.
Lu Mingfei opened the window shade on his side as well. Outside, the sea of clouds tilted and gradually rose.
About an hour later, the plane landed at Chicago O'Hare International Airport under clear skies.
They transferred to a helicopter, flying over downtown Chicago, the outskirts, and a stretch of mountains before finally reaching Cassell College.
The moment they stepped off the aircraft, Angers took the two of them to the Equipment Department's underground facilities and found a sterile room in which to operate on "Wang Wei," otherwise known as Constantine.
To Lu Mingfei's surprise, after the medical staff administered anesthesia, Angers sent them away and chose to perform the surgery himself.
He deftly made a tiny incision in Constantine's chest, inserting sterile platinum filaments into his body and winding them around the arteries near his heart.
This was an explosive device. With the help of cardiac imaging, the wires were precisely inserted around the heart, each connected to a major blood vessel. If necessary, they would trigger extremely small explosions, but those would be enough to destroy every major artery around the heart. Even a Dragon King's regenerative abilities could not heal him if all those arteries were destroyed.
The control device was a wafer no larger than a fingernail, concealed along the edge of a rib. The entire apparatus weighed barely a dozen grams.
Chapter 38: Moving in
The operation to implant the explosives was simple. When Angers finished, the anesthesia had not even worn off. After soaking two small pieces of white gauze, the exposed wounds had already stopped bleeding.
Only then did the main event begin. Angers pushed aside the rack filled with precision surgical instruments and pulled over another rack of much rougher-looking tools. He picked up a miniature stainless steel trephine, a bone biopsy sampler generally used to collect samples from bone lesions or for biological research on animals.
The end of the slender, hollow cylinder had fine teeth capable of cutting through hard cortical bone. It was usually mounted on a dental hand saw. After adjusting its speed, Angers began taking samples from Constantine.
Lu Mingfei stood beside him and watched as he filled nearly ten small glass sample tubes with bone samples, each immersed in blood drawn from Constantine himself.
Only then was the operation complete. By the end, white hemostatic bandages were wrapped all over Constantine's body, including his head.
Angers neatly arranged the samples from Constantine's body inside an insulated container.
"The most important part is finished for today. I'll notify you if we need anything for further research." He removed his mask, looking relieved.
Lu Mingfei stepped forward and pulled open Constantine's eyelid. His black pupil was smaller than normal and reacted weakly to light.
"Human any way you look at him, isn't he? His bones, his internal organs, even his pupils' response under anesthesia. Keep in mind, the anesthetic dosage was based on the standard for a normal adult male." Angers leaned closer to inspect him too.
"From now on, he should stay under my supervision," Lu Mingfei said.
"Of course. Wang Wei's adviser is Guderian. Students under the same adviser ought to live together, shouldn't they?" Angers had already arranged everything.
Not long before, Guderian, far away in Russia, had been delighted to learn that the headmaster had assigned him not only the S-rank Lu Mingfei this year, but another Chinese student, an A-rank, as well.
"Really? Headmaster Angers, thank you so much."
In the eyes of the plump former Harvard professor, his appointment as a tenured professor at Cassell College was already a done deal.
Lu Mingfei was pleased with Angers's thoughtful arrangements and felt he had chosen the right partner.
After observing Constantine for a while and confirming that his vital signs were stable and his ability to breathe independently was gradually returning, Angers removed his surgical gown and left with the samples.
The doctor who had administered the general anesthesia came in next. Only after Constantine was fully awake and responding normally when called did he let Lu Mingfei wheel him out to a hastily prepared hospital room containing a bed and a wheelchair.
Constantine lay on the hospital bed's pristine white sheets in a patient gown, seemingly unconcerned about what had been done to him.
Lu Mingfei sat upright in the chair opposite him. With no armrests for his hands, he laid them flat on his thighs. His long years upon a throne had engraved the habit into his subconscious.
"What's your name?" Lu Mingfei suddenly asked.
Constantine looked at him and answered without hesitation, "Wang Wei."
"Good." Lu Mingfei nodded.
He and Angers had discussed Constantine's situation with him, asking him to play a boy named Wang Wei in exchange for helping him find his older brother. Constantine's memories were hazy, and in some respects his mind was a little slow, but anything involving his brother stirred his emotions and filled him with enthusiasm.
Student dormitory, room 303.
"What? I thought we'd already forged an unshakable bond as fellow students!" Fingel yelled. "Now you're making me move to 304 for some stranger?"
Lu Mingfei pushed Constantine in his wheelchair, his expression calm and unmoved by his F-rank senior's accusations. "It's the college's arrangement. Besides, isn't it just across the hall?"
"Then he should be the one moving across the hall." Fingel remained adamant. "My bond with this room is indestructible. Nothing you say will change that!"
Lu Mingfei had anticipated this. With a sigh, he played his trump card. "Once the semester starts, I'll be teaching an elective. Sign up, and I'll give you full marks."
"Really, boss?" Every trace of seriousness vanished from Fingel's face, and he seized Lu Mingfei's hand almost immediately. "If that's true, I'll move my luggage right now."
"It's true." Lu Mingfei nodded. "Headmaster Angers invited me to teach it. It's a branch of the practical combat course."
Fingel had been doubtful at first, but the words "practical combat" convinced him immediately. If anyone at Cassell College understood Lu Mingfei's fighting ability best, it was him.
After confirming it with Lu Mingfei several times, he immediately began packing.
There was no real need to pack, though. Room 304 was right across the hall; he only needed to carry everything over piece by piece. Lu Mingfei helped him too.
Room 303 suddenly felt much emptier. Sunlight occupied much of the space, and a little dust drifted through the air like mayflies. As a patient, Constantine had not helped move the luggage. He maneuvered his wheelchair into the sunlight by the window and quietly tilted his head up to gaze at the sky.