Lu Mingfei, why are you slaying dragons if you're not involved!

Chapter 157 Lu Mingfei: Sorry, I'm a policeman (Part 2)

Chu Zihang's cello playing had indeed become a little rusty after not practicing for more than half a year.

But it wasn't a big problem. After more than two hours of training, he not only regained his original level, but even made some progress.

Lu Mingfei also thoroughly enjoyed practicing basketball. He had already mastered the techniques of one-on-one basketball, and simply repeating them was just a matter of physical exertion. But now, adding a beat made all the difference... He needed to control the rhythm with the music, which meant further practice in "control".

In this way, he gained proficiency more efficiently!
Putting his "spur-of-the-moment" idea into practice brought about a win-win situation, and Lu Mingfei was quite satisfied. He even started thinking about other methods, such as, "If my senior brother played the piano instead of the cello, could I simultaneously gain proficiency in both schedules..."

But the thought had barely surfaced in his mind when Lu Mingfei suddenly realized what it meant and immediately extinguished it.

What if the schedule records this again, and then adds it back in the next schedule update?
Having already experienced the "I've exhausted myself" scenario once, Lu Mingfei certainly didn't want to see it happen again. He felt that the current schedule and intensity had already reached his limit, and it would be difficult to continue pushing it further in the short term.

Time was running out, with only a dozen minutes left in the basketball practice session. Lu Mingfei visibly transformed from being heavily panting and drenched in sweat to breathing calmly and confidently. Just as he was about to nod to Chu Zihang and continue with another practice session—

The ringing of the cell phone broke the cycle that had lasted for more than two hours.

Chu Zihang lowered his eyes slightly, looked at Lu Mingfei again, gestured for him to continue, then took out his phone and answered the call.

Lu Ming unconsciously switched to "silent practice" mode.

The call didn't last long, just over half a minute. Chu Zihang only said "I understand" at the end before putting down his phone and cello and going to the side of the court.

"Senior brother, is there something urgent?"

Lu Mingfei leaped into the air with ease; the rim was no longer out of reach for him. His jumping ability was even sufficient to allow him to place his hand on the rim. This meant that if he wanted to, dunking would be no problem.

After landing lightly, he caught his breath slightly.

"I'm fine here..."

"It's urgent."

Chu Zihang stared at him and said calmly, "But yours."

Lu Mingfei kept dribbling the basketball, switching hands between them, somewhat dazed: "My...urgent matter?"

"Yes."

Chu Zihang asked.

"Do you know someone called 'Old Tang'? He went to the place you used to live. That family doesn't have your or my phone number, but they do have the lawyer's number from last time. The call I just received was from the lawyer."

According to him, "Old Tang" seemed to have terrified the family.

Chu Zihang rarely expressed explicit dislike for anyone; as the perfect "other people's child," he possessed extremely high manners and politeness. But Lu Mingfei's uncle and aunt rarely reached this standard, to the point that he didn't even address them directly, but instead referred to them as "that family."

In his view, Lu Mingfei leaving that place was the end of the relationship. It was better to have no relatives like that than to become complete strangers from then on.

Lu Mingfei naturally understood, and while feeling a little touched, he scratched his head.

"Of course I know, Lao Tang..."

As the object of "the last entertainment before the start of the hellish schedule," Lu Mingfei remembered that Lao Tang didn't need to put in much effort.

"We played StarCraft together for a while before. Although he's not as good as me, he's still considered a StarCraft pro. But wasn't he in Brooklyn, New York? When did he get here?"

"Looks like I need to talk to you about something."

Chu Zihang glanced at the time, thought for a moment, and then offered his suggestion.

"If we have Uncle Chen pick him up now, we can have dinner together after we finish playing basketball. The timing will be perfect. We can talk about anything at the dinner table."

“Okay, okay, it’s on me!” Lu Mingfei nodded repeatedly.

……

"Old Tang?"

Lu Mingfei got into the back seat of the Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG and looked at the young man in front of him who had a comical appearance and droopy eyebrows.

"Mingming?"

Old Tang waved to him in a very familiar manner.

"Bro, even though it's our first meeting, I feel really comfortable with you! I never expected you to be so devastatingly handsome, and so rich too, driving a Mercedes S65 AMG with a driver. Honestly, I'm so envious!"

"'Mingming' is just a nickname in the group chat. My real name is Lu Mingfei... Honestly, buddy, you make me feel really close to you!"

Lu Mingfei waved his hand.

"Looks are irrelevant. Besides, this car doesn't belong to me; it belongs to my senior brother!"

"Your senior brother is quite handsome..." Old Tang remarked.

"You two weren't familiar with each other before?"

Sitting in the passenger seat, Chu Zihang listened to the somewhat awkward conversation between the two and, unusually, took the initiative to ask a question.

"We wouldn't call ourselves close friends. We just played StarCraft online for half a day... How long was it again?" Lu Mingfei turned to ask Lao Tang.

"About eight hours, fifty plates!"

Without hesitation, Old Tang recited the statistics of that crushing defeat: "I was utterly crushed by you in fifty games, fifty to zero!"

"Isn't there a rule in the group that people who come on the first day absolutely cannot hold back and must use their true strength?" Lu Mingfei was a little embarrassed.

"I can understand that, but what happened that you haven't logged on since then?"

Old Tang pressed for an answer.

"Even if I successfully cultivate my skills afterward and want to get my revenge, I won't have anywhere to turn to you!"

At this moment, Chu Zihang in the front row had fallen silent. He realized he had made a "habitual mistake"—

For normal people, when ordinary netizens reach the stage of "meeting in person," they should have chatted for a long time and become quite familiar with each other.

But the two people sitting in the back seat of the car right now are clearly not normal people!

They played StarCraft for eight hours straight, the kind of stomp where the boss beat the player, and the guy who got completely destroyed actually traveled all the way from New York to meet up with him in person. Wait a minute, maybe it wasn't even about meeting up with an acquaintance! Maybe it was...

When Chu Zihang thought of this, the same thought had already occurred to Lu Mingfei.

He shrank back warily: "Old Tang, you didn't lose online, so you're trying to fight me offline, are you? Let me warn you, I'm a Tai Chi practitioner! I've been practicing Tai Chi for twenty years!"

"Wow, that's amazing! May I ask how old you are?"

"No need for formalities, I will be eighteen years old soon."

"My apologies, my apologies! Others start practicing kung fu from the womb, but you started from before your cells even formed. Truly impressive!" Old Tang gave a thumbs up, then changed the subject and waved his hand, "I'm not the kind of person who does such despicable things, brother, you can rest assured!"

The main problem is that you've been out of contact online for so many days without any news. Although you said you were going to have extra classes, and I've heard that the intensity of senior year in Chinese high school is like being in prison... but to say that it's so intense that you can't even log into QQ is absurd.

I found out about this while chatting with a guy in the group. I actually came back for work, so I just stopped by to drop by.

"Oh... thank you." Lu Mingfei was a little touched by her words.

Even though it was on the way, it was still a sign of care.

It comes from a group of netizens who have only played games and boasted online, but have never met in person!

"Hey, it's nothing!"

Old Tang waved his hand and muttered something.

"Speaking of which, the address you left in the group only showed the neighborhood, and I only knew your nickname in the group. I was thinking it would be quite difficult to find you, but I never expected to run into your weird uncle and aunt..."

"Brother, it's a good thing you moved out. Just listening to their conversation the whole way here made me so angry! I don't know how you managed to live like that before. I was so furious that I followed them around, then went to their door and gave them a good scare!"

As they were talking, the group arrived at the restaurant where they had finished eating. It wasn't anything particularly fancy; it served everyday dishes. They went into a private room.

"It's all in the past."

Lu Mingfei sighed a little when he mentioned this matter, those five and a half years of memories... He shook his head, choosing not to think about it too much, and expressed his gratitude again.

"thank you."

He would never say something like "unnecessary," and of course he would stand by his brother if his brother helped him get revenge! Lu Mingfei chose to let it go easily back then because that's just his personality, but he can also distinguish right from wrong.

"No need to thank me. Although we brothers have never met, we hit it off immediately. This is what it means to go to great lengths for a brother!"

Old Tang waved his hand, displaying a rather righteous and chivalrous air, then scratched his head somewhat dejectedly.

"The main problem is that China has such good public security, and guns are hard to come by. Otherwise, I would actually prefer to just point a gun at their heads. It's incredibly effective and simple, and they wouldn't even have time to react and contact you... But if it weren't for that, I really wouldn't know where to find you, haha..."

Chu Zihang and Lu Mingfei exchanged a knowing glance, and they both instantly realized something was wrong—it involved firearms!
Gun-related matters are not a big deal in the US, but what Old Tang did is problematic.

What are these people doing in China if they have "serious business"?
Foreign countries, Chinese descent, involvement with organized crime... all these factors combined, and the pointer of "possibility" swung towards what they had previously heard from Ye Sheng: "someone is throwing money around in the hunter market to lure people in."

"Wh...what's wrong?" Old Tang asked.

He keenly sensed that the atmosphere in the private room had become somewhat strange. Both Chu Zihang and Lu Mingfei had their eyes fixed on him at that moment.

"It's nothing, I was just curious!"

Lu Mingfei was the first to react.

He initially felt an instant connection with Lao Tang upon their first meeting, and now he also felt a sense of warmth and care from him, so of course he chose to help if he could.

This help doesn't refer to "covering up the crime," but rather to helping him "return to the right path"!
The premise is that we need to confirm... It cannot be confirmed yet that Lao Tang returned to China because of the "Hunter Website," after all, we cannot rule out the possibility that he was just bragging.

He carefully considered his words, then asked slowly in a tone that was both incredibly curious and somewhat admiring.

"We have very strict gun control in China, so I don't know much about it... Lao Tang, can you tell me about it? I'd like to hear! The US doesn't ban guns, right?"

"It's not exactly unrestricted, you need a gun license. But actually, if you have the connections, it's very easy to get some black market guns."

Old Tang winked and lowered his voice, just enough for the people in the private room to hear.

"But I'm different. I usually don't need to prepare my own guns; someone else takes care of that for me!"

"I see. I remember you were in Brooklyn, New York, right? Do you need to use real guns and ammunition to work in a place like that?"

Lu Mingfei continued to ask curiously, trying to make his admiring gaze more obvious.

"Like in the movies... gangsters?"

"What's so great about being a gangster? That place is full of scum who deserve to go to hell! The movies you see are all romanticized, and they're just street rats who act like they're seeing a cat when they see a cop."

Old Tang shook his head decisively.

“My job is a bit unusual; it requires me to travel all over the world. I just rented a place in a poor neighborhood in Brooklyn, near the light rail line, and it's quite noisy…”

"What kind of job involves traveling all over the world?"

Lu Mingfei shifted his position and moved to Old Tang's side.

Chu Zihang moved his position without making a sound, and the two of them sandwiched Lao Tang in the middle.

"I'm curious too," Chu Zihang said calmly, meeting Old Tang's gaze.

"Old Tang, don't mind him. That's just how he is. He seems cold and aloof on the surface, but he's actually very gossipy inside. Besides, he went to college in the US, and he's an Ivy League school!"

Lu Mingfei casually rattled off a long string of words, followed by a question.

"Could it be that you, Old Tang, are one of those legendary mercenaries? That's incredibly awesome!"

"Forehead……"

Old Tang's head was spinning from Lu Mingfei's long string of meaningless words. Before he could even sort out the logic, he heard the question and answered instinctively.

"Pretty much, but not really that impressive. Have you ever heard of bounty hunters? We take on missions on a website, then travel all over the world to complete them and earn commissions. It's basically like doing temporary work, including this time... Why are you grabbing my hand?"

"Old Tang..."

Lu Mingfei's voice suddenly seemed to become weathered, and he asked with emotion, "Have you seen 'Infernal Affairs'? The one starring Andy Lau and Tony Leung?"

"I've seen it, I've seen it." Old Tang nodded repeatedly.

"Then you must know a saying."

Lu Mingfei stared at him.

"Excuse me, I'm a police officer."

The private room fell into a deathly silence. Old Tang's pupils shrank dramatically in that instant... He subconsciously tried to stand up, but Lu Mingfei and Chu Zihang held his hands down like iron clamps, pressing him down on the chair, unable to move at all.

"give me a chance."

Old Tang licked his lips and decisively made the wisest choice.

"I didn't have a choice before. Now, I want to be a good person!"

(End of this chapter)