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

Chapter 177 Zero's Self-Disclosure, Lu Lincheng's Letter (Two-in-One)

Unlike a party, a social dance party usually has a much smaller number of participants.

After all, you can be an audience member at a gala, but at a social dance, everyone is a dancer on stage.

To be a dancer, you need to have enough formal wear to match the occasion. This is easy to solve for most families in Shilan High School, where money is no object. But another more important problem arises – to be a dancer, you need a dance partner, right?
This is no simple matter!
For any cooperative game, the most important factor limiting its development is never the system requirements or the price, but the number of people playing together.

People without a dance partner would naturally feel embarrassed to go, otherwise, if everyone else was dancing while they were just watching alone, wouldn't they be so embarrassed that they could dig a house out of their toes?
The social dances at Shilan Secondary School are not classical in style, and partners are not exchanged.

Furthermore, lower grades are not allowed to participate in the social dance; only students in grades 11 and 12 are allowed to attend. The rest can only leave the dance and go home or have a late-night snack in the cafeteria.

Therefore, the organizers of Shilan Secondary School never considered setting up any measures to control the number of students, such as "pre-registration". At most, they would just send staff to the gate to check student cards to prevent younger students from sneaking in.

Such measures would have been perfectly adequate in the past, but now, things have clearly changed...

The number of participants has absolutely exploded!
"Wait, wait a minute, why are there so many people?"

After letting in quite a few students with smiles on their faces, the staff responsible for verification finally realized the seriousness of the problem.

He quickly grabbed a boy and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Attending a social dance party?"

The student who was pulled aside, a "frontline reporter from this station," answered quite confidently.

"Where is your dance partner?" the staff member asked.

"Isn't he right here? It's him."

The "frontline reporter" pulled his underling over, looking completely natural and without a hint of guilt.

Do you think I'm blind?

The staff member glared at him with deadpan eyes, "This is clearly a man! You two men teamed up for a dance?"

"So what if they're all men? So what if they're all men...?"

The younger brother couldn't help but speak up, and just as he was about to bravely sacrifice his own reputation for the great cause of gossip, "our frontline reporter" had a flash of inspiration and took out a camera from the bag behind him.

"Just kidding, we're the student photographers invited to this social dance!"

This behavior was similar to two people wearing dark blue or orange maintenance work clothes, one carrying a ladder and the other carrying a work box, being able to move around freely. The two were able to enter quickly.

"The boss is awesome!"

"Of course! How could I be the boss if I didn't have some skills? I'm the man who's going to become the King of Paparazzi!"

Our frontline reporters and their assistants whispered among themselves and quickly found the corresponding target.

It's not difficult to achieve this; some people stand out from the crowd, their appearance seemingly several layers above others.

He was right when he said he was invited. However, he wasn't invited by the teacher, but by other students who couldn't come for various reasons.

As for those who could come, they all came.

How can secondhand gossip from campus forums compare to firsthand gossip from the real thing?

Lu Mingfei has already openly interacted with Su Xiaoqiang and Liu Miaomiao tonight; now only the Ice Queen Zero is missing, and it's said that Zero will be the one to initiate it.

The culprit behind the massive crowd at this social dance, Lu Mingfei, is currently hesitating at the dining table.

The focus of a formal social ball is not actually the ball itself, but the socializing. Therefore, there is a full hour between the end of the evening party and the official start of the ball.

This hour is both the time for changing and preparation and the time for the cocktail party. Of course, since everyone here is a minor student, the alcohol has been replaced with various beverages, at most with a slight alcoholic taste, and there is also a buffet.

Meanwhile, a professional band was playing music on the side, and the gentle melodies made people feel as if they had really entered a high-society scene from a movie.

In the past, Lu Mingfei felt that he would be quite reserved in such a situation, and might even feel embarrassed to be alone in a cheap rented suit.
But now he was sitting at the table, wearing the only priceless suit in the world, with Zero standing beside him, who could outshine all the girls in the room. He wasn't hesitating about what to eat, but rather what to do if he didn't dance well later.

After the party ended, Liu Miaomiao changed her mind and said she wanted to go home. According to her, "Anyway, I've never learned to dance, so I might as well not watch you and... I might as well not watch."

Liu Miaomiao's idea was simple: "We absolutely cannot do what Su Xiaoqiang says," otherwise wouldn't she really become a subordinate who just follows orders?

Furthermore, she had great faith in Zero's abilities; her queen-like aura was enough to subdue all the villains without her even lifting a finger. Not to mention, she had proactively shown her goodwill… Therefore, rather than taking sides, it was better to remain neutral. What was that saying again? Wait for the right price!

Lu Mingfei was naturally unaware of Liu Miaomiao's complex emotional journey. He simply saw her off at the school gate and watched her get into her family's car before returning home.

He turned to look at Zero.

Zero changed into a silver, crystal-encrusted dress, which made her skin appear even whiter and more translucent. Her figure was originally petite, somewhere between a girl and a young woman, but now, thanks to a pair of silver high heels, she appeared taller and more elegant, transforming into a stunning young woman.

Even though his face, which never showed any expression, remained as frozen as ice.

"I must emphasize again that before this, I only had three months of dance training in order to perform a group dance at the Spring Festival Gala the year before last. But at that time, the new dance teacher kept saying that I was the type who was uncoordinated... Is that really okay?"

"no problem."

Zero's tone remained unchanged, yet it conveyed a sense of unwavering confidence.

Even Lu Mingfei himself didn't know where her confidence came from.

He was able to persevere at that time entirely because his dance partner in that group dance was Chen Wenwen.

However, since he was able to persevere back then because of Chen Wenwen, he certainly won't back down now because of Ling.

The gentle melody abruptly changed under the conductor's baton, a crisp bell rang, the crystal chandelier in the center of the hall lit up, and everything quieted down as waiters methodically began to clean the dance floor.

The ball officially began.

The performance began with "The Blue Danube," led by the principal and vice-principal as the opening dancers. As the saying goes, "like generals lead like soldiers," and the principal of Shilan Middle School certainly has some real skills. Although he is a bit overweight, his dance moves were surprisingly agile.

Lu Mingfei sat quietly in his seat, watching the scene on the dance floor. He knew that the song after the next one was "Por una Cabeza," the song that Zero had specially chosen. At this moment, he was a little nervous, and his mind was even at a loss for what to think.

Reviewing some biology knowledge? But that seems rather strange.

But he soon realized what he should be thinking.

“Look at me,” Zero suddenly said.

Lu Mingfei glanced at her instinctively.

Their eyes met, and there were still those same unwavering gazes; everything seemed normal.

"how……"

Before Lu Mingfei could finish speaking, he saw Ling's action. She gently raised her hand, took something out of her ear, and handed it to him.

"...Huh?" He subconsciously reached out to catch it, his body stiffening strangely, as if the small device was the legendary Ruyi Jingu Bang, weighing 108,000 jin, and everything he had seen in the past would be completely shattered by this one blow.

"Emergency contact via headset."

Zero spoke casually, his tone completely natural, not at all like he was saying, "This is a spy device."

Her actions and words did not stop there, but continued. She removed the miniature devices from various unexpected parts of her body and explained their functions directly.

"Eavesdropping devices", "spy cameras", "locators"...

Each device is shockingly small, and it's hard to imagine how advanced the technology they contain. In this era, there are probably only a handful of institutions capable of manufacturing such devices.

But why would such a device be on Zero?
Lu Mingfei stared blankly at the miniature devices in his palm, his mind completely blank.

His conversation with Chu Zihang at noon came back to mind, and his suspicions from that time had actually been confirmed.

His trust was so... ridiculous.

"...Why?" After a long silence, Lu Mingfei asked.

His tone was neither cold nor disappointed, but rather possessed a chilling calmness, while his deep black pupils seemed to be brewing a thunderbolt capable of destroying everything.

"Why should I tell you, and why should I do this?" Zero asked calmly.

Lu Mingfei's heart couldn't help but tremble slightly. She was always like this, able to easily see through the meaning behind his words. In the past, this would have been an unbearable itch, but now... what was this?
Once trust is lost, suspicion inevitably arises in all directions—Lu Mingfei had heard that someone had done research that if a person's entire life story, environment, and even behavior were put under a microscope and analyzed by a professional team, it would be possible to accurately predict every step of that person, including their behavior, words, and even psychology.

Is that really the case?
"I'm telling you this because you've already realized it."

Zero answered confidently without waiting for Lu Mingfei's confirmation, "As for the reason for doing this..."

She reached into her bag, took out a letter, and handed it to her.

Lu Mingfei couldn't help but reach out to take it again.

He easily recognized the letter just by looking at the envelope, because he received a similar letter every six months. The contents of the letter were usually the same: his mother would regretfully tell him that his plan to return to China to visit him would have to be postponed again because things had taken a new turn.

He opened the letter and looked at the handwriting... It was exceptionally familiar, with nothing strange about it. Sometimes the letters he received were written by his mother, and sometimes by his father, but this time the handwriting was his father's, exactly the same as in the previous letters, strong and powerful.

Mingfei:
By the time you read this letter, you will have already begun to explore a world that is both unfamiliar to you and one you are destined to enter.

This is a difficult and dangerous process, but you have to endure it.

As parents, your mother and I aren't exactly competent. But some things have to be done... We won't be able to leave here for a long time, so we can only offer you the help we can.

First, about zero.

Her identity is that she is the fiancée your mother and I chose for you. Of course, in this day and age, arranged marriages are indeed unacceptable, but I believe that with her abilities, she is fully capable of winning your heart.

(Also: If there are other girls you like, you can also pursue them. Your parents have built a large fortune for you, enough to support as many as you want. Besides, there aren't so many rules in the mixed-race world.)

Of course, your dad is pretty law-abiding...it's definitely not because your mom is strict.
Zero came to your side with multiple missions, and entrusting her with your care is only a small part of that. There is another matter, which is precisely why I must write this letter.

This is our entrustment—to conduct a crucial test on you.

Mingfei, the world of mixed-race people is not as wonderful as in fairy tales.

Beneath its magnificence lies a desolate landscape of bones; behind its power lies boundless ambition. The threat of dragons, the unpredictability of human nature, the entanglement of interests… any one of these could lead to catastrophic consequences.

Entering this field requires more than just lineage; it also requires a constantly vigilant mind, and the ability to question everyone.

Being gullible, complacent, or lacking vigilance... even an S-class individual can get into trouble.

We've seen your kind nature since you were little, and that's precisely our biggest worry. Kindness is a wonderful quality, but in a mixed-race world, it can also be a poison.

Therefore, we entrust Zero to listen to and monitor you. When you are able to detect her actions, it means that the "radar" that ensures your survival in the hybrid world has started to operate, and you have at least initially developed the vigilance necessary for survival.

However, we also considered that this test might cause you to lose faith in Zero. She is a good child and shouldn't end up like this because of our instructions.

Therefore, this letter was written.

We hope you can trust Zero. This may be a little difficult after this test, but we believe Zero will do it. You just need to give her a chance.

The road ahead is long and fraught with difficulties; this is just the beginning.

Your mother and I cannot always be by your side, so this is the only way we can lay the first foundation for you. When you see this letter, it will prove that you have finally taken this crucial first step, and we are truly proud and happy for you.

Please maintain this vigilance and make it your instinct.

Hone your skills, Mingfei. Whether dealing with dragons or navigating human nature, never let your guard down. We look forward to the day we truly meet you, to seeing a truly strong you, capable of protecting yourself and those you love.

Your father,

Lu Lincheng

(At a location where you'll only find out when you need to.)

Lu Mingfei looked at the letter quietly.

What does it feel like to go from hell to heaven?
He wasn't quite sure what was going on; he just felt a little dizzy... Everything had taken such a dramatic turn of events so fast that his emotions didn't even have time to process it before he completely lost control.

"you……"

He looked up at Zero.

Zero watched him quietly.

After "The Blue Danube" came a slow waltz, "Moon River," and the students began to enter.

Although many people came tonight just to watch the drama unfold, there are always others who "watch the drama while living their own lives" and want to dance with their partners.

The background is a crowd dancing gracefully, blurred and insignificant; the only thing clear in the whole world is her, only zero.

"Is this... really true?" he couldn't help but ask.

"If you believe it, then it is true."

Zero answered calmly.

"It's okay if you don't believe me."

She gently took Lu Mingfei's hand in hers; it felt cool and soft. In that instant, Lu Mingfei felt as if she had grasped his heart.

"Because time will tell."

(End of this chapter)