Dragon Raja: Reboot

"Senior brother, are you asleep?" Lu Mingfei asked softly, looking at the ceiling.

"Not yet, I'm thinking about something." The person next to me was also looking at the ceiling, the blanket pulled up to their shoulders, their hands obediently placed inside the blanket.

"Missing Junior Sister? No need to miss her, she's right here," Lu Mingfei whispered.

"No...it's just that it's my first time sleeping with someone else, so I'm a little uncomfortable. I'll feel better when I get sleepy, it'll be fine."

"Hehe," Lu Mingfei turned his head, looking at the handsome face and neatly trimmed eyelashes beside him, "Senior, do you know about the Navigation Club at Shilan Middle School?"

Shilan Middle School once established a special club called the Navigation Club, which was almost entirely composed of cute girls.

They share a common identity: they are all fans of Chu Zihang.

Chu Zihang glanced at him sideways and said silently, "Do you remember what I said before? They only like the perfect Chu Zihang in their eyes, but that's not the real me. I'm far from as good as they imagine. They don't understand what the real me is like."

"So, if someone who truly understands you comes along, would you like her?" the junior brother asked in a low voice.

Chu Zihang frowned slightly.

He didn't understand why his junior brother was so concerned about his love life lately.

Shouldn't he be worried about whether he will report his situation to the school?

"Senior, during our high school military training, the walls were very poorly soundproofed. A bunch of people would eavesdrop in the corners of the girls' dormitory, and the topic was 'What would I do if I married Chu Zihang?'"

"The hardliners insisted on winning you over, the artsy types said they wanted you to tell them bedtime stories every night, the virtuous wife and loving mother type said they'd use their culinary skills to fatten you up, because as the saying goes, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. The career-oriented type scoffed, saying that someone of the Chu family's young mistress's caliber shouldn't be cooking; she should first defeat her mother-in-law, seize control of the household, and secure her position as the head of the Chu family's inner court! But in the end, the gentle type won. A girl with a soft voice said, 'If I were to win him over, I wouldn't want anything else, I'd just want to be there watching him sleep, counting his eyelashes one by one.' Tsk tsk, it's so enviable!"

Chu Zihang's eye twitched, not because he was shocked by the sentimental words, but because his junior brother was not only deliberately imitating a girl's voice, but also winking at him tenderly.

He rolled over, really not wanting to see his junior brother's smug face.

"No need to be envious. The girls who said that back then have all found boyfriends now, while only you and I, who were eavesdropping, are sleeping in the same bed."

Chu Zihang, with his back to his junior brother, retorted in a low voice.

really.

There was no sound from behind for a long time.

The counterattack was successful.

Chu Zihang thought to himself, it seems that he does have a talent in this area.

He was originally not a very talkative person, but in the short time he spent with his junior brother, his skills in rhetoric improved by leaps and bounds, and he was able to take the initiative and easily suppress his junior brother.

"Senior brother, will you tell on me?"

After a long while, Lu Mingfei's voice came from behind.

These words stirred something in Chu Zihang's heart; it seemed his junior brother still cared.

He paused for a moment, then produced a prepared statement: "You saved my life, and I will repay you. From now on, I will be responsible for watching over you, and if... I will become your first enemy."

He paused when he said "if," and didn't continue, but what he meant was obvious.

But this time, his junior brother unexpectedly did not respond to him.

Just as he turned his head in confusion, he heard a faint snoring sound behind him.

My junior brother is asleep again...

Chu Zihang sighed and lay back down.

He suddenly realized that this direction was directly facing the junior sister he had just met that day.

On another bed not far away, Xia Mi was fast asleep. The curtains were not drawn, and the moonlight shone on her soft hair. The blanket was wrapped all the way to the back of her head, revealing only her delicate little face. Her long eyelashes cast two shadows on her face.

In his entire life, Chu Zihang had never observed a girl sleeping so closely.

A thought struck him; he could count each and every one of the girl's eyelashes as if they were counting time.

He suddenly understood why the girl his junior brother had mentioned said she would count his eyelashes while he was asleep.

Because in front of the person you know best and are closest to, you might not be thinking about touching their face or insisting they tell a story or make a fuss. You might just be looking at their sleeping face and silently feeling the passage of time.

That's right...

There was a familiar aura about Xia Mi.

That wasn't a girl's natural friendliness, but rather a memory deeply imprinted in the sense of smell.

Just like how the scent of gardenias marked spring when we were children.

Just like Jia Baoyu's classic declaration when he first met Lin Daiyu—

"I've seen this girl before!"

Chu Zihang's pupils suddenly dilated, as if he had been enlightened, and his whole body tensed up.

Countless yellowed fragments of memory surged forth, completely overwhelming his mind.

This girl...

He seemed familiar...

……

……

The school's main campus, central control room.

On the long table sat a sealed aluminum box with a courier label from China; the last CC1000 express train before the strike had delivered it here.

Professor Schneider switched on a flashlight with a dark purple glow, inspected the edge of the sealed box, and nodded.

"The seal was intact, the box wasn't opened on the way, and the contents are safe."

"This doesn't need to be sent to the school; just give it to the board of trustees," Manstein said, frowning. "Then we'll have to wait for the board to send someone to pick it up."

"I specifically asked them to send it to us first," Schneider said. "It's safer to open it and check, just to be on the safe side."

He acted immediately, cutting the lock with a "snap".

"Hey! Hey!" Manstein tried to stop him, but it was too late.

Inside the sealed box was a paper bag soaked by rain, which contained several kraft paper document bags stuffed full, each bag filled with A4 paper with handwritten notes.

"It seems that there have been quite a few cases that Chinese police have classified as 'supernatural' in the past few years."

Schneider carefully took out the documents, placed them under an infrared lamp, and dried them while examining them.

"How many of these cases are related to dragons?" Manstein asked.

"99% of them don't matter. Some are committed by mentally ill people, some are caused by ball lightning that leads to houses burning down, and some are simply UFO sightings. The key is the remaining 1%," Schneider said.

"How exactly do you identify them?" Guderian asked.

"We don't screen; that's the Board of Trustees' job. Haven't you noticed? This academy only has an Executive Department, not an Intelligence Department. In the war against the dragons, intelligence is far more important than execution. Finding them is the only way to defeat them. So the Board of Trustees is in charge of intelligence. Even our killing of the 'King of Bronze and Fire' at the Three Gorges Dam was an order from the Board of Trustees. Without the Board of Trustees, we would never have sent the Moniach to the Yangtze River," Schneider shrugged.

"I've heard that the Board of Trustees has a lot of people stationed around the world. They gather information through various channels, essentially forming an intelligence network. Some of them also control several multinational organizations, so basically the college can get support wherever humans can go," Manstein said.

"This is the accumulation of the Secret Society over thousands of years. The Elders' Council is not just a few wise old men; they have power and money," Schneider said.

"This is an 'SS' level document. Do you have the right to access it?" Manstein suddenly asked.

"I don't have the right, but I don't think you'll go out and say it, right?" Schneider shrugged.

"Why wouldn't I tell anyone? Don't forget I'm the chairman of the disciplinary committee. My responsibility is to uphold school rules, and I report directly to the principal and the board of trustees!"

Manstein's eyes widened, his bald head gleaming with anger.

"Don't make it sound like I'm in cahoots with you. You haven't even told us why you did this!"

"Are you aware of the Nibelungen Project?" Schneider asked.

"The Nibelungen Project?" Manstein had heard of this mythical "land of the dead," but he didn't know why Schneider would bring it up at this time.

Schneider handed the prepared envelope to Manstein, saying, "Read it yourself, and you'll know."

Manstein opened the envelope, puzzled. Inside were student resumes, each stamped with a special red lacquer seal.

As he flipped through the resumes one by one, Manstein's expression grew increasingly strange, until finally he stopped.

Stop at "Chen Motong's" resume.

"Why are you flipping through it so fast? I saw Lu Mingfei..." Guderian also craned his neck to look.

"What do these resumes mean?" Manstein asked in a low voice.

"You should be able to see the words on that red seal clearly: 'Dangerous Bloodline.' These students are all considered by the school board to have questionable bloodlines, including your student Chen Motong."

Schneider then pointed to Guderian.

"And your student, Lu Mingfei."

"In the past, the Board of Trustees did not speak on student affairs because the main campus was well controlled by the principal and the Night Watchmen, and every student was under long-term observation. There had never been a case of dangerous individuals infiltrating the campus. But just last month, the Board of Trustees claimed that they needed to re-examine the students' pedigrees for a new key development program, the 'Nibelungen Program,' and these resumes were sent to the Executive Department, where these students were considered to have 'dangerous pedigrees.'"

"My old friends, are you still going to say this has nothing to do with you?"

Guderian shouted, "Impossible! If we're talking about dangerous bloodlines, isn't your student Chu Zihang the most dangerous? But Chu Zihang isn't among them!"

Schneider patiently explained, "I am Chu Zihang's mentor. Even if Chu Zihang is considered to have a 'dangerous lineage,' his resume would not be sent to me. You should understand if you think about it carefully. But both of your students are among them."

"What is the definition of 'suspicious lineage'?" Manstein asked.

Schneider said calmly, "It's just that the bloodline concentration is too high. You know, once the bloodline concentration exceeds the threshold, it will cause the hybrid to gradually turn into a dragon, and then he will become an enemy."

"What methods are available to measure gene proportions?"

"No, we can only rely on analyzing their behavior. So do you understand why the Board of Trustees is so concerned about this file this time? Among the selected students, Chen Motong, Lu Mingfei, and Chu Zihang are all from China!"

"Is this an investigation into their family history?" Manstein whispered.

"Mingfei... he'll be fine! How could he possibly be in danger? He's such a coward!" Guderian stammered.

"Alright, didn't you say he was a walking inspiration?" Manstein shoved him aside, looking at Schneider. "If the board of trustees deems their lineage dangerous... what will the result be?"

Schneider struck a match and lit the film reel of Chu Zihang.

In the acrid smoke, the film gradually melted into the soot.

"You should be very clear about the way the Board of Trustees operates," Schneider said coldly, his iron-gray eyes filled with icy chill.

Manstein trembled, almost groaning, "It's the iron-fisted rule—purge them!"

Schneider said calmly, "They will use 'lobotomy' to deal with them. This surgery is used to control hybrids. After the lobe is removed, the most important 'mental resonance' of the dragon bloodline is severed."

"After the surgery, the patient will be very docile and easy to control, but he will often sit in one place all day muttering to himself like a fool."

Guderian muttered, "Damn it... can I borrow a match?"

Schneider shrugged and said, "Forget about it, don't bother. There's no information about Lu Mingfei in the file. The executive department investigated his past, and it was unremarkable, so mediocre that they thought he was a complete failure. Maybe the board members will suspect that he doesn't have any bloodline at all, and that they recruited the wrong person."

"Mingfei is truly a genius who knows how to protect himself!" Guderian breathed a sigh of relief.

Another match was lit.

The two turned their heads at the same time and saw Manstein lighting another film without any expression on his face.

"Mr. Manstein, the head of the disciplinary committee?" Schneider sneered. "That's not like you."

Manstein ignored him, simply watching indifferently as the film turned to ashes.

Guderian suddenly realized, "I see! It's because of her mother? You had a crush on her mother back then, didn't you? You truly are a remarkable man of deep feeling and loyalty!"

"Damn it! Shut up, that's not true!" Manstein wanted nothing more than to smash this bastard to death with an ashtray.

Schneider quickly began handling the aftermath.

"Wait, you destroyed the paper bag sealed by the Board of Trustees, that's too obvious!" Manstein hissed.

"It's simple. Since hunters stole these documents, they must have taken fragments of them," Schneider said confidently. "That's the truth, and it makes perfect sense!"

Manstein frowned and said, "Their reasons for doing this are insufficient!"

“But they are bad people, and anyone who opposes the Secret Service is a bad person,” Schneider shrugged. “Bad people are capable of anything and don’t need a reason.”

"You truly deserve to be the head of the executive department..." Manstein murmured.

"Thank you for the compliment."