Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from Sekiro

Erii said it was a high-end hotel in the capital, and the cake was made by her and Lu Mingfei together at a craft shop that afternoon.

Then Giovanni noticed that there was a label on the photo with a note written in neat handwriting. Although it was in Japanese, there are many Japanese characters that are similar to Chinese characters. Based on those words, she could basically understand the meaning of the note.

Each photo in the album is labeled with the date it was taken, the weather at the time, and the location. Some photos have a short note added, but most are simple things like, "I had a great day," or "The ice cream was delicious."

Giovanni listened quietly to Erii's recollections; it was rare to hear her say so much.

Erii is usually silent, perhaps out of habit, or perhaps simply because she doesn't like to talk. But today, as she recalls those little moments, she seems to have endless things to say.

After flipping through this photo album, she took out another one.

Giovanni acted as a listener, quietly listening to her description.

She speaks Chinese very well and has no problem with daily communication, but she still has difficulty with word choice and sentence structure.

You could tell she was trying her best to express those happy moments, but her words sounded like a child's.

Qiao Wenni asked her, "When you were with Lu Mingfei, were you never unhappy? He never made you angry, and you never argued even once?"

Erii said no, she was happy doing anything with Sakura.

Giovanni said, "No, it's just that you like him too much. What did he do to make you like him so much?"

Erii said that he has always been with me, whether I am happy or unhappy. In the past, when I was locked in my room and could not go out, he would play games with me and tell me jokes.

She took out her phone, logged into QQ, and opened her chat history with the gray-white profile picture.

The chat history was very long. Qiao Weini swiped her finger up and down the screen, making the chat box spin like a giant wheel. She wanted to scroll to the top to see what Lu Mingfei and Erii's first words were, but she couldn't find the beginning after scrolling for a long time.

I did see a lot of internet jokes posted by Lu Mingfei, most of them were cheesy jokes, some were even really lame, and there were also some weird emojis, like the panda with a lewd expression.

She even saw two people exchanging a series of weird brown, smiling poop messages, completely different from the girly chat history she had imagined.

After reading it, Giovanni said, "Is this how you were tricked into getting him?"

Erii said seriously that she wasn't lying; Sakura was very good to her and never found her annoying.

She spoke very seriously to Qiao Weini about when she first met Lu Mingfei, and their first offline meeting, which was "thrilling" for her.

After listening to her story, Giovanni returned the phone, thinking to herself that this child was really easy to fool.

There was nothing she could do; after all, she had lived such a life of confinement before she turned eighteen.

Giovanni had heard about Tachibana Masamune and Herzog.

Erii was raised as a weapon and has never experienced love.

I heard Genji say that I originally thought Erii had a cold and ruthless personality because her dragon blood was too pure. With such a bloodline, most hybrids would have become bloodthirsty killers long ago. Therefore, the Snake Clan believed that she was closer to dragons both physiologically and psychologically.

The family strictly controls her, treating her as a weapon somewhere between a Deadpool and a human.

She never smiled back then, giving the impression that she was indifferent to everything, and naturally people felt that she had no "love".

Has anyone taught her what love is? Has anyone ever given her love?

No, everyone kept their distance from her from the start, treating her like a monster. Her only world was that boring little room, where she would stare blankly at the wall all day.

It's no wonder she fell for Lu Mingfei. Imagine that in her long life, the people she could come into contact with were either anxious old men like Tachibana Masamune or tortoises with difficulty expressing themselves like Genjiro. How many people had ever treated her as a girl? To put it bluntly, who had ever treated her as a "person"?

This helps you understand how special it is to have someone who tells her jokes, plays games with her, and says good morning and good night to her every day.

But when she actually met "Sakura", her first reaction was fear.

Online, she and "sakura" were good friends, but once they stepped out of the online facade and into reality, she wasn't sure if "sakura" would be so frightened by seeing her true face that she would run away in terror, or if their friendship could still last.

She was terrified, but she still verified her identity with Lu Mingfei, saying that she was Erii from QQ.

After six months of getting to know each other, she chose to trust "Sakura." She bravely took the first step, and only then did the rest of the story unfold.

When Lu Mingfei ran away from home with her, she fell head over heels for him. From that moment on, she was hopelessly in love with Lu Mingfei, and her heart belonged to only one person.

This relationship was full of surprises and coincidences, but it was not irreplaceable.

No matter who it was, anyone who entered Erii's world during that time period could win her heart. It just so happened that the person was Lu Mingfei, and Lu Mingfei responded to her firmly.

Giovanni immediately saw through the true nature of this relationship.

But now, the companionship that Erii wanted most has disappeared.

Jovie sighed and patted her daughter-in-law's head.

Erii suddenly hugged her and buried her head in her chest.

Jovie was taken aback for a moment, then realized what was happening, patted her back, and gently rocked her like she was comforting a child.

Yes, we've been holding it in for almost a year, it's time to let it out.

Even if I can hold back normally, I still cry when I see old photos.

Giovanni didn't say anything more; no amount of comforting words could change the situation.

Erii needed to vent, not to be comforted.

She is stronger than many people; she eats well every day and remembers to maintain a balanced diet.

Every time she came back, she dressed herself up beautifully, ready to welcome back the most important person in her life.

...

January 25, 2012, Lyon, France.

Genjiro wore a black hat and a suit, and carried a bunch of white chrysanthemums as he walked along a cobblestone path.

The roadside was covered in snow, a vast expanse of white.

At the end of the path was an abandoned church, half of its arched doorway collapsed, and the weathered stone bricks were worn rough, with a dense gritty texture on the surface.

He placed the bouquet at the church entrance and closed his eyes in silent tribute.

Today is the day of mourning for his biological father, marking the one-year anniversary of Uesugi Koshi's passing.

Uesugi Koshi's death was not dramatic. After the Chen family battle, his condition quickly worsened, and a day later he was bedridden and sent to the intensive care unit.

He confessed everything he needed to. Before he died, he called his three children over, gave each of them a hug, and kissed their foreheads.

He said that he had done nothing but wrong things in his life, and he deserved to die on the battlefield to atone for his sins. He said the rest was up to you, but you shouldn't put too much pressure on yourselves. When the world ends, at least do what you want to do and don't leave too many regrets.

There seemed to be a lingering regret in his eyes, after all, he hadn't yet held his beloved grandson, nor had he been able to return to his hometown of Lyon to look back on the past.

After his death, his body was taken away by Angers because he said he asked Angers to scatter his ashes in the river of his hometown.

Fallen leaves return to their roots; if you can't go back while alive, at least you want to go back and see them after you're dead.

Genjiro spent three minutes recalling the yakuza emperor who had sold ramen for decades—his father.

Although he spent far less time with Uesugi Koshi than with Tachibana Masamune, he still felt the deep paternal love from Uesugi Koshi and felt sorry for his own father.

Tachibana Masamune... Even to this day, Genjiro still cannot forget that man.

The hypocrite who raised him in his childhood, taught him the philosophy of life, and molded him into a "messenger of justice".

He wondered what it would have been like if Uesugi Kotsushi had raised him when he was young.

He would probably be very happy if he, along with his daughter and Erii, were raised as the children of a ramen chef.

Although they couldn't live a luxurious life just by selling ramen, the three siblings could live under the same roof, and that small, old house must have been very noisy.

Unfortunately, he could only dream about it.

Tachibana Masamune and Uesugi Koshi have both left this world.

He's the eldest in the family now, the big brother, and the big brother has to take on responsibilities.

"Dad, if you're watching, please bless us so we can return safely." He took off his hat and covered the bouquet.

Snowflakes, as fine as goose feathers, drifted down and landed on his long, unkempt hair.

He left along the same route he had come from, crossed the side streets, entered the flat main road, and boarded a bus heading towards the dock.

Two hours later, he stopped at the terminal station.

Only one ship was docked at the pier, an icebreaker, moored in the harbor like a mountain.

This is a nuclear-powered warship, heavy and cold, with soldiers coming and going carrying supplies onto the deck.

Genjiro showed his identification and boarded the ship via the gangway.

The transport trucks carried shells and bullets, sealed in heavy iron boxes, to the warehouse, along with enough food and water for two months.

The ship is about to set sail, its destination being that uninhabited white forbidden zone within the Arctic Circle.

To go to such a place, you must be well prepared.

Genji pushed open the door to the captain's cabin and asked, "How is the situation?"

"The signal was lost. The poles have been moving all these years, and an electromagnetic storm has hit the Arctic Circle, disrupting our signal connection. However, we can confirm that it was a communication signal from the Moniach." The person sitting there operating the computer was Lu Lincheng.

He sat in front of a machine that glowed blue, wearing an earpiece and microphone, his fingers rapidly tapping on the keyboard, numbers flowing through his golden, childlike eyes.

"The Moniach, which disappeared almost two years ago..." Giovanni bit her thumbnail: "What exactly happened on that ship?"

“The signal is too poor. A large portion of the text messages they sent were lost. With Eva’s help, I was only able to decipher a few sentences.” Lu Lincheng: “Moreover, their time alignment is very strange. Eva found their calibration record, dated May 6, 2010.”

“A ship that sailed from the past…” Genji murmured.

"They say they've broken into the Kingdom of Gods, Avalon, Valkyrie... These things must be related to Loki!" Lu Lincheng said with absolute certainty.

Genjiro let out a slow breath: "Taking back the third Gungnir from Loki, that's what we need to do, right?"

“That’s right.” Lu Lincheng nodded.

"When do we leave?" Giovanni asked.

“There are still people rushing tonight,” Lu Lincheng said.

...

Arctic Ocean, Moniach.

Mans looked up, staring blankly at the swarm of dragons that swept past in the aurora.

Under the dazzling aurora, herds of dragons swept by, organized and disciplined, exuding an extremely powerful dragon aura.

They made no stop for the Moniach, seemingly having their own purpose.

"Damn it! Has the world been taken over by dragons? Why are we in 2012?" Mans cursed under his breath, afraid of attracting the attention of the dragons.

With so many pure-blooded dragons, even attracting just one or two would be enough to sink this sturdy warship.