Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from Sekiro

Fingel, dressed in a white hospital gown, huddled under the covers, with plastic rings on his hands and an IV tube inserted into his right wrist, waiting for the clear liquid in the bag to finish being delivered. He was chewing something, and there were many unlabeled candy wrappers in the trash can.

The pale light bulb was reflected in his gray-blue pupils, just like his pale, bloodless skin. Thick blood flowed slowly in his veins, delivering nutrients to his cells.

Suddenly, a knocking sound broke the silence.

Fingel turned his head, propped himself up on the bed with his left hand, and swallowed the food he was chewing.

Lu Mingfei tiptoed into room 201. The hospital needed to be quiet, and this was a public place. Although Finger was staying there, he didn't know if any new patients had checked in.

It seems not; Fingel remains the only patient in the ward.

Before arriving, Lu Mingfei went to the cafeteria and got two beef rib sandwiches and two iced cola, which were the meals Fingel had specifically requested.

Lu Mingfei was carrying two plain black cardboard boxes, which together were about the size of a milk carton, and two cups of iced cola in a plastic bag.

"This thing is too expensive, it costs 100 US dollars each." Lu Mingfei put the box and cola on the cabinet next to him and sat on the stool.

“Then take a look at what’s in it.” Fingel stuck out his tongue and licked his lips. “There’s a whole beef rib in here, selected from top-quality beef from the West Coast. It’s totally worth the price.”

"Come on, all you think about all day is food." Lu Mingfei inserted the straw into the Coke cup, and was about to hand it to Fingel when he suddenly stopped and took the cup back.

"Wait, can you eat this? Don't you have to watch what you eat?" Lu Mingfei looked at the nearly empty IV drip. "Aren't you still getting an IV drip here? Don't make yourself sick by eating these high-calorie foods later."

Lu Mingfei doesn't understand medicine, but who hasn't been sick at some point in their life? Everyone has been to the hospital at some point.

When you have a cold, if you go to a small clinic, the doctor will tell you to avoid spicy food and smoke, etc.

This beef rib sandwich is smoked and grilled. It consists of three slices of fruitwood-smoked bread, a whole large grilled beef rib, some pickles, and a secret sauce. It's a huge portion, and the pieces can't be assembled together. They're scattered in a cardboard box, and the waiter said to put them together when you're ready to eat.

Lu Mingfei didn't think much about it when he bought it, but he realized it when he walked into the hospital.

"Don't worry, I can definitely eat it. My mouth is so bland from eating the medical staff meals these past few days." Fingel skillfully removed the IV tube, lightly pressed it with brown iodine swab, climbed off the bed, and reached for the box.

"Wait, let me ask the doctor." Lu Mingfei grabbed the box first.

"Don't you trust your brother at all?" Fingel asked helplessly as he sat back down on the hospital bed.

"It's precisely because I trust you so much that I had to ask the doctor." Lu Mingfei picked up the white phone that was within easy reach of the hospital bed.

"What kind of logic is that? If you trust me, you should give me that box." Fingel stared longingly, sitting with his back against the wall.

Lu Mingfei didn't reply because the call had already been connected.

"Hello, how can I help you?" A gentle young female voice came from the phone.

"Hello, this is room 201. I'd like to ask if Fingel, who is in bed 1, has any dietary restrictions? Today he asked me to bring him a beef rib sandwich and an iced cola. The beef ribs are smoked and grilled, and the sandwich has pickled cucumbers in it. Is it okay for him to eat this?"

"This...please wait a moment..." The young woman's voice paused for a moment, and the sounds of mouse clicks and keyboard typing could be heard.

“No problem,” she said. “Mr. Fingel is just a little anemic and has no dietary restrictions.”

"Okay, thank you." Lu Mingfei nodded and hung up the phone.

“See, I told you so,” Fingel said, shrugging.

Lu Mingfei rolled his eyes at him and handed him one of the beef rib sandwiches. "By the way, how much longer are you going to stay in the hospital?"

"Soon." Fingel picked up his Coke cup and took a sip. "It should be in a little over a week, then I can come back to be with you."

He opened the cardboard box, pulled out the bone, sandwiched the whole piece of browned, juicy steak between pieces of bread, and then opened his mouth wide to take the first big bite.

The steak was drizzled with a light black sauce, and the smoky and meaty aroma wafted into the nose, making one's mouth water. Lu Mingfei also opened his portion, imitated Fingel, and put together a sandwich, taking a big bite.

The area around my mouth was covered in sauce, and the three slices of bread were just for decoration. All I could taste was the texture of the meat. However, the beef ribs were roasted to perfection. The outer skin was slightly crispy, while the inside was tender and juicy. They were so soft that I could swallow them with just a gentle bite. They weren't dry at all, and the bone was easy to pull out.

According to the waiter, the sandwiches are available in limited quantities each day because the beef ribs are roasted over fruitwood for eighteen hours, and the quantity to be sold must be prepared a day in advance. They are usually sold out after evening classes.

"This tastes really great." Lu Mingfei finished chewing his food and drank his iced cola. "I didn't even know this dish existed; it's not on the cafeteria's menu."

"Don't you even know how many years your brother Finger has been in the academy?" Finger licked the sauce off his mouth. "This is a hidden menu item. Many freshmen have been in the academy for a whole year and don't even know about it because the upperclassmen have bought it all up."

“The students at Kassel College are really rich; that’s $100 a serving,” Lu Mingfei said.

"There are plenty of poor bastards like me. What's the use of just knowing the menu? If you want to eat meat, you still have to rely on my S-class roommate," Fingel flattered.

"Don't give me that crap," Lu Mingfei said. "I've got your bill all in the book. This meal was yours, so it's not on me."

"Brother, please forgive me this time."

Even close brothers should keep clear accounts.

"That's because they're not close enough; they're not as close as the two of us."

"You'll eat me into poverty sooner or later." Lu Mingfei took a bite of steak.

"Hehe." Fingel grinned mischievously.

They ate meat while chatting about this and that.

Thinking back to the day we first met, we were also drinking Coke.

A burly man with disheveled hair ran over shouting "Just one dollar! Just one dollar!" and held out his hand. You thought he hadn't eaten for days and was giving him a coin so he could buy some bread to fill his stomach. But as soon as he got the money, he said, "Thank you, kind person, for giving me money to buy a Coke."

It's amazing that such a crazy guy is your senior and your roommate. It really makes you sigh at the unpredictability of life.

Gradually, the two finished the extra-large sandwiches, leaving only a messy empty box.

Lu Mingfei chewed on the Coke straw, staring at the empty cardboard box. Fingel didn't say anything either, but tore off a tissue and wiped his mouth.

“Old Tang gave me his bank card.” After a long silence, Lu Mingfei said, “The password is 912323. He told me that himself. There is $10632.32 in it, which is probably all his savings.”

"..." Fingel silently picked up the Coke.

"It's probably money he left for our meal. He said he'd treat us to spaghetti at a fancy restaurant in Chicago, the kind with black truffles and caviar," Lu Mingfei said dejectedly.

This was the first time he had told anyone about the bank card.

“He is Norton, the Dragon King.” Fingel looked at his slightly trembling right index finger. “'Old Don't' is just a secondary personality derived from Norton. How could a mere twenty years of life possibly contend with the Dragon King's almost endless memories?”

“But I can’t tell who is Old Tang and who is Norton.” Lu Mingfei said, “We have clearly seen him with our own eyes, played cards with him, and talked on the phone with him. Have you forgotten? You lost 231 yuan to him while playing cards, and you didn’t have the money to pay him back. You could only write an IOU and stick it on your face to pay off the debt, and then take away 31 yuan.”

“Lu Mingfei, it’s best not to have any sympathy for dragons.” Fingel shook his head. “They are creatures completely different from us, and it’s inappropriate to regulate them with human moral standards.”

“Those guys are beasts who worship strength above all else. Wildness and lust fill their souls. In their world, there is only submission or death, only killing and bloodshed.”

"It's like humans and cats. In humans, if children born to the same mother marry and fall in love, it's considered incest. But in cats, it's a very normal thing. Humans take good care of their children, but female cats will even eat their own offspring's embryos after giving birth to supplement their nutrition. And this is not an isolated case; it's very common. If we use human standards to judge a female cat that eats her own children, do you think that's appropriate?"

"The gap between dragons and humans is much greater than the gap between humans and cats. They have their own moral standards and their own set of rules, which are incompatible with the human world and completely contradict the laws that humans understand."

"Either they separate from humans and live alone in another world, living according to their own rules, or they are tamed by humans like kittens and cannot resist. Otherwise, if both coexist in a shared space, one of them will inevitably be violated."

“In the past, when dragons ruled the world, humans were creatures even lower in status than kittens. Our ancestors went through countless struggles and shed countless blood to make humanity stand up. In that dark era, countless people died on the path of slaying dragons, which is why we can spend our youth on campus today.” Fingel continued, “There are contradictions between people, and the relationship between humans and dragons is even more incomprehensible.”

Lu Mingfei lowered his head and remained silent, offering no response.

“Before Norton awakened, his personality wasn’t really a dragon, but a human. Because he thought like a human. But when he awakened, he transformed from a human into a dragon,” Fingel continued. “At that point, he was no longer ‘Old Don.’ You did the right thing. Killing Norton was the right thing to do, because when Norton awakened, ‘Old Don’t’ was killed by Norton.”

“But I didn’t kill him.” Lu Mingfei looked up and met Fingel’s gaze. “He committed suicide, using his own bone spurs to pierce his own heart.”

"Stop lying to yourself," Fingel said coldly. "He is the Dragon King, our enemy."

For the first time, Lu Mingfei saw hatred in those eyes, like a withered rose, thorny and heartbreaking.

Lu Mingfei realized once again that no one can truly empathize with another person.

He had only known Fingel for two weeks. He didn't know Fingel's past, nor did he know why this senior student, who had studied abroad for four years and was downgraded to "F", would hide in a corner.

There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes; everyone sees something different.

"It's getting late, you should get some rest." Lu Mingfei sighed and stood up. "I'll come see you again in a few days. Is there anything else you'd like to eat? I'll bring you some when I come."

"Could you get me some spaghetti?" Fingel said.

"Okay." Lu Mingfei nodded and turned to leave.

Fingel watched his figure disappear until he heard the door close.

He stared at the gray iron gate for a long time, then let out a long sigh.

Lying on the pure white hospital bed, he stretched out his right hand, palm up, covering the white light.

Under the light, the outline of the five fingers was clearly visible, but the index finger was trembling. He clenched his right fist, opened it again, and a second later, the index finger began to tremble uncontrollably once more.

He sat up, squinted his left eye, and placed his left hand in front and his right hand behind, as if he were holding a non-existent sniper rifle.

He made a trigger-pulling motion with his index finger, but before he could finish, he lowered his hands, opened a drawer, took out a round candy, unwrapped the white wrapper, put it in his mouth and chewed it. Then he lay back down on the bed, staring at the pale light bulb.

“Eva, is it worth it?” Fingel asked softly.

The phone next to my pillow vibrated and lit up, displaying a pattern on the screen that looked like an electrocardiogram.

A calm female voice came from the screen, and the graph vibrated with the sound, "Do you regret it? You paid such a heavy price to kill the Dragon King."

"It's just two weeks in bed, what's there to regret?"

"Life is a precious thing that needs to be cherished. Although I am just a personality program, I still hope to see you a little longer in the time I have left."

“I haven’t killed the ‘Crown Prince’ with my own hands yet, how could I die so easily? But perhaps I’m a little tired and need to rest for a while.”

"This is a normal reaction. Your blood sugar level is still very low today. You feel tired and weak all over. Pay attention to replenishing your nutrition. The sugar and 'spirit' in your blood are still being 'annihilated,' and the ratio has only decreased by 0.3."

"There's no way around it, this is the price. Eva, turn off the light for me, I want to sleep."

"Before you go to sleep, you need to be given enough IV fluids to last all night. I will notify the nurse to come and change the special IV bag."

"Go ahead, I'm going to sleep now. Tell the nurse to be quiet and not wake me." He closed his eyes, his breathing weak, and his head sank into the pillow.

At the same time, the lights in the room went out, everything fell into darkness, the light from the phone screen went out, and complete silence descended.

Chapter 125 Everything in Her World

Lu Mingfei returned to his dormitory.

The people next door seemed to be playing video games; I could hear their loud cheers as I passed by.

Zone 1 is a dormitory area exclusively for the Class of 2009 freshmen. The previous year's seniors lived here, and after they graduated, the area became vacant and was assigned to the freshmen.

Fingel stayed here because he had to repeat a year.

When school started, my roommates and I had just met and weren't familiar with each other yet. We greeted each other politely. Now, two weeks later, we've all figured each other out and started to show our true selves, going from being reserved to being overtly flirtatious.

University is different from junior high and high school. Here, you are grouped by dormitory instead of by class. Your roommates are the people you are most familiar with and spend the most time with during your four years of university.

Unlike high school, where you have fixed classrooms and teachers, here you may only have three classes a day, but you have to change classrooms after each class. Even though you have much less class time than in high school, you feel more tired and exhausted. There are a lot of assignments to do, but you have no desire to complete them at all.

Moreover, Kassel operates under a mentorship system, without even class divisions. To date, Lu Mingfei only knows that he and Fingel are students under Professor Guderian; he has never even heard of the others.