Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

"Commander, our squadron has approached the perimeter of the Tokyo Metropolitan Military Warning Zone. We have not obtained flight clearance to enter Tokyo airspace. Please provide instructions on the next course of action." The major walked up to Genjiro and gave a crisp military salute.

Genji took out a folded white card from the inside pocket of his suit and handed it over.

"Here are the coordinates. Give them to the pilot. Land the cargo at these coordinates."

The major took the card, unfolded it, glanced at it, and then hesitated for a moment.

He turned his head and looked out the porthole at the lush green mountains below in the rain. The primeval forest, stretching for millions of hectares, undulated and rolled along the mountainside. Dense beech, red pine and five-needle pine grew in layers and intertwined in the torrential rain, like an endless dark green blanket covering the entire surface of the Guandong Mountains.

Slender weeping cherry trees cluster along the highest ridgeline, their delicate branches fluttering in the downpour.

As seen on the map, this entire mountain forest is a government-designated nature reserve. The dense forest makes even building a small path into the mountains extremely difficult. The old mountain people, who have been gathering wild vegetables and hunting for generations, are unwilling to settle in this area, let alone have any public facilities. Although it is not far from the western suburbs of Tokyo, it is essentially a no-man's-land that modern civilization has never set foot in.

The order given to him by the commander was to unload that enormous thing, which he didn't even know what it was, in this place.

"Commander, we have flown to the vicinity of the coordinates, but there does not appear to be any airport or other ground facilities below for landing or unloading," the major reported truthfully.

"The target is that mountain and lake directly ahead. Order the formation to hover directly above the mountain and lake," Yuan Zhisheng said.

The major looked out the window again. Between two steep mountain ridges, a turquoise lake was prominently displayed amidst the torrential rain.

The water surface is not large, less than one square kilometer by sight. The water color is a breathtaking emerald green, like a piece of jade left behind deep in the mountains, without a single flaw.

Wild weeping cherry blossoms and beech trees grew abundantly along the lakeshore. Pink petals and verdant beech leaves, knocked down by the rain, gently drifted onto the water's surface, which was so smooth that not a ripple could be seen. So much rain pelted down, yet it seemed as if the entire lake had silently swallowed it up.

"We have reached directly above the mountain lake and are hovering stably. Please give us your next instructions, Commander," the major said.

"Prepare to unload." Yuan Zhisheng got up and walked to the half-open cabin door. The torrential rain poured into the cabin and soaked his black suit, but he didn't even frown.

"But there's water below... are we just going to throw the cargo directly into the lake?" The major didn't understand.

In his entire understanding of military common sense, a giant shipping container thrown into a bottomless mountain lake meant that it had no chance of being recovered by conventional means in the foreseeable future.

"The water surface?" Yuan Zhisheng reached out and pressed the major's shoulder, drawing his gaze to the emerald-like lake below. "Major, don't you think something's wrong? In this stormy weather, the lake should be surging with waves, but the surface is abnormally flat, not even a ripple in the downpour. It should be like the ocean today, with white waves surging up in this wind."

A deafening roar surged up from the deepest part of the mountain lake, as if a giant beast that had been dormant for thousands of years was turning over somewhere underground.

An incredible sight suddenly tore open directly beneath the formation: the eerily calm, emerald-green lake had split open right from the center.

The lake, covered with cherry blossom petals and fallen beech leaves, was split in two by an invisible force, and the dark crack between the two pieces of water grew wider and deeper.

Water cascaded down from the edge of the fissure, creating a roar like a waterfall, as if the water of the entire mountain lake was rushing back into the suddenly opened fissure in the earth.

A giant metal turbine, tens of meters in diameter, slowly rose from the depths of the lake. Then a second, a third, and a dozen more equally massive turbines rose in succession along a perfect circle. Heavy rain pounded against the turbines' thick blades, and the huge impellers slowly spun under the impact of the rain, stirring up the heavy, humid air in the valley.

Dark red navigation lights then lit up one after another around the turbine assembly, flickering in the rain. In the very center of the illumination, a massive engineering platform, large enough to accommodate the take-off, landing, and unloading of heavy construction machinery, sat steadily at the very center of the ring-shaped matrix formed by the turbine assembly.

The major stared wide-eyed at the scene below, a sight that seemed straight out of a science fiction movie, his mouth agape, unable to close.

"The project was codenamed G-Cans, and was secretly named 'Iron Dome Temple' during its internal development. In publicly released documents, it is referred to as the 'New Tokyo Metropolitan Water System'. What you see now is its core component—the No. 13 water storage well, which is built in the deep bedrock between two mountains, with a vertical depth of 120 meters and a total water storage capacity equivalent to a medium-sized underground reservoir."

"Its main function is to regulate the groundwater level in the Kanto Mountains, preventing excessive groundwater and mountain runoff from rushing into Tokyo during the rainy season and causing widespread flooding in the capital's economic zone. The layer of water you just saw in the sky is just its upper camouflage; the real water is much deeper underground, about twenty meters below these turbines in front of you. This is the fundamental guarantee that a city will not become a perpetually flooded city like Venice," Genji said slowly, the strong wind blowing his black hair upside down.

"A miracle!" the major exclaimed sincerely, momentarily forgetting the etiquette between superiors and subordinates, leaning out halfway to get a better look at the engineering marvel that had been carved out of the mountainside.

"We are the designers of the Iron Dome, the Gianryu Research Institute, and the builders, the Maruyama Construction Company. Given the recent persistent abnormal weather and rainfall levels far exceeding the original design standards, we need to carry out emergency reinforcement work on the No. 13 water storage well to improve its overload performance. This is the approval document personally signed by the Chief Cabinet Secretary. Please check it and then immediately arrange for personnel to unload the cargo onto the engineering platform in the center of the turbine assembly."

Genji handed the major an official document bearing the formal title of the Cabinet and the seal of the Chief Cabinet Secretary.

"Yes, sir! Execute immediately!" The major snapped his heels together and gave Yuan Zhisheng a military salute.

Chapter 812 Vigilance

Lu Mingfei realized that something was wrong with his life.

So many good things kept falling on him, Frilian, and Erii, it was like being covered by ten thousand umbrellas at the same time during a downpour, with not a drop of rain touching their shoulders.

It seemed like everyone in Tokyo was trying their best to bring him and Erii together. From street artists to monks interpreting fortunes at temples, from cashiers at convenience stores who stuffed an extra box of strawberry candies into their bags to shop managers at dessert shops who insisted on giving them a discount, everyone looked at them as if they were a newlywed couple who had just had their wedding at Meiji Shrine and hadn't even had time to change out of their wedding attire.

He took Erii to visit Senso-ji Temple. Frilian followed at a distance, holding a box of soy sauce dumplings she had bought from a roadside stall, eating them slowly.

Erii wore a newly bought blue-purple princess dress and a beige wide-brimmed sun hat that Frilian had picked out for her. The brim was adorned with a small cluster of white silk flowers, and the shadow of the brim fell perfectly on her quiet eyes.

I bumped into a street photographer with a camera on the street, and exaggeratedly jumped in front of them.

The man had a meticulously trimmed mustache, his beret tilted to one side, and he scanned Lu Mingfei and Erii from head to toe several times with burning eyes, as if he wanted to weld them together on the spot.

"Sir! Madam! May I take a picture of you two? You two together are the only light in this rainy day! I've been taking portraits for twenty years and I've never seen such a perfect couple! Please grant me this small request!" The photographer spoke so fast that he didn't give anyone a chance to interrupt.

Lu Mingfei thought to himself, "I've heard your polite words at least ten times on the street. The professional rhetoric of you Tokyo street artists is not much different from that of the uncle selling roasted sweet potatoes outside our Shilan Middle School. They both praise you to the skies first and then try to get you to open your wallet."

But seeing the mustachioed man's sincere face, almost to the point of tears, and considering that he did indeed have the cash that Chu Zihang and Caesar had given him, helping out his international friend's business wasn't a big problem.

He initially thought he was just going to raise his camera and snap a Polaroid photo, but the mustachioed photographer took two steps back with a serious expression and dragged a huge canvas out of the van parked under the shade of a tree, setting it up on the easel.

The canvas was two meters high and one meter wide, made of pure linen, so white it was dazzling, and the edges were neatly sealed with masking tape.

Then he took out three paintbrushes from his bag, put one in his mouth, held one in each hand, and dipped them into three different areas of paint at the same time. Then he made three strokes at the same time, and his brushes flew across the canvas.

Tourists from all over the street gathered around to watch, taking pictures of him and the canvas with their phones. Some people whispered among themselves, pointing at Lu Mingfei and Erii from time to time, causing Erii to instinctively hide half an inch behind Lu Mingfei.

Frillie stood on the outer edge of the crowd, biting into the remaining dumpling while writing two words in the air for the stunned Lu Mingfei.

Lu Mingfei, covered in cold sweat, watched the word "light" slowly fade away, unsure whether to nod or shake his head.

A full ten minutes passed before the painting was finished.

When Lu Mingfei walked around to the front of the easel and took a look, he almost shattered into stone on the spot. This painting should be titled "Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and Empress Sisi".

In the painting, he himself is wearing a German nobleman's military uniform with gold trim, with a glittering star medal pinned to his chest, and his left hand resting on the sword at his waist; Erii next to him is wearing a Viennese court-style low-cut dress with a crinoline, the skirt of which has three layers of pleats at the back, and a string of pearls around her neck.

The backdrop is St. Paul's Cathedral in London, with its towering dome, booming cannons, and countless white doves fluttering in the air, as if the two had just held their wedding of the century there, receiving the fervent blessings of millions of subjects, and were now walking hand in hand out of the cathedral's doors.

"You're fucking trying to extort me! How much do you want for such a big painting?" Lu Mingfei's voice suddenly rose. He pointed to his face, which had been so heavily beautified by the painter that it almost looked fraudulent. "Besides, your painting isn't realistic at all! I'm not that handsome! I can't pay for this painting!"

“I didn’t intend to charge you. This is art, and we artists are meant to dedicate ourselves to art. Talking about money is vulgar.” The mustachioed painter took the paintbrush out of his mouth, flicked his already thinning hair, and his shiny forehead gleamed under the streetlights. “This painting is indeed a bit too big, and it’s inconvenient for you to carry it with you. So, I’ll mail it back to your home. Just leave your address.”

Frillie stood behind the easel and quietly looked at the royal wedding-themed oil painting that exuded a strong light and an extravagant atmosphere from head to toe. She then reached out and wrote a few words in the air.

Looking at the line of light words flowing from her fingertips, Lu Mingfei felt that Frilian probably saw everything more clearly than he did.

This time it was his turn to feel embarrassed, and he had no choice but to bite the bullet and write down the college's address.

Sending it to the United States would probably cost half the painting's life in shipping costs, but he doesn't have to pay for the shipping anyway.

The painter carefully rolled up the enormous painting and put it into a rather high-end-looking aluminum alloy tube. A little assistant, who seemed to appear out of nowhere, took the tube, affixed a pre-filled FedEx international express address label, and then dashed off to the nearest post office.

As Lu Mingfei and Erii walked side by side out of the bustling street in front of Senso-ji Temple, they realized they hadn't even paid the postage. They felt a strange sense of guilt towards the Japanese street artist who was willing to pay for international express delivery for his art.

Frillie walked behind them. She always kept a hand's breadth away now, silent and still, her eyes revealing no emotion toward the painter or the farce.

Lu Mingfei turned to look at her, she looked back at him, and then reached out and wrote a word in the air.

Lu Mingfei suddenly wanted to write something in response to her, but he didn't know magic and couldn't turn his words into light like she did.

After wandering around Senso-ji Temple twice, seeing the large red lantern at Kaminarimon Gate and the giant straw sandals under Nitenmon Gate, a bald monk in a gray robe mysteriously crept up from behind a pillar, put his hands together, and asked in a low voice, "Would you like to draw a fortune stick, sir? It's free."

Lu Mingfei's vigilance instantly spiked, thinking to himself, "I'm going to be stuck with you kind-hearted people today."

Just as he was about to shake his head and say no, the monk shrugged his shoulders and blocked his way with the agility of a judo athlete, then clasped his hands together again.

"Benefactor! It really is free!" The monk's eyes widened, filled with sincere bloodshot veins.

"Is drawing a fortune stick free, and interpreting it free too?" Lu Mingfei asked with a crooked mouth.

The monk was struck where it hurt by those words. He scratched his bald head for a while, the sweat on his forehead glistening in the light, then suddenly slapped his forehead: "We have Chinese fortune slips! No need to interpret them!"

"Chinese name for the visa? You Japanese temples have Chinese name for visas?" Lu Mingfei was stunned; he really hadn't expected this detail.

Having spent so many days in Tokyo, he had seen English menus and Chinese shopping guides, but Chinese fortune slips in temples were something he had never heard of before.

"Then I'll try one."

The monk happily brought over the divination stick container. The container was carved from a single piece of old bamboo root, smooth and shiny, with dozens of bamboo sticks inserted diagonally inside.

Lu Mingfei casually picked one out, and sure enough, it was a Chinese fortune slip with neat Song typeface characters printed on it: "White clouds after the rain, secluded birds chasing each other."

The explanation is also printed next to it, which is equally concise and clear, as straightforward as if the answer was copied next to the question: "Spring is in the air, auspicious clouds are high, human feelings are harmonious, and people are happy and content."

The three characters at the very top are the largest, darkest, and most understandable even without any knowledge of classical Chinese—"Top Fortune"!

Lu Mingfei thought to himself, "What the hell is this all about?"

Other temples at least write a few lines of incomprehensible ancient poems with allusions and metaphors when drawing lots, and then have an old monk spend a long time interpreting them. But you go and directly print "This is a very auspicious lot, good fortune, congratulations on getting rich, and a happy marriage" on the bamboo sticks, skipping even the most money-making process of interpreting the lot.

Can't you be a little more subtle? A little subtlety is much more appealing!

The Japanese monk then pulled a handkerchief from his robe sleeve and wiped the sweat from his bald head with a look of grievance: "Look, look, does this fortune even need interpretation? Anyone can understand it, right? I'm really not a fraud; I just thought the two of you walking together looked like a beautiful sight—"

“You’re in cahoots with that painter outside, aren’t you?” Lu Mingfei interrupted him. “He’s already said that line.”

"No, no, we belong to two different groups—", the monk said, then covered his mouth halfway through his sentence.

"Look at you, look at you, you've been exposed! Tell me! Who sent you?" Lu Mingfei said, hands on his hips.

The Japanese monk's expression went through four distinct stages in just a few seconds: astonishment, panic, resignation, and despair. Finally, he clasped his hands together, closed his eyes, and said, "A monk does not lie."

What does "not telling lies" mean?

“I can’t lie. But I can’t tell you who that person is either. So I’m not going to confess!” The monk straightened his back, adopting a fearless expression as if he were ready to die for his faith at any moment.

Lu Mingfei immediately took out his phone and sent a text message to Lu Mingze: "Are you kidding me?"

Lu Mingze's reply came faster than a second, as if that bastard wasn't on vacation on the beach in Rio de Janeiro at all, but was squatting under a cell phone tower 24/7 waiting for his text message: "How could that be? I was just worried that you and the head of the Uesugi family would get too bored, so I was just trying to find some fun for you two."

"Are you trying to amuse me or yourself? If you really want me to have some fun, bring me some good food."

"Heaven and earth bear witness to my conscience! How did you end up eating Oni Kinbo's abalone ramen last night? With such a torrential downpour last night, all the food delivery companies in Tokyo were shut down, but I still sent a special person and car to deliver it to your love hotel. Our best account managers are secretly caring for their clients' growth!"

"Stop playing around, okay? If you keep going like this, you'll drive me to my death one day!"

"As a devilish account manager, my KPI is to exchange your entire soul. You could say my job is to play you to death. Brother, are you going to make me lose my job if you don't let me play? Waaaaah."

"Screw you! Put all these ridiculous tricks away! Delivery service is fine, but everything else get the hell out of here!"

"So, taxi hailing services and store discount services will also be canceled?"

"You may have."

"Then there's nothing to cancel. I just called a car for you, delivered some takeout, and got some discounts from the stores. I didn't do anything else. Did I force you to chase after the head of the Uesugi family? Did I send burly men to tie you up and force you to get married? Brother, you used to play the victim with me when you didn't have any girls to date. Now that I'm doing everything I can to bring girls to your door, you complain that I'm meddling. Sigh, it's really hard being a devil."

Lu Mingfei stared at the text message and remained silent for a long time.

Lu Mingze was probably not lying; he really didn't force him to do anything.

But when you walk on the stone-paved streets of Senso-ji Temple, even the bald monks will protect your dream of finding a partner, and when the mustachioed painter is willing to pay for the postage just to paint a wedding portrait that you can hang on your dormitory wall and look up at, it's hard not to wonder if you've become a live broadcast program being secretly watched.