Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei, let them live with regrets for the rest of their lives.

"What do you want to do? I won't let you go to her!" Liu Miaomiao suddenly got angry and broke free from Lu Mingfei's embrace.

She knew that Lu Mingfei went to the red-haired witch because he wanted to make a deal with her, exchanging his precious possession for his hearing.

What is Lu Mingfei's most precious possession?

His hearing?

Or life?

Liu Miaomiao would rather endure the deathly silence herself than let Lu Mingfei suffer the same torment.

The sense of loss and pain brought about by physical defects and disabilities is indescribable, as if a part of the heart is also missing.

Lu Mingfei was about to retort when he saw Liu Miaomiao's tears falling in a steady stream; she was crying.

"..."

“Mingfei,” Liu Miaomiao’s eyes reddened, but her tearful eyes revealed a firm and fierce look. She had anticipated that Lu Mingfei would do something foolish, and she said harshly, “If you die, I will not live alone!”

Lu Mingfei was taken aback, recalling that in the previous simulation scenario, if the simulated subject died, the mission would be considered a failure.

He then thought of his uncle's words, "Why did it have to come to this?" when he was about to move away, and just now he suddenly wanted to say, "Why did it have to come to this?"

He should respect Liu Miaomiao's feelings, instead of treating her as a character in a script and acting arbitrarily, trampling on her feelings.

"...I promised you I wouldn't die so easily."

Lu Mingfei reached out and carefully wiped away the tears from Liu Miaomiao's eyes, then opened his arms and hugged her tightly, ignoring her struggles.

Liu Miaomiao struggled a few times in Lu Mingfei's arms, then buried her face in his shoulder and sobbed softly.

In the sweltering summer heat, cicadas outside the window sing their hearts out, their last summer before death.

A few days later, the first round of the Steinway International competition began, and this year's venue was set to be Chicago.

Lu Mingfei and Liu Miaomiao bought plane tickets and flew to the ocean to this mysterious city.

……

Chapter 101 "My Friends All Like to Call Me Nuonuo"

Lu Mingfei will spend two months in Chicago participating in the first round of the main tournament, the second round of the preliminary round, the third round of the semi-finals, and the final.

In the first round of the main competition, Lu Mingfei changed into a suit carefully selected by Liu Miaomiao and stepped onto the stage.

All eyes were on him, and some people couldn't help but applaud, welcoming a king.

Some people whispered among themselves, thinking that it wasn't a king who had arrived, but rather a district.

The competition uses a 100-point scoring system, with scores given by 7 international professional judges. The highest and lowest scores are discarded, and the average score of the 5 judges is taken.

打分五项：音准与节奏30分、技巧完成度25分、情感叙事性20分、音色处理15分、舞台诠释15分。

On the competition stage, contestants will be given a challenging etude and a piece of their own choice, with a time limit of 10 minutes, which will eliminate 60% of the contestants.

Lu Mingfei chose Chopin's "Op.25 No.11 Winter Wind Etude", which is extremely difficult and most contestants made mistakes when speeding up on this piece.

However, Lu Mingfei's performance was rock-solid, his fast chromatic scales flowed smoothly, and his octaves were perfectly synchronized without a single pause.

When it came to choosing his own piece, Lu Mingfei chose Chopin's "Heroic Polonaise," a piece that is majestic, powerful, and full of energy.

In the end, Lu Mingfei was one of only two players to receive a perfect score in the entire competition, and his score was a full seven points higher than the second place, thus advancing to the second round of the semi-finals.

All doubts and slanders against him vanished under the crushing force of his absolute power.

As Lu Mingfei stood on the stage, the audience applauded and whispered their admiration when the competition ended.

This was a treatment Lu Mingfei had never received before. He was used to being unknown and watching those glamorous people, such as Zhao Menghua and Chu Zihang, enjoy the applause from behind the stage.

Now it was his turn, but he didn't feel much joy. His gaze fell on Liu Miaomiao in the audience, who quietly gave him a thumbs up.

Even after Liu Miaomiao put on her hearing aid, she could still hear his playing.

In the second round of the semi-finals, Lu Mingfei chose Beethoven's Hammerklavier Piano Sonata No. 29, first movement.

This is Beethoven's most difficult sonata; most of his rivals only dared to choose pieces with lower difficulty.

With his superb skills, Lu Mingfei effortlessly mastered the dense polyphony and high-intensity chords, maintaining clear layers and dominating the entire audience.

It's as if Lu Mingfei was destined to be so outstanding and powerful; whether in battle or playing the piano, he will always be the number one, unsurpassable.

In the third round of the semi-finals, only two out of the fifty contestants remained to advance to the finals.

Lu Mingfei had watched Zero's matches, and she was in no way inferior to him in terms of skill, but she lost some points in terms of emotional storytelling.

Lu Mingfei is taking on Liszt's Transcendental Etude No. 12, Avalanche, a piece that severely tests an athlete's endurance and explosive hand power.

This is precisely Lu Mingfei's forte.

He knew nothing about the piano at the seaside resort, and was completely bewildered by Liu Miaomiao's rendition of "Moonlight Sonata".

Today, Lu Mingfei can play piano pieces that would put even professional pianists to shame with ease and skill, and has won first place in international competitions.

Without a doubt, the two players who have entered the finals are Lu Mingfei and Ling.

However, Liu Miaomiao's condition also worsened; even with hearing aids, she needed someone to shout loudly in her ear to hear.

Liu Miaomiao didn't go to the venue to watch Lu Mingfei participate in the semi-finals. Instead, she watched the broadcast at the hotel with the volume turned up to the maximum.

After the semi-finals, Lu Mingfei declined all interviews and took a taxi to find Liu Miaomiao.

However, on the way back to the hotel, a splash of red suddenly appeared in Lu Mingfei's peripheral vision.

Hair as vibrant and clean as a rose is quite rare. Lu Mingfei quickly told the driver to stop the car and got out to chase after the red-haired girl.

He followed the other person all the way to the alley corner.

The red-haired girl turned around, raising an eyebrow: "So, are you going to rob me of my money or my virtue? Your answer will depend on how hard I beat you."

Lu Mingfei looked the red-haired girl up and down; she was a tall and bright-looking girl.

He was wearing a white tank top, covered by a blue striped short-sleeved shirt, and a baseball cap on his head.

She wore a pair of light blue slim-fit jeans and white high-top canvas shoes.

The silver four-leaf clover pendant on her earlobe swayed precariously, its light dazzling. Her long hair was tinged with an extremely deep red.

"Are you the red-haired witch?" Lu Mingfei asked bluntly.

"You have this nickname, so you're here to make a wish too?" the red-haired girl said with a smile.

“About three months ago, a girl named Liu Miaomiao came to you, do you remember? She wished to exchange her hearing for a person in a vegetative state to wake up?” Lu Mingfei asked again.

Upon hearing this, the red-haired girl narrowed her eyes slightly, scrutinized Lu Mingfei carefully, and asked in confusion, "What's your name? You look familiar, like I've seen you somewhere before?"

"My name is Lu Mingfei."

"Lu Mingfei... Oh! I remember now, you were the famous pianist a while ago. So you were the one Liu Miaomiao wished to wake up from."

“It’s good that you remember.” Lu Mingfei stepped forward: “Miss Shrine Maiden, what do you want to restore Miao Miao’s hearing?”

"You've misunderstood. Liu Miaomiao lost more than just her hearing."

"What do you mean?"

"Although I don't understand what kind of being you are, I do understand one thing: the objects of her wishes are extremely difficult to deal with, and the price she pays is far more than just hearing, but her life."

"It seems she lied to you. Right now it's hearing, and after hearing comes sight, taste, smell... step by step, gradually losing all bodily functions, and finally life will be taken away," the red-haired girl said.

"If I kill you, will the curse be lifted?" Lu Mingfei pondered.

"Hey, your eyes are terrifying! I'm innocent." The red-haired girl took a step back. "I just have the ability to transfer wishes, like a middleman. Just because Liu Miaomiao lost her hearing doesn't mean my hearing will become better."

I won't get any benefit at all.

"Then why do you help people who make wishes to you?"

"Because I am a kind-hearted person."

"……to be honest."

"Okay, actually it's interesting. Doing this part-time job allows me to see a lot of interesting people and hear a lot of interesting stories, which keeps my life from being too boring."

"Lu Mingfei, I believe you won't kill me. I'm good at judging people; you're not the kind of person who kills innocent people indiscriminately, and... you also want to make a deal with me, right?" The red-haired girl gave a playful smile.

"I do want to make a deal with you, if it means Miaomiao recovering her health. She lied to me a second time, so I'll lie to her a second time. What do you want?"

"It's not about what I want, but what the magical power acting on me wants."

They said they want your life, but only a quarter of it.

"A very good deal, isn't it? For just a quarter of your life, you can give a girl a full and healthy life," the red-haired girl laughed.

"...What's your name?" Lu Mingfei didn't answer immediately, but asked a seemingly unrelated question.

"Me? My friends all like to call me Nono." Nono shrugged.

"Hmm." Lu Mingfei nodded, looked into the other person's eyes, and asked another question:

"Nono, do you know Lu Mingze?"

Chapter 102 Brotherly Love and Respect, Ansai Waist Drum

"Lu Mingze, who is he?" Nuonuo asked, puzzled.

Lu Mingfei, observing Nuonuo's expression, saw that she didn't seem to be lying, and said, "I thought you were Lu Mingze in disguise, and I was just about to give you a good beating."

"What does your feud with that Lu Mingze have to do with me? Don't drag innocent people into this," Nuonuo retorted, thinking to herself that the dignified King of Piano was actually a violent man, a refined scoundrel.

Lu Mingfei remained silent.

"Mr. Lu, may I leave now?" Nono asked tentatively.

"No, you can't leave." Lu Mingfei raised his hand to stop Nuonuo and said, "You haven't helped me fulfill my wish yet."

Nuonuo covered her forehead. If Yin Yue hadn't felt that he couldn't overpower Lu Mingfei, he would have already made a move.

Her temper wasn't suited to arguing with Lu Mingfei here, and her patience was limited.

Nono gave a forced smile and said, "I've already said, I can't decide the price for achieving a miracle. If you're unwilling to give up a quarter of your life, there's nothing I can do."

"How do you communicate with... the divine power within you?" Lu Mingfei asked.

"A woman's sixth sense? An intuition that seems to come from nowhere?" Nono pinched her chin.