Lu Mingfei: What? They're all real!

The girl laughed lightly, but she seemed unfamiliar with smiling, and even when she did smile, it was with restraint.

Lu Mingfei smiled at her too. Although he had been relieved, he started to worry again. He still hoped that this girl with innocent eyes could be happier.

"Let's go." The girl wrote in flowing handwriting that revealed her lighthearted mood, then looked at Lu Mingfei with anticipation.

"Where to?" Lu Mingfei asked.

The girl pointed to a road sign not far away, as if calling out to it. She saw the words "Akihabara" and was now extremely excited.

Lu Mingfei thought to himself that this girl was really too forward; just a few minutes ago she didn't even know his name, yet she was so eager to have him take her out to play...

This doesn't mean, "Since you led me astray, you have to take responsibility for me," does it...?

Thinking this, Lu Mingfei saw her urging words "Hurry up, hurry up" written again. Her free hand pulled his arm, and her feet moved to the ground. She blinked rapidly, full of anticipation.

Lu Mingfei couldn't withstand that kind of gaze.

So the two set off again, this time much slower, no longer running so eagerly. The rising sun slowly illuminated the entire city, its radiance reflected on the glass curtain walls. The girl still looked around curiously, full of a desire to talk, exclaiming "Wow, amazing!" at everything she saw, even a woman riding a bicycle or a primary school student wearing a yellow hat.

Of course, she also praised the boy beside her for being so amazing. Half of her conversation was about him. She said it was amazing that he had carried her so far, and that it was amazing that he knew she couldn't speak. She even thought it was amazing that Lu Mingfei could cross the street.

She was equally curious about the place they were going to, and kept chattering away with questions. Although she remained silent, Lu Mingfei still felt bothered by the noise—her questions were numerous, strange, and even incomprehensible.

"Will Izumi Konata go to Akihabara today?" She was very concerned about this question, so she wrote it twice and added an exclamation mark.

Lu Mingfei could only shake his head. Izumi Konata is the protagonist of the anime "Lucky Star". Even if he went to Akihabara today, he would only go to the Akihabara of the two-dimensional world.

The girl was clearly disappointed, but immediately asked a new question, "Can we travel to Akihabara? What kind of familiar do we have to make a contract with?"

This is a setting from "The Familiar of Zero," where the male protagonist travels through time on his way back from repairing a computer in Akihabara...

Lu Mingfei thought to himself, "So you're a seasoned homebody. If I hadn't met a seasoned homebody like myself, I wouldn't have known what you were talking about."

He looked into the girl's expectant eyes, then shook his head coldly, telling her that the portal would not open today.

Although he really wanted to tell her that people can't actually travel through time, just based on these two questions, he realized... Erii's worldview was flawed.

"What about tomorrow?" Erii asked again, unwilling to give up. She seemed to really want to go to another world.

"No, not at all." Lu Mingfei shook his head. "The Ministry of Culture is cracking down on time travel recently, so it's no longer allowed."

Erii didn't know what the Ministry of Culture was, so she moved on to the next question.

"Will the Digimon be there?" she asked again.

Lu Mingfei shook his head again.

Girl, how many anime have you watched? Lu Mingfei felt like he was about to admit defeat.

"Will there be a Future Gadget Laboratory?" Erii looked like she was about to cry. The last place she mentioned was clearly the one she cared about the most. She was only interested in the previous questions, but she really hoped that this one would exist.

Lu Mingfei exclaimed, "You have great taste! You've even played the newly released *Steins;Gate*! I acknowledge your otaku spirit! But unfortunately, you won't find the Future Gadget Lab—"

He really wanted to tell the girl that, and he also wanted to tell her directly that such a thing didn't exist at all, that both Okabe Rintaro and Makise Kurisu were fictional characters, but looking at the expectant yet fearful look in the girl's eyes...

"They moved away from Akihabara." Lu Mingfei started talking nonsense. "Hououin Kyouma was worried that Kurisu and Mayuri might be in danger again, so he decided to quit being a mad scientist. Now they run a restaurant and become mad chefs."

The girl listened to this nonsense very seriously, and her faint smile revealed her feelings; she was the type of person who liked perfect endings.

Then she held up the notebook in her hand and exclaimed, "Amazing!" She was very satisfied with the perfect result and did not forget to praise Lu Mingfei for knowing such a thing.

Lu Mingfei also felt relieved, at least he didn't see the girl's face show any more discomfort.

He didn't know what kind of environment Erii was in, but he felt that if she had lived in a strange fantasy world since childhood, there was no need to pop those dreamy bubbles in her mind. It seemed to have no meaning other than making her feel disappointed and sad...

"Can we go to their restaurant for a meal?" Erii asked, holding up her notebook again.

Lu Mingfei felt his face twitching.

“Listen, world line shifts are terrifying things, and we can’t be the culprits.” Lu Mingfei continued his nonsense, which was his forte. He whispered to the girl beside him, “So let’s not disturb them and let them live happily.”

Erii nodded seriously, then turned over the page filled with questions. She had the answer to the question, so she felt satisfied. Then, her mood changed again, and she looked forward to the place she was about to go.

"Are there many people in Akihabara?" she asked.

“A lot, a lot,” Lu Mingfei answered truthfully.

The girl stopped writing and closed her notebook. Then she reached out and tightly gripped Lu Mingfei's sleeve, her expression one of great alarm. She was probably afraid of being separated from him by the crowd.

Lu Mingfei turned his wrist and grabbed the girl's forearm. He raised their hands, which were tightly clasped together, and gently shook them to show that this was a secure grip. The girl smiled silently, and he smiled silently too. The rising sun passed over the tall buildings, and its blazing sunlight shone on their faces. The streets gradually filled with traffic and people, turning from tranquility to liveliness.

The two strolled leisurely along the sidewalk.

However, Lu Mingfei vaguely felt that he was being too relaxed, to the point that he seemed to have forgotten about certain people...

Chapter 145 Let's celebrate a birthday!

That year, Akihabara had not yet become a popular tourist destination for socialites. The streets were full of otaku focused on shopping, as well as cosplayers with all sorts of colorful hair.

Compared to her, Erii's originally striking red hair became somewhat inconspicuous. After all, red-haired people are rare in this world, but they do exist. Green and blue hair, theoretically speaking, are unlikely to grow naturally on a person's head.

The vibrant colors of their hair and the bizarre costumes of the crowd made her already somewhat abnormal worldview even more bizarre.

Entering from the entrance of the electronics street, the flow of people is like a flock of sheep being herded, bustling and crowding the space.

The girl held the boy's hand tightly. Now she was less curious and more timid. She had never seen so many people before and was genuinely afraid of being swept away by the crowd. She didn't know the way or where to go. She had never been so far from home before. Only by relying on the hand that was holding her wrist tightly could she feel at ease.

Before he pulled her into his arms, she had been squatting at the first intersection just outside the building. She didn't know where to go or what was there. She was completely lost and could only watch the cars coming and going on the road while she cried.

Although the situation was far more complicated now than it was back then, with so many people that she couldn't even see the road clearly, the boy leading her made her feel at ease. No matter which way she went or how she squeezed into the crowded throng, the boy's hand was held tightly to hers, and nothing would separate them.

She gradually felt at ease.

“So many people.” Erii held up the notebook in her hand.

"Yes, it feels like a holiday—" Lu Mingfei nodded, then realized with surprise that today was a special day. "Right, today is the 25th, it's Christmas!"

No wonder there are people everywhere, Lu Mingfei muttered to himself, vaguely feeling that this day was special, not because Yege was born, but because of some other reason... It seemed that someone's birthday was today.

"Christmas?" Erii was curious about this.

"Don't you know?"

Lu Mingfei thought to himself, "Girl, you really are obsessed with anime all day long and don't learn any serious knowledge. You probably only remember the 'date' part of the rule that the male and female protagonists in anime or games have to go on a date on Christmas..."

“It’s the birthday of some important person,” he explained. “The believers of this person will commemorate and celebrate it today, that is, to celebrate his birthday, that is, something like that.”

The girl nodded slowly, and then, as always, put up a sign that said "Awesome".

"So my brother is a powerful and important person." She suddenly said this.

"Is it your brother's birthday today?" Lu Mingfei had just unlocked information about the new character, but he didn't know that Erii actually had a brother.

Erii nodded, her urge to confide overwhelming, and then quickly wrote down new words: "It's my birthday today too, I guess."

"Probably?" Lu Mingfei asked curiously.

“Because it was set for this day. Because nobody knows what day I was born.” The girl said expressionlessly, as if she were talking about something meaningless. “But we usually eat a cake today, so it’s probably my birthday.”

She probably never properly celebrated her birthday, simply equating cake with birthdays based on her strange knowledge.

Lu Mingfei felt heavy-hearted, both for the girl's heartbreaking experience and for himself. He hadn't properly celebrated his birthday in a long time, as if it had been a lifetime since the last one.

Moreover, he sensed from the girl's words that she probably had never met her parents.

“Let’s celebrate a birthday then,” Lu Mingfei decided. “Today is a rare opportunity, and there’s no time like the present.”

The girl did not respond.

"What does 'birthday' mean?" she asked.

She simply didn't understand what the boy in front of her was saying.

“Birthdays are…” Lu Mingfei was a little embarrassed. He looked into the girl’s eyes, not knowing how to explain this topic to a girl who had no common sense.

She probably doesn't understand why humans have special feelings about the day they were born, even though that day will never come back after it's over. Just like aliens probably wouldn't understand why Earthlings celebrate a planet orbiting a star.

The girl stared at him longingly.

Lu Mingfei exhaled and slumped his shoulders, beginning his characteristic rambling.

He can be frivolous at times, but very serious at others. “It’s about celebrating that we’ve lived another year. Actually, we should celebrate every extra day we live, but that would be too frequent, so we celebrate every year that we’ve lived another year.”

The girl's long eyelashes trembled slightly, and then she suddenly understood everything. She nodded vigorously, as if enlightened, and instantly grasped the meaning.

The ephemeral mushroom knows not the dawn and dusk, the cicada knows not the spring and autumn; the more one lives alongside death, the more one understands that every extra day is worth celebrating.

“Then let’s celebrate my birthday,” the girl awkwardly replied to the suggestion.

Lu Mingfei chuckled and turned to look around. This place was great; there were maid cafes all over the place. He couldn't do anything else, but it was perfect for celebrating a birthday with a cake!

He patted his wallet, planning to invite ten maids to sing "Happy Birthday" today.

……

The two stood at the entrance of the deserted shop, facing several girls dressed as maids, waving enthusiastically.

This is a quiet, secluded spot that Lu Mingfei searched for a long time before finally finding one; it's almost outside Akihabara.

"Is this Einzbern Castle?" Erii asked, holding up her notebook.

"No, it's a coffee shop." Lu Mingfei shook his head. He figured Erii probably knew about maids from Fate...

Girls dressed as maids eagerly surrounded them, ushering them into the shop. Suddenly surrounded by so many laughing and shouting people, Erii was momentarily at a loss. She leaned closer to the boy beside her, tightening her grip on his hand.

"Listen, I want a big cake, a bunch of birthday candles, balloons, and some decorative ribbons." Lu Mingfei ordered in a pretentious manner. He didn't know how to say it properly, so he could only exaggerate his tone.

Anyway, this is Akihabara, a place where girls "cast spells" on omelets before eating, so no one cares about the tone of voice.

"This will take quite a bit of work, sir," the bespectacled maid said, looking troubled.

"I know!" Lu Mingfei waved his hand, took out a large wad of banknotes from his wallet, including not only the Japanese yen he had exchanged after entering the country, but also a large wad of US dollars. He didn't count how much he took out, but generously slammed it all onto the table.

He said, "Also, call all the maids in your shop to gather together, and they'll sing 'Happy Birthday' later."

Lu Mingfei had never actually celebrated his birthday outside. He had only heard about such elaborate celebrations from his cousin Lu Mingze or Zhao Menghua. He didn't know how to celebrate a girl's birthday, so he could only imitate them to make the scene look better.

The bespectacled maid struggled to tear her eyes away from the stacks of banknotes, then hurried towards the kitchen with rapid, quick steps, her hands swaying.

Chapter 146 This world awaits your personal visit

While waiting, Erii asked many more questions. She always seemed to have an endless stream of questions, as if no one was ever willing to answer them for her.

She would ask if she could find ONE PIECE in the sea, if she had to shout "The duel begins" before playing cards, and why the house was rebuilt the next day after each monster was defeated... She couldn't even tell the episode numbers, and just thought that each episode was a story that happened in one day.

Lu Mingfei found it difficult to answer this question, especially since he didn't want the girl to fall into cognitive dissonance, so he could only try his best to make things up.

He would say that Luffy is a really bad guy, he announced to the whole world in advance that anyone who dares to steal ONE PIECE is going against the Straw Hat Pirates, so now everyone has closed the way to the sea, and no one will set sail anymore; he also said that you do have to shout "The duel begins" before playing cards, but only people with good hairstyles can become dueling masters. Girl, although your hair color is very nice, it is not flamboyant enough to become a qualified duelist.

As for why the house could be built the day after the monster was defeated... Lu Mingfei pondered for a moment, then told Erii that it was actually a civil engineering guy from another country in the world who had suddenly become powerful, which was why the progress was so fast.

At this point, Erii's eyes suddenly lit up. She seemed very interested in the concept of "other countries," and the notebook she held up had three identical lines written on it.

She asked, "How many countries are there in the world?"

“Many, many, many,” Lu Mingfei said. “This world is so big, it’s more than three hundred times the size of Japan, and tens of thousands of times the size of Tokyo.”

A look of boundless anticipation crossed the girl's face. She seemed to have never known that the world was so vast. She didn't even have a concept of the size of Japan and Tokyo. Holding up her notebook, she asked Lu Mingfei, "Have we walked through half of Tokyo today?"

"We're still far from it. We might not even have crossed one-thousandth of the distance." Lu Mingfei couldn't help but laugh, but as he laughed, he suddenly felt a pang of sadness.

From this, he realized that the girl seemed to have never left the house, probably not even once.

He now understood why she asked so many strange questions.

Erii's longing grew stronger. She turned to look at the transparent glass door and the vast sky beyond. She gazed at it quietly, then smiled slightly foolishly. She seemed to feel fortunate, fortunate that the world was so vast.

"That's amazing." Her vocabulary wasn't very extensive, but her sentiment was very sincere. "I really want to see more of this world."

Lu Mingfei suddenly felt a tightness in his heart. He thought to himself, "Miss, what you're saying sounds like you have a terminal illness. It's really bad luck to say that!"

“You should say—” He took the girl’s notebook and corrected her wording, crossing out Erii’s handwriting and replacing it with his own crooked Japanese. Lu Mingfei held up the notebook—“I want to see more of this world.”

“That’s how you should put it,” Lu Mingfei said, half-lecturingly. “Since you know the world is so big, you should go and see it properly. You should not only see it with your eyes, but also go there in person. What you see with your eyes is only a part, and what you hear is also superficial. You have to go there, put your feet on the ground, and tell the place that you have been there.”

The girl fell silent, her eyes dimming as she looked in this direction. Perhaps she felt wronged, but she couldn't explain what was in her heart. She gazed into the boy's eyes for a long time, then picked up her paper and pen again and wrote down her response.

“Okay,” she wrote.

But she wrote a command-style phrase, the "hai" that Lu Mingfei always heard in TV dramas. She didn't understand it; she just obeyed his words.

Just then, it suddenly became noisy outside, as if a large group of people had gathered and were talking. The maids also happened to be carrying a cake over, which was decorated with candles, the birthday person's name, and a silly little bear. Although it wasn't very fancy, it made it all the more endearing.

The maids put down the cake, and then a dozen or so people formed a circle, gently clapping and singing the internationally popular "Happy Birthday to You." Few people on this planet haven't heard the birthday song, but Uesugi Erii happens to be one of them.