Lu Mingfei: What? They're all real!

Looking at Erii, who was holding up her notebook and eagerly asking, "Where are we going next?", and the girls standing behind the boy who seemed to be emitting black smoke, Genji knew that things were far more complicated than they appeared.

Chapter 154 Why don't I have this face?

The sunlight slowly glided across the high point of the sky until it was almost sinking below the ground, but the girl's enthusiasm for exploring her new world remained undiminished.

She was always curious about everything she saw, from the azure sky above to the asphalt road beneath her feet, she would cast curious glances at everything. Even the fluffy little ducks placed in the shops on the street would catch her eye. She would hold her own little yellow duck in her palm and hold it up to the shop window, carefully comparing it to the duck, and then pull Lu Mingfei next to her to ask why her duck wasn't as fluffy.

Lu Mingfei could only use his limited science and engineering knowledge to explain what rubber was to her. Fortunately, the girl was just curious and thoughtful—in fact, she didn't seem to understand at all. She didn't know what rubber was or what petroleum was, but she was happy to know that someone was now patiently answering her questions.

After nodding, she shifted her attention elsewhere, contentedly pulling the boy beside her along as they continued to stroll through the neighborhood.

However, behind every seemingly perfect life lies a malevolent gaze.

"I'm telling you," Xia, the number one villainous woman, activated [Bewitching Words] again. She nudged Zero beside her and whispered, "I think someone's raising a little loli. She's practically a blank slate. If this keeps up, he's going to kidnap her to a cheap motel tonight!"

Her implication was, "Zero, you should go up and play the role of the second villainous female antagonist to break them up."

"So what do you want to say?" Zero turned his gaze, full of wariness.

She no longer trusted this guy who had tried to betray her several times. Compared to the cunning Xia Mi, her accomplices were all decent people.

The sudden chill in the air made Xia Mi feel awkward. Looking at Ling's completely distrustful eyes, she could only grit her teeth and continue to show off her theories. But now she couldn't deceive this cold-faced and heartless girl anymore. Ling was always icy cold, her face saying, "I'm very angry that you betrayed me!"

Moreover, Zero suddenly revealed a slight sneer and deliberately asked Natsumi in Japanese why she mentioned the small hotel.

Then, others heard this as well.

"A small hotel? A small hotel?" Lu Mingfei suddenly asked twice in front of him, looking quite shocked.

Xia Mi followed the gaze and saw that the girl who always communicated by holding up her notebook was now writing "What kind of place is a small hotel?" She asked Lu Mingfei curiously, while pointing in this direction with her other hand, indicating that she heard it from this side.

"What are you all talking about?" Lu Mingfei turned his head, his face full of shock, wondering why anyone would steer the conversation in this direction.

“She said it.” Zero pointed directly to the culprit. “She said you might kidnap Erii-san to a small hotel tonight.”

She finally found an opportunity to launch a fierce attack, showing no mercy in her backstabbing. Her style was even somewhat like that of Old German, the Russian's opponent, and her attack speed was like a blitzkrieg.

"No, no, I just meant... I need to find a place to stay tonight..." Xia Mi lamented inwardly how the world had become so corrupt, how could people betray each other so easily!

Also, isn't this red-haired girl's hearing a little too good? Are you a Kamaitachi by nature?! You have such high bloodline, is that all you're doing?

Lu Mingfei ignored the girls who were rambling on. He pondered for three seconds, then organized his speech and explained to Erii, "Some people can't go home at night for various reasons, so they need to sleep outside, which is why there are places like small hotels." He avoided mentioning the little things that might happen in small hotels, the little props that might appear, or the little creatures that might appear or die, and only used standard answers to explain the girls' questions.

Fortunately, although the simple-minded girl was always full of questions, she was also only enthusiastic for a short time. After getting the answer, she nodded seriously and then let go of this unimportant matter, continuing to walk forward with a serious and upright attitude.

Xia Mi breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that she hadn't embarrassed herself any more.

But then she felt a little wronged. She had been hitting walls these past two days. First, she made a major mistake that led to Lu Mingfei's wish coming true and him meeting this girl by fate. Then, she tried to shift the blame out of guilt, which backfired, and the credit that should have been hers was taken by Ling...

Now even the hastily assembled team is on the verge of falling apart... Okay, she admits that she betrayed them first, but that was clearly just an internal conflict. How can they fight amongst themselves when there's an external enemy at hand? The policy of "pacifying the internal before dealing with the external" is fundamentally wrong! Wasn't the bald man's lesson tragic enough?

You're such a hopeless case. When the two of us are on the throne, we won't even leave you a spot for Deadpool!

The girl uttered these silent, harsh words with indignation, but could only keep them to herself and let them pass. She looked at the two people in the distance who seemed to be "perfectly matched," and felt a pang of jealousy. She admitted that her previous statement that "a girl who writes her name on a doll must be a control freak" was somewhat biased and contained personal prejudice. But now, she really wanted to write her name on someone's forehead!

She finally understood why those silly female classmates in junior high always liked to read those romance novels about "substitute literature"... It turns out that having a face that people like is so important. Is this kind-hearted guy who can answer eight questions a minute without getting angry at all really the somewhat wicked Lu Mingfei she knew?

As she kept thinking about this, Xia Mi even thought of Chen Motong.

She thought about it carefully and realized that Lu Mingfei's attitude towards Chen Motong was somewhat different. Although he really didn't like Chen Motong from the bottom of his heart, he did show curiosity and concern... From this point of view, this guy had never lied. He really did have extra feelings because of this face...

Damn it, why isn't this face on—

The girl suddenly realized she was acting like a lovesick fool, so she quickly slapped herself to interrupt this stupid thought.

There was no jealousy or any other complicated emotion at all; all her current anxiety was simply because of the White King's legacy! Yes! That's all... She thought to herself, and she comforted herself with that thought... Logically speaking, this Miss Erii was a prop closely related to the White King's legacy, and all his intimate actions were just to deceive this naive girl into trusting him.

Once he gets the key, once the throne is within his grasp, he will definitely kick her aside, he absolutely will!

Humans are humans, and dragons are dragons; they can never become the same kind of beings.

Thinking this, Xia Mi quietly raised her eyes and looked ahead.

The girl gazed at the distant sunset, her long, shimmering eyelashes fluttering. Then she looked away and quietly looked at the boy beside her. Although the world held immense appeal for her, nothing could compare to the boy standing beside her, shrugging and waiting for the traffic light. She smiled softly at him, and the boy, noticing her gaze, turned and returned her smile. The setting sun shone on his profile, making him appear to glow.

I hope so, please, you must succeed... Xia Mi could only pray so pathetically.

Chapter 155: Goodbye means see you later.

"Are we going to a small hotel to sleep next?" Erii asked, holding up her notebook, her eyes blinking with anticipation.

She spent the night under the bridge, squatting next to Lu Mingfei, looking at his face and curiously fiddling with it all night. Although that experience was interesting, she also wanted to try spending the night in other places. She hadn't been back to her room for two days, but she only felt novelty and even more happiness.

To be honest, she has absolutely no desire to go back.

Just as a fish becomes a different animal after it comes ashore, and a bird longs for the sky after it flies out of its cage... a girl who has been confined at home for a long time will feel that her life of the past ten or twenty years has been empty after she finally goes out.

She had never seen so many different kinds of people in a city full of high-rise buildings, nor had she ever seen colorful neon lights. Although it was somewhat different from the world she had imagined, too plain, without monsters or Ultraman falling from the sky, she thought the world was beautiful and she loved being outside.

She enjoys the feeling of wandering the world, unlike being at home where she can only gaze at places she can't touch through a screen or glass. Every breeze, every breath of air here feels new and exciting to her... as does the people she walks with.

In Erii's understanding, the typical story unfolds like this: a mysterious heroine will descend from the sky and land right in the hero's arms, thus sealing their fate. After a journey ends, around episode twelve or thirteen, the two will become the legendary prince and princess who "live happily ever after."

This is exactly what happened to her.

She firmly believed that she had become the protagonist of the story, and the boy before her was the magical character who had fallen from the sky—completely identical, only with the genders reversed. But gender didn't matter at all; the obsessive girl had identified the male protagonist she could trust wholeheartedly, and was certain that he would lead her on a new journey.

We've probably reached the end of the first episode, and the story is about to begin.

But she saw the boy she trusted with all her heart suddenly stop.

"No, we'll take you back," Lu Mingfei replied with a hint of apology.

He always felt a little embarrassed by ambiguous phrases like "going to a cheap hotel to sleep," but when faced with a girl who was so naive that she probably didn't know what might happen in a cheap hotel, he found it hard to show that lewd smile.

The girl stopped in her tracks, and her lighthearted expression turned serious. She blinked blankly, as if she couldn't quite understand the meaning of those words.

"Did my brother say something?" This was the girl's interpretation.

She knew she wasn't allowed outside, a sentiment shared by many, but it was mostly her brother who enforced it, perhaps because he had said something threatening...

"No," Lu Mingfei shook his head in denial.

The girl seemed to understand something in an instant. She suddenly became lost, lowered her head, stood still, and stubbornly remained motionless, expressing her protest.

“I feel very calm now and I won’t hurt anyone,” she wrote, defending herself.

Of all the miracles brought about by this amazing boy, the most incomprehensible yet precious to Erii was the change in her body. She always knew why she couldn't stay outside; she knew she was a monster that would bring destruction, so she preferred to listen to her brother most of the time.

But now it's different. She can clearly feel all of this. The twisted, riotous characteristics in her body have weakened. After the boy in front of her held her hand and did those magical things, she was even allowed to make sounds. Now she is no longer some terrible monster, but just an ordinary girl walking down the street.

This state of mind gave her boundless confidence, and nothing could stop her irrepressible desire to run away from home.

So she didn't understand why she had to be sent home.

"I will be very good." Like a newborn child, she clumsily and babbled in a smooth, singing voice—it was the language of dragons—and she was trying to prove herself in this way.

See, I'm talking now, but nothing bad is happening.

“You’ve always been a good boy.” Lu Mingfei replied in the same way, with the same strange voice, “It’s not your problem, it’s mine. I have to go.”

"Where to?" The girl didn't relax; instead, she became more nervous.

“It’s a very far place. I have to go to school. I’m still a student,” Lu Mingfei said.

Erii suddenly felt that some questions had been answered. In the anime she had watched, there were countless characters with students as the main characters... So Ji-kun was a student. No wonder he was omnipotent and knew everything. It made perfect sense... She thought to herself and then nodded.

Lu Mingfei nodded, thinking to himself that he was right; Erii was indeed a well-behaved girl.

Erii, however, followed suit and expressed her own desire, insisting, "I want to go to school too."

She seems determined to be a little tagalong.

Lu Mingfei quickly shook his head, thinking to himself, "Girl, you really can't go to our school. The moment you step through the school gates, it might trigger a major emergency..."

"Is that not allowed?" she pressed.

"Not for now." Lu Mingfei was good at giving girls hope.

"temporary?"

“Yes, because… because going to school is a difficult thing, it requires a lot of prerequisites, and you’re not ready yet,” Lu Mingfei said. “It’s like piloting a Gundam; not everyone is Amuro Ray, who can get started with zero barriers.”

"..."

"So we have to say goodbye for now," Lu Mingfei concluded.

Then, the girl stopped talking. She didn't doubt Lu Mingfei's words at all; she believed every word he uttered.

She felt uncomfortable in her chest, a dull, aching sensation, a vague sense of unease. She didn't understand why, but she knew it was related to "separation."

She lowered her head and began to write, each stroke slow and deliberate. She didn't really want to write like this, but what else could she do?

Goodbye... It's a difficult word to say, especially after she had just imagined going to those places with everyone around her.

She wrote very slowly, and the more she wrote, the more distressed she felt. The bitterness in her chest grew stronger. Now she suddenly realized that there were no anime series with thirteen episodes, only pumpkin carriages and glass slippers that would all disappear after midnight...

She suddenly didn't want to write anymore, and quietly looked up at Lu Mingfei's face, hoping for some kind of turning point.

Then, Erii realized that he wasn't looking this way at all; he was just looking at his phone and flipping through the calendar.

Then, the girl gradually realized that she had completely fallen into a preconceived notion... He seemed to have no intention of saying "goodbye" at all, and just had other things to do.

Goodbye does not mean never seeing each other again.

Her eyes regained their sparkle.

"Next month, the 25th won't work, it's Thursday, and I think I have an alchemy chemistry class... So the 27th will do, it won't be too rushed for me to come and go..." Lu Mingfei counted the days on his fingers, then suddenly noticed the girl over there. He turned his gaze, blinked, and asked, "Um, what are you writing?"

The girl shook her head and quickly turned to the page in the notebook that said "Goodbye".

"I want to eat five-nut fried rice before I go back, it's delicious." She wrote new words on a brand new page, just a small request before going home.

Because the story isn't over yet, because they'll meet again later, it's just that, like the week between episodes of an anime, we'll have to wait a little while.

Chapter 156 Zero Loves to Tell Little Lies

For some reason, Lu Mingfei always felt that the sunlight in the airport was warm. He felt this way when he set off from his hometown to Kassel, and he felt the same way when he set off from Chicago to Tokyo.

But now that he was leaving Tokyo, he suddenly felt that the sunlight had become pale and unwarm... even though the weather was the same, with the sun high in the sky.

With five hours to go before takeoff, he stared blankly at the sky, sighing occasionally.

Xia Mi was curled up next to him reading a fashion magazine she had bought at the airport, but she couldn't concentrate on it. She kept glancing over at him, and every time she saw him sigh, she felt more and more impatient.

“If you really don’t want to leave, then stay,” she said, leaning closer.

In the past, when she said such things, she would always use an extremely sarcastic tone to mock him, but now it's different. Her voice is light and airy, as if she's afraid that Lu Mingfei will hear it.

Time has passed, and things are different now! Who would have thought that a girl who only existed in imagination would actually exist, and with such a powerful background, even connected to the White Emperor... What a tragic fate.

“Where can I stay if I don’t leave? My little bit of savings is almost gone. If I keep spending like this, I’ll be left with nothing but selling myself,” Lu Mingfei said dejectedly.

"Just because of money? Then you can just borrow some change..." Xia Mi said softly, "Her friends are quite rich, and she just said she's going to have dinner with some friends. Why don't you ask her to help you make a quick buck?"

"You don't need to pay it back? Do you think everyone is like you, spending money without batting an eye? Let me tell you, I will get it all back. If you can't pay it back, you can expect to be forced to sell your own flesh and blood." Lu Mingfei laughed weakly.

"Okay, then you can just go ahead and cut away. Tell me in advance which part you want to cut so I can gain some weight as soon as possible." The girl smiled weakly.

The two of them laughed sinisterly for a long time, like ghosts who had just died.

Xia Mi then broke the awkward atmosphere first, "So, all those things you said to me, like wife, wife and such... do you think you've found them?"

“Uh…” Lu Mingfei looked out at the sky again, pondering for a long time, “Probably… not really… The girl probably doesn’t even understand what marriage or love is, so it wouldn’t make a difference if I told her…”

"Don't worry about her, just tell me your thoughts. If you think it's right, then just work hard..." Xia Mi didn't hear the answer she wanted at all and continued to press for an answer.

“Sigh…” Lu Mingfei just sighed, just like he had sighed many times before.

Xia Mi knew he had been thinking about this all along, but now she was a little happier. His hesitation and entanglement meant he wasn't that enthusiastic. Otherwise, given his initial drive before he set off, he would have stayed and refused to leave!

He certainly didn't think that way.

"Actually, sometimes prophecies, fate, or revelations are not accurate," Xia Mi said, patting the boy's shoulder and offering words of comfort, transforming into a kind and caring older sister.

"is it?"

"That's very inaccurate, you know? Actually, after the old man created us from the elements, he made many wishes for us." Xia Mi scoffed.

She said, “I remember he told me that I would definitely have many, many friends in the future, and if I didn’t, he would create many, many for me, and I would never be lonely. What in the world is more convincing than him? So I believed him, but I waited and waited, and many years and many eras passed, but until he breathed his last, this thing never happened. Prophecies or revelations are inaccurate!”

"He said something like that before?" Lu Mingfei became interested.