Chapter 33: Senior Susie, Please Go Out With Me

The boy waited quietly for a moment. Seeing Lu Mingfei’s mouth curl into a smirk of amusement, he shook his head and sighed, “Brother, how could you be like this?”

Lu Mingfei’s eyes flickered with interest. He leaned forward, staring straight at the boy, and countered, “What do you think I am like?”

“What should I be like?”

“What do you want me to be like?”

The boy remained silent.

“Brother, it’s time for you to leave.”

Lu Mingfei woke up calmly. Nono was standing over him, slapping his head with enough force to make him dizzy. They were the only two left in the empty examination hall.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t tried to change things, but unfortunately, he held no authority over that dreamscape. Lu Mingfei’s questions had gone unanswered by the boy, but the answer had been in his heart all along. What the boy needed was the sensitive, love-starved, timid, and kind Lu Mingfei.

But the timid Lu Mingfei was still busy playing a "resurrection match" against the Great One down below; given his cowardly nature, it was unlikely he would be coming back anytime soon.

Nono stood with her hands on her slender waist, teasing, “I’m impressed! To sleep that soundly during the 3E exam—are you a pig?”

“Is the exam over?”

“It’s almost lunchtime. The 3E exam has a fixed duration of three hours.”

“Are there surveillance cameras here?”

“Hey! This is an examination hall! What do you think?”

Lu Mingfei felt a bit deflated. He gathered the papers from under his arm and handed them to Nono.

“Mm, let me count,” Nono tallied them up and used a stapler with a sharp *clack*. “Nine answer sheets in total. I’ve stapled them together.”

“Nono, where is your roommate, Su Qian?”

Nono’s beautiful eyebrows furrowed. “What do you want with her?”

“Did you forget that you were exposed by her at the church? I’m worried she might have seen something. I want to sound her out.”

Nono’s expression shifted. “Hey, what are you planning? She’s not the type to leak secrets.”

“Aren’t secrets usually leaked by the people who ‘definitely wouldn’t leak them’?”

“No, you…”

The little witch, usually so insightful, had met her match in Lu Mingfei. She couldn’t gauge his true strength, and she didn’t dare use profiling on him, so she could only rely on her techniques to make shallow observations. No one knew better than Nono, who had been at the scene, about Zhao Menghua’s disappearance. To her, Lu Mingfei was an unprecedented black hole, reeking of a bloody storm.

Seeing Nono’s hesitation, Lu Mingfei comforted her, “I’m not planning anything bad. Why don’t I just go and test the waters first?”

Nono sighed in relief and told him everything. “She should be at the kendo hall in the gymnasium. I don’t know why, but that girl has been harboring some anger these past two days. She’s probably there to vent.”

***

Lu Mingfei walked along the cobblestone path. By the time he reached the gymnasium, there weren’t many people left sweating it out; although there were plenty of exercise enthusiasts at Cassell College, it was close to lunchtime.

The gymnasium housed a specialized kendo hall, wide enough to accommodate a hundred people. The wooden floor was polished to a mirror-like sheen; one had to remove their shoes to step on it. The hanging lights along the ceiling emitted a soft glow, and a piece of calligraphy hung on the front wall featuring a bold, free-spirited character for "Tao." The scorching sunlight filtered through the windows, baking the wooden floor and adding a touch of stuffiness to the hall.

“Hah!”

“Hah!”

The hall was empty, save for a cold female voice accompanied by the sound of heavy strikes echoing from the distance.

Lu Mingfei followed the sound. A girl with sleek, black hair was wielding a wooden sword, striking a dummy repeatedly. The violence granted by her superior bloodline made both the sword and the dummy groan under the strain, yet the girl merely retracted her blade mechanically, reset her stance, and struck again.

Su Qian’s features were not as sharp and flamboyant as Nono’s; her brows and eyes held the soft, gentle beauty typical of Eastern women, reminiscent of an ancient lady-in-waiting. But when she struck, there was nothing delicate about her. With every downward swing, her chest heaved, swaying with the rhythm of her body.

She wore pure white cotton socks, and her loose training gear hid her curvaceous figure. Due to the heat, Lu Mingfei could faintly see tiny beads of sweat on her face and catch a subtle scent of perspiration.

Having stayed at Cassell College for over a day, Lu Mingfei had noticed the stark difference in the culture of the two major student organizations. The Student Union advocated for freedom and individual talent, while the Lionheart Society prioritized adherence to rules and disciplined endurance.

The rigidity and self-discipline of the Lionheart Society were perfectly embodied in Su Qian. Even though Lu Mingfei had walked up to her side, she was so focused on her swordsmanship that she didn’t even spare him a glance.

“Ahem.”

Seeing that Su Qian hadn’t noticed him for a long time, Lu Mingfei spoke up.

“Something the matter, ‘S’-grade?”

Su Qian was neither deaf nor blind; she had known he was there all along. She just hadn’t wanted to speak to him. In her eyes, Lu Mingfei was both cowardly and arrogant. It was one thing to “cheat” with his Spirit, but to deliberately use his bloodline advantage to provoke and humiliate his opponents was truly detestable.

Lu Mingfei saw the coldness in her eyes but wasn’t annoyed. He asked with calm composure, “Practicing here, Senior Su Qian?”

“If you have something to say, say it directly, junior.” Su Qian clearly didn’t want to chat, her face showing signs of impatience. “I’m going to have lunch soon, and I haven’t showered yet.”

“At the top of the church, you saw me and…”

Su Qian’s expression turned even colder. She cut him off firmly, “I have no interest in your affairs with Nono. If there’s nothing else, I’m leaving.”

So, she *had* seen it.

Lu Mingfei thought for a moment. Nono’s marriage to Caesar involved two powerful families; it was best not to conflict with local powers right now. Su Qian’s issue needed to be resolved. As for how… Lu Mingfei had ways to erase memories, but forced deletion was a crude method—draining, ineffective, and prone to rebound. It was better to…

Lu Mingfei appraised the black-haired beauty, whose face was flushed with a healthy glow from her workout. “Do you have a boyfriend, Senior?”

If Su Qian’s expression had been cold as ice before, she now looked at him as if he were a disgusting insect. “Since you’ve already provoked Nono, don’t you dare…”

Lu Mingfei adjusted his hair and collar, flashing a sunny smile.

“In the name of the winner of ‘Freedom Day,’ Senior Su Qian, please go out with me.”