Chapter 14: The Distance Between People

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Hearing those words, Nono instinctively recalled the trash talk that Lu Mingfei had taunted her with earlier. Her hand suddenly itched, as if wanting to hit something to ease the irritation. Yet, having received professional training, she refrained from making a move.

“You seem pretty experienced. You must have argued with a lot of people in games, right?” she asked.

“No,” Lu Mingfei shook his head. “I actually don’t like cursing others. I prefer to break their defenses with my gameplay.”

Unless he encountered those clueless, cheating players who liked to flaunt hacks and mock others, only then would he unleash his full firepower with a “bring it on” challenge.

Nono nodded, choosing not to continue discussing games. Instead, she looked at the school, which had grown somewhat deserted after the morning bell, and softly said, “Tell me about your school, Junior Lu.”

Lu Mingfei, secretly sighing over Nono’s lack of connection with his confidant, mentally grumbled that she might as well just downgrade all the facilities of Kassel Academy to a mini or even bankrupt version.

“I haven’t passed your school’s interview yet. Don’t be so quick to call me ‘junior’,” he replied.

That was inevitable.

The red-haired girl thought this to herself but said something else aloud: “What if I do? People need dreams, or else they’re no better than salted fish.”

“Heh, then may I ask, what exactly does your school see in me to overlook my terrible grades and send me an interview invitation?”

Without even considering his past academic records, just by looking at the attitudes of his aunt and teachers, he knew he was still the class underdog.

“I’m not sure,” Nono shrugged. “I’m just a first-year student back home doing tasks on the side for fun.”

She implied she was just slacking off and filling in numbers, unaware of any inside information.

Lu Mingfei didn’t believe a word of it. The girl looked sharp and mischievous, radiating intelligence.

For an ordinary freshman to be entrusted with domestic recruitment tasks by a mentor said a lot.

Either she was exceptionally capable, or she enjoyed the favor of Professor Gudrian.

Either way, she must have knowledge of matters not publicly disclosed.

“You say you’re just back home for fun, so why did you come to Shilan High School early this morning to collect information? That’s hardly the behavior of someone slacking off.”

Nono looked at him like he was an idiot: “I had to help out at the recruitment interview site. After that, I can go wherever I want.”

Lu Mingfei: “…”

Let me note down your student number; I’ll report you for idling during the interview!

This girl was sly and clever, and Lu Mingfei rarely felt he had met an equal opponent.

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“Student Chen…”

“Chen Motong.”

“That name doesn’t fit at all,” Lu Mingfei said, seemingly unaware of politeness. “Have you thought about changing it? Maybe swap Motong for Chitong?”

Unexpectedly, the girl didn’t get angry, but shrugged casually: “Depends on my mood.”

Lu Mingfei nodded thoughtfully. It seemed this girl had no family.

No worries, once the internet is more developed, streaming live will bring an endless stream of ‘family.’

Perhaps due to shared sympathy, Lu Mingfei took his part-time tour guide job seriously.

Half in recollection, half in explanation, he showed Nono around Shilan High School.

He didn’t deliberately avoid the junior high section that left an indelible impression but simply didn’t mention anything related to himself.

Nono didn’t bombard him with questions like a curious child; instead, her gaze occasionally flickered over him, giving off an eerie sense of being thoroughly scrutinized.

Back in the senior grade office, Lu Mingfei prepared to say goodbye.

“Professor Gudrian will be in charge of tomorrow’s interview, right? Since we’re both Chinese, can you share any inside information? Like the interview questions?”

The red-haired girl gave him a sidelong glance: “Chinese don’t trick Chinese.”

Meaning there was none, and even if there were, she wouldn’t break the rules to tell him.

Lu Mingfei snorted twice and left to pack up and prepare to slip away.

Watching his figure disappear into the stairwell, Nono slowly withdrew her gaze.

Just as Lu Mingfei suspected, Nono’s participation in this recruitment task as a freshman was due to her unique abilities.

That ability was an irreplaceable, extraordinary power of observation and reasoning—or profiling.

A method commonly used in criminal psychology, it involves gathering evidence, considering the criminal’s mindset, and recreating information about the culprit.

A skilled profiler can deduce a person’s psychological state merely from their behavior.

From there, they analyze personality, living environment, occupation, upbringing, and more.

Professor Gudrian was Nono’s guardian, and she had connections at Kassel Academy. She knew this recruitment was very likely aimed solely at Lu Mingfei.

After all, the intelligence they’d gathered was extremely detailed, almost covering every aspect of Lu Mingfei’s life.

From his noisy eating habits that his aunt forced him to correct, to his preferred gaming race and tactics, to the fact that the girl he liked already had someone else in mind.

Even the workplace of the parents of the classmate he had beaten in junior high was well documented.

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From those materials, everyone assumed Lu Mingfei was a timid, sensitive, submissive loser who masked his sadness with a sly grin and a spirit of self-deception.

But yesterday, upon receiving Kassel Academy’s interview invitation, he seemed to transform overnight.

Arguing with his aunt, running away from home, venting furiously online... The last one was relatively normal, as toxic players deserve to be punished.

Nono didn’t understand why the academy was so invested in Lu Mingfei, but she was certain no one had noticed he was pretending.

Yes, pretending.

At first, Lu Mingfei did act like one of those foolish boys who try to attract pretty girls with strange words, so much so that Nono didn’t detect anything amiss.

But during their tour of Shilan High School, he gradually shed that forced adolescent and nerdy facade.

When describing the school’s facilities and scenery, there was a faint, almost imperceptible nostalgia in his words, a maturity beyond his years.

Shilan High only has one day off per week, so why did he feel like it had been ages since he last took a day off?

Nono believed he was like a bird long caged, finally returning to nature.

If Lu Mingfei’s bloodline was truly that remarkable.

Then living under the high-pressure environment of school and his aunt’s home for so long had only compounded his sorrow to a staggering degree.

And the appearance of Kassel Academy offered him a chance at liberation.

No fools could join their ranks.

Lu Mingfei had probably already gleaned the truth about the interview through his N96 phone and conversations with Professor Gudrian.

That was why he discreetly gathered all sorts of information about Kassel Academy along the way.

Moreover, Nono always sensed a familiar aura about Lu Mingfei, as if she had met someone similar at Kassel.

Only, that person was even more guarded.

“Too bad. If you had Chu Zihang’s conditions, maybe you wouldn’t have to live such a miserable life.”

Recalling that Norma had mentioned Lu Mingfei had spent a long time browsing information about Chu Zihang at an internet cafe, the red-haired girl sighed inwardly.

The gap between people is sometimes even greater than that between humans and dogs.