Chapter 19: An Inauspicious Plan

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“Are you coming to tomorrow’s interview?”

Inside the presidential suite of the Regent Hotel, Ye Sheng was putting the finishing touches on the preparations. Only then did he turn his gaze toward the red-haired girl reclining halfway across the sofa, chatting with someone on her laptop.

“Of course I am. Professor Goodrian already asked me to help. If I caused the two of you to miss your chance at romance, wouldn’t that make me a very discourteous junior?”

Nono paused her typing and cast a mischievous look at the two seniors sitting across the coffee table from each other.

She had realized long ago that there was something going on between them. Unfortunately, they had never admitted it, acting coy and timid as though their little ambiguity would wither if exposed to the light.

“What nonsense are you talking about?” Sakurai Aki glared at her mischievous junior in embarrassment before changing the subject. “You said Lu Mingfei behaved strangely today. Have you figured out why?”

The three of them had divided the work clearly. Sakurai Aki and Ye Sheng were responsible for tomorrow’s interview, while Nono was to determine the deeper meaning behind Lu Mingfei’s actions that day.

Ye Sheng was taking the matter seriously as well. After all, they had another assignment waiting once this one was finished. The last thing they needed was to run into trouble and have to start all over again.

“The people from the Groundskeeping Department followed him around for half the day. Apparently, he was simply wandering about aimlessly.”

“Not necessarily.” Nono closed the chat window and displayed the route map of Lu Mingfei’s movements, drawn by Norma, for the other two to see. “Aside from the old street and the residential district at the beginning, every place Lu Mingfei visited overlapped with some part of Chu Zihang’s past.”

She lightly tapped the red dots marked on the map.

“For example, this youth activity center. According to the rumors, that Lionheart ace learned all his martial skills at the Musashi Kendo Training Center inside. And his family lives in Peacock Mansion, in a huge detached villa.”

“What about the braised-meat shop? Lu Mingfei seemed to have had a brief conversation with the owner.”

Ye Sheng stared at the specialty braised-food shop, which had been highlighted and even furnished with a photograph. He simply could not imagine the cold-blooded killer of Lionheart hacking people apart with a knife in one hand while holding a piece of braised intestine to his mouth with the other.

“That? Someone on Shilan High School’s message board said they had once seen Chu Zihang there. Lu Mingfei may have made the trip specifically because of that. As for what they talked about, the big men from the Groundskeeping Department can’t read lips, and their Chinese isn’t good enough.”

Nono shrugged and brought up a string of browsing records, all posts Lu Mingfei had previously viewed.

“Is he a rabid fan of Chu Zihang?”

Looking at the hundreds of posts centered on Chu Zihang, Sakurai Aki shivered for no apparent reason. It felt as though she had encountered a true fanatic.

She knew that the junior named Chu was extremely popular at Kassel, and that he was practically a legend at Shilan High School.

Still, she had never imagined that a boy who had never interacted with him could worship him so fervently.

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Could it be that this future junior also had a killer hidden inside him?

That couldn’t be. If he really had that kind of temperament, how could he have lived such a stifled life?

“Who knows? He took the day off from school, claiming he was preparing for the interview. Maybe he just wanted to retrace Chu Zihang’s path and borrow a little of his luck.” Nono’s guess was entirely irresponsible.

“Does that count as cramming at the last minute?” Ye Sheng shook his head helplessly. He had a feeling that his eccentric junior had discovered something else but, for some reason, had chosen not to mention it. “He might as well roll a die to choose his answers during the exam, though we don’t have multiple-choice questions.”

Sakurai Aki asked curiously, “What happens if he fails the interview?”

“That isn’t something we need to worry about.” Nono stretched, shifted the laptop back in front of herself, and resumed chatting with the person whose ID was “Sonic.” “Don’t forget—we’re only the interviewers. Whether he passes or not requires Professor Goodrian’s personal approval.”

With that, she glanced at the time in the lower-right corner, rose from the sofa, and carried the computer back to her room.

“All right, it’s getting late. I won’t be a third wheel and disturb your world for two. Good night.”

Ignoring the blushing senior outside, Nono closed the door, tossed her Apple laptop onto the bed, and leaped after it.

“Is that new student really following in Chu Zihang’s footsteps?”

In the chat window, “Sonic” sent another message.

“Anyone who has earned the principal’s attention must have something worthwhile about him. We can’t let him fall into Lionheart’s hands.”

“Chu Zihang’s arrival last year gave Lionheart the strength to contend with us again. Now its president is planning to nominate him as the next president by special exception.”

“If Lu Mingfei really comes to Kassel in the second half of the year, the combination of those two brothers will put the Student Union at a severe disadvantage.”

“Relax. I have a way.” Humming an unknown tune, Nono tapped away at the keyboard.

According to the records, the entire school knew that Lu Mingfei liked Chen Wenwen. The only person unaware of it was Lu Mingfei himself, who willingly and tirelessly showered her with attention.

The reason he persisted in treating her so well was that Chen Wenwen was the only person in the entire school who respected him, was willing to share secrets with him, and had even invited him to join her club—the one.

Whether out of gratitude or some inarticulate infatuation, Lu Mingfei essentially regarded her as the only light to have entered the world in which he had been oppressed for so long.

Chen Wenwen was merely an ordinary person, incapable of bearing the weight of Lu Mingfei’s love.

Of course, she might not have been willing to accept it in the first place.

A literary girl’s tastes might be somewhat unusual, but that did not mean she would seek a worthless, utterly unromantic puppy to accompany her for the rest of her life.

More often than not, it took a man with money, refinement, and shared interests to win her favor.

Chen Wenwen had personally invited only two people: Zhao Menghua and Lu Mingfei.

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Nono carefully examined their records and, along the way, asked Norma to provide a little assistance.

Sure enough, she discovered that Chen Wenwen and the man named Zhao Menghua had been flirting with each other on QQ. Unless something unexpected happened, the two of them were certain to become involved.

It was a pity about Lu Mingfei’s one-sided devotion. The person who had illuminated his entire youth would, in the end, give herself to someone else.

But it did not matter. She had arrived, carrying the key to the Gates of Kassel.

If Chen Wenwen was the only lighthouse in Lu Mingfei’s dim, lightless world, then the moment she fell into another man’s arms, that lighthouse would collapse.

What Nono had to do was become a new lighthouse when Lu Mingfei’s world sank into darkness once more, illuminating the direction in which he should move forward.

And she was a member of the Student Union. Naturally, the direction she showed him would lead only to the Student Union.

“Be careful. Don’t ruin everything.” Sonic clearly knew Nono’s temperament. Sometimes, she acted on a whim and only thought things through afterward.

“You can trust me to handle it.” That was what Nono said, though she was not nearly so confident inside.

If this had been before today—when she had known Lu Mingfei only through his records—she would have guaranteed that her plan would work perfectly, and that she could keep the future junior firmly under her thumb.

But after meeting him in person, she realized that Lu Mingfei was a genius pretending to be clueless.

She had originally thought she could defeat him in the field of which he was most proud and leave an unforgettable impression on him. Instead, she had been beaten senseless.

Only after coming into close contact with him later did she discover how deeply he concealed himself.

What everyone saw was merely what he wanted them to see.

Before this, no one had ever noticed his disguise.

“Norma, is the Literature Club at Shilan High School holding an event tonight?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Lu Mingfei is absent. Did Chen Wenwen send him a message asking about it?”

“No.”

“Can you find out why?”

After a brief silence, Norma replied, “Based on the chat records of the Literature Club group, it can be determined that Lu Mingfei personally refused Chen Wenwen’s invitation.”

Upon seeing the message, Nono knit her brows slightly. A bad feeling began to take shape in her heart.

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