Chapter 28: Nono, the Organization Has a Mission for You
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“What? You’re saying the S-rank candidate turned us down?”
That night, Nono was still chatting with “Sonic,” her slender fingers tapping lightly across the keyboard.
“Yeah. He declined Professor Guderian’s invitation, and he even rejected my friend request.”
Although Lu Mingfei had never said it outright, Nono had seen at a glance that he had no intention of joining Cassell College. After all, he had already chosen the path he wanted to take in the future.
After breakfast, she told the professors her deductions.
By noon, Lu Mingfei’s former employer—the esports club where he had gone for his trial—received a purchase offer.
As far as Cassell College was concerned, any problem that could be solved with money was not a problem at all.
From the fact that the club owner had personally gone out to seek sponsorship, it was obvious that he was no rich kid playing at business.
After completing a background check, Norma discovered that he was merely an older young man who loved gaming and had staked his entire fortune on it.
So when the club owner saw the long string of zeroes on the offer sheet, he was utterly bewildered.
They were nothing more than a tiny amateur outfit with no real achievements, one that mainly played internet-café tournaments around the city.
They were not even ranked within the province, let alone the country. How could anyone possibly have taken an interest in them and been willing to buy them?
Even if the buyer had come for that genius teenager named Lu Mingfei, he had not yet signed a contract, much less established any market value.
On one side was a dream that seemed impossible to achieve; on the other was wealth within easy reach. After a long period of hesitation, the club owner ultimately chose Lu Mingfei.
He firmly believed that the boy who had come alone to try out was the heaven-appointed Chinese prodigy destined to take Chinese StarCraft to the summit of the world.
“Impressive.”
After hearing the story, Sonic replied with only those two words before asking:
“What about your plan? How are the preparations going?”
Nono switched out of the friend-request window and saw that her request had been accepted. Full of confidence, she replied, “Wait for my good news!”
With that, she looked at Big-Headed Bear, who had once again become her friend, and sent him a message:
“Why did you change your name? You used to be Mingming, and now you’re Sakura. You’re sounding more and more like a girl.”
“I felt like it.”
The person on the other side of the screen had no intention of explaining himself.
“You’re so good at StarCraft. Have you ever considered going pro?” Nono began probing.
“None of your business.”
Lu Mingfei had used a joke that was ten years ahead of its time.
Nono, however, misunderstood him and teased, “You didn’t make a single typo when you were cursing at people before.”
“Mind your own business.”
“You’re no fun at all. Come on, tell Big Sister—what’s making you hesitate?” Nono tried to play the role of a sympathetic older sister. “Are you dreaming of becoming an esports player and making a name for yourself, or can you not bear to leave that girl named Chen Wenwen?”
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“?”
Lu Mingfei had originally intended to tell this greasy senior sister to get lost, but after reading that message, he slowly typed out a question mark. He could not understand what any of this had to do with that girl who liked dandelions.
“Don’t be so surprised. We take you more seriously than you imagine.” Nono curled her lips into a smile that was both beautiful and wicked. “If you want to know what Chen Wenwen is thinking, or what she really thinks of you, I can tell you that too.”
“Say more. I’m taking screenshots. I’ll go report you to the police afterward.”
Lu Mingfei restrained his urge to make another joke.
“You’d better think carefully. The Gate of Cassell will open only once. If you miss it, there really won’t be any medicine for regret.”
Nono tried to make Lu Mingfei understand how important this was.
In the space of only a few days, her impression of Lu Mingfei had been overturned again and again.
He still loved spouting nonsense, of course, but he no longer deliberately avoided other people’s gazes. And when he occasionally smiled, there was a hard-to-describe pressure about him.
Most of all, his attitude of indifference toward everyone and everything proved that beneath the cowardly disguise lay a heart that was immensely confident—perhaps even somewhat arrogant.
“Instead of worrying about that, why don’t you ask Professor Guderian whether he’s managed to arrange a meeting between me and Chu Zihang?”
“I’m arranging it, I’m arranging it. It just takes time.” Nono felt as though she were talking to a slippery loach. “You’re so interested in him, so why don’t you come to Cassell College and meet him yourself? Could it be that you’re like Lord Ye admiring a dragon—brave enough to idolize him online, but too frightened to face him in person?”
“Are you the human version of a hundred thousand whys?” Lu Mingfei yawned. “My phone’s out of power. Bye.”
After sending the message, he immediately switched to invisible mode and silently lurked in various group chats.
Old Tang was still active in the gaming group, excitedly talking about the possibility of meeting him in person someday.
The class group was lively too, with everyone talking about their ambitions and declaring which universities they intended to enter.
As for the literary society, it was deathly quiet. Every day, the lurkers came back to life only when Chen Wenwen appeared.
By coincidence, Chen Wenwen suddenly surfaced at that very moment and proposed that the literary society hold a graduation gathering before everyone left school.
Instantly, the group erupted with excitement, and countless people responded.
Even Su Xiaoqiang appeared, saying that she had been trying to lose weight lately and did not want to go out for a meal.
At first, Lu Mingfei had been shocked to discover that she was in the group at all. The Little Goddess had actually deigned to join her rival’s stronghold.
Of course, he knew she had not come to join them. She had come to cause trouble—to abduct the society president’s wife, Zhao Menghua, and take her back to the mining site to become the Mine Lady.
Still, it was quite a wonder.
What? In the previous timeline, she and her even more powerful rival had both belonged to the Go-Straight-Home Club?
In that case, never mind.
“Instead of going out for dinner, why don’t we rent a small cinema and watch a movie?” Chen Wenwen called it a suggestion, but it was practically an announcement, since every male member of the group would blindly agree.
And besides, Lu Mingfei enjoyed watching this sort of grand online display of courtship and mating behavior.
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The movie was settled: they would go see *WALL-E*.
The Little Goddess spent lavishly, renting the entire theater and buying popcorn and soda for everyone.
Lu Mingfei’s desire to mooch some snacks began to stir, but he did not want to go to the movies with a bunch of little brats.
He was just about to leave the group chat when Chen Wenwen suddenly mentioned him:
“Lu Mingfei, come buy the tickets with me. Everyone can give the money to Lu Mingfei.”
Only then did he belatedly remember that he still held a position as an officer of the literary society.
It sounded impressive, but in reality he was nothing more than an errand boy.
Seriously, what made you think I was qualified to run errands for you?
He replied decisively:
“Busy. Not going.”
The bluntness of his refusal left nearly everyone stunned. After he sent the message, the literary-society chat fell into a brief conversational vacuum.
This time, after all, they had not asked him to run the errand alone. Chen Wenwen would be going with him to buy the tickets!
No boy in the entire class would have let such an honor pass him by.
And as for Lu Mingfei—putting it harshly, even the stray dogs wandering past Shilan High School knew that he had a crush on Chen Wenwen.
How could he? How dare he? How could he possibly refuse?
While everyone was still reeling from his astonishing feat, the only person immune to Chen Wenwen’s charms spoke up.
Su Xiaoqiang: “Did you pass the interview?”
The Little Goddess was actually very sharp. She had immediately connected his absence from class that day with the interview he had attended the day before.
The others were even more astonished. Cassell College—the school that had rejected three campus belles, as well as Zhao Menghua, the class leader—had actually taken an interest in Lu Mingfei, that walking disaster?
Was Heaven blind, or had the examiners been judging people with their backsides?
Everyone waited for Lu Mingfei to answer. Yet that sly, mean-spirited fellow simply went offline, provoking another wave of condemnation in the group.
In the end, the task of buying tickets with the society president fell to Young Master Zhao.
At the same time, after using Nono and tossing her aside, the others summoned her to the outer room of the presidential suite.
Professor Guderian, Ye Sheng, and Jiu De Yaji wore solemn expressions as they stared at a freshly printed document lying on the coffee table.
“Nono, we have a new mission. I’ll leave Lu Mingfei’s follow-up arrangements to you!”
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