Chapter 30: Clearly a Film About Three People

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“Let’s go. Time to get to work!”

The four Kassel College groundskeepers, each as tall and powerfully built as a Terminator, received their orders and hurried to Lu Mingfei’s location, ready to carry out a series of dazzling maneuvers.

These former Navy SEALs were remarkably conspicuous. If they gathered together, they would easily arouse their target’s suspicion. So, under Norma’s direction, they split up and took on carefully assigned roles.

The first groundskeeper made his entrance during the evening rush hour. He seized his opportunity, ran a red light, and crashed straight into a small sedan that had just started moving and had not yet had time to accelerate, successfully bringing traffic to a standstill.

The bus carrying Lu Mingfei passed the stop. Before the passengers had even finished paying their fares or tapping their transit cards, they all got off again to watch the commotion.

Lu Mingfei mingled with the crowd. After seeing that the person staging the accident was a huge blond, blue-eyed foreigner, he shook his head and sighed, lamenting that the man had chosen such a poor location.

Dash cams had only entered the country that year and were not yet widely used, but this was an intersection, and there were cameras everywhere. A quick look at the footage would reveal who had staged the accident.

Watching the foreigner sprawled on the ground, performing with tremendous enthusiasm, Lu Mingfei used the crowd as cover to snap off a branch from the roadside greenery. He skimmed it across the pavement like a stone across water.

With a soft thud, it hit the bull’s-eye. The foreigner, who had been clutching his chest and howling on the ground, instantly doubled over. Both hands flew to his sore, gratifyingly battered American backside as he began shrieking like a slaughtered pig.

Having performed his good deed for the day, Lu Mingfei turned away amid the laughter of the onlookers, leaving behind only his hidden contribution.

The central business district was not far away. He could walk back and enjoy the night view along the way.

Just as he changed his route, the second groundskeeper took his position.

He was a muscular Black man who looked remarkably like Apollo Creed, the heavyweight champion from Rocky.

But his current role was not that of a boxer. Instead, he was a streetball boy who seemed almost to blend into the darkness—exactly the sort of person who looked like trouble.

Lu Mingfei was walking along peacefully when a basketball came flying straight toward his head. He barely managed to stop it in time. When he looked up, a row of dazzling white teeth emerged from the shadows ahead.

“Sorry, buddy. I didn’t mean to do that. The ball hit a bump by the roadside.”

The man spoke with a thick American accent, and judging from the weak force behind the ball, Lu Mingfei decided it was not worth making an issue of.

“What can I say? Watch out!”

He tossed the ball back and continued on in another direction.

Although this was China, his past experience wandering around Brooklyn with Old Tang had taught him that it was best not to walk alone along dark, deserted roads.

You never knew when a dagger flashing with cold light might appear, or when the black, hard barrel of a gun might press against your kidney and demand your money.

Lu Mingfei himself did not particularly mind that degree of risk, but after getting married and having a child, he no longer liked taking chances.

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By now, he had strayed from his original route and needed to cut through Wanda Plaza to get back on course.

There were plenty of restaurants there, so Lu Mingfei could conveniently take care of dinner along the way.

Looking at the dazzling array of signs, he fell into thought. “Should I have big-plate chicken or Northeastern iron-pot stew? That grilled fish place looks pretty good too…”

Just as he was agonizing over which restaurant deserved the honor of hosting his dinner, a deep, gravelly voice came from beside him.

“If you can’t make up your mind, how about learning a little more about swimming and fitness?”

The man speaking to him was a burly white fellow in a sleeveless undershirt, with a thick beard and a luxuriant mat of chest hair. He struck an Arnold Schwarzenegger pose, flexing his biceps in profile while winking flirtatiously at Lu Mingfei.

“No ducking necessary! I don’t like van games!” Afraid of running into another zero-overflow incident at a gym, Lu Mingfei turned and ran without hesitation, terrified that the man might latch onto him.

Fortunately, the third groundskeeper did not stubbornly pursue him to sell personal-training sessions. He merely pulled out a radio and reported that the target had entered the trap and that the final bait could now make its appearance.

Lu Mingfei ducked into a nearby supermarket. The panic gradually faded from his face, replaced by open disdain.

“I knew you’d try something underhanded, but isn’t this taking things a little too far?”

After encountering three foreigners in succession, all with such uniform physiques and suspiciously similar motives, even Lu Mingfei was not foolish enough to miss the obvious conclusion: Kassel College was behind this.

And judging from the man who had invited him to dinner, the person who had devised the plan had to be Chen Motong.

She kept insisting that he was in love with Chen Wenwen, and now she had driven him to Wanda Plaza, only a few hundred meters from the cinema where the Literature Club gathering was being held. What exactly was she trying to accomplish?

Lu Mingfei thought calmly, then made a bold deduction. He strongly suspected that—

That woman wanted to cut the threads of his affection, leaving him with no reason to linger, so that he would fly to America with them!

What a joke. How could he possibly care that Chen Wenwen and Zhao Menghua had gotten together? In any case, before long they would have to…

Wait!

Lu Mingfei took out his phone and checked the utterly silent Literature Club group chat, along with the harassing messages previously left by Xu Jiashuang and Pangpang. From that, he confirmed one thing:

Zhao Menghua was going to confess his feelings at the Literature Club graduation party!

The opportunity he had been waiting for—the chance to make Su Xiaoqiang finally give up on Zhao Menghua—had arrived!

“I have to go see this!”

Lu Mingfei took a packet of tissues and a bottle of water from the shelf, paid, and hurried straight toward the cinema.

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It was still early. The movie had only just begun, so he ought to be able to catch the live broadcast!

With that thought in mind, he ignored a foreigner standing at the supermarket entrance, holding a map and asking everyone for directions in French. In the blink of an eye, he vanished into the crowd.

The fourth groundskeeper stared at the vast sea of people around him, his expression slightly bewildered. He thought he had been exposed.

He was just about to report the sudden development to Norma when she informed him that the target had already gone to the destination on his own. He was to follow closely and act according to the situation.

After pushing through the crowd and drawing near the cinema, Lu Mingfei finally figured it out.

“No wonder those two chubby kids took turns trying to persuade me. So they wanted to trick me into coming here and playing the clown, watching someone else’s romance unfold right before my eyes.”

Now that he had actually shown up as they wished, was he supposed to sing a rousing rendition of “The Guest” to help the two newlyweds celebrate?

With a trace of resentment, he scanned the various screening halls one after another, but could not determine which small theater the Literature Club members had rented.

He wanted to ask an usher, only to discover that the ticket counter was deserted. He had no idea whether the employee had abandoned his post to slack off somewhere or had simply rushed away to answer nature’s call.

With no other option, he went to the box office, bought a ticket for the nearest film, and successfully found out which screening hall housed the Literature Club group.

He followed the dim corridor forward and soon reached his destination.

When he gently pushed open the door, a commotion clearly unrelated to the movie came pouring through the gap.

“Loving someone for three years without anyone knowing—wouldn’t that be the most pathetic thing in the world?

“I’m sick of three years, then another three years, then another three years. I don’t want to be a good man for the rest of my life!

“Today, I’m going to say it out loud and let everyone know—Chen Wenwen, I love you!”

The boys’ thunderous cheers surged through the opening. Even from outside the door, Lu Mingfei could feel their excitement and exhilaration.

But when he poked his head inside, what truly entered his eyes was—

A mixed-blood girl sitting blankly in her seat, staring dazedly at the celebrating crowd onstage.

She looked utterly alone, bewildered and helpless, as though the entire world had deceived her and cast her aside.