Family heirloom, then turned into a demon girl

Chapter 258 Mission: 04-4 Rat in the Wall
Time flies. In the blink of an eye, it's time for the graduation party.

Why is it that "plans can't keep up with changes"? Perhaps Zhao Menghua had heard some rumors, but he'd brought his two trusted advisors, the Xu brothers, to scout the venue in advance, handing Lu Mingfei a suit and a speech, and instructing him to be there. This changed Lu Mingfei's choice from "go" or "not go" to "lose face for himself" or "lose face for Zhao Menghua."

He even deliberately hinted at Lu Mingfei's thoughts that day, leaving room for interpretation if Lu Mingfei didn't go. Whether he went or not, he would become a stepping stone for Zhao Menghua to confess his love - and a source of laughter.

Zhao Menghua also had something to say. He was not thinking about Lu Mingfei, and was worried that Lu Mingfei would lose face at the party. It was purely out of kindness.

But this also shows one thing: Zhao Menghua has Lu Mingfei in his sights. He might even think that being Lu Mingfei's "role rival" is a sign of respect.

"There's no hatred or grudge, why do you have to be so ruthless?"

Lu Mingfei's face was stern, but that was exactly what he was thinking. At the same time, a surge of inexplicable anger was brewing within him: even a rabbit, when cornered, will kick an eagle. He, Lu Mingfei, wasn't made of clay—no, he seemed to be—in any case, even clay figures can still have some temper. Lu Mingfei was already prepared to make room for Zhao Menghua's performance, but if he wanted to kill him completely, then Lu Mingfei had no choice but to fight back.

Scholars believe animals have three instinctive reactions when faced with a threat. First, they fight back, which is their first reaction when the power gap is small. If the gap is large, they flee. If escape is unsuccessful, they play dead or fight back, repeating the process.

Now, neither running away nor playing dead is feasible for Lu Mingfei. He is like a mouse cornered by a cat. If he doesn't bite back and create a loophole, he will have no way to retreat.

In other words, Lu Mingfei at this moment was full of action and very calm, the strongest form of all Lu Mingfei. He wanted to make Zhao Menghua regret forcing himself into this form.

As the saying goes, knowing yourself and your enemy ensures victory in a hundred battles. Lu Mingfei's first step was to determine what Zhao Menghua intended to do. In this duel, Lu Mingfei's reputation was like his city wall. As the defending general, he had to ensure the wall remained intact within a certain timeframe. That timeframe was the end of his speech, at which point Lu Mingfei would have received reinforcements, forcing Zhao Menghua to retreat.

In this situation, the defenders should wait for the enemy to tire themselves out and take the initiative to attack. After all, for the defenders, the only thing they need to do is to delay the attack.

By bribing the projectionist at the cinema, Lu Mingfei got a sneak peek at the slides that would be shown during his speech. The slides were a thunderclap at the opening ceremony, with a single pink text prominently displayed amidst the white screen: "Chen Wenwen, Live Yu!"

It looks like some kind of crossword puzzle. Considering that Zhao Menghua is about to confess his love to Chen Wenwen, the complete sentence is obviously "I Love You". Coincidentally, the characters "Chen Wenwen" are larger and take up nearly half of the length of the entire sentence, and the position where the "I" should be is exactly in the middle of the picture.

This is the position where Lu Mingfei will give his speech. Zhao Menghua intends to let Lu Mingfei be the extra in his farewell performance. Logically, Zhao Menghua is the protagonist of the confession, and he should stand in the position of "I", and it is natural that he should stand in this position. But Zhao Menghua is doing it on purpose. He wants Lu Mingfei to be this "I" to mock the fact that Lu Mingfei likes Chen Wenwen. It is as if he is saying:
"Look, even if you stand here and confess your feelings, Chen Wenwen will not be your girlfriend."

And if Lu Mingfei didn't come, Zhao Menghua could just stand here and confess his feelings with a clear conscience.

The best solution for Lu Mingfei was to make a new slide and hand it over to the projectionist, but he ran out of time. Furthermore, this "best strategy" would be useless if someone came to check before the show started.

The only way was to find a way for him to not stand in this position, but absenting himself from the party was not an option. At the same time, as a director, Lu Mingfei had no one else to speak on his behalf while he was there.

This was an overt conspiracy, using overwhelming power to block all other options, forcing the prey to choose to enter the cage. It can only be said that Lu Mingfei alone was indeed no match for the "nobleman" Zhao Menghua. With Lu Mingfei alone, this was a dead end. With Lu Mingfei alone.

Borrowing the phone from the front desk, Lu Mingfei dialed a number. A number he remembered more familiarly than his aunt and uncle's. Although the owner of this number said, "You only have one chance," that probably meant if Lu Mingfei refused. After all, they were about to become classmates, so Lu Mingfei was confident the other party wouldn't hang up.

Unless Nero really changed his number immediately after Lu Mingfei made that call, but that would be too idle.

Sure enough, the call was connected. As soon as the beeping sound ended, Lu Mingfei lowered his voice and cried, "Help!"

The person on the other end of the phone was silent for a moment, then uttered a cold voice: "I should have told you that you only have one chance."

“We’re classmates after all, so please be flexible…” Lu Mingfei said awkwardly, “But I really need your help!”

Yes, Lu Mingfei's last resort was to ask Nero for help. But that didn't mean he was going to ask Nero for money to bribe the projectionist to stop showing the slides. That would simply be a waste of money, just competing with Zhao Menghua.

Lu Mingfei's solution was actually quite simple: temporarily leave the theater. The speech would only last five minutes, and he only needed to leave the theater during that time. But he couldn't just walk away. Lu Mingfei needed someone to help him create a compelling and respectable excuse so that he could safely hand the manuscript to Zhao Menghua. Otherwise, he would become the butt of everyone else's jokes.

But Lu Mingfei thought about it for a long time and still couldn't find a "decent reason" in the end. Part of the reason he called was to ask Nero for some advice.

However, Nero's opinion was consistent with Lu Mingfei's other idea:
"What reason do we need? Can't we just intimidate them with our aura?"

Nero answered as a matter of course.

That's right, humans are emotional. As long as the situation is shocking enough that they don't have time to activate their brain's thinking circuits, they will not notice the small flaws in the reasoning.

only……

"But are you sure you want to do this? Owing me a favor is much more expensive than owing me money."

Nero's voice came from the phone and said so.

(End of this chapter)