Lu Mingfei, why are you slaying dragons if you're not involved!

Chapter 1: Intermittent bursts of ambition, followed by sustained periods of complacency and idleness.

Lu Mingfei stared blankly out the window.

The bare branches of the sycamore trees drew messy musical staves against the gray sky, and the icicles hanging from the branches, like abandoned glass wind chimes, made a soft, mournful sound in the cold wind.

Just like his mood at this moment.

Of course, with Lu Mingfei's appalling Chinese language skills, he couldn't have made such a description; he just felt a little...melancholy.

He was feeling melancholy because he had just seen the end-of-term report card posted by the homeroom teacher in the "official class group".

His row, the column for total score ranking, had a number that exactly matched the total number of students in the class...

"Drip drip!"

The notification sound from his earpiece drew Lu Mingfei's attention back from the window. He looked at the bottom right corner, where a lotus flower icon was flashing.

Lu Mingfei, who had spent a long time mentally preparing himself, almost couldn't hold back. But he figured he might as well stick his neck out and get hurt anyway, so he moved the mouse and clicked on the avatar.

Class teacher: "Lu Mingfei, are you a weight? Last place! Do you know how much you dragged down our class average score by yourself?"

Class teacher: "Xu Yanyan and Xu Miaomiao have both recently hired tutors to improve their grades. You don't hire tutors and you're not studying hard. What are you trying to do? This is senior year! The most crucial time!"

Class teacher: "You must attend the school's make-up classes during the winter break. Reply when you see this!"

Lu Mingfei shrank back, typed "Received", and then decisively closed the chat window and changed his QQ status to invisible.

Whether it was this somewhat self-deceptive tactic that worked, or whether the homeroom teacher had already finished saying what they wanted to say, the "beep beep" stopped...

"Drip drip!"

Lu Mingfei was startled, glanced at the bottom right corner, and then breathed a sigh of relief before clicking on it.

The pop-up chat window belongs to a "private class group," and the only difference between it and the "official class group" is that there is no teacher present.

Liu Miaomiao: "@All staff, reliable information, official document, winter vacation will be from today until February 10th, right after the Lantern Festival, a full month!"

The message detonated the depth charge with the speed of a gray-white fuse, exploding a bunch of divers.

"What's the point of having a long holiday? When has a school ever stopped having extra classes for senior high school students during winter break? It starts tomorrow, a seamless transition! They say it's voluntary, but my parents didn't give me any choice at all."

Someone sighed, "I'll be thankful if I can have ten days of vacation left."

"That's for you guys, I don't need to. My dad said as long as I'm in the top ten of my grade in the final exams, I can choose whatever I want," Su Xiaoqiang chimed in. "I'm going to go to the gym to get in shape, and then travel the world!"

Zhao Menghua: "Oh, I really envy you guys."

Xu Yanyan: "What are you envious of, boss? Didn't you say you weren't going to attend tutoring classes? You can play around for a whole month."

Zhao Menghua: "I don't participate in the school's make-up classes, but my family insists on arranging for teachers from Tsinghua and Peking Universities to tutor me in all subjects, and provincial team coaches to guide me in basketball."

My schedule is packed every day. A holiday? I'd be lucky to get even one day off during Chinese New Year!

Liu Miaomiao: "I'm even worse off. Not only do I have to attend extra classes at school, but my family also found a pianist who won an award at last year's American International Piano Competition to give me extra lessons."

"Don't even mention it! My mom saw that a martial arts athlete at the school was promoted to the Wuying level last year, and she insisted on enrolling me in Tai Chi lessons!" someone said.

……

Lu Mingfei scratched his head; he wasn't interested in professors from Tsinghua or Peking University or award-winning pianists.

He scrolled through the messages from beginning to end just to find a profile picture of a girl wearing a baseball cap... but he couldn't find one.

Lu Mingfei couldn't tell whether he should be disappointed or happy.

You're happy, right? Chen Wenwen hasn't even made a comment. You're disappointed, right? At least there's a reasonable explanation for why he hasn't received a reply to the message he sent Chen Wenwen two hours ago, asking about any literary club activities during the winter break.

"Drip drip!"

Lu Mingfei glanced at it and saw a baseball girl's avatar flashing.

The cursor moved to the avatar almost instantly, a precise location, and the left mouse button was clicked.

“Yes, I attend extra classes at school,” Chen Wenwen said.

It's like being released from a damp, dark prison after a year or two, when you're practically growing mushrooms on your body. The joy of stepping out of the cell, bathed in the bright sunlight, and feeling the whole world become fresh and warm.

He waited two hours at the internet cafe, only to receive ten words in return. But Lu Mingfei's somewhat gloomy mood evaporated just like that. He couldn't help but grin, and then he glanced around furtively, afraid of being seen by others.

"Are you participating too? You have excellent grades." Lu Mingfei quickly typed. He looked at Chen Wenwen's report card first, and then his own.

“Yes, but it’s not good enough…” Chen Wenwen replied, “You too, let’s work hard together!”

Let’s work together!
The key is not effort, but working together!
Lu Mingfei clearly felt his heart stop for a moment. If he were in his aunt's bedroom instead of in an internet cafe, he would probably be beaming with joy and wriggling around like a maggot.

"Okay!" Lu Mingfei typed with significantly more force.

"Go for it! I'm going to study now." Chen Wenwen sent a cheering emoji, and her profile picture turned gray.

"come on!"

Lu Mingfei whistled as he looked out the window. The pale, gloomy winter scenery was now dazzlingly bright, reminding him of Lawrence's *Lady Chatterley's Lover*, which he had read earlier in the literary society.

“The world is cold and dead, yet beneath the surface of death, hidden stirrings and immeasurable subtle vitality are growing… The frost weighs heavily on the earth, but this weight presses life into hidden corners, into the warm privacy of the depths.”

"Ding dong!"

A message box pops up on the desktop: "Your computer time is about to end. The system will automatically shut down in 3 minutes. Please contact the network administrator if you need to renew your subscription."

Lu Mingfei decisively disembarked.

Encouraged, he was now full of ambition!

Forget about the internet and StarCraft; those are just fleeting dreams. From this moment on, he will strive to improve himself and study with self-discipline!

Lu Mingfei had already begun to fantasize about how, after studying hard, his grades would skyrocket, making him one of the top ten in the grade, and how he would stand on the stage with Chen Wenwen to receive praise at the grade assembly after the next monthly exam.

So awesome!

Lu Mingfei, lost in his daydream, left the internet cafe. He hadn't taken two steps when he suddenly stepped on something, slipped, and almost did a split on the spot.

"Who's so inconsiderate!"

Having been terrified, Lu Mingfei steadied himself and looked at the ground, only to discover that the culprit was an exquisite booklet.

"Schedule and planning manual?"

Curious, Lu Mingfei picked it up and silently read the six large characters on the cover before opening it.

The first thing that catches the eye is the introduction—

Please fill out the schedule completely according to your own circumstances and based on your actual needs to cultivate self-discipline.

The words “completely” and “truly” were highlighted in bold and red.

It was as if he had just gotten what he needed. Lu Mingfei was overjoyed. Could this mean that even God was helping him?
Having a schedule and being able to strictly follow it is much more efficient than doing things aimlessly!
Of course, most people's schedules would become worthless within one to three days, but Lu Mingfei, who was in a state of intermittent elation, didn't care about that.

The internet cafe wasn't far from his aunt's house, so Lu Mingfei bought two discounted bread rolls on the way and stuffed them into his backpack to have for breakfast the next day.

His uncle went to chat with his tea friends, his aunt went to play mahjong, and his cousin Lu Mingze also went out to play. There was no one else at his aunt's house. He returned to his room, picked up a pen, and began to fill out the form.

The supplementary classes at Sze Lan Secondary School are somewhat different from those at regular schools.

Given that most students have other tutoring arrangements at home, the winter break tutoring sessions are much shorter than regular classes, with the morning sessions remaining the same and classes ending at 3 p.m.

This means that, in addition to the courses arranged by the school, Lu Mingfei also needs to fill in his afternoon and evening schedules.

"Well, starting from tomorrow, that means..."

【XNUM X Year X NUM X Month X NUM X Day】

[Wake up at 6:00-7:00, get dressed and wash up, go for a morning run to school, and eat breakfast] "Filling out forms one by one during class is too troublesome, I might as well write them all at once. What about lunch break? No need! There are no breaks between classes either, I'll use them all for studying!"

[7:00-15:00 Morning self-study, classes, lunch, and self-study during spare time and lunch break]

What do you do after school?

Lu Mingfei fell into deep thought, and then a scene suddenly flashed before his eyes: Zhao Menghua leaped up on the basketball court and easily put the basketball into the hoop, while the crowd watched and exclaimed in admiration.

He said he didn't care, but deep down, Lu Mingfei had fantasized about being that kind of person.

Most importantly, Zhao Menghua, like him, was one of the people personally invited by Chen Wenwen to join the literary society.

Sometimes Lu Mingfei felt discouraged, realizing that apart from having an advantage in StarCraft, he was completely at a disadvantage in all other aspects.

Put yourself in Chen Wenwen's shoes; you wouldn't choose someone who only plays StarCraft, would you?

If I can be better than Zhao Menghua, will I be guaranteed a spot?
Add them! Add all the ones that are inferior!

As for the words "completely" and "truly" highlighted in bold red in the introduction? What's so real or unrealistic about it? Lu Mingfei believed in his own perseverance!

[Basketball practice from 15:00 PM to 18:00 PM]

"What to do at night? Do homework? But there's never much homework at school, I can finish it during breaks... Play games? No way, Lu Mingfei, how can you be so lazy!"

The intermittent state of high spirits had not yet passed, and Lu Mingfei was still in a state of high excitement.

Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he remembered the fitness routine that Su Xiaoqiang had mentioned in the group chat.

Zhao Menghua had mentioned working out and building muscle in class, and his muscular physique was the envy of even the boys.

Lu Mingfei looked down at himself again. Compared to his appearance, he wasn't exactly emaciated, but he was definitely skin and bones.

"Running alone won't build muscle... I need to work out too!"

[18:00-22:00 Dinner, Workout (Muscle Building)]

"After working out, I go back to my aunt's house and study for another two hours. I only need about six hours of sleep a day!"

[22:00—0:00 Go home, wash up, study, go to sleep]

"Great, that's it for the day..."

Lu Mingfei breathed a sigh of relief, then realized that there were still 29 days left to fill out.

“This is too much trouble!”

"No, let me think about it carefully. I just need to follow the schedule before school ends. I can practice basketball every day, but I need to adjust the evening schedule. After all, I can't work out every day..."

But what should we replace it with?

After pondering for a long time without finding an answer, Lu Mingfei simply opened his laptop, logged onto QQ, and looked for inspiration in the "private class group".

As a private key high school, Shilan High School has students from mostly wealthy and influential families, so their holiday schedules are naturally quite extensive.

He glanced at Liu Miaomiao's earlier remarks.

"Let's add a piano!"

Every year at the school's Spring Festival Gala, Liu Miaomiao, a beautiful piano student with a grade 10 certificate, would play the piano on stage, attracting the attention of the entire audience under the spotlight, while boys in black suits danced gracefully around her.

Sometimes Lu Mingfei would imagine that he was the one playing the piano.

【1月12日 18:00—22:00学钢琴】

As for where to learn piano? Lu Mingfei was already engrossed in writing, and he didn't care whether he could finish it or not, he just wanted to get started!

"Private tutoring should definitely be arranged. How can we rely on self-study alone? We'll have tutoring during school holidays, following the school schedule!"

"Haha, learning Tai Chi sounds pretty good! Let's add it! In case we ever get into a fight, we won't be afraid!"

"Six hours of sleep a day is too much, let's do four hours, and study for two more hours!"

"That's about it, just these few things done in rotation..."

……

Once you completely let go of your inhibitions and don't need to think about how to complete the task, filling out the form becomes quite simple.

In no time, the entire 30-day schedule was filled out.

"Hmph... why do I feel like I've forgotten something?"

Lu Mingfei let out a long sigh, quickly flipped through the planning manual, and couldn't help but laugh out loud when he saw the absurd schedule. He then stopped thinking about it.

This is absolutely outrageous!
"Drip drip!"

A notification sound rang out, and Lu Mingfei opened the interstellar chat group. Someone had tagged him, saying, "A pro has arrived, named Lao Tang, and he's looking for a beating!"

Lu Mingfei immediately became interested.

As for the brand-new, still-wet planning manual in my hand?
Lu Mingfei shoved it into the backpack hanging on the back of the chair behind him.

Let's talk about tomorrow tomorrow!

As for completing it... that's impossible, not even for a day. He was completely out of control when filling out his schedule; how could such an absurd plan possibly be completed!
The intermittent state of being overly ambitious is outdated; a new state is now in play.

Just keep living a life of idleness and waiting to die!
Lu Mingfei, who was online at lightning speed, did not notice the change that had occurred to the planning manual that had been tucked into a crevice in the backpack hanging on the back of the chair.

On the closed page, a line of writing appeared.

[The plan has been prepared and is currently being checked...]

The plan meets the requirements; based on the schedule, the difficulty level is determined to be: [Difficulty Level: "Rolling Dog"]

Was it carried out according to the planned schedule?

PS: You can still make changes before confirming. This is the highest difficulty level. Once confirmed, it cannot be changed.

【whether】

Lu Mingfei was typing a reply at the moment, muttering to himself, "Come on, let me see how awesome this is!"

[A response has been received; the plan will proceed as scheduled.]

Welcome to the Schedule Planning Manual. We are dedicated to serving you. Schedule start time: January 11, 2009, 6:00 AM.

The paper vanished into thin air, turning into countless specks of light that passed through the schoolbag and chair back, disappearing into the body of the unsuspecting Lu Mingfei.

……

January 11th, early morning, 6:00 AM.

Lu Mingfei, still lost in his dream, was completing his Piano Concerto No. 3 amidst the astonished and envious gazes of the entire school when a cold, emotionless electronic voice suddenly rang in his ears.

[Warning: It's time to wake up! Please comply immediately, or you will be subject to the first punishment—electric shock!]

"What the hell is that gibberish?"

Lu Mingfei was taken aback, but didn't take it too seriously.

The electronic sound was still playing.

[Warning, electric shock countdown, three, two, one, electric shock released!]

A violent electric current surged out of nowhere, shattering the already blurred dream like glass. Pain, accompanied by instinctive spasms, made Lu Mingfei's eyes widen instantly, and a scream echoed through the still inky sky outside the window.

"Ah ah ah ah ah!!!"

(End of this chapter)