Lu Mingfei doesn't want to be a superhero

Now that Lao Tang has come online, Lu Mingfei has a rival—both he and Lao Tang are creatures at the top of the food chain in the group.

If Lu Mingfei is a tiger, then Lao Tang is a lion. Although Lu Mingfei can rarely beat Lao Tang, Lao Tang also acknowledges that Lu Mingfei's level is on the same level as his.

Of course, the above is just Lao Tang's personal opinion.

The truth is that although Lu Mingfei often lost to him, it was because Lao Tang was American and his day and night were reversed compared to China. Lu Mingfei usually played StarCraft with Lao Tang on his home laptop late at night. In order to make it more difficult for himself, Lu Mingfei would usually use the red dot to play StarCraft.

He does have a hard time beating Lao Tang when using the red dot sight, but if he connects a mouse, Lao Tang will have a hard time surviving eight minutes against him.

But Lu Mingfei never explained what would happen if others thought he was too abnormal and stopped playing StarCraft with him. In his previously blank and boring life, StarCraft was one of the very few colors on the paper, apart from Chen Wenwen.

Just like Lao Tang said, masters are lonely. Loneliness is like standing in the snow, surrounded by pure white, as boring as paper.

Chapter 23 Let's go out and play

In Su Xiaoqiang's bedroom.

Lu Mingfei sat in front of the computer, minimized the group chat window, and glanced at his friend list.

Chen Wenwen's profile picture is of a girl wearing a baseball cap, and it's currently gray.

He scrolled down the list and found Lao Tang's account, whose profile picture was a panda.

Although it's a panda, this avatar doesn't look like a normal panda—cute and cuddly. Instead, it exudes a kind of cheeky smirk that seems to emanate from its very bones, making it quite suitable as an emoji.

Lu Mingfei sent Lao Tang a message: "It's morning here, aren't you sleeping?"

In his memory, Lao Tang seemed to be an unemployed American who received social welfare. Therefore, Lao Tang usually had plenty of free time. During the day, he would play games with Lu Mingfei, who was on the other side of the world in the middle of the night, and then go to sleep at night.

Old Tang replied: "Don't even mention it. I've been working night shifts lately, and it's messed up my sleep schedule."

Lu Mingfei was somewhat surprised and asked, "Is it this hard? Don't you live on welfare?"

After a while, Lao Tang sent a message explaining, "The little bit of money from social welfare is enough to keep you from starving. If I don't want to become homeless, I still have to go out and do some work occasionally."

Although Lu Mingfei had lived in the United States in another world, he would never have fallen to the point of needing American social welfare, so he really didn't know much about it.

Soon after, Lao Tang sent another message: "But my part-time job is only temporary. Once I save up some money, I can play again. When I run out of money, I'll go back to work. I just finished a job and have some spare money now."

After chatting for a few more minutes, Lao Tang couldn't wait to get to the point: "Come on, let's play a game first, and we can talk about the rest in the voice channel."

……

Lu Mingfei wanted to give way to Lao Tang this time, but Su Xiaoqiang's computer was a desktop and didn't have a red dot, so he could only use a mouse.

Although he had tried to go easy on him, Lu Mingfei still managed to win the game by accident. However, Old Tang managed to hold out against him for nearly fifteen minutes, which was something to be proud of.

Of course, Lao Tang himself didn't think so.

"Big Head Bear, when did you become so powerful?" Old Tang asked in surprise in the voice channel, speaking in heavily accented Mandarin.

“I already told you, I changed to a keyboard and mouse that feel amazing,” Lu Mingfei said.

In fact, Lu Mingfei's English is better than Lao Tang's Chinese, especially since he has lived in the United States for three months. He has no problem communicating with Lao Tang in English without any problems.

But Lao Tang had mentioned before that he was quite interested in Chinese and wanted to learn it on his own, so Lu Mingfei usually chatted with him in Chinese, which helped Lao Tang practice his speaking and listening skills.

Although Lu Mingfei didn't understand why Lao Tang wanted to learn Chinese while he was in the United States, he was willing to support Lao Tang's desire to improve.

"I don't believe it! You must have gotten incredibly lucky, plus I just finished work and I'm not feeling well!" Old Tang said.

"How about another round?" Lu Mingfei hadn't had enough yet.

……

Twelve minutes later, the game ended with an explosion at Old Tang's base.

"I don't believe it! Let's try again!" Old Tang roared.

"Wait a minute, I have other things to do. We'll play next time," Lu Mingfei said.

Nearly forty minutes have passed since Su Xiaoqiang left with the clothes. No matter how careful she is, she should be almost finished showering by now.

"Then turn on your video and let me see your mouse and keyboard. I want to buy the same ones!" Old Tang said through gritted teeth.

“Uh… you should just forget it. To be honest,” Lu Mingfei said, “I’m at someone else’s house, using someone else’s computer. They’re really rich. The mouse and keyboard together might cost more than an ordinary computer.”

"It's alright, let me see. I'll just take on another job!" Old Tang said.

“Okay.” Lu Mingfei switched to QQ and sent Lao Tang a video call request.

He then carefully picked up the webcam from the computer desk—he couldn't afford to pay for it now if it broke.

The video call was answered instantly, and the large image on the screen showed Old Tang's face, with drooping eyebrows, looking quite comical; he was practically a born comedian.

At this moment, the slightly comical face had wide eyes and its mouth was almost open to its limit, so much so that Lu Mingfei could see its tonsils.

"You...you...you live in the girl's house?!" Old Tang's voice sounded like it was being choked, somewhat like a male duck or a eunuch.

Lu Mingfei was stunned for a moment. He saw the small image on the screen. Although the camera only captured the keyboard and mouse and not the bedroom furnishings, the keyboard and mouse were covered with ornate decorative stickers, which were obviously girls' items.

"What do you mean by staying at someone's house?" Lu Mingfei corrected. "This is my classmate's house. I'm helping her with her homework and using the computer for a bit."

"Damn! Why can't I ever have such good luck?" Old Tang's eyes were full of jealousy.

After showing Lao Tang the brands of the keyboard and mouse, Lu Mingfei turned off the video, said goodbye, and agreed to play again another day before logging off.

It wasn't that he suddenly had a change of heart and decided to stop being addicted to games and focus on his studies; rather, it was Su Xiaoqiang knocking on the door from outside.

"Lu Mingfei, I'm coming in!" Su Xiaoqiang said as she knocked on the door.

"Come in, isn't this your room?" Lu Mingfei said. "Why are you knocking?"

"I was just worried you were looking at something you shouldn't be looking at." Su Xiaoqiang changed into her loungewear and walked in.

Lu Mingfei glanced at her. Su Xiaoqiang didn't seem to have dried her hair; her long hair was still a little damp and hung down loosely. She had an orange hair tie on her slender wrist.

"What are you looking at?" Su Xiaoqiang snorted and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

“Look at a beautiful and elegant girl,” Lu Mingfei said immediately.

Su Xiaoqiang's lips curled up slightly unconsciously, then she deliberately smoothed it down.

Lu Mingfei didn't notice this small detail, only thinking that the dialogue he had unintentionally learned from the party was useless, and thought to himself that it was really difficult to deal with girls when they were angry.

“Let’s go to the living room, you can tutor me,” Su Xiaoqiang said. “By the way, I intercepted the iced cola that Aunt Mei prepared for you and left it at room temperature.”

"Huh? Why?" Lu Mingfei finally understood why Aunt Mei hadn't brought him any Coke.

“It’s not good to drink very cold beverages right after exercising,” Su Xiaoqiang said earnestly. “I’m doing this for your own good.”

"Damn it! It's been an hour! And the steam should be gone by now!" Lu Mingfei complained.

Suddenly, an idea popped into his head: "Wait, you're not getting revenge for me saying you're not as pretty as Chen Wenwen, are you? Or are you getting revenge for me not waiting for you when we were running!"

"No, you just said I'm beautiful and elegant. How could someone as elegant as me do such a thing?" Su Xiaoqiang smiled innocently.

……

In a rented house in a poor neighborhood of Brooklyn, USA.

Old Tang nestled in his computer chair, looking at the screenshots he'd taken of the keyboard and mouse. He searched for their prices online and couldn't help but gasp.

"Damn rich people, they spend so much on a keyboard and mouse..." Old Tang muttered to himself. "Maybe I should see if there are any safer jobs I can take on?"

Without hesitation, Lao Tang straightened up, opened a website he relied on for a living, carefully browsed the tasks, and looked for the safer ones.

At the very top of the website is a bolded English word—

"Hunter".

……

At Su Xiaoqiang's home.

Su Xiaoqiang and Lu Mingfei sat together on the sofa in the living room. Lu Mingfei had been tutoring Su Xiaoqiang all day and had just finished explaining the last question of the day to her.

Although Su Xiaoqiang's bedroom was spacious and the desk was large enough for two people to sit at, Aunt Mei would definitely report to Su's father if a man and a woman were alone in a room together, so Su Xiaoqiang simply chose the living room as the tutoring location.

"Hmm..." Su Xiaoqiang sat on the sofa and stretched lazily.

Her top seemed a bit short, and when she stretched out her slender figure, a small section of her snow-white waist was revealed. It seemed that she exercised regularly, as her waistline on her back and the abs on her lower abdomen were clearly visible. The bottom edge of her top barely concealed her navel.

Lu Mingfei only dared to glance at it secretly before quickly averting his gaze like a thief.

"Alright, it's getting late, I'll head back now," Lu Mingfei said.

"Let Uncle Li take you home, come back tomorrow," Su Xiaoqiang threatened. "Come later, and don't let me see you during my morning run! Otherwise, I'll kill you without mercy!"

"Understood, understood." Lu Mingfei nodded and bowed.

“Oh, right,” Su Xiaoqiang seemed to suddenly remember something, took out her wallet, and handed Lu Mingfei a stack of bills under his puzzled gaze, “Your colored contact lenses are, after all, something you wear on your eyes. Go and get some better ones, don’t wait until you damage your eyes before you regret it.”

Lu Mingfei accepted the banknotes, so moved he seemed ready to burst into tears at any moment.

“Here,” Su Xiaoqiang handed over paper and pen, smiling at Lu Mingfei, “and write me a new IOU, remember to write the numbers in traditional Chinese characters, and don’t forget to put your fingerprint on it.”

……

Watching Lu Mingfei leave, Su Xiaoqiang rubbed her face and took out her phone to relax.

But then she saw a new friend request on her QQ account. The profile picture of this account was a photo of someone Su Xiaoqiang knew very well.

Or rather, someone everyone at Shilan Secondary School knows—

Chu Zihang.

Senior Brother Chu? Really? Why did he add me? Is he a scammer?

With this question in mind, Su Xiaoqiang accepted the friend request and tentatively sent a message: "Is this Senior Brother Chu?"

The other end quickly replied: "Yes, this is Chu Zihang. Are you Su Xiaoqiang?"

"Yes, it is. Senior Brother Chu, is there something you need?" Su Xiaoqiang replied.

Chu Zihang sent Su Xiaoqiang a message that left her completely bewildered.

"Are you free next week? I'd like to invite you and Lu Mingfei to go out together."

Thank you kcddm for the 500 coins, thank you 风行南雾 for the 100 coins, thank you 2018邓三 for the 100 coins, and thank you for the 100 coins. Thank you!

Chapter 24 A Chance Encounter: Chen Wenwen and Zhao Menghua

At Su Xiaoqiang's home.