Lu Mingfei, who had read Dragon Clan before slaying the dragon

As expected of you, Lord Norton, is there a stove in your stomach?

"By the way, Mingming, you said before that you have a girl you like?" Old Tang looked at Lu Mingfei.

"Really?" Lu Mingfei was stunned. As far as he could remember, he didn't seem to have mentioned this matter to anyone.

"Yes. At the airport, I asked you if you liked guys, and you said you were straight. Then I blurted out that you had a girl you liked. Don't you remember?" Old Tang's smile was a little ambiguous. "You found a girlfriend right after entering school? You're doing well, kid!"

"She's not from our school, and she's not my girlfriend yet." Lu Mingfei shook his head slightly.

"Huh? That's a high school classmate? A young, unspoken crush?" Old Tang rolled his eyes, giving an "I get it all" look. "I'm not saying you're too timid, Mingming. If you like her, just go after her. It doesn't matter if she already has a boyfriend."

"How can you not confess to the girl you like? Are you planning to take this secret to your grave? As long as she agrees, that's enough. Even if they're engaged, I'll accompany you to the wedding to grab the bride. If that guy dares to take out the ring, I'll snatch it away and swallow it on the spot!"

Old Tang said viciously, standing up and slamming the old table.

Lu Mingfei looked at Old Tang, who looked ferocious but also quite funny, and couldn't help laughing for a moment. These words sounded too familiar.

Mr. Kenjiro, the owner of the izakaya, once told him that he would get the girl he liked even if he had to fight for her. Chu Zihang also said that he would accompany him to smash the axle of the wedding car. Now Old Tang is even more ruthless and said that he would eat the girl's ring?

What hilarious remarks! A man has been living alone in an empty house since his wife died for decades; a man would think a woman has a fever even if she takes off all her clothes in front of him; a man has lived for thousands of years and has never remarried... What's the difference between these guys saying such things and materialists talking about believing in ghosts in this world?

These awkward guys always feel deeply saddened by other people's affairs, with an air of "no one knows more than I do" and a commanding air of "no one understands more than I do." They think they know everything about women in the world just because they've read a few books, seen a few literary films, and learned a few stereotypes. A nod from a girl means yes, a shake of the head means she's having a hard time. Anyway, if a guy falls in love with a woman, they'll help him get her no matter what, no matter what. They'll take any woman in the world they see fit...

Hey, is this a real brother? Stupid or not?

Lu Mingfei hit Lao Tang on the shoulder. He wanted to scold him, but when the words came to his lips, he couldn't say the word "stupid".

Who else would say these stupid things to you and drag you into doing stupid things with you? What is a true brother? This is a true brother!

Looking at the silly Old Tang, Lu Mingfei felt like drinking for the first time in his life.

After ordering a few bottles of low-proof liquor, Lu Mingfei gradually opened up. With the wine and youthful spirit, it seemed as if the originally salty and spicy food on the table became more palatable.

"Don't guess blindly, Old Tang. We are not classmates from college or high school... The girl I like is in Tokyo!" Lu Mingfei said, shaking his head. His face flushed slightly, not knowing whether it was because he took a sip of wine or because of the girl in his heart.

"Japanese chicks?" Old Tang took a sip of his wine, shuddered, and slapped Lu Mingfei's shoulder. "Not bad, kid, Japanese chicks are going to be a hit right now. Hurry up and get them, and bring glory to the country! You're a real talent!"

Old Tang's big hand hit Lu Mingfei's shoulder hard, making him grimace in pain.

"Stop joking. She's the eldest daughter of a gangster family. I'm worried about how to get to know her." Lu Mingfei shook his wine glass, with a hint of distress between his brows.

"Tsk tsk tsk, you're quite something, Mingming. I originally thought she was just a Japanese schoolgirl or something. A gang princess? You're so ambitious, you're worthy of being my brother!" Old Tang clinked his wine glass against Lu Mingfei's, making a crisp sound. "Although I've never been involved in the underworld, there are many gangs in the United States. As a bounty hunter, I'm sure I've had dealings with them more than once. In short, gangsters and bounty hunters are the same. They're all people of the underworld. What does being a gangster mean? Just one word!"

"Yi?" Lu Mingfei took another sip of wine and asked following Old Tang's words.

"It's 'Who cares? Just do it!'" Old Tang stepped onto the bench and took another sip of the wine in his glass with great enthusiasm.

“Brother, these are eleven words…” Lu Mingfei rolled his eyes.

"It's all the same." Old Tang waved his hand nonchalantly. "Anyway, this is an eternal truth that has existed since Adam and Eve created mankind. It doesn't matter if it's a gangster's daughter. Listen, brother. Don't use any fancy tricks. Just get straight to the point. The simpler the better. The more brutal the better!"

"Why do I feel like you're driving..." Lu Mingfei said uncertainly, "But the situation here might be different from what you think. Not to mention that behemoth family, that underworld princess herself is very... awesome."

"Very awesome? How awesome can it be?" Old Tang raised his eyebrows and asked in disbelief.

"Well... let me put it this way, if you who are standing in front of me are at the same level as the river monster, then I am at the same level as the monkey monster." Lu Mingfei made an analogy.

"That's pretty good! What about that girl?" Old Tang asked.

"He's probably on the same level as Tathagata Buddha's father." Lu Mingfei said lightly.

"Ahem!" Old Tang instantly choked on the Mapo Tofu. He slapped his chest a few times before the food subsided, dragging out the words with a long, upward syllable. "So... awesome?"

"Yeah." Lu Mingfei nodded. "There's another bad guy who's after that girl. He's also very difficult to deal with, more difficult than you might imagine!"

Tachibana Masamune, the patriarch of the eight snake families in Japan, Herzog, that nightmare intertwined with blood red and white, the guy who took away the girl's life and hope.

Whenever he thought of that guy, Lu Mingfei felt as if there was a ball of burning flame burning his internal organs!

If he hadn't had that dream, hadn't read that book, he might have remained a lifelong loser, right? Forced into over-the-top missions, only able to crack jokes and act cute along the way, with two godlike brothers as his backers, while he simply followed along, waiting for the mission's end to continue snatching pizza from his good-for-nothing senior brother and idling away his days.

But he read the book in his dream, the book that predicted his tragic life.

If reading about the loser meeting Nuonuo in the cinema during Shilan Middle School was like seeing the first ray of light in life, then reading about the little monster was like seeing a whole world that would shine.

The girl suddenly broke into his world, like a circle of light on the edge of a curtain, incredibly beautiful and touching.

He is a hopeless loser, and she is the eldest daughter of a gangster family. The thread of fate is entangled between them in an unclear way.

He played video games with her, watched Gundam with her, and drank a cup of steaming milk with her before going to bed.

He accompanied her shopping, went to haunted houses, and went to Meiji Jingu Shrine and Tokyo Skytree with her.

He took her to family dinners, took her on adventures around the world, and took her to the mountains of Umezuji-machi to watch the sunset while they hugged each other.

She told him, "The world is gentle."

When Lu Mingfei read this, he laughed secretly in his quilt in the middle of the night and woke up his cousin Lu Mingze who was standing next to him.

He thought that his fate as a loser was finally over, and that marrying a beautiful, rich woman and reaching the pinnacle of life was just around the corner. A glorious future was beckoning him.

But what did he do?

In the end, the girl, drained of her blood by Herzog, still clings to Sakura, hoping he'll come and save her; and what about him? He sits in a warm tavern, drinking, counting on his fingers whether it's worth sacrificing a quarter of his life for Eri.

Until he saw Eri's shriveled body.

Until he saw Eri's toys, which had Eri and Sakura's Rilakkuma, Yellow Chicken, Hello Kitty and Rubber Duck written on them.

Until he saw the cell phone that exposed Eri's location. The photo on the cell phone showed his back sitting next to the shrine in the sunset, which the girl treasured as a treasure.

Until he saw the girl's silly and cute words written on the back of each postcard.

"04.24, go to Tokyo Sky Tree with Sakura, the warmest place in the world is at the top of the Sky Tree."

"04.26, I went to Meiji Shrine with Sakura. Someone was holding a wedding there."

"04.25, went to Disney with Sakura. The haunted house was scary, but it wasn't scary because Sakura was there."

"Sakura is the best."

Every one of these silly sentences tries to express "I like someone", "I like someone" and "I like someone".

Until he realized that he could be a girl's whole world...

He said to her as she died, "The world is so cruel."

After reading this, Lu Mingfei’s dream was shattered.

That night he cried until his tears dried up and he couldn't open his eyes. He pinched his arms until they were covered with purple bruises, but he knew that even if he tortured himself to the point where he couldn't move, he wouldn't be in even one ten-thousandth as much pain as the girl.

"Fuck...how could there be such a bastard..."

In the darkness, the boy asked himself hoarsely.

……

"Damn it, what's the difference between thinking about my brother's woman and stepping on me and peeing and shitting on me?" Old Tang slammed his wine glass on the table. "I, Old Tang, don't have much else to offer, but I'm strong and I'm a worthless person. When the time comes, remember to call me. No matter how tough that guy is, I'll just beat him to death!"

Lu Mingfei looked up at the man in front of him who was shouting that he would throw his life behind his back. The man's eyebrows, which had been drooping for a long time, were now raised high in anger, as if he wanted to poke a hole in the sky. The bottom of his wine glass hit the table, leaving a hideous crack, and the fire in his words seemed to set the world on fire.

The man looked extremely angry... no longer happy.

Lu Mingfei looked at the angry Old Tang. He was suddenly stunned, and there seemed to be something wet swirling in his eyes.

The dream of predicting the future did not bring Lu Mingfei a life of cheating, but a burden as heavy as a mountain!

He wanted to save Old Tang, he wanted to redeem his senior brother, and even more so, he wanted to keep his girl safe and secure... He wanted to sever all the heartbreaking regrets that were entangled by the hooks of fate...

So he sweated profusely in the kendo hall and fought more fiercely than anyone else, because he desperately wanted to grow up, to grow up enough to protect Old Tang, his senior brother, Eri, and all the people he cared about, and to shelter them from the wind and rain.

Lu Mingfei thinks about saving this and that every day. He thinks his senior brother has a weird personality and Caesar is too immature.

But what about him? In fact, his life was more tiring than anyone else's...

Then he forgot that it was not just him who wanted to save others. These important people who were written in the boy's notebook day after day and kept in his heart had also been supporting him firmly!

Just like when Chu Zihang felt that Lu Mingfei needed his help, he agreed without knowing the reason.

Just like now, Old Tang is standing on a high chair, angrily saying that he will help him defeat the bad guys who are eyeing his girl, and it doesn’t matter if he loses his life!

It turns out that I... am no longer that lonely kid.

"Then... fuck him!"

The boy suddenly stood up and clinked glasses with his friend. The old dining table collapsed with a loud bang from his slap. In the cloud of dust, two glasses collided with each other with a loud bang.

Through tearful eyes, the boys have grown up, and they are making...the vows that belong to men!

Chapter 92 Hunter Internet Cafe

At night, after Old Tang took Lu Mingfei to visit several famous attractions, they walked into an Internet cafe called "Chapman" in Brooklyn under the cover of darkness.

The black boss in a white vest was slumped in front of the counter, smoking a cheap cigar that he had rolled himself. He was completely immersed in the gray smoke. Lu Mingfei stood in the distance and frowned as he smelled the smell. The pungent smell of smoke seemed to penetrate every pore of his body, but the boss had an intoxicated look on his face as if he was enjoying it.

Old Tang stood in front of the counter, holding his nose, and handed over US dollars and a black wallet to the boss to open two connected computers. Lu Mingfei looked into the Internet cafe.

At first, Lu Mingfei thought it was an informal internet cafe. After all, two letters on the neon sign at the door were off, and "Chapman" became "ha man". Moreover, the narrow door frame of the entrance to the internet cafe was crooked, and there were messy footprints on the torn newspaper in front of the door.

But the environment inside was actually much better than he had imagined. The scale of the Internet cafe was slightly larger than the average domestic Internet cafe. Even the rows of computers were basically equipped with privacy fences, and the display screens were all the latest LCD screens. The configuration looked quite good.

The most important thing is... there is not a single minor among the sparsely populated people sitting in the Internet cafe!

No wonder the business of this Internet cafe seems to be slow, Lu Mingfei thought.

"Damn it, they raised the price again. This black-hearted internet cafe will go bankrupt sooner or later!" Old Tang threw the US dollar meat bun to the dog and took back the black wallet with a curse.

Old Tang pulled Lu Mingfei to the innermost part of the Internet cafe. Cigarette butts and empty mineral water bottles were scattered on the dusty carpet under their feet. Old Tang did not deliberately avoid them. He stepped on the cigarette butts and kicked the mineral water bottles, making them "bang bang" sounds, as if to vent his dissatisfaction with the boss who had a black skin and an even blacker heart.

"There should be many Internet cafes in New York with better environments than this one, right? How about we go to another one?" Lu Mingfei asked tentatively.

At the same time, his peripheral vision also peeked into the depths of every row of seats he passed by. This Internet cafe, or to be more precise, the people in the Internet cafe, were very strange, so strange that... there was even a hint of weirdness!

Normally, an Internet cafe should be filled with noise and insults. Lu Mingfei would not be surprised even by the sounds of people smashing computers and keyboards. However, this Internet cafe was too quiet. Everyone sat at the innermost part of a row of seats, and the sound of typing on the keyboard was light and slow, as if they were doing something and were afraid of being disturbed.

Even when Old Tang passed by and kicked the empty bottles, he failed to attract the attention of the few people. They huddled in the corner with headphones on their heads, their attention focused on the screen in front of them, concentrating intently, which made Lu Mingfei inexplicably think of some kind of rat hiding in the gutter, afraid to see the light.

Old Tang led Lu Mingfei to the corner of the last row. He pressed the power button on the main chassis of the two computers, and then curled up in the innermost part of the gaming chair.

"Even though the environment here is bad and the boss is a rip-off, I usually only go to this internet cafe when I'm surfing the internet in Brooklyn. Do you know why?" Old Tang slumped in his gaming chair, rubbing his hands vigorously.

"Maybe I guessed it..." Lu Mingfei looked at the extremely familiar Windows XP desktop wallpaper flashing on the LCD screen. Under the blue sky and curling white clouds was a lush green grassland.

Many people think that this seemingly beautiful photo has been synthesized or photoshopped. In fact, it is not. This is a beautiful scene that American photographer Charles Olier accidentally saw while traveling in California in 1996 and recorded with his camera. Lu Mingfei read about it in the American "National Geographic" magazine.

"This is probably a...Hunter Internet Cafe?" Lu Mingfei said.

"Sure, Mingming, how did you guess that?" Old Tang used the mouse to connect his QQ to the computer, then turned to look at Lu Mingfei, surprise written all over his face.

"How could a normal internet cafe be this quiet? And, Old Tang, you know I'm pretty good at gaming. Even though I can't see other people's computer screens, I can see how often they click their mice and type on their keyboards. So, I can tell there aren't many people in this internet cafe playing games. Is that reasonable?"

"And this internet cafe, located in such a secluded alley, doesn't even allow minors? How does the owner make money? Come on, this is America, the land of freedom."

"There are so many details like this, the most crucial point is..."

"This internet cafe is called 'Chapman'. It's a tribute to Duane Chapman, right? Nicknamed 'Hound' and 'Bounty King', he's the most famous bounty hunter in the world. I've read about his deeds."

There was a gleam of wisdom in Lu Mingfei's eyes. This was the profiling ability he had secretly cultivated over the past three years. The future was extremely difficult and the battlefield was unpredictable. He didn't want to be a warrior who had lost his brain.

To compete with an old fox like Herzog, who is both scheming and cunning, one must have a clear mind and strong analytical skills.

Besides, Lu Mingfei had a vague premonition that Herzog might not be his ultimate enemy.

"You're quite clever! I think you're more suited to being a bounty hunter than I am!" Old Tang scratched his messy hair and praised Lu Mingfei generously. "But it's not quite right to say this is a complete hunter internet cafe. Although most of the people who come here are hunters, the owner doesn't restrict ordinary people from entering."

"So, Old Tang, you brought me here because you have some mission to check out, or... are you still concerned about the 'Skinner' you mentioned during the day?" Lu Mingfei deliberately lowered his voice when he said the second half of the sentence.

"Of course not! We have more important things to do!"

"You obviously don't know, I'm almost dying of itchiness. After you left, my loneliness is like a torrent of spring water, and I can't find anyone who can satisfy me all year round!"

Old Tang kept rubbing his hands, his eyes full of heat as he looked at Lu Mingfei.

"It's like a surging river... Old Tang, your choice of words is still so dramatic." Lu Mingfei looked around at the quiet surroundings and hesitated. "Speaking of which... are we really going to do this here?"

"Come on Mingming, I've been waiting for this moment for a long time!"

Old Tang rolled up his sleeves and impatiently tapped a familiar icon in the corner of the computer screen.

Starcraft.

……

The two fought for six consecutive games, each with three wins. Lu Mingfei played Zerg in all six games. As to whether he was letting the opponent win or giving it his all, only he knew.

Perhaps it was because he was too tired from his part-time job as a security guard and he drank a lot of wine during the day, Old Tang had fallen asleep on the table. Lu Mingfei adjusted Old Tang's chair to a position that would not hurt his spine and then put his coat on his shoulders.