Chapter Ten: This Fiend Deserves Punishment — Lu Mingfei
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The Shilan High School Forum was originally created by several alumni who had previously been admitted to Tsinghua University, modeled after Tsinghua’s “Shuimu Tsinghua BBS.” It was an unofficial forum intended to help younger students by answering their questions and sharing experiences and lessons about advancing in their studies.
As its popularity grew, more and more students from Shilan High School flocked to the forum. However, with the increasingly nebulous atmosphere of the internet, the forum’s direction slowly deviated. It became a place where students chatted nonsense and goofed off, also serving as a flea market and a place to exchange homework answers.
Of course, times changed, and the forum’s administrators were no longer the original alumni founders. The current top administrator had also graduated from Shilan High School. His ID was Lei Xiuyuan, nicknamed Old Lei.
Some said Old Lei was a top student back in his day, consistently ranking first in the entire grade, much like Chu Zihang now. But others claimed he wasn’t a genius at all, pointing out that he did not graduate from Harvard or Cambridge, nor from Tsinghua or Peking University, not even from a top Chinese 211 university—instead, he had attended some unknown, obscure private college in America.
Yet regardless of whether Old Lei graduated from a prestigious school or some obscure American college, no one questioned his ability to manage the forum.
Because he had created the forum’s most legendary ranking list of all time—the “This Scoundrel Must Be Punished” list.
...
Old Lei, sporting huge dark circles under his eyes, stared at the glowing screen of the bulky monitor in the dark room.
If you drew a line connecting Shilan High School and Lu Mingfei’s home, Old Lei’s dingy internet cafe would be just a point on that line.
The internet cafe was thick with smoke and haze, the long fluorescent tubes casting a hazy white light through the choking smoke. A few all-nighters were sprawled crookedly in their chairs, drooling and snoring. No sunlight entered because the few windows were plastered over with game advertisements.
The floor was crisscrossed with power strips and network cables like landmine fuses. Cheap speakers played music, but it was impossible to tell the song, drowned out by the clacking of keyboards and shouting. Only the two large black exhaust fans on the wall whooshed loudly, working hard to push the air outside.
“Old Lei, I’m heading out first. Remember to put up the new game posters later,” the shop owner said after counting yesterday’s earnings and pocketing the money.
“Okay,” Old Lei replied numbly, a cigarette dangling from his lips.
With a creak, sunlight slipped in through the crack of the door.
The sudden brightness startled Old Lei, who squinted as the light was quickly blocked again by the closing door.
A life shrouded in gloom.
Old Lei stretched lazily, pulled some glue from the drawer, and picked up a stack of “MapleStory” game posters behind him.
At that moment, the computer beeped repeatedly, signaling a new post on the forum.
Curious, Old Lei leaned in to take a look.
“‘On the Fallen Lu Mingfei and His Precarious Life’... What the hell?”
He clicked on it and chuckled. It was a long, scathing article meticulously detailing Lu Mingfei’s countless misdeeds.
Mainly, it described how he approached the piano prodigy beauty of Shilan High, Liu Miaomiao, how he got close to her, how he received various invitations from her, and then how he cruelly played hard to get, rejecting her advances.
“Interesting,” Old Lei murmured, stroking his chin.
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With another creak, Lu Mingfei pushed the door open, carefully stepping around the tangled wires on the floor.
“Admin, start me up,” Lu Mingfei said, cracking his knuckles.
Old Lei looked up at him and suddenly smiled meaningfully.
“Not bad, kid. Didn’t expect this from you.”
“???” Lu Mingfei was puzzled.
“Nothing,” Old Lei said, the glowing tip of his cigarette bobbing with his words. “What brings you here this early? Skipping class?”
“No way. I graduate in June. It’s summer break now.”
“You’re just a middle schooler. Graduated or not, you’re still a kid. Are you even of legal age?”
“Heh heh, if I were, would I be here with you?”
Old Lei chuckled and returned to the front desk. He pulled open a drawer filled with tiny scraps of paper cut from cigarette packs, each inscribed with mysterious eighteen-digit numbers.
He picked one out.
“How many hours?”
“Let’s start with two.”
Old Lei tapped away at the console.
“Password 123456. Try to cram in a bit. They’ve been cracking down lately.”
“Got it.”
“By the way, want to try this?” Old Lei pointed to the pile of “MapleStory” posters on the counter. “It’s a game from Korea, just launched here. Lots of girls are playing it.”
“Oh, cool.” Lu Mingfei nodded. “I’ll try it later. First, I’ll play a couple rounds of StarCraft.”
“All right.”
Lu Mingfei clattered upstairs. Old Lei took a long drag on his cigarette, crushed it in the ashtray, then reopened the Shilan High School forum page and highlighted the new post, pinning it to the top.
After finishing, he wore a satisfied smile, grabbed the stack of posters, and stepped outside, humming a tune as he covered the sexy female characters from the “A3” posters he had put up just months before with the cute chibi characters from “MapleStory.”
A few hours later, the rumor “Lu Mingfei rejected Liu Miaomiao” spread like wildfire across several Shilan High QQ groups and the forum.
Another hour passed, and the latest “This Scoundrel Must Be Punished” list was published, and among the top fifty names was a new one: “Lu Mingfei.”
Many who hadn’t caught the gossip yet saw the new list and wondered where this so-called genius Lu Mingfei had suddenly come from.
The forum also posted a doc file detailing Lu Mingfei’s profile and reasons for making the list.
“Lu Mingfei, Class of 2001, Shilan High School Middle Division, graduated, height 173 cm, weight 62 kg, grades in the bottom 20% of his grade.
Parents unknown; currently living with his uncle and aunt; has a younger cousin in the middle school division... Photo attached.”
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The photo was Lu Mingfei’s ID photo from the entrance exam—dark circles under his eyes, head drooping, looking miserable.
“Reason for listing: rejected school belle Liu Miaomiao.”
“Latest news: According to insider intel, Liu Miaomiao isn’t giving up and has even invited Lu Mingfei on the graduation trip!”
“Damn!” “This guy really deserves to die!” “No way to go on a graduation trip with him!” “Gun in hand, follow me! Rescue the goddess, kill Lu the dog!”
The forum filled with wails from Liu Miaomiao’s supporters.
Half were outraged by this unexpected newcomer Lu Mingfei... If it had been Chu Zihang, they could understand, but this was some nobody.
Plus, his profile showed he was neither academically gifted nor athletically talented; he might look okay, but his aura screamed bad luck. How on earth did he manage to win Liu Miaomiao’s affection?
The other half regretted not acting sooner, thinking that if they’d known their goddess liked this kind of ordinary, unlucky guy, they would have made their move ages ago.
...
Of course, Lu Mingfei was completely unaware. Within hours, he would become the fastest rising dark horse ever on the “This Scoundrel Must Be Punished” list, the public enemy of countless Shilan High students—mostly male.
At that moment, his only thought was whether to play Protoss or Terran in StarCraft.
He was already tired of Zerg anyway.
He tossed his backpack onto the empty seat beside him, humming Xie Di’s “No Work Tomorrow” as he pressed the power button.
However, at this point in time, Xie Di did not yet exist, and rap was still an obscure, niche culture. So no one could recognize what Lu Mingfei was humming, and even if they did, it just sounded like a strange tune.
Reaching the desktop, Lu Mingfei easily found StarCraft, connected to the LAN, and browsed the rooms with available slots.
“There’s no高手 (experts) at this hour.”
He sighed and glanced sideways.
Just one glance, and he was stunned.
Su Xiaoqiang sat in the corner to his right, only two seats away.
The cold glow of the monitor illuminated her fair skin, softly curled hair, and long legs peeking out from beneath the blue skirt of CK. Beneath thick eyelashes, her eyes were stunningly beautiful...
Yet at this moment, those beautiful eyes were full of displeasure. No one knew which unlucky soul had offended this little goddess this time.
Well, first it was Xiamu, now Su Xiaoqiang—bulk discounts on acquaintances, huh?
Lu Mingfei was speechless.