Chapter Nineteen: Three Pieces of News

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The QQ page suddenly popped open, showing two messages.

The first was a friend request notification: “RoseiraSu (2777XXXX) wants to add you as a friend. Message: Su Xiaoqiang.”

Even without the note, Lu Mingfei recognized the QQ name as Su Xiaoqiang’s.

Back in Lu Mingfei’s middle school days, internet nicknames like “Hair Like Snow,” “Fishing Boat at Dusk,” and “Pretty Piggy” were common. Among the people he knew, only Su Xiaoqiang had such a stylish, foreign-sounding username.

Roseira was Su Xiaoqiang’s foreign name, followed by Su, her surname.

During high school, Lu Mingfei had once attended a flipped classroom taught by a foreign teacher, who asked everyone to pick an English name. That was when Su Xiaoqiang chose the name Roseira.

For quite some time, Lu Mingfei thought Roseira was just an English name.

It was only when he happened to flip through a dictionary that he realized Roseira was actually a Portuguese word, meaning “rose bush.”

The only thing that surprised Lu Mingfei was that Su Xiaoqiang’s avatar was still Asuka from Evangelion.

Lu Mingfei clicked “Accept” on the friend request.

The second message came from Liu Miaomiao, whose avatar was Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura, bouncing up and down:

“Xiyu Huai: The dates for the graduation trip have been set: July 15 to July 17. We’re going to the capital for three days and two nights. Teacher Zhang and Teacher Chen will accompany us. Remember to prepare everything you need in advance.”

Teacher Zhang was their junior high homeroom teacher, and Teacher Chen was their PE teacher.

After all, they were still a group of underage junior high graduates, each a young master or young lady. The school and parents wouldn’t be comfortable letting them go out alone, so having teachers accompany them was understandable.

The 17th, huh…

Was it also from the 15th to the 17th that I went on a trip in my past life?

Lu Mingfei scratched his head, trying to recall, but couldn’t remember. He gave up and replied, “Okay.”

No sooner had he sent the message than Liu Miaomiao replied, “Mm-hmm.”

Such a polite response left Lu Mingfei at a loss for what to say next, so he closed the chat window and returned to his desktop.

“StarCraft, activate!”

Just as he launched StarCraft, the QQ penguin flashed again with its annoying notification sound.

Lu Mingfei reluctantly clicked it open—it was yet another friend request, this time with a dark-themed landscape avatar.

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“Chu Zihang (5961XXXX) wants to add you as a friend. Message: I am Chu Zihang.”

“……”

So straightforward—this must be the poker-faced senior’s style of QQ name.

Lu Mingfei had met Chu Zihang only in university in his previous life.

By then, all of Chu Zihang’s online names, including his forum ID at Kassel Academy, had been changed to “Murasame.”

So Lu Mingfei really had no idea what usernames Chu Zihang used earlier on.

But the ID “Murasame” was pretty straightforward too—straightforward, cool, and a bit dramatic, evoking the image of a cold and deadly swordsman at a glance.

Lu Mingfei clicked “Accept.”

“Is there something you need, Senior Chu?” Lu Mingfei typed.

The chat window showed “typing” for a while before the reply came: “Are you home now?”

Lu Mingfei answered, “Yes.”

“Is it convenient for you to come out for a bit?”

“What’s up?”

“Not convenient?”

Lu Mingfei thought to himself, this is hardly a question. It’s like Zhang Mazi politely asking Master Tang if it’s okay to tell him where the money is after setting the alarm clock. How could he say it’s not convenient?

“Convenient, convenient,” Lu Mingfei quickly replied.

Still, he felt a bit flattered that Chu Zihang had taken the initiative to reach out. It wasn’t for any particular reason—just that in his past life, he had little ability and always relied on his seniors’ care.

This time, with more experience than Chu Zihang and the ability to look after his poker-faced senior, he was more than willing to do his best to help…

“Good. Do you know where Open Mind is?”

Of course, Lu Mingfei knew. Open Mind was a fairly well-known private café in the area.

By 2004, coffee culture had gradually become trendy among young people in first-tier and quasi-first-tier cities.

Sometimes when walking home, Lu Mingfei would see young urban white-collar workers inside Open Mind working on their laptops. Occasionally, a student or two from Shilan Middle School would come all the way there just to buy coffee.

Lu Mingfei had only been once, with Chen Wenwen and other members of the literature club.

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The place was only about a few dozen square meters, with white walls and orange paint, very bright, and warm yellow lamps hanging from the ceiling. One wall was decorated with replicas of contemporary impressionist oil paintings and a whole row of books—very bourgeois in style. The counter held two supposedly Italian-imported coffee machines, grinding fresh beans on the spot, and the prices were steep. It was a bit far from Shilan Middle School.

Lu Mingfei didn’t understand why foreigners needed all those fancy machines just to drink soy milk. Why not just use a soy milk maker and a filter like Chinese people do? Capitalism must be bored out of its mind.

“I know it,” Lu Mingfei replied.

“Alright. It’s two o’clock now. Can you get there by three?” Chu Zihang asked.

“Should be able to.”

“Okay, three o’clock. I’ll wait for you at Open Mind. Don’t be late.”

After sending the message, the dark-themed landscape avatar instantly grayed out. No wonder he was called the poker-faced senior—he logs off fast. Lu Mingfei wanted to chat a bit more and ask what it was about, but since the poker-faced senior had logged off, Lu Mingfei shut down his computer too.

Lu Mingfei’s home wasn’t very close to Open Mind. Although there was a direct bus, it took a big detour. Since his senior had taken the initiative to invite him, it couldn’t hurt to leave early.

Slipping on his slippers, Lu Mingfei headed over to the refrigerator to grab a drink before leaving. Just as he was about to open it, he noticed a sticky note on the door.

“Mingfei, the toilet seat at home is broken. When you get back from school today, go buy a new one. I left the money in the TV cabinet drawer. Remember to buy it at the wholesale market, cheaper there. Don’t buy at the supermarket; things are overpriced.”

Damn! Luckily he remembered to get a drink; otherwise, he would have walked out and ended up nagged by his aunt again that night.

But the toilet seat really broke easily. He had just replaced it once, and it would probably need replacing again when he came back for summer break of his freshman year.

Well, with someone like Lu Mingze in the family, frequent breakages were understandable…

Lu Mingfei took the money from the TV cabinet drawer—just a single hundred-yuan bill. His aunt probably didn’t want to spend much, which was likely why the toilet seat kept breaking.

But toilet seats weren’t expensive. In another ten years, when online shopping became fully popular, TaoBao and Pinduoduo would sell one for a dozen yuan.

Even now, buying at the wholesale market still cost a few dozen yuan each.

Lu Mingfei slipped the red bill into his shorts’ zipper pocket, thinking he should find some way to earn extra money.

Back in the day at Kassel Academy, he had been a big spender, flashing his black card left and right. Now, he even needed Su Xiaoqiang’s help just to eat a bowl of instant noodles…

He’d think about ways to make money later. For now, he had to honor his senior’s invitation.

With that, Lu Mingfei stepped out the door.