Chapter One: Dark Rain of the Torrent (1)

July 4, 2004. Typhoon "Dandelion" made landfall, unleashing an extraordinary downpour upon the city.

Raindrops pattered relentlessly against the outer walls of the teaching building, streaming down the facade and gathering beneath the eaves, forming a curtain of rain.

Lu Mingfei stood before this rain curtain, staring blankly at the scattered luxury cars parked across the playground.

Just minutes earlier, the eaves had been crowded with students from Shilan Middle School, clad in uniforms, eagerly watching for their rides.

But as the rain intensified, the playground was covered with frothy splashes, making it impossible to distinguish which car belonged to whom.

The boys plunged headfirst into the downpour, wandering haphazardly among the crookedly parked private cars.

After half the cars splashed away, the remaining girls found their vehicles easily, and the flow of cars seemed choreographed—departing together in unison.

In the blink of an eye, the playground emptied, save for a few solitary vehicles lingering in the rainy veil, their wipers flickering and yellow headlights wavering.

“Almost a month back in this world, and I still can’t get used to being a middle schooler again,” Lu Mingfei murmured.

Above Tokyo Bay, to avenge Eri, Lu Mingfei had exchanged his life with Lu Mingze, only to be defeated by Herzog, who had stolen the blood of the White King.

He had thought death was certain, yet unexpectedly, he was reborn in the world of Japanese animation.

He had repeated his freshman year in "Hyouka," his sophomore year in "Spring Thing," and his senior year in "Practical Teaching." Finally graduating high school, he found himself transported back to start again from ninth grade.

The torrential rain battered on, the sky-blue school flag of Shilan Middle School fluttered stubbornly in the fierce gale against the gloomy backdrop.

Lu Mingfei knew, of course, that none of the remaining cars were there to pick him up. Yet sometimes he couldn’t help but fantasize that one might suddenly burst through the rain and silence, stop before him, and someone would step out to open the passenger door.

Maybe it would be his parents, whom he had never met in his memory, or perhaps a flamboyant girl with red hair and high heels.

But these remained mere fantasies—the cars held no parents, no red-haired beauties, only waiting parents or drivers fetching their own children.

At this moment, even his worthless senior brother had only just entered Kassel Academy a couple of years ago, and Nono was still unknown as the school tyrant somewhere.

That red Ferrari would not arrive until three years later, driving into his life like a scene from The Matrix, opening another door to his destiny.

...

Lu Mingfei suddenly recalled a quote he had seen somewhere: "When it rains, it is the clouds falling into the water."

He couldn’t quite remember the exact words. It seemed to be by an Argentine blind writer, something like Borges, a four-character name, from a poetry collection Chen Wenwen had slipped him when he secretly admired her.

Whether the clouds fell into the water or not, Lu Mingfei did not know. But if the rain didn’t stop soon, he would soon be soaked through and through.

He desperately wanted to call his uncle and aunt, take a chance. Not because he expected them to pick him up, but because in such heavy rain, they surely wouldn’t leave Lu Mingze out in the downpour.

If they were driving out to fetch Lu Mingze, maybe they could swing by and pick him up, too.

---

But he didn’t have a phone now.

His first-ever phone had been a black Nokia N96, sent along with his acceptance letter from Kassel Academy.

Years later, Nokia had been phased out of the market, replaced by Apple as the symbol of high-end phones. Yet in 2008, owning a Nokia N96 was still quite a status symbol.

In his class, only a few, like Zhao Menghua and Su Xiaoqiang, could afford the Nokia N96.

Zhao Menghua often clipped his phone to his waist in a SwissGEAR half-case of calf leather, with the "NOKIA" logo and camera module deliberately exposed, like an imperial envoy flaunting a pardon token, lest anyone miss it.

People often said Zhao Menghua was the "Second Chu Zihang," but Lu Mingfei thought their personalities were worlds apart.

The poker-faced senior brother wouldn’t show off like that. His character was more cold on the outside but warm within, usually low-key but turning stylish with you in critical moments—a classic "quietly passionate" type.

The rain showed no sign of letting up. Lu Mingfei sighed, realizing waiting under the eaves was no solution. He decided to return to the teaching building to see if he could find a familiar classmate and borrow a phone to call his uncle and aunt.

Inside, the teaching building felt dim and asleep, with only faint corridor lights stubbornly casting a cold glow.

Lu Mingfei climbed from the first to the second floor. Most classrooms were dark, indicating everyone had already left.

With such heavy rain, surely very few remained in the whole school.

On the third floor, he finally saw one classroom faintly lit in the darkness.

A girl stood outside the door, backpack on, gripping the straps tightly. She balanced on her toes, then dropped down, a silver Hello Kitty hairpin dangling from the tip of her long hair.

She looked furtive and anxious, as if about to do something secretive and important.

“Liu Miaomiao? Thank goodness, finally someone I know. Do you have a phone? Could I borrow it to make a call?” Lu Mingfei asked.

The girl was startled by the sudden voice, pausing a few seconds before turning around. Seeing him, she nearly swore.

“Lu... Lu Mingfei, you’re…” she stammered.

Liu Miaomiao glanced sideways at the classroom door behind her and swallowed the rest of her words. Lowering her voice, she whispered, “What are you doing at school? Why haven’t you gone home yet?”

“It’s pouring outside. I can’t leave yet. I just want to borrow a phone to call home,” Lu Mingfei replied in one breath, not asking why she hadn’t left either.

He had already spotted her black BMW downstairs, its large “angel eyes” still shining through the rain.

“Do you have a phone? Can I borrow it to make a call?” he repeated.

Liu Miaomiao gripped her backpack straps and fell silent.

They were classmates but not close. Every class had a few students whose interests and social circles were worlds apart.

The glamorous stand quietly surrounded by crowds, while the unnoticed survived by playing the fool, earning reluctant entry into social circles.

Liu Miaomiao was undoubtedly the former; Lu Mingfei was the latter.

Yet she wasn’t so stingy. Even to a distant classmate, she would lend her phone without hesitation.

Only now her phone’s lock screen was a photo of Chu Zihang, secretly taken at the school sports meet, and she hadn’t gotten around to changing it.

Seeing her remain silent, Lu Mingfei glanced into the lit classroom through the glass window, catching a familiar silhouette. In that instant, he understood everything.

He suddenly felt a strange kinship with Chen Wenwen and Liu Miaomiao—perhaps only slightly less than with Zhao Menghua.

Both Chen Wenwen and Liu Miaomiao had been glimpsed by him during their low moments.

He had encountered a disheveled, pitiful Chen Wenwen, rejected by Zhao Menghua, in the girls’ restroom; now he saw Liu Miaomiao lurking beside the classroom door, feigning a chance meeting with Chu Zihang.

In high school, everyone knew the piano beauty Liu Miaomiao secretly admired Chu Zihang, just as everyone knew he secretly admired Chen Wenwen.

Yet neither Liu Miaomiao nor he found happiness. After surrendering to "Second Chu Zihang" Zhao Menghua, Liu Miaomiao was discarded; Chen Wenwen was also taken by Zhao Menghua.

Damn… suddenly he felt Liu Miaomiao and he made quite the pair.

But at this moment, Liu Miaomiao, like him, was still in ninth grade, to meet Zhao Menghua and Chen Wenwen only after summer break entering tenth grade.

It wasn’t that she wasn’t worthy of the poker-faced senior brother—it was that he simply didn’t like anyone, Lu Mingfei thought.

“If you don’t have a phone either, I’ll just go ask senior... I mean, ask Chu senior to borrow his,” Lu Mingfei said, sensing Liu Miaomiao’s reluctance and offering her a graceful way out.

Ask Chu senior?

Liu Miaomiao suddenly looked up, blinking in surprise at Lu Mingfei.

Could Chu senior really mean Chu Zihang?

Her lips parted to ask, “Are you close with Chu Zihang senior?” but before the question escaped, Lu Mingfei strode past her to the classroom door, lit brightly.

As if stepping onto a grand stage.