Chapter 43 Reading Comprehension

Listening to the train, which sounded like it had emerged straight from the depths of hell, rumble away into the distance, Liu Miaomiao finally raised her head in a daze from Lu Mingfei's embrace.

"Are, are we okay?"

Liu Miaomiao remembered that just a moment ago, Lu Mingfei had held her tight and jumped down from the moving train, tumbling across the ground several times over.

She had already braced herself for the worst—expecting at the very least to be skinned alive—yet she found herself seemingly unscathed, without even a single scratch.

"I think we're okay now."

Lu Mingfei gently patted her back.

"Oh..."

Having cheated death, the two of them should probably have said something to celebrate, but Liu Miaomiao felt entirely bewildered.

Because she could feel Lu Mingfei's hand resting continuously on her back, patting, then pausing, much like someone trying to coax a child to sleep.

Such an intimate gesture clearly crossed the boundary Liu Miaomiao held in her heart, yet should she push Lu Mingfei away?

After all, Lu Mingfei had protected her throughout such a perilous moment. Allowing him to touch her now didn't seem so bad after all...

Seeing that he had patted Liu Miaomiao numerous times and yet she was still draped over him, Lu Mingfei had no choice but to say with a helpless sigh:

"Uhm, Liu Miaomiao, could you let me get up for a moment?"

Hearing this, Liu Miaomiao froze, then immediately realized that Lu Mingfei's pats were simply meant to remind her to get up.

Blushing fiercely, she scrambled off Lu Mingfei in a fluster, ending up kneeling on both knees right on top of him.

Almost instantly, however, Liu Miaomiao realized that this posture was even more compromising than the last. Panicking once more, she scrambled to her feet, pulling Lu Mingfei up along with her.

"I'm sorry," Liu Miaomiao said, kneeling to the side with a flushed face and a wronged expression.

Lu Mingfei sat up from the ground, drawing a sharp hiss of breath as the movement pulled at his torn flesh.

In truth, neither the blows inflicted by the Kamaitachi nor the injuries sustained from rolling after jumping off the train were lethally severe. Yet the sensation of torn skin and flesh hurt far beyond what he had imagined.

He could only wonder how his battle-scarred senior brother from his past life managed to endure it all without making a sound.

Seeing Lu Mingfei wincing in pain, Liu Miaomiao pressed her hands against his shoulders and looked around to examine his back.

What met her eyes was a web of torn skin and deep, jagged gashes cut like knife trenches.

Liu Miaomiao immediately clutched her mouth, as the overwhelming guilt and heartache she felt for Lu Mingfei completely conquered the churning nausea in her stomach.

"I-I'm so sorry, it's all because of me..." Liu Miaomiao burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably.

Lu Mingfei could never bear the sight of a girl crying. He wanted to comfort Liu Miaomiao, but instantly realized he lacked any experience whatsoever in comforting girls, leaving him to simply stare blankly as her shoulders shook and tears streamed down her face.

Damn it, how do they usually play out scenes like this in TV shows?

Recalling the plots of the Korean dramas his aunt loved to watch most, he hesitated for a moment before reaching out to wrap an arm around Liu Miaomiao's shoulder, gently resting her head against his chest.

"Look, stop crying. Honestly, it has nothing to do with you; I would've gotten hurt like this even if I jumped off the train by myself."

Liu Miaomiao buried her face in Lu Mingfei's chest, her hands gripping his clothes tightly as she continued to cry. That signature Hello Kitty hairpin remained stubbornly clipped in her hair.

Having survived such a heart-stopping escape, it was still clipped on as securely as ever.

"I said you had to listen to me inside the subway station, and now I'm ordering you to stop crying."

Lu Mingfei attempted a domineering-CEO-style command, but it proved entirely ineffective. He felt as though nearly half of his short-sleeved shirt was already soaked through with her tears.

"If you keep crying, I'm going to kiss you," Lu Mingfei suddenly blurted out on a whim.

The moment the words left his mouth, Lu Mingfei was instantly struck with regret. He had no idea which of his neural wires had crossed for him to utter such a threat, which sounded dangerously close to sexual harassment.

To Lu Mingfei's utter astonishment, however, the threat actually worked.

Liu Miaomiao's trembling shoulders abruptly steadied, her crying slowly tapering off. Her hands loosened their grip on his shirt and settled properly onto her knees.

She lifted her head from his chest, biting her lip. Her eyes were red and swollen, crystalline tears still clinging to her eyelashes, while a blush bloomed across her face—whether from crying too hard or for some other reason entirely.

Damn... does she really not want me to kiss her that badly?

"You were just joking when you said that, right?" Liu Miaomiao asked, wiping the tears from her face with the back of her hand.

"Which part? I just wanted to get you to stop crying, that's all," Lu Mingfei explained in a panic.

Liu Miaomiao lowered her head, nervously twisting the hem of her shirt.

"Lu Mingfei, you... you should be able to tell that my family is pretty strict about these things. And I consider myself a rather conservative girl who takes feelings very seriously and earnestly, so..."

She suddenly raised her head, locking her gaze onto Lu Mingfei's eyes. Her expression was dead serious. Taking a deep breath as if having finally made up her mind, the blush on her face still hadn't fully faded.

"So... I will only let my boyfriend kiss me."

I will only let my boyfriend kiss me? What is that supposed to mean?

Lu Mingfei froze, replaying the sentence in his head on a loop several times over, yet he still couldn't decipher this reading comprehension puzzle.

Back in school, the questions Lu Mingfei detested the most were the ones that gave you a quote and asked you to "analyze the author's intent."

What other intent could there possibly be? Wasn't the intent laid out plain as day on the surface?

Yet when it came to Liu Miaomiao's reading comprehension puzzle, Lu Mingfei couldn't even grasp the literal meaning.

On the surface, it looked like a reading comprehension question, but upon closer inspection, it felt like a multiple-choice question—except she refused to give you the options, forcing you to guess them yourself.

At the same time, it somehow resembled a necessary and sufficient condition in a math problem.

"I will only let my boyfriend kiss me"—if you invert the statement, it translates to "kiss me and you become my boyfriend."

Liu Miaomiao gazed at Lu Mingfei, and Lu Mingfei gazed back at Liu Miaomiao. Neither of them spoke a word, leaving only the chilling tunnel wind to sweep silently between them.

Lu Mingfei looked at Liu Miaomiao's peach-pink, tender lips and suddenly felt his mouth go dry.

He reached out and gently rested his hand on Liu Miaomiao's shoulder. The moment his hand touched her, her body gave a sudden, electric shiver before instantly returning to stillness.

The only difference was that the breathing of both of them had grown somewhat hurried.

"Clang—!"

A light suddenly illuminated the depths of the tunnel, and the train's horn blared, accompanied by the clatter of iron wheels pressing closer, mercilessly shattering the tense, intimate atmosphere—the next train was pulling into the station.

"Let's go." Lu Mingfei took Liu Miaomiao's hand, covering one ear against the blaring horn as he shouted, "We need to climb up to the platform quickly."

"Okay," Liu Miaomiao replied, letting Lu Mingfei guide her up as she limped slightly.

Lu Mingfei paused for a second, casting a glance at Liu Miaomiao's ankle, which was slightly red and swollen. He wondered if Lu Mingze hadn't noticed this particular injury on her earlier.

With no time to hesitate, Lu Mingfei hoisted Liu Miaomiao's legs and carried her on his back, rushing toward the platform while relying on just one free hand to climb.

Fortunately, Liu Miaomiao was extremely light—probably weighing less than ninety pounds—so a single hand was more than enough to support both their weights.

Finally, just a moment before the train was about to pull onto the platform, Lu Mingfei scrambled up onto the platform with Liu Miaomiao on his back.

Setting her down, Lu Mingfei collapsed onto the ground, huffing and puffing as he caught his breath.

"You were carrying me just now—is your back wound okay? Does it hurt..."

Liu Miaomiao hurried over to check Lu Mingfei's back, only to recoil in shock: the back that had been a bloody mess just moments before was now already scabbed over.

"Doesn't hurt at all, doesn't hurt," Lu Mingfei waved his hand dismissively.

"You saved me again just now. Thank you..."

Liu Miaomiao knelt beside Lu Mingfei, her almond-shaped eyes rolling in circles as she softly murmured two words from the corner of her lips:

"...Mingfei."