Chapter 22: Do You Believe in Light or Aliens?

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The enormous conference room seemed somewhat empty.

At the large conference table, which could easily seat several dozen people, only two girls in Cassell College uniforms were seated.

One was Nono, whom he had met twice before. The other was a sweetly smiling girl who appeared as gentle and virtuous as a classic Yamato Nadeshiko, with a rose-red lace cravat tucked into her collar.

The latter rose and bowed to Lu Mingfei in the quintessential Japanese fashion.

“My name is Aki Sakuragi. I’m also one of the examiners for this interview.”

The red-haired girl beside her was more casual and merely nodded.

“Chen Motong. Same position.”

“I’m Lu Mingfei.”

After the brief exchange of pleasantries, Lu Mingfei had no intention of showing off his Japanese.

If Aki Sakuragi had been the only one there, he might have returned the courtesy by greeting her in her native language.

Unfortunately, there was also someone present who was always trying to trick him into revealing something. Better to treat everyone equally and avoid giving her any opportunity to nitpick.

That was the adult world for you: the more you did, the more mistakes you made; the less you did, the fewer mistakes you made.

Everyone took their seats. Ye Sheng opened his notebook and looked Lu Mingfei straight in the eye.

“Then let’s begin.”

Three handsome men and beautiful women sat in a row. Never mind how devious their questions might be—their exceptional looks alone were enough to put considerable pressure on any interviewee.

No wonder Su Xiaoqiang had been the only one able to maintain such an aggressive air earlier.

Lu Mingfei cast aside his distracting thoughts and nodded.

He quickly ran through the bilingual interview questions Old Tang had obtained for him. He felt terrifyingly well prepared.

Aki Sakuragi spoke in a soft, gentle voice. Her first question was not the expected “Please introduce yourself” or “Why are you applying to our school?” Instead, it was something utterly baffling.

“Do you believe in aliens?”

At that, Lu Mingfei’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

If he had not swiftly surveyed the room upon entering and found no hidden cameras or recording devices—and if Cassell College were not genuinely loaded with money—he would have thought this was some kind of street prank.

Thinking of the Little Celestial Maiden’s furious accusations earlier and the first bombshell served up by the Yamato Nadeshiko before him, Lu Mingfei had a rough idea of where this interview was headed.

If nothing unexpected happened, something unexpected was definitely about to happen.

Hah. As expected of Cassell. It always managed to come up with some new trick.

The corner of his mouth lifted.

“Believe.”

Since they were refusing to follow the usual script, then fine. Let’s see who had more tricks—or countertricks.

It was a pity that all of Old Tang’s painstaking effort had been thoroughly wasted by this bunch of lunatics from Cassell College.

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His minute change in expression did not escape the three examiners opposite him, but none of them offered any explanation for a question that so blatantly violated common sense.

Don’t ask. If you ask, the answer is simply: the client said so.

Aki Sakuragi’s expression remained impassive. The gentle sweetness of the Yamato Nadeshiko had vanished completely. Now she resembled an emotionless interviewing machine. There was no chance of reading any feedback from her face.

“Oh? And why do you believe?”

Why did he believe?

What kind of ridiculous question was that?

Did they expect him to take a fishing rod to the Bermuda Triangle, haul up a few dead extraterrestrials, and then excitedly tell them:

“Hey, look, guys! These are aliens. Jeremy Wade and I caught them together.”

Why not just ask him to prove that he was himself, that his mother was his mother, and that he had been born by his mother rather than his father?

Lu Mingfei maintained his smile.

“Five years ago, an Ultraman named Diga borrowed my light. He still hasn’t returned it, and as a result, my life has been shrouded in darkness ever since.”

“Very good. You like watching Diga Ultraman, and you believe in the light.”

Aki Sakuragi recorded this with utmost seriousness, apparently failing to realize that Lu Mingfei was making a joke.

All right. Japanese people tended to be rather rigid at work. Perhaps she simply did not enjoy tokusatsu.

But why was Ye Sheng looking so serious too?

Shouldn’t he have given Lu Mingfei an approving look and indicated that he, too, had once encountered that deadbeat who borrowed his light and never returned it?

Unlike the mature and serious upperclassmen, the red-haired girl beside them pressed her lips together slightly, seemingly amused by the reference.

“So the alien in your mind is Diga Ultraman—with a timer on his chest, who raises his hand and goes pew-pew-pew while firing beams of light?”

“It’s the Zepellion Ray, thank you very much,” Lu Mingfei corrected Chen Motong.

Ye Sheng gave a light cough, signaling his junior not to derail the conversation.

Aki Sakuragi coordinated with him perfectly. Once the interviewee’s attention had been brought back, she continued.

“Second question: do you believe in superpowers?”

“I do. Of course I do.”

By now, Lu Mingfei had completely treated the interview as a farce, humoring a group of youngsters in their nonsense.

Although he was already a father, he was only a few years older than Ye Sheng and Aki Sakuragi in actual age. His mind was still young, and he had none of the paternal airs of an old man.

Besides, when it came to superpowers, plenty of people online had claimed that he possessed some kind of innate esports constitution or an omnipotent gaming system after he had won championships across multiple fields.

In truth, he felt his talent was nothing special.

The only thing worth mentioning might be his body’s immunity to every illness.

If he passed that on to his children, they could live their entire lives safe from sickness and pain.

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“Why do you believe?”

Aki Sakuragi seemed determined to get to the bottom of every answer. This time, however, she wore an encouraging smile, making it difficult to feel much irritation toward her.

Lu Mingfei subconsciously glanced at the wound that had already scabbed over. Three terrible pieces of news he had learned yesterday flashed through his mind, and his voice suddenly grew heavy.

“If there were no superpowers, this world would be far too despairing.”

It was like Batman possessing the unrivaled superpower of money, yet still being unable to travel through time and save his parents.

If Lu Mingfei possessed the Speed Force, perhaps he could travel through time, change the past, and return to that night when the typhoon was howling to save Old Chu one more time.

His answer caused all three examiners to sit up a little straighter, and their gazes toward him grew considerably sharper.

What exactly did it mean for him to say something like that? Had he already noticed something, or was his Blood Sorrow so overwhelming that it had driven him to despair of the world?

Ye Sheng and Aki Sakuragi were pondering the possible metaphor hidden in Lu Mingfei’s words, but Nono’s gaze had fallen upon his right hand.

She remembered that Lu Mingfei’s hand had been uninjured when they parted yesterday. How had he managed to get hurt and develop a scab in the space of one night?

Something was strange.

Could this guy have awakened on his own already?

Perhaps sensing that her stare had become too obvious, Lu Mingfei drew his hand back slightly, though he did not try to hide it.

The red-haired girl raised her eyes and met a gaze that seemed to say, “I never knew you were a hand fetishist. Your stare is getting a little lewd.”

Nono was just about to retaliate with her eyes when Aki Sakuragi asked another question.

“Third question: do you believe the foundation of human existence is idealistic—the mind and the soul—or materialistic—matter and the flesh?”

The leap between this question and the previous two was somewhat excessive. The difference in difficulty was roughly equivalent to asking an elementary school student to solve calculus, and it successfully stumped Lu Mingfei.

Before his rebirth, he had been a staunch materialist, bold enough to tell every demon and spirit, “If you’ve got the guts, show me your health bar. Then we’ll see whether I can cut you down.”

But after returning to the age of seventeen, both his matter and his flesh had undergone earth-shaking changes. The only things that had remained unchanged were his mind and soul.

From the standpoint of faith, he ought to stand firmly with materialism.

But from a personal and emotional standpoint, he hoped that he could reunite with his wife and children in this world as well.

So…

Only children make choices.

Adults, naturally, want everything.

“Both, I suppose.”

Lu Mingfei was, after all, a high school graduate. He still had a little learning left in his stomach.

“A body without a soul is merely a walking corpse. A soul without a body is merely a wandering ghost.”

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