Chapter 32: Refill My Popcorn and Coke

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The plastic bottle exploded the instant it struck his knuckles. The mineral water inside, filtered and purified through multiple stages, burst outward like scattered heavenly blossoms, baptizing the ring of high school boys who had never enjoyed such a rite at birth.

Droplets flew everywhere. The moment the boys raised their hands to shield themselves, Lu Mingfei sprang forward like a cheetah.

Given that ten of Zhao Menghua’s brothers had shown up today—

including two athletes from the school basketball team, two fat Xu twins, and six sturdy male seniors all above average—

how long would Lu Mingfei need to take control of the situation?

The answer was five seconds.

Amid the curtain of flying water, Lu Mingfei flashed before the two loudest athletes. His hands and forearms formed right angles as he thrust forward like an Azure Dragon extending its claws, the heels of his palms slamming into their completely unguarded chins.

As everyone knew, the chin was connected to the trigeminal nerve, which in turn was connected to the cerebellum. A blow to the chin could damage the cerebellum and cause the body to lose its balance.

A light strike brought dizziness; a heavy one left permanent damage.

Lu Mingfei had exquisite control over his strength. He hit just hard enough to leave the two white-socked athletes dazed without injuring their brains.

In the briefest of encounters, Zhao Menghua had lost two of his strongest fighters, while everyone else was still dodging the flying “rain curtain,” none of them knowing whether it had been mixed with Lu Mingfei’s saliva.

When the spray finally fell, two of the high school boys who had been standing beside the athletes collapsed along with them.

A sneak attack demanded speed, accuracy, and ruthlessness. Lu Mingfei had never understood the meaning of stopping once the point had been made. Kicking a dog while it was down had always come naturally to him.

After taking down the two greatest threats in the room, he smoothly swept both hands in circles. Like an eagle spreading its wings, he pressed his thumbs and fists into the Tanzhong acupoints at the centers of two boys’ chests.

Traditional Chinese medicine claimed that tapping the Tanzhong acupoint could regulate bodily functions, promote health, and prevent disease.

But excessive force could cause chest tightness, shortness of breath, and difficulty breathing—or, at worst, elevated blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat.

Lu Mingfei knew exactly how much was enough. His blows had been neither light nor heavy, just sufficient to leave the two boys lying on the floor in discomfort for a while.

Four people went down in an instant. All of them lay there with their mouths open, unable to speak or breathe, their faces suggesting they might die at any moment. Everyone in the literature club was left staring blankly.

The several strongmen who had just tried to force Lu Mingfei to apologize swallowed hard and retreated in perfect understanding, pushing forward the Xu twins, who were fat enough to resemble a pair of balls.

Those two had plenty of insulation and could take a beating. They were ideal human shields. Once they absorbed several tons of punishment, the others could clean up the mess afterward.

Unfortunately, the Xu twins were frightened too and desperately tried to squeeze backward.

Who could have guessed that this scrawny, cowardly-looking runt called Lu Mingfei could fight so well? He had dropped four people in two moves.

There was certainly an element of surprise involved, but no one dared say, “I could do that too.”

Only middle schoolers let their tempers run away with them. High school students understood the importance of reading the situation. With the college entrance examination approaching, staying alive and healthy was the priority.

It was not only the boys who wore expressions of terror. The surrounding onlookers, Zhao Menghua and Chen Wenwen at the center of the storm, and Su Xiaoqiang, who had been forced to stop after charging only a few steps, were all equally stunned.

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Everyone stared at the slender boy as though they were seeing him for the first time.

“Honestly, this is pretty boring.”

Under the dumbfounded gazes of the crowd, Lu Mingfei shook the water from his hand and brushed his disheveled bangs back from his forehead, revealing the handsome, delicate face he had never fully shown throughout three years of high school.

His skin was remarkably clear, entirely free of acne and blackheads, and his proportions were well balanced. It was only because he had always been accustomed to hunching his chest, stooping his back, and letting his shoulders droop that he had looked like a monkey.

But now he held his head high, his back straight. His brand-new white shirt was speckled with wet stains that glowed a sinister blood-red beneath the light reflected from the cinema screen.

The members of the literature club merely had to look at him to feel an indescribable pressure, as though the figure standing before them was not a person but a male lion awakened from deep sleep.

A faint chill radiated from his deep-set eyes as they swept over the subdued members of the club, finally settling on the culprit whose face had darkened like the bottom of a cooking pot.

“I know you wanted to make a joke out of me. I don’t care. At worst, I’d beat you all up.

“But you shouldn’t have kept the truth from the little goddess and used her as a substitute for me just to amuse yourselves.

“She’s such a proud person. She bought snacks and drinks for every one of you, yet not a single person was willing to stand up and tell her what this gathering was really about.

“What, is making a pretty girl cry that entertaining? Does it make you feel accomplished?

“Or did you deliberately have them keep quiet just to curry favor with that golden boy?”

Zhao Menghua burned with fury beneath his direct, contemptuous gaze. Being publicly berated like this was humiliating enough, and he wanted to step forward and argue with Lu Mingfei, but Chen Wenwen clung tightly to his hand.

“Don’t go. He’s crazy,” the president of the literature club whispered, fear flickering in her eyes as she looked at Lu Mingfei.

This was surely how Lu Mingfei had done it before—humiliating her cousin in public and even beating him up, which was how he had managed to steal her boyfriend.

And now he wanted to use the same trick again, to take her away from Zhao Menghua. That absolutely could not happen.

Yet Zhao Menghua had been imposing for so many years, always treating Lu Mingfei like roadside weeds and occasionally stepping on him. How could he endure Lu Mingfei spouting nonsense and slandering him right in front of his face, especially in front of his girlfriend?

“Let go!”

Zhao Menghua jerked his arm free of Chen Wenwen’s restraint, shoved through the crowd, and walked toward Lu Mingfei. His expression was so dark it seemed water might drip from it.

“Who do you think you are? Just some miserable bug nobody loves, nobody cares about, and nobody wants, yet you dare play the hero here?

“What, do you think getting an interview invitation from Cassell College puts you on the same level as me, so you can point fingers at me now?

“Why don’t you open your damn eyes and take a good look? You think you’re—”

With six underlings glaring menacingly behind him, and the powerful physique he had built through years of exercise, Zhao Menghua was confident he could take Lu Mingfei down. He stepped forward and reached for Lu Mingfei’s collar.

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But the instant Zhao Menghua came within reach, Lu Mingfei seized his wrist. He pivoted, braced his shoulder beneath Zhao Menghua’s armpit, lowered his waist, bent his knees, and suddenly exerted himself, throwing the unprepared Zhao Menghua over his shoulder.

The over-the-shoulder throw was a technique of tremendous power. A slight miscalculation could leave the person thrown permanently disabled or even bedridden for life.

But as already noted, Lu Mingfei was simply too steady.

Zhao Menghua did not land on solid ground. Instead, he crashed into the elastic foam seats in the front row of the screening room.

With a loud bang, the suited young master slammed into the chair like a discarded sack of rags, both feet pointing skyward in the shape of a capital L.

His thoughts had gone blank the moment he left the ground, and they still had not recovered by the time the world had completely turned upside down.

From his current perspective, all he could see was the good-for-nothing whom everyone had once bullied standing above him and looking down. Affecting surprise, Lu Mingfei said,

“Oh dear. Looks like you’re the one looking down on people now~”

The silence that followed was deafening.

Zhao Menghua nearly fainted from rage while hanging over the chair. His six trusted lackeys merely stood there watching, and not one of the onlookers stepped forward. Only Chen Wenwen rushed over to check whether the man she loved was seriously hurt.

With the chief culprit defeated, no one dared stand up for Young Master Zhao. Naturally, Lu Mingfei had no reason to keep quarreling with this bunch of brats.

“Sorry for disturbing you. I’m leaving. Have fun~”

With that, he left in style, leaving behind a crowd of stunned and frightened boys and girls.

He climbed the steps of the screening room and passed Su Xiaoqiang, who still had not fully recovered her senses. He waved a hand in front of her eyes.

“Let’s go. You owe me popcorn and a soda.”

The little goddess was still immersed in the miraculous event of Lu Mingfei standing up for her—a miracle as unlikely as the sun rising in the west. His wave finally brought her back to reality. She followed him toward the exit, muttering under her breath as they walked.

“When did I start owing you anything? You were the one who said you weren’t coming.”

“But I came now, didn’t I?” Lu Mingfei replied with a smile, once again looking as harmless as any human being could be.

“What, do you expect me to bring you some peerless hero riding on rainbow clouds to make up for the man you love? You’re getting greedy, girl.”

Su Xiaoqiang wanted to punch him as she usually did, but after recalling the fighting power he had displayed by instantly taking down four high school boys, she ultimately did not dare put too much force into it.

“Shut up.”