hotmtlnovel 112 Breakup
112 Breakup
"It is now March 15, 2010. The Moniach is anchored near the last mission site. The river is calm and the equipment is functioning normally. Tomorrow we will execute 'Operation Bronze.' I am Captain Manstein, and this is my eleventh entry in the captain's log on this voyage." Professor Manstein glanced at his watch. "It is now 6:30 PM. Chen Motong, a member of Underwater Operations Team A, has proposed a morale-boosting meeting before the operation, and I agree."
"Where's Nono?" Manstein asked Selma beside him. "Didn't she say she was going to hold a morale-boosting rally? Why haven't we seen her yet?"
"It's already started, look." Selma pointed to the faint firelight on the hillside a little further away. "Nono found an abandoned wooden house and took Lu Mingfei, Zero, and Caesar to have a barbecue."
"I left Baidi City amidst the colorful clouds at dawn." The blond giant looked at the canyon in the twilight and murmured, "I did some research before I came and found that Baidi City used to be a very famous city."
"You're reciting Li Bai's poems," Lu Mingfei said, "but he was just passing by by boat; he didn't grill skewers here."
"I thought there would be monkeys here, 'The cries of monkeys on both banks could not be stopped,'" Caesar said regretfully.
"You look like a monkey to me. There haven't been any monkeys here for hundreds of years," Nono said irritably.
"The ecological environment has been damaged, and this place is no longer home for those monkeys," Lu Mingfei said.
"Last year, the Yangtze River Three Gorges Tourism Development Company introduced more than 80 monkeys from Wushan County and Tongjing Scenic Area in Chongqing, in an attempt to recreate the scene of 'the monkeys' cries on both banks never ceasing' from the past," Ling said casually.
"You know about this kind of news?" Lu Mingfei asked in surprise.
"Before I left, I looked up some information about this place online and memorized it."
"You're taking this too seriously!"
"Okay, come and set up the barbecue grill," Nono said.
As the sun was about to set and the light grew dimmer, four people quickly set up their picnic equipment in an abandoned ancient village.
"What a clear night!" After setting up the barbecue grill, Nono raised her hands and embraced the stars in the sky.
Lu Mingfei then looked up and noticed the sky full of stars. He sighed, "It's ironic that we only notice how beautiful the stars are when there's no artificial light."
"But without light, it feels very desolate."
Nono poked at the charcoal fire and said loudly, "Look, how reassuring this feels!"
"Humans use fire to drive away the darkness in order to survive because they are afraid of it." Zero looked at the red-hot charcoal and began to put the ingredients on the grill.
"That's really philosophical," Nono said, giving a thumbs up. "Zero is very knowledgeable."
-----------------
"So that's why people say humans are special creatures? That's why the Angels attacked us?" Shinji Ikari asked.
"Are you an idiot? Who would know about something like that?" Asuka retorted to Shinji without any politeness.
"Hey, you two, stop bickering and come lend a hand," Lu Mingfei said helplessly. "The stuff in the car is pretty heavy."
"The logistics department guys are making underage girls do manual labor!" Asuka pointed at Lu Mingfei's face and said bluntly, "We're the heroes who defeated the Angels, shouldn't we just be able to enjoy ourselves?"
"But Asuka, the soul of barbecue is participation! Everyone prepares the ingredients together, flips the grill together, watches and listens to the crackling of the charcoal, drinks and chats, sharing wonderful memories of tonight," Lu Mingfei said. "That's youth! Come to think of it, I only realized today that my youth hasn't faded yet. I'm not even twenty yet; according to Japanese law, I'm still a minor!"
"You're not Japanese, and the legal age of majority in your country is eighteen," Rei Ayanami suddenly interjected. "You're an adult now."
"Hahaha, I didn't expect a top student to be so sharp-tongued!" Asuka burst into laughter.
"How can this be repaired!"
……
"Wow! It's so hot!" Asuka cried out, wanting some cool water.
Shinji Ikari handed her a can of oolong tea, saying, "Asuka, I told you to let this cool down a bit before eating."
"Damn it, mind your own business, you idiot Shinji!" Asuka retorted defiantly before opening the oolong tea and taking a big gulp.
"Ayanami, aren't you eating meat?" Lu Mingfei flipped through the barbecue and found that Rei Ayanami was only eating vegetarian food and hadn't eaten a single meat skewer.
"No, I'll just have potatoes and chives."
"I didn't know you were a vegetarian," Lu Mingfei exclaimed.
"No, I just hate meat."
"Disgusting?" This was the first time Lu Mingfei had heard such a subjective word from Rei Ayanami.
Rei Ayanami sat on a small stool, intently watching the firelight in front of her and Lu Mingfei's hands moving up and down. Her originally light blue hair was half red and half blue in the glow of the charcoal fire.
"Ayanami, want to give it a try?" Lu Mingfei moved aside in front of the grill. "Try grilling your favorite dishes."
"May I?"
"Of course, I'll teach you. Look, this is salt, this is oil, this is chili powder—"
"No chili powder."
Okay, then I won't add chili powder.
……
That night, Lu Mingfei felt that he was closer to the girl and everyone else.
-----------------
"Hey, you two are all lovey-dovey, don't you think about how other people feel?!" the red-haired girl suddenly shouted.
Huh? Lu Mingfei snapped out of his daze and noticed a few skewers of potatoes on the barbecue grill, sprinkled with salt and brushed with oil, but nothing—
No, it also has chili powder sprinkled on top.
"Teach me how to flip it." Ling grabbed Lu Mingfei's hand and placed it on the handle of the barbecue grill, her small hand touching his large hand.
Huh? Lu Mingfei didn't react for a moment.
"You can flip it now." Zero looked up.
"Oh, okay, the trick to flipping it over is..." Lu Mingfei said, "Uh, flip it over."
"Oh my god, don't you know it's illegal to bully single people like this?" Nono said exaggeratedly.
"Single dog? Where are there any single dogs here?" Lu Mingfei looked around and saw neither a dog in the biological sense nor a dog in the sociological sense.
"Nono and I just broke up," Caesar said, holding a skewer of grilled corn, his tone as if he were commenting on the nice weather. "I didn't expect you didn't hear our conversation."
"Break up..." Lu Mingfei lowered his head, looking at his hands clasped together with Ling's. "Why did you break up?"
"To be precise, it was Nono who kicked me out," Caesar said helplessly.
"You were the one who kept waiting for me to speak up, you were just too shy to say it yourself!" Nono said.
"What happened?" Lu Mingfei felt that the atmosphere between the two was strangely harmonious, not like there was any emotional dispute.
"Nono and I both hate being tied down," Caesar explained. "A few days ago, when we were chatting at the Norton House, we discovered that Nono's Chen family and the Gattuso family were both eager to put pressure on us to get engaged as soon as possible."
"You keep saying it's for my own good..." Caesar said in a low voice, anger blazing in his eyes, "but even this choice was arranged by the family!"
"You guys..." Lu Mingfei said, "You have no feelings left?"
"Our relationship was based on free choice," Nono said casually. "When that foundation no longer exists, the relationship naturally falls apart."
"What if the family is unhappy?"
"The happier my family is, the happier I am!"
"I'm my mother's son. At worst, my surname is Gulvig!"
That night, Lu Mingfei listened to a lot of rebellious remarks from the two men, and occasionally offered a classic, scathing critique.
Caesar raised his glass, "To tomorrow."
The four people clinked glasses.
As the charcoal fire nearly burned out, Lu Mingfei, under Nuonuo's coercion, swore that if her family ever came knocking on his door, he would unconditionally support her. In return, she was willing to sell out her entire family to Lu Mingfei!