novelhk 022 3E Exam
022 3E Exam
Second floor of the library, exam room 3E.
On the lectern, Nono was swinging her long legs in jeans, one hand propped on the table, the other holding a folder and fanning herself. Seeing Lu Mingfei step across the threshold, her eyes lit up, and she jumped off the lectern, the heels of her Mary Jane shoes clicking on the floor.
"Lu Mingfei!"
"Good morning." Lu Mingfei nodded, taking it as a greeting to an acquaintance.
"You did well yesterday," Nono walked up to Lu Mingfei, looked up at him, her amber eyes full of laughter, "much better than Caesar."
Nono's voice was neither too loud nor too soft; its content was like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, causing ripples to spread rapidly.
Yesterday? What happened yesterday?
The freshmen whispered amongst themselves, their eyes darting back and forth between the two. They dared not make a sound, but their excitement was impossible to contain. Yesterday was "Freedom Day," and Caesar and Chu Zihang had turned the Hall of Heroes upside down, only to be defeated by this S-class warrior with his hands in his pockets.
But when Nono said "yesterday," did she really mean that?
Or……
"It's said that Nuonuo is Lu Mingfei's college counselor."
In the corner, a boy wearing glasses lowered his voice and spoke to his companion next to him.
"Yes, yes, I heard that too. And they went to Hakone, Japan for three days and three nights before enrolling."
"Hakone? Isn't that a place for couples?"
"Shh-"
The commotion was restrained, but the excitement was impossible to hide. Gossip always spreads faster than words of wisdom at Kassel College, and the Night Watchers' forum servers were already set.
Before Lu Mingfei could answer Nuonuo's question, a cold voice interrupted from the side.
"Sit down in your own seat."
Professor Manstein emerged from behind the door, his bright forehead reflecting the light of the wall lamp. He coldly swept his gaze over Lu Mingfei: "Now, announce the exam rules!"
Nuonuo pouted, tugged at Lu Mingfei's sleeve, and led him to the back row, "Over here."
Lu Mingfei followed Nuonuo through the corridor, receiving stares from dozens of pairs of eyes along the way.
He found that his seat was in the second-to-last row, by the window.
The legendary protagonist position.
He turned his head to look out the window and suddenly realized that it was a beautiful day. The rising sun was above the clouds, and the sunlight shone down along the clouds, casting shadows on the walnut desks and bathing the classroom in a faint blush.
He recalled the time when he first transmigrated to the EVA world.
At that time, he was a junior high school student in Tokyo-3, attending classes and leaving school every day in a routine manner. His grades were neither good nor bad, and he had neither many nor few friends. Those days were actually quite ordinary; he listened to the cicadas chirping every day and watched his classmate in front of him pretending to be asleep.
The only unusual thing about him is that he goes to NERV headquarters for a medical check-up once a week.
Blood tests, CT scans, MRIs, and then being locked in a white room to wait for the results.
At that time, he didn't know what those physical examinations were for, and thought that his identity as a time traveler had been discovered.
Nono walked down the aisle, carrying a stack of A4 paper and a sharpened pencil. She handed out a copy to each new student as she passed by, her movements swift and efficient, like a female dealer dealing cards.
When she placed the test paper on Lu Mingfei's desk, she tapped the corner of his desk twice with her fingers.
"Put your phone and student ID on the corner of the table."
Lu Mingfei placed the N96 tablet given to him by the college on the corner of the table. Just then, he saw a hand reach out from the row in front of him.
The hand was almost transparent, quietly pushing a cell phone to the edge of the table.
A petite girl sat in the front row, her back to him. After removing her school uniform jacket, she was only wearing a white T-shirt. Her light blonde hair was pulled up on top of her head, its pale color almost reflective. Lu Mingfei tilted his head slightly and saw her profile.
Her skin was so white it was almost transparent, and under the sunlight, you could see tiny bluish veins near her temples.
In that instant, a name rushed to his throat.
But he knew it wasn't her.
Ayanami's hair is blue, not blonde. Ayanami's eyes are red, not blue. Ayanami won't be sitting in the exam hall at Kassel College, because Ayanami—
Lu Mingfei swallowed the name back, his throat aching slightly.
It turns out that there are always people like this in every world.
But she is not Rei Ayanami.
-----------------
On one occasion, after the crisis was over, Lu Mingfei went to the infirmary to deliver something.
When he pushed the cart into the infirmary, Rei Ayanami was sitting on the bed.
Holding a small white flower that appeared out of nowhere, she looked very focused, as if she were studying something she had never seen before.
She tilted her head slightly, gently touched the edge of the petal with her fingertip, then withdrew it, looked at the pollen on her finger, and blinked.
Lu Mingfei stood at the door, neither going in nor making a sound.
This was probably the first time she had ever seen this kind of flower.
Later, he thought many times that he should tell her what kind of flower it was, what its name was, and what season it bloomed.
But that was the end of it.
In countless late nights waiting to launch an attack, he often pondered what Ayanami would be like if the war ended one day and she gained her own personality, no longer needing to be a cloned vessel.
-----------------
"That's probably what my expressionless face looks like, Ayanami."
When Lu Mingfei received the exam paper, it was completely blank.
A slight sound came from the direction of the window. The black curtain silently slid out from the interlayer of the carved wooden window, sealing all the windows. Now the classroom had become a locked room from Conan.
As the blast of a high-energy pop song began, chaos erupted in the exam hall. Some students sobbed and pounded their desks, others clung to their imaginary partners and danced the tango, and still others rolled their eyes and tried to tear at the back of the chair in front of them. Professor Manstein adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, looked at the apocalyptic carnival-like scene below, and nodded in satisfaction.
Lu Mingfei lowered his head and casually drew a cross on the blank test paper in front of him.
After drawing the cross, I drew a crooked little person next to it. The little person had no expression, a single tuft of hair on its head, and was holding a flower in its hands.
"Knock knock."
The table was knocked on.
Lu Mingfei looked up, and Nuonuo had somehow walked up to him. She leaned against the table next to him, her hands in her pockets, and bent down slightly to look at his test paper.
"Instead of drawing your visions," she glanced at the cross and the crooked little figure, a mischievous smile playing on her lips, "you're going to draw stick figures here?"
Lu Mingfei flipped the test paper over without changing his expression, covering the little figure.
"This is vision."
Nono raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing his nonsense, and decided not to expose him.
However, there was one question that had been bothering her for a long time.
When was the first time you had a clairvoyance?
Lu Mingfei thought for a moment, recalling the first time he entered the insertion plug.
"A few months ago, I think."
Nono was stunned: "So close?" Her eyes widened. "What did you see?"
"Um……"
Nono suddenly regretted that she had spoken too quickly and was about to change the subject.
"A sea."
"ocean?"
"Hmm. A vast ocean, like an endless sea of blood." Lu Mingfei looked at the cross on the exam paper. "In the middle of the sea, there is a pure white cross. The sky is blood red, and there is red rain and countless particles of light flying everywhere."
This is the scene when he first met Lu Mingze inside EVA Unit-03.