My Demon Friends

"What are you looking at?" Huai Xu appeared beside Zhou Li, tilting his head to look into his eyes.

"There's someone over there, constantly watching me," Zhou Li said.

"Really?"

Huai Xu followed his gaze and found the young male student who had already looked away. "Isn't it normal for people to stare at you? What's so strange about that!"

Zhou Li didn't speak anymore.

The student's gaze and expression, and the way he feigned composure as he shifted his gaze away, all felt familiar to him.

It was like seeing his past self.

Just then, the loudspeaker announced, "Women's high jump athletes, please prepare at the competition area!"

Zhou Li then averted his gaze.

Staff members from the School of Physical Education began calling out names from a list. The students whose names were called lined up in order; they would jump over the bar in this sequence, and those who cleared it would move on to the next round.

Brother Nan whispered to Zhou Li, "I just asked. You can't directly set the height to the maximum. You have to clear it at each increment, which is such a hassle."

"Yeah."

"I wanted to set it just one centimeter higher than the college record so that clearing it would be the end of it."

"No rush. I don't think it'll take many tries."

"Mhm."

At that moment, a staff member called Brother Nan's name.

Brother Nan handed her phone to Zhou Li, gave him a look reminding him to cheer for her, and then she went to line up.

Her height stood out among the many girls; even the judges glanced at her several times.

Zhou Li observed the girls.

The School of Life Sciences only had so many people, and girls who loved sports were relatively rare. He guessed that many of them were probably only participating because they were tall with long legs, dragged in by their classmates. It was obvious they lacked athletic ability. At best, they might have practiced some high jump techniques in a crash course before the competition; he estimated many would be eliminated in the first round.

But there were still a few who looked more professional—compression pants, sports shoes, tight-fitting clothes, and even their hair was neatly tied up; these few girls were possibly among the top competitors from previous years.

Soon, the first girl started her jump.

She wore wide-leg jeans and canvas shoes; it was clear from her outfit she wasn't cut out for this.

Sure enough, after a few stiff steps, she landed squarely on the bar.

The audience burst into laughter, which certainly helped to liven up the atmosphere.

Gradually, more people were drawn to the event, and the crowd of spectators grew. High jump was naturally a spectator sport: the female participants were usually tall, leggy girls, while the male high jumpers often elicited continuous "wows" from the crowd.

The girl adjusted her glasses, undiscouraged. She still had one more chance. She smiled shyly at everyone before charging at the bar again.

She was eliminated.

Laughing and covering her face, she walked away. She was a very optimistic and confident girl. Actually, there was nothing embarrassing about it.

After about seven or eight girls had jumped, more than half were eliminated. Finally, it was Brother Nan's turn.

Brother Nan's height and exceptionally long legs drew a lot of attention. She was also very well-known among the first-year students, so a chorus of cheers erupted when she appeared.

Brother Nan glanced at Zhou Li.

Zhou Li opened his mouth, pretending to cheer.

Brother Nan: ??

Zhou Li then cheered, "Go, Brother Nan!"

Brother Nan nodded, satisfied.

The first round's height was pitifully low. Brother Nan didn't even bother to estimate the distance. She just casually took a few strides for her run-up, starting straight then curving to pick up speed in the second half. She completed an easy and graceful Fosbury flop over the bar.

Gasps of admiration rippled through the crowd. Her long, swinging legs were very eye-catching.

Brother Nan walked back to Zhou Li, gave him a light punch, then sat down cross-legged on the grass. Since it was cold in the morning, she took her jacket from him, covered her legs with it, and waited quietly.

The second and third rounds passed. There were no formidable competitors.

By the fourth round, only Brother Nan and a fourth-year senior were left; they would compete for first and second place.

The senior looked at Brother Nan and began taking deep breaths to get in the zone.

Brother Nan, however, went straight to the judge and asked again, "Now that it's just the two of us, can you directly set the height to slightly above the college record?"

The onlookers were instantly astounded.

The senior froze. She stopped her deep breathing and just stood there blankly, watching the referee raise the bar a small notch. Meanwhile, Brother Nan, after a standard run-up, soared into the air. With her back to the bar, her entire body swung and rotated around it, and she cleared it with ease, landing on the foam mat.

PUFF. A soft sound.

Huai Xu, also sitting cross-legged in front of Zhou Li, tilted his head up and said, "Li Daimao is really amazing! I'm talking about the technique."

Zhou Li didn't make a sound.

The judge ran to ask the senior if she wanted to jump, but she gave up. He then asked Brother Nan if she wanted to continue, and Brother Nan also declined.

The women's high jump event ended there.

A chant of "Brother Nan is awesome!" came from behind him. Zhou Li turned his head and saw it was mainly a few people from his class.

At that moment, the loudspeaker announced that the shot put event was about to start.

"This Brother Nan is impressive, right?"

"Huai Xu said he could jump up to that cloud," Zhou Li pointed at a white cloud floating in the sky that looked a bit like a rabbit. "He also said that if he used his abilities, he could directly knock down satellites."

"You'd better think that over."

"Brother Nan is amazing!"

"That's more like it… Your shot put event is starting, right?"

"Right."

"Let's go then, head over."

"Your jacket." Zhou Li handed Brother Nan her school uniform jacket and, glancing at her exposed arm, said, "Put it on."

"Oh."

It's worth mentioning that students from the School of Physical Education and related majors do not participate in any of the university's sports competitions. However, they are present at every college's sports meet and the university-wide sports meet, where they are responsible for officiating and related management work.

Zhou Li felt that the shot put judge looked familiar and couldn't help but take a few extra glances, making the judge quite uncomfortable.

It wasn't until Brother Nan teased him, "Why are you always glaring at him? Hitting the judge is against the rules, you know!" that Zhou Li suddenly realized.

Wasn't this the squad leader of the boys' physical education committee platoon from military training? It's a small world.

Zhou Li felt a bit nervous. He wouldn't try to sabotage me, would he?

He had never thrown a shot put before but thought the sport was simple and straightforward—you just push, and it's done. So, when it was his turn, he accidentally broke the college record.

He heard he'd broken it by quite a long margin.

It wasn't Zhou Li's fault. He couldn't control his strength properly.

Later, Zhou Li still had a 100-meter race scheduled for the afternoon.

Brother Nan's two long-distance races were both the day after tomorrow.

Zhou Li originally wanted to go back to the dorm and laze around, but Brother Nan insisted on dragging him around the sports field, so Zhou Li had to comply. They went around to: scorn the 'trash' in the men's high jump group; laugh at a classmate whose shoe got stuck in the sandpit during the triple jump; flirt with a beautiful, tan-skinned female judge; watch some well-endowed girls in the race walking event; and cheer on their classmates.

Zhou Li even helped Liu Zhengming with a standing long jump. Liu Zhengming asked him to jump two point five meters, but he misjudged and only jumped two point four.

With all the running around the vast sports field, Brother Nan got hungry quickly. So, she left the field early with Zhou Li to get a meal. Using the excuse that she needed to replenish protein after exercise, she ordered a big pot of spicy and sour fish.

After the meal, she even persuaded Zhou Li to get leftovers to go, saying it was for making fish soup with rice for Tuanzi, claiming that cats love it.

"Really! My Pumpkin loves it!"

"It's not good for cats to eat rice."

"Nonsense!"

"There's scientific evidence for this."

"Oh, so we're talking science now, are we…"

"…"

"Then, by your logic, it's not good for people to eat regular food either—not spicy hot pot, not anything enjoyable. We should just eat bland nutritional meals, or even synthetic nutrition blocks like cat food. If we ate those, we'd be free of diseases and might all live past a hundred," Brother Nan glanced at Zhou Li. "But would you be happy eating that stuff every day?"

"…"

Zhou Li found that she actually made a lot of sense.

Thinking it over, Tuanzi really wasn't a cat. What cat would constantly demand boiled cabbage and sprouts stuffed with meat? So Zhou Li really did pack a portion of rice and a portion of fish soup to take back, planning to let Tuanzi try it.

He also needed to come up with an explanation.