My Demon Friends

Compared to Brother Nan's smooth sailing, Zhou Qianqian was having a tough time—

She had been quite happy in the morning, even going out to play table tennis and dominating the game! But at noon, the dean suddenly demanded a report that was supposed to be submitted tomorrow. She rushed to finish it all afternoon, checked it several times, and finally handed it in just before quitting time!

Such reports were usually just a formality. As long as there were no typos or major logical flaws, it would be fine. It always had been.

But not this time. They said it had to be taken seriously.

Unacceptable.

Returned for revisions.

Poor Zhou Qianqian still had to coax her child to sleep. By the time she finished her work, it was already evening, and she hadn't even had a proper dinner.

Damn it...

Cursing, Zhou Qianqian picked up her phone, scrolled to Brother Nan's QQ, and sent a voice message: "Playing games, you in?"

"Wait for me to finish the laundry."

"Okay."

About ten minutes later, Brother Nan sent a message: "Laundry's done, you coming? I'll invite another kid; we'll trio."

"Who? Your boyfriend?"

"Are you dumb? Where would I get a boyfriend?"

"God damn it! Is that how you talk to your teacher?"

"It's just the truth."

"Say that again. Zhou Li isn't your boyfriend?"

"He's my Little Brother."

"You think I'll believe that?"

"Believe it or not!"

"I couldn't care less about you two... Just bring Zhou Li along. I want to play with a hottie; he's good-looking," Zhou Qianqian said.

"No way!"

"Fuck..."

"What's gotten into you today? You're supposed to be a role model, don't you get it? Hurry up and get in the game, join the voice chat."

"Today just pissed me off..." Zhou Qianqian entered the voice chat and told Brother Nan about her ordeal, angrily stating, "I suspect the dean is deliberately making things difficult for me. Next time I play table tennis with him, I'll smash his head in!"

"Sure, I support you. KUKUKU..."

"Are you operating a tractor over there?"

"Yes, I'm riding a tractor!"

"..."

Zhou Qianqian frowned deeply. Just then, another person joined the voice chat. Successor of Destiny's headset seemed to have issues, occasionally emitting harsh static. The other person was even weirder: their entire voice feed was filled with the narration from Animal Planet.

Damn it...

Zhou Qianqian silently recited the Heart Clarity Spell, then went straight into the game and chose a highly aggressive hero to vent her anger. As expected, it was a complete disaster.

Luckily, the player Brother Nan had invited, though silent, had some slick moves. Plus, he was a powerful carry, literally carrying the two of them to steamroll their opponents.

It went the same way for several games.

His mic was still continuously broadcasting Animal Planet narration, occasionally punctuated by cat meows, but Zhou Qianqian had grown used to it.

This carry is the best!

It wasn't until the end that Zhou Qianqian finally asked, "Hey Li Nan, why doesn't your friend talk? All I hear are cat sounds. Is he also a student at our Cai University?"

"Which school?" that person finally spoke.

"Cai University," Zhou Qianqian replied, then chuckled slyly, "Your voice is quite nice. Are you from our School of Life Sciences?"

"Yes, my name is Zhou Li."

"...That's not Zhou Li's voice, is it?"

"Oh? How about now?" Huai Xu switched to imitating Zhou Li's voice.

"Stop it!" Brother Nan stepped in to stop them. "She's our homeroom teacher, Zhou Qianqian. Let me introduce him. This is Huai Xu. He's a friend Zhou Li and I knew before we started college, and he's even better-looking than Zhou Li."

"Really?"

"What would I gain from lying to you? He's just really good at imitating voices; he's definitely not Zhou Li!"

"No! You mean he's really better-looking than Zhou Li?"

"Damn it, your kid's already crawling!" Brother Nan was exasperated.

"This is pure appreciation!"

"..."

Brother Nan left the voice chat.

Meanwhile, Huai Xu told Zhou Qianqian he had twenty-four abs, then stretched and glanced at the clock.

It was pretty late.

Lord Dumpling, for the umpteenth time, crawled over, slapped her paw on Huai Xu's keyboard, and stopped him from playing games.

She even turned her head to observe his reaction.

But this time, Huai Xu didn't pick her up. Instead, he crossed his arms and leaned back—

"I'm not playing anymore!"

"You can't bother me now! Aren't you mad?"

Watching Lord Dumpling's dazed expression, Huai Xu grinned foolishly, then got up and walked toward the bedroom. "I'm going to sleep!"

Huai Xu slept extremely well that night.

Zhou Li, on the other hand, had the exact opposite experience.

He had forgotten to lock his door the previous night. In the middle of the night, Tuanzi sneaked in and began parkouring around his room. She not only jumped and climbed everywhere but also stepped on every single part of his body.

On Saturday morning, Zhou Li woke up according to his biological clock, but he felt much less refreshed than usual.

Upon arriving in the living room, the first thing he did was shake Tuanzi awake from her cardboard box. The second was to lie on the sofa and zone out.

"MEOW~~ Why did you disturb Lord Dumpling's sleep?"

"My revenge."

"...What are we having for breakfast?"

?? Seeing Tuanzi's energetic demeanor, Zhou Li felt particularly unbalanced. "I don't feel like cooking. Let's order takeout."

"Lord Dumpling wants fish soup with rice."

"You can't eat that every day."

"Why?"

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

"Lord Dumpling is not a cat."

"Eating the same thing every day gets boring."

"Other kittens eat the same cat food their entire lives and don't get tired of it! Those ginger cats and tabbies even grow as big as pigs!" Tuanzi lectured earnestly, her expression serious, her voice clear and delicate.

"You're not a cat," Zhou Li said flatly.

"MEOW?"

Tuanzi tilted her head and stared at Zhou Li, momentarily unsure how to respond.

Until she hung her head.

Zhou Li finally felt a great sense of relief.

He then ordered takeout with his phone. Tuanzi hopped onto the sofa, stepped on Zhou Li's stomach, and walked around on him as if he were flat ground, finally standing on his chest, tilting her head to peek at the phone screen.

"So that's how it works. Someone will deliver food to us soon, right?" Tuanzi's little head was filled with curiosity.

"Right."

"Can you order fish soup for Lord Dumpling?" Tuanzi asked again.

"This menu is full of ordinary people's food. There's no royal special fish soup," Zhou Li replied expressionlessly, brushing her off. He flipped through the various delivery options on his phone. Everything seemed fine, yet nothing appealed to him.

"OH OH~ Then just ordinary fish soup!"

"That's not okay either."

"Why? Isn't Lord Dumpling cute? Lord Dumpling will lend you her tail to play with." Tuanzi began to act cute.

"You can't eat the same thing every day."

"Here we go again, here we go again~"

"You..."

Then Tuanzi stopped asking for fish soup and lost interest in the phone. However, she became interested in 'Zhou Li playing with his phone.' She started creating all sorts of obstacles for Zhou Li: slapping the phone, trying to press the screen, lying on Zhou Li's arm, and sweeping her tail across the screen... all while quietly observing Zhou Li's reaction.

Until Zhou Li put away his phone, she asked in surprise, "Aren't you going to order takeout?"

...

I'll wake Huai Xu, and we'll go out to eat. We'll eat a little, then take a walk; perfect for a morning run.

This area usually had few people and cars, and the terrain was flat. Zhou Li ran towards the school, letting loose. Huai Xu laughed at him for being slow the whole way, but Zhou Li ignored it as if it were merely wind whistling past his ears.

Fog was beginning to form in the morning.

Unknowingly, it was already late October. In a few more days, it would be two months since he had arrived in this city.

In two months, he felt he had become familiar with the complex routes around his neighborhood and had gotten used to walking around the university. He also thought he had become much more cheerful than he was in high school.

Suddenly, Huai Xu's voice came from up ahead—

"HEY!"

Zhou Li looked up; they had already reached the back gate of the school. Huai Xu pointed to a bare patch of ground and said, "Weren't there large chrysanthemums blooming here before? Why have they all been dug up?"

Zhou Li only glanced briefly before overtaking Huai Xu.

Suddenly, Huai Xu appeared in front of him again. "Speaking of flowers, the osmanthus flowers I picked have dried. When are you going to make Sweet Osmanthus Cake? As I see it, you don't seem to have anything else to do this weekend..."

Zhou Li still remained silent.

He kept running very fast, possibly faster than many people in a hundred-meter dash, keeping his breath steady. The moment I speak, I'll fall into this demon's trap!