My Demon Friends

"Why are you staring at me?" Huai Xu turned his head, puzzled, and looked at Zhou Li.

"Hurry and do it." Zhou Li signaled him to continue solving the problems.

"You are so weird." Huai Xu muttered under his breath as he frowned slightly. He then did another problem, got it wrong due to a lack of common sense regarding traffic rules, and suddenly seemed to think of something, immediately casting a wary glance at Zhou Li.

"Are you secretly laughing at me in your heart?"

"No."

"Then why are you just staring at me without doing your own work?" Huai Xu asked seriously. "I don't appreciate that."

"Weren't you staring at me yesterday?"

"And you didn't like it, did you?"

"I..."

Zhou Li realized he actually couldn't outtalk him?

As Huai Xu finally reached the last question, he hesitated for a long time between two answers before making a choice.

The score came out—

62.

Zhou Li blinked.

Unexpectedly, Huai Xu wasn't the least bit embarrassed. Instead, he flashed a brilliant smile, put down his phone, and stretched leisurely.

"I passed!"

Zhou Li remained silent, only extending a finger to point at the three crimson characters beneath the score—

'Failed'

"This isn't accurate." Huai Xu placed the phone screen-down on his lap, preventing Zhou Li from seeing it.

"..."

Zhou Li realized he couldn't integrate into Huai Xu's world, so he stood up quietly, turned on his computer, and began looking up how to make milk tea.

He hadn't lied to Brother Nan; he had searched online before and had also looked on short video apps. But the methods were all different, and even the ingredients varied: some used black tea, others green tea, and some even dark tea.

Zhou Li thought three versions seemed quite reliable—

Simple version: Heat up yesterday's unfinished milk tea in a pot, discard the original packaging, and pour it into your own cup.

Original version: Mix black tea with milk.

Advanced version: Boil milk with black tea and add sugar.

Easy!

Now all that was missing was the black tea.

Zhou Li opened Rookied Wrap and checked.

This delivery service is really slow!

Putting down his phone, Zhou Li felt a bit bored again. He sat back down next to Huai Xu, turned on the TV, and browsed through programs for a while before picking a movie he had heard about many times but never watched.

'The Hobbit 1'

Watching movies required a sense of ritual.

Zhou Li first opened the refrigerator to grab a bottle of Sprite, then placed the snacks on the coffee table, and finally, with a cushion in his arms, pressed the play button.

The movie's sound effects started up.

With a crisp snap, Zhou Li opened a bag of chips.

Next came the rhythmic sound of chewing chips.

Huai Xu felt a bit uncomfortable—

As he worked on the problems, he couldn't help but let his gaze drift to Zhou Li's hands. When images appeared on the TV, his eyes were involuntarily drawn to the screen.

"I'm doing my problems..."

"Oh."

"You've got the volume so loud..."

"Want some chips?"

"Sure!"

The movie was longer than Zhou Li had expected, and he watched intently.

Meanwhile, Huai Xu multitasked: watching the movie, snacking, and solving problems. Amazingly, doing three things at once was no issue for him. By the time the movie ended, his latest test score had already soared to over eighty.

That surprised Zhou Li—

Zhou Li had scored over ninety so quickly mainly because the test content could mostly be answered with common sense, which wouldn't be a problem for any young person who grew up in this society.

But Huai Xu was neither young nor had he grown up in this society; it was almost like he had 'transmigrated' here.

Just two hours ago, Zhou Li had thought Huai Xu would be like those middle-aged and elderly people who needed to attend prep classes to pass Subject One.

「The next morning.」

The first class was calculus.

Starting this early never makes things easy...

Lately, Zhou Li had become somewhat apprehensive about this class. Under Brother Nan's influence, he had started to slack off, yet this particular teacher loved to call students to the blackboard to solve problems. Ironically, the teacher mostly chose students randomly by their student numbers and never seemed to pick Brother Nan.

This was really annoying.

Having barely made it through half the class, it was time for choosing students to solve problems again, and Zhou Li immediately became nervous.

They heard the teacher say, "We'll have a quiz after class—three short questions. I need three students to come up and solve them. Any volunteers? Or shall we follow our usual rule? Volunteers who answer correctly get extra points, and no points are deducted for wrong answers. But if I call on you, there are no extra points for a correct answer, and points will be deducted for a wrong one. Weigh your options."

A female student stood up and walked to the front.

The teacher nodded and continued to scan the class, asking if any male students would step forward, all the while scrutinizing everyone.

Zhou Li carefully avoided the teacher's gaze.

But out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the very person who had led him astray, comfortably napping on the desk, her cheeks fair and tender, her breathing even—a stark contrast to Zhou Li's own guilty nervousness.

Zhou Li thought for a moment and quietly straightened his posture, yet he kept his head turned, his eyes fixed unwaveringly on Brother Nan.

He was naturally tall and had a striking appearance, so the teacher spotted him immediately. The teacher thought he was about to bravely volunteer to answer a question, but following his gaze, she saw only the top half of a head.

Ten seconds later, Brother Nan, in a daze, felt someone nudging her shoulder. She awakened, opened her eyes, and unconsciously smacked her lips.

"Hmm…"

What entered her view was Zhou Li's friendly expression. "Brother Nan, the teacher is calling you up to solve a problem."

Brother Nan: ??

She reluctantly stood up, rubbed her eyes, but her expression gradually became more earnest. "I'm sorry, Teacher. I didn't sleep well last night, and I just couldn't stay awake any longer."

Her tone was full of sincerity.

Zhou Li was unfazed. I believe you, my foot.

Brother Nan picked up her book, earnestly looked at the problem, and then, with a troubled face, said, "Teacher, I really don't know how to do this. I didn't hear that part just now. Can I ask a classmate to come up and help me?"

Despite the teacher's somewhat volatile temper, she felt helpless when encountering such a student; after all, this wasn't high school anymore.

So she just waved her hand and said, "Alright, see which classmate is willing to come up and help you. However, I will still have to deduct some points from your daily grade. Come down and borrow a classmate's notes to catch up on what you missed."

"Thank you, Teacher."

Zhou Li felt the classroom suddenly quiet down, with most people's gazes shifting from Brother Nan to himself.

Looking up, his eyes met Brother Nan's.

Zhou Li: ...

This class was a bit of a struggle to get through.

After class, they moved to a new classroom for organic chemistry. While waiting for the next class to start, the Arts and Entertainment Committee member stood up, suggesting they discuss what performance their class should prepare for the welcome party. The main ideas came from a few class officers and some of the more extroverted students.

Several proposals were suggested.

Class Four had already decided on their act much earlier; now they were mostly there to watch the fun, or perhaps to throw out some bad ideas and cause disruptions.

「Before long, it was noon.」

Zhou Li asked, "Which cafeteria should we go to?"

Brother Nan recalled the difficult expression Zhou Li had worn when he went to the blackboard to solve the problem for her that morning. Feeling grateful, she slapped his shoulder hard. "Why eat at the cafeteria? Come on, Brother Nan is treating you to the commercial street!"

"Thanks, Brother Nan."

"We're buddies, what's there to thank me for!"

"Right."

At the commercial street, Zhou Li ordered several substantial dishes. While waiting for the food, he quietly scrolled through the class group chat on his phone. "It seems like our class has decided on the performance."

"What performance?"

"A skit."

"That's really lame, no ambition," Brother Nan commented mercilessly. "Even a cross-talk act would be better than that."

"It's okay, I guess."

"Did they ask you to be in it?" Brother Nan asked.

"Yes."

"Have you agreed?"

"Not yet."

"So you haven't refused either, right?"

"I've never performed in a skit before."

"Have you ever even been on stage?" Brother Nan said, then paused to recall. "Oh, wait, that's not true. I remember during our senior year of high school, you gave the speech under the red flag one week, didn't you?"

"Teacher Zhao assigned me to do it."

"You did quite well that time—though, of course, not as well as Brother Nan!" Brother Nan chuckled mischievously. "Why don't you do it? Go on! I've never seen you perform in a skit before!"

"I need to practice driving."

"Tsk! Boring!"

At that moment, the first dish was served.

Brother Nan grabbed two pairs of chopsticks, handed one to Zhou Li, and then suddenly added, "By the way, the student council also seems to have a few programs. One of them is some kind of wedding dress catwalk organized by the Arts and Entertainment Department. They're picking ten couples, all tall and good-looking. The girls wear wedding dresses, and the boys wear suits. They pair up and walk the runway. Have you heard about it?"

"No."

"Isn't the head of the Arts and Entertainment Department always chatting with you? She didn't mention it?" Brother Nan expressed skepticism.

"No."

"Well, she's definitely going to ask you. Someone already asked me."

"Are you going?"

"No way! I just forcibly quit the student council, how could I possibly participate?"

"I see."

"What about you?"

"I'm not going either."

"Good." Brother Nan nodded. "If that Wang Dan insists on you joining, you must not go! With your looks, she'll definitely try to get you to pair up with her. You mustn't agree!"

"Why not?"

"Are you dumb or something?" Brother Nan looked at him as if he were incredibly dense. "Let me ask you, who's your big bro?"

"You."

"And whose little brother are you?"

"Yours."

"Do you know how to pick a side?"

"Understood."