My Demon Friends

The coach was quite adept at slacking off. After explaining the essentials of reverse parking, he let them practice repeatedly. The coach most often sat under the shade of a tree, playing with his phone or smoking, occasionally following the car to correct their mistakes.

At this time, Brother Nan was driving, with Su Jue in the passenger seat, while Zhou Li and Qu Xiaogao followed on foot.

Huai Xu also followed them and whispered to Zhou Li, "Didn't Li Daimao turn too early? She didn't watch her position properly."

Zhou Li remained silent.

In fact, since meeting Huai Xu, his understanding of demons had been constantly overturned.

Brother Nan had indeed turned too early. Zhou Li hadn't noticed until the car was almost in the parking spot and something felt slightly off, but Brother Nan corrected it effortlessly.

The coach, sitting nearby, immediately praised, "Brother Nan is amazing! I haven't even taught you guys how to judge and correct mistakes yet!"

He paused, then mentioned Brother Nan's speed was a bit fast, but that was all he said. However, when it was Su Jue's turn to drive, he seriously told him to first get a good grasp of clutch control, saying the slower, the better.

Huai Xu listened intently, nodding continuously.

Zhou Li glanced at him, quite speechless.

At that moment, Huai Xu suddenly turned to him and said, "Right, you have your Theory Test tomorrow, don't you?"

Zhou Li said nothing, thinking to himself—

Shall I take the test for you?

"Shall I take the test for you?" Huai Xu's voice synchronized almost perfectly with his inner monologue.

"I'll get you a perfect score!" Huai Xu's voice didn't stop. "I've been practicing the questions, and I get perfect scores nine out of ten times!"

"You're not saying anything?"

"If you don't say anything, I'll take that as a yes!"

"..." Zhou Li silently took out his phone, opened QQ, found Huai Xu, and sent a voice message, "No."

"Oh, you have this trick up your sleeve too!"

"..."

"Why won't you let me take the test for you?"

"I can take it myself." Zhou Li walked to the side, still pretending to send voice messages on his phone.

"You won't make it," Huai Xu stated bluntly, full of superiority. "It would be impressive if you got a perfect score once out of ten tries."

"Why do I need to get a perfect score?"

"You… have no dreams!"

"Stop talking like Brother Nan." Zhou Li's expression was calm, yet he lowered his voice. "She'll corrupt you, and you'll go from a Great Devil King to a punk."

"I'm going to tell Li Daimao."

"!!"

By that time, Su Jue had finished driving, and it was Zhou Li's turn next. The kind-hearted young man even called Zhou Li over.

Zhou Li hurried over, otherwise the well-meaning Brother Nan would have 'helped him drive'—Brother Nan had fallen in love with driving, and even when it was someone else's turn, she liked to sit in the passenger seat and pretend to steer.

The afternoon passed quickly.

As Zhou Li got on his bicycle, Brother Nan showed off the keys in her hand to him. "Hehe! Guess what this is?"

"Car keys?"

"I got them from the coach. The car stays here overnight. Haha, let's come early tomorrow and sneak in some practice. I figure, we eat lunch around twelve-thirty, come here by one at the latest, and can practice for an hour..."

"You're really something."

"How about when I get my license, I buy a second-hand car? Maybe one for ten to twenty thousand yuan, or even just a few thousand yuan, just for fun?"

"Sounds good."

"I can't buy lottery tickets anymore; I need to save my luck for emergencies. How about you lend me some money? Or we could pool our resources, get a car, and consider it a joint purchase?" Brother Nan said.

"What's the split?"

"Either we split it fifty-fifty, or we divide it according to how much each person contributes."

"What do you mean by fifty-fifty?"

"You take the passenger seat, and I'll take the driver's seat. What do you think?" Brother Nan asked tentatively.

"..."

"That's a no-go, huh!" Brother Nan sounded disappointed.

"..."

"What if I throw in the back seats too? The whole back seat is yours, and without your permission, I won't even haul cargo. Or sometimes when I'm not driving, you could take the wheel. How about that?" Brother Nan's eyes sparkled with anticipation, awaiting Zhou Li's agreement.

However, Zhou Li just pedaled his bike, and it shot off, speeding down the road.

She could only chase after him.

「It was dusk, and the sunset dazzled the eyes.」

As expected, Huai Xu got home before Zhou Li. This saved Zhou Li the time it would take to get out his keys and open the door. In fact, Zhou Li didn't even knock; Huai Xu had already opened the door for him as soon as he reached it.

Zhou Li, used to this by now, only asked, "Have you eaten?"

"I grabbed a bite."

"What did you eat?"

"Food."

"What food?"

"I don't know. I just ate whatever."

"..."

Zhou Li walked into the living room but suddenly paused.

There was a large sheet of white paper on the living room floor. In one corner, the lane markers for reverse parking were drawn, and a small red toy car sat on top of it.

Then Huai Xu walked past him, squatted down like a child, grabbed the toy car, and turned his head to look at Zhou Li.

"I've already figured out how to reverse park. Look!"

"At about this position, turn the wheel all the way to the right."

"VROOM VROOM~~"

"The car goes like this... like this... and it's in!"

"If you don't get the position right, you need to straighten the wheel a bit later, or more slowly, like this... If it's not too far off, you can back in without crossing the line," Huai Xu said, turning to look at Zhou Li again. "Are you watching?"

"I'm watching," Zhou Li said.

"You need to understand its, its... this... why it goes in..."

"Principle," Zhou Li added.

"Right, right, that's it! Once you understand its principle, it becomes simple." Huai Xu was still engrossed in playing with the toy car.

"Why didn't you draw the other maneuvers?" Zhou Li squatted down too.

"The coach hasn't taught the rest yet."

"Can you really score a hundred percent?"

"For what?"

"The Theory Test."

"Definitely! I've memorized all the questions!"

"Then you can take the test for me."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Hey... didn't you say earlier today that you didn't want me to take the test for you?" Huai Xu suddenly became suspicious again and turned to look at Zhou Li. "Are you planning to sneak off for some good food tomorrow morning without me?"

"No."

"Then why?"

"I want to try to score one hundred percent on every part of the test."

"You probably can't do that..." Huai Xu said without thinking. "If it weren't for Li Daimao being there today, the coach would probably have scolded you. Unless you let me take every part for you, but that's not okay either. What if you don't learn properly and end up hitting someone when you're driving on the road?"

"..."

Huai Xu was still muttering to himself, focused on reverse parking the toy car, occasionally sharing his insights with Zhou Li proudly and one-sidedly.

Zhou Li watched quietly beside him, not making a sound.

Let him talk.

「The next morning.」

Zhou Li explained the exam process in detail to Huai Xu and specifically asked Brother Nan to help look after him. Only then did he feel at ease letting Huai Xu take the test for him, while he stayed at home watching *Hobbit 2*.

Tuanzi sleepily crawled over, jumped onto the couch, and curled up on Zhou Li's lap.

Zhou Li gently stroked Tuanzi's back and asked, "Why so listless today? Aren't you always full of energy? You even came and disturbed my sleep in the middle of the night yesterday."

"Lord Dumpling had a nightmare last night; that's why I came over to be close to you," Tuanzi's voice was soft and feeble.

"What did Lord Dumpling dream about?"

"Dreamt that Your Highness disappeared..."

"What do you mean, disappeared?"

"It means he just didn't come out. For a long, long time. Lord Dumpling waited and waited, but His Highness didn't appear."

"I see." Zhou Li nodded. His hand movements became much lighter, and he also turned down the volume of the television. "How did Lord Dumpling and His Highness the Demon King first meet?"

"Lord Dumpling doesn't remember. Lord Dumpling only remembers knowing His Highness from the very beginning."

"When you were very young?"

"That's right."

"So, was Lord Dumpling raised by His Highness?"

"Not really. Sometimes Lord Dumpling also took care of His Highness."

"I see. Lord Dumpling is really amazing, then."

"That's right," Tuanzi said, then paused, burying its face in Zhou Li's trouser leg. "Lord Dumpling misses His Highness."

"When His Highness wakes up, he will definitely come to find Lord Dumpling."

"Really?" Tuanzi lifted its head slightly, opened its eyes a tiny bit, and saw Zhou Li's sweatshirt drawstring dangling on his chest. It reached out its paw to grab it, but it couldn't quite reach.

"Really."

Zhou Li dared not leave the house and stayed home until five in the afternoon before Huai Xu came back.

Zhou Li was still worried that something had gone wrong with the test, but it turned out it was just that the four of them had gone for a meal after the test. Afterward, Huai Xu and Brother Nan had gone to an internet café to surf the net.

Huai Xu did indeed score a hundred percent for Zhou Li, which made him incredibly smug and pleased with himself.

Especially when compared to Brother Nan—

Huai Xu said Li Daimao only scored ninety, and even had to take the test twice, nearly failing. The reason was that Li Daimao, seeing some questions were very simple, decided to answer based on her common sense, but 'there were traps in the questions.'

Huai Xu also mentioned that they had steam pot chicken for lunch, which was very tasty. He had even packed some for Zhou Li, but during their session online, he and Li Daimao had somehow met eyes, hatched a plan together, and, hehe!

Also, that Su Jue had been looking at him strangely all day, as if he was a little afraid of him, avoiding him somewhat.

He felt that Su Jue could definitely distinguish him.