My Demon Friends

Compared to the frequently visited West Mountain and Wuhua, Old Chenggong Town really couldn't be described as glittering with bright lights. Those old streets, the green-mossed or yellowing walls of the houses, and the lush trees lining the roads all exuded the scent of daily life: firewood, rice, cooking oil, and salt.

The beauty of the new district lay in its nightlife, with streets glowing in neon and revelry.

Meanwhile, the mornings in the old district were brimming with vitality, its evenings carrying a unique atmosphere of everyday hustle and bustle.

By the roadside, many tricycles were selling sugarcane, sugar-roasted chestnuts, and tangerines, and quite a few shops had already closed their doors. However, some of the old stores had just begun to roll up their shutters, emitting the smell of cooking oil as they quietly waited for old friends to visit.

Four figures slowly emerged from this one-way street.

Huai Xu trailed leisurely behind Brother Nan and Zhou Li, while Baozi walked in front of them, moving backward.

"What are you doing?"

"Are you taking pictures?"

"Watch the road! Or you'll trip and die!"

"No more pictures! Take another and you're getting beaten up."

Brother Nan glared at Baozi, her threats slurred and unclear.

Baozi did not respond. She observed Brother Nan and Zhou Li, then after a moment of thought, pointed at Zhou Li's sleeve and said, "Brother Nan, look, there's a thread coming out of Zhou Li's sleeve."

Brother Nan looked down and indeed, there it was.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up. With a mischievous smile, she reached for the thread and said to Zhou Li, "Your sleeve is coming undone, Zhou Li!"

"CLICK!"

"CLICK!"

"CLICK-CLICK..."

Zhou Li looked helplessly at Baozi. "At least turn off the sound. It's quite embarrassing to listen to."

"Sorry, I'll turn it off now."

"..."

They left the street, and outside was a main road bustling with traffic. Zhou Li took out his phone and called a DiDi. He then turned his head to see Brother Nan swaying unsteadily beside him, while Baozi stood on Brother Nan's other side, seemingly oblivious.

Zhou Li quickly reached out to steady Brother Nan's shoulder. "Look at you, you can't even stand straight!"

"I'm an airplane!" Brother Nan explained.

"..."

"WHOOSH~~"

Brother Nan continued her swaying 'flight.' Suddenly, she shook her shoulders vigorously to throw off Zhou Li's hand, then turned around with a glare. "Don't interfere with my flying."

"...The car's here. Time to get in."

"I want to fly back by myself," Brother Nan hesitated.

"...A fighter jet's engine has a limited lifespan. During non-combat transfers, it's better to use transportation."

"Huh?"

Before Brother Nan could respond, Zhou Li had already dragged her into the car and pressed her down to sit next to him.

Once in the car, Brother Nan seemed to have forgotten she was an airplane. She turned to examine the car's interior and leaned towards the driver to ask, "Sir, how much did this car cost you?"

"A little over eighty thousand, on the road."

"How's it drive?"

"It's a domestic car, so it's just so-so. But it's fuel-efficient. I haven't converted it to gas, and using it occasionally for DiDi rides is pretty decent."

"What's the engine displacement?"

"..."

She chatted away with the driver for the entire journey. If not for the abrupt changes in topic and her wildly imaginative thoughts, no one would have guessed she had just drunk over a kilogram of bulk baijiu.

Upon reaching the entrance of their residential complex, Zhou Li thanked the driver and forcibly pulled Brother Nan out of the car—in that short time, she had already started discussing the second-hand car market with the driver and was planning another trip to chat some more.

Baozi stood beside them, not offering any help, just holding her phone and silently glancing at the screen.

Zhou Li told Brother Nan to stand still, then looked at Baozi. "Don't go back to the dorm tonight. Just stay at my place and sleep in my room with Brother Nan. It'll be easier for you to take care of her if she throws up."

"What are you talking about?" Brother Nan frowned and corrected him. "I've never vomited from drinking, and I'm not even drunk. I'm going to play video games with Huai Xu all night long. This? This is just a light buzz; you don't know jack..."

Zhou Li ignored her and continued to look at Baozi.

Baozi also ignored him and continued to look at her phone.

After a while, she finally spoke. "Brother Nan knows her limits; she hasn't drunk to the point where she needs someone to take care of her."

These words made Brother Nan nod repeatedly. "Right, right, Brother Nan knows her limits!"

Zhou Li continued, "Anyway, don't go back."

This also won Brother Nan's approval. She took two steps towards Baozi and reached out to take her hand. "Right, right, stay up all night playing with Brother Nan tonight. I'll carry you to victory."

Baozi stepped back half a step and shook her head. "I need to go back and work on some photos. You guys have fun."

"Then take a DiDi."

"I'll just grab a shared bike."

"I'll reimburse you."

"Okay."

After watching Baozi get into a car, Zhou Li entered the residential complex. Brother Nan followed closely behind him, walking just like normal.

When they got home, Zhou Li said to Brother Nan, "Take a shower and go to sleep?"

"What?"

"It's good to sleep well after drinking."

"Why?" Brother Nan looked confused, having forgotten to speak Mandarin. "I'm here to play games."

"Don't play anymore."

"No, I want to play!"

"Then, will you take a shower?"

"I'm definitely not showering here. I'll go back tomorrow and shower."

"You can use the bathroom out here. I always use the one in my bedroom, and Huai Xu almost never showers, so this one is usually vacant," Zhou Li said.

"Still no!"

"Fine, then I'll go shower. You play games, and if you get sleepy, go sleep in my room. I'll sleep on the couch tonight."

"If you sleep on the couch, we'll keep you awake!"

"It's fine, it's fine."

Zhou Li waved his hand and walked into his room.

After taking a shower and coming out, Zhou Li found that, as expected, Brother Nan was already playing games with Huai Xu. They were playing a racing game. She stared intently at the screen, her upper body leaning with the car's turns, the light of the TV reflected in her eyes.

"Zhou Li, want to play?" she asked, turning her head.

"I'm not playing."

"Then what will you do?"

"I'm copying an essay."

Zhou Li still had one paper to write, and his procrastination had been getting worse lately. He had to finish copying it tonight, no matter what.

He picked up his laptop, paper, and pen, and went to the balcony, turning on the balcony light. After a moment's thought, he closed the sliding glass door, and immediately the sound of gaming from the living room became much fainter.

So, the two in the living room sat on the floor, absorbed in their game, while Zhou Li on the balcony was dedicated to copying his essay.

Zhou Li's calligraphy leaned towards a running-standard script, not delicate but rather grand. His characters naturally took up space, and he deliberately widened the spacing between them for a more aesthetically pleasing and expansive look. With some manipulation of paragraph breaks, 1,200 words could look like 1,500.

It was supposed to be 1,500 words, but the teacher wouldn't actually count them.

Would a little less than 1,500 be okay?

Yes, 1,000 words should be enough.

Zhou Li finally finished writing and capped his pen. He gave his hand a shake but suddenly sensed something amiss.

"Hmm?"

He whipped his head around.

There was someone pressed up against the sliding glass door, right beside him. Her forehead was against the glass, so close, and she was just staring straight at him—he had no idea how long she'd been watching.

!!

Zhou Li jumped in fright.

Seeing this, Brother Nan immediately began to chuckle.

Zhou Li was so done.

He started packing his things, intending to open the sliding door and go inside, but Brother Nan started to mess with him. When he pulled left, she pushed right. When he used more force, she matched it, being utterly annoying. By the time he finally managed to open the door, Brother Nan was following behind him as if nothing had happened. She casually grabbed a lock of her hair, pursed her lips, and held the hair between her own nose and upper lip.

"Why did you stop playing?" Zhou Li asked.

"Tuanzi wouldn't let us play," Brother Nan answered.

"Why not?"

"Don't know. Whenever we started playing, she'd come over and cause trouble. Huai Xu asked her, but she didn't say anything," Brother Nan said, pausing. "But my Pumpkin at home does the same. Cats are like that."

"She says that often too."

"Says what?"

"Cats are like that."

"Oh. Zhou Li, I want to eat small pot rice noodles."

"Now?"

"Tomorrow."

"Sure."

"When classes are suspended in a few days, are you going to study for exams?"

"Yes."

"But I want to go eat Xishuangbanna..."

"Go ahead, go ahead." What a pity, Zhou Li thought; China would no longer have Xishuangbanna.

"Zhou Li, let's play a game!"

"Sure, sure."

"Really?"

"Really."

Zhou Li followed their lead and sat down on the floor.

SSS... It's really cold.

...

Little Cousin returned to her dorm and took a shower first. As soon as she came out, she was met with the focused gazes of her two roommates.

"Why isn't Brother Nan back?" Mianmian asked.

"Oh, she's at Zhou Li's house."

"She went to Zhou Li's house again?"

"Right."

"Is it to play games again? With that what's-his-name... What was it again? Isn't it that super, super unbelievably handsome one?" Qianqian remembered Zhou Li mentioning Huai Xu's name once, but she didn't recall it.

"Huai Xu."

"Right, right, Huai Xu," Qianqian said, nodding like a chicken pecking rice.

"Not today. Brother Nan got drunk, so Zhou Li took her home," Baozi said honestly.

"Oh!!!" Mianmian's eyes went wide.

"I never would have thought Handsome Zhou was that kind of person!" Qianqian also expressed disbelief.

"Indeed..."

While Baozi turned on her laptop and sifted through the photos she'd brazenly taken that day, she answered their various questions—such as why Brother Nan always played games with Huai Xu but not Zhou Li, wasn't Zhou Li jealous of Huai Xu's good looks, and didn't he feel any sense of insecurity. Most of the time, she just responded with "I don't know."

After finishing processing the photos, with lights-out approaching, she took a long breath, opened QQ, and found Zhou Li.

Ji Ran: What are you guys doing?

Zhou Li: Just finished playing games

Ji Ran: What about now?

Zhou Li: Brother Nan is designing tank blueprints

Ji Ran: Let me see

Zhou Li: [Image]

Ji Ran: This is a tank??

Zhou Li: [Video]

Baozi clicked on it.

In the video, Zhou Li conveyed her question to Brother Nan. Brother Nan insisted that some discrepancy between blueprints and the actual object was normal and earnestly explained her design philosophy, which included five cannon barrels, eight machine guns, thrusters, and wings. According to her, the tank she designed could not only adapt to modern warfare but could also fly to outer space to intercept aliens.

Baozi was speechless and decided to get straight to the point.

Ji Ran: [Image]

Ji Ran: How's the shot? Doesn't it look like Brother Nan is about to take your hand?

Zhou Li: ...

Ji Ran: [Image]

Ji Ran: How about this one?

Ji Ran: [Image]

Ji Ran: Look, you're practically hugging in this one.

Zhou Li: What are you trying to say?

Ji Ran: Wanna buy the photos?

Zhou Li: ??

Ji Ran: A set of five, retouched. There are two more.

Ji Ran: [Image][Image]

Ji Ran: Two hundred.

Zhou Li: The shots are quite good, but...

Zhou Li: I've already received them, haven't I?

Ji Ran: Those are compressed. I have the high-resolution originals.

Zhou Li: ...

Ji Ran: Then I won't pay back the two hundred I owe you.

Zhou Li: I never intended for you to pay it back.

Ji Ran: ...

Ji Ran: Zhou Li and Li Nan191222.rar

The file "Zhou Li and Li Nan191222.rar" (12.43MB) has been successfully received by the other party.

Ji Ran: Pleasure doing business.

Ji Ran: Oh, by the way, the taxi fare was 15.30.

Zhou Li: ...