My Demon Friends

"How's your review going?" Brother Nan walked alongside Zhou Li towards Qiu Yuan, their shadows occasionally touching.

"Not bad."

"Have you finished reviewing?"

"Far from it."

"No worries, don't rush. That exam isn't all at once, so you can review while taking it. Cramming at the last minute is most efficient." Brother Nan took large steps as she walked, but at a slow pace—one step, then another—adorable, really. "I haven't even started reviewing a single subject yet, and I'm not panicking."

"Are you going to cheat on the test?"

"Cheat? Can't be bothered," Brother Nan said. "I'll just sit next to Baozi. You hustle, and I can sit next to you too. If all else fails, maybe I can copy off you two."

"Okay."

"Do you still remember what I told you earlier?"

"What?"

"Xishuangbanna, food."

"I remember."

"When shall we go?"

"Whenever."

"Let's go after the exams then. I reckon New Year's holiday would be crowded and time-short, plus we have to review." Brother Nan counted her reasons on her fingers.

"Okay."

"I'm going back to the dorm."

"Mm."

"Today is not over yet. You still need to send a goodnight message to Brother Nan tonight, got it?"

"Got it."

"Off you go."

"Goodbye, Brother Nan."

"Mm."

Brother Nan nodded, and a cluster of little gray stripes on the shadow in front of her swayed as well. She walked on, hands behind her back, taking big steps back to the dorm.

It was hot outside, but cool inside the room.

Brother Nan sat at her spot, carefully taking out the Yueli from her bag, making sure not to knock off a single petal.

The two foot-picking cuties had already gathered around, chattering beside her ear. After she finally managed to deal with them, she picked up the bouquet to inspect it.

First from afar, then up close;

From the top, and then from below;

Observing the stamens, examining the leaves;

And finally, bringing it carefully to her nose to sniff...

The Yueli was yellow, not as vulgarly enchanting as red, nor was it a vivid bright yellow. It had a pale, slightly pinkish hue—Brother Nan liked it very much.

She hummed a song softly, assessing it as it lay on the desk.

Put it in a plastic water bottle? Clearly not. A toothbrush cup? That wouldn't work either. Leave it lying horizontally? It would probably get damaged.

Brother Nan frowned, wishing Zhou Li had used that twenty yuan to buy a pretty glass bottle or something else suitable for the flowers. Now, she'd have to spend her own money on a vase. But then she remembered she had firmly decided to plant the bouquet, so what she needed to buy was actually a flowerpot.

SNAP!

Brother Nan smacked her forehead.

My mind isn't working well today—probably because of the intense sun... sunstroke, maybe?

At this moment, Little Cousin also returned.

She glanced at Brother Nan, still admiring the flowers, then at the two stunned cuties behind her, and silently made her way back to her own seat, placing her camera and backpack down.

"Where have you been?" Brother Nan asked her.

"Just out for a stroll, trying to snap a few photos." Baozi took out two lenses from her bag and began cleaning the dust off them.

"Where did you go?"

"Around the Bell Tower, wandered all over. Took pictures of still lifes, roadside flowers and grasses, and stuff to make into postcards later."

"Oh... did you take any pictures?"

"I did."

"How did they turn out?"

"There's one set that's not bad. Do you want to buy it? I'll give you a set for two hundred yuan," Baozi proposed earnestly.

"I'm not buying." Brother Nan was quite speechless.

"Oh." Baozi sounded disappointed.

"Let me see what you've taken."

"Sure."

Baozi set aside the lens she was cleaning and took the memory card out of the camera, asking at the same time, "What did Zhou Li give you?"

"A bouquet of flowers."

"What kind?"

"Yueli."

"Let me see."

"Here!"

Brother Nan picked up the Yueli from her seat but refused to hand it over to Baozi.

Baozi cocked her head. "Plastic?"

"Real."

"Won't it wilt quickly?"

"It won't wilt."

"?"

"... I'm planning to plant it," Brother Nan said after a moment's thought.

"Yueli can survive being cut, but those with flowers usually are hard to keep alive. Plus, it's cold these nights." Baozi connected the memory card to the computer while explaining, "My family grows a lot of flowers."

"I know."

"Hmm?"

"...It's a special breed," Brother Nan added.

"Indeed, very special. Only available in flower shops." Baozi nodded. Chunming was a city of flowers, and having grown up there, she was very familiar with them.

"You're mocking me!" Brother Nan caught on.

"No, I'm not," Baozi responded coolly.

"You are!" Brother Nan insisted.

"I'm sorry."

"..."

The apology came so unexpectedly that Brother Nan was taken aback.

At that moment, the laptop screen displayed the photo Baozi had just taken. In the picture, a man and a woman were gently embracing each other, the lighting and composition perfect, prompting gasps from the two foot-scratching cuties behind them.

Brother Nan also stared with widened eyes.

A moment later, she explained, "The assignment said to give each other a hug before parting..."

CLICK.

A barely audible sound. It was Baozi pressing the right arrow key.

In the picture, Brother Nan's face was flushed red, a fist thrusting straight out, hitting Zhou Li in the chest.

"Wow!"

"Wow? What 'wow'!? Haven't you ever been hit by me?"

CLICK...

"Wow!!"

"..."

Brother Nan narrowed her eyes, looking toward the culprit.

Baozi, unruffled, turned her head and met her gaze, whispering, "Just two hundred yuan."

Brother Nan was speechless.

Baozi watched her expression, pondered for a moment, and struck while the iron was hot. "There are more, eight in total. You can finish looking and then decide. It will be a qualitative leap after I finish post-processing. My usual rates are not this low."

"Stop! Don't flip any more!"

Brother Nan hastily reached out to stop her.

「One minute later.」

Dorm 106 shifted the topic back to Yueli.

Mianmian asked, "What's the flower language of Yueli again?"

Qian Qian exclaimed, "I can't remember, I'll check!"

Baozi said, "Don't bother, it's pointless. If Zhou Li could even think of 'Flower Language,' I'd jump off the balcony."

Mianmian pointed out, "Our balcony is sealed."

Qian Qian added, "And it's on the first floor."

Baozi affirmed, "Exactly."

Having said that, she paused, then looked at Brother Nan again, tilting her head in curiosity. "I've always been curious, what do you like about Zhou Li?"

"What?"

Brother Nan was dumbfounded.

Baozi patiently repeated the question.

Brother Nan looked left and right, realizing that the two foot-scratching cuties were both staring at her. She tugged at the corner of her mouth and said evasively, "Do I like Zhou Li? Where did you get that idea from?"

"If not that, then what?" Baozi asked in return.

"He's my Little Brother!"

"Do you have many little brothers?"

"Plenty!"

"Do you treat them all like this?"

"Like what? Oh…" Brother Nan trailed off as she finished asking, noticing Baozi pointing at the laptop screen and then glancing towards her seat.

"Ummm…"

The answer, of course, was no.

But before Brother Nan could answer, Baozi changed her line of questioning. "Zhou Li is special to you, right? Have you ever thought about why that is?"

"I have."

"Hmm?"

"Because…"

Brother Nan didn't know how to respond right away. After a moment's thought, she looked at Baozi and Cotton Swab. "I'll tell you guys, I'm different from you. I wasn't an ordinary person from birth, do you believe that?"

Baozi was speechless.

"I believe it!" Mianmian grinned.

"You're not an ordinary person, you're a goddess!" Qian Qian buttered her up expertly.

"See? Zhou Li wouldn't find it strange," Brother Nan said.

A brief silence followed.

"Huh?" one of them finally voiced.

"Wow, Zhou Li spoils you so much! Boo hoo hoo~~" another gushed.

"I can't be bothered to explain it to you in detail." Brother Nan wasn't one to show off her unique gifts to the whole world, nor was she constantly using her luck for personal gain. Consequently, while her roommates knew she was very lucky, they only perceived it as somewhat abnormal, not extremely so. They hadn't witnessed anything beyond that, nor would they believe it.

"...So, what does Zhou Li like about you?" Baozi asked, continuing her inquiry.

"How should I know?"

"Then you must at least know what kind of girls he likes, right? So you can figure out if the girl from last month was a threat to you," Baozi said.

"What kind?"

"I'm asking you."

"I thought you were going to tell me…"

"I don't know."

"Uh…" After hesitating for a while, Brother Nan asked, "What kind of girls do boys generally like?"

"I've never been in a relationship."

"Ah."

Brother Nan looked to the other two.

Mianmian shook her head vigorously. "I've never dated either."

Qian Qian raised her hand. "I have. I've dated a few."

After a pause, meeting Brother Nan's expectant look, she smiled widely. "But the ones I dated were just ordinary people; you could tell they were ordinary by looking at them. As for a god-tier guy like Zhou... how would I know."

Brother Nan laughed. "What level is he?"

Qian Qian thought for a moment and said, "He's super handsome, doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, doesn't gamble, and somehow also doesn't play games. He doesn't seem to love studying or reading much either... Heck, now that you mention it, what does he actually like?"

The others all turned to look at Brother Nan.

Brother Nan just chuckled, unable to come up with an answer at the time.

In the eyes of others, Zhou Li was undoubtedly a boring person. He seemed to have no great interest in anything—at least not an extraordinary fondness for any particular thing, nor any skill worth mentioning.

Brother Nan used to try to change Zhou Li, a habit that began when Mother Zhao asked her to do so in high school. But she didn't anymore.

If someone said being sunny was good, let him be sunny. If someone said being ambitious was good, let him be ambitious. If someone said exercise was good, let him run to his heart's content. If someone said alcohol was good, then let him drink his fill.

Zhou Li was not someone else; he had his own life.

Even though it might be different from others', that was his life, what he wanted to do. And Brother Nan thought that was okay.