My Demon Friends-Chapter 591 - 565: Return to Chunming

"Is fish soup with rice delicious?"

"It's yummy!"

"Just a bowl of fish soup with rice has bribed Lord Dumpling." Zhou Li bowed his head close to the table, cradling Tuanzi's small, round head. "It really breaks my heart."

"More than one bowl!" Tuanzi earnestly corrected him.

"I'm so heartbroken."

"Well... Lord Dumpling still likes Zhou Ni." Tuanzi also bowed his head, rubbing his forehead against Zhou Li's hand. He then looked up and said, "If you want to blame someone, blame... blame Zhu Shuang! He said he'd treat Lord Dumpling to fish soup with rice every day, bribing Lord Dumpling!"

"Really?"

"Really!" 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"I don't believe it."

"Exactly! Just like that!"

"I see..."

Zhou Li rested his chin on his hand, watching Tuanzi with a calm yet helpless expression, feigning distress.

Tuanzi then raised his little paws and gently stroked Zhou Li's exposed wrist, comforting him while surreptitiously observing his expression.

In the following days, Zhou Li mostly stayed at home, reading and carving, utterly bored. Under the Old Monster's exasperated gaze, he carved two sets of tableware. This was a gift he planned to take to Chunming for Ms. Ji; he hadn't seen her in a long time and wanted to make her happy.

He occasionally accompanied Zhu Shuang to play basketball.

The reason was that Brother Nan was working every day. Ever since she started stocking supplies for her noodle shop, business, which was already good, had become even better, keeping her very busy.

Without Brother Nan around, Zhou Li didn't know what to do when he went out.

「21st, the tenth day of the month.」

The weather deteriorated right after the long Spring Festival vacation ended.

Zhou Li loaded his luggage into the trunk. Zhu Shuang was also putting boxes into another car beside theirs.

After he closed the trunk, he turned and saw Aunt Jiang leaning on the door of the adjacent car, standing outside and looking at him with a somewhat playful smile. "Getting in?"

"Okay."

"Drive slowly on your way."

"You too."

"Bye-bye..."

"Okay."

Only then did Aunt Jiang get into the car. After closing the door, she waved at them through the window, calling out, "Goodbye, Lord Dumpling!"

Tuanzi meowed at her.

Old Zhou's car left first, with Brother Nan and Zhou Li following.

They were heading to the same highway entrance, a drive of about fifteen minutes. Old Zhou drove slowly the entire way, and Brother Nan, unusually patient, trailed behind. Zhu Shuang, with his lively disposition, occasionally stuck a hand out of the passenger seat window to give them a V-sign or peeked at them through the rearview mirror.

But once on the highway, they headed in opposite directions.

Brother Nan then stepped on the gas and began to accelerate.

If the speed limit was 120 km/h, she'd set her speed to 130; if it was 110, she'd set it to 120. Driving within 10% over the speed limit wasn't penalized, and going slower meant losing out.

「By five in the afternoon, they arrived in Chunming.」

Baozi was waiting for them downstairs.

Zhou Li spotted his little cousin right away. She was dressed in a checkered shirt and oversized, faded jeans, looking like a male engineering student. She wore canvas shoes; her feet were so small they looked like children's shoes. Her face was fair and tender, as if water could be pinched from her cheeks, and her frame was petite, yet she had a distinctive baozi face. She stood expressionlessly, her gaze unfocused. She didn't look at all like she was there to pick up relatives; rather, she seemed to have sleepwalked to the spot and was simply standing there in a daze.

Brother Nan pulled Zhou Li aside. "Let's go this way!"

Zhou Li immediately understood her intention. He circled around to approach Baozi from the side, planning to startle her.

Baozi seemed completely unaware. Only when the two of them drew near did she slowly turn her head, watching them expressionlessly.

"AH!"

Brother Nan grinned. "We were just about to call out to you."

Zhou Li pursed his lips. "You were standing there so still, we thought you hadn't seen us."

Baozi nodded, then turned and walked off.

Zhou Li quickly followed, walking beside her. He turned to observe her expression. "You seem a bit unhappy."

"That's just how I am."

"Why?"

"Born this way."

"Like your face?"

"..." Baozi turned her head away. "Brother Nan, you guys arrived so early. They said you wouldn't be here until six or seven, and they've only just started making dinner."

"Brother Nan drove really fast," Zhou Li commented.

"Did you miss Brother Nan?" Brother Nan asked.

"I did," Baozi nodded. That was the truth.

"Such a good girl! Come here, let me pinch your cheeks!" Brother Nan exclaimed, pulling Baozi into an embrace. Her hand deftly reached for Baozi's other cheek and began to playfully pinch it as Baozi tried to shrink away. "How come your face seems a bit thinner than before the holidays? Haven't you been eating well? Brother Nan will treat you to bubble tea."

"Okay!" Baozi stopped trying to dodge.

"Did you miss me?" Zhou Li asked tentatively.

"Brother Nan," Baozi's voice was somewhat muffled as her face was being squished, but her expression remained calm, "they said you drove too fast. That's not good."

"I know what I'm doing," Brother Nan replied.

"She's ignoring me..." Zhou Li muttered, scratching his head and looking quite pitiful.

「They soon arrived home.」

His aunt was busy in the kitchen, with Ms. Ji attempting to help but mostly getting in the way. His uncle was on the couch playing with his phone, a mixed-race girl sitting beside him. Zhou Li had forgotten her name, so he didn't address his uncle directly either, merely raising a hand in greeting.

"Hi."

"You're here?" his uncle said. "That was really fast!"

"Brother, Little One, long time no see!" Ji Xuan jumped up, her smile bright and sweet. "Did I get that right?"

"It was mainly because there was no traffic," Zhou Li replied.

"Call me Big Brother, and I'll teach you how to do a middle part!" Brother Nan said.

"Huh?" Ji Xuan looked puzzled.

"Hahaha."

"I've been waiting for you guys for so long; it's so boring! Quick, take me out to play!" Ji Xuan stretched out her hands, looking as if she were awaiting rescue.

"Isn't Baozi playing with you?" Zhou Li asked.

"Baozi?" Ji Xuan turned to look at Baozi. Recalling it was her nickname, she said, "Sister Baozi is no fun at all. She sleeps at home in the morning, and in the afternoon, she takes her camera and goes walking for ages. My legs are about to fall off! Even summer camp wasn't this exhausting."

Faced with her complaints, Baozi remained completely unmoved, as if she hadn't heard a thing.

Ji Xuan paused, then leaned closer to Zhou Li and whispered, "And I've noticed Sister Baozi doesn't seem to smile. I suspect she has facial paralysis. When we go out, she always has the same expression. It's weird."

As she spoke, she tugged at Zhou Li's clothes. Such immediate closeness upon meeting, if not rebuffed, can easily bridge the distance between people.

So Zhou Li's expression softened considerably. He sat down and asked, "Where do you want to go play?"

"Seven Colored Cloud Ban Amusement Park!" Ji Xuan shouted, raising her hands high, her voice clear and bright. "I want to ride the roller coaster!"

"Your Chinese is getting much better."

"Really?" Ji Xuan lowered her hands. "Mom says I speak it poorly."

"Not at all," Zhou Li said patiently. "Chinese has several levels. You might think the highest level is to speak with perfect pronunciation and grammar, but that's not it. There's an even higher level: regional dialects. You've already skipped the 'perfect pronunciation and grammar' stage and reached the dialect level."

"MEOW MEOW?"

"Really?"

"Yes. How did you learn?"

"I speak Chinese with Mom at home every day, and I also made an online friend I used to call daily," Ji Xuan explained. "Nowadays, everyone on the internet says that not knowing Chinese will make it difficult to get by in the future. They say China will surpass the U.S. to become the new world leader. Unfortunately, my online friend deleted me. I learned so many words from him that I couldn't have learned elsewhere."

"Why did he delete you?"

"He wanted to date me, but I just wanted to learn Chinese."

"What a pity."

"Brother, can I play with the cat, please?"

"No."

Zhou Li refused her bluntly. "This is Lord Dumpling," he said seriously. "We must show Lord Dumpling respect."

Lord Dumpling +1.