My Demon Friends

Chapter 433 - 429: Xiao Zhou’s behavior

"This should be it, right..."

Zhou Li looked down at his phone; the icons for Xiao Zhou and Xiao Zhu had overlapped on the map.

Huai Xu stood very close to him, leaning over to look at the map as well. "This thing is really high-tech," he said. "If they had something like this back in ancient times, tracking people would’ve been much easier."

"Your tracking targets won’t share real-time maps with you," Zhou Li reminded in a low voice.

"..." Huai Xu quietly withdrew his gaze, glancing towards the wall in front of them. "The kid is right inside, quietly sitting under a tree waiting for you, looking around, and wary of the security guards."

"I’ll call him—" Zhou Li furrowed his brows, brewing for a moment. "Zhu Shuang!"

"You startled him," said Huai Xu.

"Oh."

"He’s started to run."

Huai Xu was like a sports commentator. As his voice fell, a faint noise came from behind the wall, and a head popped up over it.

Zhu Shuang, although a good kid, was in great physical shape and quickly scaled the wall.

He landed, hastily dusting off his hands and knees.

Zhu Shuang first looked toward Zhou Li and Huai Xu, smiling obediently, then turned his gaze to Tuanzi in Zhou Li’s arms, his eyes lighting up with little stars.

But he didn’t have time to say hello, glancing around like a thief. "Let’s go quickly, I think I was spotted by a security guard!"

Zhou Li didn’t take it seriously, looking calmly at him and handing him a candied haw on a stick that he had bought on their way. "The security guards don’t know you. As long as you don’t panic, nobody will know you climbed the wall, so just be cool."

"Oh!!"

Zhu Shuang’s eyes widened, instantly enlightened. Then he looked at Zhou Li with an even more incredulous expression—

The brother I remembered wasn’t like this at all!

Returning to his senses, Zhu Shuang took the candied haw, peeled off the wrapper, and began eating it, while looking at Zhou Li. "I just talked to Sister, told her to climb over too. They seem to have those fence walls on their side, easier to climb, and they’re not as strict over there."

"Hmm..."

"What’s up?" Zhu Shuang looked at his brother quietly, feeling a little uneasy. "Didn’t you plan to call Sister earlier?"

"No, that’s not it," Zhou Li explained. "I just forgot that I also had a sister in the Capital."

"..."

"Did she agree?"

"She agreed."

That doesn’t seem like her character. Zhu Bing seemed even more well-behaved than Zhu Shuang in Zhou Li’s memory.

"She agreed at once."

"I see..."

"Does Lord Dumpling want a candied haw...?"

"MEOW."

The three of them walked leisurely forward with the cat. Just ahead was a school gate. They were only a third of the way there when two security guards rushed out of the gate.

Zhou Li put his hand on Zhu Shuang’s shoulder.

Zhu Shuang focused on eating his candied haw and continued to play with the cat.

The guards looked around, searching for suspicious individuals, but only glanced at them briefly before looking away.

「Half an hour later.」

Zhu Bing managed to squeeze through a gap in the fence by taking advantage of her slim build.

The little girl was always well-behaved, and the escape made her heart throb with nervousness, her face flushed. The first thing she said was similar to Zhu Shuang—

"Let’s go! Don’t get caught!"

"Want some candied haw?" Zhou Li handed her the stick of candied haws he’d kept for Tuanzi. "I got one for each of you."

"MEOW??"

"Thank you. What’s with Lord Dumpling?"

"Lord Dumpling hasn’t seen you for a while and misses you," Zhou Li said calmly. "Shall we go for a stroll in Yuanming Garden? Is there anything good to eat around here?"

"I don’t know..." the little girl said.

"I don’t know," Zhu Shuang said as well. "We’ve always been cooped up inside the school and have never gone out to eat. Since school started, this is the first time we’ve met... Wait, I’ll ask if there’s something tasty nearby. Let me treat you to a meal."

"I’ll pay..." the little girl said, too.

"Don’t fight with me!" Zhu Shuang hurriedly said. "I heard a senior say there is a good mutton hot pot place nearby."

"Let’s do it together!" the little girl insisted.

"No need, Sis!"

"..."

Zhou Li walked quietly beside them, listening to their bickering while unconsciously playing with the pads of Tuanzi’s feet.

He guessed Zhu Bing had climbed the fence to meet them probably because she wanted to treat them to a meal. After all, back in Yan City, whenever they went out, the expenses were generally covered by him and Brother Nan. She had always been the one being taken care of.

But the little girl obviously wasn’t as well off as her twin brother.

Because their father wasn’t very wealthy, and although Aunt Jiang would give Zhu Bing money, the little girl was stubborn, at most accepting the occasional small red envelope. When asked, she would say that her father had already given her enough for living expenses, and she didn’t lack money, leaving Aunt Jiang quite helpless.

Understanding the little girl’s mentality, Zhou Li stepped forward and said, "One of you can buy our tickets, the other can pay for the meal. That should be about even for the two gardens."

"Oh, okay."

"Alright!"

Both of them agreed.

While waiting for the bus by the road, the siblings started to casually play with their phones.

Zhou Li stood expressionless beside them, pretending not to know they were checking the ticket prices, and continued to play with Tuanzi’s little feet, exchanging a glance with the Old monster.

But he wasn’t just making things up. The per-person cost for mutton hot pot was usually around 80 yuan. Since schools were mostly locked down recently, the nearby restaurants that relied on students weren’t doing well. Therefore, the group discounts during this time were particularly substantial. All things considered, the per-person cost should be around fifty or sixty yuan, while the combined entry fees for the Summer Palace and Yuanming Garden would be over forty yuan. Not to mention the possibility of wanting to buy a bottle of ice-cold cola or eat some ice jelly while strolling around—that would be a much larger expense.

The Old monster could eat five servings of ice jelly alone, holding a bottle of cola in one hand and tucking another bottle under his arm.

"Bro, why did you guys come to the Capital?" Zhu Shuang must have figured it out. He put down his phone, but not before pretending to switch to WeChat and angling the screen so they could see it.

"Remember that job I found translating ancient texts? I’ve finished a batch. The boss considers his family heirloom very precious and didn’t dare send it by courier. He’s also very busy, so he paid me to deliver it on his behalf. I just delivered it to him yesterday."

"OH!!" Zhu Shuang looked surprised. "Like a manual of martial arts secrets!"

"It’s not that mysterious."

"Did you make money?"

"I made quite a bit."

"That’s awesome!"

Zhou Li exchanged another look with Huai Xu.

They had discussed this matter just the evening before. Actually, it all started as idle chatter, and this lame excuse was just a spur-of-the-moment fabrication by Zhou Li to fob off the Old monster. At the time, the Old monster thought that any sane person wouldn’t believe such a lame story, while Zhou Li held the opposite view, thinking they would.

So they made a bet, using this excuse.

As it turned out, Zhou Li won.

Over the afternoon, they quickly toured both the Summer Palace and Yuanming Garden.

The Summer Palace felt like a park, although it was ten thousand times better looking than the wretched Imperial Garden. But it wasn’t nearly as beautiful as Zhou Li had imagined from history books or TV dramas, even worse than the scenery on the hillside outside the city.

Yuanming Garden was a bit more impressive. They just happened to go there at dusk when the setting sun shone on the lotus leaves or the ruins, giving it a certain charm.

After eating mutton hot pot, Zhou Li saw them both back, ensuring they weren’t caught by security, and even bought them some fruit on the way. Most girls like to eat fruit, and Zhu Shuang, in this regard, was like most girls.

「The next day.」

Golden Mountain Summit, Great Wall.

Zhou Li carried Tuanzi the entire way up. Fortunately, he was in good physical condition; it would have been tough for anyone else.

Regrettably, Zhu Shuang and Zhu Bing did not join them. After all, they were in class, and climbing over the school wall to get out had already been quite risky. Skipping one or two more days of classes wouldn’t be appropriate.

Otherwise, I could have passed Tuanzi to them.

"HUFF..."

"Drink water!" Huai Xu pulled out a can of ice-cold cola from his bag. "You’ve only climbed this short stretch and you’re already tired. If it were ancient times, when enemies invaded and smoke signals were spotted on the Great Wall, the soldiers would have to run here from their garrisons. Someone like you would have been beheaded!"

"I’m climbing pretty fast," Zhou Li looked down, unfazed. "Look at those two foreigners. They started out with us, and now they’ve only climbed halfway."

"NOOBS!"

"...I’ve noticed you’ve been picking on me a lot lately."

"NOOB!"

"..." Zhou Li chose to ignore him and continued looking into the distance, placing Tuanzi on the battlement. "Should I teach Lord Dumpling a poem? Would that be good?"

"Good."

"Recite with me," Zhou Li pursed his lips. "I shall ascend the highest peak, and all mountains will look small."

"I shall ascend the..."

Tuanzi only got out three words and got stuck, staring fixedly at Zhou Li as a way to hide its own foolishness.

Zhou Li didn’t mind and just continued looking into the distance.

The scenery here did not disappoint him at all. It even exceeded his expectations, giving him a pleasant surprise.

Huai Xu also stopped talking, joining him to look at the distant, overlapping mountain ranges, adorned with autumnal colors, with the Great Wall winding over them.

"I’ve been to the Great Wall before too." It was a while before Huai Xu spoke. "I’ve come during every dynasty I was awake for. Although I’ve never been to this specific spot, look down there—those are apricot trees. Come spring, these mountains will be dyed the pink of apricot blossoms."

"That must be beautiful."

"Very beautiful," Huai Xu nodded, pointing towards the north side of the mountain. "Wars usually aren’t fought in spring. Otherwise, enemies could surge up from this side. When that happens, no matter how beautiful the apricot blossoms are, no one would be in the mood to admire them."

"I see..."

The image of the continuous mountains painted pink with apricot blossoms began to form in Zhou Li’s mind.

Border guards standing on the Ancient Great Wall, amidst a brief peace before the northern snows melted, not thinking of anything else, just quietly enjoying this enchanting view, appreciating the gentle beauty blooming from these mountains so often stained with blood.

Banners fluttering, apricot blossoms dancing.

Peace is indeed precious.

Zhou Li stood there, drinking his cola and admiring the scenery, occasionally helping an older woman take a picture. The can of cola was soon empty.

Huai Xu dug out another can from the bag. "Want more?"

"No, thanks... BURP!"

"You burp too, huh!"

"I’m human, after all."

Zhou Li shook his head, pulled out his phone to shoot a video for Brother Nan, sent it over, then picked up Tuanzi and started down the mountain.

The two foreigners had just reached the top.

It turned out Zhou Li’s endurance was indeed reliable.