My Demon Friends

Chapter 434 - 430

「November 17, Saturday.」

It had been six days since Zhou Li had left school.

Official negotiations had already commenced; the big shots were busy with meetings every day while Zhou Li had plenty of free time. After climbing the Great Wall, they had also visited the Temple of Heaven, watched the flag-raising ceremony, gone to Fragrant Hills Park to see the not-so-red autumn leaves, and eaten plenty of Capital delicacies.

Zhou Li realized that he had started to miss Brother Nan.

Although they had been chatting online these past few days and video-called every evening, the longing between a young couple wasn’t so easily appeased.

Video calls allowed sight but no touch.

A young man, first love...

Zhou Li lay on his bed, thinking about the feeling of his heart racing when he held Brother Nan’s hand, hesitating whether to confide his feelings to Brother Nan.

Most importantly, would Brother Nan laugh at him?

Just then, the doorbell suddenly rang.

Huai Xu, lying on the adjacent bed, turned over and lazily said, "Why does that Yin Le always come running to our room? Does he have some peculiar hobby?"

Tuanzi suddenly sprang off Zhou Li’s stomach and onto the floor, shouting as she ran toward the door—

"Lord Dumpling is opening the door!"

CLICK...

Yin Le, standing at the door, looked down at Tuanzi with a somewhat unnatural expression. However, Tuanzi’s ’status and identity’ over the past few days had left a deep impression on him. So, after a brief silence, he nodded to the half-grown cat on the floor and said, "Thank you for your trouble, Lord Dumpling..."

"You may dispense with the formalities!"

"..."

Yin Le vaguely remembered that Little Trash Cat hadn’t been like this before.

Following Tuanzi into the room and past the short corridor, he saw an Abandoned Human and an Abandoned Demon, each lying on a bed. The corners of his mouth twitched.

"What are you two doing?"

"Lying down."

"Lying down."

The human and the demon replied in unison.

The corners of Yin Le’s mouth twitched again. "Why aren’t you out having fun? Can’t find anything to do?"

"I don’t know where to go. We’ve already visited the few spots we were slightly interested in. The rest are either too far, or we don’t want to go." Zhou Li remained lying on the bed, thinking about Brother Nan, but this didn’t affect the fluency of his conversation with Yin Le. "If the negotiations don’t end soon, I’m going to listen to a Deyun Society crosstalk show."

"!!!"

Yin Le felt a keen sense of unfairness.

He took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and repeated this twice. Finally, he managed to calm himself, pulled over a nearby chair, and sat down. "The talks might go on for a few more days."

"That long..."

"What’s wrong?"

"I want to go back to school," Zhou Li said honestly. "The weather here is too dry; I’m not used to it."

"Missing your girlfriend?"

"The weather is too dry."

"This—" Yin Le pointed to the device under the television. "Humidifier."

"It’s dry outside."

"The last couple of days have been alright, though. A bit rainy."

"I only asked for five days of leave, and that was with a fake leave slip. This is already the sixth day." Zhou Li found another reason, looking calmly at Yin Le with an expression that said, ’If you keep this up, I can find ten more reasons.’

"The main issue is that the talks have hit a bit of a snag these past couple of days," Yin Le said, not pursuing the previous topic. "Otherwise, they should have concluded today."

"What happened?"

"Everything was going smoothly before. At least until now, what both sides wanted has been the same, and everyone was proactive. Many things could simply be modified based on ancient regulations. However, when we started discussing things that ancient China had never negotiated with them about, progress became very slow." Yin Le shrugged. "It’s not that we’re asking for too much. In my opinion, our requests are very reasonable; it’s just that the ancients overlooked these things."

"Like what?" Zhou Li asked, curious.

"For example, demons live on our territory, right? They use our roads, don’t they? They cross the bridges we built, right? Our army stands guard at the borders, maintaining peace; they also enjoy the indirect benefits of this, don’t they? Building roads costs money, building bridges costs money, and military expenses are a huge expenditure—all paid for by the hard-earned taxes of our entire nation. Don’t you think they should contribute something for enjoying these things? Even though the people in ancient times didn’t care about this."

"I see..."

"Yes!"

"Is it a big problem?"

"It shouldn’t be a big one. We can negotiate slowly; we’ll eventually reach an agreement." Yin Le pressed the spot between his eyebrows. "At the current pace, maybe another three or four days."

"That long..."

"That’s already very fast!"

"Oh."

Seeing Yin Le’s pained expression from being busy with serious matters, Zhou Li felt somewhat ashamed. But he couldn’t help much, so he could only say, "You all are working really hard. If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know. I... I’ll see if I can be of assistance."

Yin Le looked at him expressionlessly.

Zhou Li mumbled an affirmation, lowered his head, and continued to feel ashamed.

His phone chimed—

Li Daimao: When exactly are you guys coming back?

The question came at just the right time; if she had asked a few minutes earlier, Zhou Li wouldn’t have known how to respond.

Zhou Li: Probably another three or four days.

After a moment’s thought, Zhou Li added another message: Do you miss me?

Li Daimao: Can’t I?

Zhou Li mumbled an affirmation again...

Brother Nan’s reply was a bit unexpected, but fortunately, the content was still what he wanted.

Yin Le slumped in the chair, glancing at the faint smile playing on Zhou Li’s lips. Feeling somewhat speechless, he could only raise his wrist to look at his watch, calculating how much time was left until dinner.

「The 21st, Wednesday.」

Zhou Li finally returned to school.

It rained in Chunming today. But once the rain stopped, the sky looked as if it had been washed clean, suffused with a translucent, pale cyan. The clouds were also a very light color, as if viewed through a built-in filter.

The temperature was cool and pleasant, the air moist and fragrant with osmanthus—quite fitting for a reunion with his girlfriend after a short separation.

However, the moment he saw Brother Nan, Zhou Li was pinned down and given a beating. He didn’t even know why he was being hit, but he didn’t ask.

What comforted him was that Little Trash Cat kept trying to protect him—standing two meters away, incessantly yelling loudly, ordering Brother Nan to stop. This made him feel that his kindness towards this Little Trash Cat hadn’t been in vain.

After taking his beating, Zhou Li held Brother Nan’s soft hand, glancing at the unruly cowlick on top of her head, and listened to her complain as they walked.

"There’s been so much homework these past few days!"

"Those idiotic teachers said that since the school is on lockdown, no one can go out for entertainment... I did all your homework for you; my hand is freaking sore from writing! And yet you kept sending me pictures of all your fun and food every day!" As she spoke, she gave Zhou Li another punch, accidentally hitting him too hard, and then quickly rubbed the spot for him.

"I eat in the cafeteria every day, and there’s no one to hang out with. I’m bored to death!"

"I heard you’ve been skipping classes to play games every day..." Zhou Li said tentatively. However, as soon as the words left his mouth, a dull thud landed on his arm.

"I’m sorry." Zhou Li calmly retracted his previous statement, then hesitated for a moment. "I also heard Mianmian and Qian Qian did your homework for you."

BANG!

"Sorry... Is Baozi back yet?"

"He came back a while ago."

"Oh."

Actually, Zhou Li wasn’t particularly concerned about his Little Cousin; he was just changing the subject to avoid provoking Brother Nan further—being constantly beaten up in public wasn’t exactly a glorious affair.

Only when they reached the residential area did Brother Nan finally let go of his hand and pat his arm. "Go on back. Take a nap and get some rest."

"Okay."

Zhou Li nodded.

Tuanzi, nestled in Zhou Li’s arms, twisted to face him and said with great seriousness, "We had an agreement, remember! Once we’re back, Lord Dumpling is going out to play. You’re not allowed to be sad!"

Zhou Li pursed his lips, feeling a bit reluctant.

Afraid he wouldn’t agree, Tuanzi pressed on, "Lord Dumpling doesn’t want to go back~~ Hurry up and put Lord Dumpling down!"

"Then... goodbye, Lord Dumpling."

"Okay!"

"Lord Dumpling, be careful..."

"Don’t worry! Someone will take good care of Lord Dumpling!" Tuanzi said, quite proudly. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she looked at Zhou Li, a hint of concern on her face, and her tone quickly grew grave. "You too, okay? Don’t always let that human beat you up. Without Lord Dumpling, no one will protect you!"

"...Thank you, Lord Dumpling."

Reluctantly, Zhou Li set her down. She meowed once, then darted into the flowerbeds without a backward glance, leaving him with a mix of emotions.

He continued towards the dormitory, now truly alone, a solitary figure.