My Demon Friends

Chapter 760: birthday punishment

「August 4, 2022, in the morning.」

Today was a good day.

The sky, a clear azure, was sparsely decorated with a few white clouds. The temperature was slightly cool, and the moist air carried the scent of flowers and earth. Zhou Li stood at the entrance of the courtyard and stretched lazily, feeling clear-headed and refreshed.

The courtyard was really quiet.

This place was on the edge of Chunming City. Three sides were open and spacious. Only to the left could a tall building be seen, seemingly a resettlement complex from a demolition project. It was also some distance from the courtyard. If the fog grew a bit thicker, the building would become obscured from view.

The road ahead also had sparse traffic.

This kind of place was most comfortable for sleeping.

After breakfast, Brother Nan went back to nap again. It was uncertain whether she was truly sleeping or just lying in bed playing with her phone. Zhou Li had been slowly trying to adjust Brother Nan's schedule, but it was difficult to correct it completely. Perhaps she would only start sleeping on time when she grew older, or perhaps not even then.

「Back to his own room.」

Huai Xu was sprawled at the desk writing her weekly journal, currently in the form of a girl.

Her face was so exquisite it seemed unreal, her hair parted three-to-seven, the back tied into a ponytail, giving her a somewhat heroic and crisply neat appearance. As it was summer and she was indoors, she was dressed casually. She wore somewhat baggy, army-green cargo pants with many pockets and, on top, only a dark-green tube top that restrained her full, towering bosom. Her snow-white, flawless, and extremely slender waist connected to the loosely fitting pants with lines that sharply tapered inward.

A handsome yet enticingly contradictory image, yet she wrote with such seriousness, creating a mild sense of dissonance.

Zhou Li, his expression numb, glanced at her and then sat back down on the edge of his own bed.

Since her Instantaneous Movement ability disappeared, she was constrained by physical distance. Her life became less exciting, and the content of her weekly journal shrank significantly. Sometimes, by the end of the week, she didn't even know what to write. This greatly distressed the diligent Mr. Huai.

Zhou Li then looked down at the floor.

In Zhou Li's room, Lord Dumpling had found a small box. She intended to fit her entire cat self into it, tail included. She had already turned herself semi-liquid to get all of herself into the box, but her tail refused to comply. She had to claw and bite at it, desperately trying to tuck her tail in as well, her movements both clumsy and foolish.

"Zhou Ni!"

Lord Dumpling's gaze met Zhou Li's. Her dark, round eyes sparkled, full of a pitiful appeal. "Help Lord Dumpling!"

"At your command."

Zhou Li walked over, pinched her tail, and stuffed it into a gap at the side of the box.

"There."

The word had hardly left his mouth when the tail popped back out.

Human and cat stared at each other.

BUZZ!

Just then, Zhou Li's phone vibrated. He sat back on the bed, pulled out his phone, and started checking it. Meanwhile, Lord Dumpling continued her arduous struggle with her tail, determined to recapture it and stuff it back into the box.

Baozi: Cousin, I'm back.

Zhou Li: When did you get back?

Baozi: Cousin, I missed you so much.

Baozi: I also missed Lord Dumpling.

Baozi: Arrived last night.

Zhou Li: Your timing is quite impeccable.

Although he knew that the "I missed you" from his Little Cousin likely contained a great deal of exaggeration, it still warmed his heart a bit.

Zhou Li: Today is Brother Nan's birthday.

Zhou Li: Come over early.

Baozi: Okay.

Zhou Li: Get in touch with Mianmian and Qian Qian.

Baozi: Okay.

Zhou Li: [Location]

Baozi: I'll be there before lunch.

It was summer vacation now, but for them, there was no such thing as a summer break anymore. Some classmates had already found internships. Others stayed at school or home to prepare for civil service or postgraduate exams. Very few were simply idling around. A handful even used the excuse of photography submissions to take the money a cat had earned for them and go traveling, disappearing without a trace.

Mianmian and Qian Qian were interning in Chunming. They had found easy jobs and spent their days playing around, occasionally visiting Brother Nan and freeloading several meals. Brother Nan had specially picked an empty room in the main house for them to stay in.

Zhou Li and Brother Nan were among those who were idling.

"HMPH!" Huai Xu called out impatiently, her voice melodically ancient. Then she turned to Zhou Li and said, "Why don't you find a job? Then I can transform into you and go to work for you, how about that?"

"..."

"Speak up."

"No."

"Why?"

"Don't trust you."

"TCH!!"

The coolly dressed girl turned her gaze away, visibly annoyed, but after two seconds, she turned her head back. "I can't write with you sitting here!"

"..."

She's being petty.

Zhou Li nonchalantly got up and walked out. As he passed by her, he sneaked another glance.

Just half a page written, and it's come to this...

That's pretty bad!

Zhou Li smirked and continued walking out, while Huai Xu glared at him sidelong.

Outside was the courtyard, already filled with Yueli planted earlier. The current varieties of Yueli grew very quickly, flowers covering the ground. A gentle breeze brought a scent different from the one in the room, but equally refreshing.

He wandered to Brother Nan's room and, as expected, she was playing games with His Royal Highness, the Prince of Yu. Zhou Li tried to interfere... but got chased out.

He then joined Miss Zheng in the main house living room to watch some TV—a tedious soap opera with cringe-worthy acting.

He checked the flowers outside. They were the same as yesterday.

「Two hours later, Baozi and Cotton Swab arrived together.」

Unlike Cotton Swab, this was Baozi's first visit to the garden her cousin had described as "passable." She parked her shared bike by the roadside. Through the iron fence, she could already see the garden. Deep inside, a modern Chinese-style courtyard came into view. It was newly renovated, its walls surrounded by and entwined with flowering vines, a sight that deeply amazed her. She quickly looked around but saw no other buildings nearby.