novelraw Chapter 174
Chapter 174
Chapter 174: The Evil Dragon’s Evil Deeds
“What’s going on with Zhou Anqi?”
After Xia Li saw the news of Zhou Anqi leaving the group chat, he immediately asked the evil dragon beside him.
The evil dragon is considered one of Zhou Anqi’s friends. Girls talk about everything, so she must have heard something.
However, Lucia rubbed her eyes and rolled on the sofa, murmuring for Xia Li to hug her.
Xia Li thought to himself, “We’re talking about serious matters, why are you acting cute?”
But his body honestly bent down and picked up the sleepy evil dragon from the sofa.
“Did she have a fight with Fu Yuan?” Xia Li emphasized again.
“Who?” the dragon asked drowsily.
“Zhou Anqi.” “I don’t know…”
“…”
Seeing Xia Li’s solemn expression, Lucia rubbed against Xia Li in his arms a couple more times. Her moist breath blew into Xia Li’s sweater, hot and warm.
Xia Li seriously suspected that the dragon was playing with him.
But Xia Li was completely controlled by the evil dragon. He lost his direction in this act of cuteness and wished he could immediately pick up the dragon and throw her into the small dark room to punish her severely.
You’re playing with fire, dragon girl!
However, Xia Li still cared deeply about his good brothers who had grown up with him since childhood.
Especially when it came to relationship problems, they couldn’t just break up like that.
Moreover, the act of arguing and leaving the group chat was too girly and not in line with Zhou Anqi’s usual style.
“Let me see your phone.”
Xia Li endured the dragon girl’s charm magic and reached into Lucia’s dinosaur pajamas to search.
“Don’t look…”
“I want to see.”
“No, no, no.”
Lucia turned around in Xia Li’s arms and took the phone out of her pocket, stuffing it into her collar.
Xia Li was stunned.
Wait, you think I wouldn’t dare to take it because you stuffed it in your cleavage?
Do you really think I’m a gentleman!
Xia Li didn’t hesitate at all. He reached in and started digging. But just as his wrist reached past the dragon’s snow-white neck, there was a ‘thump’.
Because her clothes weren’t full enough, the phone slipped down Lucia’s belly.
Xia Li was quick to pick it up.
Fortunately, there was a phone case. Lucia’s precious little phone wasn’t damaged.
Seeing this, Lucia didn’t bother arguing with the Brave Hero anymore and reluctantly extended her little finger to unlock the phone.
Anyway, she couldn’t beat him. Since she was living under the Brave Hero’s roof, she had to serve the Brave Hero.
“…Why would anyone use their little finger’s fingerprint to lock their phone?”
Xia Li was speechless. He opened Lucia’s WeChat and flipped through the chat history.
He felt a sense of nervousness, like he was peeking at his girlfriend’s privacy.
“See, I told you there was nothing.”
The evil dragon propped herself up on her arms, swinging her little legs, and said helplessly.
Xia Li flipped through a few pages and indeed didn’t see anything of value.
Lucia and Zhou Anqi’s chat history, besides sharing videos from Bilibili, was basically about cooking and Lucia’s questions about her studies.
Too normal.
So normal that it was abnormal.
Since he couldn’t find any clues from Lucia, Xia Li changed his approach.
He took out his own phone and just as he sent a message to Fu Yuan, it was as if the other party had been waiting for a long time. A frustrated voice boomed like thunder.
“Boss…”
“What should I do!!”
◈◈◈
Downstairs at Building Number Three, Shangdong Chaoyang Residential Complex.
Five people looked at each other, staring at two faces that were both familiar and strange. Xia Li finally remembered that they were disciples from other units in the same complex.
Back when Xia Li was the “King of the Kids”, he had fought with these guys a lot.
Later, he moved away from Qingcheng City and his disciples recruited new members, who were the two in front of him.
When they were young, there was no deep hatred. No matter how big the conflict was, a bag of snacks could solve it. But after growing up, they cherished the pure friendship they had as children even more. Every time they went home for the New Year, they would get together.
Finally, after a moment of silence, a young man with a beard, who looked a little older, stepped forward and greeted Xia Li.
“I don’t know if you remember me or not. My surname is Gong. I’m older than you. You can call me Old Gong.”
“My surname is Fu. You can call me Father Fu.”
“My surname is Xia. You can call me Grandpa Xia.”
Xia Li smiled and shook his hand, and then shook hands with Fu Yuan as well.
Between guys, the older the title, the more advantageous it is. This is an eternal truth.
“Damn it, you’re just forcing a joke when there isn’t one,” Chen Tao on the side couldn’t help but say, “What kind of super seniority is this?”
Everyone laughed, and the memories of their childhood fights faded away.
“Girlfriend?”
The man surnamed Gong walked to Xia Li’s side. He was wearing a standard plaid shirt, with an unkempt beard and thinning hair, all of which hinted at his profession as a programmer.
He glanced at the little girl who was following behind Xia Li and asked him in a low voice.
The little girl was wearing a bear coat, her pretty and clean face peeking out from under the wide, flat hat. She had both hands in her pockets and was leisurely following behind Xia Li.
She seemed indifferent to everything around her. Her eyes were only on Xia Li. After taking a few steps, she would lower her head to play with her phone.
“Yeah…” Xia Li nodded.
Before going out, he had told Lucia that he was just going to have a late-night snack and ask Fu Yuan what was going on with Zhou Anqi. It would take at most two hours. He told Lucia to read at home.
But the dragon wasn’t happy and insisted on coming along to see.
Xia Li couldn’t resist the dragon girl’s charm and had to agree.
As a result, the dragon didn’t walk with him, saying she wanted to keep her distance and followed behind Xia Li like a puppy, secretly taking pictures.
Did he bring a wolf into the house and become a traitor? Xia Li thought uneasily.
“I heard you’ve even met the parents? That’s fast… I can’t even find half a girl at my workplace. My mom is worried sick.” Gong sighed.
As he sighed, his gaze couldn’t help but fall on Xia Li.
He couldn’t beat him as a kid, and now… he felt like he could beat him even less.
Where did this guy train?
How is his body so strong??
Most common jobs nowadays were in offices or running around as salespeople. Long hours of staying up late and the stress of life made their bodies, as recent college graduates of one or two years, as fragile as paper.
How come Old Xia looked so radiant and full of energy?
◈◈◈
Fu Yuan found a barbecue restaurant and sat down.
Considering that it would be convenient to go back after drinking, the place wasn’t far from the complex, only a ten-minute walk away.
The barbecue restaurant was small, only about 30 square meters, with most of the seats outdoors.
Under a large umbrella with a beer advertisement, there was a small charcoal stove. The group sat around the stove.
When there was no wind, the heat from the stove made their cheeks flush, but when the cold wind blew, they shivered.
That was the feeling they wanted.
“Sister-in-law not coming to sit?”
Fu Yuan saw Lucia standing on the curb in the distance, making a phone call. Her voice was soft, and Fu Yuan couldn’t hear what she was saying, so he didn’t think much of it.
“Leave her alone.” Xia Li looked away and flipped the skewers the boss had brought over on the stove.
He could guess who Lucia was talking to with his toes.
Damn it, he really became a traitor.
However, since Lucia chose to contact Zhou Anqi at this time, and Zhou Anqi responded to her… didn’t that also prove that things might not be as bad as Xia Li imagined?
“Tell me, what’s going on between you and Anqi?”
Chen Tao bit open two bottles of beer and filled everyone’s glasses.
◈◈◈
The skewers at this barbecue restaurant were grilled by themselves. It was a bit slow, but it was warm to eat.
As the New Year approached, the surrounding streets were particularly lively.
This old town was only bustling with activity at the end of the year. It was usually quite deserted.
It suddenly felt like time had gone back fifteen years.
“I went to Beijing to find her.”
“And then?”
“She wasn’t very happy to see me, but she felt bad leaving me alone there. She reluctantly had a meal with me and then sent me off on the train… and then, and then I came back.”
Fu Yuan finished speaking calmly, but from the tone of his voice, one could hear how unwilling he was.
“Is that why she left the group chat?” Xia Li asked again.
It sounded very peaceful, not like they had a fight.
“We didn’t have a fight. I just told her that I wanted to go to Beijing and live there, and continue taking the civil service exam…
She can continue her graduate studies, and I can take the exam. As long as she’s willing, I’ll be with her right away. We’ll still be working towards our respective dreams, but the difference is that we can see each other every day.”
Xia Li took a sip of beer. The beer had been left outside for a while and had a natural chilling effect. It was bitter and refreshing.
“She didn’t agree?”
“She felt like I was pushing all the ‘responsibility’ onto her… When I asked her if she agreed, I was asking her to make a choice, and the price of making that choice was to bear the responsibility.
What if I was influenced by her and failed the civil service exam? What if our parents blamed us? What if my presence affected her studies? Graduate school life isn’t as easy as I thought. She has endless experiments to do and sometimes can’t even go back to the dorm for the whole day.
She had too many things to consider. I thought I had considered enough, but every question she asked left me speechless.
There are too many possibilities in the future. Even though I was mentally prepared, I’m still a little scared of so many possibilities.” Fu Yuan finished speaking with a solemn expression.
“That’s right,”
The man surnamed Gong, sitting opposite them, also felt a lump in his throat after hearing this and couldn’t help but say.
“Girls do have more to consider…
Because of pregnancy and age, they need to make the right decision in a very short period of time. But it’s different for guys. For guys, thirty is just the beginning. They have plenty of time to make mistakes.”
“The tolerance for error is different between people.” Xia Li added.
The same goes for humans and dragons.
Xia Li’s short lifespan compared to Lucia’s long dragon life… maybe it was just a fleeting moment?
Thinking of this, Xia Li shuddered.
No, he couldn’t be influenced by Yuanzi and become so pessimistic.
When encountering such relationship problems around him, Xia Li would always subconsciously relate them to himself.
But their situation was different…
If they went back to Azure Continent and had magic, everything could be different.
“It’s precisely because we know each other so well that we don’t even dare to make mistakes.”
Fu Yuan said with a wry smile, “She said, if I was just an ordinary friend and we developed feelings for each other, she might agree to date me and give it a try…
But because it’s me, she’s unwilling.
She’s unwilling to change the stable life she worked so hard for. She’s afraid of losing what she gained after eighteen years of hard work.
She said she used to like me, but now… she probably doesn’t like me anymore.”
“What does ‘probably’ mean? That’s such an ambiguous word.”
Chen Tao carefully pondered these words, but he felt that Zhou Anqi wasn’t the type of person who would use ambiguous words to give her pursuer a glimmer of hope and string them along.
Fu Yuan’s eyes flickered, and the thick lenses of his glasses were covered in mist. He quickly took them off and wiped them with his clothes.
“Why can’t I see the road clearly even though I’ve turned on the windshield wipers?”
Fu Yuan’s voice was nasal.
It was clearly a joke, but coming from his unwilling tone, it had a different flavor.
“Don’t be like this.”
Now even Xia Li felt sorry for him.
“Actually, she didn’t say ‘probably’. What she said was five short words ━ I don’t like you.” Fu Yuan added.
“…”
Everyone fell silent, poured themselves a glass of wine, and drank it down without saying a word.
“She used to like you, right?”
Chen Tao couldn’t bear to listen anymore. He stretched out his arm and pulled Fu Yuan over, wanting to comfort him.
“Yeah…” Fu Yuan nodded.
“Time can change everything. In my opinion, this is normal. Remember the snacks you liked to eat when you were a kid? Oh, I remember you liked to eat ‘sour candies’.”
“Yeah…” Fu Yuan nodded again.
“You liked to eat them when you were a kid, but what about now?”
“I don’t like them now.”
“That’s right. Just because you liked something before doesn’t mean you’ll still like it now or in the future…
Are sour candies wrong? No, they’re not. Are you wrong? No, you’re not.
Neither of you is wrong. It’s time that changed things. So, Yuanzi, think about it.”
Chen Tao patted Fu Yuan’s shoulder heavily. Fu Yuan was already thin and frail, and with his heartbreak, he almost fell apart after being patted a few times.
“Yeah, she just doesn’t like me anymore…”
Fu Yuan lowered his head and picked up two pieces of paper to wipe his glasses.
The large umbrella above couldn’t block the bean-sized raindrops falling from his face.
For a moment, they didn’t know if Chen Tao had successfully comforted him or made him feel even worse.
However, if Xia Li said something to rekindle his hope and encourage him to persevere at this time, it would probably make him even more miserable.
So Xia Li remained silent.
“Xia Li…”
Someone tugged at his clothes. Xia Li turned around and saw Lucia’s cute and delicate face right in front of him.
She stared at the skewers on the stove and said to Xia Li with longing eyes.
“Want to eat.” The evil dragon opened her mouth.
Xia Li casually picked up two skewers of grilled pork belly and stuffed them into her hand.
“I can’t feed you right now, just hold them and eat.”
After all, it was a bit inappropriate to show affection in front of his heartbroken brother.
“Oh…”
Lucia obediently took the skewers, pulled over a small stool, and started eating.
Fu Yuan recovered after a while, rubbed his eyes, and greeted Lucia.
“Sister-in-law, if you don’t drink beer, just ask the boss for a drink. Don’t be polite, wuuwuu…”
After all, he was the host and Lucia was the guest. Naturally, he should greet the guest when she sat down.
However, Fu Yuan broke down again halfway through his sentence, tears streaming down his face.
“…”
Lucia stared blankly at the little person crying in front of her, then turned to look at Xia Li.
The corners of the evil dragon’s mouth went from a surprised flat line to gradually curling upwards.
Why was the dragon looking like she was about to laugh!
‘Don’t laugh.’
Xia Li glared at her and used lip language to stop the evil dragon’s evil deeds.
So Lucia coughed lightly and held back her smile.
“It’s okay, I’ll just eat whatever…”
“Um, I want to get some more food. Why don’t you guys eat for a while longer?”