Chapter 102: Chapter 100: What If My Little Brother Is Doing Better Than Me, Waiting Online
「September 29, Sunday morning.」
The morning sun coated the side of the building in red, as if a pool of red ink had been spilled across the eastern horizon. Tuanzi sprawled in the hanging chair like a human, its four paws dotted with delicate pink paw pads.
Zhou Li was packing, with Huai Xu following him around.
"Why are you packing so much?"
"What else would I do?"
"Aren’t I going with you guys? Whatever you need, just tell me to come back and get it. It’s faster than searching through your bag."
"...Forget it."
Zhou Li had a lightweight, thin orange foldable bag. It was a waterproof freebie Old Zhou and Aunt Jiang had gotten when they bought a hiking bag. Since Brother Nan said to put their stuff in the saddlebags, Zhou Li thought this bag would be the most suitable.
Backpacks were too angular.
After packing, Zhou Li threw his bag on the sofa and went out to the balcony to look at Tuanzi, unable to resist poking her paw pads.
"What will you do this week?"
"Hmm..." Tuanzi flinched at the tickle, squinting her eyes open a sliver. "Lord Dumpling doesn’t need your concern."
"Are you going out to trick people again?"
"How could you call it tricking people? Lord Dumpling needs to eat too!" Tuanzi saw him reach for her belly again and pressed his hand away with one of her paws. "This is mingling with humans, giving and taking as needed."
"Always so eloquent."
"When are you going to set up my little hammock?" Tuanzi disliked the floral hanging chair.
"I’ll do it when I get back."
"Understood, MEOW. Then pour Lord Dumpling a cup of warm water. I’m a bit thirsty," Tuanzi said in a tone like an old duchess, although her voice was soft and childlike. "Add some goji berries and dates to it."
"...We don’t have any."
"We don’t have anything at all," Tuanzi muttered. "Then just add some honey."
"..."
Trying to be healthy, are we?
Zhou Li went and poured her a cup of warm sugar water.
Shortly after sitting down, Zhou Li received a message from Brother Nan saying she had already left. He put on his bag, asked Tuanzi what she planned to do, and at her request, carried her downstairs while Huai Xu stayed home playing video games.
Once they got downstairs, Tuanzi wriggled out of his embrace.
The moment she touched the ground, she transformed into a half-grown Ragdoll cat of extremely good quality, the kind that would cost at least thirty to fifty thousand.
"MEOW~~"
She glanced back at Zhou Li, a farewell gesture, then casually wandered off in a random direction.
She soon vanished from Zhou Li’s sight.
A moment later, Zhou Li also pushed his bicycle out of the neighborhood and walked up to the Crossing-the-Bridge Noodles shop entrance. Checking his phone, he saw that Brother Nan had messaged two minutes earlier saying she was almost there, so he waited at the door.
He ended up waiting five minutes.
Zhou Li: Where are you?
Brother Nan did not reply.
Zhou Li was puzzled. It didn’t take long to bike from school to here, so he suspected Brother Nan might have gotten lost.
He rode out to look for her and immediately saw Brother Nan just around the corner. There had been a traffic accident; two cars had scraped each other, and seven or eight people had gotten out to argue. It was quite a scene.
Brother Nan was at the roadside, watching with great interest.
She did not even notice Zhou Li approach from behind, still straddling her bike with one foot on the ground, her head tilted up, engrossed in the scene ahead.
"Let’s go!" Zhou Li tapped her shoulder.
"Who!? Oh! Oh!"
Brother Nan finally followed Zhou Li away, though she couldn’t help but keep looking back.
They had two bowls of Crossing-the-Bridge Noodles, spending 29 yuan in total. This was still a bit short of the target related to Huai Xu. After sitting down, Zhou Li asked Brother Nan, "Was it that interesting?"
"It was... it was okay. I only watched for a little while!"
"..."
"I checked the route. We aren’t familiar with this road, so we better stick to major places to rest, otherwise it’d be troublesome if we can’t find a hotel," Brother Nan said seriously, picking up a piece of bamboo fungus with her chopsticks and putting it in her mouth. "Let’s take it easy today, just head to Lufeng County, a hundred and twenty kilometers away."
"Alright." Going to Dali from here did indeed involve passing through Lufeng County.
"Then tomorrow let’s push a bit harder, try to make it all the way to Xiangyun County, which is over two hundred kilometers," Brother Nan paused. "I think we can handle this distance, but if your butt can’t take it anymore, we’ll rest earlier. My main thought was that Xiangyun County is very close to Dali, so the day after tomorrow morning we can watch the parade in the hotel before setting out, taking in the sights as we go."
"No problem."
Since Brother Nan had already made the plans, Zhou Li just needed to nod in agreement.
He really didn’t like to fuss over things, so this was perfect.
"GULP..."
Brother Nan picked up her bowl, drank down the last of the soup, then lifted Zhou Li’s bag and inspected it. "This bag of yours is pretty flashy..."
"It’s an outdoor bag."
"Flashy bag!"
Brother Nan stuffed the flashy bag into the saddlebag, which had already been fitted on the rear rack of her bike. One side was already full, and the other side was clearly reserved for Zhou Li.
"Are you carrying it?" Zhou Li asked.
"Of course I am carrying it! Were you supposed to carry it?" Brother Nan said matter-of-factly. After all, Zhou Li was just there to accompany her.
"Oh."
After strapping on their helmets, the two of them quickly set off.
The morning was cool and their bikes were light. A stretch of the road ahead was a gentle downhill slope, allowing them to coast far with just a few pedals. The breeze was gentle, making Zhou Li start to look forward to this unfamiliar journey.
But not far out of Chunming, they hit a stretch of bad road, full of potholes and swirling yellow dust, with some areas even waterlogged.
The two cycled cautiously, shaking quite a bit.
What started as fun soon became tedious.
The uphill climb was even more irritating.
Fortunately, once they got past that section, the road conditions returned to normal: a relatively smooth asphalt road with few vehicles and plenty of tree shade. Some roadside houses had gardens full of flowers blooming in a riot of color.
Brother Nan led the way with the GPS, her speed fluctuating wildly with her mood. Zhou Li, however, was the opposite, so Brother Nan would occasionally speed ahead out of sight, only for Zhou Li to catch up again around the next corner.
They stopped for lunch in a town along the way, and by just past two in the afternoon, they had arrived in Lufeng County.
"PHEW~~"
Brother Nan parked the bike at the hotel entrance, removed her helmet, and exhaled deeply— the sun was too harsh, and her cheeks were hot and red.
She locked her bike, carried the saddlebag in one hand and her helmet in the other, then walked into the hotel to check in.
The room was booked by Brother Nan on Meituan; a standard room cost just a few dozen yuan. Though not big, it surprisingly offered good amenities—air conditioning, a TV, and a water dispenser were all provided, and the beds were soft and clean.
Zhou Li was already accustomed to the local prices.
Their rooms were opposite each other.
Brother Nan scratched her slightly damp hair as she stood in her doorway looking at Zhou Li. "I’m going to take a shower and then a nap. What about you?"
"I’ll sleep too."
"Okay, we’ll go out to eat after waking up...your bag."
"Mhm."
It was about three o’clock after his shower. Zhou Li played with his phone for a while on the bed before he slept. When he woke up and checked the time—
「It was five o’clock.」
Something seemed off...
Zhou Li turned his head and saw an extremely beautiful girl sitting cross-legged on the bed next to him, engrossed in her phone. Her long hair naturally hung down, covering most of her face.
"You..."
"You’re awake?" Huai Xu didn’t even look up. "What should we eat tonight?"
"I don’t know..."
"Why did you guys come here again?"
"Just passing through."
"Oh."
"What are you doing?"
"Playing a game, ’PUBG Mobile’." In just half a month, Huai Xu’s knowledge of games had already surpassed Zhou Li’s.
"..."
Zhou Li didn’t say another word, got up to wash his face again, and rubbed his buttocks and lower back. His legs weren’t sore after riding all day, but his buttocks and lower back were really not used to long-distance cycling.
He should have listened to Brother Nan’s advice and bought cycling shorts.
Just as he was about to step outside, Huai Xu’s voice suddenly came from behind him, "Are you going to call Li Daimao?"
"What’s up?"
"She’s teaming up with me."
"..."
Zhou Li silently sat back down on the bed.
After Huai Xu successfully carried Brother Nan to a chicken dinner in PUBG, his door was knocked. Standing at the door was an energetic and cute girl, Brother Nan. She greeted Zhou Li while peeking into the room. "Does your butt hurt?"
"It hurts."
"Do you want to wear my cycling shorts?"
"???"
"Never mind then." Brother Nan waved her hand. "You could also buy some diapers to use as padding. It might help a bit. Otherwise, it’s easy to develop hemorrhoids, and you guys have other parts to protect too, HEH HEH HEH..."
"..." She’s so crude, Zhou Li thought.
"Wow, so pretty!" Brother Nan looked past Zhou Li towards Huai Xu. "Let’s go out to eat, we can team up again tonight!"
"Sure!"
The two humans and one Demon chatted as they walked. The area, near a farmers’ market and a school, had many snack stalls. Huai Xu told Brother Nan that they had helped someone resolve an issue here a few days ago, so he wanted to tag along to prevent Zhou Li from encountering the Demon from that day.
Brother Nan immediately caught the key point. "Then I want to eat the grilled tofu you guys had that day!"
This was immediately seconded by Huai Xu.
Both then turned their heads to stare at Zhou Li.
"..."
Zhou Li pulled out a map, located the bridge mentioned, and found the shop. It was doing good business that evening.
Twenty yuan’s worth of grilled tofu.
Some Yi ethnic barbecue.
Two stir-fried dishes.
Three bowls of small-pot rice noodles.
One bottle of beer and two bottles of Weiyi.
Brother Nan opened her phone and checked the class group chat. She heard there had been a roll call that afternoon, but both she and Zhou Li had been marked present. Simultaneously, several other miscellaneous group chats she was in were buzzing with activity due to many recent events, which was giving her a headache.
"I think I might not be able to continue in the student union," Brother Nan suddenly said.
"Why?"
"This stupid student union always wants me to do grunt work!" Brother Nan blew a puff of air upwards, causing her bangs to lift. "I’m not doing it!"
"I see."
Zhou Li was familiar with this—he had heard Chen Yang and Chang Xiaoxiang complain about it several times. He had also heard that Brother Nan practically never attended student union meetings. According to the rules, the secretariat had to send two people to the academic affairs office every weekend to help the teachers with unskilled labor like preparing documents or spreadsheets, but Brother Nan had never gone.
Both the head of the secretariat and the president of the student union were frustrated, yet the academic affairs office had no complaints about Brother Nan.
This puzzled Chen Yang and Chang Xiaoxiang.
Zhou Li had a good guess why. Recently, Brother Nan had been gaming a lot with Zhou Qianqian. Both of them were quite bad; a pair of noobs, they were always trying out unconventional tactics in their games that were often disastrous but incredibly fun.
Zhou Qianqian happened to be from the academic affairs office.
"Actually, I don’t mind that much, but this feeling of being kicked out, it kind of hurts my pride!" Brother Nan said. "Though I truly don’t respect those idiots... What if I just quit myself?"
"Sure."
"Great! I’ll quit when I get back!" Brother Nan exclaimed. She was someone destined to be a big shot; how could she be confined to such a ’small temple’? "But if you ever have any problems, you can still come to me for help. I promised I’d always have your back!"
Zhou Li readily agreed.
Just then, a group of twenty-somethings walked into the restaurant.
As soon as they sat down, one of them saw Zhou Li and immediately widened his eyes, "Xiao Zhou... Mr. Zhou, what are you doing here?"
Zhou Li turned his head. "Mr. Hu Xing, what a coincidence."
"You are..."
"Just passing through."
"Oh oh, quite a coincidence, quite fateful."
Hu Xing felt that Zhou Li was not an easy person to deal with, being reserved and not talkative, so he only exchanged a few words before leaving to avoid making Mr. Zhou uncomfortable.
He discreetly paid their bill.
Thus, when the two humans and the Demon left the restaurant, Brother Nan’s attempt to treat them had failed. She frowned at Zhou Li, her expression complex.