Zhou Li lay flat on the bed, while Huai Xu lay on the ceiling as if gravity had been reversed. They faced each other, creating a sowhat eerie scene.
"I think you look quite good this way."
"What?"
"Your eyes, all cloudy, like a blind person’s." Huai Xu stared at Zhou Li. "I’ve noticed many fortune-tellers are blind, or if not, they pretend to be. Perhaps your business would do even better if you looked like this."
"Can you co down to talk..."
"Really! Look at Little Zheng; her business is very good. When she goes out like that, everyone easily believes she has special abilities."
"There are cobwebs on the ceiling."
"I don’t mind the dirt!"
"You being up there makes feel a bit uneasy, and it makes my head spin."
"How delicate!"
Suddenly, with a WHOOSH, he appeared beside Zhou Li, lying shoulder to shoulder with him, and continued, "I think next ti you could wear one of those... what are they called... the ones that make your eyes all different colors when you put them on..."
"Color contacts."
"Right, right! I wonder if they have them in a dull gray color."
"They should; actors use them." Zhou Li crossed his hands on his stomach. "But I guess they’re probably not easy to buy around here."
"Where do actors get them?"
"It’s like... What are you trying to do?"
"I was going to ask you the sa thing! What are you thinking?"
Huai Xu rolled onto his side, looking at Zhou Li rather strangely. "Do you think I’m going to steal sothing again?"
"Aren’t you?"
"I’d leave money!"
Zhou Li was speechless. He felt sowhat powerless; he had tried to persuade this old monster to walk the righteous path before, but as everyone knows, to little avail.
Faint voices drifted in from outside the window. They hadn’t reached downstairs yet. This was mainly because the small mountain village was so quiet. Although the cicadas had been chirping ceaselessly since morning, their sound was the only one. With his enhanced hearing, he could easily pick out their voices from the air.
"They’re back."
"Mm-hmm."
"Those two girls are talking about sweet potatoes, wondering how many they dug up. I should have gone to dig sweet potatoes with them. Instead, I co back to keep you company, and you complain about ." Huai Xu had initially wanted to egg on that foolish cat to dig sweet potatoes too, just to mock her for her useless little paws. He had also wanted to secretly stuff a caterpillar in her pocket or catch a small snake to scare her into wailing. It would have been so much fun. But he had missed the opportunity, and thinking about it, he felt he had missed out on a billion.
"Oh."
"Speaking of which, your hearing has gotten really good. That’s not good; you’ll turn into an eavesdropping maniac!" Huai Xu voiced his concern seriously.
"What ti is it now?"
"Don’t you wear a watch?"
"Can you check it for ?"
"Don’t you have eyes?"
Zhou Li was speechless again. He took a breath and exhaled, then, with a smile, fished out his phone. In critical monts, Xiao Ai was still the reliable one.
It was actually almost four-thirty.
Indeed, having soone to chat with made ti fly much faster. He rembered how difficult it had been to endure those one or two hours alone. But when Huai Xu returned, even a longer period seed to slip away as quickly as drinking a cup of tea.
He did feel sothing akin to gratitude stirring deep inside.
But just as he was about to get out of bed and go downstairs—
His shoes were gone!!
Brother Nan’s footsteps gradually ascended the stairs, getting closer and closer.
CREAK.
The door was pushed open.
Brother Nan’s face was flushed red from the sun, exuding a cuteness not usually seen in her. A thin sheen of sweat covered her face, causing a few strands of hair to stick to her cheek. In her hands, she carried a very well-behaved little kitty that dared not move.
The little kitty stealthily glanced at Zhou Li.
Then, with a casual toss from Brother Nan, the kitty arced through the air and landed neatly on Zhou Li’s lap.
As soon as she realized she had escaped Brother Nan’s clutches and was back in Zhou Li’s arms, Tuanzi’s expression imdiately turned pitiful. She turned around, raised her little head to look at Zhou Li, and her eyes welled up with tears.
Before she could speak, Zhou Li’s heart had already lted. He quickly asked, "What’s wrong? Did Brother Nan bully you again?"
"A bee bullied Lord Dumpling, SOB SOB SOB..."
"I’m too lazy to bully her. Don’t pin everything on ! She was asking for it. The little bee was minding its own business, working hard collecting nectar, and she insisted on chasing it and trying to catch it. Whose fault is that?"
"Really? Where did it sting you?"
"My head, SOB SOB SOB..."
Watching from the side, Brother Nan couldn’t help but laugh. "This little thing was fine in my hands, not crying or making a fuss. But as soon as she’s back with you, she starts wailing!"
Zhou Li, as if he hadn’t heard, quickly lifted Tuanzi, brushing aside the fur on her forehead to look closely. "But there’s no swelling!"
"It hurts so much..."
"I’ll rub it for you!"
"OW~~"
"HEH~~"
Brother Nan yawned and sat on the edge of Zhou Li’s bed, eyeing him sideways as he comforted the little thing. She couldn’t help but tug at the corner of her mouth, then asked, "Did you have fun at ho this afternoon?"
"With Huai Xu here, it wasn’t bad." Zhou Li paused. "Don’t worry about ; I actually quite like being alone."
"Heh-heh..."
"For these three days, just focus on showing Little Zheng around," he said. "Tomorrow, you can take her to Mingjiu Mountain to visit the elder of the observatory. The day after tomorrow, take her to Puzhou County to experience the city’s bustle and the night lights."
"I know, I know..." Brother Nan responded impatiently. "You don’t have to nag; I have it all figured out."
"Oh."
Zhou Li unobtrusively took Brother Nan’s hand.
Brother Nan seed completely unaware, looking left and right, then staring blankly out the window for a while. Several minutes passed before she finally shook off Zhou Li’s hand. "I’m going downstairs to wash the sweet potatoes. I need to pick out the Old Sow variety; Little Zheng can’t tell them apart."
"How many did you dig up?"
"About half a basin? The kind Huai Xu uses for his als."
"Then you all are quite impressive."
"The environnt here is good, so they grow abundantly, all over the hills and plains..."
As Brother Nan spoke, she walked out of the room. Her voice and figure grew more distant, followed by the sound of her footsteps descending the stairs.
Zhou Li looked at his own feet...
He smacked his forehead!
He was supposed to ask Brother Nan to help him find his shoes.
His gaze shifted slightly downward and caught sight of Tuanzi, nestled in his arms, quietly rubbing her eyes with her little paws. After pondering for a mont, he said, "Lord Dumpling, don’t be sad over a re little bee. Let’s play a ga!"
"What ga, ow?"
"I’ve hidden my shoes. If Lord Dumpling can find them, I’ll give Lord Dumpling so sweet wild sweet potatoes tonight. How about it?"
"Lord Dumpling doesn’t really want to play~~"
"It’s a fun ga."
"HMM~~"
After a mont of contemplation, Tuanzi agreed.
「Ten minutes later.」
Zhou Li was wearing his shoes as he went downstairs.
The so-called sweet potatoes, or rather wild sweet potatoes, actually have no relation to common sweet potatoes or yams. They are the fruit of a perennial evergreen vine, mainly found in Yi Province, Caiyun, and Qian Province. The mature fruit is usually only marble-sized, pale red, with a sweet and sandy texture and an enticing fragrance. Their only drawback is their low yield; one can’t dig up much even after laboring for a long ti.
According to Brother Nan, not all wild sweet potatoes are edible; among them, the variety called ’Old Sow’ is not fit for consumption.
Zhou Li wasn’t sure about the reasoning behind this.
He just found them delicious and very much to Tuanzi’s liking.
They would taste even better if Brother Nan fed them to him.
Too bad there were so few.
In the evening, they continued to watch the stars and chat on the rooftop.
The next day, Brother Nan took them to Mingjiu Mountain. Zhou Li stayed at ho, his resentnt towards the old monster accumulating further.
On the third day, they went to Puzhou County, and Zhou Li went as well.
If he could barely manage to live independently in the small mountain village, then in the city, it was a different story. Without Brother Nan leading him and Miss Zheng keeping an eye on him, he would truly be helpless amidst the high-rise buildings and bustling traffic. Once the buildings and intersections beca blurred, they all looked the sa to him. He could be tripped up or knocked down by passing vehicles at any ti.
As a result, he was sowhat silent all day long.
「In the evening.」
They ca to a mountain on the edge of the city, where they could see the distant lights of Puzhou County.
What Zhou Li saw now was what Zheng Zhilan usually saw—a dark canvas with lights smudged into one blur. After a long ti, he softly asked Zheng Zhilan beside him, "Is it beautiful?"
Zheng Zhilan nodded slightly, her eyes reflecting the lights of countless hos, her voice still soft and gentle. "So this is what a city’s night is like..."
She paused. "It’s like the stars have scattered across the earth."
Zhou Li didn’t respond.
After tonight, when Lord Ji Bai’s spiritual power wore off, they would automatically switch back.
Zheng Zhilan seed to know what he was thinking. She turned her head slightly and looked at him with his eyes. "Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you, Brother Nan, for letting see the world as it truly is."
Zhou Li felt distressed. "It’s still too fleeting... I will definitely find a way to fully restore you to normal!"
Zheng Zhilan smiled and shook her head lightly. "That’s too hard. My wishes aren’t so high; I’ve already grown accustod to it. Being able to see, even briefly, has satisfied greatly."
She paused, then pointed upwards with a smile. "Besides, these eyes were a gift from it. There are so things they can’t see clearly, but other things, they can see more clearly than ordinary eyes."
Zhou Li remained silent.
What Zheng Zhilan said was indeed true. So demons were adept at disguising themselves as humans or animals, making them hard to distinguish. But she could tell them apart. Yet the price was far too great.
As the conversation reached this point, the atmosphere had already beco tinged with somberness.
At that mont, Huai Xu, who was nearby, could no longer hold back. "Hey, why are you only thanking them two? What about ?"
Zheng Zhilan’s smile suddenly brightened considerably.
Zhou Li recalled that she usually smiled reservedly; such a radiant smile was a rare sight.
She turned around and nodded seriously to Huai Xu. "Thank you, Lord Huai Xu. You’re the kindest, most adorable monster I’ve ever seen."
"Don’t talk nonsense! I am the Great Devil King!"
"Alright."
Perhaps startled by their voices, several fireflies suddenly rose from the nearby grass. It was as if this triggered a chain reaction, and other hidden fireflies took flight. While it couldn’t compare to scenes in animation, the sparse dozen or so fireflies were still a beautiful sight.
Even to Zhou Li’s eyes, the faint green light spots were dimly visible, drifting slowly through the air.
Tuanzi let out a "WOW!" and imdiately scampered off excitedly to catch them.
Brother Nan went to catch them too.
The difference was that Tuanzi couldn’t catch any, no matter how hard she tried, so she ran back to cling to Zhou Li. Brother Nan, however, caught so and placed them in Zhou Li’s palm. Zhou Li then showed the fireflies to Tuanzi. He watched her eyes widen with curiosity, wanting to touch them but not daring to. Smiling faintly, he then released the fireflies back into the night sky.
They say fireflies only live for three to seven days, their light in the darkness so fleeting.
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