CHAPTER 400: CHAPTER 396: A DAY OF SKIPPING CLASS

After changing locations, their popularity indeed increased quite a bit.

Unfortunately, the customer conversion rate was still very low. Most people would crouch in front of the small stall just to take pictures of Tuanzi with their phones, or tentatively play with Tuanzi, or use the excuse of liking cats to get a close look at the handsome man and beautiful woman. Very few actually pulled out their wallets.

They sat for a long time and only sold a few pottery pieces, which had rather unique shapes and were likely bought as decorative items.

"Next time, we still need to change locations," Zhou Li said thoughtfully. "This place isn’t suitable for selling these things."

"Why isn’t it suitable?" Huai Xu asked, puzzled. "I see those other vendors selling antiques like beads, fans, and jewelry; they set up their stalls inside the ancient town and make a lot of money."

"The ancient town has many tourists, so it’s suitable for scamming people," Zhou Li paused, then added, "but we don’t scam people."

"I see..."

"Besides, Brother Nan said we’re here for course practice. Coming once or twice is fine, but it’s not good to come too often," Zhou Li pointed to the Zhengxin Chicken Chop stall next to them. "They paid to set up here. If we stay too long, it’ll make things difficult for the security guards."

"So, where should we go?"

"Find a place with lots of young people and sell water cups," Zhou Li thought for a moment. "We should make them look nice, maybe carve a flower or something on them."

"Oh..."

Huai Xu felt somewhat discouraged and sighed deeply. "It seems I’m really not cut out for business. If, in the future, you guys build up that Celestial Master Department and we can’t make a living subduing demons, then I guess I won’t be able to live the life where I can top up as much money as I want in games, buy whatever skins I want, or get every new game that comes out."

"Don’t think like that," Zhou Li consoled him. "No matter what, you’re a Great Demon; you won’t be marginalized. Logically speaking, as humans and demons interact more and more, your money-making opportunities will increase."

"But I can’t do anything besides fight and kill," Huai Xu blinked, looking somewhat innocent. "Unless there’s a war, and I don’t want to fight in wars."

"Hmm..." Zhou Li thought for a moment. "You can also sing and dance. If you just debuted as an entertainer, you could make tons of money—much more than we earn dealing with demons."

"Huh!"

This indeed gave Huai Xu a new fantasy to consider.

He tilted his head, thought for a moment, then said joyfully, "In that case, I could play dual roles using two identities, debut from two different companies, and become the nation’s hottest male and female idols! Then I’d even have them compete with each other for business and argue online. Hey, do you think silly netizens would start shipping my own ’couple’? Because apart from myself, no one else’s looks are worthy of me."

"Your acting isn’t bad either; you could even be a skilled actor." Since they were just sitting around bored that afternoon, Zhou Li played along with his ridiculous idea. "Now you’re already playing three roles."

"You could be a screenwriter too," Brother Nan said, exasperated. "Both of you could."

"Seems a bit troublesome." Huai Xu suddenly frowned. Influenced by Zhou Li, he had also become a bit lazier and started to resist complicated matters. "It’s easier to just transform into a current big star and swagger around conning people."

"Then here’s a question: why don’t you just directly transform into Jack Ma?" Zhou Li asked.

"Who is Jack Ma?" Huai Xu asked, puzzled.

"Ma Yun."

"Oh! That alien!" Huai Xu slapped his forehead.

"...Don’t say it like that."

"Here we go again, here comes Teacher Zhou again..." Huai Xu muttered, quickly tuning out his words.

"..."

Brother Nan made a suggestion that was more grounded in reality. "Actually, I think you could open a small kindergarten. You’re talented and versatile; you can teach them to sing, dance, draw, play instruments, and you’d get along well with them. Normal kindergartens don’t need to teach many academic subjects. Parents just dump their kids there for someone else to worry about. You’d definitely be a great ’king of the kids’... but you might need a license, and that could be tricky."

Zhou Li was just about to praise Brother Nan’s idea when Brother Nan added, "Right, you could also teach them to fight!"

"Don’t teach the children bad habits..."

"This is very important!"

"Nonsense..."

"You don’t understand! It could help them be bullied less later on; the benefits would last at least until high school!"

"That’s just sophistry..."

While they bantered, Huai Xu sat beside them, seriously pondering.

He had previously asked Zhou Li what he wanted to do after graduating from college, which meant he had also considered his own future, though he hadn’t reached any conclusions back then.

This was an Old monster with a sense of impending crisis.

Now, hearing Brother Nan’s suggestion, he actually thought it was feasible.

After pondering for a long time, the Old monster stubbornly retorted, "I can teach academic subjects too!"

Sitting a bit further ahead, Tuanzi turned her head, looking puzzled. A question mark seemed to appear above her head. She didn’t know what they were talking about or why they had suddenly become so cheerful. Unfortunately, she couldn’t understand, so she soon lowered her head to play with her tail again.

The afternoon slipped by leisurely.

In summary, their profit was about fifty yuan. That evening, they went for a pot of donkey meat, which cost Zhou Li over three hundred yuan.

The experience itself was still enjoyable.

「In the evening.」

Zhou Li received a voice message from Yin Le.

He put the phone to his ear and pressed play.

He heard Yin Le say, "Our country’s Celestial Master Department will be officially established tomorrow, and it will be named the Celestial Master Department; no other name is quite as fitting. Today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also formed a special delegation preparing for talks with Yu Country. If things go smoothly, this delegation will be specifically responsible for contacting several Demon Kingdoms... Preparations for the first dialogue need to begin."

Zhou Li also sent a voice message: "I’ll start making contact."

WHOOSH.

Sent successfully.

Then he put the phone to his ear to listen to it again.

The voice in the recording was somewhat different from how he usually heard himself speak; it sounded even better, and his Mandarin was very standard.

Zhou Li was very satisfied.

For the initial dialogue between the two parties, it’s better to have a mediator unless there has already been frequent contact. Yin Le had definitely encountered more demons than him, but Zhou Li didn’t think Yin Le’s understanding of demons surpassed his own, especially regarding Great Demons or the power structures within the Demon Kingdoms. Frankly, the demons Yin Le had encountered previously weren’t significant figures in the demon world; they were probably equivalent to human thugs or street-level individuals. Those truly powerful demons wouldn’t bother with such troublemaking, and even if they did, they wouldn’t personally get involved. So, Zhou Li felt he was more suitable for the role. After all, when he ate at Hong Ran’s place, any random person he encountered could be a major figure from a Demon Kingdom.

And if Yin Le and his team were to arrange this dialogue, they could only start through the Local Government, then report it up through various levels before establishing contact. It was different for him; he had already discussed this with Hong Ran and obtained contact information for the relevant Great Demons. WeChat...

The chat window showed that Yin Le was recording a message, but it took several minutes for it to come through.

Yin Le’s voice message said, "It’s not just that; we also have some procedures we need to discuss with you. We really need your input on this. Because this is the first time New China has contacted demons, we lack experience. We definitely need to arrange some activities aside from official matters. They’re afraid demons are different from humans and don’t dare to arrange things randomly. The rest of us also don’t understand the preferences of those Great Demons, so we need your opinion."

That voice message was only a few dozen seconds long, though... Zhou Li pondered a bit. Yin Le might have OCD. He probably felt he wasn’t speaking well halfway through, or stumbled over his words, so he canceled and started over. Weirdo...

Zhou Li mentally rehearsed what he wanted to say, then leaned close to the phone and began to record: "Got it. I need to think it over and ask Huai Xu... and..."

Forget it.

He canceled the recording.

Then he recorded again: "Got it. I need to think it over and ask Huai Xu and Lord Dumpling."

WHOOSH.

Zhou Li furrowed his brows and shook his head. I can’t believe this habit is contagious... This is exactly why I don’t like voice chatting.

He put down the phone and looked around.

Huai Xu seemed to be in his room.

Tuanzi, on the other hand, was sitting on the coffee table watching TV. Hearing Zhou Li mention her name, she turned her head and stared at him unblinkingly with a questioning gaze, but she didn’t make a sound.