CHAPTER 59: CHAPTER 58 A NEW CITY

"Zhou Li, why do you have so few things?"

"Why do you have so much?"

"I brought a quilt and some of my own small things. Are you going to use the school’s blankets? I heard they’re not very good."

"I brought my own."

"Where is it?"

"I shipped it. I’ll pick it up when I get there."

"I..."

Brother Nan suddenly realized, and felt that Zhou Li was utterly shameless. "I didn’t even think of that! Why didn’t you tell me? I even told you to bring sunscreen and recommended good restaurants!"

"I’ll help you carry your things."

"That’s not the same!"

Brother Nan felt this Little Brother wasn’t dedicated at all; he clearly never truly intended to acknowledge her as his leader!

Brother Nan fumed for four seconds, then said, "Now we each have two quilts. When we get to school, let’s buy a small lock. During military training, we’ll fold the school’s blanket into a perfect tofu block, leave it untouched, and use our own quilts at night. During the day, we’ll lock our quilts in the cabinet and put the school’s blanket back on the bed. Hehehe..."

"Good idea. Who told you that?"

"A sophomore."

"A senior sister?"

"Of course!"

"That’s really clever," Zhou Li couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration. If Brother Nan were actually a man, she’d be quite formidable.

"Your cat is so cute. When did you get it?" Brother Nan shifted her attention to Tuanzi.

"Just a few days ago," Zhou Li said.

"Are you shipping her? Don’t you need a certificate from the quarantine station and have her vaccinated well in advance?" Brother Nan had some understanding of this.

"Old Zhou got me one. I’m not sure if it’ll work."

"What if you can’t ship her?"

"Then I’ll just leave her behind."

"Isn’t that heartless?"

"She was a stray before," Zhou Li said. "Actually, you could have brought Pumpkin over too."

Brother Nan’s family’s Big Orange cat was named Pumpkin. Apparently, it used to be called Orange.

Brother Nan hesitated, then said slowly, "I actually thought about it before. Pumpkin is brave and wouldn’t be scared in the car. It would surely adapt well there, but..."

"What?"

"It’s just that it’s used to living here. It has many friends, goes out to play all day, and my parents are here too. I can’t just forcefully take it away because I want to. What if it doesn’t want to go?"

"That’s true," Zhou Li nodded.

"Your girlfriend has quite a commendable way of thinking," Tuanzi’s voice came from behind Zhou Li.

"Your cat’s meowing. Does it need to use the toilet?" Brother Nan stared intently at Tuanzi.

"She just likes to meow."

"Oh."

Getting tickets, entering the station, and checking in their luggage all went smoothly. There was still plenty of time. For a small station like Yan City, arriving just in time was fine; there was no need to queue, and the station wasn’t large.

Brother Nan had put on headphones at some point.

Despite the cooling weather, it was still somewhat hot during the day. Brother Nan was dressed casually. Tall and beautiful, she inadvertently attracted many glances as she dragged her suitcase through the station. Her hair was too hot when worn down, so she tied it into a bun, which made her look surprisingly sweet and innocent.

Zhou Li’s gaze fell to the back of her neck, where a few strands of hair rested on her fair, elegant skin.

He quickly shook his head. Illusion! Illusion!

After waiting on the platform for a minute, they boarded the train.

Their seats were next to each other. Zhou Li followed Brother Nan down the aisle. She pointed to a row of seats, saying, "These are ours," then he watched her lift her suitcase onto the overhead rack. The heavy suitcase seemed weightless in her hands; her movements as she placed it were even smoother than those of a nearby man doing the same.

Then Brother Nan sat down by the window.

Zhou Li looked at his ticket; he was actually the one with the window seat. He quietly sat down in the aisle seat.

Brother Nan took off one earphone, reclined her seat, crossed her arms, and said to Zhou Li, "I originally wanted to take one of those old green-skin trains. They go leisurely, clack-clack-clacking along, and the scenery on the way must have been great. I might have even had an overnight journey and met a shy, cute, and pretty classmate, just like in novels..."

"A pity those aren’t running anymore," Zhou Li said.

"Yeah, my dad said they still had them a couple of years ago. Now it’s only high-speed rail," Brother Nan said, sounding a bit regretful.

"High-speed rail is convenient."

"But it lacks that certain something, that atmosphere. It’s about the ambiance, something you wouldn’t understand." Brother Nan surprisingly started discussing ambiance with Zhou Li, but her tone quickly shifted as she returned to her true area of interest—

"We’ll be having lunch on the train. Did you bring any food?"

"No." Zhou Li shook his head. "If I get hungry later, I’ll just buy a boxed meal on the train."

"Haha, I knew you wouldn’t bring any! I did, and there’s enough for both of us!" Brother Nan exclaimed. "Get my bag down."

"Didn’t we just have breakfast?"

"There are snacks in there."

"Oh." Zhou Li then stood up and took down Brother Nan’s bag. He was immediately met with the mixed aroma of several types of food.

When he sat down again, Brother Nan had already lowered their tray tables. She took the bag from Zhou Li and began pulling out one item after another: spicy duck necks, octopus balls, crispy crackers, and two cartons of traditional yogurt.

A young woman in the seat to their left turned her head and stared fixedly at them, gulping.

Before Brother Nan zipped up her backpack, Zhou Li also glimpsed the main meal inside. It seemed to include braised beef, white-cut chicken, some local flatbreads, and sushi—presumably their actual lunch—along with a small, two-liang bottle of baijiu and a bottle of iced black tea. The iced tea was probably for him.

"Aren’t you being a bit inconsiderate of everyone else?"

"How so? If anyone wants some, I’ll share!" Brother Nan said magnanimously. "Less talk, more eating. Dig in!"

"Don’t mind if I do then."

Zhou Li was actually still full. He had barely managed to finish all those snacks and already felt somewhat stuffed. But according to Brother Nan, these kinds of snacks "don’t take up any space in your stomach." I’m vaguely beginning to understand why she ended up in the hospital before, Zhou Li thought. But he didn’t dare say it out loud.

Soon after, Brother Nan took out her phone stand and watched an episode of a TV show. By the time it finished, it was twelve o’clock: lunchtime.

The dishes were laid out on their tray tables again. There was her baijiu and Zhou Li’s iced tea.

This was a long-distance train, and meals were typically served on board. However, for some reason, the food in this particular car was selling exceptionally well today. The train attendant was beaming.

Having eaten and drunk their fill, Brother Nan looked content. She found a comfortable position, closed her eyes, and began to sleep. Unbeknownst to her, the train had already crossed the Yi Province Boundary. Outside, the weather had cleared, and golden sunlight streamed in, illuminating her face. It made her skin look incredibly smooth and fair, and her eyelashes fluttered occasionally. It was a rare moment of tranquility for her.

The ’antenna’ on top of her head was still sticking up.

As she slept, she gradually leaned over and rested her head on Zhou Li’s shoulder.

People who’ve been drinking are always a bit limp; it’s perfectly normal, Zhou Li told himself.

When he turned his head, Brother Nan was right there before him, so close that she seemed to tremble slightly with his every breath.

Zhou Li couldn’t resist any longer—

He stealthily reached out and touched the cowlick.

"Sss..."

Brother Nan actually drew in a soft breath.

Zhou Li immediately withdrew his hand, feigning composure.

A quick peek... she hadn’t woken up.

Zhou Li suppressed the mischievous urge, but he couldn’t quite control his hand. Honestly, he had wanted to play with Brother Nan’s cowlick for a long time. He was certain he wasn’t the only one in their class who had thought about it, but apart from Jiang Han, no one had ever dared to touch it. No one else dared.

Zhou Li flicked it again.

He was amazed to find that Brother Nan reacted each time, either by taking a shallow breath or her eyelashes fluttering.

This is so thrilling!

After a few more flicks, Brother Nan actually woke up!

Zhou Li didn’t know exactly when she had woken up. The last time he’d glanced over, he found her eyes wide open. He hadn’t even had time to wipe the curious expression from his face or retract his mischievous hand when—

BAM!

A fist landed on Zhou Li’s shoulder.

"You’re awake?"

Zhou Li maintained a natural expression, pretending nothing had happened.

Then Brother Nan had him adjust his seat to be slightly higher than hers. She leaned against the side of his seatback and continued to sleep until just past two o’clock.

When Brother Nan woke up again, she rubbed her head. The sun felt warm on her, so she pulled down the window shade. Then, turning slightly, she landed another punch on Zhou Li.

Zhou Li remained silent.

"Didn’t you have a cowlick when you were a kid?" Brother Nan chided.

"I did," Zhou Li replied, "but mine was just from how I slept. When I grew up, it..." He glanced again at the top of Brother Nan’s head. I suspect her cowlick really does ’grow’ as she claims, and the times it’s ’missing’ are just when she’s slept on it flat.

"Well, do you know this thing *hurts* when you touch it?!"

"Really?" Zhou Li looked genuinely curious.

Unsurprisingly, he got punched again.

Zhou Li quieted down.

After that, Brother Nan would occasionally take out her phone to check the map, repeatedly opening and closing an app. Sometimes she would lift a corner of the window shade to peek outside, as if she could figure out their location that way. Every now and then, she would also consult a small notebook.

That notebook looked like the one she used for her college application choices, Zhou Li thought, but I wouldn’t dare bring that up.

At some point, Huai Xu and Tuanzi, who had changed her form, arrived in their train car.

"Finally found you!"

Huai Xu took a deep breath. "It smells so good in here! What have you two been eating?" He paused, then added, "I can sense so many demonic auras around here, far more than back home. It’s quite thrilling! This place truly is the heart of the Demon Kingdom... Huh? Why are you staring at that little demon?"

Zhou Li, of course, said nothing.

Brother Nan soon noticed Zhou Li’s odd behavior. "What are you looking at?" she asked.

"Nothing."

Zhou Li withdrew his gaze. After a pause, he turned and asked, "Have you ever heard of Cat Girls?"

"The kind that wears a bikini and has cat ears and a tail?"

"No, I mean the really small ones. They look about eleven or twelve, very cute and pretty, with round faces and eyes, wearing loose clothing," Zhou Li elaborated. "And of course, they also have ears and a tail."

"Would that type actually be pretty?" Brother Nan mused, already starting to imagine it.

"Very pretty," Zhou Li affirmed.

"So, like, underage?"

"Seems that way," Zhou Li responded.

"You pervert!"

Brother Nan scolded him without mercy, adding sternly, "Where are these Cat Girls you speak of? Hand them over to me; I’ll deal with them! Are they transformed from cats? Why hasn’t my Pumpkin transformed after all these years?"

Zhou Li averted his gaze, looking back towards the aisle.

Tuanzi wore an expression of innocent confusion.

「At 4:11 PM, they arrived in Chunming.」

After retrieving Tuanzi, Zhou Li turned around and saw Brother Nan standing not far away, looking around with a somewhat lost expression, her cowlick swaying gently.

She’s probably trying to get a signal again, right? Zhou Li speculated.