My Demon Friends-Chapter 440 - 436: Happiness is Always Built on the Pain of Others
Zhou Qianqian said, "The security department mentioned a man and a woman, both tall and good-looking. The girl has dyed hair, and the guy has relatively short hair. They’re probably a couple. If you guys see anyone who fits this description, feel free to report it accordingly."
"Got it. Mmhmm," Li Daimao replied.
Zhou Qianqian added, "The school is considering checking the surveillance cameras from the nearby streets."
Li Daimao said, "Hopefully, they’ll be found soon so I can get to know these two big shots." He seemed to be daydreaming.
"Let’s hope so," Zhou Qianqian replied.
"In any case," Zhou Qianqian continued, "I hope you guys won’t make that kind of mistake. You can’t outrun an electric bike."
On a bed in Room 106 of the dormitory.
Brother Nan lay effortlessly on her stomach, her feet pummeling the mattress wildly as she let out a strange laugh. It was the kind of laugh that escapes when you’re so ecstatic you want to roar with laughter but can’t, forcing you to stifle it.
Tuanzi was startled by the laughter.
Mianmian and Qian Qian both turned their heads at the same time, looking at Brother Nan with puzzled expressions.
Baozi, conserving energy on her bed, had been lying flat. She, too, rolled over to stare at Brother Nan without blinking, her gaze sweeping up and down, especially lingering on Brother Nan’s dyed hair.
"Brother Nan, what are you laughing at?"
"MEOW?"
"I just remembered something happy."
"Tell us, so we can be happy too."
"No way! Shut up! Go pet your cats!"
"Oh..."
Cotton Swab (Mianmian) quickly averted her gaze and continued petting her cat.
Although Tuanzi was very afraid of Brother Nan, her curiosity was overwhelming. She wriggled free from Cotton Swab’s hands, jumped off the desk, and clumsily climbed the ladder to Brother Nan’s bed. Then, she edged closer to Brother Nan, peeking curiously at her phone.
Brother Nan was generous and showed Tuanzi the phone screen.
Unfortunately, Lord Dumpling was illiterate...
"MEOW?" Tuanzi tilted her head, looking at Brother Nan.
Seeing this, Brother Nan grew even happier. "Haha, serves you right for not studying! You can’t even recognize words!"
Tuanzi: ???
Baozi, watching from the side, quietly retorted on Tuanzi’s behalf, "Little Trash Cat is just a kitten. What does she need to read for?"
"MEOW!" Tuanzi nodded in agreement.
Brother Nan shook her head and ignored them, continuing to lie prone and type on her phone. But before she could finish typing, a new message popped up in the group chat.
Baozi asked, "Is there a reward for reporting?"
SWISH!
Brother Nan immediately turned her head and squinted at Baozi. "What are you trying to do?"
"Get rich..."
"I’d advise you to think a little more about your own safety."
"Oh..." Baozi shrank her neck in fear and discreetly continued to peek at her phone, hoping for a huge reward—one that would be worth a beating.
Zhou Qianqian replied in the chat, "No."
Zhou Qianqian then asked, "You know something? @Baozi"
"I don’t know," Baozi quickly typed back.
Facing Brother Nan’s glare, Baozi quickly put her phone down. She resumed staring at Brother Nan without blinking, just as before, trying to silently convey that her earlier staring had nothing to do with any intention to report her.
DING-DONG.
Brother Nan’s phone chimed again.
Zhou Li sent a message: "Brother Nan."
Li Nan (Brother Nan) replied, "What’s up?"
Zhou Li: "I’m a bit bored."
Li Nan: "Team up?"
Zhou Li: "Sure."
Li Nan: ???
Although Brother Nan was somewhat perplexed, she still got out of bed.
Just as her foot touched the floor, a half-grown kitten landed with a soft THUD in front of her. The kitten didn’t seem hurt at all; it flipped over, scrambled up, and stared up at her without blinking.
Brother Nan paused for a moment, then her gaze fell on her slippers beside Tuanzi.
"Little Trash Cat, bring me my slippers!"
"MEOW~" Tuanzi immediately bit a slipper and, with tiny steps, dragged it over to Brother Nan.
Cotton Swab (Mianmian) watched, her eyes wide with shock.
Baozi looked on in wide-eyed amazement.
The three of them—Cotton Swab, Baozi, and Qian Qian—exchanged glances, then looked at Tuanzi.
"Little Trash Cat, help me get my slippers too," Cotton Swab said.
"Little Trash Cat, get mine too," Qian Qian added.
"Me too," Baozi chimed in.
"..."
Tuanzi turned her head to look at them, bewildered, then quickly turned back to gaze at Brother Nan, even rubbing against Brother Nan’s leg ingratiatingly.
Brother Nan, however, paid Tuanzi no attention. She sat down, booted up her computer, and prepared to start her game.
"Brother Nan, how did you do that?" Mianmian asked.
"Teach us!" Baozi said succinctly.
"Do we need to buy Little Trash Cat lots of tasty food and fun toys, treat her really well, and then she’ll be like this with us too?" Qian Qian mused for a moment before asking tentatively.
"MEOW~~"
"Oh..." the three of them murmured, looking at each other again, deep in thought.
They watched Brother Nan put on her headphones. On her desk sat the cans of cat food, fish pâté, and dried fish snacks she had bought for Tuanzi that morning. Connecting this with Little Trash Cat’s recent behavior, a realization dawned on them: Brother Nan advised us not to spend money on Little Trash Cat last night because she wanted to cover all of Tuanzi’s expenses herself, thereby monopolizing the kitten’s affection!
How cunning...
Cotton Swab opened Alipay and checked her balance.
Baozi opened Alipay and checked her Huabei credit limit.
Brother Nan had already connected with Zhou Li on voice chat. She didn’t notice Tuanzi at her feet, who turned her head to stare at the three girls—Cotton Swab, Baozi, and Qian Qian—looking utterly adorable, before trotting towards Qian Qian.
"Zhou Li, what champion are you picking?"
"Little Cannon."
"Oh? Why Little Cannon all of a sudden?"
"When I watched you play her, destroying towers looked really fun," Zhou Li said honestly. "So I looked into it a bit."
"She’s much harder to play than Garen."
"I’ll give it a try."
"Alright, I’ll play Scorpion then. We can backdoor towers together; I’ll support you." Brother Nan paused, her tone turning teasing. "TSK TSK TSK, just a couple of days ago, a certain someone was claiming they didn’t like games, and now look at you, already picking your own champions." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶
"What’s Scorpion?"
"You’ll see."
"Is Scorpion even better at taking down towers than Little Cannon?" Zhou Li asked tentatively.
"Not faster."
"Then why are you playing him?" Zhou Li’s tone was laced with deep suspicion towards Brother Nan.
"You’ll see. I guarantee you’ll have fun." Brother Nan suddenly paused again. "If you don’t believe me, let’s make a bet."
"Bet what?"
"I’ll support your tower-pushing. If you succeed, you have to do my homework ten times. If you don’t, I’ll do yours once," Brother Nan said. "Deal?"
"Why ten times for me?"
"It’s not ten times for you versus one for me. It’s because I did your homework nine times while you were in the Capital. You already owe me for those nine, so regardless of this bet, you have to pay me back."
"..." Even though Zhou Li strongly suspected that ’ten’ and ’nine’ were just numbers Brother Nan had pulled out of thin air, he didn’t call her out on it. It didn’t matter if Brother Nan took advantage of him a little.
"Oh," Zhou Li said.
"Oh?" Brother Nan echoed.
"Alright," Zhou Li finally said.
"You should play fewer games, don’t get addicted," Brother Nan mimicked Zhou Li’s tone sarcastically. "If you get addicted to gaming, your college life will be over."
"That doesn’t sound like me at all," Zhou Li pointed out.
"I added some artistic embellishment," Brother Nan said.
"Ah, I see."
The two quickly got into a game.
This time, Huai Xu wasn’t playing with them, and their matched opponents weren’t highly ranked.
As usual, they went to the bottom lane together.
The first few minutes didn’t go smoothly for them.
Zhou Li was a beginner and unfamiliar with Little Cannon, having only tried the champion a couple of times in training mode, so he was holding them back a bit. To make matters worse, Brother Nan was also a noob—not exactly a strong carry—and without Huai Xu to help, they struggled.
It wasn’t until the laning phase ended and they started pushing towers that Zhou Li finally understood the joy Brother Nan had described:
This Scorpion is so tanky!
Previously, when they backdoored towers, they needed minion waves to help. They’d check which lane had a convenient minion wave before teleporting over. Now, that wasn’t necessary. Brother Nan would just walk under the enemy tower and tank its shots while Zhou Li, as Little Cannon, went BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! and demolished it. If the enemy didn’t show up, they could even take down two towers in a row without any minions.
They were like ruthless tower-destroying machines.
And Zhou Li was cunning; he always seemed to guess when the enemy would come to gank them and even their likely approach route, allowing them to retreat or hide in advance.
Every time the opponents returned to base and then came specifically to catch them, they’d find nothing, search around fruitlessly, and then retreat sulkily.
But as soon as the enemies left to join a team fight elsewhere, a glance at the minimap would show that this pair had miraculously reappeared. The enemies could only watch helplessly as another tower’s health plummeted until it collapsed under their assault.
That was truly agonizing for the opponents...
In that game, even though their team was at a disadvantage, Zhou Li stubbornly demolished all the enemy towers.
The enemy was left with only a bare Nexus. Even though they could have won fights, they didn’t dare leave their base to engage Brother Nan and Zhou Li. They could only huddle at home, defending passively, as their Nexus’s health was slowly, slowly chipped away.
If I were in their shoes, I’d feel sick to my stomach, Zhou Li thought, easily imagining the opponents’ frustration.
And then there were those ten extra homework assignments he had to do...
Emmm...
Still, it was fun.
The afternoon passed quickly.
"Mmm~~~" Brother Nan stretched languidly, tallying in her little notebook how many homework assignments Zhou Li now owed her. Suddenly, she came to her senses and realized she was alone in the dorm room. The other three—Mianmian, Qian Qian, and Baozi—and even Tuanzi, had disappeared at some point.
