My Demon Friends-Chapter 465 - 461

Putting down his phone, Zhou Li excitedly rolled around on the bed a couple of times.

It wasn’t for any other reason; teasing Brother Nan was simply too thrilling, and it brought him a strange kind of pleasure.

But as soon as he rolled back to his original spot, he caught a glimpse of a silhouette standing at the door. The figure was thin and small, possibly not even reaching five and a half feet, an incredibly delicate-featured little boy, looking at him with confused eyes.

"COUGH, COUGH."

Zhou Li quickly adjusted his expression back to normal, without a trace, pretending nothing had happened just now.

"What are you doing? Peeping Tom."

"It’s time for lunch." Huai Xu blinked and pointed at him. "You were just..."

"But we just had rice noodles half an hour ago!"

"That was breakfast, and it’s almost been an hour." Huai Xu glanced at his Xiaomi bracelet, then raised his head. "You were just..."

"You eat, I’m not hungry!"

"Then I won’t eat either." Huai Xu paused. "What shall we have for dinner?"

"It’s only noon..."

"So you were just..."

"Nothing, just thought of something happy." Zhou Li decided to steer the conversation to a topic Huai Xu would find interesting. "What do you want to eat for dinner?"

"How about we cook ourselves?" Huai Xu leaned against the doorframe, blinking his eyes and staring at him.

"Why cook ourselves... Can’t takeout satisfy you?" Zhou Li was puzzled and tried to convince him. "We can also order your favorite big plate chicken. I think the one you brought last time tasted good, even better than the one you usually order."

"Always ordering takeout isn’t good," Huai Xu frowned.

"But we’re out of ingredients at home." Zhou Li collapsed onto the bed, only looking up at Huai Xu. "I don’t want to go out and buy groceries either."

"You can order groceries for delivery," Huai Xu cleverly suggested.

"..."

"What do you think?"

Facing his little brother’s eager eyes, Zhou Li struggled to get up from the plush bed. "I’ll find a couple of videos to learn from, but you know how my cooking is. Don’t blame me if it doesn’t taste good."

"I want big plate chicken!"

"???"

Zhou Li desperately wished he could go back and give his past self—the one who’d said they could order big plate chicken—a good beating.

The problem was, with his level of skill, he could at most manage to make two overly simple dishes, maybe even resorting to tossing something together. The simplest meat dish he could make would probably require dipping in the chopped pepper sauce Brother Nan bought for him to ensure the dining experience.

As for big plate chicken... What big plate chicken?

Zhou Li remained poker-faced, pondering how to cleverly dissuade him from the idea, and preferably counter-tease him in the process.

"The teacher used to cook for himself all the time." Huai Xu looked back nostalgically, then his tone shifted. "If you want to be a salted fish, you still have to learn how to cook. That way, even if you live alone deep in the mountains one day, you can still live comfortably."

"Alright then."

Zhou Li shook his head, clearing the thoughts from his mind. He took out his phone, walked to the living room, and sat down, pulling up the long-cherished cooking videos of Teacher Wang Gang.

Huai Xu also sat beside him, tilting his head and watching together.

In the video, Teacher Wang Gang introduced a home-style dish—of course, in his hands, everything was a home-style dish. This one was his signature creation: dry-fried wide oil.

"Looks so simple," Huai Xu said, captivated.

"Looks complicated to me." Zhou Li rubbed his eyes. "Does Master Ming cook well?"

"Not tasty, but I like to eat it."

"Does it feel like home?"

"No! He’s generous with the meat."

"I see."

"It’s a pity I might not get to eat it again in the future," Huai Xu muttered, then looked at the phone screen again. "Next dish, please."

"Oh."

The afternoon passed just like that.

Zhou Li’s eyes were sore, and he felt mentally exhausted. But the delivery guy had already brought the groceries, so he had no choice but to rally his spirits. Phone in hand, he walked into the kitchen, mentally reciting the key points he had just memorized to avoid getting flustered while trying to cook along with the video.

Huai Xu chopped vegetables by his side, his proficiency seemingly even higher than Wang Gang’s.

The CHOP CHOP CHOP of the knife was lively and rhythmic.

Zhou Li, meanwhile, stared at the oil in the pot with a deadpan expression.

Is it heated to sixty percent yet?

「An hour and a half later.」

The two carried a folding table out to the balcony and set the dishes on it one by one, both of them very happy.

A platter of big plate chicken.

A dish of shredded potato salad.

A dish of shredded pork with green peppers.

And a large pot of rice with sweet potatoes.

They also placed a can of Sprite on each side.

You know, looking at it, it actually had some appeal.

Zhou Li believed he had meticulously imitated the master chef in the video step by step, not missing a single detail. He had done exactly what the chef did and said, even using Xiao Ai to time things precisely as instructed. Therefore, there shouldn’t be any major blunders.

So, they brought their stools over and sat down. Enjoying the cool evening breeze and facing the distant sunset over a corner of Dian Lake, they pulled the tabs on their Sprites.

"TSS!"

"Let’s eat!"

Both reached for the big plate chicken first.

Incredibly, it was edible. Thanks to Hero of Shu’s hot pot base, the flavor justified the can of Sprite; at most, it was undeserving of the view outside the window.

The shredded pork with green peppers was a bit tastier, all thanks to the chili bean paste.

The shredded potato salad was a bit salty, but it was the best tasting of the three dishes, no doubt due to the fragrant and spicy chili oil Brother Nan had bought online.

Overall, it was all edible.

Huai Xu wasn’t picky, and his chopsticks never stopped moving. He quickly finished one bowl of rice. As he got up to scoop a second, he hastily swallowed the food in his mouth and said to Zhou Li, "Brother Nan cooks better than you; it looks like you’ll have to rely on her in the future."

"She has a talent..." Zhou Li said deadpan.

"Right, but Little Zheng cooks the tastiest." Huai Xu said, shaking his head. "It’s such a shame."

"A shame about what?"