My Demon Friends-Chapter 545 - 524

A supermarket in Lanzhou.

Zhou Li pushed an empty shopping cart aimlessly through the labyrinth-like aisles.

Huai Xu followed him, looking around left and right.

Tuanzi, striving for a reward of fish soup with rice, was obediently staying inside Zhou Li's hat.

"There's nothing special. It's quite similar to Run's Home in Yan City, just a bit larger, still not as good as that supermarket in Chunming," Huai Xu complained as he walked. Suddenly, his eyes caught a petite girl sitting in a shopping cart. He followed her with his gaze until she disappeared behind another aisle. Only then did he look back at the shopping cart Zhou Li was pushing and regretted—

That he shouldn't have materialized just for the fun of grocery shopping, or else he could have sat in the cart as well.

Now that he was visible, Zhou Li would definitely not agree. This guy was too shy; it was different when he was invisible. Even if Zhou Li disagreed, there was nothing he could do.

"SIGH..." The Great Devil King let out a sigh.

"Manor Original Barrel-Style Yogurt." Zhou Li stopped, picked up a tub of yogurt to look at it closely. "1080 grams for only 9.9, what a bargain."

"This is good," Huai Xu said.

"Let's get one... two of them. We can bring a tub back for Brother Nan and the others so we can sit on the bed, chat, and eat," Zhou Li placed two tubs in the cart and kept walking.

"POOF..."

"?"

Zhou Li reflexively turned his head instantly.

Huai Xu stood calmly behind him, but the shopping cart now only contained one tub of yogurt.

Zhou Li: ???

Huai Xu: |_・)

Zhou Li: "How come it's gone?"

Huai Xu: "Gone..."

Zhou Li: "What did you do?"

With a twirl of his eyes, Huai Xu spread his hands innocently. "Wasn't it you who asked me to take it back?"

Zhou Li felt a headache coming on. He had started to realize that this old monster had this habit; he often did this on purpose, but Zhou Li had tried many times to change him, all in vain. "You better bring it back quickly, before the cameras catch us!"

"First, you tell me to take it, then to bring it back."

"Hurry up!"

"To bring it back, we have to pay."

"We bring it back to pay for it!"

"POOF..."

Almost without any change to his posture, Huai Xu had the same single tub in the cart. Shrugging at Zhou Li, he said, "It's too late. Li Daimao has already opened the yogurt and poured out half a bowl, still pouring. It's all because you didn't describe it clearly; now I look like a thief."

That last sentence, in particular, made Zhou Li feel he deserved a good thrashing. Too bad Zhou Li couldn't actually beat him.

Zhou Li took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly, and went back to pick up another tub of yogurt to place in the cart.

He had planned to ignore this old monster for the rest of the supermarket trip, but since Lord Dumpling was hiding in his hat and keeping silent, he had no one else to talk to. Not long after, Zhou Li picked up a box of blueberries and turned to Huai Xu. "Do you think Little Zheng has eaten blueberries before?"

"Don't know."

"Then let's get a box," Zhou Li said. "We can give it to them after paying."

"Two boxes, I want some too."

"They're not tasty."

"Even if they're not tasty, I still want them."

"Alright... it's so cold here and they still sell coconuts. Little Zheng probably hasn't had coconut either." Zhou Li picked up two coconuts. They had now reached the fruit section. Looking around, he saw many girls standing in front of the fruit shelves. "Do girls really love fruit that much? Have you had avocado before?"

"No."

"Me neither. I heard it's not tasty."

This time Zhou Li didn't wait for Huai Xu to respond; he grabbed a few avocados and put them in a bag to get weighed. "I heard you have to do something special to avocados to make them taste good. I'll look it up later. Hey, did you notice the premium vegetables here are from Run's Home? Back in our area, it's usually Fresh colorful food, right?"

Huai Xu seemed to not be listening to him, just looking around everywhere.

The shopping cart was rather full now.

After getting a pound of hand-pulled mutton from the deli, they headed out to check out. They used the self-service checkout and left behind a tub of yogurt, much to the disapproval of the morally conflicted old monster.

「Back at the hotel.」

Zhou Li received a message from Brother Nan.

Li Daimao: The blueberries are so sour

Li Daimao: The coconut is tough to crack open, that pull ring is like a fake, Little Zheng opened it with a spell

Zhou Li: What else do you want to eat? I'll bring it for you tomorrow

Li Daimao: The barbecue from "Life on a Stick"

Zhou Li: Got it

Li Daimao: I want to eat all the specialty dishes

Zhou Li: Understood

Zhou Li felt a bit of a headache; he wasn't skilled at uncovering gourmet foods, nor did he have an antenna on his head for it. Moreover, Brother Nan was quite picky, and satisfying her would be quite troublesome for him.

At that moment, Tuanzi popped out from the hat. "Has Lord Dumpling already won?!"

Zhou Li felt his headache intensifying.

「The next day.」

The two walked side by side in the provincial museum, hoping Huai Xu could find a sense of familiarity amid those historic artifacts.

However, the results were minimal. The museum's collection spanned a vast timeline, from before recorded history to the period of revolutionary resistance against the Japanese. Naturally, the more ancient an item was, the more precious and rare it was.

Over 90% of the items had nothing to do with the era Huai Xu had lived in the Western Regions.

But he was quite engrossed and keenly interested. This was because the museum displayed its artifacts in a very immersive way. Next to many exhibits was a small screen showcasing the artifact itself, which one could rotate 360 degrees with a finger, as well as zoom in or out. Huai Xu, an old relic with little worldly experience but immense curiosity, found this utterly novel. He eagerly hopped over to play with each screen he encountered. Afterward, he would bend down to carefully read the artifact's description and explanation, turning to ask Zhou Li about any characters he didn't understand.

It was as if they were truly there just to visit the museum.

"Zhou Li, look, this one looks like you!" Huai Xu pointed at a bronze pig statue.

"..." Zhou Li paid no attention to the childish ghost and continued walking forward. "Over here seems to be about the Silk Road. The origin of the Silk Road was around the Western Han period, right?"

"Back then, there were lots of merchants passing through here, but whether or not they tore up the road, I have no idea."

"Here's a map of the route."

"Let me see!"

Huai Xu crowded next to Zhou Li. Even though there weren't many people around, he still squeezed in to get a look. He then stared at the antique-style map. It was clearly made in modern times, but the replication was so skillful that for a moment, it seemed like an actual map from that era.

Zhou Li looked up at the wall introduction, muttering to himself, "The Silk Road began and they say it was very prosperous here, like a Yang Province beyond the Great Wall."

"Nonsense, could it be as prosperous as it is now?"

"That's different."

"But it was indeed more prosperous than other places." Huai Xu also looked up. "Back then, there were many bandits on the road—some human, some demon—because the demons here weren't as kind. Sometimes merchant caravans passing through would leave things behind for the demons to enjoy. The demons were quite particular; if they accepted an offering, they mostly wouldn't trouble the caravan. But the Imperial Court couldn't stand it. They would rather tolerate robbers and foreign troops disguised as robbers coming in to plunder than tolerate demons. So, the orders we received were to kill all trouble-making demons on sight. I killed many demons."

"Look at this... a painted wooden bo game figurine." Zhou Li looked down at a pottery figurine, depicting two quaint, almost cute-looking elders playing a game. "It looks like they're playing a drinking game. This says it was a popular form of entertainment from the Warring States to the Han Dynasty. Did you use to play this, too?"

"..."

Huai Xu stood still, his gaze seemingly on the pottery figurine, yet unfocused. After a long moment, he spoke, his tone initially uncertain but growing more confident, "It seems I've played..."

"Looking at their hand gestures, they're playing a drinking game."

"No... that's not it. It's tossing hairpins or dice. See the board in the middle? That's for moving pieces after you toss. Then you see who wins or loses. There are many variations, usually with some money bet on it." Huai Xu's eyes gradually cleared, and his speech became more buoyant. He grinned and said, "I played often. I loved to play with those common soldiers; they were easy to bully. But eventually, nobody wanted to play with me. I always won. Those poor guys hardly had any military pay, which they needed to take home, but I won it all from them."

"It looks like there was some benefit to this after all," Zhou Li said.

"I remember a soldier with the surname Wei. I won a lot of money from him. He hid and cried in the camp at night, saying he was sorry to his family. I'm kind-hearted, so I planned to give the money back to him the next day. However, on my way back to my station, I ran into a very troublesome Great Demon. I wasn't so powerful back then and got beaten badly. By the time I returned, this Xiao Wei was already dead—his head had been chopped off. Truly tragic."

"Truly tragic," Zhou Li echoed. "Did you end up giving the money back to his family?" 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"No, I bought food with it."

"..."

"Do you want me to teach you?"

"Sure," Zhou Li humored him, without any intention of learning. He continued on, quickly pointing to another piece, an embroidered human figure on silk. "The people of your time, did you look like this before?"

"You're the one who's that ugly!"

"Haha..."

Zhou Li also allowed himself a childish moment now and then, and it didn't feel too bad.

They had planned to leave by noon for lunch, and during their visit, Zhou Li thought they would exit by ten o'clock. However, the Silk Road exhibition ended up awakening some of Huai Xu's memories, especially those exhibits that deeply reflected the living conditions of the people at the time. So by the time they left the museum, it was already one o'clock in the afternoon.