My Demon Friends-Chapter 696 - 657: The Importance of Changing at Will

Baozi was busy all day, which was unlike her typically lazy persona. She woke up before dawn to photograph the sunrise and walked all the way to the opposite side of the valley, a one-way trip of several kilometers. After breakfast, she took photos of the Dog Gang at work and then spent some energy picking pears. In the afternoon, she was busy with the perfunctory tasks of the rural outreach program. After finishing her daily progress report and resting only a short while, she went out again to photograph the mountain village scenery.

The afternoon sun was scorching, especially stark after coming out from under a fan, so Baozi didn't bring her camera and chose to use a drone instead. This way, she just needed to find a suitable shady spot to stand and control the drone.

For panoramic shots, nothing beats a drone. With the intuition of an excellent photography enthusiast, Baozi had a feeling that once the drone was up in the air, the full view of the little mountain village would be extremely beautiful and spectacular. A single battery for the drone could only last about eighteen minutes, so four batteries might not suffice.

Luckily, she wasn't here as a tourist. She didn't need to pay for accommodation or meals and could afford to take her time with photography, well-fed and well-provided for.

She planned to find a cool morning to use her camera for close-up shots later. How delightful!

Baozi silently congratulated herself on her cleverness.

Walking along, she found many wild strawberries; some were still white-green, while others had turned red. Yesterday, Baozi had asked her cousin to confirm they were edible, but she didn't quite trust him, so she asked Little Sister Zheng again this morning; Little Sister Zheng would definitely not lie. She spent the journey squatting down to pick wild strawberries, storing them all in her pockets, planning to wash and eat them later.

Sometimes she popped an especially clean-looking one into her mouth. Looking clean is enough; as long as I don't think about whether it's truly clean, then it is clean.

Indeed, they were edible. Baozi squinted her eyes in pleasure.

These wild strawberries were tiny, just the size of one segment of her finger. They were rounder in shape than those sold in supermarkets and not as fragrant, but their taste was similar.

The main thing was they were free and everywhere. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Her pockets gradually filled to the brim, so much so that she dared not walk too fast.

I should have picked these after I was done with the photos.

Luckily, Sister Zheng's house was situated quite high up, so it didn't take long before Baozi found a suitable spot under some shade to launch the drone.

The scenery was indeed stunning! It was like a different world from the ground!

「...」

Zhou Li planned to nap for half an hour and even asked the Old monster to wake him, but that nap turned into an hour and a half. When he awoke, the Old monster was still by his side playing games, which left him speechless.

"Didn't I ask you to wake me up?"

"Yeah!"

"So why didn't you?"

"You asked me to wake you, but I didn't agree," the Old monster replied blandly. "Besides, what's wrong with a little more sleep?"

"...I won't be able to sleep later tonight," Zhou Li said with a scowl.

"That's perfect! We can team up for some games. Brother Nan has set up a hotspot," the Old monster said, grinning.

"..."

Zhou Li got out of bed and went downstairs.

The neighboring room was still filled with whispers, seemingly non-stop all afternoon. Zhou Li didn't stop to eavesdrop, but he did slow and quiet his steps as he passed their door. He listened a bit longer out of curiosity but, finding it uninteresting, continued downstairs.

Today, he planned to visit Lao Hui, Xiao Yuan, Lord Xing Hui, and Lord Ji Bai. Lao Hui and Xiao Yuan were his old neighbors; he wanted to catch up with them. As for Lord Xing Hui and Lord Ji Bai, both veterans of Jianghu with pleasant speech, he felt he should pay them a visit too. Besides, the homemade fruit wine they had sent at noon was delicious, and Brother Nan had praised it repeatedly. Zhou Li planned to show his appreciation for the fruit wine. If he could get some more, he'd split it and give half to Brother Nan's dad and half to Baozi's Dad, thinking they would likely enjoy it as well.

So he sat under Xiao Yuan and Lao Hui's trees for a while, eating two plums. Then, he went with Lao Hui and Xiao Yuan to visit the residence of Lord Xing Hui and Lord Ji Bai.

In just a year since his last visit, the courtyard of the two Great Demons was filled with blooming flowers, with pine and cypress trees to the side and a bamboo grove behind. It was said they spent their days with poetry, wine, tea, and painting, occasionally visited by old friends from all over, living very comfortably.

After guzzling a stomachful of coarse tea and listening to them boast for an hour, Zhou Li left the rustic mountain dwelling, satisfied.

Lao Hui and Xiao Yuan left with him, both Little Demons seeming quite embarrassed.

"Lao Hui and I are too humble," Xiao Yuan said, wringing her small paws together. "We have neither a place for you to sit nor tea to offer you."

"Hmm," Lao Hui nodded, tail up.

"Not at all. It's just different lifestyles," Zhou Li whispered.

"Once, a friend of Lord Xing Hui visited us. That great being had the ability to make plants grow rapidly, so we asked him to cast his magic on the grapes we planted. When the grapes ripen this autumn, we'll make them into raisins, and then we can give some to you," Xiao Yuan said, looking up at Zhou Li. "They've already borne a lot of fruit; they're just still very small and not ripe yet."

"Hmm," Lao Hui continued to nod. "That great being was amazing. It bore so much fruit, too much for us to eat."

"Then thank you," Zhou Li said after a moment. "I love raisins."

"Okay!!" Xiao Yuan exclaimed happily.

"It's only right," Lao Hui said calmly. Then he suddenly looked up, as if he had noticed something, and gazed at the distant sky with puzzlement. "What is that?"

"Hmm?"

Zhou Li followed his gaze and saw a small black dot flying swiftly across the sky, making a whirring sound.

"Oh, that's a drone. The little girl I brought is probably playing with it," Zhou Li explained.

"I see," Lao Hui withdrew his gaze.

"High tech indeed!" Xiao Yuan said.

"I'll go check on her," Zhou Li said.

"I'm coming too!" Xiao Yuan quickly added.

"Since you're both going, I might as well join you," Lao Hui said, actually quite interested. "Otherwise, it might take you a while to find where that little girl is."

"Alright."

Lao Hui effortlessly pinpointed Baozi's location. Zhou Li and Xiao Yuan followed him up a set of stairs and around a corner, where they saw Baozi standing under a tree.

The little girl wore a short-sleeved T-shirt, a pair of washed-out denim overalls, and canvas shoes. A brightly colored round cap sat atop her head, with two pigtails, one on each side, making her look very cute. The overalls had two small pockets on the front; one was filled with plums and peaches, and the other was stuffed with red wild strawberries, nearly overflowing.

The little girl held a remote control in both hands, staring intently at the screen on the controller. She seemed to be in a good mood; as she tilted the drone to the left, her upper body leaned to the left as well, and she mimicked the sound of the drone in a very soft voice.

"WHIRR, WHIRR, WHIRR..."

Normal people couldn't hear her soft whirring, but there were no normal people here.

Zhou Li then turned his head toward the distance, quickly locating the drone using his strong ability to discern sound direction.

At the same time, the wind suddenly picked up.

A huge Monster swept past.

"WHIRR, WHIRR, WHIRR..."

CRASH!

The drone spiraled downwards.

"Huh?"

Baozi, holding the controller, suddenly froze. She stared blankly at the screen of her phone, attached to the controller, as the image chaotically flickered. A few seconds later, the screen went black.

Zhou Li silently closed his mouth. I was just about to warn her about the Evil God.

Lao Hui: ...

Xiao Yuan: ...

At that moment, Baozi looked around in bewilderment and finally saw her cousin standing on the path. Her mind went blank. She stiffly raised one hand, pointing off into the distance and then at the controller, seemingly trying to express or ask something.

Zhou Li nodded at her.

Baozi was utterly despondent.

This was her newly purchased drone. The "Fly More" kit, which included the bare machine, a battery manager, three batteries, and various accessories, had cost over eight thousand yuan. Since the battery manager could charge four batteries at once, and the kit's crossbody bag could also hold four, she had gritted her teeth and spent a few hundred more yuan to buy an extra battery, bringing the total to nearly nine thousand.

Now it was all destroyed.

That was a whole semester's living expenses for some students; goodness knew how she had managed to save up that much!

PLOP...

Baozi slumped to the ground.

Zhou Li hurried over, picked up the strawberries that had fallen out, and put them back in her pocket. "Isn't there something like crash insurance for drones?" he asked.

"It has 'Carefree Exchange'," Baozi mumbled, sounding even more upset.

Seeing her like this, Zhou Li understood and didn't ask further. He only comforted her, "Out with the old, in with the new. Don't worry too much."

Baozi's distress increased. "But it was new! I had only flown it once..."

AHEM...

Zhou Li coughed twice and continued to console her, "Let's find it first. Maybe it isn't broken."

Hope reignited in Baozi's eyes. She climbed up quietly, still clutching the strawberries in her pocket to prevent them from falling out again, ready to follow the drone's last known position to search for it.