"Good morning, Grandpa Zhou." Going downstairs and arriving at the park, after seeing his practice buddy who was also like a regular NPC, Lin Li naturally greeted him.
As always, it was warm face meeting cold butt. Zhou Youwei just nodded at Lin Li, but Lin Li didn't mind this.
Once a grandson, always a grandson. Old children don't know better—why argue with him?
My uncle spoils his dad.
But today's Zhou Youwei seemed somewhat different from usual. Normally he should have already started staring at him, thinking about stealing techniques, but today he looked melancholy and absent-minded.
Would a sixty-something-year-old also listen to NetEase Cloud at midnight, reminiscing about his white moonlight?
Though curious, Lin Li wasn't idle enough to ask what happened—that would be purely looking for trouble. Instead, he seriously began practicing.
"Go! Go! Go!" Before he'd even officially started, Zhou Youwei's voice interrupted him.
Lin Li looked over to see Zhou Youwei making threatening gestures toward a stray dog that was still seven or eight meters away.
The property management fee for Lin Li's residential complex was only 200 yuan per year. Although Xiling Town wasn't some big place, this price was excessively low.
You get what you pay for. The quality of property management could be seen from the quality of the entrance security guard. The security guard for Lin Li's complex was quite classic—a sixty or seventy-year-old man with sparse white hair, wearing glasses, who liked drinking tea, reading newspapers, and listening to the radio, and was slightly hard of hearing.
If you asked him "Do you know Ma Dongmei," he would really answer "What Dongmei?"
When Lin Li asked him to open the gate, he'd say "Thank you, young man, grandpa can't eat fried chicken."
When Lin Li pointed at the jujube tree in the complex saying "Grandpa, I want to climb up and pick dates," he'd say he was thinking about his Shandong sister-in-law and suggested Lin Li do as he pleased.
Every time he came back, you could hear dialect opera singing from inside the guard booth, or sometimes there was simply no one there.
If you asked esteemed owner Lin Li what the guard booth was actually for, he could only scratch his head for a long time before answering that it served to connect preceding and following content, introduce the next section, and express the author's homesickness.
—Useless.
Such property management naturally wouldn't bother with stray cats and dogs either. Daily maintenance of the complex park basically relied on enthusiastic and idle elderly men and women. They seemed to have an unofficial committee, though Lin Li wasn't clear on the specifics.
He hadn't reached the age to join yet.
He still needed to accept the organization's testing for at least forty-three more years.
Wait, retirement age was 65 now, so forty-eight years.
Lin Li looked at Little Zhou.
Strange, Little Zhou's attitude toward stray dogs usually wasn't this hostile. Why had he suddenly changed his nature today?
Was it because the stray dog had provoked him, or because he was in a bad mood and taking it out on the stray dog?
Good thing he was driving away a stray dog and not a stray cat, otherwise if someone filmed it and posted it online, he'd experience what the world's malice felt like. After all, on TikTok, cats were super first-class protected animals.
Cats and dogs were quite cute, and Lin Li liked them too, but in Lin Li's heart, no matter how cute they were, they could only be classified as beasts like Bai Bufan. He could treat them better than other beasts because he liked them, but they must never be placed above ordinary, normal people.
Withdrawing his thoughts and taking a deep breath, Lin Li officially began practicing.
Damn, so good.
Lin Li, who had spent every morning in pain before, showed a genuine smile for the first time today.
It felt like many Xiao Jings surrounding and strongly supporting him.
He forgot that his yang energy concentration was 50% higher than before, making his body more sensitive.
He couldn't think of such stimulating images.
Actually, this didn't interfere with practice, but it would easily be noticed by others.
That would lead to very, very, very bad misunderstandings.
Therefore, when Zhou Youwei finished chasing the dog and turned to see Lin Li suddenly stop his movements and sit on the stone bench hunched over in a thinking pose, he fell into confusion.
What the hell was this kid doing?
Playing statue early in the morning?
If he walked closer, Zhou Youwei would hear Lin Li's muttering:
"I love you, black anthropomorphic catfish, I love you, black anthropomorphic catfish..."
...
Half an hour passed. For the first time, serious practice didn't bring fatigue. On the contrary, Lin Li was very energetic now. He exhaled deeply, his face showing a smile of wanting more.
The reason he stopped now was because there was no more spiritual energy in the Spirit Stone.
About what he'd expected—practicing the Eight-Stage Body Forging Technique's spiritual energy chapter consumed roughly two lower-grade Spirit Stones per hour.
Great, so he only had two and a half days' worth of medicine in total.
Precisely speaking, he could only enjoy himself for two more hours now.
Lin Li sighed deeply, then stood up to leave—
Lin Li walked toward the bathroom.
There seemed to be footsteps behind him. Turning his head, Lin Li saw Zhou Youwei, no longer melancholy, holding his phone with an excited expression. He was following behind, and when their eyes met, he suddenly turned his head to seriously examine the nearby trees and commented, "This big tree really grows like a big tree."
Lin Li: "?"
Lin Li walked for ten seconds, heard footsteps and looked back again.
"This flower really grows like a flower."
Lin Li walked for another minute and looked back again. This time he didn't hear any exclamations, but he said somewhat helplessly, "Grandpa Zhou, I can see you. Stop crouching."
"This dog shit is really a dog... How is there damn dog shit again! Someday, I'll drive all the stray dogs completely out of our complex!" Zhou Youwei suddenly stood up, cursing and swearing.
Playing games and watching anime—this fashionable grandpa's later years could be considered quite ominous.
"Stray dogs relieving themselves everywhere is indeed annoying," Lin Li first agreed, then asked somewhat curiously, "Grandpa Zhou, why are you following me?"
"Who's following you? I'm just going to use the bathroom!" Zhou Youwei widened his eyes in rebuttal.
"Then why don't you walk faster?" Lin Li nodded without suspicion, since this was indeed the path to the public restroom, but asked again.
"Isn't it normal for elderly people to be slower on their feet?"
Zhou Youwei wasn't good at lying.
Something was off.
Lin Li narrowed his eyes.
Geniuses could always dig out the truth of matters instantly.
—Such a grown man, actually afraid to go to the public restroom in the grove alone?
But this speculation was too ridiculous. The complex's public restroom was indeed rather remote and the environment slightly poor, but it was broad daylight now—even ghosts were off duty at this hour.
"Sir, are you afraid of ghosts?" So Lin Li still asked.
"Hmph! Afraid of ghosts? I fear ghosts, yet ghosts haven't harmed me one bit! I don't fear people, yet people have wounded me beyond recognition!" Zhou Youwei waved his sleeve, making a veiled criticism of Lin Li.
OK.
His ears automatically filtered it out. Lin Li only heard "I fear ghosts."
Worthy of being a genius—he'd guessed right again.
He was just timid.
If you're afraid, just be afraid. Why say so much just to save face? How was Little Zhou also as stubborn as Old Hardhead?
Maybe people became more superstitious as they got older.
Following the principle of respecting the elderly and caring for the young, Lin Li didn't expose him. He went to the restroom, entered a stall, opened the egg compartment, and quickly replaced one egg.
The Spirit Stone without spiritual energy became extremely light and could no longer be returned to the [Warehouse]. It looked just like a plastic shell, but to be safe, Lin Li decided to take it home anyway.
When he walked out of the restroom entrance, Zhou Youwei had just entered, having fallen quite far behind.
But seeing that he was about to leave, Zhou Youwei suddenly turned around too.
Lin Li sighed somewhat amusedly. Without waiting for the other to say anything, he said gently, "Grandpa Zhou, go use the restroom. I'll wait here for you and won't move. When you come out, I'll definitely still be here."
He could understand Grandpa Zhou's behavior. After all, if he left, the old man definitely wouldn't dare again.
Hearing this, Zhou Youwei gritted his teeth. He could also understand Lin Li's behavior.
If he still couldn't see it now, he'd be an idiot: Lin Li obviously already knew he was tracking him, but now was deliberately going along with his words. First, to show he didn't plan to do bad things anymore; second, to mock him.
He shouldn't have been so rash to follow this time.
No, thinking about it this way, since he could easily discover him today, maybe this cunning child had already discovered his presence yesterday too, just pretended not to know. Just now when he mentioned stray dogs, he was probably alluding to this matter.
Such a cunning scheme.
Zhou Youwei entered the restroom somewhat unwillingly, head lowered.
In these two exchanges, he had lost, utterly defeated.
Watching this scene, Lin Li showed a gentle smile. Grandpa Zhou seemed to feel his goodwill, which was why he entered somewhat shyly with his head lowered.
Another day of doing good deeds.
Before long, Zhou Youwei emerged from the restroom with his head raised again.
He suddenly realized something: he hadn't lost.
His purpose was to protect other residents of the complex from Lin Li's harm. Hadn't he achieved his goal? Lin Li couldn't do anything!
Therefore, he smiled proudly at Lin Li.
Lin Li also responded with a brilliant smile.
This was the grandpa he was familiar with.
The happiness after solving urination problems—Lin Li understood it too well. He'd been immersed in this happiness for a full minute this morning.
Resonance!
(End of Chapter)
Ma Dongmei - Reference to a character from Chinese comedy films