An Ageless Friendship

"Good morning, Grandpa Zhou." After coming downstairs to the park and spotting his workout buddy—basically a fixed NPC by now—Lin Li naturally greeted him.

As usual, his warm face met a cold backside. Zhou Youwei merely nodded at Lin Li, but Lin Li did not mind.

A grandson for a day, a grandson for life. The old child did not know any better, so why argue with him?

I spoil my uncle like he's my dad.

But Zhou Youwei seemed a little different today. Normally, he would already be staring at Lin Li, pondering how to secretly learn from him. Yet today, he looked gloomy and distracted.

Did people in their sixties also listen to NetEase Cloud at midnight and reminisce about their White Moonlight? Though curious, Lin Li was not bored enough to ask what had happened. That would just be making trouble for no reason. Instead, he began practicing seriously.

"Go! Go! Go!" Before he could properly begin, Zhou Youwei's voice interrupted him.

Lin Li looked over. Zhou Youwei was shoving his hands threateningly at a stray dog still seven or eight meters away.

The annual property management fee for Lin Li's residential complex was only two hundred yuan. Although Xi Ling Town was not a big place, that price was still ridiculously low.

You got what you paid for. The quality of the property management could be seen from the quality of the security guards at the gate. The guard at Lin Li's complex was a classic elderly man in his sixties or seventies, with sparse white hair, glasses, a fondness for tea, newspapers, and radio dramas, and slightly poor hearing.

Ask him if he knew Ma Dongmei, and he would genuinely ask, "What winter plum?"

Tell him to open the gate, and he would say, "Thanks, young man, but this old man can't eat fried chicken."

Point at the jujube tree in the complex and say, "Grandpa, I want to climb up and knock down some jujubes," and he would say he was thinking about Shandong's big sister-in-law and advise you to behave yourself.

Every time Lin Li came back, he could hear opera being sung in dialect from inside the guard booth. Or there would simply be no one there.

If distinguished resident Lin Li were asked what the guard booth was actually for, he could only scratch his head for a long while before answering that it served to connect what came before with what followed, introduce the next passage, and express the author's homesickness.

—In other words, it was useless.

Naturally, such property management would not care about stray cats and dogs either. The park in the complex was basically maintained by enthusiastic, idle old men and women. They seemed to have an unofficial committee too, though Lin Li did not know the details.

He was not old enough to join yet.

He still needed to endure at least forty-three years of testing by the organization.

No, retirement age was sixty-five. Forty-eight years, then.

Lin Li looked at Xiao Zhou.

Strange. Xiao Zhou was not usually this disgusted by stray dogs. Why had his temperament suddenly changed today? Had the dog offended him, or was he in a bad mood and taking it out on the dog?

Thankfully, he was not driving away a stray cat. Otherwise, if someone filmed it and posted it online, he would learn what the world's malice truly looked like. After all, on Douyin, cats were a super first-class protected species.

Cats and dogs were quite cute, and Lin Li liked them too. But in Lin Li's eyes, no matter how cute they were, they could only be classified as animals alongside Bai Bufan. He could treat them better than other animals because he liked them, but they could never rank above ordinary, normal people.

Putting those thoughts aside, Lin Li took a deep breath and officially began practicing.

Damn, this felt amazing.

Lin Li, who had always spent every morning suffering, showed a genuine smile for the first time today.

It felt as if countless Xiao Jings surrounded him, firmly supporting him.

He had forgotten that his Yang Energy concentration was fifty percent higher than before, making his body more sensitive.

He could not think of such stimulating images.

It did not actually interfere with his training, but others might notice.

That would lead to a very, very, very bad misunderstanding.

Thus, when Zhou Youwei finished chasing the dog away and turned around, he saw Lin Li abruptly stop moving and sit hunched over on a stone bench in a thinking pose. He fell into confusion.

What the hell was this kid doing? Pretending to be a statue here so early in the morning? If Zhou Youwei moved closer, he would hear Lin Li muttering, "Black Anthropomorphic Catfish, I love you. Black Anthropomorphic Catfish, I love you..."

Half an hour passed. For the first time, serious training did not leave him exhausted. On the contrary, Lin Li felt incredibly energized. He let out a long breath, a satisfied smile appearing on his face.

The reason he stopped now was that the spirit stone had run out of spiritual energy.

It was about what he had expected. Practicing the Spiritual Energy Chapter of the Body Tempering Eight Section Exercise consumed roughly two Low-Grade Spirit Stones per hour.

Great. So he only had enough medicine for two and a half days in total.

More accurately, he could only enjoy himself for another two hours.

Lin Li sighed, then got up and left—

Lin Li headed toward the restroom.

He seemed to hear footsteps behind him. Turning around, Lin Li saw Zhou Youwei, no longer gloomy and now holding a phone with an excited expression. He was following behind him. When their eyes met, Zhou Youwei abruptly turned away, seriously examined a nearby tree, and commented, "What a very tree-like tree."

Lin Li: "?"

After walking for ten seconds, Lin Li heard footsteps again and turned back.

"These flowers are very flower-like."

After walking for another minute, Lin Li turned around again. This time, he did not hear any comments, but he said helplessly, "Grandpa Zhou, I can see you. Stop squatting."

"This dog shit is really dog... Why is there more damn dog shit? One day, I'm going to drive every single stray dog out of our complex!" Zhou Youwei abruptly stood up, cursing under his breath.

Gaming and watching anime—this fashionable old man's later years were looking grim indeed.

"Stray dogs relieving themselves everywhere is indeed annoying," Lin Li agreed first, then asked curiously, "Grandpa Zhou, why are you following me?"

"Who's following you? I'm just going to the restroom!" Zhou Youwei retorted, his eyes wide.

"Then why aren't you walking faster?" Lin Li nodded without suspicion. After all, this was the route to the public restroom. He merely asked another question.

"Isn't it normal for an old man to walk slowly?"

Zhou Youwei was not good at lying.

Something was off.

Lin Li narrowed his eyes.

Geniuses could always uncover the truth at once.

—At his age, he actually did not dare use the public restroom in the Small Woods alone?

But that guess was too absurd. The public restroom in the complex was indeed a little secluded and its conditions were somewhat poor, but it was broad daylight. Even ghosts would be off work at this hour.

"Grandpa, are you afraid of ghosts?" Lin Li asked anyway.

"Hmph! Afraid of ghosts? I fear ghosts, yet ghosts have never harmed me! I do not fear people, yet people have wounded me beyond recognition!" Zhou Youwei flicked his sleeve, making a veiled jab at Lin Li.

Okay.

His ears automatically filtered out everything except "I fear ghosts."

As expected of a genius, he had guessed right again.

He was just timid.

If he was scared, he was scared. Why insist on saving face and saying so much? Why was Xiao Zhou as stubborn as Old Jian?

Maybe people became more superstitious as they got older.

Upholding the principle of respecting the elderly and caring for the young, Lin Li did not expose him. He went to the restroom, entered a stall, opened the egg case, and quickly replaced one sub-egg.

The spirit stone, now devoid of spiritual energy, had become extremely light and could no longer be returned to the warehouse. It looked like a plastic shell, but to be safe, Lin Li still decided to take it home.

When he emerged from the restroom entrance, Zhou Youwei, who had fallen far behind, had only just entered.

Yet when he saw Lin Li about to leave, Zhou Youwei suddenly changed direction as well.

Lin Li sighed with a faint laugh. Before the other man could say anything, he gently said, "Grandpa Zhou, go use the restroom. I'll wait here. I won't move. When you come out, I'll definitely still be here."

He could understand Old Zhou's actions. After all, if Lin Li left, he definitely would not dare go again.

Zhou Youwei gritted his teeth at those words. He could understand Lin Li's actions too.

If he still could not see it now, he would be an idiot. Lin Li clearly knew he had been following him, yet he deliberately went along with his excuse. First, to show that he was not planning to do anything bad; second, to mock him.

He should not have rashly followed him this time.

No, thinking about it, since Lin Li had noticed him so easily today, perhaps this sinister kid had already noticed him yesterday too, merely pretending not to. When he had mentioned stray dogs just now, he was probably hinting at that matter, wasn't he?

What a sinister scheme.

Zhou Youwei lowered his head unwillingly and entered the restroom.

He had lost both exchanges. Lost badly.

Watching this, Lin Li revealed a gentle smile. It seemed Grandpa Zhou had sensed his goodwill too, which was why he shyly lowered his head and went inside.

Another day of doing good deeds.

Not long after, Zhou Youwei emerged from the restroom with his head raised again.

He suddenly realized something: he had not lost.

His goal was to protect the other residents of the complex from Lin Li's harm. Had he not already achieved it? Lin Li had been unable to do anything! Thus, he smiled proudly at Lin Li.

Lin Li returned a brilliant smile.

This was the old man he knew.

Lin Li understood all too well the joy of solving a peeing problem. He had immersed himself in that joy for a whole minute that morning. Resonance! Please vote with your monthly tickets.