Come Pick Me Up

"Come on! A toast to our great demon king!"

"Cheers! You really made Bo City proud!"

"Cheers!"

Several glasses clinked together, sending thick beer foam splashing and filling the air with the scent of malt.

There were plenty of good places to eat near Pearl Academy, and Zhou Sining had picked out a highly rated barbecue restaurant well in advance.

As soon as the Beast Fighting Competition ended, he brought Mo Fan over.

He had also invited Xu Zhaoting, who attended Pearl Academy too.

The three young men gathered around a table. It was a rare chance to meet friends from their hometown, and after a few swigs of beer and bites of barbecue, any distance between them had vanished.

"My dear junior, who was that beauty you called your crush in your message today? Why didn't you bring her along?" Mo Fan teased.

"You're dating someone too?" Xu Zhaoting's eyes lit up slightly. He looked at Zhou Sining as though he had found a kindred spirit.

Zhou Sining, still a virgin, smiled. "No, nothing's happened yet."

He turned the question back on Xu Zhaoting. "And what do you mean, 'too'? Has our Lightning Element prodigy already fallen in love?"

"Ahem!" Xu Zhaoting flushed and said nothing.

The two single guys immediately protested that they couldn't bear to watch.

"All right, all right, let's change the subject. You messaged me a few days ago about getting into a fight outside Pearl Academy. What happened?" Mo Fan turned back to Zhou Sining.

"I ran into an asshole. He's actually the reason she and I met. Let me tell you the whole story..."

Once that asshole Shen Feng came up, Zhou Sining suddenly had plenty to say. Before long, he had explained everything from start to finish.

When he mentioned that Shen Feng belonged to the Black Vatican, Mo Fan's and Xu Zhaoting's eyes abruptly turned cold.

But when they heard that Zhou Sining had beaten those animals senseless, pleased smiles returned to their faces.

"Nicely done. That's our top student for you." Mo Fan raised his glass to him.

"That's exactly how those Black Vatican bastards deserve to be treated!" Xu Zhaoting wished he could have been there himself.

"Don't worry. When it comes to those bastards, I won't have any moral limits," Zhou Sining assured them.

After a moment's thought, he added, "Shen Feng was originally a new student at Pearl Academy too, so I think there are quite a few Black Vatican members hiding in the academy. You two need to be careful."

Neither the academy nor the police had released a report on the Shen Feng incident, and both had tacitly chosen to suppress all discussion of it.

They had also explicitly instructed Zhou Sining and Mu Nujiao to keep it confidential.

But Mo Fan and Xu Zhaoting were two people Zhou Sining trusted completely, so of course he told them everything he knew.

Mo Fan and Xu Zhaoting nodded thoughtfully. "Understood."

The mention of the Black Vatican had chilled the mood at the table.

Zhou Sining quickly livened things up. "Enough about those animals. Didn't you want to know who my crush is? Her name will blow your minds!"

At the prospect of gossip, both men raised their eyebrows in unison. "Tell us more."

Putting on a mysterious expression, Zhou Sining motioned for them to lean closer before whispering the name. "Mu Nujiao."

"Seriously?!" Mo Fan's eyes widened in shock.

Even someone as out of the loop as him was quite familiar with that name.

More than once, he had heard his roommates mention her late at night, when their hormones were running wild.

Even when he went to the cafeteria, he occasionally heard guys at neighboring tables discussing her.

Once his surprise passed, Xu Zhaoting had a different take. "I've heard of her, but she's the young lady of an elite family. People like her don't usually associate with commoners like us. Are you sure someone isn't trying to trick you?"

"..."

"Hahaha! Xu Zhaoting, how did I never notice how funny you are?"

"I only said she's my crush, not that I'm hers." Zhou Sining was convinced they were just jealous!

"So basically, it's a one-sided crush," Mo Fan said, hitting the nail on the head.

"Actually, I think she likes me too." Zhou Sining wasn't discouraged in the slightest.

"Really? All five of my roommates have met Mu Nujiao, and every one of them came back to the dorm saying she seemed to like him," Xu Zhaoting said earnestly.

Mo Fan nudged him. "Stop, Xu Zhaoting! Hahahaha! Our junior's going to cough up blood from anger if you keep going."

"..."

"I'm not like those ordinary mortals!"

Zhou Sining was starting to regret bringing this up.

Mo Fan obligingly played along. "All right, all right. Here's hoping you win over our Goddess Mu soon. Remember to buy me a drink when you do."

"Me too," Xu Zhaoting chimed in.

"Thanks for the good wishes, seniors. I'll give you your own table at the wedding!"

"Deal!"

The meal lasted two or three hours. None of the three had much experience drinking, but they kept drinking until they were drunk, then drank some more.

Only when Xu Zhaoting's girlfriend called and told him to get back to school early did the gathering finally end.

"Come on, let's get a cab back to Pearl Academy. I'll cover the fare," Mo Fan slurred.

"I got into the Ancient Capital. I'm not going to Pearl Academy. I'm staying at a hotel." Zhou Sining felt as though the sky kept spinning.

The drunken Mo Fan didn't have the mental capacity to process what Zhou Sining had said.

He nodded vaguely, then dragged Xu Zhaoting, who could barely stand, into the cab.

Watching the rear of the car shrink into the distance, Zhou Sining frowned slightly. "Wait... Get me a cab too..."

Those two assholes had finished eating and left him to fend for himself.

He blinked hard, forcing himself to sober up a little, then took out his phone, unlocked it, and opened WeChat.

Mu Nujiao's profile picture immediately caught his eye.

His finger moved, tapping the video call button.

For a moment, Zhou Sining couldn't tell whether he was sober or not.

"Beeeep!"

The video call connected quickly, and an exquisitely beautiful oval face, bare of makeup, appeared on the large screen.

Judging by the background, Mu Nujiao was in her dorm.

She had changed into fairly loose pajamas, but they still couldn't hide her stunning curves.

Under the direct gaze of those clear, alluring eyes through the screen, Zhou Sining suddenly fell quiet.

"Are you drunk?" Mu Nujiao noticed something was off about him.

It would have been hard not to. Most people's faces weren't as red as a Mount Emei monkey's backside.

Not to mention Zhou Sining's hazy, almost idiotic eyes. What normal person looked like that?

Zhou Sining nodded. "Yeah. Will you come pick me up?"

"???"

Hearing that familiar, almost wheedling tone, Mu Nujiao momentarily couldn't tell which of them was drunk.

Hadn't she only known Zhou Sining for seven days?

When had they gotten this close?

"You don't want to?" Zhou Sining tilted his head.

With that tone and that look in his eyes, Mu Nujiao found it hard to connect the man on her screen with the terrifying figure she remembered killing a Cursed Beast Demon in an instant.

"Don't you think you're being a little presumptuous?" Mu Nujiao tried to bring Zhou Sining back to his senses.

"Hmm... I'm on the food street 2.3 kilometers straight ahead from Pearl Academy's south gate. The address is number XX on XX Street, outside Bashi Crayfish. Thanks," Zhou Sining went on, ignoring her question.

"..."

Mu Nujiao pressed her lips together, speechless, and wondered whether hanging up on this drunk would put her at risk of retaliation.

Suddenly, a pair of hands with elaborately decorated nails slipped around Zhou Sining's neck from behind. "Hey, handsome. All alone?"

A heavily made-up face popped into view beside his shoulder.

The woman lowered her eyes slightly. When she saw Mu Nujiao on the screen, she froze for a moment, then curled her lips into a smile.

As she met Mu Nujiao's gaze, her eyes gleamed with determination to claim him.

"Beeeep!"

The unfamiliar woman reached out and ended the video call.

Such a blatant provocation.

"Heh."

Mu Nujiao gave a cold laugh, then immediately got up to change.

"Sister Mu, where are you going? It's almost curfew." Ai Tutu poked her little head down from the top bunk.

"To pick up a drunk."