"Good morning, Grandpa Zhou."
After coming downstairs and arriving at the park, Lin Li spotted his usual training buddy—one of the regular NPCs, so to speak—and greeted him naturally.
As always, it was a warm greeting met with a cold response. Zhou Youwei merely nodded at Lin Li, but Lin Li didn't mind.
Once a grandson, always a grandson. The old man's just being childish—what's the point in fussing over that?
My uncle spoils his dad.
But today, Zhou Youwei seemed a bit different. Normally, he'd already be watching Lin Li by now, scheming ways to steal his techniques. Yet today, his expression was gloomy, and he looked distracted.
A man in his sixties… could he be staying up at midnight listening to NetEase Cloud, reminiscing about his "white moonlight"?
Lin Li was curious, but he wasn't nosy enough to ask. That would be picking trouble for no reason. Instead, he focused on training seriously.
"Get! Get! Get!"
Before he could even begin, Zhou Youwei's voice interrupted him.
Lin Li turned to look—it was Zhou Youwei, waving his hands to scare off 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 a year. Xiling Town wasn't a big place, but even so, this price was ridiculously low.
You get what you pay for.
The quality of the property management could be judged from the security guards at the entrance. The one in Lin Li's complex was a classic case: an elderly man in his sixties or seventies, with sparse white hair, glasses, and a love for drinking tea, reading newspapers, and listening to the radio—slightly hard of hearing.
Ask him, "Do you know Ma Dongmei?" and he'd genuinely reply, "What Dongmei?"
Ask him to open the gate, and he'd say, "Thank you, young man, but Grandpa can't eat fried chicken."
Point to a jujube tree in the neighborhood and say, "Grandpa, I want to climb up and pick some jujubes," and he'd respond, "I'm thinking about a Shandong lady, you should reflect on your own actions."
Every time Lin Li came back home, he could hear opera blaring in dialect from the security booth—or, more often, find the booth completely empty.
If you asked Lin Li, a proud resident, what actual purpose the security booth served, he'd scratch his head for a long time before coming up with:
"Uh… transitional setup to lead into the next section, expressing the author's homesickness?"
In other words—useless.
Naturally, such property management didn't care about stray animals. The daily upkeep of the complex's park relied entirely on well-meaning yet idle old folks. They even seemed to have an unofficial committee, though Lin Li had no clue about the details.
He wasn't old enough to join.
He still needed to prove himself to the organization for at least another forty-three years.
Wait, the retirement age is 65 now… make that forty-eight years.
Lin Li glanced at Zhou Youwei.
Strange. Normally, Little Zhou wasn't this hostile toward stray dogs. Did one piss him off today? Or was he just in a bad mood and taking it out on them?
At least he wasn't shooing away stray cats. Otherwise, if someone filmed him and uploaded it online, he'd instantly understand what "the malice of the world" felt like. After all, on Douyin, cats were a top-tier protected species.
Cats and dogs were cute—Lin Li liked them too—but in his mind, no matter how cute they were, they were still just animals, like Bai Bufan. Sure, he could treat them better than other animals because he liked them, but they should never be put above normal human beings.
Shaking off these thoughts, Lin Li took a deep breath and officially began his training.
Damn, this feels amazing.
For the first time, after countless mornings of suffering through training, Lin Li smiled sincerely.
It felt like a bunch of Xiao Jings were surrounding him, cheering him on.
He had completely forgotten that his Yang energy was now 50% denser than before, making his body far more sensitive.
He really shouldn't be thinking about such stimulating images.
It didn't interfere with training, but it could be noticed by others.
Which would lead to some very, very, very unfortunate misunderstandings.
So when Zhou Youwei finished scaring off the dog and turned around, only to see Lin Li suddenly freeze mid-action, hunch over on a stone bench, and assume a contemplative pose—he was baffled.
What the fuck is this kid doing?
Standing here at the crack of dawn pretending to be a statue?
If he moved a little closer, he'd hear Lin Li murmuring under his breath:
"Black anthropomorphic catfish, I love you. Black anthropomorphic catfish, I love you…"
…
Half an hour later, for the first time, serious training hadn't left Lin Li exhausted. On the contrary, he felt incredibly energized. He let out a long breath, his face full of satisfaction.
The only reason he stopped was that his Spirit Stones had run out of Spiritual Energy.
As expected, practicing the Eight-Section Brocade: Body Refinement (Spiritual Energy Chapter) consumed roughly two low-grade Spirit Stones per hour.
Great. That meant he only had enough for two and a half days' worth of training.
To be exact, only two more hours of bliss.
Lin Li let out a long sigh, then got up and left—
Heading for the bathroom.
Behind him, he heard footsteps. Turning around, he saw Zhou Youwei, suddenly no longer gloomy, holding his phone with an excited expression.
Their eyes met.
Zhou Youwei immediately jerked his head away, staring intently at a nearby tree and muttering, "Wow, what a big tree. Such a… big tree."
Lin Li: "?"
He walked another ten seconds, heard footsteps again, and turned back.
"This flower sure is… very flower-like."
After a full minute, Lin Li turned back once more. This time, there was no muttering, but he sighed helplessly and said,
"Grandpa Zhou, I see you. Stop crouching."
"This dog sht is so—ugh! Why the hell is there always dog sht?! One day, I swear, I'll drive every last stray dog out of this neighborhood!" Zhou Youwei suddenly shot up, cursing.
Gaming and watching anime… this trendy old man's retirement wasn't looking good.
"Yeah, stray dogs pooping everywhere is annoying," Lin Li agreed, then asked curiously, "But Grandpa Zhou, why are you following me?"
"Who's following you? I'm just going to the bathroom!" Zhou Youwei widened his eyes in denial.
"Then why aren't you walking faster?" Lin Li nodded, not doubting him. After all, this was the path to the public restroom. But he still asked.
"Old folks walk slow. Isn't that normal?"
Zhou Youwei was a terrible liar.
Something was off.
Lin Li narrowed his eyes.
Geniuses always uncover the truth instantly.
This grown man… is afraid to use the public restroom in the woods alone?!
But this conclusion was absurd. Sure, the public restroom was a bit remote and rundown, but it was broad daylight. Even ghosts were off-duty at this hour.
"Grandpa, are you afraid of ghosts?" Lin Li asked.
"Hah! Afraid of ghosts? The ghosts never hurt me a bit! But humans… humans left me covered in wounds!" Zhou Youwei dramatically swished his sleeve, throwing shade at Lin Li.
Okay.
Lin Li's brain filtered out the fluff, leaving only: "I'm afraid of ghosts."
As expected of a genius—another correct deduction.
So, he's just a coward.
If you're scared, just admit it. No need to be all prideful about it. Why was Little Zhou as stubborn as Old Jian?
Out of respect for the elderly, Lin Li didn't expose him and continued into the restroom. He entered a stall, opened his storage box, and quickly swapped out an energy-depleted Spirit Stone.
Once drained of Spiritual Energy, Spirit Stones became incredibly light and couldn't be stored in the Inventory, resembling nothing more than a plastic shell. Still, just to be safe, Lin Li decided to take it home.
When he exited the restroom, Zhou Youwei who had fallen behind had just entered.
But seeing Lin Li leaving, Zhou Youwei abruptly changed direction as well.
Amused, Lin Li sighed and spoke warmly before Zhou Youwei could say anything,
"Grandpa Zhou, go ahead. I'll wait right here. I won't leave. I promise I'll still be here when you come out."
Zhou Youwei hesitated, biting his lip. He understood exactly what Lin Li was doing.
This damn kid knew he was being followed and was now pretending to play along. One, to show he wasn't up to anything shady. Two, to mock him.
He had made a tactical error following him here.
No, thinking back, if Lin Li noticed him this easily today, then he had probably noticed yesterday too and just played dumb. When he brought up stray dogs earlier, was that a subtle jab at him?
What a sinister plan.
Gritting his teeth, Zhou Youwei lowered his head and entered the restroom.
This round… he had lost.
A crushing defeat.