The fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

In Yi Province, they call the fifteenth day of the first lunar month the 'Grand New Year Celebration.'

Early in the morning, Zhou Li was awakened by the aroma of food. He opened his eyes and propped himself up to look—

A graceful figure sat at his desk enjoying breakfast, her back to him. Her waist-length hair was tied with a bow-adorned hairband. It wasn't secured at the nape of her neck but rather midway down her hair, allowing the strands above the band to poof out slightly to the sides. The curtains, drawn the night before, had been opened at some point. Her jet-black hair, reflecting a slight sheen, was of a quality good enough for a commercial.

He rubbed his eyes again and craned his neck to see.

A very fashionable long down jacket…

Wrong focus.

Good heavens, a whole table full of food!

The notebooks, pens, phone, keys, wallet, and other items originally on the desk had all been pushed aside. Now, a pizza sat in the center, surrounded by fries, steak, grilled sausages, phoenix-tail shrimp, crispy fried squid, and more.

Seeming to notice he was awake, Huai Xu turned her head. She wore a disposable glove on one hand. She had a perfect face, though a smear of cheese lingered at the corner of her mouth.

"Awake, huh? Want some breakfast?"

"So much?"

"Just treating myself."

"Hmm…"

"Look at that expression… Relax, I bought it!" Huai Xu said. "I'm a rich demon now; I won't go around stealing things anymore. That's beneath my status."

"..."

A warm, soft, medium-sized cat was still curled up in Zhou Li's arms. He lifted her out and set her aside, somehow without waking her.

Tuanzi had slept with him last night but probably hadn't fallen asleep until midnight. Though she'd nestled obediently in his arms, she would occasionally scratch him, playfully nibble him, or try to talk to him, severely disrupting his sleep.

He got up and dressed.

Huai Xu's slender fingers held out a fried shrimp ball to Zhou Li, making him feel a bit uneasy.

"Good, isn't it?"

"Not bad."

"It's pricey."

"Oh."

"Going out with Brother Nan tonight to steal some greens?" Huai Xu stuffed a large piece of pizza into her mouth. "How about I take your form and stay home tonight? At noon, tell Aunt Jiang you want lamb for dinner. Then, in the afternoon, tell her you're not hungry, so she can make dinner later."

"..."

"I'm doing this for your own good," Huai Xu said seriously. "Otherwise, Aunt Jiang will definitely say, 'Out again? You only got back late last night!' Would you feel good about that? Of course, you wouldn't."

"..."

"You and Brother Nan aren't together yet, nor are you married. If this keeps up, it'll be bad for Brother Nan's reputation, and yours too," the Old Demon lectured. "Aunt Jiang has always thought you were a good kid."

"..."

"Why aren't you saying anything?"

"I'm listening to see what else you have to say."

"Just agree!!"

A pair of bright, expectant eyes gazed at him.

In the end, Zhou Li nodded.

「Five in the afternoon.」

Aunt Jiang and Old Zhou returned from outside, their hands laden with groceries, just as Zhou Li was preparing to leave. They met at the doorstep.

"Are you going out?"

"Yeah," Zhou Li glanced sidelong at the Old Demon beside him and said to Aunt Jiang, "I might not be back until seven o'clock. Can we have dinner a bit later?"

"Sure, we usually have dinner after six-thirty anyway."

"Okay."

"Tomorrow's your birthday," Aunt Jiang added. "Is there anything else you'd like to eat? I'm going out to buy groceries again early tomorrow morning."

"I'd like lamb chops and trotter soup," Zhou Li repeated the words whispered in his ear.

"Alright."

"I'm heading out."

"Take precautions."

"Yeah."

Zhou Li walked to the corridor and pressed the elevator button.

Huai Xu appeared beside him, the very image of a stunning urban beauty. She sounded somewhat dissatisfied as she said, "Why didn't you say you wanted naan?"

"Nobody eats naan for their birthday."

"Will there be cake then?"

"Probably."

"How old are you turning?"

"Nineteen."

"So young." Huai Xu suddenly tilted her head back and laughed. "I'm a hundred times older than you, HAHAHA!"

"Well, you are an old monster."

"!!"

The smile vanished instantly!

Huai Xu subtly changed the subject. "Why don't you invite your classmates over for your birthday dinner? Even Li Daimao invited his friends."

"Gatherings aren't advisable during an epidemic."

"Did you invite them before?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't have any friends."

"Oh." Huai Xu nodded. "You're half a year younger than Brother Nan."

"Your topics really jump all over the place..."

"But now you have friends; I'll be with you," Huai Xu mused. "It's a shame it's the pandemic; otherwise, I would have come to your house as a guest. But don't worry, I'll be waiting for you in your room. Remember to bring me a plate of cake."

"You actually bounced back to that topic..."

"..."

They went straight down to the basement garage.

「An hour and a half later.」

Zhou Li drove slowly along the narrow country road; it was a great test of his driving skills. Whenever a car approached from the opposite direction, he had to obediently pull over and stop, letting the other car pass first.

Even pulling to the side made him nervous.

Especially since it was almost dark, and Huai Xu, having taken on his appearance, had already returned to Yan City, leaving Zhou Li alone in the car.

Finally, the road ahead widened a bit. By the roadside, on a flat patch of dirt, an Accord was parked with its hazard lights flashing.

Zhou Li let out a long sigh of relief.

The Accord's hazard lights turned off. Brother Nan opened her car door, got out, locked it, and waved at him.

Zhou Li parked his car alongside hers.

"Have you eaten?" Brother Nan asked him.

"No."

"I haven't eaten either," Brother Nan said with a radiant smile. "The restaurants in town aren't open recently either, so I brought you some food."

"Oh."

"How was driving on our roads around here?"

"Terrifying."

"HAHAHA!"

Brother Nan chatted while rummaging in her dad's car.

She found a large bottle of Sprite, two paper cups, two self-heating claypot rice meals, and, in a plastic bag, two rabbit legs and some chopped sausages.

"Lock your car. Let's go up the mountain to eat!"

"Okay."

"We'll scout some spots along the way," Brother Nan said. "It's better to steal around here. If we do it in our village, we might run into my parents. Imagine how awkward it would be, bumping into them in the dark and only realizing who it is when we're close up! HAHAHA! Knowing you, you'd be so mortified your toes would try to dig a two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment into the ground."

"What an image."

"Those hilarious netizens sure have a way with words."

"Oh."

"I'm not very familiar with this area either. Let's look around first, and when it gets completely dark, we'll go steal."

"Okay."

Zhou Li just carried the Sprite and followed her.

This area had a tradition of 'stealing greens.' You could tell from the many bare plots of land with fresh cut marks on the vegetable roots. Brother Nan was often indignant about this—these were what was left after the villagers harvested their main crops before the Lantern Festival.

However, many vegetables hadn't been harvested.

Most were cabbages, carrots, cauliflower, and pea shoots.

Walking along the path up the mountain, they occasionally ran into spiderwebs. Along the way, they also encountered other children.

"These kids are definitely here to scout locations," Brother Nan said to Zhou Li.

"They're looking at us," Zhou Li said. "Is it rare for adults to come out scouting?"

"Or maybe they just think I, Brother Nan, am too good-looking. You rarely see someone this attractive even on TV; they couldn't help staring," Brother Nan said earnestly.

"..."

As they passed the children, Brother Nan deliberately tried to scare them. "What are you looking at? Haven't you seen adults scouting for stealing greens before?"

The children were startled at first, then burst into laughter. Even as they walked away, they kept looking back at them.

A smile touched Zhou Li's lips as well.

However, Brother Nan, glancing back, happened to see him smiling. She immediately frowned and asked, "What are you smiling at?"

"You're such a kid."

"Have you ever seen a kid this tall?"

"I have."

"I'm in university."

"Alright, alright..." Zhou Li nodded. "I mean, you always manage to get along with kids."

"That's because I, Brother Nan, am amiable and young at heart!" Brother Nan declared narcissistically.

"If you ever have children, you'll definitely raise them to be wild," Zhou Li mused. "Catching fish, chasing birds, running all over the mountains."

"Wouldn't that be great?"

"Indeed."

Zhou Li thought about it; he hadn't been like that as a child, and he always regretted it.

Upon reaching the mountaintop, they sat down on the ground.

They prepared the self-heating meals first, opened the plastic bag, and poured the Sprite.

Brother Nan picked up a rabbit leg first, took a bite, and mumbled to him, "No chopsticks, just eat like this. Don't be fussy."

"Mm."

"Did you bring bags?"

"I did."

"Good. Let's try to get enough so we don't have to buy vegetables for a week."

"It's just symbolic."

"Hehe..."

The self-heating meals emitted curling wisps of white smoke, sizzling softly.

The sky had already grown dark.

The two of them sat facing each other, eating their simple dinner, watching the full moon slowly climb into the sky.

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