"Which one?"

"This one."

Zhou Li pointed to the corner of the cardboard box.

Yin Le picked it up. He suddenly fell silent, his expression turning somewhat solemn as he asked, "Have you seen one like this before?"

"Not exactly, but its shape seems to be related to something I've seen before." Zhou Li frowned slightly. In the Jiang Family's ancestral tomb, he had seen a board occupying a box by itself. The board had holes, the size and shape of which were very similar to this object. It was as if the purpose of this small item was to fit into that board, and that board had a total of five such holes.

"Where did you see it?" Yin Le's expression flickered.

"In Yi Province. I wanted to tell you last time, but... I never got around to it." Zhou Li gauged Yin Le's expression. "This is something passed down from your ancestors, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"And it's related to the Six Imperial Families."

"Right."

"Then I understand." Zhou Li still kept a quiet watch on Yin Le's face. He noticed that Yin Le was deep in thought, pondering very frequently, his short responses a way to make room for his thinking.

"Did he ever mention our mission to you?" As soon as Yin Le finished speaking, he immediately shook his head. "He probably didn't. It doesn't seem like it."

"Indeed, he didn't elaborate, and I didn't ask." Zhou Li was suddenly filled with a bit of doubt. "But why doesn't it seem like it? If I had heard him talk about this in detail, would you be able to tell?"

"Why didn't you directly ask him?"

"He didn't want to tell me; said it was a secret." Zhou Li spread his hands. "I wasn't interested before."

"It is indeed a secret... Are you interested now?"

"A bit," Zhou Li admitted honestly. "I suddenly think it could be kind of interesting."

"I don't really want to tell you either," Yin Le said. He paused, then added, "If I let you know, something rather significant might happen."

"I see."

Both of them looked up, their gazes meeting.

Clearly, Yin Le didn't truly not want to tell Zhou Li. He seemed to be hesitating.

SQUEAK.

Brother Nan pulled up in front of the two, sighed with relief, and said to Zhou Li, "I thought some girl on the side of the road had intercepted you!"

After saying this, she turned to Yin Le. "Hey!"

"Hey..."

Yin Le, usually quite composed, seemed somewhat uneasy facing Brother Nan. He still remembered how last year, while riding his motorcycle past Zhou Li's neighborhood, an angry Brother Nan had yelled at him to get lost. Confused at the time, he had actually said, "Okay," and quickly ridden away from the scene, twisting the throttle to the max. He remembered this incident vividly. Each time he thought about it, he felt he had acted too cowardly, his face burning with embarrassment, and wished he could turn back time to do it over again.

He even had some lingering psychological shadows from it.

Brother Nan, on the other hand, effortlessly chatted him up. "Moving stuff? Whoa, that's a lot! No wonder you're flagging down cars here, hehe. Now you see why a small car is better than a motorcycle, right? I mean, your bike is so expensive, several hundred thousand. If you'd chosen one that was just tens of thousands cheaper, you could've bought a domestic car already, something with a roof over your head. Anyway, your..."

Before he could gather his thoughts, a barrage of words filled his ears, leaving Yin Le somewhat bewildered.

"Yeah, right, exactly..."

Nodding along, he shot Zhou Li a pleading gaze, his eyes conveying a silent question: Is your girlfriend always this talkative?

Zhou Li pondered for a moment. "Since you're in Chunming, I'll treat you to milk tea someday."

"Deal!"

"Then we're off."

"Take care."

With that, the two of them rode off again.

Because he had something on his mind, Zhou Li rode slowly. Brother Nan initially sped ahead but slowed down when she realized he wasn't keeping up. Afraid of losing him again, she rode beside him, tilting her head and craning her neck to look at his face, as if trying to read his thoughts.

"Watch the road," he said.

"Oh, right." Brother Nan returned her gaze to the road, casually bringing up another topic. "Why does that guy seem a bit afraid of me?"

"He's pretty good at fighting," Zhou Li replied offhandedly.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Then why does he speak with so little confidence?"

"Of course, he's no match for you."

"Hehe..."

Brother Nan was now cheerful. "Who do we have here if not our very own Old Li!"

At that moment, Zhou Li suddenly remembered something. He pursed his lips and calmly looked at Brother Nan. "You say, as the Child of Destiny, if you wished for humans and demons to coexist peacefully, could it come true?"

"Stepson," Brother Nan corrected.

"Got it..."

"..."

The plants at home, left unattended for a month, had grown even more luxuriant. Their foliage was dense but also disordered.

Zhou Li sat on the sofa, tilting his head and staring at the plants for a long time. In the end, he decided not to trim them, letting them grow freely. However they wanted to grow was fine; he would just pick up the fallen leaves, water them, and apply fertilizer.

A little creature crawled and crawled until it reached his side, then climbed onto his thigh, tickling him.

"Zhou Li," came a milky voice.

"What's up?" Zhou Li looked down.

"Lord Dumpling suggests that next time you go out to ride your bike, you could ride the smaller one," Tuanzi said earnestly.

"What smaller bike?"

"It's like, there are red ones, green ones, blue ones, just a little bit smaller than the one you ride." Tuanzi couldn't describe it clearly. She stood up on Zhou Li's leg and gestured with her little paws to show the size, but still couldn't make it clear.

"Orange, not red." Zhou Li realized she was talking about shared bikes.

"Layer color!"

"Orange color."

"Orange society!"

"Orange, color."

"Layer! Shoot!"

"Right." Zhou Li nodded and touched her forehead gently with his finger to encourage her. "Why should I ride that one?"

"Lord Dumpling suggests it."

"And why does Lord Dumpling suggest that?"

"Because, because that bike has a little basket in front." Tuanzi was serious and solemn. "If you ride that one out to play, Lord Dumpling can sit in the little basket and go out to play with you."

"I see."

Zhou Li continued to look out the window.

I'm sorry, I can't take your suggestion. My brand-new second-hand bike was a gift from Brother Nan; I can't just not ride it.

He continued to think.

Brother Nan sat beside him, holding her phone and checking out nearby attractions. As she searched, she mumbled to herself, "Hey, how about going go-karting tomorrow? Looks like it's going to rain in a few days."

A minute later, she nudged Zhou Li with her elbow.

"Hmm?" Zhou Li responded.

"A hundred bucks for seven minutes, that's expensive," said Brother Nan.

"Hmm."

"And it's at a highway service area!? Could it be I'll have to sneak onto the highway again?" Brother Nan felt a bit troubled. "I wonder if they've removed the inspection stations at the highway exits recently..."

"Uh-huh."

"..."

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