Chapter 39 This is Called a Friendship Beyond Age

"Good morning, Grandpa Zhou." Going down and arriving at the park, Lin Li naturally greeted his exercise buddy, who was practically a fixed NPC. As usual, he received a cold shoulder, with Zhou Youwei merely nodding at Lin Li, but Lin Li didn’t mind. Once a grandson, always a grandson—he’s an old child but doesn’t know any better, why bother fussing? My uncle spoils his dad. However, today Zhou Youwei seemed a bit different from usual. He should have already been watching Lin Li, scheming about how to secretly learn his techniques, but today he looked gloomy, his mind seemed elsewhere. Would a sixty-something still recall their bright moonlight on NetEase Cloud deep into midnight? Although curious, Lin Li wasn’t idle enough to ask what happened. That would be finding trouble for nothing, so instead, he earnestly began practicing his exercises. "Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!" But before he could formally start, Zhou Youwei’s voice interrupted him. Lin Li looked over to see Zhou Youwei pushing his hands towards a stray dog seven or eight meters away, trying to scare it away. In Lin Li’s neighborhood, the annual property fee is only 200 yuan, and although Xiling Town isn’t a big place, the price is considered excessively low. It shows you get what you pay for—the quality of the property management can be gauged from the security guard at the gate, who in Lin Li’s neighborhood, is a rather classic sixty- or seventy-something with sparse white hair, wears glasses, enjoys drinking tea, reading newspapers, and listening to the radio, and is slightly hard of hearing. If you ask him if he knows Ma Dongmei, he’d genuinely reply, "Who’s Dongmei?" If Lin Li asked him to open the gate barrier, he’d say, "Thank you, young man, but Grandpa can’t eat fried chicken." Lin Li pointed to the jujube tree in the neighborhood, saying he wanted to climb up to pick dates, and the guard replied he was thinking about a lady from Shandong, suggesting Lin Li take care. Every time Lin Li came back, he could hear dialect opera from the security booth, or sometimes there was simply no one there. If you asked respectful resident Lin Li what the security booth was actually for, he could only scratch his head for a while and then reply it was for setting up the transition, introducing the next topic, expressing the author’s homesickness. —Useless. Such property management naturally wouldn’t care about stray cats and dogs. The daily maintenance of the neighborhood park mostly relied on enthusiastic and idle elderly folks, who seemed to have an unofficial committee, though Lin Li wasn’t sure about the specifics. He wasn’t old enough to join. He’d need to undergo at least forty-three years of tests of the organization. No, since the retirement age is 65, make that forty-eight years. Lin Li looked at Xiaozhou. It was strange, Xiaozhou usually wasn’t so hostile toward stray dogs, why was he acting differently today? Was he annoyed by the stray dog, or was he in a bad mood and taking it out on the dog? Good thing it was a stray dog he was driving away; if it had been a stray cat and someone filmed it to post online, they’d experience what it’s like to face the world’s malice. After all, on Douyin, cats are top-level protected animals. Cats and dogs are quite cute. Lin Li liked them too, but in his heart, no matter how cute they were, they were still categorized as animals like Bai Bufan. They could be favored over other animals because of liking, but they should never be placed above ordinary, normal people. Recollecting his thoughts, taking a deep breath, Lin Li officially began his exercises. Wow, it feels great. Lin Li, who usually spent every morning in agony, smiled genuinely for the first time today. It felt like being surrounded by multiple Xiaojings—supporting him. Forgot that his Yang energy concentration was 50% higher than before, making his body more sensitive. He shouldn’t imagine such stimulating images. It didn’t hinder the practice but could be easily noticed by others. That could lead to a horrible misunderstanding. Therefore, when Zhou Youwei finished chasing away the dog and turned to see Lin Li suddenly stop his movements and sit on a stone bench pondering, he was puzzled. What’s this kid doing? Playing statue here in the morning? If he got a bit 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 practice didn’t make him tired. On the contrary, Lin Li felt energetic, took a deep breath, and showed a satisfied smile. The reason for stopping now was that the Spirit Stone was out of Spiritual Qi. As expected, practicing the Body Refining Eighth Rank Technique—Spiritual Qi Chapter, consumed about two low-grade Spirit Stones per hour. Great, that means he only had medicine for two and a half days in his hands. To be exact, he could only enjoy two more hours. Lin Li sighed deeply, then stood up and left— Lin Li headed for the toilet. It seemed there were footsteps behind him. Turning around, Lin Li saw Zhou Youwei, who no longer looked gloomy and was excitedly holding a phone. As he followed Lin Li, they made eye contact, and he suddenly turned to seriously admire the trees nearby, saying, "This tree surely is one big tree." Lin Li: "?" Lin Li walked for another ten seconds and heard footsteps, turning back again. "This flower is really a flower." Lin Li walked for another minute and turned back again. This time he heard no exclamations, yet he spoke somewhat helplessly, "Grandpa Zhou, I see you, stop squatting." "This dog poop is really dog... Oh, why is there always damn dog poop! One day, I’ll drive all the stray dogs out of this neighborhood!" Zhou Youwei stood up with a burst, grumbling. Playing games, watching anime, this fashionable old man wasn’t having an easy time in his later years either. "Stray dogs leaving waste all around is indeed annoying," Lin Li first agreed and then curiously asked, "Grandpa Zhou, why are you following me?" "Who’s following you, I’m just going to the toilet," Zhou Youwei widened his eyes, retorting. "Then why aren’t you walking faster?" Lin Li nodded, not doubting him, since they were indeed heading to the public toilet, he just asked again. "Isn’t it normal for older people to walk slower?" Zhou Youwei wasn’t good at lying. Something was off. Lin Li squinted his eyes. Geniuses can always quickly dig into the truth. —A grown-up but afraid to go alone to the public toilet in the small forest? Yet this assumption was too outrageous. The neighborhood’s public toilet was indeed a bit remote and the environment slightly poor, but it was broad daylight; even ghosts would be off work by then. "Grandpa, are you afraid of ghosts?" Therefore, Lin Li still asked once. "Afraid of ghosts? I fear the ghost, but the ghost hasn’t harmed me! I’m not afraid of people, but people have hurt me all over!" Zhou Youwei waved his sleeve, sarcastically mocking Lin Li. OK. Ears automatically filtered, Lin Li only heard "I’m afraid of ghosts." As expected of a genius, I guessed correctly again. Just timid. If he’s afraid, he’s afraid, why say so much, why are Xiaozhou and Old Jian both so stubborn. Perhaps people get more superstitious as they age. Following the principle of respecting the elderly and caring for the young, Lin Li chose not to expose him and headed to the toilet, entered a cubicle, opened the capsule, and swiftly swapped out an egg. The Spirit Stone without Spiritual Qi became extremely light and couldn’t be stored back in the [warehouse]. It looked like a plastic shell, but for safety’s sake, Lin Li decided to take it home. When exiting the toilet entrance, because he lagged behind significantly, Zhou Youwei had just entered. But seeing Lin Li was about to leave, Zhou Youwei suddenly changed direction. Lin Li chuckled lightly and sighed, without waiting for him to say anything, gently saying, "Grandpa Zhou, go use the restroom, I’ll wait here, won’t move, and I’ll definitely be here when you come out." He could understand Grandpa Zhou’s actions because if Lin Li left, Grandpa Zhou would undoubtedly lose courage again. Upon hearing this, Zhou Youwei gritted his teeth. He, too, understood Lin Li’s actions. If he couldn’t see it now, he’d be a fool: Lin Li clearly already knew he was being followed but intentionally confirmed it, showing he didn’t plan on doing anything bad and was also mocking him. He shouldn’t have been so reckless to follow him. No, now that he thought about it, being able to easily find out today, perhaps this cunning kid already knew about his presence yesterday, merely pretending not to know, and just now mentioning stray dogs might have been an implication of this, too? What a devious plan. Zhou Youwei went into the toilet, bowing his head somewhat unwillingly. This round of battle, he lost, lost thoroughly. Observing this, Lin Li smiled gently, believing Grandpa Zhou realized his good intention, thus entered the restroom feeling a bit shy. Another day of doing a good deed. Soon after, Zhou Youwei emerged from the toilet with his head held high again. He suddenly realized something: he hadn’t lost. His aim was to protect the rest of the community from Lin Li’s harm, and had he not achieved that? Lin Li could do nothing! Thus, he smiled proudly at Lin Li. Lin Li returned a bright smile. This was the Grandpa he was familiar with. The joy of having solved a pee-related problem, Lin Li totally understood, bathed in that happiness for a whole minute this morning, a shared feeling!