As they walked out of the alleyway, neither spoke; both kept their eyes straight ahead, walking quietly.

The streetlights were dim, casting their overlapping shadows.

Having just left the ancient city, Zhou Li caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye of two figures squatting by the roadside not far away. Although it was just their backs, he recognized them immediately.

It was Zhu Shuang and Zhu Bing.

Zhou Li and Brother Nan exchanged glances and walked toward them.

He keenly noticed that Brother Nan almost instantly lightened her footsteps, so he also held his breath.

Gradually, they got closer.

"HA!!"

"!!"

The siblings jumped in fright, hurriedly turning their heads.

Brother Nan's mouth curled up at the corner, her expression one of mischievous triumph.

Zhou Li, on the other hand, adopted a look of helplessness and speechlessness, and sighed—evidently, Brother Nan's actions had nothing to do with him, and he did not approve of such childish and boring antics.

"You scared me to death, Brother Nan!" Zhu Shuang said.

"Really, that was so scary!" Zhu Bing was still unsettled.

"HAHAHA..." Brother Nan let out a cackling laugh that sounded like a series of goose honks. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that both of them were holding their phones—one was browsing Meituan, seemingly checking hotel pages, while the other was searching a string of numbers that looked like a phone number on Baidu.

She was a bit puzzled. "What are you guys doing?"

Hearing this, Zhu Shuang's face showed an embarrassed expression. "We forgot the name of our hotel and couldn't find our way back."

Zhu Bing continued, "And this room card doesn't have the hotel's name on it, only the room number, a phone number, and Wi-Fi."

"Then why didn't you send us a WeChat message?"

"We were afraid... afraid to disturb you..."

"You little rascals, always overthinking things." Brother Nan tugged at the corner of her mouth, then continued to ask, "So what are you doing? Booking another hotel?"

"Zhu Shuang thinks you booked the hotel on Meituan, so he decided to look again on Meituan, hoping that if he saw the hotel you guys booked, it would resonate with the fuzzy memory in his mind and would thus..." Zhu Bing's voice trailed off, growing quieter, and her face reddened. Clearly, she too felt this method was far-fetched.

"Any resonance yet?"

"Not yet."

"What about you? What are you doing?"

"I, I..."

She was too embarrassed to continue, her face turning beet red.

Zhu Shuang chimed in from the side, "She thought since it's such a big hotel, you could find the hotel name by searching the phone number on Baidu."

"So, did you find it?"

"Not yet..."

"I only got to the second page." Zhu Bing's voice kept getting weaker. "Maybe if I keep scrolling down..."

"Then why didn't you just call the front desk?" Brother Nan couldn't hold it in. Her mouth twitched. She glanced subconsciously at Zhou Li, only to see his expression hadn't changed. She was somewhat surprised. "How are you not at all surprised by such an annoying situation?"

"We... We're too embarrassed. It's too humiliating." Zhu Shuang said awkwardly.

"I'm used to it," Zhou Li replied.

"How would the front desk know it's you calling?" Brother Nan grew increasingly annoyed. She turned her gaze back to Zhou Li. "Is your brother always like this at home?"

"No."

"Then how have you seen worse?" Brother Nan pressed.

"I've experienced many things more annoying than this," Zhou Li thought for a moment and then answered honestly.

"For instance?"

"For instance..."

Zhou Li glanced at Brother Nan and fell silent. If he finished that sentence, he was definitely going to be punched. He wasn't afraid of being hit. His main concern was leaving Zhu Shuang with the wrong impression that 'dating is terrifying' and setting an unhealthy and incorrect example of romance for Zhu Bing.

Moments later, he averted his gaze from Brother Nan's probing look. "Let's go back."

"Mhm."

The two youngsters followed behind them.

Zhu Shuang soon noticed something. "Bro, why is your mouth a bit red?"

"I burned it eating spicy skewers."

"We also bought some grilled skewers to eat. Which place did you buy yours from? The ones we got weren't spicy at all."

"From Sifang Street..."

"Us too!"

"Forgot."

"Oh." Zhu Shuang, trying to dissipate the earlier awkwardness, kept talking, "On the way back, I want to order two milk teas. I'm craving milk tea. It seems like there's Shu Yi Grass Jelly and Chen Duoduo Grass Jelly House here."

"Okay."

"Right, I have to tell you, while we were walking earlier, someone asked my sister for her WeChat, saying it was love at first sight..."

"Was the guy good-looking?" Zhou Li asked.

"Not bad."

"Oh."

Zhou Li felt relieved.

Then, he noticed the confusion in Zhu Shuang's eyes. After a bit of thought, he felt it necessary to explain. "Haven't you noticed? The scammers around here are all incredibly handsome—the better looking they are, the more likely they're scammers."

"Eh, that's really true!" Zhu Shuang exclaimed as if discovering a new continent.

"And then?"

"Then we rejected him."

"Oh…"

"Look how brave people are!" Brother Nan nudged Zhou Li with her elbow. "He had the courage to confess to a girl he didn't know."

"I'm brave too," Zhou Li said indifferently.

"When did I ever see that?"

"Being your boyfriend takes courage in itself." After saying that, Zhou Li tensed the muscles in the arm next to Brother Nan, preparing for the impending impact.

"BANG!"

His defense held perfectly.

In the hotel room, Tuanzi was lying asleep at the head of the bed, its small body curled into a ball. It reminded Zhou Li of a Huawei phone's full-screen advertisement, where a cat was used to make the obtrusive front camera look cute.

The milk tea Zhu Shuang ordered arrived quickly.

It was Strawberry Milk Tofu from Chen Duoduo Grass Jelly House.

Initially, Zhou Li found the name odd; he simply couldn't imagine what tofu would taste like in milk tea. But after trying it, he realized it was completely different from the tofu he had envisioned. The tofu blended seamlessly into the milk tea, and it tasted exceptionally exquisite.

The straight man had been conquered by milk tea once again.

After finishing his cup, Zhou Li, quite stingily, tore open the seal and scooped out the tofu inside to share with Tuanzi.

In a daze, he thought of Little Cousin again.

So Zhou Li put down the milk tea, took a photo with his phone, and sent it to her, sharing the beauty of life.

Zhou Li: [Image]

Zhou Li: Have you had this before?

Baozi: I have

Zhou Li: Is it good?

Baozi: It is

Zhou Li: I think so, too

Baozi: Are you happy?

Zhou Li: What?

Baozi: Are you happy?

Zhou Li: I am

Baozi: [Address]

Baozi: Cousin, can you order some delivery for me? I want the Osmanthus Stuffed Tofu, large size, with ice, half sugar.

Zhou Li: ??

Can you even do that?

「Three minutes later.」

After he sent the screenshot of the delivery order to Baozi, he sat on the bed and fell into contemplation. The milk tea wasn't expensive, and there was no delivery fee; two cups were just over twenty yuan. But this meant his attempt at sharing had been a failure!

"Sigh..."

Zhou Li gulped down the remaining tofu in the cup, scooped up Tuanzi in his arms, held it close to his chest, and lay down to sleep.

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