Chapter 1235 - 545: Wind and Snow Weigh on Me for Years, Meeting Up with Classmates without Paying _2

Chapter 1235: Chapter 545: Wind and Snow Weigh on Me for Years, Meeting Up with Classmates without Paying _2

"Bro, is that ninety thousand on WeChat or Alipay?"

"Can I pay in Netherworld Coins? I don’t have that much RMB."

"Bro, give me your phone."

"You’re helping me get a loan, huh!? No way, I refuse to spend beyond my means."

"Bro, being able to take a loan but not taking it is actually illegal, haven’t you heard that idiom? ’Severely punish those who don’t loan’."

"Lin Li, do you know there are idioms like ’a cornered dog will jump over the wall’, ’mutual destruction’, ’car wreck, people dead’?" Zeng Ziang slanted him a look.

Lin Li answered in a second, "Mend the pen after the sheep are gone."

Zeng Ziang: "?"

"Unbreakable fortress."

"Broken mirror reunited."

"Round God, boot up."

"That actually reminded me of something."

...

Time in the holidays feels like it passes even faster than on school days.

January 28th, New Year’s Eve.

At seven thirty in the morning, Lin Li opened his eyes in bed, completely slept out.

Even though he’d done his usual workout at six and then gone back for a second round of sleep, plus he only went to bed at two last night—well, this morning, technically—[Fruit of Persistence] kept slowly boosting his sleep efficiency. The improvement each time is small, but it’s constant, and works subtly over time.

For Lin Li, these few hours are already enough.

Leaving his room, he saw the master bedroom door closed. No idea if Wu Min was still sleeping, or awake but messing with her phone inside.

He poured himself a glass of water, then went to change into clothes suitable for going out.

Nothing worth talking about happened yesterday or the day before.

Even though the calendar flipped to a new week and the system naturally refreshed the ’’Return’’ chance and shop refresh chance, the shop rolled out another useless item. Lin Li didn’t exchange for it, so nothing in the [Mall] tab changed.

As for the Return chance, Lin Li again chose random. This time his luck was middling. He didn’t spawn under the bed again, but he did appear in a zombie-dense area.

If it were just zombies, that’d count as bad luck, but there was a mini shelter there too—mini as in even smaller than Shi Dongchen’s operation.

After establishing contact, Lin Li didn’t hold back; he gave them some supplies and traded a bit of info.

The apocalypse intel was roughly the same. The difference was they hadn’t been abandoned like Yun City; they just evacuated too slowly and didn’t make it out.

Rescue did come at first, but once the zombies got thick, it was given up.

So Lin Li learned the place he was in had been called Huocang City before doomsday, extremely far from Yunguang City, separated by five provinces.

And that was basically it. Most of what those survivors knew was pre-apocalypse stuff; about ’’Lighthouse’’ and such, they were completely in the dark.

Still, that already counted as a big win for a random departure.

Too bad no quest got triggered.

Once the freebie was used, Lin Li did the same as last week and decided he wasn’t spending another 20 System Currency to go again.

The apocalypse isn’t all that fun. If he were an Awakened, he could grind some awakening progress there. But he isn’t—handing all the Cores to others and using the "Parasitic Seed" to siphon a little growth is doable, but Lin Li feels that’s kind of a loss, especially when there’s no definitive proof he’ll never awaken himself.

Plus it’s New Year’s; chopping zombies doesn’t match the vibe.

Better to look forward to reuniting with Old Deng Shan Qing and Old Deng Deng Wen after a few days, once it’s February.

If nothing unexpected happened, it’ll have been a solid three months. No idea whether the two of them have successfully become hardcore gamers.

And using random departure to explore the Cultivation Realm sounds way more interesting than the same old zombie world, and more helpful for his own growth too.

While he was mulling this over, Lin Li had already changed into normal going-out clothes. He sent Wu Min a WeChat message saying he’d taken the car keys.

He did have a spare key, but swapping back and forth is annoying, and grabbing Wu Min’s was just more convenient.

"Why are you going out this early? Didn’t we agree to sort out the house together today? Slacking off?" The reply came shouted straight through the bedroom door; clearly Wu Min was already awake.

"Relax, relax, I won’t bail. You still don’t trust my work ethic?"

"Get lost, it’s exactly because of how you do things that Mom doesn’t trust you."

"I’m off!"

"Drive safe."

After getting her response, Lin Li picked up the car key from the shoe cabinet by the entryway and headed out downstairs.

Inside the three-guys-one-dog group chat.

"Lin Li: Anybody awake?"

"Lin Li: Moshi moshi."

"Lin Li: Looks like you’re all lazy dogs. Guess I can only rely on Bufan; he’s definitely awake."

Judging from the gaming group’s chat log, Bai Bufan was still sending messages at two thirty last night.

But Lin Li was sure he’d be awake by now.

Future generations even have a poem about this—

"On the morning of January 28th, the twenty-something year of the new millennium, criminal suspect Lin undressed, wishing to glue; the dawn slipped into his home, and he rose with delight. Thinking there was no one to share his joy, he went to Chengtian Temple to seek Bai Bufan. Bufan too had not yet slept; together they strolled in the courtyard."

Translation: I show up downstairs at his place, so he’ll have no choice but to wake up.

He got in the car and set off.

"If I were a DJ would you love my mom? Would you love me?"

"If I were a DJ would you love my dad! You’d love my dad!"

Humming that classic DJ track "Today You Have To Be One Of My Parents", Lin Li followed the beat—dun-tz dun-tz—driving toward Bai Bufan’s place.

In the trunk, all sorts of fireworks in various forms and uses were lying there.

He’d prepared them the day before yesterday and yesterday. All that was left was for the five of them to pamper them together tonight.

After driving a bit under twenty minutes, when he was about ten minutes from Bai Bufan’s place, considering Huai Min should be getting ready to wake up around now too, Lin Li simply called Bai Bufan.

"No matter how broke a man is he won’t sell~ If the price is right that’s called love~"

"A good horse doesn’t eat old grass~ A good video’s worth revisiting back~"

"Don’t skip when you see a good vid~ Don’t waste it when you score a classmate~"

"There’s fragrant grass everywhere under heaven~ For good vids you still go to Haijiao~"

It’s hard to imagine a human setting his own WeChat caller tune as this string of godawful quotes in hyped-up shout-rap form.

It’s definitely a per-contact ringtone; if it were for everyone, Lin Li would sincerely praise him with a "Bai Bufan, you’re something else, real guts on you," then find a way, when Bufan’s phone isn’t on him, to trick Xue Jian into calling him.

Anyway, on the first call, no one picked up until WeChat auto-hung up.

No idea if he’s on silent and really didn’t wake, or he woke, saw it was Lin Li, and ignored it.

Both are possible.

But it’s fine. Expression unchanged, Lin Li tapped redial.

Whether he’s truly asleep or faking it, once Lin Li actually reaches his place, as a Cultivator, he has way too many methods to get him up.

On the third try, the call finally connected.

"Beeep—"

"Mm~~ eh~~~ ah~~~~~ hmm hmm~~~"

Within three seconds of connection, all that came through was Bai Bufan moaning in various tones.

You slut, who’re you trying to seduce, have some self-respect.

Lin Li’s heart couldn’t help stirring with complicated feelings as he shook his head in contempt.

"...Fuck... Lin Li? Are you insane... Why the hell are you calling me at this hour..."

After a few seconds of moaning, Bai Bufan’s slurred voice came through in broken bits, sometimes soft, sometimes loud.

"You didn’t check the time? It’s eight already. I told Xue Jian you went to the bathroom, but he didn’t see you for a whole class and now he doesn’t believe me anymore!" Lin Li said anxiously.

"..."

"Sigh."

"Lin Li, are you stupid."

"I’m not Ze Yu, I don’t wake up dumb. It’s winter break—this is winter break—and you’re over here Sony horsing around."

Answering Lin Li’s anxious accusation was Bai Bufan’s calm, sleepy but clear spit of curses.

This guy’s sharper than he looks.

"Eight minutes till I’m downstairs at your building, hurry it up, don’t keep Your Emperor waiting too long."

"Huh?" This time Bai Bufan did respond with genuine confusion.

Lin Li repeated himself.

"Seriously? Is it eight in the morning or eight at night? Let me check."

"I shared my location, bro. Let Heaven itself judge who’s loyal."

"Fuck, no way, bro, you for real? What’re you coming over here for now," after a brief silence, rustling sounds came over the line, likely Bufan sitting up, followed by his complaining, "Weren’t we gonna wait till tonight to go out and play together?"

"Naturally there are daytime plans for the daytime. When I handle things, you can rest easy!" Lin Li said confidently.

"Rest easy? I’ve already given up hope."

"Sigh, whatever, I’m hanging up, hanging up. Ughhhhhh—so sleepy, fuck, I’m gonna go wash up and change. Once we meet I’m gonna verbally tear you apart."