Chapter 256: A Long-Awaited Night Raid

"Stone."

"This spot's good."

"Where do we put it?"

"Here. All done."

By the fish pond, Li Luo and the others were playing in the snow.

Most of the snow in the village had been trampled dirty or cleared away by villagers themselves.

So if you wanted to play in the snow, you had to go outside the village.

Not a few people came here to play in the snow by the fish pond.

Many were village children.

Li Luo brought three girls, plus Li Xiang and his two sisters, and on the way picked up Jin Yuting and Zhao Rongjun—nine of them in all, marching loudly to this spot.

Looking at the half-person-tall snowman just completed, Li Luo crossed his arms, exhaled, and nodded in satisfaction.

"Should we name it?" Li Luo looked around and asked them.

Ying Chanxi chuckled: "You built it—call it Li Luo."

Saying that, she threw the snowball she'd just rolled, hitting the snowman's forehead dead-on and knocking out one of its stone eyes, turning it into a one-eyed snowman.

Li Xiang, watching this, flinched.

But beside him, Yan Zhusheng had already slipped the remaining stones into the snowman's eye sockets, replacing the lost eye.

"When did they get here?" Zhao Rongjun leaned close to Li Luo and whispered.

Looking at this crowd packed with girls, Zhao Rongjun wouldn't have dared even glance twice if Li Luo hadn't dragged him out of his house to get some activity.

"Just arrived today," Li Luo said. "They'll stay a few days. I'm taking them around with Chanxi."

"It feels like the four of you never split up," Zhao Rongjun muttered.

In his memory, for the past half-year, every time Li Luo called him out, he was always with these three girls.

So Zhao Rongjun had almost grown used to it.

When he first saw Yan Zhusheng and Xu Youyu appear that afternoon, he hadn't even been surprised.

"The snowman's done. Let's have a snowball fight now," Li Luo grinned. "Perfect—nine of us. Rock, paper, scissors. Three per team."

Li Luo gathered everyone in a circle; after rock-paper-scissors divided the sides, Li Luo, Yan Zhusheng, and Li Xiang were on one team.

Ying Chanxi was with Jin Yuting and Zhao Rongjun.

Xu Youyu, Chen Lu, and Chen Sijia.

The brutal battle began.

Each side chose a snowy spot as their base, stocked up on ammunition, then launched attacks on the others.

Zhao Rongjun, not a forceful type, didn't dare throw snowballs at people, so he quietly stayed in the rear, crouching to roll snowballs.

Ying Chanxi, however, was fearless—holding a snowball in each hand, she charged straight at Li Luo's front and thumped his forehead twice.

Li Luo didn't back down—he immediately retaliated with the snowball Yan Zhusheng handed him.

The two sides clashed fiercely.

But Li Xiang noticed he seemed irrelevant… because Ying Chanxi only threw at Li Luo, and Jin Yuting, seeing this, also threw only at Li Luo—no one threw at him.

On the other side, Xu Youyu's team chatted and laughed with the two sisters, rolling a few snowballs half-heartedly toward Li Luo and Ying Chanxi's battlefield, watching the whole thing from the sidelines.

Chen Lu had been worried about Chanxi's prospects earlier, but now she was happily chatting with Xu Youyu.

Their personalities meshed well—Chen Lu had assumed she'd have nothing in common with a girl seven or eight years younger, but Xu Youyu turned out to be mature and cheerful.

Their conversation had almost no generational gap.

They played happily all afternoon; when dinner time neared, everyone headed back toward the village.

On the way.

Li Luo touched his face, expressionless, and said to Ying Chanxi: "You're too harsh—always aiming for my face."

"I'm not a professional. I just happened to hit you," Ying Chanxi snorted. "Or maybe you're just good at catching."

"You seem to have a grudge against me. Why not throw at Zhusheng or Li Xiang?"

"Aren't you always throwing at me?"

They bickered all the way home.

Lin Xiuhong had already prepared dinner—still two tables, just like lunch.

But at night, the adults' table began drinking and boasting.

Li Xuexian had actually brought a guitar from Chen Yongqi's room; when dinner was nearly over, she grinned and handed it to Li Luo: "I heard you're the guitarist in your school band? Show us a performance?"

Li Luo didn't mind—he took the guitar and smiled at the elders, nodding toward his father: "Dad, pick a song."

"Play 'Friends,'" Li Guohong clinked his cup against Ying Zhicheng's, downed his drink in one gulp.

Li Luo began to play.

"These years, alone~"

"Wind passed, rain passed~"

Li Luo sang in a low voice; the table fell silent, swaying gently to his rhythm.

When the chorus came, Li Guohong and the other men joined in singing.

"Friends, we walk together through life!"

"Those days are gone forever!"

Even Ying Zhicheng, usually so emotionally reserved, was swept up in the mood, singing along as Li Guohong hugged his shoulder.

It was just a simple dinner with drinks, yet it turned into a karaoke session.

They picked songs, Li Luo sang; when everyone knew the lyrics, it quickly became a group chorus.

Xu Youyu clapped her tiny hands beside them, immersed in the lively atmosphere, experiencing a feeling she rarely felt during New Year's at home, finding it utterly fresh.

When night fell, they once again gathered for the joyful mahjong session.

This time, Lin Xiuhong and the others made way.

Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng sat facing each other, then Chen Lu and Chen Sijia filled the empty seats.

Xu Youyu sat beside Chen Lu, munching watermelon and watching the game, cracking sunflower seeds as she observed them play.

Li Luo stayed beside Yan Zhusheng, teaching her how to play.

Chen Yongqi had long slipped back to play games; only Li Xiang stood aside, watching the storm of tiles, hidden currents, and swordlight on the mahjong table.

Fortunately, dinner had ended past eight.

When mahjong reached around ten, everyone began to disperse.

Ying Chanxi hugged Yan Zhusheng's arm affectionately and said, "Zhusheng, let's go back. After a bath, it's time to sleep."

Li Xiang watched this scene and wondered: had he imagined it—that Ying Chanxi had broken a sequence just to claim a tile, blocking Yan Zhusheng's draw?

How could they turn into best friends the moment mahjong ended?

But right now, he had no time to ponder.

After returning to their respective rooms, Li Luo and Xu Youyu went upstairs.

Then Xu Youyu sighed heavily, and Li Luo asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

"I have to go write in my room."

"... Didn't you say you had five chapters in reserve?"

"Almost used up..." Xu Youyu said, sounding guilty.

"Didn't you say you'd take a break on New Year's Eve and skip updates? How did you use them all?" Li Luo asked, baffled.

"I used two chapters on New Year's Day, two on the second, and one today—so I still have to update one. And since I'll be playing with you tomorrow, I'd better write an extra chapter tonight to be safe," Xu Youyu said with a mournful look.

"... That really is tough on you," Li Luo said, half-laughing, half-exasperated. "The bathroom's this way. I'll shower first. Do you want to shower after?"

"You want me to shower with you?" Xu Youyu winked at him, smiling suggestively. "It's not out of the question."

Li Luo glanced sideways at her: "I think you'd better get back to writing."

"Pfft, boring," Xu Youyu pouted, then glanced left and right, confirming Lin Xiuhong and Li Guohong hadn't left the master bedroom. She quietly reached out, gripping Li Luo's right hand.

"What are you doing?!"

"Researching material. Don't move." Xu Youyu didn't just hold his hand—she even led him past the master bedroom, pinning him against the wall beside the door, pressing into his chest, whispering, "I'm writing a scene where the heroine visits the hero's home. What if I write something spicy?"

Li Luo felt the softness against him, his breathing quickened, and the thought of his parents just behind the wall made his scalp tingle, his whole body buzzing as if electrocuted.

"Done yet?"

"Just a moment longer. You need to hold me tighter—otherwise, it doesn't feel right."

"... Like this?"

"Alright~ I'm not teasing you anymore." Xu Youyu released Li Luo, stepped back half a pace, and grinned at him. Then she retreated to her room, winking at him just before closing the door: "Charged up. I'm off to write~"

Watching Xu Youyu return to her room and shut the door, Li Luo took a deep breath.

Before he could recover, the master bedroom door suddenly opened.

Lin Xiuhong poked her head out, suspicious. "Was that a sound? Were you and Youyu talking?"

"Ah... yeah... we chatted a bit. She just went back to her room." Li Luo was startled but quickly calmed, avoiding her gaze as he headed for the bathroom. "I'm going to shower."

Eleven at night.

Li Luo, washed and in bed, was about to sleep.

Then he heard faint, light footsteps at the door.

Followed by three soft knocks—so quiet they were nearly inaudible.

Li Luo blinked, wondering if he'd imagined it.

He checked the time: still early before midnight. Why was his senior here now, instead of writing?

Didn't she say she was fully charged?

Is writing really that draining?

Still, he walked to the door and opened it.

There stood Yan Zhusheng, slender and bright, looking up at him.

"Good evening."

"... Is that how you say good evening?" Li Luo stared at her, eyebrows twitching. "How did you get here?"

"Chanxi said she'd sleep early and run with me at six tomorrow," Yan Zhusheng said, blinking.

"Don't dodge the question. I asked how you got here." Li Luo was speechless. "I remember all the doors were locked."

"The rooftop connects upstairs," Yan Zhusheng whispered.

"You knew that?!"

"I walked every route until I found this one."

Li Luo's lip twitched—he wondered if she'd trained as a spy.

A midnight raid, indeed.

As Li Luo mentally grumbled, the master bedroom across from him opened.

Li Luo, who had been about to send Yan Zhusheng back to bed, instantly grabbed her and yanked her inside.

Li Guohong, emerging for the bathroom, paused and frowned at Li Luo's door: "Why didn't you close your door?"

"I just came from the toilet," Li Luo replied, then slammed and locked the door, finally exhaling.

But when he turned around, he found Yan Zhusheng already under his covers, nestled against the inner wall, watching him quietly.

Li Luo almost laughed from sheer exasperation. Hands on hips, about to say something, he saw Yan Zhusheng already patting the blanket: "Li Luo, let's watch a movie together."

"I think you'd better go back to sleep."

"Then recently, have you used my computer to watch movies with someone else?" Yan Zhusheng asked with an innocent face.

That question caught Li Luo off guard all at once, and for a moment, he actually found it a little embarrassing to answer.

After all, Yan Zhusheng had said before that she wouldn't let him use the laptop to watch movies with someone else…

When Ying Chanxi came to his room earlier, Li Luo had completely forgotten about that.

But Yan Zhusheng wasn't done, and continued asking: "Where are the gloves I gave you?"

The moment those words came out, Li Luo immediately looked down, and only then remembered that because during New Year's Eve when they set off fireworks, he had specifically switched to the pair Ying Chanxi had given him, so the gloves Yan Zhusheng gave him had been left in the house.

After that he went to his grandfather's place, and only came back this morning — he had forgotten to switch even one of them back.

And Yan Zhusheng didn't mean for him to answer either; she just tilted her head and continued asking: "Where are the sneakers I gave you?"

After those three questions, even Li Luo was drenched in cold sweat.

So he could only sigh, climb into bed with the laptop, and find a movie to open.

"Watch, watch. Remember to get up early tomorrow."

……

And just as Li Luo and Yan Zhusheng began watching the movie.

Ying Chanxi was curled up under the covers, holding her phone and staring fixedly at the comment section of "I Am Really Not a Star," looking at a post that had been put up earlier today at noon.

【Sister Kick Me】: I suddenly realized again that Mo Qinghan is the eternal god! Compared to her, the childhood sweetheart really is a bit unable to withstand a single blow. I was being rash before, but now I've finally found the true version of the answer!

Looking at this turncoat who had defected once again, Ying Chanxi's anger flared up.

She thought to herself that she had thought highly of this person before, yet in just a few days they had defected again!

Ying Chanxi gritted her teeth, tapped on her phone screen, and fired off a string of soul-searching questions in one go, furiously denouncing the other's despicable behavior.

As a result, once she got this worked up, there was no way she could fall asleep. Ying Chanxi stubbornly flipped through quite a few more chapters, found the sweet interactions between the protagonist and Shen Dongdong, and kept reading until two or three in the deep of night before finally drifting off to sleep.

And next door.

At half past five in the morning.

The alarm Li Luo had set rang right on time.