It wasn't just raining heavily outside, but also windy.

Zhou Li had forgotten to close the window when he left, and the wind drove the rain onto the balcony, soaking the floor and the curtains. As soon as he opened the door to his room, a sudden draft billowed the curtains inward, and his ears filled with the sounds of wind and rain.

He hurried to close the window.

SWOOSH... BANG!

The room quieted down instantly, a stark contrast to moments before.

"The rain is so heavy!" Zhou Li said.

"Right," a voice came from the wardrobe.

"It should warm up after the rain, shouldn't it?"

"It usually does. But there are exceptions," Huai Xu said. "After this rain, all sorts of flowers should bloom. I remember last spring many people went out to admire the blossoms—peach, plum, pear, apricot, and cherry blossoms."

"And locust flowers too," Zhou Li added.

"HEHE," Huai Xu said. He was sitting on top of the wardrobe, so close to the ceiling he had to stoop, his dangling legs swinging back and forth. "Once the flowers bloom, it'll be time for fruit. I'll just spend my days eating fruit in the orchards. I'll sleep in the trees after eating to avoid stealing and bothering people."

"You live quite the carefree life."

"What's carefree about it?"

"You have a bit of the Tang Bohu vibe. 'Awake, I sit before the flowers; drunk, I come to sleep beneath them,'" Zhou Li paused, then added, "With your education, you definitely wouldn't know this poem."

"You're mocking me again!" Huai Xu complained. "I'm going to be a graduate student in the future."

"After graduate school, there's still a Ph.D."

"Then I'll become a Ph.D.!"

"You go for it."

"Eating fruit all day makes your teeth sour. It lacks substance, and it isn't leisurely at all," Huai Xu brought the topic back. "Meat tastes much better."

"This year, I'm afraid not many people will go out to see the flowers."

"What about the fruit then? If no one picks them, they'll spoil on the trees," Huai Xu pondered earnestly.

"Stop," Zhou Li interjected.

Outside, Aunt Jiang was calling him for dinner.

The rain hadn't stopped after the meal.

Zhou Li poured a cup of hot water and returned to his room. He sat at his desk, put on some soft instrumental music, and, with the faint sound of rain from outside, carefully opened an ancient book that smelled slightly of mildew. The warm lamplight illuminated the irregular textures on its pages.

There was a leisurely sense to it.

These ancient books, both in craftsmanship and hidden-text techniques, were far superior to those of Spring Mountain Taoist. Spring Mountain Taoist's books sometimes showed both the surface text and the true content simultaneously, which was dizzying to read.

These books, however, did not, and the text was very clear.

"HMM..."

Zhou Li was quite lucky. The few books he'd randomly picked up, all of which looked the same, turned out to contain the core spells of the Jiang family.

The Jiang family was a lineage of top-tier sculptors, adept at crafting various sculptures. These pieces, made from different materials, had varying effects: some could fly out to attack enemies, some could protect their owner, some could calm the mind, and others—like the two guardians at the ancestral tomb—could come to life and possess a certain 'intelligence.'

Functional, practical, and fun.

But also very complex, time-consuming to carve, and requiring an exceptionally long time to learn.

It also had extremely high demands on sculpting skill.

Zheng Zhilan's "Golden Thread" comprised a dozen or so books, but the Jiang family's sculpting secrets filled hundreds of volumes, even in their abridged form. To master this art might require starting in childhood and continuing into old age.

Zhou Li guessed Mr. Jiang was already considering contacting the nation's top sculpting masters to tutor his child.

Yet he actually felt he could learn this.

Because this particular set of spells was very granular; compared to Golden Thread, it was more like a collection of individual components. Animating a stone lion was incredibly difficult, but creating a small deity statue for peace of mind or a jar to seal demons was quite simple.

Moreover, it adhered to the common characteristic of Taoist magic: the method of casting determined its function, and the strength of one's spiritual power determined its effect.

Apart from strong spiritual power, Zhou Li had no other advantages.

Unfortunately, the books he'd picked were from the middle of the series; he needed the ones at the very beginning, the simplest ones.

Putting down the book, Zhou Li turned to look at Huai Xu, who was sitting on the bed, utterly bored and exuding a post-homework rebelliousness. "What do you think about me learning sculpting or pottery?"

"Sand sculpting."

Old Monster was quite trendy.

"Wood or stone sculpting, that kind of thing."

"If you learned, would you sculpt me?" Huai Xu pondered, then decided against it. "Sculpting me would be too hard. I'm too handsome; it would be very difficult. Plus, if you were to sculpt me, you'd have to make at least three or four."

"I already said I'm not learning sand sculpting."

"What... EH?" Huai Xu clapped. "Brilliant! That comeback was brilliant!"

"Thank you."

"HUH? That stupid cat is back!"

"Really?" Zhou Li was somewhat uncertain. "You're not trying to trick me, are you? It's raining so heavily right now."

"Demons don't lie," Huai Xu declared, uttering a lie immediately. "There's that door downstairs. She can't get in. Can't your family just buzz the door open? Go open it, and you'll see."

"I'll go down and get her."

Zhou Li was still skeptical. Demons rarely lied, but the two near him, one big and one small, seemed to be exceptions. Thus, he didn't quite believe them.

So he stood up and walked out without a word. He quietly made his way to the front door, took the keys from the drawer, opened it, and stepped out. The wind in the hallway slammed the apartment door shut with a bang that he imagined his family couldn't have missed.

It would be embarrassing if he went downstairs and didn't find Tuanzi.

He got into the elevator and went down.

Huai Xu suddenly appeared, bumping his head against the elevator ceiling. He rubbed his head, then looked up to see if he had damaged it. He said to Zhou Li, "Guess what they're talking about now? Zhu Bing says you might have ordered takeout. Zhu Shuang is certain that Li Daimao has come to deliver something to you, HEHE…"

"You'd better not be tricking me."

"You don't believe me! HUMPH!"

After stepping out of the elevator and opening the building's access door, he saw that the wind-blown rain had already soaked the ground outside. Water dripped steadily from the awning. A small figure sat silently at the entrance, completely drenched, her fur matted in clumps.

She sat motionless.

Zhou Li's heart immediately ached. He quickly scooped her up. "Why did you run back home on such a rainy day?"

"OOH, Zhou Li!"

Tuanzi turned her head to look at him, then at the door, and immediately began to complain, "Lord Dumpling can't open this door! There's no handle! Lord Dumpling waited for so long, but no one came to open the door for Lord Dumpling!"

"On rainy days, everyone prefers to stay indoors, I guess."

"Why don't other places have this door?"

"It's a bad design."

"OH…"

Tuanzi thought for a moment, then blurted out her catchphrase, "It's all Huai Xu's fault."

Zhou Li guiltily glanced aside.

Huai Xu was dumbfounded.

Zhou Li quickly changed the subject, asking Tuanzi again, "Why did you suddenly come back in such heavy rain?"

"Lord Dumpling missed you guys, MEOW!"

"You should have waited for the rain to stop before coming back," Zhou Li said, hugging Tuanzi tightly, feeling how cold her body was. "You must be soaked through, right?"

"Are you worried about Lord Dumpling, MEOW?"

"Yes."

"Lord Dumpling's fur is wet." Tuanzi propped her front paws against Zhou Li's chest, resisting him. "It will get your clothes wet. Your clothes aren't as good as Lord Dumpling's fur. Lord Dumpling just shakes, and it's dry. Turns into Little Cat Girl and back, and it's dry."

"That's impressive. Then dry off quickly."

"MEOW!"

A Little Cat Girl appeared in Zhou Li's arms, pushing his hands away, then turned back into a small cat.

And so, the small cat fell.

"MEOW!!"

"Sorry, Lord Dumpling." Zhou Li quickly picked Tuanzi up again and walked into the elevator. "Are you cold?"

"Lord Dumpling has fur, MEOW!" Tuanzi said, sniffling softly.

"But your fur just got wet."

"When we get back, Lord Dumpling will snuggle in your arms for a while and then I'll be warm," Tuanzi said, circling back to her earlier complaint. "The security guards in your complex let Lord Dumpling in, but then there's still another door inside! Darn it!"

"It's all Huai Xu's fault."

Back home, Zhu Shuang gave Zhu Bing a look that clearly said, 'See, I told you so.' Zhou Li wanted to explain but knew it was pointless.

After returning to his room, he had Huai Xu place these books in a specific spot in the wardrobe and bring him a few different ones. Then, with Tuanzi in his lap, he sat at his desk, reading by lamplight and whiling away the boring night.

However, he wasn't as focused as before.

"Zhou Li," Tuanzi said, lying back in his arms and batting at his arm with her paws. "Did you miss Lord Dumpling?"

"We did," Zhou Li answered.

"Really, MEOW? How much did you miss me?" Tuanzi asked again.

"A lot."

"MEOW~~"

It was really hard to take things seriously.

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