CHAPTER 323: CHAPTER 319 BAOZI WILL NOT YIELD

The weather was exceptionally sunny today.

Perhaps because it was a weekday, Wild Duck Lake had few visitors, though there were plenty of wild ducks.

Brother Nan wasn’t sure if wild ducks were protected animals. She exchanged a glance with Huai Xu and surreptitiously pulled out her phone to check.

Truthfully, she didn’t think these creatures were protected, but she wasn’t entirely certain. Although she had caused her fair share of trouble for wild chickens and ducks in her youth, often leading her Little Brothers with homemade slingshots to hunt birds, things had changed. Now that wild chickens and even sparrows were protected, she felt genuinely bewildered.

"They really are protected animals!" Brother Nan’s eyes widened. "What’s so special about them that they need protecting?"

"What is it? What’s wrong?" Huai Xu leaned closer.

"Look!" Brother Nan showed him the search results. "Lots of people are saying they’re protected, either Category I or Category II. Hunting them is forbidden for anyone."

"Forbidden for anyone to hunt... forbidden for anyone... anyone..." Huai Xu mused, savoring the words.

"You two... stop it!" Zhou Li glanced at the pair, exasperated. "Haven’t you grown up yet? Even if they weren’t protected, you can’t just catch them! This is a tourist area. If someone filmed you, you’d be all over the internet by tomorrow!"

Brother Nan exchanged another look with Huai Xu.

Zhou Li caught it from the corner of his eye. He took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly, saying calmly, "Don’t be a bad influence on the children."

Ji Xuan blinked innocently nearby.

Tuanzi then said in her soft, glutinous voice, "Zhou Li, Lord Dumpling wants cordyceps wild duck soup!"

Zhou Li sighed.

The entrance fee wasn’t expensive: 20 yuan.

Ji Xuan’s dad, likely at Ms. Ji’s instruction or perhaps being quite familiar with Chinese customs, proactively insisted on paying.

Other attractions inside required additional fees.

Brother Nan led the way, hopping onto a large rock in a couple of steps. She stood on her tiptoes, peered into the distance, and then said to Zhou Li, "They have water bikes! Come on, let’s each get one. There’s also a snack shop; let’s see if they have water guns."

Zhou Li followed behind her without a word.

Ji Xuan sidled up to him mischievously. "Brother, why do you always listen to her? You need to be a bit more assertive."

My mind is as serene as still water,

Zhou Li thought.

Swimming wasn’t allowed in Wild Duck Lake, but it was essentially a small recreational town. Besides the lake, there were plenty of other activities like rock climbing, exploring creeks, and rafting. Since it was a hot day, water guns were also for sale.

Brother Nan spotted the water gun stall and marched over, immediately picking up the largest, heaviest one. "How much for this?"

"This one’s 100."

"So expensive?!"

"It’s the biggest one we have, a Big Water Cannon," the owner said with a grin, noticing Brother Nan’s good looks. "You definitely won’t lose a water fight with this."

"It still shouldn’t be that much. On Taobao, it’s 50 at most."

"Well, I need to make a profit, you know."

Brother Nan haggled the price down to 80. Then, since she and Huai Xu were each getting one, she convinced the owner to knock off another 10 yuan, so they got both for 150.

"What about you all?" Brother Nan asked the others.

"I’ll take this one," Zhou Li said, choosing a slightly smaller but more ergonomic and better-looking model.

"Then I want that one too!" Ji Xuan quickly grabbed an identical one.

"MEOW!"

"Tuanzi, you don’t need one. You’re just a cat; you don’t even have hands," Brother Nan said, waving dismissively at Tuanzi. Then she looked at Baozi. "What about you, Baozi?"

"I don’t want one."

"Go on, get one. It’ll be fun."

"Hmm..." Baozi stood before the stall, lost in thought. Her eyes scanned back and forth as she took her time choosing. Finally, she picked up a tiny water pistol, about the size of an eyedropper.

Brother Nan told the owner to just give it to her, and the owner agreed.

Ms. Ji’s brother hurried over to pay for their water guns.

The younger group continued onward.

Both small, canopied pedal boats and water bikes were available for rent, both requiring leg power. The difference was that the boats could carry more people but were slower, while the water bikes were single-rider and could reach speeds of over ten kilometers per hour. They resembled buoyant boards fitted with a pedaling mechanism; it looked like if you leaned forward while riding, you could touch the water.

The adults rented a small pedal boat together, while the youngsters each got a water bike, promptly filling their water guns.

「On the shore」

Zhou Li was whispering to Tuanzi.

Meanwhile, Brother Nan said to Baozi and Ji Xuan, "Alright, when we’re out on the lake, we can have a water fight. Don’t you dare hold ba—"

SQUIRT!

A thin stream of water arced through the air, landing squarely on Brother Nan’s face.

Brother Nan froze. What the—?

Her eyes darted to the side. Baozi stood there, expressionless, holding her tiny pistol, its nozzle aimed right at her.

"I hadn’t even finished sayi—"

SQUIRT!

Another small jet of water followed, this one hitting her chest.

Brother Nan pursed her lips tightly and hefted the Big Water Cannon. She pumped the pressure mechanism. Once. Twice. Three times. Then she aimed at Baozi.

BANG!

A high-pressure blast of water struck Baozi directly in the face. Water erupted everywhere, the force of it even making her stumble back a step.

In an instant, she was soaked to the bone and completely stunned.

Even Ji Xuan, standing beside her, was startled.

Baozi wiped the water from her face, needing several swipes to clear it. She took a deep breath and once again raised the nozzle of her little water pistol.

PFFT!

Brother Nan stared. What now?!

By this time, Zhou Li and Huai Xu were already in the water. The rental attendant, seeing Tuanzi sitting obediently on the bank, gave a warm smile and walked away. The moment he was gone, Tuanzi leaped into the water, paddling furiously until she reached Zhou Li’s water bike.

She gave herself a good shake, then looked up at Zhou Li, seemingly thrilled by her sneaky maneuver.

"’So wefweshing!’" she chirped.

"Feeling good?" Zhou Li asked.

"’It feels sooooo good!’"

Then, the others also launched their water bikes.

They engaged in a chaotic chase on the lake, a scene reminiscent of both movie gunfights and mounted combat from martial arts films. They split into two camps: Brother Nan and Huai Xu on one team, and everyone else on the other.

Under Brother Nan and Huai Xu, their water bikes seemed to be equipped with small electric motors. Compounding this, one of them was a genuine combat veteran, and the other was a scatterbrained girl obsessed with martial arts and action films. As a result, they began to expertly corral, block, and ambush the others, employing brilliant flanking maneuvers and rear attacks.

Their fully pressurized Big Water Cannons were especially brutal; the blasts truly stung when they hit unprotected skin. The others couldn’t outfight or outrun them.

And they showed no mercy; even Tuanzi, as adorably pitiful and defenseless as a Flat Cat, was pummeled until she was meowing in protest.

Baozi, however, suffered the most. Her tiny water pistol had virtually no power; at a distance, its range was laughable. Yet, stubborn as she was, even soaked to the bone, she kept raising her little pistol at Brother Nan, going PFFT, PFFT, PFFT!

Watching the feeble stream from the tiny pistol arc through the air, only to fall a meter or two short of Brother Nan into the lake, Zhou Li knew he should feel sympathetic, but he couldn’t suppress a laugh.

The only one who hadn’t been miserably beaten was Ji Xuan. After realizing her half-brother was a complete weakling in this battle, she had, at some point, defected to the Nan Huai camp.

The shift was very natural; Zhou Li hadn’t even noticed when, at some point, he started taking fire from Ji Xuan.

All the pedaling and shooting, the laughing and shouting, was exhausting, but incredibly fun. Zhou Li had rarely played so freely outdoors, and naturally, he’d almost never had anyone to roughhouse with like this before. He found himself thoroughly enjoying it.

Once again, Brother Nan had led him to a new experience.

「Back on shore」

Tuanzi stood on the wooden boardwalk, shaking herself dry. The water droplets sprayed from her fur, starkly visible on the dry planks. She tilted her head up, looking at Zhou Li with a complaining expression.

"Zhou Li, you’re so weak..."

"What’s wrong?"

"Lord Dumpling got hit so much! I even got knocked into the lake!" Tuanzi had never endured such humiliation.

"How about I take you to get some ice cream?"

"Okay!"

And so, the man and the cat walked off, leaving behind a trail of wet human footprints and a delicate pattern of plum-blossom paw prints on the boardwalk.

After walking a short distance, Zhou Li noticed only Ji Xuan had followed them, so he turned to look back.

There was a stationary water cannon mounted on the shore. Baozi was looking down, trying to scan a QR code on it, sneaking glances toward the lakefront every now and then. Suddenly, Brother Nan’s figure disappeared from her line of sight, puzzling her.

Just then, Brother Nan appeared right behind her, leaning in to look. "What’s wrong?" she asked kindly. "Can’t scan it?"

"Mm," Baozi mumbled.

"Slow internet?"

"Mm."

"Want me to scan it for you?" Brother Nan offered.

"Mm."

Seeing Brother Nan pull out her phone and aim it at the QR code, Zhou Li quickly scooped up Tuanzi, covered her eyes, and hurried away.

Ji Xuan cringed, shivering.