The Demon King is back, leading adorable kids on an adventure around the world!

The next morning, Niannian was woken up by the sun.

She turned over, reached out her hand to the side, and felt nothing; the blankets were already cold.

She opened one eye and looked around. No one was in the room; Xiao Xiao wasn't there, and neither was Luo Nannan.

The window was half open, and the wind lifted a corner of the curtain.

She put on a coat and went into the yard, where she saw Xiaoxiao sitting on the stone steps with a box on her lap.

Luo Nannan squatted down next to her, the two of them with their heads down, very close together, as if they had discovered something extraordinary.

Niannian walked over and bent down: "What are you looking at?"

Xiao Xiao didn't look up, she just tilted the box slightly towards her.

Inside the box was a nest of ants, which had somehow been brought in from under the wall and were now lined up along the box wall, carrying food scraps.

Luo Nannan stared intently at the ant colony, her finger hovering above the edge of the box, never dropping it.

"Did they move?" Niannian squatted down.

"They must have started moving yesterday," Xiao Xiao said. "When I woke up this morning, I saw a new crack at the base of the wall, so I followed it here."

Niannian squatted down and watched for a while.

The ant line stretched from one corner of the box to another, almost touching end to end.

In the middle was a creature carrying a piece of debris larger than itself, walking unsteadily, but it never fell off.

Luo Nannan said, "It won't fall even if it can't be moved."

How did you know?

"It almost fell, but it managed to stay upright."

Luo Nannan spoke in a flat tone, as if stating a fact.

Niannian didn't ask any more questions. The three of them squatted in front of the stone steps watching the ants move their nest. They watched for a while until Qiqi came out yawning and asked them what they were watching.

Niannian picked up the box and showed it to Qiqi. Qiqi said "Oh" and squatted down to look at it together.

When the Venerable Kumu passed by under the corridor, he glanced in this direction, but did not get close. He looked at it a few times and then left.

The plan for the day was "no plan." Nian Nian said while eating a steamed bun in the yard:

"No plans for today, we'll just go wherever the road takes us."

Xiao Jin said, "Isn't that the same as yesterday?" Niannian said, "Yesterday there was a Ferris wheel, but today there isn't. Today we're just wandering around aimlessly."

I wandered aimlessly through the streets in the morning. The leaves of the plane trees on both sides of the road began to turn in the wind, and sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, creating dappled patterns.

Luo Nannan walked a little slower than in the previous days, no longer stopping to look at everything like on the first day, but she would still stop where she was interested.

She stopped as she passed a flower shop.

Several buckets of water were placed at the entrance, with large bunches of white flowers inside, the petals curled at the edges and the centers of the flowers being light green.

She crouched down, smelled it, and turned to Niannian, saying:

"This fragrance is much stronger than the faint white flowers in the mountains."

"That's a gardenia," Niannian said. "The scent you like should be jasmine."

Luo Nannan took another sniff, but it's unclear whether she listened or not.

She reached out and gently touched the edge of a petal, her fingertips getting a little water on them, then got up and followed the group.

They ate lunch at a noodle shop. The noodle shop was small, and the tables and chairs were close together. They sat in a long row.

A child was sitting at the next table, leaning on the windowsill watching a cat across the street.

The cat was perched on the wall, licking its paws slowly, finishing one before moving on to the other.

The child watched intently, not even turning around when the noodles were served.

Niannian followed his gaze and looked at the cat. The cat's fur was orange and it was round.

"Which one is fatter, this one or the one from yesterday?" Niannian nudged Xiaojin.

Xiao Jin glanced at it: "This one."

"You saw that one yesterday too?"

"I saw it. I also glanced at it when Senior Kuki mentioned that one."

Xiao Jin lowered his head to drink the noodle soup, the spoon clinking against the rim of the bowl.

Niannian didn't say anything and lowered her head to eat her noodles.

Luo Nannan didn't participate in the conversation at all. She picked out a small piece of beef from her bowl and placed it on the side of the plate. She poked at it with her chopsticks, and it was unclear whether she was keeping it or had forgotten to eat it.

Xiao Xiao saw this and put a piece of beef from her bowl onto Xiao Xiao's plate. She looked up at Xiao Xiao, then looked down and continued eating her noodles.

After finishing our noodles, we walked for a while. There weren't many shops in the area, and the streets were lined with old residential buildings.

There are several small shops and a car repair shop on the first floor, and a dog is sleeping in the shade at the intersection.

When Luo Nannan passed by, she glanced at the dog. The dog raised its eyelids, looked at her briefly, and then closed them again.

When he reached the end of an alley, Venerable Kumu slowed his pace.

At the end of the alley is an old bridge. The bridge is narrow, only wide enough for pedestrians, and the railings are made of stone, their surfaces worn smooth by wind and rain.

Beneath the bridge lies a dry riverbed, with exposed stones of all sizes, and wild grass and low shrubs growing between the stones.

Several clumps of reeds grew out of the cracks in the rocks, towering half a head above the surrounding things, topped with light brown cattails.

The Venerable Kumu walked to the bridge railing, bent down, placed his hand on the railing, and looked down for a long time.

His gaze remained fixed on the few clumps of reeds, which swayed slightly in the wind.

Niannian noticed that he had stopped, so she turned back and stood next to him.

She didn't speak, but looked in the direction of his gaze.

Those clumps of reeds grew in the pile of stones in the middle of the riverbed, their roots running deep. The cattail stalks were already turning black, and it looked like they would fall apart soon.

As the Venerable Drywood straightened up, he said:

"Where I used to live, there was this kind of thing too. It grew in large patches along the riverbank, and in autumn, the fluff would float up like snow."

After saying that, he didn't continue. He stood on the bridge railing for a while, then turned around and walked down the bridge to catch up with the group ahead.

Niannian stood on the bridge and looked around for a while longer.

A gust of wind blew, and the reeds swayed. A few wisps of down were pulled down by the wind, drifting very low and swirling in the air above the riverbed before settling down.

She watched the few wisps of fluff fall before turning around and chasing after them.

On the way back in the evening, the sun was already setting in the west.

Luo Nannan bought an ice cream at the convenience store, tore open the wrapper, took a bite, and squinted her eyes because of the cold. She then took another bite.

She walked slowly, and the ice cream melted slowly as she walked, holding the wrapper in her hand without throwing it away.

When I got back to my lodgings, it was already dark, and half of the lights in the yard were broken.

Niannian was rummaging through the room looking for a spare light bulb, while Qiqi moved a chair, stood on it, and tried to unscrew the old light bulb, but couldn't manage it.

Xiao Jin said, "I'll do it," and Qi Qi said, "You can't reach it." The two of them stood next to the chair and bickered for a few moments.

In the end, Qianqian found a pair of pliers and used them to unscrew the bottom of the light bulb.

After the new light bulbs were installed, the yard was lit up again, and the half of the wall that had been dark became visible again.

Luo Nannan sat under the bright half of the wall, still holding the leftover wooden piece of ice cream in her hand, with a trace of dried residue on it.

She tried to scrape it off with her fingernail, but couldn't, so she placed it on the stone platform next to her.

Xiao Xiao walked past her, carrying a bowl of freshly washed grapes, and placed one next to her.

Luo Nannan picked up a grape, put it in her mouth, chewed it a couple of times, and a small drop of juice spilled from the corner of her mouth. Xiao Xiao handed her a handkerchief.

The lights in the courtyard cast long shadows of them. No one was sitting on the swings; they swayed slightly when the wind blew, then slowly came to a stop.

The Venerable Kumu sat under the eaves, a cup of tea in front of him.

He didn't know when the water was boiled or when the tea was brewed; the tea in the cup was neither too dark nor too light in color, and it was just the right temperature.

He picked up the glass, took a sip, then put it down, his gaze falling on the newly replaced lamp in the yard, its filament emitting a steady white light within the lampshade.

He didn't speak, but he sat more comfortably than he had the previous two days.