Chapter 114: A Newcomer?
An unknown girl stood in front of the gate. This was not how Hao Ren imagined things.
She was wearing a loose sweater which clearly did not fit her small frame. Her skin was a little of the darker hue, her features were accordingly petite but had an energetic look to it and her hair tied into a neat ponytail. She was what you would say drop dead gorgeous, but she had a cuteness to her.
She saw Hao Ren by the door and waved at him. “Hello, is this the Hao residence?”
Hao Ren snapped out of his stupor and replied hurriedly. “Ah yes… I’m Hao Ren, and you are?”
“I’m Nangong Wuyue!” The girl by the gate let out a sweet smile and headed over a card to Hao Ren. “You’re a landlord right? I’m here to rent a room!”
Hao Ren had neglected to take a look at the card as he was thinking on how should he decline the girl and to send her on her way. She seemed to had saw the that he had put out a month ago. At then, Hao Ren was of course delighted to have a new tenant, but not now, not with the bunch of people at home. The house was pretty much off limits to humans when Lily first moved in!
“Ugh… about that.. I’m sorry. My place is currently all booked out…” Hao Ren cooked up an excuse on the fly. He also rued the fact that the that was placed so long ago had still managed to attract a prospective tenant, which caused no end of troubles now. As he was about to continue speaking, Vivian who had heard someone talking aside popped her head out to check. “Mr Landlord, who’s that outside?”
“Someone who’s looking for a room to rent.” Hao Ren turned towards Vivian, his voice loud on purpose. “Haven’t we rented out all the rooms?”
“That’s not right…” Wuyue frowned. “I was told that there are only three tenants in the place. And the rest of the rooms are reserved for supernaturals. Am I wrong on that account?”
Hao Ren was just about to cook up another excuse before he caught that Wuyue said. Taken aback, he said, “Wait.. what did you just say? You just said supernatural didn’t you… Did Raven sent you here?”
“Yes, she did!” Wuyue nodded. “She even appeared in my dreams for the past month to tell me this, and that’s why I believed that I had a place to stay here. Besides, a big blue person gave me this card when I arrived in town a few days ago. The one you are holding on to now.”
Hao Ren was perplexed and looked at the card. He realised that it was starting to give out a faint blue light, and out of nowhere, Raven 12345’s name appeared on the card. “Dear Hao Ren. The one holding onto this card will be your new tenant. Her name is Nangong Wuyue. Please arrange a clean and cosy room for her. Her expenses can be claimed from next month onwards. From, your boss.
As Hao Ren finish reading the message, the card exploded into a bright blue light and slowly dispersed into the air. It seems that crazy Goddess does have some artistic sense.
“So…No problem right?” Wuyue smiled cheerfully at Hao Ren. “Have a room now?”
After taking a short moment to process all the details, Hao Ren nodded. “Yes, yes. Please come in. Do you need help with that?”
Hao Ren noticed the two big luggage bags behind Wuyue, and by the looks of things they seem rather heavy. Wanting to be a good caretaker and a gentleman, he stepped forward to help, only to see Wuyue lifted the two bags like it was stuffed with feathers and walked into the house. Wew, she seems like another sack of muscles like Lily. Speaking of which, Hao Ren was envious at the supernatural strengths and ability these supernaturals had. They seem no different than your average human, but the gulf in raw strength alone, even for the likes of Vivian who had no use for brute force was brutally wide.
Lily and Y’zaks were pre-occupied with the television in the living room. When the petite girl stepped into the house with her luggage in tow only did they reacted with curiosity.
Lily who was lazing on the sofa, bend her neck as much as she could to take a glimpse at Hao Ren, her want for clarification was evident on the face. As Hao Ren caught her look, he signaled to Wuyue to set her luggage down first. Following that, he gave a loud clap to attract the attention of all in the room. “Ahem, while this is rather sudden… Raven had sent another new tenant to stay here. This is Nangong Wuyue. She’ll be staying within from now on.”
“Wah!” Lily screamed as she rolled off the sofa. She quickly scrambled to her feet and leapt towards Hao Ren’s side. “Really?”
“It’s not like you don’t know how that crazy Goddess operates. Her whim is her fancy.” Hao Ren had a rather helpless look on his face as he shrugged. “I too felt it was too sudden. But she did had a letter from Raven… Oh ya, MDT, please run a verification check.”
The MDT floated lazily from Hao Ren’s pocket. “What verification? If she’s a fake I’d be raising alarm bells. Me being silent means all is okay.”
“Oh.” Hao Ren pouted slightly. “So… let’s get on with the introductions”
The arrival of a new tenant was not something Hao Ren expected at the time, not when they just had a run in with those thrice-accursed demon hunters. As no one was in the mood or anticipation of a newcomer, the atmosphere was rather awkward to say the least. But Wuyue didn’t seem to had caught on the mood and after putting her luggage by the wall, she gave her trademark smile to all and bowed respectfully. “Hello everyone. I’m Nangong Wuyue. Nangong is a double surname. I’m currently a wandering… artist. Oh yes, are there are rules regarding introducing what race you are here? I suppose a few of you here are non-humans?”
“I think that’s for the best.” Hao Ren nodded. “It makes living together easier if we know what sort of taboos a race have.”
“Oh.” Wuyue nodded as well. “My mother was a siren. But I grew up on land.. so you can call me a land siren?”
“A siren?!” Vivian was taken aback. “Wait…sirens don’t usually come to shore that often. The last being about a hundred years back… You mean to say that you are one of the descendants?”
“Ah, so you know about that.” Wuyue was surprised by what Vivian had said. “I remember my mother said that she came to shore around the 1860s. But I don’t know the exact story behind it, Mother left me with the human society and till she died never brought me back to sea.
Hao Ren for some reason, had reacted to the last landing of the sirens, and remembered that Casar Ebben said about some of them. “Oh, the ones that got XXX by humans?” he blurted out.
That made Vivian cringed so hard that she had to turn her face away. This bastard and his mouth would be the doom of him.
Wuyue’s face also stiffen for a moment, but she still maintained her smile as said, “Yes, the ones that got XXX by the humans” Every word that came out was as cold as ice.
Hao Ren realized the awkward situation he had landed himself in and retreated to a corner.
Vivian sighed at the sorry lot, and gave a friendly smile at Wuyue. (Vivian is rather cordial to everyone except when they are demon hunters or werewolves) “I’m Vivian Ancesta. A vampire noble.”
“I’m Liu Lily! You can call me Lily!” Lily yelped as she jumped in front of Wuyue. The werehusky did not put much thought to things, her initial surprise gave way to the elation of having a new friend. “I’m a werehusky!”
“Werehus..?” Wuyue’s eyes widen as she was dumbstruck by Lily’s introduction. Before she could follow up with a question, Y’zaks stood up and his thunderous voice echoed in the room. “Y’zaks Goodman. A High Demon. From another world. Oh, my human name is Wang Daquan.”
Hao Ren took a surprised glance at Y’zaks. “Since when did you have this name?”
“I had a human identification card with me all this while. You’ve seen it right?” Y’zaks gave Hao Ren an odd look. “The Goddess helped me with that, saying that it’ll be useful in human society. For the name, yeah I chose it myself. After doing some reading on the common phrases used in China, I realised that the “Uncle Wang next door” seems to be a very common name, and so called myself that.
Hao Ren did not know how to reply to that.
Wuyue took a good look at her fellow tenants after they have introduced themselves. She thought to herself that only Vivian seemed to be a normal one. “It seems… like my days here would be interesting.” She said to herself.
“Wait a minute…. Have we met before?” As Hao Ren saw Wuyue’s side profile, he remembered a very familiar sight. “It’s like a few days ago!”
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