Chapter 115: The Siren
“Have we met somewhere before?” Wuyue raised an curious eyebrow at Hao Ren’s reply. She looked at Hao Ren again, and then shifted her gaze to Y’zaks (or Wang Daquan if you will) and then back to Hao Ren again. Her eyes suddenly widen and she smacked her forehead.
“Oh right…. the two stingy dudes!”
Hao Ren also slapped his forehead at almost the same time. “You were the one busking the other day!”
The two of them looked at each other. The respectul front that Wuyue had put up earlier seemed to had faded fast. She drily laughed at Hao Ren “So…Mr Landlord, I hope you didn’t take that to heart…”
Hao Ren was so used to dealing with the nonsense that this tenants give him and just waved the matter off. But he really did felt things were just too much of a coincidence. Was it really the hand of fate at work? Wuyue was the person that he saw the other day in town with Y’zaks busking by the crossroads. He recalled that her song was indeed melodius, but the lyrics…
But the chance meeting was during the day, and this time, at night. Hao Ren did not clearly remember the looks of strangers, and therefore took him a while before he recognised her. Y’zak on the other hand, was a hopeless case. He caught barely recognise his fellow tenants for days, and only managing to do so after a while. Wuyue also only had taken a hurried glance at Hao Ren and Y’zaks the other day. If not for Y’zaks sticking out like a sore thumb to leave an impression, she would have not even recalled seeing them.
“What a coincidence.” Hao Ren laughed as he gestured towards Wuyue to come to the dining table. “Just nice that we’ve yet to start our dinner, and there were plenty of leftovers from lunch. Was actually having a hard time thinking of how do we even finish this… so… lets take this as your welcoming dinner. This is our tradition here, no matter what race you are, once you’re on the dining table you are family.
Vivian swiftly laid out the re-heated dishes on the table, and as she was about to take her seat, she asked Hao Ren on how did he came to know Wuyue. He briefly recounted the meeting the other day, and ended with a curt remark. “I think Raven might had a hand in that too…”
Aside from Wuyue who did not know Raven’s true colours, all nodded in agreement.
Even though he still felt Wuyue’s arrival was rather sudden, he knew how Raven12345 operates, and could only accept her orders without much question. Thankfully though, Wuyue was a rather congenial person to be around with, compared to Lily or Vivian when they first arrived. Perhaps it was due to the fact that Sirens had little to no squabbles with the outside world, nor that they were hostile to others… Just look at the bunch that went and mated with humans.
After dinner, Hao Ren and Vivian helped Wuyue with her luggage. Her room was located on the second floor, the first room by the staircase. It was fully furnished and clean, thanks to Vivian’s frequent housekeeping, and was basically ready to live in. It took nary a few moments before everything was settled. Lily then dragged Wuyue all the way to the living room, curious to know about the story of her new friend. Vivian felt that it was rather rude to do that, but Lily’s a husky at heart… so that’s that.
“Actually, I should’ve came by two days ago.” Wuyue did not show any resistance towards Lily’s overfriendly and overeagerness and answered all her questions with a smile. She even told them her experience coming into town. “As Mr Landlord had said, I’m a wandering busker. I move around and sing to earn a living. Was doing that for a good few years. Until about half a month ago when I kept dreaming of a beautiful lady telling me to come to this town to look for an ‘inspector’ named Hao Ren. As first I thought I was hallucinating, and took me a while to trust the dream. I then realise that I do need a proper place to live, so I decided to come here. I arrived around last week, but was doing my rounds busking for a few days… Heheheh, I only remembered about coming here today.”
The very casual way of Wuyue retelling her story just seemed so human. If not for the fact that they knew her race already, Hao Ren would struggle to even think of her as one of the Sirens.
“Wandering and singing huh…” Lily’s eyes were gleaming in awe. The artistic bones in her were resonating with a fellow artist’s experience. “It feels just like me. I’m a wandering writer. But I think you are much much more talented, busking for a living is not easy. I tried it before, but got complained at everyday.”
Hao Ren then recalled Lily’s favourite tune, the three tone howls of a wolf an did not dare to broach the topic any further.
“It was okay I guess.” Wuyue smiled faintly. “Sirens are natural singers, and Mother did train me on how to sing. It seemed that she met father this way. I did do other part time jobs as well, to cover my expenses.”
“Where you’re from actually?” Vivian asked as she saw the cordial conversation between Wuyue and Lily and could no longer hide her curiosity. “Your accent is a bit funny.”
“Oh, you can tell?” Wuyue smiled again. “I was born in China, but I was overseas for a good while.”
“So it’s true. They say Sirens were wanderers as they came from the vast seas.” Vivian gave Wuyue curious look. “So, do you intend to stay here for a while then to continue travelling?”
“I’m not sure myself.” Wuyue shook her head. “I think I’ll stay until i decide to start travelling again. I’ll stay at a place for a while sometimes. Rather, I got tired of travelling for now and decided to take a break, and then that pretty lady appeared… so I’m here.”
Vivian gave Hao Ren a look to signal him to a side, and both of them went to a corner of the house.
“You sure she’s ok?” Vivian asked softly.
“Yeah, seems so. She does have Raven’s card with her and the MDT had also confirmed her identity. While it is rather sudden, she is our new member.”
“…. Franky speaking, our small group feels more and more like some illegal organisation. All jittery when a new blood joins in.” Vivian jested. “Mr Landlord, can’t you ask for a better working condition
from the Goddess?”
“What better condition?” Hao Ren sighed. “Raven12345 had specifically requested me to not simply affect human society, or else it will impede the growth of civilisation or so she says. See what a hat i’m wearing? Oh right, I wanted to ask you. What kind of race is a Siren? I don’t see much differences between Wuyue and your average Jane. You can tell from the way she acts and talks is very different to how Lily and Y’zaks does.”
Vivian demurred for a moment. “Sirens… I don’t really know too much about them. They are a funny lot. Even amongst the supernaturals. They live deep within the ocean, and are a rather ancient race, even more the coming of man on this planet. But they had never expanded their territory before. While I’m sure that they will have some form of combat ability and survivability on land, they seem to be content living their days in the sea. Supposedly, they are tasked with protecting some ancneint undersea relic of sorts. But as they are so insular, no one actually knows the truth. And oh, Sirens are a female only face, and they have very long life spans. They seem to be able to increase their numbers by some ritual spawning, so no issues with their population. That’s about it.”
“How about those that went to mate with humans?” Hao Ren asked.
Vivian’s face stiffened. “…Why do you keep harping on that… Fine. Sirens have ways to get to shore, and to assimilate into human society. Of course, they also have their curiosities regarding human males. There are many stories of sirens masquarading as humans and have children with their human lovers. But there’s a peculiarity with their breeding. If it’s a girl, it will definitely be a Siren, if it’s a boy, it’ll definitely be human. There had never been a case of a mixed-blooded Siren.”
“So that’s why Wuyue only mentioned that her mother was a Siren.” Hao Ren suddenly came to a realisation. “So the girls will follow their mother, and the sons, their dad… Heh, you supernaturals are sure an odd bunch.”
And thus, the Siren Nangong Wuyue came to be a tenant.
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