Chapter 69: Swapping Rooms
It did not take long for Rollie to show up after Hao Ren and the gang reached home.
No one knew how this black cat, which was barely a meter long had a radar-like sensory system. Not long after Hao Ren took a seat on the sofa, he heard a series of light knocks on the window facing the main road. He looked up and saw Rollie bashing the window pane with his tail.
Y’zaks was watching a television series on the research of humanity when he also noticed the cat. A faint look of surprise appeared on his face. “Your cat?”
Hao Ren quickly rose to open the window for Rollie and answered without turning back. “Ah, the name’s Rollie. Don’t pay too much attention to the name. Just call it that.”
Rollie seemed to look much rounder even though he was supposed to be out and about with no one to care for him. No one knew how he survived the mean streets of the Southern Suburbs too. He jumped onto Hao Ren’s shoulder without much effort and started brushing against Hao Ren’s neck. He then noticed that there was a stranger in the hall and looked at Y’zaks curiously.
It was not the first time Rollie had met strangers. He just never saw anyone that tall before. Surely everyone has seen a dog but when someone runs into a giant foxhound like Charlie, their expression would have been the same.
A nostalgic frown appeared on Y’zaks face. “A pet… I also had a kitten a long time ago.”
“Oh, you had a cat?”
A mental image of a five-meter tall, fire demon hugging a small kitten appeared in Hao Ren’s mind. The kitten was a roasted one…
Y’zaks smiled. “No, there are no cats in the Demonic Abyss. I just called it Kitten. It was a hell hound. Even when lying down it’s about two heads taller than you. It has since passed on. It could have came here with me but it refused, so…”
Hao Ren could not help but snicker inwards about Y’zaks calling his dog, Kitten.
By then, Lily had finished unpacking and skipped out of her room like a hyperactive bunny into the hall. The moment she saw Rollie on Hao Ren’s shoulder, she quickly stopped and greeted Rollie with a respectful tone. She then introduced the cat to Y’zaks.
“Hey big guy! Let me introduce you to Rollie, the number two of this place. I’m number three, you’re number four… that telly set is number five and Battie is last…”
Lily was rambling endlessly and was clearly happy that she was home after being away for so long. Like an excited puppy, she ran around the place and even managed to crack a joke with Y’zaks nonchalantly (Lily had a dislike towards demonkind). A pity the joke flew past Y’zaks head and he looked at Hao Ren blankly. “What’s she saying?”
“Just ignore her lunatic ramblings.” Hao Ren laughed. “Let’s find Raven 12345 tomorrow. Let her fix the language issue. Oh right, are you hungry? Wanna eat?”
Y’zaks just shook his head. “No thanks, just tell me where my room is. I want to take a nap. Will let you know once I’m awake.”
Hao Ren remembered Y’zaks saying that he slept most of the time since he came to Earth. And to sleep again made Hao Ren think along the lines of a familiar novel plot line. “Oh I get it, you’ve spent too much energy traveling through dimensions and you’re resting to restore your lost energy?”
Y’zaks gave Hao Ren an odd look. “Why do you assume too much? It’s the jet lag…”
Hao Ren had no answer. “…Come, there’s an empty room upstairs.”
Y’zaks nodded and followed Hao Ren towards the stairway. Vivian suddenly shouted from the kitchen. “Mr. Landlord, are you arranging a room for the big guy? I have something to discuss with you.”
Hao Ren looked at Vivian curiously, noticing that her face was twitching slightly. “What’s wrong?”
“You can just give the big guy my room.” Vivian requested. She was jittery as she thought her request would be causing trouble. “I want to move to the basement.”
Hao Ren stared at Vivian because he misunderstood her. He quickly put on a concerned look. “Look, is Lily taunting you about your rent again? Just ignore her. I’m not even bothered by it so, why should you. I can’t just chase you off to the basement just because you can’t pay rent…”
Vivian put her hand up. “No, no… I don’t mean that… I really want to move to the basement…”
The vampire pointed towards the bright sun as she went on. “I’ve already been weakened by daylight and I need a dark, shady place to rest. While those of us who are high-born do not fear sunlight, we still prefer to avoid it if possible. I know that you gave me the room out of kindness but at this rate my endocrine production wouldn’t just go out of whack, it may even dissipate altogether…”
Hao Ren thought Vivian was just making things up but she did go to the extend of listing her vampiric nature with a serious look on her face. He then knew that she really did want to move to the basement and did not question her further. He however, had a tinge of awkwardness in his voice. “The basement is spacious, I give you that. I rented out that room before so it has water and electrical supplies. It’s just that there’s a whole load of junk in there and it needs a good cleaning.”
“No worries! I can do that!” Vivian looked somewhat proud. “I’m just that good at making a place for myself despite the circumstances. Almost a pro at it.”
Hearing that and looking at Vivian’s anticipation, Hao Ren felt bad for the unlucky vampire, wondering how she survived in the past.
Vivian ran up and down the house cleaning, with Hao Ren lending her a hand. It did not take long before the house was spick and span again. Y’zaks did not carry any luggage with him and used magic to solve all his needs. He pulled whatever he needed from the void. As such, Hao Ren just needed to give him an empty room. As for Vivian, her request was even simpler. A place away from the sun; she did not even need air conditioning (she could chill the air around her easily) and that was that.
The basement was about the size of the house and Hao Ren had previously rented it out. In the glory days of his business venture, he had renovated the basement. He divided the place into two separate rooms, one as a storeroom and the other as a small, fully furnished suite. Excluding the lack of windows, it was similar to the other rooms in the house.
As there were no tenants for the past two years, Hao Ren had inadvertently stuffed the room with some junk. Thankfully, it was not difficult to clean the place and after a while Hao Ren had gathered all the junk and prepared to move them to the storeroom next door.
Vivian by then had came down to her new room with her small luggage. She saw Hao Ren squatting by a wooden crate and asked out of curiosity, “Mr. Landlord, moving the stuff over to the storeroom?”
“Yep, will do that in a bit. Truthfully, none of these things have any use now but I just can’t bear to throw them away. These are stuff from my childhood.” Hao Ren looked nostalgically at the items in the wooden box. “Those were pretty rad stuff when I was a kid. Even fought with the neighbor’s son for them. Look how worn out they’ve become…”
Vivian scratched her head. “They look new to me…”
Hao Ren almost choked himself. Recounting nostalgia with an old hag, who used an old antique as an amulet of protection was just asking for his pride to be wounded.
Vivian saw the awkward look on Hao Ren’s face and quickly changed the topic, pointing towards the items in the box for their stories.
“…This is the lunchbox I used when I was in junior high. This is the game console from when I was a kid. It used cartridges like this. I kept breaking the outer cover apart and just jammed the circuit board into the machine. God, it felt high tech back then. And this is the schoolwork from the guy who sat next to me in class… Wait, the f*ck is this thing doing here? And oh, half of a one-dollar note. I had always wondered when I would pick up the other half when I first saw this note…” Hao Ren regaled the tales of his childhood items to Vivian. Each item seemed like a treasure to him. He even managed to surprise himself at times.
Vivian listened on intently. The two, who had a gap of at least hundreds of generations were talking about Hao Ren’s childhood items excitedly. That was until Hao Ren pulled out a metal object from the box. It was in the shape of a diamond. Vivian’s eyes widened.
“This… I don’t even know where it came from.” Hao Ren totally missed the change in Vivian’s expression and played with the object in his hand. “It looks like a handicraft from somewhere. No one knows what the inscription means…”
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