Vivian cooking was surprising enough for Hao Ren. After all, she was a bona fide vampire. Just look at how vampires lived in movies and TV dramas: red capes and black tuxedos, sprawling seaside castles, servants by the dozen, treasure vaults overflowing with jewels, sleeping from six in the morning until eight-thirty at night to maintain their beauty, getting up for a bottle of '82 blood plasma, then inviting a houseful of good-for-nothing friends to dance until midnight (though they called it a ball), and finally standing on the balcony with a glass of red wine, acting smugly toward the moon until dawn before going back to bed—that was the proper life of a vampire, low-key luxury with substance. Vivian, however, was not that kind of vampire. This dirt-poor vampire not only didn't need blood to stay alive, but could also stomach Hao Ren's hastily boiled noodles and even knew how to cook with a human gas stove...
Just thinking about all that was enough to astonish anyone.
But it was only after Vivian brought the dishes to the table that Hao Ren realized he had been surprised too soon.
Vivian's cooking was actually pretty good; it was just that the dishes were rather baffling. There was eggplant with garlic, long beans with minced garlic, and vermicelli mixed with minced garlic. They looked, smelled, and tasted excellent, and the entire living room was filled with a strong garlic aroma. Hao Ren felt as if he were swimming in an ocean of garlic, while the woman who claimed to be a vampire sat down beside the table and casually tossed a clove of garlic into her mouth... Even an ordinary person couldn't handle eating like that!
Hao Ren and Lily stared in stunned silence. Then they both looked at Vivian and asked in unison, "You really are a vampire?!"
Vivian immediately straightened her expression and sat upright with a solemn air. "Please call me Bloodkin. This is a very serious matter..."
"Could you not be so particular about that right now?" Hao Ren said, mentally calculating how many of his assumptions about the world still needed rebuilding. "Are vampires... I mean, Bloodkin, not afraid of garlic? You're practically eating it as a staple!"
Vivian lowered her head and looked at the dishes on the table, finally understanding. "Oh, you mean this? Ordinary Bloodkin really don't like it. Low-level vampires can even fall ill from the smell of garlic, but I don't know why... I'm just not afraid of it. When life was at its hardest, having enough to eat was already a problem. Who had the energy to worry about whether it tasted good?"
Hao Ren gaped, then rubbed his nose. "I've been meaning to ask: how did you, a dignified... Bloodkin, end up this poor?"
"How should I know? My luck with money has been terrible for as long as I can remember. Before currency existed, I lost things. When shells were used as currency, I lost shells. When metal coins came along, I lost coins. Now I lose banknotes. Finding work is difficult, and doing business is difficult. Once, I made up my mind to become a bad person and rob a **, but she looked so pitiful that I ended up giving her six pounds..." Vivian spread her hands, her face filled with the resigned look of someone who had suffered bad luck for thousands of years. But as she spoke, she suddenly seemed to remember something and looked proud. She began rummaging around on herself, and moments later pulled out a pair of gleaming silver arm rings. "I do have a few good things. Look at these. Even when I was at my poorest, I couldn't bear to exchange them for money. I found them in a small village in Egypt several hundred years ago. Pure silver arm rings. Wearing them on your arms can ward off evil..."
Hao Ren: "..."
Vivian pulled another small chain from inside her collar. A cross hung from it. "I got this one near the Vatican. I lived in Europe for a while. Someone stole my wallet, I lost my job, and the place where I lived caught fire. I was penniless and homeless, so I had no choice but to do odd jobs at a church in exchange for food. Since I worked diligently, the priest gave me this cross. They say it was personally blessed by the Pope and can ward off evil~~"
"And this one. I got this piece of wood when I visited Mount Wutai a few years ago. An old Daoist gave it to me. It can ward off evil too!"
"And this talisman. I got it from a group of Vikings several hundred years ago after helping them with a small favor. This talisman is really effective. Wear it and it can ward off evil!"
"Anyway, I've figured out the pattern. Whenever I carry money, I'm sure to lose it. But ever since humans invented currency, I haven't lost anything I carry with me. This has to be the fault of the will of the great universe!"
Hao Ren silently put down his bowl and pinched his thigh hard to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Only then did he stare at Vivian with wide eyes. "Say that again. You really are a vampire?!"
"How many times do I have to say it? I'm not a vampire. You should call me Blood... Ah, forget it. Humans often get the two mixed up anyway." Vivian waved a hand magnanimously. "Landlord, why are you so hung up on this?"
Hao Ren stared at the "vampire" before him, who had hung all kinds of magical implements over herself. (Come to think of it, she had been wearing only a thin black dress earlier. Where had she hidden all that stuff?) He felt as if he were about to have a heart attack. "You ward off evil too?! You're an 'evil' yourself, all right! With all that stuff on you, how many vampires could you kill?"
"I don't know how it happened." Vivian sounded completely justified. "I've never been afraid of these things since the day I was born! Besides, wearing them might dispel my bad luck. And even if they can't, they can at least give me courage."
Lily wolfed down everything in her bowl as quickly as a puppy, then lifted her head and muttered, "As a vampire, wearing a whole bunch of crosses and talismans to give yourself courage is so embarrassing."
That idiot wasn't surprised at all! The angle she focused on was certainly unique...
In any case, dinner ended in a bizarre atmosphere, and Hao Ren gained a new understanding of one of his abnormal tenants: Vivian. She was not only a dirt-poor vampire, but also a vampire who feared neither garlic, silverware, nor crosses—not even the various evil-warding implements from around the world. This marvelous creature had even hung at least six kilograms of talismans on herself in an attempt to turn her luck around. Just listen to that unit of measurement—kilograms! You could imagine how much miscellaneous junk she was carrying...
After dinner, everyone had their own things to do. This hastily assembled "odd group" finally enjoyed its first true day of peaceful daily life together (before this, they had either been fighting and fooling around, or Hao Ren hadn't been home). A human landlord (who might also be an employee of the Time-Space Administration Bureau), a scatterbrained Werewolf, a vampire on the verge of starvation, and a black-and-white kitten named Roll—Hao Ren felt that it was a miracle these tenants had managed to end up living under one roof.
Lily was currently squatting in the living room watching television. Yes, actually squatting in the living room watching television, with a posture much like a puppy's. Roll was squatting beside her too, and the two of them looked like sisters. It seemed that the scatterbrained Werewolf had finally grown somewhat accustomed to the cat, though she was still a little nervous. Whenever Roll made the slightest movement, Lily would hurriedly change the channel with exaggerated respect. Still, at least she wasn't hiding behind the sofa like she had yesterday.
Vivian, meanwhile, had gone out for a walk, full of energy. As a nocturnal creature, Vivian's biological clock only became active after sunset. She had decided to fly into the city to look around, hoping to find a job... Hao Ren somewhat understood why this vampire was so poor and unable to find work. Would it kill her to adjust her biological clock a little? Is going out to look for work in the middle of the night really not a problem in her head?
After Vivian transformed into a huge bat and disappeared into the night, Hao Ren carried a reclining chair out to the open ground as well. The area was sparsely populated, which made it exceptionally quiet. There was a large empty lot in front of the small apartment building. Since no one had occupied it, it had tacitly become Hao Ren's "territory." After dinner, Hao Ren decided to follow his usual habit and come here to enjoy the cool breeze and quietly contemplate life beneath the still night sky. The environment was far healthier than the air conditioning indoors.
Of course, the main reason was that he really didn't want to spend too long alone with Lily. He was afraid of losing IQ points... That scatterbrained Werewolf was watching dog food commercials, if you could believe it. Hao Ren felt that even hiding in his bedroom behind a wall wouldn't stop a third of his intelligence from being sucked away!
Summer nights in northern cities were much cooler than those in the south. Hao Ren unfolded the reclining chair in his usual spot and lay down, listening to distant human voices and insect calls blending faintly together. Gradually, drowsiness overcame him.
In the haze between sleep and wakefulness, he seemed to feel an unusually gentle breeze brush across his cheek.
The breeze was fresh and cool, completely free of the coarse sensation brought by human activity in modern cities. It instantly roused Hao Ren, who had nearly fallen asleep. He abruptly sat up—but the reclining chair folded shut and clamped him inside.
But he had already seen the bizarre situation around him.
Before you continue