A Foreign Land

As soon as the plane took off, Lily and Vivian seemed to switch roles.

Normally, at home, Lily was the lively one. The energetic werewolf girl always had an overabundance of curiosity, enthusiastically researching anything she encountered. Even if she found a stone on the street, as long as no one was around, she'd try to test its hardness by putting it in her mouth. Vivian, on the other hand, was much more mature and steady. Despite her constant bad luck, the vampire girl always maintained the special pride and reserve befitting a "Blood Clan" member, appearing far more composed than Lily.

But now, their behavior was completely reversed: Lily was lying leisurely on the spacious first-class seat, waiting for food, and casually browsing the adjacent LCD TV for programs that interested her. Vivian, however, was all excited. The vampire girl was pressed against the airplane window, mouth agape, watching the clouds swiftly pass by. After a long while, she sighed, "Oh, it's really flying! And it can really fly this high?"

To be honest, this was Hao Ren's first time on a plane too, and he could understand Vivian's current reaction. However, he couldn't help but say, "Don't you fly yourself? Is there any need to be so surprised?"

"It feels different when I fly myself!" Vivian retorted righteously. "Besides, I don't usually fly this high. Flying too high makes you prone to lightning strikes, and high-altitude low temperatures are very dangerous. Back then, when I wanted to study the stars in the sky, I flew too high and ended up frozen into a block of ice that fell down—I was almost discovered by a Demon Hunter because of that, so I rarely fly above a thousand meters anymore."

Hao Ren clicked his tongue, finding it quite strange. "Then you flew at low altitudes when you traveled the world? Weren't you afraid of being shot down by arrows?"

"When I traveled the world? Sometimes I flew, sometimes I walked. My stamina is better than humans anyway, and time wasn't an issue. It wasn't difficult to circle the Eurasian continent," Vivian said proudly. "And I don't never fly high; I still have to hide in the clouds when I encounter Demon Hunters. Demon Hunters rarely have the ability to deal with high-altitude targets. Oh, speaking of arrows, I'm not afraid of those. Welsh longbowmen couldn't hit me, how far do you think those things fly when shot upwards? However, I was once shot down by an anti-aircraft gun during World War II..."

Hao Ren was dumbfounded. Vivian patted her chest, still feeling a sense of lingering fear. "Tsk tsk, you humans are too good at researching these dangerous things. Not long ago, you were throwing rocks at each other and fighting with swords and spears, and you had to pray to the heavens for healing even for a headache. Yet, in the blink of an eye, you can launch tens of tons of steel plates into the sky. I thought the anti-aircraft gun was a new type of catapult, and it hit me right in the face—if I hadn't dispersed into bats in time, I might have become the vampire with the most flamboyant death in the world."

Her first time on a plane made Vivian, this impoverished vampire, seem a bit too excited. Thus, these embarrassing secrets that shouldn't be casually revealed were spilling out one after another. At first, Hao Ren could still chat with the girl with a smile, but later, he could only stare with wide eyes, not knowing how to react to things that were completely beyond his understanding!

When Vivian started talking about how an old acquaintance of hers was killed by a meteorite while cruising over North America, Hao Ren decided to change the topic and turned to Lily. "You seem quite comfortable. Do you fly often?"

The werewolf girl lazily looked up and smiled. "I've ridden on a Stevenson airliner from the early days."

Hao Ren blinked. "What's that?"

Vivian shakily sat up straight. "From the Republic of China era... How rich were you back then?!"

"I couldn't afford a plane ticket back then either," Lily waved her hand. "But I could sneak into the engine room or the luggage rack. For the last leg, I actually hung on the outside of the plane. Security wasn't as strict back then, and no one checked those places too closely. And with my agility, it was very easy to bypass ordinary people's sight. It was just a bit difficult to get off when landing; I had to jump off beforehand. While I wouldn't die from the fall, it was quite scary."

Hao Ren exclaimed, "Nonsense! A normal person hitching a ride like you would have died halfway!"

Lily stuck out her tongue. "Anyway, that's the experience I gained from then. So, I'm saying this bat is too rigid; sometimes she's not as smart as me. Why don't you make good use of your physical abilities?"

Vivian turned her face away. "I don't think it's something to be proud of, being able to hang yourself on the outside of a plane to travel for free."

Despite saying that, she couldn't help but start discussing it with Lily. Their main topic was how to safely attach themselves to various human modes of transportation—Lily taught Vivian methods of sneaking into luggage compartments to travel illegally, while Vivian told Lily how to avoid anti-aircraft guns. In any case, these were all topics that sounded completely unreliable to Hao Ren. But no matter how outlandish the topic, these two sworn enemies had finally reached a temporary truce: they were both quite interested in such tricky endeavors.

Looking at the cheerful Lily, Hao Ren thought that this werewolf girl was probably much more formidable than she appeared. Hanging on the outside of a passenger plane and flying across half of China wasn't scary; what was scary was that she dared to do such a thing during the Republic of China era. What terrifying experiences lay behind this seemingly foolish girl? Hao Ren thought about modern Chinese history and immediately stopped himself.

The rest of the journey was uneventful. This peculiar trio flew for eleven hours before finally arriving at their destination, Heathrow Airport in London, on a cool, clear morning.

Hao Ren dragged the almost-asleep Lily and the energetic Vivian out of the terminal, taking a deep breath of the cool foreign air and exhaling slowly: It didn't seem much different from the air back home...

Vivian looked up at the sky. It was early morning, and the sky was not yet fully bright. The weak morning sun was slowly spreading from beyond the horizon, and a veil-like mist covered the sky, making the already dim daylight even more subdued. The chilly morning breeze on the foreign streets, coupled with the dim morning sun in the mist, might make ordinary people feel depressed, but it was exactly to Vivian's liking as a vampire. She nodded with satisfaction. "This kind of sunlight is just right; it's good for the skin—I've been terribly tanned these past few days. Have you ever seen a Blood Clan member out in the sun all day?"

Hao Ren shot her a glare. "Nonsense, have you ever seen a Blood Clan member out looking for a job all day?"

Vivian awkwardly scratched her face, then tried to change the subject. "Uh... speaking of which, the scenery here looks a bit unfamiliar. It's not quite like England as I remember it?"

Lily, with her sleepy eyes, couldn't resist a jab. "You couldn't even afford a plane ticket before, how would you know the way to an airport!"

Hao Ren suddenly felt a sense of inexplicable crisis, and Vivian's next words confirmed his feeling. "I don't mean that, I mean... uh, I remember this place should be all wasteland or rocky beaches... if my Blood Clan sense of direction is correct."

Hao Ren almost choked. He finally understood what that feeling of unease since they departed was all about. "When was the last time you were in England?!"

Vivian thought for a long time, her head slowly lowering. "I remember there was someone called Lionheart fighting a war..."

Hao Ren's mouth opened into an almost perfect circle, and he almost sat down on the ground: That was in 1190 AD!

It goes to show that Hao Ren's world history knowledge was quite good.

"How can you be so foolish sometimes?" Hao Ren rubbed his chin, looking at Vivian incredulously. He couldn't believe someone could be so confused—if anyone, it should have been a goofball like Lily.

"I've lived for so many years, can't I have a few slip-ups in certain details?" Vivian tried to make her tone sound a bit more assertive, but in the end, she lowered her head. "You know I'm a bit forgetful with things."

"So, what do we do now?" Hao Ren felt a bit helpless. If it were someone who traveled often and had seen the world, it might be okay in this situation, but Hao Ren was a complete homebody, a small-time citizen who had never traveled far. His only reliance, the translator and guide, was as clueless as he was. And his mission was to go to a small, unnamed rural place in a foreign country to find a "client" whose name and appearance were unknown. This first mission since taking office was proving to be quite tricky.

Vivian gritted her teeth. "It's okay, at least I know the language, which is better than you, right?"

Hao Ren thought about it. Although something still felt off, he could only nod.