A Foreign Land

As soon as the plane took off, Lily and Vivian seemed to have switched personalities.

Back home, Lily was always the lively one. The energetic Werewolf girl had an excess of curiosity and would excitedly study anything she came across for ages. Even if she found a rock on the street, as long as no one was around, she would put it in her mouth to test how hard it was. Vivian, on the other hand, was much more mature and composed. Though misfortune followed her everywhere, the Vampire Girl could always maintain the special pride and reserve expected of a member of the Bloodkin. She looked far steadier than Lily.

But now, their behavior was completely reversed. Lily was lying leisurely in the spacious first-class seat, waiting for food while skillfully searching for programs she liked on the nearby LCD television. Vivian, meanwhile, was brimming with excitement. The Vampire Girl clung to the airplane window, staring open-mouthed at the clouds rushing past outside. After a long while, she finally exclaimed, "Oh, we're really flying! And we can actually fly this high?"

To his embarrassment, this was Hao Ren's first time on an airplane too, so he could understand Vivian's reaction. Still, he couldn't help saying, "Don't you fly normally? Is it really that surprising?"

"Flying by myself feels different!" Vivian declared righteously. "Besides, I usually don't fly this high. It's easy to get struck by lightning, and the low temperatures and clouds at high altitudes are dangerous. Once, I flew too high because I wanted to study the stars, and I ended up freezing into a huge block of ice and falling back down. I almost got discovered by a Demon Hunter because of that, so I rarely fly above a thousand meters anymore."

Hao Ren smacked his lips, puzzled. "So when you traveled around the world back then, you flew at low altitudes? Weren't you afraid someone would shoot you down with a bow and arrow?"

"When I traveled around the world? Sometimes I flew, and sometimes I walked. I had more stamina than humans, and time wasn't an issue. Even walking around the entire Eurasian continent wouldn't have been difficult." Vivian was quite pleased with herself. "That doesn't mean I never flew at high altitudes. When I ran into Demon Hunters, I still had to hide in the clouds. Very few Demon Hunters knew how to deal with high-altitude targets. Oh, speaking of bows and arrows, I wasn't afraid of those things. Even the longbowmen of Wales couldn't hit me. How far do you think an arrow can fly when shot into the sky? I did get accidentally shot down by anti-aircraft artillery during World War II, though..."

Hao Ren stared at her, dumbfounded. Vivian patted her chest with lingering fear. "Tsk, tsk. You humans are frighteningly skilled at inventing dangerous things. Not long ago, you were throwing rocks at each other and fighting with swords and spears, relying on prayers to the heavens whenever you got a headache or fever. Then, in the blink of an eye, you were firing steel plates weighing more than ten tons into the sky. I thought anti-aircraft artillery was some new type of catapult, and then one shell smacked me right in the face. If I hadn't scattered into bats in time, I might have become the Bloodkin with the most flamboyant death in the world."

Her first flight had made the impoverished Vampire a little too excited, so one embarrassing secret after another—things she normally shouldn't have blurted out—kept spilling from her mouth. At first, Hao Ren could still exchange smiles and chat with her, but later, he could only stare and listen. Some of the things she said were completely beyond his understanding. He didn't even know what expression to make!

When Vivian mentioned that an old acquaintance of hers had once been killed by a meteorite while flying around above North America, Hao Ren decided to change the subject. He turned to Lily and said, "You look pretty comfortable. Do you fly often?"

The Werewolf girl lazily raised her head and smiled. "I've ridden an early Stevenson airliner."

Hao Ren froze. "What's that?"

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

"I couldn't afford a plane ticket from the Republic of China era either." Lily waved her hand. "But I could sneak into the engine compartment. There was also the luggage rack. For the last stretch, I simply hung onto the outside of the plane. Security wasn't nearly as advanced back then, so no one checked those places very carefully. With my skills, avoiding ordinary people's eyes was easy. Landing at the destination was the difficult part. I had to jump off in advance. I wouldn't die from the fall, but it was still pretty scary."

Hao Ren immediately shouted, "Of course it was! A normal person who hitchhiked on planes like that would have died halfway there!"

Lily stuck out her tongue. "That's how I built up my experience. See? This bat is too rigid. Sometimes she isn't even as clever as I am. You just don't know how to make good use of your physical abilities."

Vivian turned her face away. "I don't think hanging onto the outside of a plane to avoid paying a fare is something to be proud of."

Despite saying that, she couldn't help discussing it with Lily. Their main topic was how to safely hang onto all kinds of human transportation. Lily taught Vivian how to sneak into luggage compartments and stow away, while Vivian told Lily how to hide from anti-aircraft artillery. To Hao Ren, it was all completely absurd. Still, no matter how ridiculous the subject was, the two mortal enemies had finally reached a temporary truce in this bizarre field. They were both quite interested in this sort of outrageous nonsense.

Watching Lily grin happily, Hao Ren thought that this Werewolf girl was probably far more capable than she appeared. Hanging onto the outside of a passenger plane while flying across part of China wasn't the frightening part. The frightening part was that she had dared to do it during the Republic of China era. Just how many shocking experiences lay behind this seemingly idiotic girl? Hao Ren thought about China's modern history and immediately decided not to think about it any further.

The rest of the journey passed in silence. The strange trio flew through the sky for eleven hours before finally arriving at their destination on a cool, breezy morning: Heathrow Airport in London.

Hao Ren dragged the nearly sleepwalking Lily and the energetic Vivian out of the terminal. He drew a deep breath of the cold air of a foreign land and slowly exhaled. It seemed no different from the air back home...

Vivian looked up at the sky. It was early morning, and dawn had yet to fully break. The weak sunlight was slowly spreading over the horizon, while a veil of mist covered the sky, making the already dim light seem even darker. The streets of a foreign land, the chilly morning breeze, and the faint sunlight behind the mist might have made an ordinary person feel depressed, but they were exactly to the taste of this Vampire girl. She nodded in satisfaction. "This kind of sunlight is just right. It's good for the skin. These past two days have been murder on me. Have you ever seen a member of the Bloodkin go out to sunbathe all day?"

Hao Ren turned and gave her an exasperated look. "Obviously not. Have you ever seen a member of the Bloodkin go out looking for work all day?"

Vivian awkwardly scratched her cheek, then tried to change the subject. "Um... speaking of which, the scenery here looks a little unfamiliar. Why doesn't it look much like the England I remember?"

Lily's eyes were still bleary with sleep, but she didn't forget to make a sarcastic remark. "You couldn't even afford a plane ticket before. How could you possibly know your way around an airport?"

Hao Ren suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of danger, and Vivian's next words confirmed his suspicion. "That's not what I mean. I mean... I remember this place being mostly wasteland or rocky beaches... assuming my Bloodkin sense of direction is correct."

Hao Ren nearly choked. He finally understood what had felt wrong since they set out. "When was the last time you came to England?!"

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

Hao Ren's mouth opened almost into a perfect circle, and he nearly fell flat on his backside. That was 1190!

Apparently, Hao Ren had studied world history fairly well.

"How can you be this idiotic too?" Hao Ren rubbed his chin and stared at Vivian incredulously. He had never imagined someone could be this muddled. If anyone could be this hopeless, it should have been an airhead like Lily.

"I've been alive for so many years. Can't you allow me to make a few mistakes in certain details?" Vivian tried to make her voice sound imposing, but in the end she lowered her head again. "You know I'm a little foggy when it comes to remembering things."

"So what do we do now?" Hao Ren felt completely lost. If someone who often traveled and had seen the world encountered this situation, perhaps it wouldn't be so bad. But Hao Ren was a genuine homebody and small-town nobody who had never gone far from home. Now, the only translator and guide he could rely on was just as lost as he was, while his mission was to find a "client" in a remote foreign village whose name couldn't even be found on a map—and whose name and appearance were both unknown. His first assignment since taking the job was proving rather troublesome.

Vivian gritted her teeth. "It's fine. At least I speak the language. That still makes me better than you, right?"

Hao Ren thought about it and decided she had a point. Although something still seemed off, all he could do was nod.