As it turned out, whenever someone who was bizarre in every possible way confidently told you that she had everything covered, you basically couldn't count on anything. Hao Ren realized this truth rather late, so it wasn't until Vivian asked the locals for directions in authentic Old English that he stood there completely dumbfounded, deeply suspecting that he had been far too hasty in preparing for this trip.
A confused little landlord, a werewolf who was nearly asleep on her feet but still struggling to walk upright, and a vampire who normally seemed reliable but was utterly useless at critical moments—the three of them had confidently arrived in a foreign country only to encounter an unprecedented crisis: they didn't know the way, couldn't speak the language, and, because they hadn't made the necessary preparations before setting out, hadn't even looked online to find out whom to ask for directions when they couldn't communicate. Of course, inexperience also played a part. Hao Ren was a little disoriented; he hadn't even thought of asking the airport staff for help. In theory, even if the staff here couldn't pass a Chinese proficiency exam, they should at least have been able to tell him how to get to the nearest embassy. Yet this hopeless fellow simply hadn't thought of it.
Vivian spent quite some time speaking in a bizarre accent with an elderly local man who happened to be passing by. Hao Ren stood beside her in a daze, listening to ancient English that had probably died out who knew how many centuries ago. The old man Vivian had stopped was even more stunned than he was. The poor elderly gentleman had lived all these years only to be questioned in his own country's native language—genuine native language—until all he could say was, "What?"
"Stop trying," Hao Ren tugged Vivian back. "Your English was used around the year 1100. Do you know how different the accents of people from a thousand years ago could be from those of modern people? Go home and look up the pronunciation of Ancient Chinese, and you'll understand."
Vivian looked utterly dejected. "How did it change so much? I thought only the surrounding environment had changed. Surely the way people spoke should at least have stayed the same. At most, what I said should be equivalent to Classical Chinese to them... How did even the pronunciation change?"
Hao Ren let out a long sigh. "When you were born, humans still mostly communicated through roars of varying lengths and vigorous chest-beating. Even if you're usually muddleheaded, you can't possibly have never thought about that, can you?"
"I'm not that old, all right?" Vivian glared at him. "That was the age of primitive humans!"
The British old gentleman, thoroughly bewildered by Vivian, saw that the young man and woman seemed to be arguing and hurried over to mediate. He was quite the gentleman; even after being tormented for so long by what sounded almost like an alien language, he still didn't lose his temper. Tugging at Hao Ren's arm, the old man repeatedly asked, "Chinese? Are you Chinese?"
Hao Ren blinked. Fortunately, he hadn't completely discarded the little English he knew along with his teacher's lessons, so he nodded vigorously.
The patient old gentleman smiled and raised a hand, pointing toward an open space beside the terminal. Several airport employees in uniform stood there. Even Hao Ren and Vivian should have figured it out by then, no matter how slow they were.
Hao Ren and Vivian exchanged an awkward glance and thanked the gentleman repeatedly. Then they dragged Lily, who was sleeping upright, over to the airport staff. The person they approached was a rather handsome young man. His uniform was neat, and he looked full of energy. Vivian stepped forward and immediately asked, "%￥@@%￥#￥#%￥@?"
Hao Ren shoved the useless-at-critical-moments vampire aside, then smiled amiably at the puzzled airport employee. "Excuse me, do you know how to..." Halfway through, he suddenly realized that probably wouldn't work, so he slowed down and switched to more standard Mandarin. "Hello, I can't speak English. I want to go somewhere. Who should I ask?"
The airport employee listened with a frown, slowly working through the sounds in his head. Then he put on a professional smile, pointed toward the parking lot in the distance, and said in very clumsy Chinese, "There. Taxi drivers have several Chinese people. Go... go... let him help you."
Clearly, the airport employee couldn't force out anything more.
That was already quite satisfactory. Hao Ren happily thanked the airport employee, then turned toward the parking lot, unable to stop himself from sighing inwardly. Who would have thought that the vampire who supposedly could win any verbal battle against Arthur Pendragon hadn't been useful in the slightest? Her "English" had merely confused a foreign friend, and in the end, he had asked for directions in Chinese...
Life really was more exciting than novels, because life didn't bother with logic at all!
"We'll sleep after we get to the hotel. Hang in there a little longer." Hao Ren turned around and patted Lily on the shoulder, but the only response he received was a string of soft snores. This thickheaded werewolf girl never let anything disrupt her biological clock. It was early morning in London, which was exactly when Lily would have been taking her afternoon nap back home. She was so sleepy that she couldn't keep her eyes open, following behind Hao Ren in a state of snoring with her eyes closed. Fortunately, her keen five senses as a wild animal hadn't disappeared. Lily followed Hao Ren and Vivian, slightly twitching her nose as she walked with her eyes shut, relying on their scent to keep track of them. She somehow didn't get lost...
Hao Ren quickly found the "Chinese taxi drivers" the airport employee had mentioned. Their skin color did match, but after finding several, he discovered that they were all native locals: British Chinese. Their command of Chinese was only slightly better than the airport employee's, and they stared at the address Hao Ren had copied out in Chinese characters as if it were a heavenly book...
After another long ordeal, they finally found someone whose Chinese was barely good enough. Hao Ren felt completely exhausted. All the inconveniences of being away from home in a foreign country came flooding into his mind. Only then did the initial excitement of "getting a huge budget and going abroad on a publicly funded vacation" gradually fade. He realized that this really was a mission—a mission that drained both body and mind. Raven 12345 had said she wanted to train the new employee's ability to get things done, and she certainly hadn't been exaggerating!
Raven 12345 had probably calculated from the very beginning that, after receiving a large budget and an opportunity to travel abroad on public funds, Hao Ren would immediately become carried away and leave without planning anything.
Of course, there was another possibility: Raven 12345 had known from the start that Hao Ren had two people around him who were good at ruining things but incapable of accomplishing anything, and she was using this opportunity to let him get used to them in advance...
Although many things hadn't been properly prepared before they left, Hao Ren at least knew to reserve a hotel online in advance. Since they had plenty of funding, the hotel he booked was fairly high-end. At least, its official homepage stated that the hotel staff spoke several foreign languages and could provide Chinese tourists with quality service. At this point, Hao Ren no longer dared to hope for quality service; he only hoped the staff could successfully lead him to his room. Once they reached somewhere quiet, the first thing he would do was contact Raven 12345 and see if he could get some help with the mission.
After being driven around for nearly another hour by a Chinese driver whose language skills were barely passable, the three of them finally entered central London and arrived at the hotel they had reserved. After paying the full fare—Hao Ren no longer had the energy to worry about whether he had been overcharged—Vivian looked up at the sky, now completely bright with daylight, and sighed softly. "So many years have passed. When I came here back then, there weren't nearly this many buildings."
"Why don't you mention that humans were still living in trees the first time you set foot in Europe?" Hao Ren supported Lily, who was staggering from side to side, and grumbled at the useless vampire. "After living that long, how did you never properly think about the difference between your lifespan and a human's? Half the reason we ran into so much trouble today is that I placed too much faith in you."
Vivian frowned, her expression extremely serious. "I have a good temper, but I still possess the dignity of a high-ranking member of the Bloodkin. If you continue mocking me like this, it's an insult to nobility..."
"Pay next month's rent."
"Of course. The mouth is yours, after all. As a noble, I won't quibble over every little thing with you."
Hao Ren: "..."
This was the first time in his life he had seen a noble reduced to such a state by a month's rent!
"According to plan, we'll rest here for a day or two, get over the jet lag, and organize the information. I'll also submit a report to Raven 12345, then we'll set out on the second or third day." Hao Ren sighed. "The address Raven 12345 gave us is ridiculously remote. Based on our experience this morning, finding locals who know how to get there will probably be difficult."
The three of them walked toward the hotel entrance. Unnoticed by them, on the sixth floor, a curtain covering one of the windows was suddenly yanked open. A sharp gaze swept downward for several seconds, then the curtain fell back into place.
Before you continue