The Record of Unusual Creature

Hao Ren had no idea how normally nymph came into being. He suspected that it would have to probably undergo a process of worldview-reshaping and developing new habits. Anyway, there was a stupid cat in his house as a reference: everyone spent the whole day trying to help the cat build a new worldview, but none did the trick.

The cat-maiden was still bigoted as usual, bad behaviours included but are not limited to rolling on the cushions in the living room, wearing shoes on the sofa, squatting on the coffee table, and nagging everyone for dried fish.

Later, when the others had returned home, they joined the ‘educating Rollie’ bandwagon. As a result, the cat ran to the roof to find some serenity.

Without making any headway after a whole day, Hao Ren was drained physically and mentally by cat-maiden. It was only until the time of dinner that he stopped.

Vivian had prepared a table full of food. The strange family—except Big Beardy who was grilling wild rabbit outside—sat around the table starting the most pleasant and enjoyable moment of the day: dinner. Y’lisabet held a bowl that was larger than her head, devouring food in a way that mimicking her dad, and at the same time sharing her fun experience of wandering outside earlier today. There was no temperament of The Princess of the Devil could be observed in her.

The little girl and Y’zaks had become celebrities in Southern Suburbs. Firstly, Y’zaks’ face was a well-known landmark in part of the town. Several police officers from the local police station had checked the list of criminals before confirming that this big guy was harmless. The surrounding residents slowly warmed up to his demonic look. In contrast, Y’lisabet, who looked like a little angel, was always seen always to follow behind Y’zaks, collecting discarded old home appliances on the street. You could imagine how viral the topic had become in the area.

The angel and demon combo had become an instant hit of street performing art, even if they were not at it. The fact that they always roamed around town was not helping either.

Southern Suburbs was originally a quiet, tiny town. The folks were always hungry for topic of interest to quench their boring life. So when Y’zaks and Y’lisabet appeared for the first time, they caused a sensation. Hao Ren did not witness it, but from what he had heard, it was quite lively: the anti-kidnapping squad had come thrice, and the city’s public security bureau had come twice. There was once when the two of them came to an old street intersection, five Liberation Army veterans were tailing them but pretending to be mooching around—but all them had a walkie-talkies…

Fortunately, the fake ID Raven 12345 gave them were convincing enough.

In fact, there was no need for Y’zaks to find a job to support his family; let’s not mention the whole demonic city which was more than willing to support the demon king, even the unconditional reimbursement Raven 12345 gave to Hao Ren for the otherworldlings expenses could have easily supported everyone in the family. Collecting old appliances was entirely for his daughter’s interest. And the latter had actually built something out of that hobby. Y’lisabet claimed to have mastered the skill of repairing old washing machines, she was now taking up challenge to repair refrigerators and air conditioners. Her next goal was to rent a store in Southern Suburbs to open an appliance repair shop. She felt that this was the happiest career on earth. After a few years, she intended to start learning about some professional skills such as imperialism…

It was not known how she linked these two things together, probably it was a special logic of the demon princess.

Anyway, the little girl’s plan was dismissed by her dad from the very beginning: minor was not allowed to register for business permit. Even if she was given an adult identity, the little girl was only a little more than a meter and three—while standing on her toes…

While listening to the bragging of the demon princess, Hao Ren Ren looked sideways: a girl with cat’s ear and tail was squatting beside his feet, holding a cat bowl, gobbling food down its neck. In the eyes of the unsuspecting, it looked like a frenzied domestic violence. But there was a chair, she just did not want to use it!

“Can’t you just sit on the chair and eat?” Hao Ren patted her on the head. “And couldn’t you use the normal rice bowl? Didn’t I have prepared a bowl and chopstick for you?”

“Sit is uncomfortable,” said the Cat-maiden, without lifting her head. “And there was a familiar odour on the rice bowl. I don’t like to change it. Once changed, the food would become less tasty.”

Lily held her rice bowl and nodded repeatedly. “Well, the second point, I feel the same way. I used to have my own bowl because it had my scent. But I’ve changed. My old rice bowl had become an art and was sold to a Sichuan guy who dealt with collections of Republic of China era for thousands of yuan.”

“Look at you,” Vivian sneered at the must-have-own-rice-bowl habit. “This is an animal instinct, looks like you haven’t completely transformed. It was just a rice bowl from the Republic of China—have you ever used bronze tripod for cooking?”

That was the reason why Hao Ren had always felt it hard to chime in their conversation.

But Hao Ren was not the only one who found it hard to join in. Nangong Sanba, who was now the personal instructor of demon hunting fish staying temporarily in Hao Ren’s house had hard time interpose. At present, he was still trying to adapt to the group’s way of life, not knowing whose conversation he should butt in to. So he rather gave Lil Pea an impromptu lesson. He pulled out a rune card and pointed it with a chopstick, teaching Lil Pea to read the runes. “This are Letta Runes which every demon hunter must learn. This symbol means ‘fire’…”

Lil Pea patted her tail happily and when reached forward and took a large bite of the rune card. Nangong Sanba was startled.

“I suggest you don’t teach her using the rune card. If you have to teach her the runes, then you should change your props.” Nangong Wuyue looked up and said. “It’s not that you don’t know she likes to eat wood fibre. Oh, by the way, she is biting your chopsticks now.”

When Nangong Sanba came to his senses, the chopstick in his hand had been gnawed in half.

After the dinner, everyone went to their own business. Rollie had taken the sofa as her territory and began to flip channels looking for her favourite pet show. This time, she was doing it in front of everyone. Hao Ren went up and poke the cat’s head. “You may sleep in Wuyue’s room tonight. Tomorrow I will clean up the room on the westernmost corner on the first floor for you.”

The cat-maiden was confused. “Why is it?”

Hao Ren was more confused by her question this time. “Of course it is your room. You can sleep there. Aren’t without your own room now?”

The cat-maiden pointed her tail to a shadow on the corner of the stairs. “Bed.”

Hao Ren looked up and saw a basket covered with velvet blankets. It was a cat bed Rollie used to sleep in. He forced a smile and said, “That’s for cat. Can you still fit in that bed?”

The cat-maiden hurried over and tried laid herself in the cat bed but she almost broke the basket. She came back up with a crying face. “Oh, I could no longer fit in. I’ll sleep on the blanket tonight, you make me a new bed!”

“No! You have to sleep in bed from now on!” Hao Ren eyeballed her. “Sleep in bed. Learn to wear pyjamas. Wash your face in the basin. And not roll on the mat. You must learn all these!”

The cat-maiden began to lose patience as she listened. She yawned lazily, wriggled and climbed up to the cushion beside the stairs before curling herself up and dozed off.

Hao Ren’s attempt at teaching the cat had failed again.

Lily suddenly came up to Hao Ren out of nowhere and patted on Hao Ren’s shoulder. “Relax and take it easy. She would eventually learn about human life. Don’t you see I was very dignified and elegant while in front of outsiders?”

Hao Ren eyeballed Lily and said, “Could you please not add to yourself those non-existent settings?”

“I only go bananas in front of acquaintance.” With arms across her chest, Lily rolled her eyes before ambling out. “As a senior, I have to share with her my experience.”

Well, after Rollie became a humanoid, she lost her deterrent power against Lily. Now this husky could act like a boss.

Hao Ren was not interested in the cat and dog affair and went to the basement looking for Vivian: He wanted Vivian’s help to look at the lifeblood samples. The latter certainly had not hit the sack yet.

As he came to the basement, he found Vivian was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding a finely crafted wooden box in a daze.

“What are you doing?” Hao Ren casually asked.

“This is the box that Pavel gave me,” Vivian said, lifting the wooden box. “According to him, I gave it to him in a very solemn manner. The box must be very important, but I couldn’t recall anything about it…I don’t know what was going on. I always feel that there is something in there.”