Chapter 35: On Foreign Soil
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As their flight took off, Vivian and Lily pretty much swapped personalities.
Normally, Lily was the lively one at home. She was always up and about, so driven by curiosity that she would stare at something for hours on end to learn about it. Chances are that she might just chew on pebbles to test their hardness if no one was around.
Vivian on the other hand, was the mature, collected one. Though she was stricken by a streak of misfortune, she still maintain a certain dignity characteristic of the vampire nobles. At least in comparison to Lily.
But now, the roles seemed to be reversed. Lily was lounging about waiting for meal services while looking up the inflight entertainment for something interesting. Vivian however, was having a ball! She was looking out the window in excitement, gaping as she saw the clouds passing her by. "Wow, it really does fly... and at such heights!" Vivian exclaimed.
It was Hao Ren's first time flying as well, and he could understand Vivian's excitement to a certain extent, but he couldn't help but wonder aloud "I thought you could fly? What's the surprise?'
"It's so different compared to when I'm flying myself" Vivian sneered. "Also, I don’t usually fly this high, too easy a target for stray thunderbolts. Besides, at such high altitude, the cold is no joke. There was once when I wanted to see the stars and flew a wee bit too high, I literally fell from the sky as a block of ice and almost got caught by the demon hunters. Rarely fly that high ever since."
Hao Ren raised his eyebrows "Then... you were flying low when you were travelling around the world last time? Weren't you afraid of getting shot down by bows and whatnots?"
"When I was travelling the world? I flew and walked since I'm much stronger than humans, and time was not an issue. It wouldn’t be a problem for me to walk from Europe to Asia and back again." Vivian said with a giggle. "Though at times I would still fly high, especially when hiding from those pesky hunters. They can't do much when I'm that high up."
"Speaking of bows, those are child's play, nothing to be afraid of. Even those Welsh longbowmen can't reach me. How far do you think arrows can fly anyway? That said... I did get shot down by an anti-aircraft gun once during World War Two..."
Hao Ren gawked at the revelation. Vivian sheepishly said "You humans are sure good at building this sort of murderous contraptions. Not too long ago your lots were fighting each other with rocks and sticks and were praying to gods to cure headaches. Didn't took you guys long to be shooting tonnes of steel up into the air. At that time I thought it was a new fancy catapult and almost took a shell right in the face. Luckily I managed to disperse with my bat form, otherwise I'd probably be the vampire who died the most hilarious death."
The experience of flying in a plane might have gotten the penniless Vivian a tad bit more excited than usual that she was revealing her embarrassing past one after another. At first, he was rather engaged by the conversation but half way through, he was gawking at Vivian’s tales. Some of it was so outlandish that Hao Ren wasn’t sure how to react.
When Vivian came to the part where some old chap she knew in North America got killed by a meteorite, Hao Ren decided it was time to change topic and turned to Lily. "You seem like a seasoned flyer."
Lily looked up lazily and grinned "I had only been on those early Stinson models."
Hao Ren looked puzzled. "What are those?"
Vivian was readjusting herself on her seat when she heard, "That was during the era of the republic... How rich were you back then?"
"Those days I couldn't afford air tickets as well." Lily waved her hand "But I would sneak into aircrafts, hiding in the cargo hold, or just hanging outside the aircraft. Back then, security systems weren’t as advanced as they are now, and there were lots of place that were not checked. With my agility, avoiding a normal human’s sight is very easy. The only difficulty was landing, I did try jumping off once, it wasn't fatal but it was pretty scary."
Hao Ren immediately retorted "Nonsense, most people would be dead trying to pull that stunt of yours"
Lily stuck her tongue out in defiance, "Well, at least I learned and adapted from experience. That's why I said, that that bat is too stiff. Plus, she is not at as smart as me at times. She just don't know how to properly utilise her body."
Vivian shrugged "I don't think hanging outside an airplane to avoid paying fare is something to be proud off."
That said, Vivian couldn't help but to talk more about it with Lily. Their chatter mainly revolved around how one could safely hang oneself outside human transportations. Lily was going on about how one could hide in a cargo hold while Vivian gave pointers on how to dodge anti-aircraft missiles. It was pretty much hogwash to Hao Ren, but at least this talk gave these two who are always at loggerheads a common ground: They share interest in pulling off outlandish stunts.
Looking at Lily's cheerful face, Hao Ren was sure that this werewolf is much more competent than she looks. Being able to hang outside an aircraft half-way across China wasn't very surprising for a werewolf. What was impressive was her resourcefulness despite her usual derpiness. He could only imagine her untold tales and escapades, but immediately decided against it.
After that, it was a quiet eleven hours flight for the trio. Before long, they landed at their destination, Heathrow Airport.
As they stepped out of the plane, Hao Ren had to drag along Lily, who was half-asleep while Vivian walked out looking fresh. He took the opportunity to breathe in the air deeply and found it no different than that back at home.
Vivian looked up. As it was still early dawn, the skies were still dark. There was a veil of mist that shrouded the air, making the sky much darker than it was. Being in a foreign land, beset by cold winds and gloomy skies, it's usually not something tourists look forward to, but this was much to Vivian's taste.
"This illuminance is just nice for my skin. The past two days was hell! Have you ever see a vampire sunbathe in broad daylight?"
Hao Ren rolled his eyes. "Have you ever see a vampire out and about hunting for jobs?"
Vivian turned away in embarrassment. Trying to change the topic of the conversation, she said, "Hmm.... this place looks very different from the England I remember...."
A very groggy Lily still managed to stab at Vivian. "You couldn't even afford air tickets the last time, what makes you think you remember how the airport even looked like?'
Dread befell Hao Ren. Vivian quickly interposed and said, "That’s not it, last I remember, this area was supposed to be an empty plot of land, or a rocky beachhead... if my vampiric memories are correct."
Something suddenly dawned upon Hao Ren, the tingling unease when they departed earlier came to a head. "When was the last time you came to England?"
Vivian took some time to ponder and slowly lowered her head "I remember then there was this king called Lionheart fighting a war...."
Hao Ren's jaw fell and he exclaimed, "That’s freaking 1190!" Well, at least he knew his history well.
"How then you be so unsure?" He couldn’t help but to look at Vivian in astonishment. He never thought that one could be this forgetful, like Lily.
"I've lived for so long, can't I have the liberty of remembering something wrongly?' Vivian tried to defend herself defiantly, but then relented. "And you do know that my memory is not that strong..."
"Now what?" Hao Ren scratched his head. He was not an experienced traveller and was ill-prepared for this trip. Vivian, who was supposed to be his guide and translator was about as clueless as he is concerning the lay of the land. Not to mention their mission was to locate a client with an unknown name and looks in a small, nameless, and uncharted village. His first mission did not turn out to be the cakewalk he initially thought it would be.
"At least I have a better command in English compared to you, right?" Vivian shrugged.
Hao Ren had his doubts, but he could say nothing and just nodded.
Chapter 36: Struggling in a Foreign Land
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It’s a known fact that if a person questionable credibility tells you to leave everything to him or her, you shouldn’t expect much of the outcome, it was already a bit too late when Hao Ren learnt this. He was stunned and realized how unprepared he was for this trip when Vivian started speaking in the ancient Anglo-Saxon English.
A dizzy landlord, a gullible werewolf who was asleep as if half-dead, and a seemingly dependable vampire who turned out to be quite useless, found themselves lost in a foreign land with no means of communication. As they had not thought of the possibility of encountering a language barrier, they didn’t care to look up the directions on the web. Had he foreseen this, he would have asked the airport staffs for assistance. The least they could do, even with the language barrier, was point him to the nearest embassy. Unfortunately, this matter had not cross the minds of this trio.
Vivian, with her ancient accent was trying to communicate with an old local chap. Hao Ren, confused by her accent, could only look on with pity as the old man, a native English speaker, struggled to converse with her as she bombarded him with series of "What?".
"Give him a break, Vivian" Hao Ren gave Vivian a nudge. "The English that you are speaking is a very ancient form of the language. Do you know that it is totally different from the English we converse in these days?"
Vivian looked distraught "How could the language change so much? I was just using the older form of the language. Now, even the pronunciation had changed so drastically?"
Hao Ren took a long sigh "When you were born, humans were still living in caves and grunting in their conversations. How silly can you be, seriously?"
"I'm not that OLD alright?" Vivian glared at Hao Ren. "Those people were part of the Jurassic era!"
Upon seeing them arguing, the aged gentleman stepped in to stop the squabble. He maintained his composure even after all the trouble Vivian put him through, a real gentleman. He grabbed Hao Ren's arm and went. "Chinese? Are you Chinese?"
Hao Ren blinked and thanked the heavens that he still remembered some of the English from his school days and quickly nodded.
The old gentleman smiled and pointed towards a young lad in uniform. Hao Ren and Vivian instantly understood his intention.
Hao Ren and Vivian sheepishly looked at each other and thanked the old gentleman and quickly dragged along Lily, who was still asleep standing, to the service counter. The staff was a good lad dressed in a smart uniform. The moment Vivian got to him, she started going. "%￥@@%￥#￥#%￥@?"
Hao Ren quickly pushed Vivian aside and smiled at the young man and spoke in mandarin, "Uhh, sorry my man, do you know about...." He stopped half way through as realized that the young man might not be able to catch what he was saying with his native slang and switched to a more standard form of Mandarin. "Good day, I can't speak English. I need to go somewhere. May I know who can I seek help from?"
As he listened to Hao Ren, the boy frowned a little as he tried to construct a sentence in Mandarin in his mind. He then quickly smiled as he reverted back to his professional facade and pointed towards the car park. "There... there are a few Chinese among those taxi drivers... go... go ask if they can help you." Said the boy as he struggled to pronounce the last few words of the sentence with a weird intonation.
Hao Ren happily thanked him and headed quickly for the car park. He never thought that the vampire who could outargue Arthur Pendragon was pretty much useless when she was needed the most. Her crowning accomplishment was to puzzle a poor old Briton and in the end it was Hao Ren who had to ask for directions in Madarin…
Life was definitely much more interesting compared to novels as it is not reasonable at all for most of the time!
"You can continue sleeping once we get to the hotel, hang in there." Hao Ren said as he tapped Lily on the shoulder. All he heard was a light snore. This dumb werewolf really didn’t let her surroundings disrupt her biological clock. The wee hours in London was about the same time as Lily's naptime back at home. She was so sleepy that she couldn't even open her eyes. At that point, she was pretty much following Hao Ren around with her eyes closed while putting her acute sense of smell to good use as she stayed right behind him, much to his surprise.
Not before long the trio arrived at the carpark looking for the Chinese taxi drivers. While they sure look the part, most of them were actually British born Chinese, and spoke only a little Mandarin. They were clueless when they saw the address that Hao Ren wrote in Mandarin.
Lucky for him, one of them can converse in Mandarin at a decent level. He was exhausted from all the inconveniences of being in a foreign country. The glee of suckering Raven 12345 into giving him a huge sum of money for the trip had faded by now. He quickly realized that this is one hell of a mission, one that would drain the life out of you. It seems that Raven was dead serious when she said she would put her employee’s capability to the test!
It won't be surprising if Raven12345 had actually thought of the part where Hao Ren, after getting that huge sum of money, would lose his head and go travelling without much planning.
There was another possibility that Raven12345 thought it would be a good time for Hao Ren to get used to the two bungling numbskulls by his side.
Though they were rather ill-prepared for the trip, Hao Ren still remembered to book a hotel beforehand. As he was given huge sum for this trip, he booked a suite at this rather high class hotel which, on their homepage, advertised their multilingual staffs who are supposedly proficient in Mandarin, ensuring the quality of service even to Chinese tourists. At this point, Hao Ren no longer give a toss about the quality of service, he just hoped that the staff could show him to his room without much hassle. After which he would contact Raven12345 for any pointers for the mission.
After an hour plus ride in the taxi with the taxi driver with a decent command in Mandarin, the trio finally arrived at the hotel in Central London. After they got out of the cab and paid the fare (Hao Ren wasn't sure if he got ripped off or not, he couldn't care less at this point.) Vivian looked up to the bright sky and went, "So many years had passed huh, back then there weren’t that many houses around."
"Didn't you say that humans were still living on trees when you first came to Europe?" Hao Ren spat at Vivian as he held Lily who could barely stand straight. "You've lived so long. How did you missed the difference between the lifespan of a vampire and that of a human? We are in so much trouble today because I put too much hope in you."
Vivian frowned sternly. "I have a good temper, but I still have the pride and dignity of a vampire noble, your constant mockery towards my nobility is..."
"Pay up next month's rent then."
"... You can say whatever you want, as a noble I won’t be calculative with you."
Hao Ren was speechless.
It was his first encounter with a noble who was pushed to desperation by her monthly rentals.
"As planned, let’s rest a day or two, to get rid of the jetlag, reorganize and collate information we have. After that I'll be reporting in to Raven12345. Hao Ren took a deep breath and sighed, "Based on the address provided by Raven 12345, finding it will not be a walk in the park."
Walking towards the hotel entrance, the trio was unaware of the brief, yet intent gaze of a shadowy figure at one of the windows on the sixth floor of the hotel as it quickly drew the curtains back, just as quickly as he pulled them back for a peek.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
10 Power
stone 
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