Hao Ren had compiled a report of what he saw and heard in Athens, especially about the Sacred Relic of Origins and The Day of Return and sent it to Raven 12345. He was idle at home now. But he was planning to study the stuff he had brought out from the sanctuary once the research facility was ready.
The research lab wasn't on Earth, though.
The Sacred Relic of Origins he had brought back from the ruins was huge, his house was too small to fit that thing in. Besides, there were other samples waiting to be analysed, he needed a dedicated research facility which was hidden and could stand even natural disaster. He had thought of many options; underground factory, coal mine and places like that, but they were unrealiable. Drawing from the mistake of the sorcerers who were blown to high heaven by explosive in their sleep in a cave, he made up his mind; he was going to place his lab as far away as possible, for example, on his spacecraft in Kuiper Belt.
Living on Earth, doing research on Kuiper Belt; Hao Ren felt this was something he could brag about: look, my house is big, isn't it? Everytime I wake up in the morning, I've to use the gateway to go from my bedroom to the lab; the rocket was way too slow...
So, last night, he had fixed a teleportation device in the basement. He felt he had become more familiar with the job, had more experience. He had to travel frequently, some time with his tenants, to his spacecraft. The MDT wasn't a good choice, it was uncomfortable, and his physical presence was needed to do the teleporting; with the these limitations, he finally decided to install a dedicate gateway in his own house. When the gateway was up and running, he sent everything including the Sacred Relic of Origins which was in the dimensional pocket to the garage on the Petrachelys. The autonomous robots had already setup a scientific lab on the spacecraft. Everything was ready. The robot squids would conduct a preliminary analysis on Sacred Relic of Origins, and the onboard factory would make the necessary tools for research. Meanwhile, all Hao Ren had to do was wait—wait for the the lab report.
Hesperides had completely recovered from her 'millennial hole' in her head as the demon hunter spell was removed. Her only problem was she was weak as a baby: God's name had not only dispelled the demon hunter spell, it had also cancelled out Hesperides' magic strength. She might need a couple of days before she could regain her strength. Meanwhile, Vivian was hoping this old friend of her could stay a few more days while they could catch up on the old days. So Hesperides had really no choice but stay.
Of course, Hao Ren no problem with that since it would be on The Space Administration's expense. Furthermore, he couldn't wait for his house to achieve 100% occupancy rate.
Just as long as she didn't cause trouble.
It was nine something in the morning. Lily was out on house call. Y'zaks had gone for job interviews and was probably scaring the hell of out those pretty receptionists now. Becky and Nangong Wuyue, too, had gone out early in the morning, God knows where they were now. The house had a rare moment of serenity when those creatures weren't home—a perfect time for Hao Ren to do what he had to do as a dad: educate Lil Pea.
It had been some time since Lil Pea was hatched. Hao Ren had basically figure out the little mermaid's habits and character; aside from an occasional defiance, she was just like any other kids. Of course, in terms of cognition, she was out of the ordinary—she understood words not long after birth, her intelligence was clearly a few notches higher than that of human kids.
So Hao Ren had a busy day educating Lil Pea. He held her in his hand, staring at her little big eyes with a retarded smile on his face. "Say Dad-dee."
Lil Pea's braininess was obvious. She was a quick learner too. She wagged her tail and Hao Ren got two free slaps on the face. She then said in a crispy voice, "Say Dad-dee!"
Something must be wrong with his method, he thought. He awkwardly put the little one down and then pointed at himself. "Dad-dee!"
"OH."
Hao Ren; "....."
Both had word-wrestling for like half an hour. Now you see, raising children is hard labour, especially when the kid is clearly smarter than you. No one knew where the small fry learned her wittiness from!
But Hao Ren enjoyed it. In fact, he loved it. He liked to play the giddy goat with the little mermaid, enjoying the process while he taught. But Lil Pea got bored very quickly. She suddenly spotted something. She jumped down from the tea table, and scurried over to the TV cabinet and bit the power strip underneath. Hao Ren was totally overwhelmed by her cuteness, his heart blooming with joy. "Hey... look at you. But that thing isn't edible, you know!"
He had to pluck Lil Pea down from the power strip and was shocked to discover the copper internal exposed.
"You should've taught her life skills and she won't be so defiant." Vivian said, coming up with an intarsia box in her hand. "Didn't the Goddess say when the going gets tough, tough gets mermaid going? Lil Pea might still have teeth grinding habit; I saw her biting the cooking gas cylinder this morning only to find that it was too hard a thing to gnaw."
Hao Ren had cold sweat flowing down his forehead. He asked, "The kid was so brutal?"
Vivian nodded before taking out a tape measure to scale Lil Pea. The little one laughed and flinched from the itch. Vivian threw Hao Ren a look and said, "Please keep her still."
Hao Ren held her still, but asking, "What're you going to do?"
"Make her a couple of new dresses." She measured her chest, and length. "Haven't you discovered she had grown a little?"
Speaking of which, he realised indeed Lil Pea felt a little weighty than before. He asked, "Does mermaid grow taller, or longer?"
Vivian looked down at Lil Pea, exhanging a look, before saying, "...longer, I guess."
With eyes blinking and staring at the adults, Lil Pea flapped her tail a few times as if telling them, yes, she had grown longer.
A sudden jingle came from the back door and a flash of white light shone through the narrow window beside the back door.
While Hao Ren was wondering what happened, the MDT had already called out happily, "Hey, hey, it's your pay day. Quickly check it out. Your new ride has arrived!"
Hao Ren's face lighted up. He had earlier asked for a car he needed for local mission usage. But he put the matter on the back burner after that; he figured if Raven 12345's style was anything to go by, it would be months before anything concrete would be done. But thing was surprisingly quick this time.
With Lil Pea still in his arms, he dashed out of the back door. His new car was already waiting on the vacant spot just at the back of his house.
Hao Ren: "....."
"This is good stuff." The MDT had followed him to the back of the house, talking like a shrewd businessman. "Inspector isn't supposedly entitled to a car, but Ma'am Raven had asked one of her friend to design one for you. It's a special privilege. The car has a strong shield, much stronger than what you have on your body. The entire car structure is built using aerospace-grade alloy, light-weight yet strong. Power source is a military-grade psionic reactor, you won't have to worry about refueling until the end of the world. It has got bold lines and looks graceful too, panaromic-view cockpit, CVT transmission, smart satnav, climate control, space expansion device, and most important of all it looks perfectly earthly so you don't have to worry about attracting unwanted attention..."
Hao Ren was still silent. When the MDT finished, he flung it out with a snap. "Please tell me what the heck is this design?"
The MDT replied, still was on its way out, "What's under the hood is more important!"
"Hood my foot! This thing can't even go on to the Third Ring Road!" Hao Ren was mad. "Don't you know tricycle is banned from entering the city?"