Normally, if Lily wanted to flee, no one in the house would be able to stop her, not even Y'zaks with his brute strength. Obviously, Lily was not that determined this time; firstly, she was sort of looking forward to Vivian's folk remedy, hoping that it would work somehow; secondly, Vivian flicked her ear—her deadly weak spot.
"I'm telling you, not many have the chance to experience such privilege. You'll be shocked to know how many bald men I've saved using this hair loss remedy of mine." Vivian was grabbing Lily by her ear. "It's my blood in there. My precious blood! I would never give my blood to anyone even if those little a**holes from the Blood Clan came begging on their knees, much less a werewolf like you. I'm doing this because we're staying under the same roof."
Lily covered her ear, trying to dodge Vivian. "Okay, okay, I know. I give in. How do I use it?"
"Apply externally." Assured that Lily was not going to run away, Vivian loosened her grip. She yanked out two brushes and gave one to Hao Ren. "It's much easier to treat human loss hair. Simply apply this on the scalp and it's done. But for you... I bet you won't let me shave your fur, so I might as well brush the cream over your tail and wrap it up in a bandage. You can see how it goes after half a day."
Lily nodded but still remained suspicious. With Hao Ren's help, Vivian brushed the mushy, weird-smelling subtance all over Lily's tail. The husky was very cooperative. She turned around and lay face down on the couch, mumbling, "Do it slowly, dudes. It's my precious tail. I've never bit it myself."
Hao Ren carefully brushed the medication over her fluffy tail, feeling strange and awkward about it. He could not believe the fact that he was giving the female monster a hair massage. But, he forced a smile anyway as his hand grabbed onto the end of her tail . "Do you let anyone touch your tail like that normally?"
"No way!" Lily turned and looked at him, gnarling. "But since it's you, it's okay. But first, you must have my permission. Battie too. You can't simply touch it like it belongs to you, or else I'll bite.
"So pretentious." Vivian sneered as she applied the last bit of cream on her tail evenly. She then went to get the bandage. Lily jumped down from the couch and looked over her shoulder at her tail, which was now covered in an oily, greenish-yellow substance. The fur on her tail was now crumpled together. She could not help but sigh and lament. "Life is hard. Even a hero is on his knees in the face of adversity. A ferocious werewolf like me has to rely on a hair restorer to keep my dignity from shedding away..."
Then, she wagged her tail ferociously as though it would her look more imposing that way. The stench assaulted Hao Ren's nose and he rolled his eyes. Oh spare me, you're just a husky .
When she was not talking, she at least looked a bit elegant. But the moment she opened her mouth, the amount of retardation just went through the roof.
Vivian finally returned with the bandage. She wrapped Lily's tail up like a baseball bat. As Lily swung it forcefully, it sounded like a kung fu monk practising his baton—before that afternoon, Lily was unable to experience the joys of wagging her tail, unless she was prepared to smash some furniture.
"Don't retract your tail, I'm warning you," Vivian reminded the dumbbell. "The medication and bandage will fall off and go to waste if you do that."
Acknowldeging her advice with a sorrowful face, Lily went ahead to complain about her sorry life by the window.
Hao Ren was pondered about the situation. "Does this thing even work?" he asked Vivian.
"It works for hair loss." Vivian noded frantically. "Not sure about hair loss on dogs, though. But, I guess it'll work. Don't worry, this thing's nutritious and it's got my blood in it. At the very least, it'll keep her from shedding. You have no idea how difficult it is to clean up her fur on the couch."
Hao Ren nodded in silence.
The afternoon seemed to pass by very quickly. Hao Ren went sauntering outside, passing his time by chatting with his few remaining neighbours about the weather and similar stuff. He came home before sunset and found Lily still there with head on her hand, resting miserably on the window sill. The maiden had been at the same spot for the entire afternoon. Hao Ren saw her tail, which was wrapped up like a baseball bat and could not help laughing. He then called her out, "Lily, what's on your mind?"
"Oh!" Stunned, Lily woke up from her deep thought. She turned around and hid her tail behind her. It was like the tail she had been always proud of was now a source of shame. "Landlord, you're back?"
"It's about time." Vivian, who just came out of the kitchen was rubbing her hands. She nodded at Hao Ren and pointed towards Lily's back. "Now, let's remove the present's wrapping. How do you feel, by the way?"
"It's kind of hot, stuffy and uncomfortable," Lily said, very frankly. She flung her tail, and the bandage just came off and fell to one side. When she turned her head around, she almost cried. "Battie, you goddamn liar! It's gotten worse!"
Her tail had turned a greenish-yellow after soaking in the herbal medication. As the cream dried up, it broke into smaller chunks and stuck on her tail. Lily felt like eating someone alive. But, Vivian just glared at her. "Rinse it off first," she said.
Lily then came to her senses. Nangong Wuyue, who had been watching the episode for the entire day came up enthusiatically to help. She summoned a water ball and cleaned the dreg off Lily's tail before drying it for her. Lily turned to look at her new tail using a magnifier she had yanked out from god-knows-where. She immediately jumped up in joy. "It worked! It worked! The fur's growing!"
Hao Ren jumped to his feet too. "Please take care of my ceiling!"
Head covered in plaster, Lily grabbed Vivian by her hand. "Battie, Battie! Do you have some more?"
"How much do you want?"
"How much do you have?"
"As much as you want!" Vivian pointed at the kitchen. "It's in the pot."
Lily scurried into the kitchen. "Give me as much as you have!"
It sounded like the two of them were exchanging secrets. Hao Ren stared haplessly at the new hole in the ceiling, feeling depressed: Lily had not caused any damage for the past month and he thought life was finally going to become easier. Unfortunately...
Vivian heard a buzzing sound in the kitchen and something came to her mind. She looked at the kitchen and called out to Lily, "Don't overuse it! And apply it evenly! It's got the power of my blood, overusing will cause—"
Before Vivian could finish, Lily had exited the kitchen. Her tail was wrapped in a thick layer of bandage again. However, this time it looked more like a drumstick.
Lily's face was all smiles. "I've used all of it!"
Vivian thought about warning Lily of the side effects, but decided against it—the husky may just have a good drug-resistant body. She waved and said, "Let's see the results tomorrow. If you feel hot, just take it off."
Lily nodded enthusiastically and scampered back into her room. "I'm going to do some writing! Alert me when dinner's ready!"
It looked like the husky was fine now. However, Hao Ren had a feeling that something was not right. But before he could talk about the herbal remedy with Vivian, the MDT got out from his pocket and sounded the siren. "Emergency! Emergency! The Space Administration is calling for the First Inspector of the Milky Way in the Kuiper System—"
"What's up?" Hao Ren asked.
"The owner of the wreckage in The Plane of Dreams has been found," the MDT said as it played the sound of an impassioned victory march in the background. "Their delegates have departed, and they will arrive in Kuiper Station tomorrow afternoon or the next day. Apparently, the spacecraft's owner is an exploration and mercantile consortium. It just obtained recognition recently."
Hao Ren had no idea what exploration and mercantile consortium meant. Nevertheless, he felt a sense of relief; the spacecraft had finally found its owner.
He hoped that everything had been good in The Plane of Dreams during the past one month.