Hao Ren was having a lot of strange dreams tonight.
He dreamed of the wonderful scenes of the prehistoric times which he read in the Vivian's manuscript. He dreamed of the primordial humans survived the Ice Age and began hunting and planting on a warmer earth. He dreamed of an unknown change that had opened up the barriers that separated the two world, and sent the otherworldlings in exile on this blue little planet. He also dreamed of deity-like otherworldlings causing great changes in this world, and the frightened ancient people knelt in front of the miracles. He dreamed of the rise of the demon hunters, the collapse of the shrine of the ancient deities, the flourish of human cities, and then the demise of demon-hunters; heavy buildings constructed in rocks and mudstone replacing the light tower of magic, the power of steel and flame driving the world forward; people fought, assimilated, created, destroyed; machines ran and furnace burned, hot weapons replacing knight's sword as well as eliminating the last remnants of the otherworldlings. This blue planet was ruled by the powerful creatures of the other world for 10,000 years and eventually returned to the hands of the aborigines.
In each drawing, there was a woman who was always alone, like an unconcerned spectator witnessing from within. She flitted through the fire on the Great Wall, the gates of Troy, the coronation ceremony of Alexander the Great, and the London fire of 1666 aimlessly, watching the rapidly changing world and marvelling at it.
In the process, she was trapped in the uncontrollable, endless cycle of sleep and awakening like an eternally chaotic incarnation.
Hao Ren was so disturbed by these chaotic dreams that he woke up early in the morning and then gazed at the ceiling in a daze.
"What are these dreams about?" Hao Ren rubbed his eyes, squirmed trying to sit up. A sudden gust of wind blew from beside him as he was halfway sitting up. He managed to turn his head and saw a figure as agile as a cat pounced at him. He fell back in the bed. A maiden sat on his chest, then jumped up and down excitedly before she smacked Hao Ren's face with her paw, then lowered her head, biting his nose, pulling his hair and licking his ear…
Hao Ren was startled. It took him a few seconds before he came to his sense and scoffed, "Roll away!"
He forgot these words would only be counterproductive. As always, the maiden became even more excited.
She had thought Hao Ren was calling her name.
Hao Ren began to wrestle with his cat as he tried to push it away. It was used to be a common scene where Rollie habitually woke its master up using paws and weight. But now circumstance had obviously changed: the cat-maiden had transcended, and with the help of golden apple, her combat strength had got a big boost. She was no longer a namby-pamby whom Hao Ren could easily push away. He had a hard time now as the cat-maiden thought that Hao Ren was playing with her. The more he resisted the more excited she became, all hell broke loose in the room. Lil Pea who were sleeping in the pot on a small table nearby heard the noise and poked out from the pot and watched the drama in excitement, and cheered on Hao Ren.
The noise in the room caught the attention of others. Lily pushed the door open. "Mr. Landlord, what the noise is all about…"
Seeing Rollie lying on top of Han Ren, Lily was startled. "Wow, not even cat could escape your lascivious grab!"
As we have said many times before, this innocent-looking husky was actually quite dirty-minded.
Hao Ren blushed. He pushed Rollie off the bed with all his might. "We're not as what you think, okay? She was the one pinning me on the bed early in the morning."
Lily's face became even more amazing. "Oh, Mr. Landlord, you're the victim!"
Thanks to Lily, her voice had almost alerted everyone in the house in the quiet early morning. To Lil Pea, the drama was more fun than a barrel of monkeys as she splashed and yelled in her pot. Hao Ren managed to stop the chaos brought by the cat and the dog and took them into the living room and hauled them over the coals.
As naive as Lily was, she was a mentally and worldview matured—whether she was an adult werewolf was debatable. But Rollie was different. Even though she wore the skin and intelligence of a human, she was still a cat deep inside her, she did not know why Hao Ren was angry, she just felt that the teasing was very interesting, so she had decided to do it again tomorrow and she really wanted to have a dried fish right now.
To the cat, Hao Ren's reprimand had just fallen on deaf ear.
"So you can't just jump on me like that it in the future, you know?" Hao Ren squeezed Rollie's ear trying to get her behave. "Could you not play with your tail? You have to learn to be a human..."
Rollie lowered her head and rubbed Hao Ren's leg, and placed her tail into Hao Ren's hand as she knew Hao Ren liked to pinch his tail. "Let you pinch it, so you're happy."
Hao Ren: "....."
"Was she not in your room last night?" Hao Ren looked up at Nangong Wuyue. "How did you manage to slip into my room?"
"Do you think anyone can really guard this cat?" Nangong Wuyue rolled her eyes. "To make sure she stay in the bed for the first half night isn't already easy, how did you not realise she had slipped into your room?"
Hao Ren felt that Nangong Wuyue was somehow right. He was speechless.
"In terms of teaching the cat, there's still a long way to go." Vivian watched the farce with a smile. She seemed very calm.
As Hao Ren had stopped preaching, Rollie gave her body a little stretch before going away to find a place to nap.
Hao Ren let the cat be. He glanced at Vivian and said. "I have already reported your situation to Raven 12345. She should be replying in…"
Before he finished, a strange sound was suddenly heard in the living room.
A blue light flashed out of thin air, and then condensed into a tall humanoid. Everyone was astonished. Rollie turned around under the stairs and looked nervously at the light, her back curled and her tail straightened. If she was still in cat form, the hair on her back must have erected by now. However, when she discovered that the blue light looked familiar, she quickly calmed down and continued squirming on the mat.
"Big Bluey?" Hao Ren looked at the uninvited guest in surprised. "Why are you here?"
It was the arcane servant of Raven 12345. This weird energy creature handed a small silver-white pendant to Hao Ren and sounded a series of groans that no one could understand. "The Lord orders me to hand it over to you. This is a talisman capable of suppressing the mental disorder symptom. It's universal model."
Hao Ren instinctively looked at Vivian, then took the feathery talisman. The voice of Raven 12345 sounded in his head as soon as he touched the talisman. "Hey, Hao Ren, I've read your report regarding the bat-maiden. Now I'm giving you a talisman to calm her brain and prevent narcolepsy. It's pretty effective. Though it's a universal model, it will work on the bat. Of course, this is just a stopgap measure. I'll leave to you to find a safer, permanent solution to her problem. After all, she's your tenant and you're responsible for them. Oh, by the way, this time it's free postage."
Hao Ren: "….."
"This thing... is for treating my amnesia?" Vivian took the amulet over curiously. "It feels warm."
"It won't cure amnesia," said Hao Ren. "But it seems to be able to prevent you from falling into another uncontrollable sleeping state. So you can avoid more memory loss. It should also suppress your temper before you sleep, probably."
Vivian hesitated for a while before put the amulet on her neck. "I believe in the Goddess, her strength is always more reliable than you and me."