Hessiana and her sidekicks could never imagine that they would set off from Earth to Inferno by teleporting and then return in a spaceship. Life is indeed like a box of chocolates; you never know what you are going to get.
Later in the day, Hao Ren and his entourage arrived at their home in Southern Suburb.
Y’zaks was sunbathing with his daughter just outside the doorway when Hao Ren arrived with a handful of grocery, which was mainly Lily’s favorite pork ribs. Y’lisabet ran up to Hao Ren and greeted him with a bright smile on her face. Hao Ren shoved the stuff in his hands to Lily and patted Y’lisabet on her head. Though the trip to Inferno was not as dangerous as the previous trips, he was mentally drained. The feeling quickly went away when he arrived home.
He knew why he had this feeling; a lot of things had happened during the trip, and most importantly, it concerned Vivian. Dealing with the demon-god Vivian was exhaustive. He would have suffered mental trauma if not for him having the nerves of steel.
Others felt the same. As soon as they reached home, Nangong Sanba and Nangong Wuyue quickly breathed a sigh of relief. Even Vivian appeared to be more relaxed. The only oddball here was Lily, who did not display any emotional changes. As always, the husky ran to the door with bags of pork ribs in her hands cheerfully. Her happy-go-lucky attitude was almost at God’s level.
Probably, Y’lisabet was the only person who could rival Lily’s light-heartedness. The training her papa gave her had toughened her; blowing her up several hundred meters in the air was just a child’s play, for which she would happily say, “Whoa, that’s fun!”
Vivian smiled and whispered to herself, “Home sweet home.”
Hao Ren heard her whisper and smiled at her. “Yeah, we’ve been through many things. Let’s take a rest. I will ask Raven about your problem later.”
Hessiana’s brows knit together. She looked at Vivian and then Hao Ren, her face sad. “It’s finished. Vivian has regarded this place as her home now! She’s not going to care about me!”
Kassandra came up, let out a sigh and comforted her. “Master, take it easy! After all, Vivian has never cared about you.”
The rumor that people had wanted this vampire dead was probably true. She was a jerkette, who would probably die at the hand of Hessiana someday.
Everything was as usual in the house. With the Nangong couples taking care of the house, Hao Ren no longer had to worry about going to sleep in a pile of dust every time he returned from a business trip. The TV was on when he stepped into the house. There was a pair of pointed, white-haired cat ears sticking out above the sofa’s back and a long tail hanging at the side when looking from behind.
“Rollie!” he called out the heartless cat. “Oh, come on! Don’t glue to the idiot box all day long. We’re back!”
Dumb Cat peeked from the sofa, stretched out her hand that was in the shape of a ball and wave at Hao Ren with a meow. She then pointed her tail to the cat-food commercial on the TV. “Big Boss Cat, I want this! Buy me!”
“What a heartless fella! Don’t you know that I have just arrived home?” Hao Ren retorted.
“Meow.” The cat maiden shook her head as if she had figured something out. She jumped off the sofa without making a sound, sneaked over and rubbed her head against Hao Ren’s leg. “You want to play with my tail? It is fun! You have five minutes.”
Hao Ren did not know what more to say but groaned inwardly.
Y’zaks looked on, grinning. “She is not heartless; she is just getting along with you in her way.”
Hao Ren forced a smile, and petted and coaxed Rollie back to the sofa before going into the bathroom to look for Lil Pea. Soaking in the basin filled with water, Lil Pea seemed to have sensed the coming of Hao Ren. She got up eagerly and waited. As soon as Hao Ren appeared, the little mermaid spouted water all over his face. Hao Ren swept Lil Pea up in his hand and was slightly surprised by how much she weighed in his hand. “You have grown longer again, eh?”
“I have grown longer!” Lil Pea patted Hao Ren on his arm with her tail. “And shed scales too!”
“Shed scales?” Only then, Hao Ren noticed some small illuminants, which were the fine scales came off the mermaid’s tail, in the basin. It was slighter lighter in tone on some parts of her tail. It looked like new scales. “When did it begin?”
Lil Pea counted with her fingers and then replied loudly, “Three days! Not including today.”
Hao Ren carried her to the living room and asked Nangong Wuyue, “She’s shedding scales. You know that?”
“How on earth am I supposed to know?” Nangong Wuyue shot him a scornful look. “I was following you on all this while. Have you forgotten?”
Hao Ren had been confused. He smacked his forehead. At this time, Ayesha came out of the kitchen and heard their conversation. “It’s normal to lose scale. She is growing up, and the pattern on the tail is changing. Probably scale shedding is common during the transition from childhood to adolescence. I have been keeping an eye on her; the little one is as fit as a fiddle, and her new scales are completely different from the original ones, which are of two different physiological stages. It’s normal.”
Hearing a veteran deep-sea creature saying so, Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief. He held Lil Pea up and examined her for a long while, discovering that she was as energetic as before and that the shedding parts had regrown. It was a normal physiological phenomenon, he thought.
Seeing Hao Ren’s anxious look, Lily could not help but mutter, “Isn’t it normal? I, too, shed my hair twice a year and you have never been worried.”
“Come on! I have seen Mr. Zhao’s brown dog shedding hair for dozens of time since, but it’s my first time seeing mermaid shedding scales.” Hao Ren shot Lily a sideways glance. “Mermaid is different from fish, but growing back scales is new to me.”
Squirming on the sofa with her arms crossed, Lily recollected. “I thought my hair was a lifelong thing too. It scared the wit out of me when I had my first shedding. I thought I was going to die, and wanting to stick the hair back with glue. Childhood is memorable.”
Hao Ren looked at her with a strange look. “Have you not seen dogs shedding their hair before? Or did you live in a place where dogs didn’t exist?”
Still with her arms crossed, Lily said smugly, “I thought I was a werewolf at the time! And I thought after transcending; I wouldn’t have to shed hair again.”
Everyone was speechless.
Hessiana sat down on the sofa cautiously and listened to the weirdoes in the family talking about the senseless things. It was an atmosphere that had never existed in the Athens’ sanctuary. It lacked discipline, vigilance, stability, and controllability, but she felt an inexplicable feeling of longing for such feelings.
Vivian sat down beside her and asked casually, “You still have family business to attend to back home. So when are you going to leave?”
Hessiana was startled. She realized that she was not liked here, particularly by Vivian. She lowered her head slightly. “Yeah, I have to go… I will leave tomorrow. Can I stay for one more night?”
Vivian looked at Hao Ren and scratched her hair. “It’s okay. I want to say that it’s fine if you want to stay for a couple of days, but you have your family business needs you; after all, the Athens’ sanctuary isn’t that safe, and the demon hunters have been keeping an eye on you lot. You have to go back.”
Hessiana was stunned again. She could not believe her ears; Vivian invited her to stay! Even though this invitation was only as good as a cold shoulder, it was a pleasant surprise. She had never experienced it for the last thousands of years. “Ma’am Vivian, don’t you find me annoying?”
“I do, if you cause trouble,” Vivian said immediately. “But I’ve found that you are now more mature than and not as clingy as before. Mr. Landlord also wants me to care more about you. If you must thank, thank him.”
Hessiana’s expression became weirder this time. She looked at Hao Ren. There was a complicated feeling in her that no one could understand. She sniffled and said in a wounded-pride tone of voice. “Thanks to you, pop.”
Hao Ren immediately hid under the coffee table with the fish in his arms.