Chapter 137 Preparations

Tonight is the night of the full moon, and Raven 12345 predicted that Lily would transform tonight, so Hao Ren and his tenants woke up early and started busily preparing.

Actually, no one really knew what to prepare. Lily herself was a wild child who had never met any other members of her kind. She only learned that she was a werewolf from watching TV. It seemed that werewolves didn't even exist in Izhaks' world, and Hao Ren's knowledge of werewolves was limited to movies. In the end, the only one in the family who was even slightly useful was Vivian: the vampire who was the werewolf's mortal enemy.

Vivian had flown out last night to find herbs and other strange materials. She knew some ancient recipes that were used by werewolves in special rituals. Most of the werewolves' ritual items were related to stabilizing their minds and controlling their emotions, because they were an extremely volatile race. The only problem they had to face in various rituals (such as coming-of-age ceremonies) was their own mental state, so this race had quite a bit of research in the field of mental potions, and Vivian had dealt with them for a long time, and also learned some of the werewolves' secrets through some channels. To prevent Lily from losing control at a critical moment (mainly because she didn't really trust that Raven 12345 would be reliable), she needed a day to prepare such a potion.

Lily, as the person involved, was the most relaxed. Hao Ren ordered her to rest at home, and even forbade her from going out in the sun and playing with the stray dogs on the street. She needed to build up her energy for tonight's evolution, and maintain a relaxed state of mind. To keep Lily relaxed all day, Hao Ren even prepared half a pot of spare ribs for her. Now the werewolf girl was at home gnawing on meat bones and watching TV, in a state of doing nothing but eating and waiting for death—Hao Ren thought that was the best state of mind.

As for Hao Ren and Izhaks, these two laymen knew nothing about werewolves. All they could do was go to the street and buy some things to prepare for tonight's "protracted war."

Lily's evolution might last for several hours, theoretically from moonrise to moonset. During this process, she couldn't be left alone, and Hao Ren, Vivian, and Izhaks would have to accompany her the whole time. It wouldn't be fun to stare at a giant canine animal howling at the moon in the wilderness all night, so they had to prepare. Hao Ren didn't know what kind of information he had found online, but anyway, he made a list of essential items, including cheap and sturdy blankets, warm disposable tents, camping lights, a lot of ropes, and a lot of snacks. When he took out this list yesterday, he shocked Vivian. The vampire girl initially thought Hao Ren was planning to deliver Lily's baby in the wild, then she thought he was going to elope with Lily, and finally, she determined that this guy was preparing according to the standards of wilderness survival...

Fortunately, although the southern suburbs were small, they had everything. The supermarkets here could basically buy everything on the list, except for the tent—this thing didn't seem like something that ordinary people would use in their daily lives. Hao Ren led Izhaks around outside for a long time, and soon purchased most of the items on the list—to emphasize one last time, except for the tent.

Now the two of them were coming out of the supermarket, Izhaks carrying a large travel bag in each hand, filled with the things they had just bought. Anyway, these things could be reimbursed by Raven 12345, so Hao Ren didn't hesitate at all when shopping.

"Landlord, why do so many people keep looking at us?" Walking on the street, Izhaks felt quite uncomfortable. This great demon probably hadn't come out of the shadows of his own world yet, so he hadn't gone out much these past two days. This time, he felt uncomfortable all over after wandering around outside with Hao Ren. "And why did the cashier raise her hands as soon as I entered the supermarket just now?"

Hao Ren looked at the great demon, who was two meters and fifteen centimeters tall, with a fierce face and an aura as if he had been sifting sand in Changping for ten years, and sweat dripped from his forehead. He thought to himself that people weren't looking at "us," but at you—with that face, standing on the street was enough for fifteen days of administrative detention.

Moreover, the great demon's style of doing things was indeed too direct: after Izhaks entered the supermarket, he put the list that Hao Ren gave him on the cashier counter without saying a word, and his loud voice could be heard throughout the entire supermarket: "Someone, bring out everything listed on this list!"

How could that not be a problem? The little girl at the cashier counter burst into tears on the spot when she saw Izhaks' face. After tremblingly opening the cash register, she raised her hands and stood outside the cashier counter. Hao Ren heard something was wrong and quickly rushed out from behind the shelves, and saw an old People's Liberation Army soldier squatting on the ground using a cabbage pile as cover to call 110... Fortunately, he came out early!

Of course, he was also fortunate that he bought a lot of things, and the supermarket owner was too embarrassed to ask him for compensation for mental damages...

Hao Ren recalled what had just happened, shook his head and sighed, and began to explain the normal way of surviving in the human world to Izhaks. Before going out, he had only talked about the concept of supermarkets and the process of buying things in this world, but he didn't expect that he would cause such a big mess just because he didn't explain the details clearly. In fact, he also knew that Izhaks was doing it with good intentions. The great demon was a warm-hearted person... demon. His roar just now was completely out of a desire to help, but this was an era that judged by appearances. Even someone like Pan An would be considered unique and unrestrained if he showed off his flying kicks on the street, while someone like Izhaks would easily be surrounded by plainclothes officers even if he helped a child on the street. This was the era of faces.

Izhaks listened to Hao Ren's explanation, but he was quite disdainful: "Meaningless, this is a meaningless way of judging. In my world, most of the respected combat heroes aren't good-looking—even humans and other races are like this. Even those elves with abnormal brains know that scars on their faces symbolize honor. The aesthetic values here have gone astray. Justice and conscience should never be written on your face."

Hao Ren's eyes twitched as he listened to a great demon talking to him about justice and conscience, feeling that the whole world was full of incongruity. He knew that Izhaks was an oddball among demons, but he didn't expect him to be so odd: above the female madman, Izhaks' face was almost glowing with a holy light when he said the words "justice" and "conscience." Hao Ren felt that this face almost didn't need fifteen days of administrative detention.

"This is a social problem, let's not worry about it," Hao Ren said with a dry smile, patting Izhaks' arm. "Do you understand the process of buying things that I told you? And supermarkets are different from small stores, and you have to control your voice when you talk to people..."

"I know, my world also has shops, and money is also a good thing," Izhaks shrugged. "Don't think I'm a demon, but I've also roamed in human society—the humans there are as cunning as the ones here. They can even mix rice water into the fuel they sell to goblins. I don't know where they get their inspiration."

Hao Ren was very curious about what kind of world Izhaks came from, which sounded quite similar to the fantasy world he had seen in novels, but he knew that many things about his hometown were sensitive to Izhaks, so he didn't continue to ask.

Just as the two of them were walking past the last intersection on the street, a sound of music coming from not far away made them stop.

Hao Ren looked in the direction of the sound and saw a young girl sitting in front of a store on the other side of the intersection. The melodious music was coming from the guitar in her hand.

Street performers like this were often seen at several intersections and stations in the city, but they were rare in small places like the southern suburbs, so Hao Ren couldn't help but take a few more glances.

It was a rather petite girl, wearing a loose gray hoodie on her upper body and jeans on her lower body. Her clothes looked a little travel-worn. Her skin was slightly dark, her features were small, and she had a simple but energetic ponytail tied behind her head. She wasn't very pretty in terms of appearance, but she had a quiet and lovely temperament, especially when she pursed her lips.

In the few seconds that Hao Ren was in a daze, the girl playing the guitar had lightly opened her lips, and the portable speaker sent her voice to this side of the intersection.

"It sounds pretty good..." Hao Ren muttered to himself, "But what language is this?"

(Although there are not enough manuscripts saved, I can still update twice every now and then. That's right, you saw a double update starting!)