The Record of Unusual Creatures

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, whatʼs on your mind?”

”Oh!” Stunned, Lily awoke from her stupor. She turned around and hid her tail behind her. It was like the tail she had always been proud of was now a source of shame. ”Landlord, youʼre back?”

”Itʼs about time.” Vivian, who just came out of the kitchen was rubbing her hands. She nodded at Hao Ren and pointed towards Lilyʼs back. ”Now, letʼs remove the presentʼs wrapping. How do you feel, by the way?”

”Itʼs 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! Itʼs 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 Lilyʼs 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 furʼs 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. ”Itʼs 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, ”Donʼt overuse it! And apply it evenly! Itʼs 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.

Lilyʼs face was all smiles. ”Iʼve 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, ”Letʼs see the results tomorrow. If you feel hot, just take it off.”

Lily nodded enthusiastically and scampered back into her room. ”Iʼm going to do some writing! Alert me when dinnerʼs 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—”

”Whatʼs 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 spacecraftʼs 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.