Chapter 15 (1/2)
He stared dumbstruck, eyes wide opened (this seemed to happen quite a lot lately) upon hearing a statement that would make anybody choke on hearing it. At that moment, he could barely believe what that big-eyed chief just said, “What… was that… you said?”
“Space Administration,” the silver-haired lady smirked as she repeated. She had a frosty demeanour about her when she was silent; but as she opened up to speak, while pulling a smirk off, all the icy coldness melted away and she actually seemed quite amiable.
Hao Ren asked impetuously, “No, not that. I mean, the latter part?”
“Oh, the Bastard Barrio Branch Office,” the silver-haired lady happily nodded her head, delighted to acknowledge that fact.
Hao Ren really wanted to slam his head against something, anything… but he figured he should do it outside. Everything on display here seemed so posh and pricey that if broken he probably wouldn’t be able to pay for the compensation, but surely he definitely wanted to bang his head on something! How could “Space Administration” and “Bastard Barrio Branch Office”, two terms which were already out of this world, be placed in the same sentence? And judging by the way this white-haired lady phrased it, she didn’t seem , in the slightest way, disturbed by that peculiarity, her expression was as though this was how it had always been. Hao Ren’s bewilderment upon hearing those words were comparable to that upon hearing these: Old man Wang has three sons. The eldest is called Da Ming, the second is called Er Ming, the third is called Eisenbuliq William Haniba…
But what the silver-haired lady spoke of somehow made sense that Hao Ren was left with no rebuttal: This really was a bastardly barrio.
“He… hehe,” with his face hardened, Hao Ren snickered and slightly readjusted his body on the cotton seat to a more stable position. He was worried that if he hears any more gobsmacking statements, he would fall off onto the ground. “Space Administration you say… Oh and what was that you called yourself just now?”
He just recalled that the person to whom he was talking had also introduced herself a moment ago, but he didn’t catch her name as he was busy calming his nerves.
The silver-haired lady didn’t seem to be bothered. She was far more good-tempered than he had expected, “I am Raven 12345. You have to remember that. It’s important.”
“Including the numbers?”
“Including the numbers. Actually the numbers are the important ones,” said the woman who called herself Raven 12345 as she firmly nodded. “To prevent confusion with other Ravens. Any more questions?”
Immediately Hao Ren’s mind was filled with fantastical settings of man-made humans, clones, dark forces, evil armies, and the likes, plotting world domination, along with a two-hundred-thousand-words script and a web of love-hate relationships and romantic feuds among dozens of characters—not implying that he had a wild imaginative mind, but rather confirming that he had watched tonnes of movies. He was clever to not ask about the whereabouts of the other Ravens (experience tells him that this is a taboo, and in later days he would come to find out how explicably wrong he was), so he rubbed his chin and said, “Raven 12345. Quite a creative name, hehe. So, what do you want from me?”
The silver-haired lady smiled, “You took in a strange creature into your home, am I right? If calculations are correct it was a werewolf.”
Hearing that, Hao Ren became nervous, every muscle on his body couldn’t help but twitched. All along, he thought he had managed to keep Lily’s identity a secret, it was the only way for him to be able to keep is familiar everyday life. Who would have known that the lady before him had discovered everything! Quickly he calmed himself down as he knew this lady was another ‘strange being’, it wasn’t in his control that she knew some things. It was clear how little he knew about a certain mystical realm, so he shouldn’t act too surprised as doing so would only put him at a disadvantage.
Raven 12345 did not mention Vivian, which to him meant her intel was a little incomplete, and so naturally he should not actively pursue that.
“True,” he nodded, “but surely this is not against any taboo, right? Your Space… Administration, is it in charge of stuff like this too? ”