Chapter 11 Not Quite Heartless

The plan sounded good, but in the end, Hao Ren couldn't bring himself to just kick Vivian out like that.

As mentioned before, he was a good person – he wouldn't meddle in things he couldn't help with, but when he could lend a hand, he absolutely couldn't turn a blind eye. If he just chased Vivian away, what would happen? This vampire girl, who seemed to be having a pretty rough time, would probably have to sleep on the streets, and then, as she said, go to the wilderness to find ruins or graveyards to spend the night. With no food, no drink, no home, and no job, she'd be causing a stir at any train station, either being forcibly taken in or forcibly repatriated... how pitiful.

Looking at such a pretty girl ending up in that state, most people couldn't bear it.

Although Hao Ren thought that with a vampire's true abilities, she probably wouldn't be reduced to that level... but you really couldn't say for sure. It seemed like he'd met a rather abnormal vampire anyway. No novel or movie had ever mentioned vampires being so narrow-minded, not only being poor and pretentious but also being a good girl who loved humans.

But he didn't directly offer Vivian to stay at his place for free. His kindness was limited, he wasn't a saint, and he also had to consider Lily's feelings, who was paying rent normally. So, he could only compromise by letting Vivian owe the rent for now, and pay it back when she found her wallet (a slim chance) or found a job and earned money (this had a bit of a chance).

"Is that really okay?" Vivian seemed not to believe such a good thing could fall from the sky. She looked at Hao Ren in disbelief, "It might take me a long time to pay you back. My luck with money isn't good..."

Hao Ren's eyebrows twitched: Looking at the expression on this vampire girl's face, and listening to her resigned tone, just how miserable could this girl usually be?

"Don't think about anything, just stay here for now," Hao Ren waved his hand, and then glanced at Lily, who was looking displeased, "It's decided! This is my house, so I have the final say when it comes to renting."

Then he looked at Vivian: "There's an empty room upstairs, I'll take you there. But where's your luggage?"

He should have asked that sooner: Lily had dragged a trunk weighing over a hundred pounds when she came from another city, but this vampire girl couldn't be so poor that she only had the clothes on her back, could she?

"Oh, oh, it's outside!" Vivian then remembered her luggage, and quickly ran out to bring in an old travel bag that was placed by the door: Thankfully, her bad luck with money hadn't spread to her belongings. This big bag had been forgotten at the door for so long without being lost.

Seeing Vivian's luggage bag, Hao Ren couldn't help but sigh again: He vaguely remembered his dad often carrying a similar bag when he was still alive, that bag was passed down from his grandfather...

He would never watch another vampire-related movie in his life.

Just as he was about to go upstairs to help Vivian tidy up the room, a "gurururu" sound, almost loud enough to be called resounding, suddenly came from the side. Lily embarrassedly rubbed her stomach and stood up: "Landlord, shall we eat?"

Hao Ren looked up at the clock on the living room wall. It was already ten in the morning. Today's early morning had been a chaotic mess, and he had almost forgotten about the concept of breakfast: The only one who had filled their stomach in the entire house was "Gun"!

"Damn, this life is not even as good as a cat's." He muttered to himself self-deprecatingly, and then heard Vivian's delighted voice: "Ah? Do you provide meals here? Do I need to pay extra for food?"

The vampire girl's face was filled with a delighted look. Hao Ren really wanted to tell her the truth, that meals weren't provided here, and that this was a special circumstance, but seeing the almost blissful expression on her face, he couldn't say a word: This nima... it just felt too pitiful for a vampire to be reduced to this level!

Breakfast had already been delayed until this point, so it was more like lunch than breakfast. So, Hao Ren decided to make what he was best at – noodles. Anyway, Lily seemed to be an unpicky omnivorous werewolf, and Vivian was so poor that she probably wouldn't be picky about food either. He'd just whip up something edible. Of course, before going to the kitchen, he turned to ask the vampire girl: "Vivian, do you... eat normal human food? It's said that vampires can only drink blood, and ordinary food isn't digestible."

As he said this, he felt a chill on his neck!

"I'm a member of the Blood Clan, not a low-level vampire," Vivian first seriously corrected him, and then scratched her face apologetically, "Other members of the Blood Clan can only digest blood, but I can eat ordinary things. There's no other way, these days, whether it's humans or animals, there are too many weird diseases. If you accidentally drink unclean blood, you'll have a stomachache for days. You have to check if the target has a health certificate before sucking blood, and sometimes even those with health certificates might have gotten fake ones... I really can't stand it, I haven't touched blood in years."

Hao Ren: "..."

However, just as he was about to enter the kitchen, a loud mobile phone ringtone suddenly came from the armrest of the sofa. Lily swooped over to take a look, and holding up Hao Ren's Nokia phone, which was nearly five years old, with its small color screen, she shouted: "Landlord! A phone call! A very strange number is calling!"

Hao Ren ran over in a few steps to take the phone, wondering what kind of number could be called a "very strange number", but when he saw it, he was really dumbfounded: The caller ID clearly showed a string of numbers, 00000012345!

Did such a number exist in the world?

The monotonous ringtone continued to ring urgently. The weird caller ID was clearly displayed before his eyes. Hao Ren couldn't help but pinch his face to make sure he wasn't seeing things. And he didn't know if it was his imagination, but the ringtone was getting louder and louder, and gradually giving the feeling of coming from all directions. He felt the phone in his hand was gradually heating up, the ringtone getting faster and faster... The strange sixth sense he had since he was a child also stirred up, and he instinctively felt that this call was extraordinary.

As if possessed, he involuntarily pressed the answer button and put the phone to his ear: "Hello? Hello?"

A very nice, but somewhat boisterous female voice came from the phone: "Hello, hello? Is this Hao Ren?"

"Uh, yes, it is," Hao Ren said, while trying to remember when he had leaked his phone number, and also trying to remember when he had met a woman with a similar voice, but he couldn't remember at all, "Who are you?"

"Don't worry about it for now," the strange woman on the other side of the phone said loudly. Judging from the background noise, she seemed to be calling from a rather noisy place. He could vaguely hear strange whistling sounds, perhaps she was at a construction site. "I'm calling from Shi... oh, an import and export trading company. You submitted a resume to look for a job a few days ago, right? I'm informing you to come for an interview this afternoon."

Import and export trading company? Hao Ren was stunned, and then remembered that there was indeed such a thing. He had submitted a lot of resumes when he decided to go out and find a job, but basically, it was just trying his luck. After all, he didn't have much work experience, and he wasn't a graduate from a famous university or an industry talent. He had been turned down all day when he went door-to-door to apply for jobs, so he didn't have much hope for submitting resumes. But he didn't expect that someone would actually ask him to come for an interview today, and it sounded like it was an amazing company – some import and export trading company?

Was his luck about to turn around?

But he glanced at the two new tenants in the living room. He had initially submitted resumes to find a job because the rental apartment was failing and he hadn't earned any income, but now it seemed like he had tenants...

Okay, these tenants weren't very reliable either. One was a dimwitted werewolf, and the other was a narrow-minded vampire who was so poor that she was about to starve to death. Not to mention anything else, he would be surprised if they actually paid their rent honestly. He felt that he couldn't continue to place his hopes for life on the rental business.

At this time, the impatient voice of the woman came from the phone again: "Hello! Are you still listening? I'm informing you to come for an interview this afternoon!"

Hao Ren thought for a while and nodded forcefully: "Okay, I'll go over this afternoon."

The strange woman gave him an address that didn't sound too far away and hung up the phone.

Hao Ren stared blankly at the phone, which showed "Call time: 0 minutes 0 seconds", and switched to the call history.

It was blank, as if the number 00000012345 had never appeared.