Chapter 194 Fish Baby and Iron Pot

The little mermaid Doudou's diet was expanding once again, and now Hao Ren could basically guess the pattern: anything with bamboo or wood fiber.

After discovering that the little thing was just as happy eating cardboard as it was eating chopsticks, Hao Ren immediately ran to the basement to find a few wooden strips, sawed them into small pieces, cleaned them, and tried feeding them to Doudou. As a result, the little thing was now stuffed like a ball, floating belly-up in the water, letting out happy little burps while paddling and talking to herself. She was addicted to all bamboo and wood fibers and anything containing them: chopsticks, wooden strips, paper scraps, books, she would eat anything. To be honest, if her mouth wasn't too small to get her teeth on it, she would probably gnaw on the TV cabinet too. In fact, Doudou was already interested in the furniture at home that gave off the "scent of food," and Hao Ren was currently preventing her from biting the table: the little thing could start biting from the edges of the table legs, where she could get her mouth…

Vivian was at the table having a special "exchange" with a little bat that had just returned from patrol to report. She wrapped the little bat in a cloud of blood mist, suspending it in front of her to slowly analyze it. The bat slowly dissolved in the blood mist like ink, now only a faint shadow remained. Nangong Wuyue watched this wondrous magic in amazement, and couldn't help but ask, "I heard that you share senses directly with your bats, so why do they need to come back and report?"

"A lot of information can't be conveyed directly through sensory sharing, and the amount of energy I can spare during the sharing process is limited, so some minor details are easily overlooked," Vivian disassembled a little bat, transforming it back into shadows that returned to her own shadow, "By breaking down the little bat's memory like this and replaying the scenes they explored over and over again, sometimes you can discover some small details."

"So what did you find?" Hao Ren asked.

"This bat flew the furthest. I had it go to the northern suburbs, to the place where we fought those two Aiben werewolves last time. Didn't the big blue guy burn it to the ground with a lightning storm? I found traces of witchcraft used nearby."

Hao Ren was stunned, "Witchcraft? Do demon hunters use witchcraft too?"

"They know everything," Vivian nodded, "Or to put it another way, most of the primitive traditional forms of superstition on Earth now, such as exorcism, witchcraft, totem worship, and prayer for healing, are more or less related to demon hunters. A long time ago, demon hunters taught these simple techniques to ordinary humans, so that ordinary people could barely fight against weaker types of otherworldly creatures. These techniques don't require magic or mental strength, but instead use materials found in nature, so even ordinary people without magical talent can master them, which is why they were so popular in ancient times. Thousands of years ago, tribal wizards protected their people in the dark by taking chronic poisons and burning incense. Back then, their rituals were actually effective. It's just that as time went on, most otherworldly creatures were hunted to extinction by demon hunters, and the remaining ones either degenerated or simply lost their power and became ordinary humans or exotic animals. The various witchcraft techniques that humans once relied on to protect themselves became useless. These techniques have been distorted through generations of inheritance, and now they've simply become ridiculous farces—but in the real demon hunter circles, witchcraft still exists as a concrete thing, passed down to this day along with their various evil-breaking spells."

Izhaks listened from the side and casually commented, "These guys called demon hunters seem to be doing good things too."

"There's no such thing as purely good or bad people," Vivian shrugged, "From a big picture perspective, they're 'good people' to humans, but to otherworldly creatures, they're always villains."

"Maybe it's because I come from another world, but I don't have any prejudices against the various races in this world," Izhaks scratched his bald scalp, "To me, they're all alien races, but the stubbornness of those demon hunters makes me feel very troubled."

"So the demon hunters have already discovered the traces of that day's battle," Hao Ren smacked his lips while stroking his chin, "Didn't we say that the scene was cleaned up, and no supernatural power was left behind? How was it still discovered?"

"Supernatural power can indeed be erased, but such a large area being burned to ashes by a lightning storm out of nowhere is unnatural in itself, okay?" Vivian twitched the corner of her mouth, "With a little bit of normal logic, you can guess what happened there. I'm just wondering how they found their way here—the southern and northern suburbs are at opposite ends of the city, and we were very careful not to leave any traceable traces after we finished fighting that day. Where exactly did we mess up?"

While the group was discussing serious matters, Lily, who was lying on the sofa watching TV, became unhappy, "So annoying, so annoying, so annoying, can you not talk about these annoying things so late at night? I'm watching TV."

Vivian rolled her eyes at her, "Can't you go back to your own room to watch? We've encountered such a big deal, how can you still be so carefree?"

"It's deserted in my room, it's lively here," Lily muttered while lying on the sofa, and then continued to shout while flapping around, "Aiyah, so annoying, so annoying, so annoying…"

"Don't make a fuss," Hao Ren tapped Lily on the head, "We're talking about serious business here."

In the past, Hao Ren definitely wouldn't have allowed a tenant to make such a ruckus in the living room, but now he knew that he was raising a husky, so he naturally treated Lily with the tolerant standards of a husky. Whenever the latter made a fuss, he would only criticize her a few times and leave it at that. Lily didn't realize why she was being treated with such tolerance, and she kept praising Hao Ren as a truly good person with a broad mind, foolishly raising her affection for him all day long.

With a "splash," Doudou jumped out of her pot, tugged on Hao Ren's arm, and gestured for him to sleep. Hao Ren was also feeling a little sleepy, and when he looked up, he saw that it was already past ten o'clock. He yawned, "Then I'll go back to sleep first. Maybe the demon hunters won't make a move tonight."

"Mm," Vivian looked over with a smile, "Just get enough rest. I'll keep watch tonight."

Hao Ren nodded and walked towards the room with the little fish baby in his arms, but after walking halfway, Doudou suddenly cried out, pointing vigorously in the direction of the coffee table while calling out. Just as Hao Ren was stunned, he saw Nangong Wuyue chasing after him with a pot in her hands, "Bring the child's mother along."

Hao Ren: "...Can we not mention the child's mother?!"

Nangong Wuyue had a mischievous smile on her face, completely disregarding the expression on Hao Ren's face, which was almost turning black, "Fill the pot with half a pot of water and let Doudou sleep in it at night. That way she won't pester you. You don't want to lie down all night in your clothes like last night, do you?"

Hao Ren finally relaxed when he heard this. This was the only good news—thankfully, the little mermaid was satisfied as long as she could sleep in the pot. If the little thing insisted on Hao Ren holding her in his left hand and the pot in his right, then he really wouldn't be able to live like this!

Hao Ren carried his daughter back to his room to sleep (look at the verb, carried!). He thought for a long time and decided to put the little thing on the desk farther away from the bed rather than on the bedside table: he didn't want Doudou to suddenly roll over in the middle of the night and splash water on his face. After putting down the pot, Hao Ren still felt that this was quite funny. He had been single for twenty-five years, and suddenly he had a daughter—a mermaid daughter! You have to say that fate is such a wonderful thing.

"Be good and sleep tonight, don't pester me like yesterday," Hao Ren leaned over the desk, staring at Doudou, who was also leaning on the edge of the pot, with wide eyes, and started instructing her as if the little thing could understand human language, "Don't run around, call for help if there's anything. Also, don't jump around on the ground, to prevent someone from stepping on you."

"Uhm—ha," the little thing reached out and touched Hao Ren's nose, making a long sound, and then nimbly circled around and curled up at the bottom of the pot to sleep, as if she really understood what Hao Ren had just told her.

Hao Ren looked at the little thing quietly lying at the bottom of the pot, and hesitated for a long time whether to put the lid on the pot—he was afraid that the little thing would run out in the middle of the night and get stepped on. But after thinking for a long time, he thought about how he would feel if he woke up and found himself locked in a dark iron pot, so he didn't put the lid on.

He put the data terminal next to the pot: anyway, this thing doesn't sleep, let it watch the child.

Outside, the night deepened.

The moon slowly rose to the mid-heaven, and then slowly sank to one side. The streets were already empty, and the night road in late autumn was cold and desolate. Only the occasional dog bark came from afar, as the stray dogs who hadn't slept were passing on information from afar.

Three urgent dog barks suddenly broke the silence of the night.