Anomalous Creatures

It turns out that when someone who is exceptionally abnormal in every way confidently tells you that they've got everything covered, you basically can't count on them for anything. Kevin realized this truth a little later, so when Weilili spoke in an authentic Old English accent to inquire directions from the locals, he was completely stunned and deeply doubted whether his preparations for this trip had been too hasty.

A confused landlord, a werewolf who was almost asleep but still trying to walk upright, and a vampire who usually seemed reliable but was completely off the mark in critical moments—these three, full of confidence, encountered an unprecedented crisis after arriving in a foreign land: they didn't know the way, they couldn't speak the language, and since they hadn't made any relevant preparations before leaving, they hadn't even gone online to find out where to ask for directions in a language barrier situation. Of course, there were also reasons related to experience; Kevin was a bit confused, and he hadn't even thought of asking airport staff for help. Theoretically, even if the staff here couldn't pass the Mandarin language proficiency test, they could at least tell you how to get to the nearest embassy, but this clueless guy hadn't even thought of it.

Weilili spoke in a strange accent and tried to communicate with an elderly local man who passed by for a while. Kevin listened in awe to the archaic English that had been lost for goodness knows how many years, while the elderly man, who was being held by Weilili, looked even more confused. Poor old man, despite his age, he was actually at a loss for words when confronted with his native language (genuine and authentic). "What"...

"Don't bother anymore," Kevin pulled Weilili aside, "your English is from around the year 1100 AD. Do you know how much the accent of ancient people a thousand years ago differs from that of modern people? Go home and search online for the pronunciation of ancient Chinese, and you'll understand."

Weilili looked dejected: "How could it have changed so much? I thought that even if the surrounding environment was different, at least people's speech shouldn't have changed much. At most, what I say to them is equivalent to classical Chinese... How could even the pronunciation have changed?"

Kevin sighed deeply: "When you were born, humans basically communicated through varied lengths of growls and pounding their chests. You may be confused in your daily life, but you shouldn't be so oblivious to this."

"I'm not that old, okay?" Weilili stared at Kevin, "What you're saying is from the Stone Age!"

At this moment, the British elderly man, who was confused by Weilili, saw that these two young people seemed to be arguing and quickly came over to mediate (the old man was still quite gentlemanly and didn't get upset after being tortured by the near-alien language of Old English for so long). He tugged at Kevin's arm and kept asking: "Chinese? Do you speak Chinese?"

Kevin blinked and was fortunate that his English foundation hadn't been completely forgotten. So, he nodded vigorously.

The very patient old gentleman smiled and pointed to an empty space beside the terminal: there stood airport staff in uniforms. This time, even if Kevin and Weilili were as slow-witted as ever, they should have figured it out.

Kevin and Weilili exchanged embarrassed glances and thanked the old gentleman repeatedly. Then, they dragged Lily, who was sleeping upright, over to the staff member at the terminal. He was a handsome young man in a crisp uniform, looking full of energy. Weilili stepped forward and started to ask in gibberish: "%￥@@%￥#￥#%￥@?"

Kevin pushed the vampire, who failed him at a crucial moment, to the side and smiled at the puzzled airport young man. "Excuse me, how do I get to this place…?" He suddenly realized that this wasn't going to work halfway through and slowed down his tone, switching to more standard Mandarin: "Hello, I can't speak English. I want to go to a place. Who should I ask?"

The airport young man listened carefully with a furrowed brow, struggling to piece together the phonetics in his mind. Then, he flashed a professional smile, pointed to the parking lot nearby, and said in very broken Chinese: "Over there, there are some Chinese taxi drivers. Go… go… ask him to help you."

Obviously, he couldn't come up with the rest of the sentence.

This was already quite satisfactory. Kevin happily thanked the airport young man and turned to walk towards the parking lot, unable to help but feel emotional: Who would have thought that the vampire, who was supposedly able to hold her own in a shouting match with Arthur Pendragon, was of no use at all. Her "English" had only succeeded in confusing a foreign friend. In the end, he had to ask for directions in Chinese...

Life is indeed unpredictable, because life doesn't make sense at all!

"Let's sleep at the hotel later. Hang in there for a while," Kevin turned around and patted Lily's shoulder, only to be met with a series of soft snores in response. This carefree werewolf girl wouldn't disrupt her biological clock anywhere. It was now early morning in London, which was also the time for Lily to take her nap at home. She was so sleepy that she couldn't keep her eyes open, following Kevin in a state of closed-eyed snoring. Fortunately, her keen senses as a wild animal hadn't diminished: Lily followed behind Kevin and Weilili, walking with her eyes closed and nose slightly twitching, relying on her sense of smell to stay on track, and she didn't lose sight of them...

Kevin soon found the "Chinese taxi drivers" mentioned by the airport young man. Their skin color matched, but after checking with several of them, they were all local-born British Chinese. Their Chinese language skills were only slightly better than those of the airport young man, looking at the address Kevin had copied in Chinese characters like reading a foreign language...

After another half-day of struggling, Kevin finally found someone whose Chinese language skills were barely passable. He felt utterly exhausted, and all the inconveniences of being abroad flooded his mind. It was only at this moment that the novelty of "conning a large amount of funding to go on an overseas business trip" began to wear off. He realized that this was indeed a task, an exhausting one at that. Raven 12345 had said that the purpose was to exercise new employees' handling abilities, and it was absolutely true!

It was estimated that Raven 12345 had calculated from the beginning that Kevin would immediately get carried away after obtaining a large amount of funding and the opportunity for a business trip, and then leave without any planning.

Of course, there was another possibility: Raven 12345 had known from the start that Kevin was accompanied by two useless people. This was an opportunity to let him adapt in advance...

Although many things were not prepared properly when they left, at least Kevin knew to book a hotel online in advance. And due to the abundance of funding, the hotel he booked was quite upscale. At least the official homepage stated that the hotel staff were proficient in several foreign languages and could provide quality services for Chinese tourists. Now, Kevin didn't dare to hope for quality service; he only hoped that the waiter could successfully take him to his room. After arriving at a quiet place, the first thing he would do was to contact Raven 12345 to see if he could find some tasks for assistance.

After being driven for almost an hour by a Chinese driver who barely spoke the language, Kevin and his companions finally entered the center of London and arrived at the entrance of the hotel they had booked earlier. After paying the fare (Kevin didn't know if he had been overcharged, but he couldn't care less at this point), Weilili looked up at the sky, which was already completely bright, and sighed slightly, "So many years have passed. When I came here before, there weren't so many buildings here."

"Why don't you talk about how humans were still living in trees when you first set foot in Europe?" Kevin supported the stumbling Lily and sarcastically this useless vampire. "How come you haven't thought about the lifespan gap between you and humans after living for such a long time? Half of the reasons for the big difficulties we encountered today are because I had too high expectations for you."

Weilili frowned, her expression serious. "I have a good temper, but I also have the dignity of being a high-ranking vampire. If you continue to sneer and ridicule like this, it's an insult to the aristocracy..."

"Pay next month's rent."

"Of course, your mouth is on you. As an aristocrat, I won't be too petty with you."

Kevin: "..."

He had never seen an aristocrat forced to this extent by a month's rent in his life!

"According to the plan, let's rest here for a day or two to adjust to the jet lag, and at the same time, organize our materials. I'll submit a report to Raven 12345, and then we'll leave on the second or third day," Kevin sighed. "The address given by Raven 12345 is too remote. Based on our experience this morning, it's probably very difficult to find out from the locals."

The three of them stepped towards the hotel door, while on the sixth floor of the hotel, which they hadn't noticed, the curtain of a window was suddenly pulled open vigorously. A sharp gaze scanned downwards for a few seconds before the curtain returned to its original position.