Despite Rollie"s enthusiasm, Southern Suburbs was a dreary place during this time of the year. Already a remote suburb with more than half of the small population was senior folks; no one would want to brace the chilly weather coming out for a stroll. Hao Ren led the cat maiden mooching around in a deserted street and did not have to worry that the dumb cat would unwittingly create trouble.
Though Hao Ren did not meet anyone he knew on the street, Rollie did meet many of them—the strays. Just as Lily had her army of canines, the dumb cat had quite an influence among the cats in the neighborhood.
To prevent unnecessary troubles, Hao Ren deliberately took Rollie to the more empty places, the more desolate, the better. He would not have done this if he were to bring a normal girl out, but Rollie was a cat demon, this guy would not care where she was going as long as she was outside. The cat maiden was kind of like strange and quiet places. She ran around spiritedly and would have gone to places, such as wall and treetops, where she would not have a chance to go usually if Hao Ren was not careful. Hao Ren would have dragged her back down within seconds if she did that. She was just like a kid doing this on purpose to get attention.
Unwittingly, they had come to a place far from the last residential area. All the houses here were exceptionally dilapidated. Not a building was more than two-story tall on either side of the street. They all were forty-year-old, single-story brick houses. However, there were a few large houses at one end of the road with prominent faded writings, such as "Grocery Store," "Wholesale" on the mottled walls.
It was the abandoned section of the town, the oldest street in Southern Suburb, where time seemed to be stagnant, and everything carried an atmosphere that only existed a few decades ago. After the last few families moved out from the nearby houses ten years ago, the street was completely deserted until this day. It was said that a reconstruction plan had been mooted, but as the entire Southern Suburb, everything here happened slowly like a sloth; it was hard to tell when someone would come and fix the dilapidated brick houses.
Hao Ren even remembered that this was the scene that he saw when he was still a kid. Though there were still families staying in the west of the street back then, the state of the road back then was no better than what it was now.
The scenes reminded him of his childhood. Hao Ren sighed for days gone by as he looked at the old bald poplars. He instinctively rubbed his hands despite he was not afraid of cold. "Hmm, the weather is getting colder," he murmured to himself.
As Hao Ren was distracted and immersed in his thought, the cat maiden quickly climbed onto the nearby wall before hopping up the roof of a house. She looked around alertly and promptly locked her target—a fat pigeon on the ridge not far away.
Rollie rubbed her hands happily. She was excited to find back the meaning of the life of a cat. She arched her body and walked carefully along the ridge, was so delighted to see her meal was just within grasp. Unfortunately, she forgot one thing; Hao Ren had her tail tied to her clothes. She began to lose her balance without her tail as counter-balance, she fell. She was startled for a moment and tried to recover, but it was too late. The disrepair old house would not withstand such an impact, the roof tiles gave way, and she plunged straight down together with the tiles, punching a ma.s.sive hole on the roof.
While immersed in his childhood memory, the sudden noise jolted Hao Ren out of his dream. He looked in the direction where the sound came from; the silly cat had disappeared from the roof.
Two seconds later, he heard the cat maiden"s panicking meow in the nearby house.
"This idiot!" Hao Ren clicked his tongue and rushed into the abandoned house. He knew that all the houses here were considered unsafe and considering Rollie"s physical strength, she could have torn down the entire building if she was not careful. "Stay still until I come in to get you!"
The doors and windows of the house had rotten to the core. With just a slight push of his hand, the entire door came down. It was pitch dark inside except that there was a beam of skylight shone down through the hole on the roof above, illuminating the interior somewhat. Rollie got up from a pile of broken tiles and dust. She looked as if Lil Pea had just beaten him.
The cat maiden looked up when she heard Hao Ren came in. "Boss cat! I fell!"
She sounded like not having a bit of awkwardness but excitement. She thought that the accident was fun.
"Have I not told you not to run around?" Hao Ren held down the head of the cat maiden who was rubbing against his body, knowing that the idiot was trying to use coquetry to get away with the trouble she had caused. "I"m not going to let you out again if you do that again."
"I"ve never fallen last time while running the roof" The cat maiden talked back.
"c.r.a.p, didn"t you realize you have gained a lot of weight now?" Hurry—"
He suddenly felt an inexplicable chill coming straight towards him. He barely had time to think as he instinctively pushed Rollie away while he jumped to a side.
However, the chill did not go away but followed his dodging movement, sticking to the skin and spread up from his limbs. The next moment, he felt his hair was shooting straight up as the chill had condensed into a knife-like weapon coming straight up to his throat!
Hao Ren"s muscles tensed up, his supervision allowed him to see in the dark, but he saw nothing at all this time. He could only intuitively sense that there was a sinister blade attacking him. In the last moment before the sword piercing through his skin, he spun around and dodged the attack.
He had no clue what he had dodged though because he saw nothing, there was only the air before his eyes. From the chill in the beginning to the "blade" in the last moment, it seemed to be just an illusion. He sensed something but saw nothing substantial. He was dang sure that he had just avoided some attack because he saw the silver glow on his skin in the dark, which was caused by the collision of something with his Steel Membrane s.h.i.+eld.
After the sinister a.s.sa.s.sination failed, the chill seemed to fade away suddenly, but Hao Ren knew that something was still lurking around, very close to him. The sixth sense which he had developed after years of dangerous encounters was sounding its alarm. He felt that a breeze-like cool air was sticking under his feet and he could not shake it off. It was as if a cheetah lurking in the gra.s.s, waiting to strike when its prey let down its guard.
Rollie regained her composure after being pushed away by Hao Ren. Usually, the silly cat would have come up to Hao Ren and demand an explanation as to why he pushed her, but this time she had sensed something strange in the air. Her muscles tensed and got down on all fours instinctively, her body arched and her eyes glowed in the dark. She had taken off the contact lenses that she used to her cat pupils. She stared at the s.p.a.ce of one meter around Hao Ren in the dark.
"Meow—" Rollie gave out a menacing growl in her throat as if a beast threatened its enemy.
Hao Ren asked the cat demon while watching the surroundings, "Rollie, what did you see?"
"I don"t know." Rollie sounded a little confused. "I see nothing, but I can smell it. I can feel it. Something terrible…"