Kevin spent most of the day at Raven 12345, and by the time he returned, it was nearly evening. As he turned the corner, he saw Lily, standing on tiptoe at the door, peering toward the intersection. She looked like a puppy left by its owner to guard the house. He'd almost grown accustomed to this sight. Lily greeted Kevin excitedly when he appeared. "Landlord, you're back. What are we having for dinner?"
"Please consider your dignity as a werewolf once in a while," Kevin sighed, handing him the net bag. "You like those big spare ribs. Let's stew them tonight and have spare rib noodles for lunch tomorrow."
After more than two weeks of interaction, Kevin had completely mastered Lily's personality. This werewolf girl's preferences were easy to understand. As long as he fed her delicious food, everything would be fine. Her two favorites were the spare ribs stewed by Vivian and the noodles cooked by Kevin. I could understand the spare ribs, at least it was meat, but why did she become paralyzed by the sight of noodles? What was a werewolf supposed to eat? No one could figure out how Lily went from being a werewolf to an omnivore, but it was a good thing anyway: omnivores are easy to feed. If Lily were to eat twenty pounds of fresh meat daily like a normal werewolf, even if Kevin could sustain it financially, the butcher wouldn't necessarily be able to sustain it mentally...
Lily happily ran back to the house with the ribs in hand to find Vivian. Only then would she say a few kind words to her. She could bow down to her mortal enemy for a few bites of delicious food. Where was the dignity of being a werewolf? Kevin watched Lily slip into the kitchen in silence. He then went inside and locked the front door. Then, looking up, he saw a burly man sitting in the middle of the living room. Y'zaks's attention-grabbing nature was unbelievable. At 2.15 meters tall, he was a landmark wherever he went. Add to that his antisocial, menacing demeanor, and even taking him out was a problem. A few days ago, Kevin took Y'zaks to the market to buy groceries, and as soon as they reached East Third Street, an elderly woman called the police... What kind of a situation was that?
Y'zaks seemed oblivious to Kevin's return. He was slumped on the sofa, absorbed in studying a Chinese dictionary. The dictionary was like a small booklet in his hands, barely graspable between a few fingers. Seeing the intense expression on his fierce, sinister face, Kevin wanted to laugh. How could such a good-tempered, large man have such a face? "Still studying Chinese pronunciation?" Kevin approached curiously, noticing Y'zaks had actually used a pen to draw a number of crooked symbols on the dictionary, a true demonic language. He was immediately impressed by the great demon's diligence, yet also a little ashamed: this dictionary had been sitting at home for over four years, and as an Earthling, he probably hadn't put as much effort into it as Y'zaks had in the past two days...
"Oh, you're back," Y'zaks said in a muffled voice, looking up at Kevin. Demonic language sounded like a tape played backwards, with strange pronunciations and ambiguous tones. It was second only to Japanese English in difficulty. Vivian and Lily hadn't learned a single word in the past two days, so Kevin was the only one in the family who could communicate normally with Y'zaks. The great demon was well aware of this, and his face was filled with joy upon seeing Kevin return. "Finally, I have someone to talk to. Is everything going well?"
"It's going pretty well. That raven 12345 showed me a way, which cleared up some confusion. By the way, what have you been thinking about studying Chinese these past two days?" "This thing is so hard to learn," Y'zaks said in frustration, throwing the dictionary aside. The great demon seemed a bit overwhelmed by such a task. "I think it's even harder than Elvish. Yesterday and today combined, I still can't figure out four words: pit, hole, hole, and eye. How on earth did you manage to master this language back then?"
Kevin's forehead was covered with sweat. "These four words are enough to turn away 80% of international students from China. Don't bother with them. I'm here to tell you that Raven 12345 has applied for new tools from the higher-ups to help you with your language problem. I'll take you to her in a couple of days, and bring Vivian and Lily along too. You can do a 'minor surgery' together, and then you'll have your own translator." Kevin observed Yzaks's expression, trying to gauge the demon's reaction to this "minor surgery." After all, he didn't think many powerful bosses would willingly allow others to operate on them. To his disappointment, Yzaks's face remained expressionless. He simply nodded knowingly, "Oh, alright, I should probably say hello to the goddess over here."
"Be prepared," Kevin kindly warned. "She's going to make you lie down in something weird. Don't get mad..."
"I know what you mean," Yzaks said with a frightening grin. "Those coffin-like things, right? Coffins in most worlds look the same, and most of the equipment manufactured by the Xiling pantheon looks like coffins. I've experienced that before..."
Kevin: "..."
"Time to eat!"
Just as Kevin and Yzaks were discussing the inspiration behind the Xiling Empire's coffin system, Vivian's voice suddenly rang out from the kitchen, instantly jarring the two grown men from their meaningless chatter. Vivian arrived in the living room carrying a rice cooker, followed by Lily, her tail wagging wildly, and then a haughty "Get lost." The trio marched with impressive momentum. Kevin and Y'zaks had barely reached the table before they sat down when Vivian pointed toward the kitchen and barked, "Go wash your hands first!"
Y'zaks didn't understand Vivian's words, but he knew what she meant by her gestures and the direction she was pointing. The Great Demon suddenly stood up, lowered his head, and obediently ran to the bathroom to wash his hands, leaving Kevin watching in amazement.
Freshly finished with her chores, Vivian exuded a commanding presence, even daring to shout at the Great Demon. Kevin suspected this vampire was awakening her housewife instincts—well, that was a good thing.
Dinner was light: rice porridge and steamed buns, two vegetarian dishes, but the portions were generous enough to satisfy the voracious appetites of Lily and Y'zaks. Vivian's cooking skills were unquestionable. As an ancient creature that had wandered the world for tens of thousands of years, she was familiar with every cooking method ever found on this planet, even how to roast a saber-toothed tiger. If the ingredients hadn't become extinct, Kevin believed his daily dinner table would have been unprecedentedly sumptuous.
Lily nibbled two steamed buns with chopsticks, chewing them quickly like candied haws, her nose curled as she glanced toward the kitchen. "I want some spare ribs..."
"They're still raw," Vivian, perhaps still recovering from her housewife state, said to Lily in a gentle tone. "It takes at least three hours to simmer. I have principles for stewing spare ribs."
Kevin rolled his eyes: "Can you apply your principles to something more normal?"
As everyone at the table was busy eating, Kevin was about to find the remote to turn on the TV when a crisp "click" suddenly shattered the silence in the living room. Lily had just tried to grab a few bites of food from across the table, but the plate had been crushed to pieces in her hands, sending shards all over the table.
Kevin was still stunned when Vivian barked, "Big Dog, can't you be a little more patient? You're just saying you can eat meat tomorrow. Why are you so angry? This bowl belongs to the landlord!"
"No... I didn't mean to!" Lily seemed startled, too. She hurriedly picked up the broken plate from the table, giving Kevin a panicked look. "Landlord, I didn't mean to do that. I don't know what happened, but I lost control..."
"Snap!"
Before Lily finished her words, there was another crisp sound: she had crushed the bowl again. Vivian was about to explode when Kevin suddenly noticed something was wrong with Lily and quickly waved his hand away. "Something's not right. Look at Lily's eyes."
Lily was in werewolf form. Although she usually maintained her human form at home, tonight, for some reason, she remained in werewolf form. Now, her golden eyes seemed brighter than ever, almost to the point of glowing!
"Lily... your hands seem to be shaking." Kevin's gaze finally fell on Lily's hands, and he realized something was wrong.