Abnormal Creature Memoirs c1

   Hao Ren , true to his name, was a good person.

 

        His family lived in a small and obscure town in the north. If Beijing were to build another twenty rings or thirty rings , then at a stretch they may just be considered to be at the feet of the Emperor . He was but a truly ‘down to earth’ plebeian, if all the “good person” flags in the world were triggered by him [the flag where you get rejected by the target in visual novels starting with the line: “You’re a good person but/however&h.e.l.lip;”] then perhaps he may just be a celebrity. No one recognized him while walking on the streets, sporting a plain and mundane ‘box face’ over the last twenty years where the only redeeming feature was a hint of manliness, his life goal was to be a good person, nothing special stood out otherwise.

 

        The time was right at the beginning of the summer heat waves between May and June. Even though the weather was cooler in the north, walking under the sun during the day still caused irritation. Even though the boisterous city centre was flooded with various models of cars with hardly any pedestrians about. However, wearing a white T-s.h.i.+rt and grey trousers, a teenager of average appearance happened to be one of the few walking about. Hao Ren’s hands gripped a few sheets of paper as he walked, staying under the shade of the buildings and trees as much as possible. The whistling of cars as they pa.s.sed by and the cicadas on the trees all served to produce annoyance, but these disturbances didn’t seem to affect the mood of the youth. He only proceeded silently while keeping his head low, only occasionally would he flick his semi-drenched s.h.i.+rt due to the weather. Then he looked downwards at the items in his hand – two of which were employment adverts, while the third was given by a [younger] female student at the plaza he just pa.s.sed. On the leaflet was a drawing of a beautiful woman with a smile akin to blossoming flowers, but printed underneath was a large row of text: “Jin Rong Maternity Specialist Hospital, Professional Treatment&h.e.l.lip;”

 

        Hao Ren felt that students were becoming less and less dedicated to their work these days. Back in the days when he was handing out leaflets, he would have never thrust such leaflets to those who could be identified as a bachelor at a glance. Nevertheless, this kind of rigid leaflet was fairly suited to be used as a fan [imagine a scene where he’s fanning his face due to the heat while walking].

 

        “The last two, if it’s still no good then forget it.”

 

        Hao Ren mumbled as he looked at the last two employment leaflets in his hand. Fortunately, both of these places were close together, and he could quickly complete his ‘mission’ for today. One of them was right in front of him; it was an advertising company which when looked at from the outside, one absolutely would not expect much from. However, their company name left a deep impression: Galaxy Media Cultural Development and Promotion Company. Just by listening to the name made you think that it would go bankrupt within half a year. Hao Ren came exclusively after he saw this name. The main goal was not to get employed but to see what kind of peculiar company boss could come up with such an amazing name.

 

        Only after excitedly walking several hundred meters did he circ.u.mnavigate the railing along the road – all the while under the blazing sun – before finally arriving in front of the door to the extremely OP  company. He was surprised to find – this company had indeed gone bankrupt, and the recruitment pamphlet was from four days ago&h.e.l.lip; this really was a fast paced, ever-changing world. Do companies these days still recruit new employees just days before shutting down for some peace of mind?

 

        He scrunched up the recruitment pamphlet into a ball and tossed it into a bin at the side of the road as he pa.s.sed by. Then Hao Ren looked down at the last one and within two seconds it also ended up in the same place. In pa.s.sing, he reflected on whether he was blind while picking these out two days ago – Bus Company recruiting one Office Clerk, must be between the age of twenty five to forty, must be durable and diligent, any experience in computing has priority, s.e.x: female.

 

        He had made his way to the city centre in high spirits, only to look at how s.h.i.+ny the gla.s.s door was of a bankrupt company which was still recruiting just two days ago, simply overachieving .

 

        Hao Ren, gender: male, s.e.xuality: heteros.e.xual, age: twenty five, hobby: none, favourable point was not being picky about food. Currently single, with few friends and acquaintances. He lived by himself in the old house his parents left him located in the Old Quarters at the south side of the city. Like the large majority of male youths, his life goal was to achieve a monthly income of over ten thousand [yuan] by twenty five years old, marry a good looking wife, and if possible own a car. Right now, of this series of life goals, he had already achieved one third: He was twenty-five this year.

 

        This was truly a sad tale.

 

        He came to the city today to look for work. But to him, there was no desperate need with regards to living expenses: as mentioned before, Hao Ren lived in the old house left by his parents, and should be grateful to the old couple because of the inheritance they left. At least the house was quite sizeable – it was a two storey old style house, which had been remodelled into something similar to a family letting structure.

 

        For all these years, Hao Ren had always relied on leasing to survive. However his residence was too rural – even if he wanted to wait for forced relocation [by the government], it may take tens of years at the worst – and therefore, the income from leasing was so-so. Not too little but definitely impossible to get rich from. It was possible for bachelors like him to live comfortably, but limited to such.

 

        Objectively speaking, with this kind of stable income, it was not necessary for Hao Ren to look for a job outside. But idling around for too long made people contentious  , it was human nature *sigh*. He always thought that he should make a little effort and expand his choices in life. Additionally a more important reason was – that old house of his was really too rural, rural to the point where it almost escaped human civilization. After the last migrant worker couple moved out, no one had come to rent the house for a good half year. Having continuously observed for months on end the two storey “villa” stay empty, Hao Ren realized from the bottom of his heart: unless city planning moved towards his area, he might really have to work in order to live in the worst case scenario.

 

        After studying city planning for three days at home, Hao Ren reckoned that the chances of the area around him turning into a commercial centre overnight were unlikely. After contemplating that as a man he should not simply neglect himself [of his potential], he finally decided to first find work, at least to have enough income to maintain living.

 

        No matter what, he was still an able man who worked to pay tuition fees back in the day. Now that it was such a prosperous era, was it possible for him to end up dying from starvation?

 

        But fate did not turn according to one’s will, him scrambling around all day resulted in&h.e.l.lip; just scrambling.

 

        There was no point in dwelling on it, Hao Ren stretched slovenly and decided to rest for a bit under the shade of the trees beside the road in the park. Once the mid-day heat-wave had pa.s.sed, he would go and fill up his belly with food at some restaurant and after that, take the bus home. Fortunately, this was a small city which was hard to even consider a part of the third front[7 – essentially behind in development, quite rural]. Even if economic development was quite fast, some comfort and charm of a small place was maintained and at least the areas designated as public s.p.a.ces were not bad. There were dense patches of greeneries and a small park for rest and relaxation could be found even in the exorbitantly priced land at the city centre.

 

        He wiped the bench clean with some paper he had found and then sat down conspicuously. He used the leaflet with the maternity hospital logo and beautiful lady printed on the front to cover his face and began to rest without a care in the world. Of course, he didn’t dare to fall asleep just like that. After all, there were increasingly more thieves these years; that and there weren’t enough non-thieves to even steal from. Even though there was nothing of worth in his pockets, getting robbed was still not ideal. He only intended to doze off a little, at least to rid his body of the summer heat.

 

        Not even one minute had pa.s.sed since he laid down properly before the light spilling over from the side of the leaflet darkened, as if someone had approached his side. Hao Ren exposed a somewhat surprised face, shocked to realize that it was already close to twilight, not to mention the thin and pet.i.te female figure that stood beside him. This figure just so happened to block the setting sun. Due to the backlit effect, he couldn’t quite make out the appearance of the female and could only work out that she was a short haired and slender girl.

 

“Hou , you’re awake?”

 

        This unfamiliar girl seemed to be the easily intimate type, waving her hands while greeting him unreservedly. Hao Ren sat up at once and observed his surroundings in a bewildered fas.h.i.+on, confirming that it was really twilight – he originally planned to just snooze off for a while but a snooze really took him half a day forward. Only after this realization did he seriously evaluate the person in front of him. At this point, as if the unfamiliar girl finally realized that standing in the light meant her appearance couldn’t be seen clearly, she grinned and slightly rotated her body as to allow the other party to see her clearly.

 

        A very beautiful girl – that was Hao Ren’s first impression.

 

        The other party was dressed refres.h.i.+ngly; her upper body was clad in a white, tight-fit short sleeved s.h.i.+rt with a pair of slightly childish plastic puppy adornments sewn onto the collar. On her lower body she wore a dark blue short skirt and a pair of sneakers, like a female university student who secretly ditched cla.s.s to go shopping. This overly intimate girl kept shoulder length short hair, perhaps she really likes sports~[9] Her skin was slightly tanned in the colour of wheat, healthy and full of life, while her appearance was intricate and cute. The most noticeable feature were her large pair of smart eyes; more filled with vigour than any other pair of eyes seen by Hao Ren before, as if all of the person’s spirit was reflected in them.

 

        And behind her, there was a somewhat heavy looking extra-large luggage case.

 

        Looking at the dumbfounded Hao Ren, a dumb smile blossomed from this short-haired beauty (even though putting it like this might be somewhat inappropriate, but Hao Ren definitely thinks of it as a dumb smile), that smile was clean and crisp, rarely seen on the faces of girls of the same age these days. The other party rummaged through her small handbag for what seemed to be ages, before finally producing a paper slip full of creases before Hao Ren: “Excuse me, do you know where this place is?”[polite]

 

        Hao Ren slapped his cheeks to snap himself out of it. Disregarded what was wrong with this reckless girl and rather looked at the address on the paper&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip; what the h.e.l.l, isn’t this my house?