The Record of Unusual Creatures

Chapter 570: The Pumping Station

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Nangong Wuyue knited her brows together. “Is the water in other places abnormal too? If that’s the case, it does seem like a problem.”

Hao Ren had no clue. “Huh? What have you found out?”

“Two days ago, houses in the neighborhood have been complaining about irregular water supply. There’s even a family with three water pipes at home; one of which has no more water flow, while the other two still have water. Mr. Lee also complained that while washing vegetables at home, the tap water suddenly stopped and flowed back into the pipe. It scared the hell out of his granny.” Nangong Wuyue was sitting on the sofa, playing with Lil Pea while telling them what she had heard outside two days ago. She was a well-behaved girl. Her years of wandering life made her possess an affinity with people, so people in town were familiar with her. “But not every family’s encountering this problem. As the pumping station in this part of the suburbs has its fair share of problems from time to time, the issue hasn’t been widely regarded as mysterious yet.”

Never did Hao Ren expect to find so so many anomalies in this incident. However, the more he thought about it, the more unusual he felt. “There’s no such problem in our house.”

“Yeah, that’s because I’ve been making water so far.” The siren waved and created a little water sphere in the air. Lil Pea immediately jumped in and swam in it happily. “The water supply in our house has stopped for two days. I’m the one who’s been keeping the tap flowing.”

Hao Ren scratched his chin. “It appeares to be a supernatural phenomenon. Who’s gonna follow me to the pumping station?”

Lily had just returned home, and she was lying listlessly on the couch. Staring at the TV, she appeared to be watching a dog food commercial. “I’m dog-tired… Plus, I’m already a world savior. Why do I have to work hard like this… I want to watch TV.”

“I’ll go with Mr. Landlord.” Vivian wiped her hand as she walked out of the kitchen. She then untied her apron and looked at Lily. “You have so little life experience. As an otherworldling, you’re completely unaware of the supernatural phenomena in your surroundings. There could be otherworldings there if not demon hunters. How could a canine have such low territorial awareness?”

The words “territorial awareness” struck home and Lily jumped down from the sofa. “I’ll follow! Why have I not realized this?”

Hao Ren was as loose-tongued as ever, saying, “Because you haven’t marked your territory with pee, right?”

Of course Lily got mad at him, because Hao Ren was left with several bite marks on his arms—the canine maiden had finally found the optimal biting force that would not trigger the Steel Membrane Shield but leave bite marks on his arms.

Hao Ren fled from Lily in a panic. No one came to his aid. Even Vivian shook her head and said, “How can you say that to a girl? Not to a female, Mr. Landlord.”

Nangong Wuyue patted Hao Ren on the shoulder and said, “You know, you won’t survive more than two episodes in a TV series if you keep being foul-mouthed like this. Listen to me, Mr. Landlord—repent!”

Hao Ren was at a lost for words.

Lily snarled at Hao Ren for a long moment before she came up to him and licked the bite marks on his arms. This meant that she was done with the punishment. Meanwhile, Hao Ren was pushing away the silly cat, who came up to lick him without being invited. He looked around and asked, “So, who else is going to the pumping station with me?”

Nangong Wuyue quickly pulled her brother up and said, “My brother’s joining us; I’m familiar with water while my brother has a lot of investigative experience.”

They then left for the only pumping station in the Southern Suburbs. The pumping station was on the northern side of the town, but it was not too far from where they lived. It took them ten minutes to drive there.

And let us not forget that Hao Ren has a car now.

Speaking of the pumping station, it was a familiar place to Hao Ren. Since the Southern Suburbs was far from the city, various facilities were lagging behind, and the pressure of the water supply network had become a long-standing problem. Ten years ago, people there made complaints several times, thus the water company set up a pumping station to pressurize the pipe network. Hao Ren remembered when he was in middle school, he liked to sneak out to play at the pumping station. He would peek into the red brick room from the window and watch the water pump rumble. After that, he would tease and fight with the dogs in the yard. It was a time of youth and innocence. The young man who was destined to embark on an extraordinary journey was battle-hardened by the vicious dogs. His greatest wish was to win at least once when he fought the dogs in the yard…

Most of the old courtyard dogs had died, hence he had not been able to make his wish come true.

The pumping station was surrounded by a brick wall. The large iron gate was left ajar and there was an occasional sound of rumbling heard coming from the pumping room. Hao Ren parked his car in the open space outside the yard. As soon as they walked up to the gate, dogs started to bark as several German Shepherds in chains ran out and charged at the intruders. Their menacing behavior was exactly the same as their predecessors. Hao Ren scoffed at them and said, “B*tch, your forefathers didn’t even dare bark at me!”

Hearing that, Lily immediately barked at the leading German Shepherd and turned to look at Hao Ren. “They said that back then, you were chased by their uncles. You even fled by climbing up the old jujube trees in the courtyard once and you were too afraid to come down for a good whole day.”

Busted, Hao Ren mumbled to himself, “…Dang, I forgot that girl speaks foreign languages!”

At this time, a sturdy old German Shepherd strolled out into the yard. It gave a few symbolic barks when it saw Hao Ren. It was as though it still remembered the naughty kid who threw stones into the courtyard from the top of the wall 10 years ago. Hao Ren sighed and lamented about how time flew. Then, he saw someone coming out of the pumping station. It was a young man with an arm cut. He had to be the person in charge of the pumping station.

“Who are you looking for?” the young man asked before he turned and scolded the dogs. “Go back in! Go!”

“I’m from town. What’s been happening to the water supply these two days?” Hao Ren asked with a smile.

People in the city may not be accustomed to the life in this outlying suburb where people were accustomed to finding and talking directly with the relevant “unit” when there was a problem. Going to the pumping station for water supply problems, the boiler room for heating issues, the substation for power failure; whether it was the inquirer or the inquired, they were all used to it. Such was the unique “community ecology” of this developed backwater.

There had probably been others who came to complain for the past two days. The young man appeared a little impatient and hapless. “The water pressure in the water tower is abnormal, and I can’t do anything about it. People up there have asked for an expert’s assistance, so please go home and wait.”

Hao Ren chatted up the young man while Nangong Wuyue pretended to be a curious bunny. She strolled into the courtyard sneakily, listening carefully to the sound inside the pumps. The young man saw this and quickly reminded her, “Don’t step inside the courtyard. There are dogs inside and they’re on a long leash.”

But he did not realize it when Lily poked her head into the courtyard for a peek. The vicious German Shepherds bowed down to her like they were paying homage to their ancestor.

Suddenly, there was a creaking noise inside the pumping station, and someone called out. The young man quickly ran back in as he said, “Something’s wrong with the impeller again. I’ve got to go back in to take a look. You guys should go home.”

After the young man went back in, Hao Ren looked at Nangong Wuyue and asked, “What did you find?”

“The water is definitely not normal,” said the siren, pointing to a corner of the yard. “It’s obviously a supernatural phenomenon.”

Hao Ren followed the direction of Nangong Wuyue’s finger and found that there was water trickling on the wet concrete wall. But the most incredible thing was, the water was moving up the wall!

Lily sniffed around and said, “I have a feeling that there’s a problem with the air humidity too… Some places are very dry and some areas are as humid as in front of a waterfall. There seems to be a high moisture content in the air.”

“Is it someone of your fellow race?” Hao Ren suddenly thought of the siren’s water manipulation ability, so he turned to look at Wuyue. “Can sirens detect their own?”

“Yes, but it has be close enough. And since humans added bleach to the water supply, this sensory talent won’t be very useful in residential areas. Nevertheless, I can try.” Nangong Wuyue frowned as she sensed the flow of the abnormal vapor in the air, and found that all abnormal vapors were concentrated towards a certain place.

She looked up at the water tower 100 m away.

No one else could see any anomalies in the water tower, but in Nangong Wuyue’s eyes, the water tower was fully covered with fine lines, while numerous water molecules floated around in defiance of the law of nature.

It looked like the guy at the pumping was right. The water pressure was most unusual in the water tower.

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