Bai Youwei and Shen Mo returned to the little girl’s house to find it still empty.

The bloodstains on the floor had long since dried. The vegetable leaves in the courtyard hung limp and wilted. In the kitchen, unwashed dishes were piling up — all testifying that someone lived here.

With no clues to find, the two had no choice but to continue searching the village.

They came across a few villagers and asked about the monkshood. Every answer was much the same as the village chief’s — not a single person would allow that monkshood could exist in the village.

“It was burned away many years ago — it couldn’t appear here.”

“You must have been mistaken. There are many wildflowers near the village, and some of them are blue.”

“Right, what you saw must have been a wildflower. It couldn’t have been monkshood. If anyone spotted monkshood growing here, how could they possibly leave it? They’d burn it on the spot.”

Bai Youwei lost patience and asked the villagers directly: “If it was all burned many years ago, have any of you ever actually seen monkshood? Do you even know what it looks like?”

The villagers were stumped, unable to answer for a long moment. In the end they simply held firm with an air of stubborn certainty: “In any case, what you saw was definitely not monkshood!”

Bai Youwei had no words.

She and Shen Mo wandered on and found themselves, without quite realizing it, standing at the fountain pool.

The fountain had since been cleaned. The water was clear again, and the cobblestone ground had been rinsed spotless.

Bai Youwei was tired. She sat down at the fountain’s edge to rest. It felt like ever since she had entered this game, her legs had been in a constant state of overexertion.

“Look over there.” Shen Mo pointed at the statue in the center of the fountain. “There’s writing on the base.”

Bai Youwei’s brow furrowed slightly as she looked. Carved into the base of the statue in small characters was a line of text:

*Even a person of purest heart, one who never forgets their evening prayers, may still find themselves transforming into a wolf on a full moon night when monkshood is in bloom.*

These were the very words the village chief had spoken. So they were carved on the statue as well.

Bai Youwei stared at the statue of a man and woman, and gave a dismissive curl of her lips. “Who knows what that female werewolf was thinking — how could she fall in love with a human?”

She said it offhandedly, but a nearby villager sweeping the ground happened to overhear and interjected, “Naturally she was drawn to the human warrior’s kindness and courage.”

Bai Youwei turned to look. It was an unremarkable-looking old man.

“Were there no brave wolves among the wolf-folk? She had to go and fall for a human?” she scoffed.

“Humans are not only brave — they also have wisdom.” The old village man gazed at the statue with an air of deep feeling. “The union of humans and werewolves gradually brought the two peoples to live in peace. The werewolves taught humans their hunting techniques, and the humans taught the werewolves planting and weaving. The fragrance of those wheat fields, the sweetness of those vegetables and fruits — all are the crystallization of human wisdom…”

Bai Youwei said, “Werewolves eat meat, don’t they? Why would they need to learn to farm?”

The villager: “…”

He was utterly without a comeback. After a long pause, he managed to push out stiffly: “The point is, the bond between the human and the wolf people is something beautiful — something great!”

And with that, the old villager picked up his broom and walked away with a sour expression.

Bai Youwei watched his retreating back and felt thoroughly unimpressed. She sat on the fountain’s edge and rubbed her legs, sighing. “Who knows what Hans and his people are scheming — not a peep out of them.”

Shen Mo looked at the sky. The sun was nearly setting again.

“They lost a teammate. They’re probably working out how to recover from the setback,” he said evenly.

Bai Youwei also noticed the gradually darkening sky.

She and Shen Mo had wasted too much time today.

In truth, they had done their best to search — it was only because they had come up empty-handed that the whole day felt like a waste.

“Let’s go.” She stood up. “Back to the house. Let’s check whether our nails have gone missing, whether there’s blood smeared on the door, whether there are any wildflowers or weeds on the windowsill…”