According to the game’s rules, one villager would transform into a werewolf each night.

The little girl’s mother happening to become a werewolf made perfect logical sense — yet the nagging sense of wrongness in Bai Youwei’s heart only grew stronger and stronger. She had the persistent feeling that she had overlooked something, or perhaps gotten something wrong.

Her gaze followed the woman on the ground and drifted toward the house —

Red roof, white walls, a small courtyard enclosed by a low fence, beans and green onions growing inside.

She saw a small girl’s face behind the glass window. The girl stared with cold, unblinking eyes at the woman on the ground, begging for her life. The corners of the girl’s mouth began to curl upward — up, and up, and further up — then split into a grin. A little cherry-blossom mouth that stretched impossibly wide, stretching and stretching until it nearly reached her ears, just like the village chief’s.

A chill ran through Bai Youwei’s heart.

She was about to say something to Shen Mo when the face behind the glass flashed and vanished.

“What’s wrong?” Shen Mo noticed her reaction and asked in a low voice.

“That little girl…” Bai Youwei drew a slow breath and replied softly, “The one who was bouncing a rubber ball by the well and got chased out by her mother — the one we ran into again at the plaza afterward… I saw her. She was smiling.”

Shen Mo frowned slightly and looked toward the house.

Through the window, he saw only simple furniture — a table and some chairs.

By now the crowd had descended into chaos, jostling and shouting. Someone had gone home and returned with thick rope, and they were winding it around and around the woman.

They chanted in unison: “Burn her! Burn her!”

The woman sobbed desperately: “I don’t know! I truly don’t know anything!… When I woke up, I found myself collapsed by the bedside, covered in blood — the floor covered in blood — I don’t know…”

Hans wanted blood for blood. The villagers harbored deep hatred for werewolves. The village chief simply wanted this matter resolved as quickly as possible.

Everyone argued and shouted, shoving the woman toward the plaza, heedless of her cries and struggles.

Bai Youwei and Shen Mo fell behind, making no move to follow. Neither of them had any interest in watching a person burned alive.

When the crowd had moved away, Bai Youwei and Shen Mo stepped inside the woman’s house.

The air still carried a faint, lingering scent of blood. The house was larger than the empty dwelling they were staying in, with several rooms, but it was in considerable disarray. There were several smeared bloodstains on the floor, as though someone had hastily wiped them but had not managed to clean them completely.

Bai Youwei found no sign of the little girl.

However, she and Shen Mo discovered bloody werewolf footprints in the woman’s bedroom — damning evidence. Clearly the woman had indeed transformed into a werewolf the previous night and, in a state of lost reason, had gone out and attacked Dim.

But what had triggered the transformation?

Was it truly random — coincidence, chance?

The feeling of being unable to grasp the crux of the problem was deeply unsettling. Bai Youwei paced back and forth through the house without finding any useful clues, her anxiety growing by the moment.

Bang!

The sound wasn’t particularly loud, yet it startled her. Then came another bang!

Bang… bang… bang…

The sound of impact, at a fixed, steady rhythm.

She and Shen Mo walked to the doorway and looked outside to find the little girl standing in the courtyard, head bowed, bouncing a rubber ball one after another.

A bright red rubber ball, dropping onto the bloodstained stone bricks, bouncing back into the little girl’s hands — over and over, again and again…

The sensation left Bai Youwei profoundly uncomfortable.

She furrowed her brow, stepped outside, and asked the little girl, “Your mother turned into a werewolf last night — did you know?”

Bang —

The ball bounced up again, caught in the little girl’s cupped hands.

“Of course I knew.” She tilted up a cherubic face and smiled at Bai Youwei and Shen Mo. “She was a werewolf all along. Everyone here is a werewolf.”

Bai Youwei was stunned. “…Everyone is a werewolf?”

“You two are as well,” the little girl said with a light, silver-bell laugh. “Anyone who moves into Werewolf Village is a werewolf.”