Dusk fell again.

Bai Youwei and Shen Mo separated again as well.

Although they had found empty houses not far from each other, just thinking about not being able to be together when the werewolf appeared made everything feel that much more unsettling.

—

Bai Youwei felt this was no good — becoming too attached to a person always led to anxiety, to constant fear of loss.

But then she thought again: wasn’t the reason she kept striving, kept pushing herself, precisely so she could be with him for longer?… The game would end eventually, but she hoped the person by her side would never leave, that things would never have to end.

The crimson full moon rose. The entire village was draped in deep red light.

Bai Youwei sat before the stone bed. Moonlight filtered through the glass window and fell over her in a hazy veil.

Remembering the line carved on the fountain statue, she felt deeply uneasy. Clutching her rabbit, she got up and looked for something to block out the moonlight.

It would be best to find some cloth to use as a curtain.

There were some old bedsheets in the large wooden cabinet beside the window. Bai Youwei got up and walked over, pulled the cabinet open — and a cloud of dust hit her full in the face. She couldn’t help coughing twice.

The cabinet reeked of mildew, with an additional layered smell of years-old staleness.

Bai Youwei immediately abandoned the idea of searching for cloth. She would rather endure two hours of moonlight than extend a single finger to touch fabric that had been sitting there for who knew how many years.

It had probably been gnawed by mice, crawled over by spiders, colonized by nameless insects…

The more she thought about it, the more revolting it became.

Bai Youwei was about to close the cabinet door when the rabbit beside her suddenly twitched its ears and stared alertly out the window.

Bai Youwei’s heart lurched!

Almost without thinking, she snatched up the rabbit, crouched low, and ducked inside the cabinet!

She only had time to pull one panel of the door shut. Then a black shape appeared at the window. Bai Youwei dared not move. She held her breath and fixed her eyes on that shadow…

Black. Enormous. Sharply cast on the floor. Those pointed, elongated ears made clear that this silhouette did not belong to anything human.

It stopped at the window.

Tonight’s target — was it her?

Bai Youwei crouched inside the wooden cabinet, surrounded by those mildew-laden sheets, her mind racing at full speed —

Why had the werewolf chosen her?

What was different about her house compared to the others?

What other secrets in this village had she not yet discovered?

…Creak.

The window was pushed open.

Bai Youwei covered her nose and mouth.

The air seemed to solidify; time slowed to an unnatural crawl. She heard the werewolf’s low, heavy breathing, the rough sound of coarse fur brushing against the windowframe, and then the claws — those enormous, razor-sharp claws — now scraping slowly across the windowsill…

Bang!

The sound nearly ripped a cry from Bai Youwei’s throat!

She pressed both hands over her mouth, desperately holding back even the faintest sound!

Her gaze crept upward without a sound and landed on the edge of the cabinet — there, just visible, were sharp fingernails, and the dark gray-black coarse fur at a neck…

The werewolf had propped itself against the cabinet, half its body pushed inside the room. It only needed to look down to find Bai Youwei huddled in the cabinet.

But it didn’t.

It swept the room with its gaze, found no prey, and slowly withdrew…

Bai Youwei inside the cabinet let out a quiet breath of relief.

She watched the shadow on the floor disappear and prepared to wait until the creature had moved further away before climbing out.

But after a while, Bai Youwei’s heart was still pounding. She remained uneasy.

Maybe it won’t give up so easily…

With that thought she held her rabbit tighter and stayed curled inside the cabinet, waiting for dawn.

The black shadow suddenly reappeared!

Bai Youwei’s heart seized — she stared wide-eyed at the shadow cast on the floorboards! It had never left at all! It had been pretending to go, trying to lure her out!

But why?!

Why didn’t it simply come inside and search the room? There were almost no hiding places in here. The moment it came through the front door, it would find her in the cabinet within moments!

Could it be that werewolves were also bound by rules? If it attacked an empty house, it could not attack anyone else tonight — and for that reason, it didn’t dare truly enter?

All sorts of thoughts surged up. Bai Youwei’s mind was in turmoil, but no matter what, she had absolutely no intention of coming out!

At last, the werewolf outside gave up. It let out a roar from deep in its throat, and with heavy, thudding footsteps, ran off toward another house.

—