Outside the room, the village chief’s wife was still busy in the kitchen — it would be some time before she came out.

Bai Youwei glanced toward the kitchen twice, then crept quietly down the steps, descending through the narrow stone staircase into the basement.

The basement was not entirely dark. Faint oil lamps on the walls cast a weak, struggling glow.

She looked around. The basement held only junk — a chair missing a leg, a grimy rug, and some dust-covered books piled thickly in a corner. She opened one page and saw yellowed paper with unknown insects scurrying quickly across it.

Ever since Bai Youwei had come out of the Minotaur’s labyrinth, she had a particularly strong aversion to insects.

She pulled her hand back and swept the surroundings again with distaste.

Strange — such a hidden basement, and yet it only held this rubbish? Could the secrets of the werewolves be hidden inside those books?

*Don’t be ridiculous…* She couldn’t even read the language on them. Who knew what country’s setting this story was even based on!

Bai Youwei felt frustration rising.

Daylight was only eight hours long, and she had already wasted a good deal of time. If she couldn’t find a way to become a werewolf before nightfall, wouldn’t she just be waiting to die?

She paced back and forth in the basement, anxiety gnawing at her.

The dust on the floor preserved her footprints. She stopped, and by the weak light, she traced them — crisscrossing and overlapping, they faintly converged into something like a “path,” and that path led to the rug beneath her feet.

Bai Youwei froze. Then understanding struck — she stepped quickly aside and yanked the rug up in one motion.

Beneath it was a moveable wooden panel.

So this basement was just another decoy. The real hiding place was beneath the basement itself.

Bai Youwei was utterly speechless.

Was all this really necessary? It was just a game. Did the clues really have to be buried this deep?

She gripped the pull ring on the wooden panel and heaved it open. A wave of stale, musty odor hit her full in the face — more putrid and damp than the filthy rags, the insect-riddled books, the mold-covered walls — it was as though… as though she’d opened a grave.

Inside was pitch-black, not a sliver of light.

Bai Youwei pulled out a flashlight from her bag and swept it across the opening. The passage was too narrow, and turned at a corner — she couldn’t see what lay below.

Things had come to this point. Even if there were a mountain of blades or a sea of fire down there, she couldn’t turn back.

She gritted her teeth, bundled her skirt up to her waist, gave no thought to her appearance, and descended step by step — one hand gripping the flashlight, the other braced against the stairs.

The rabbit perched on her shoulder, peering curiously into the depths of the passage.

—

The deeper she went, the darker it became, and the heavier grew the stench of rot and blood.

When she reached the final step, she found herself in a room roughly the same size as the basement above — but with no clutter at all. Only a massive cage.

Bai Youwei shone her flashlight over it. There seemed to be a person inside the cage.

She used the word “seemed” because the figure was sprawled on the ground, looking like a bundle of filthy rags, with no recognizably human shape.

Against the wall stood a narrow table, on which rested several thick white candles, each as wide as an arm.

Bai Youwei lit the candles. At last, the room grew bright.

The “person” in the cage finally stirred.

…It was actually alive.

Which made sense — if it were dead, there would be no need to keep it caged.

But this cage…

Bai Youwei furrowed her brow, stepped closer, and examined it carefully.

The cage was made of silver.

At that moment, the figure inside lifted its head. Through a curtain of disheveled hair, half of one eye was visible, staring fixedly at her.

Slit pupils.

Bai Youwei understood. A werewolf was imprisoned here.

But if it was a werewolf, why hadn’t the village chief burned her? What made her different?

Before she could finish wondering, the werewolf inside suddenly exploded in fury — howling and lunging forward!

—