*Boom!*

The werewolf slammed into the solid silver bars of the cage and let out a wail of agony!

Where it had made contact, the flesh sizzled as though seared by extreme heat — blood and skin blackened and charred!

Bai Youwei stood outside the cage, brow furrowed, watching the werewolf thrash inside, twisting in painful convulsions.

She noticed that the werewolf’s body was covered almost entirely in burns. Some were fresh scabs, others were old, gnarled scar tissue — layer upon layer of old wounds and new ones, so that there was scarcely an inch of undamaged skin on her entire body.

The injured werewolf lay panting inside the cage and gradually grew still, making no further attempts to attack.

Bai Youwei suspected the werewolf had lost her sanity. Otherwise, she should have known that being locked in a cage made it impossible to attack anyone outside.

Who was she?

Why was she imprisoned here?

The little girl had sent her to the village chief’s home — presumably pointing her toward this werewolf. She had found her now. But what was she supposed to do next?

Bai Youwei thought for a moment, then tried to communicate with the werewolf before her. “Is there wolfsbane here?”

The werewolf lay on the ground watching her, her body rising and falling slowly. She said nothing.

Bai Youwei felt she had asked a foolish question.

Wolfsbane triggered werewolf transformation. But the figure before her was currently in human form, which meant she was being suppressed by some force. If there were wolfsbane here, she wouldn’t be in the state she was in now.

Still… she should know where wolfsbane could be found. The little girl’s wolfsbane couldn’t have appeared from nowhere — the lead must have come from here.

“Where can wolfsbane be found?” Bai Youwei asked again.

The werewolf still said nothing.

She looked extremely weak. Her body was covered in wounds, her clothing worn for who knew how many years, frayed into tattered strips. Her hair had clearly never been washed — grayish-white, dull, knotted together with filth.

If one ignored that brief, explosive lunge moments ago, she looked as though she might draw her last breath at any moment.

Bai Youwei crouched slowly, moving closer to the cage, and said in a low voice: “If you help me become a werewolf tonight, I will find a way to get you out of here.”

The werewolf blinked, very slowly.

She seemed to want to speak, but the only sound she produced was a hoarse rasp — like the low, guttural rumble of a beast. Then she pushed herself up on her forelimbs and began dragging her grievously injured body toward Bai Youwei, inch by inch.

Still fearing the cage, she didn’t dare draw too close to the silver bars.

Bai Youwei watched her and asked: “Will you help me?”

The werewolf said nothing, only opened her mouth slightly, baring her fangs.

Bai Youwei was stunned.

Looking at the werewolf before her, and recalling all the strange behaviors of the little girl, an unsettling thought rose unbidden in her mind. It didn’t directly concern her, and yet it filled her with a strong and visceral unease.

Bai Youwei asked hesitantly: “Did you… once meet a little girl? You wanted her to save you, but it didn’t work out — is that right?”

The werewolf slowly closed her eyes and opened them again — a reply.

Bai Youwei hesitated outside the cage, uncertain whether to trust this werewolf.

“…In legend, if an ordinary person is bitten by a werewolf and survives, they become a werewolf themselves…” She pressed her lips together, studying the barely-living creature inside. “But how can I be sure you won’t use this as an opportunity to kill me?”

Perhaps the werewolf wasn’t as weak as she appeared.

Perhaps the werewolf had been waiting for exactly this moment — to seize her, devour her, and regain her strength!

But did she have a choice?

“…Forget it.” Bai Youwei exhaled deeply and steadied herself. “I don’t really have a choice, do I.”

She raised her arm and extended it into the cage, brow tight. “Make it quick. The village chief could come back at any moment, and I still need to find wherever the key to this cage is hidden…”

The werewolf stared at that snow-pale wrist, then opened her mouth and bit down!

Sharp fangs pierced through skin and plunged into the vein. Crimson droplets welled up instantly, trickling from the corner of the werewolf’s mouth one by one.

Bai Youwei’s vision swam. She hadn’t expected it to hurt this much.

—