Wolf

Wolf ears?

Hao Ren froze on the spot. Only after Lily had gone some distance did he vigorously rub his eyes. When he looked again, the person before him was still that utterly ordinary short-haired girl.

Yet he was absolutely certain that he had just seen a pair of strange, pointed ears! He could even clearly remember what they looked like: triangular, growing from the top of Lily's head, perked up energetically, and covered in beautiful silvery-white fur. There was no way he was mistaken! Hao Ren had always had great confidence in his eyesight and short-term memory.

But there was nothing on Lily's head now, and what he had seen just then truly defied common sense. So he patted his face and muttered to reassure himself, "Why am I getting sleepy so early today? I'm even hallucinating."

"Landlord, what did you just say?" Lily suddenly turned to look at him. Her big eyes sparkled with vitality beneath the night sky. "What hallucination?"

Hao Ren thought this girl really did have sharp ears—she had heard even that quiet mumble of his. But he did not show it on his face, merely waving a hand casually. "Nothing. I saw something wrong. Come on, we still need to get you settled in tonight."

"Oh." Lily carried her enormous suitcase ahead of him, her mouth never stopping as she walked. "Oh, right, Landlord, are there any places to eat near your place? I haven't eaten yet... How about I eat at your place tonight? I'll pay for the meal. Hey, Landlord, why are you walking behind me? You should lead the way. I don't know the route..."

Hao Ren caught up in a few strides. He felt that although this chatty girl was a little ditzy, her straightforwardness was rather amusing. He casually said, "It's fine, I'll feed you. It's just me anyway, so whether I make more or less, it's all one pot."

The moment his words fell, that fluttering sound from earlier suddenly came from overhead again!

This time, he looked up even faster than before and clearly saw a bat-like black shadow as large as an eagle streak across the night sky!

Of course, he did not think it was really a bat. He only assumed it was some large bird that had flown into the residential area to forage. There was wasteland not far from here, so it was not unusual for wild birds to occasionally wander into the neighborhood. But he worried that Lily would get a bad impression of the place, so he casually reassured her, "Don't worry. It's probably a wild bird that flew in. This place is pretty close to the wasteland."

Lily's voice suddenly came from very close by, sounding somewhat rushed. "Landlord, why don't you go on ahead? I... I'll catch up in a moment. I have something to do!"

Hao Ren was taken aback. Confused, he casually replied, "How can that work? I have to show you the way. The little paths around here twist and turn; even people who live here can get lost... Hey, why are you getting so close?"

Only then did he notice how close Lily's voice had been. Turning his head, he saw that her face was only inches from his. Those unusually bright eyes stared fixedly at him. They were beautiful, but in the darkness they gave him quite a fright. Hao Ren instantly jumped back more than half a meter. "Let me tell you! I'm a decent man!"

It was one of his bad habits. Whenever he got nervous, nonsense spilled from his mouth.

Whether it was an illusion or not, Hao Ren noticed a trace of urgency on Lily's face. She looked up at the night sky, then sniffed hard several times. "Landlord, just go on ahead. I really can catch up with you. I've memorized your scent... Oh, why are you being so fussy? I really have something I need to do!"

"No!" Hao Ren's stubborn streak rose up too. He did not even have time to question what she meant by "memorized your scent." His face hardened. "What if something happens? It's dark as hell, and I'm supposed to leave you here alone in the middle of the night? I couldn't live with myself—what is it you have to do that you can't tell me?"

As had been said before, Hao Ren truly was a good person—or at least someone with a normal sense of responsibility. He had brought Lily here, so he felt responsible for getting her safely to his home. Even though she was a girl with incredible strength, that had nothing to do with whether he worried about her. If something really happened to her, his conscience would trouble him.

Besides, he could not understand what major business a girl who had just arrived from out of town could possibly need to handle at a time like this.

Lily's expression had already turned extremely anxious, and her behavior was clearly becoming strange. She set down her large suitcase with a loud thud, then repeatedly looked up at the tall walls around them. On both sides of the narrow path stood old two- and three-story buildings, symbols of the residents' prosperity back when this place had still been flourishing. But times had changed, and the once-pristine buildings had become mottled old houses. Only uneven, gloomy walls stood along the path, leaving the night sky as nothing more than a narrow strip between the buildings.

Lily's line of sight darted rapidly among those high walls. At the same time, she began sniffing frequently, as though trying hard to distinguish some scent in the air, while lightly moving her hands and feet. Even Hao Ren, slow as he was, should have realized something was wrong by now. He still found the girl before him strange in every way, but the two strange sounds from the sky had already put him on edge, leaving him with no time to think about anything else. Now, seeing Lily's peculiar actions, he naturally understood that she had noticed something. "Liu Lili... what's wrong?"

"Just call me Lily," she replied reflexively, then looked at Hao Ren in surprise. "Hey, Landlord, why haven't you left yet?"

"You didn't hear a word I said, did you?" Hao Ren cautiously moved closer to Lily. Though his tone was casual, his fists were already clenched tight. He could not see anything unusual around them, yet he truly felt that the atmosphere had become strange. A faint smell of blood and a chill wind utterly out of season were spreading from the dark corners all around them. Honestly, he felt his calves trembling a little.

Hao Ren considered himself fairly brave, but there was no getting around how bizarre the situation before him was.

Even now, Hao Ren had no idea what was happening. He had heard plenty of urban legends and modern ghost stories, tales of wronged spirits in alleyways and death-seeking ghosts at crossroads. But he had always regarded them as nothing more than entertainment after meals. Yet what was this supposed to be?

At first, he could explain it away as his nerves being overly sensitive, or as being "infected" by Lily's strange behavior. But as second after second passed, the bloody smell in the air grew so thick that every breath tasted sweet and fishy, while the chill wind from all directions made their exhaled breath frost over. No matter how much he believed in science and rejected superstition, he knew he had encountered something abnormal. At that moment, he suddenly remembered how urgently Lily had told him to leave, how she had already been on guard when "everything around them was normal," and how she had calmly prepared herself... He understood at once. This girl he had privately called a "ditzy idiot" knew exactly what was going on!

"Damn it, what Worldline did I end up on to run into something like this..." Hao Ren carefully watched his surroundings, enduring the pungent stench of blood and the cold that seemed to be everywhere. He felt as though even his thoughts were slowing down. "Is this still the real world? Where the hell is the promised Approaching Science and happy life?"

"Landlord, I'm sorry I dragged you into this. This... thing may have come for me," Lily's voice suddenly came from behind Hao Ren, carrying a hint of hoarseness. "You're a good person, better than the people I've met before. So I'll do my best to keep you alive. I promise!"

"At a time like this, don't start handing out good-person cards..." Hao Ren's teeth chattered, yet he still turned to make a quip. But after seeing what Lily looked like, he could not say another word:

An almost unfamiliar girl stood beside him. Her silver hair fell to her waist, and her features were lovely, but she possessed a pair of golden, utterly inhuman eyes. Those pale gold pupils even gave off a faint glow beneath the night sky, a radiance completely unlike the reflection of normal eyes. A pair of silvery-white wolf-like ears stood perkily atop her head, twitching in the cold wind and constantly swiveling toward every faint sound around them.

And behind the girl, a bright silver tail had slipped out through a gap in her clothing, swaying back and forth in the air.

A wolf-like girl... or, in the popular term these days, a beast-eared girl?

Hao Ren did not know why he could still make snarky comments, but he knew his life had just gotten a lot more interesting.

Assuming he still had a life after tonight.