The mouth of the well was pitch-black.
The water lay far below, like a sheet of black glass sealed at the bottom.
Yang Yong's Evil Eye gave him excellent vision, but even he couldn't see what was down beneath the water.
He could only sense something moving in it.
Very slowly.
Again and again, it rose from the depths of the well, then sank back down.
It wasn't bubbles. It wasn't fish.
Something very large and very soft had turned over in the deepest part of the well.
Goosebumps rose across Yang Yong's back.
He watched the well, and the thing inside seemed to be watching him too.
Just as Yang Yong was about to move another half-foot forward, the air behind him suddenly turned cold.
He whipped around and saw Huang Santainai standing twenty feet away, staring straight at him.
"Yang, Deputy City Lord, what are you looking at out here in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?"
The old woman's voice was slow and unhurried, as though it had drifted up from the well.
Yang Yong straightened and brushed the dirt off his knees.
"Couldn't sleep. Heard the cats in your village yowling in heat, so I came out for a walk."
"Cats don't make that much noise," Huang Santainai said.
She took a step forward, tapping her cane against the ground. The sound rang out with particular clarity amid the howling.
"Yang, Deputy City Lord, these old eyes aren't blind. You saw it, didn't you?"
She smiled, revealing a mouthful of broken yellow teeth.
"You saw the thing in that well."
Yang Yong said nothing.
Wind swept past from behind him, blowing a few strands of Huang Santainai's hair loose.
Those gray-white hairs drifted to the corner of her mouth and stuck there, like tiny