Hao Ren stared blankly at the slip of paper in his hand.

The address written on it pointed to a remote area on the outskirts of town—a place he knew all too well.

"This is my home!"

"Why are you looking for this place?" he asked, genuinely puzzled. A complete stranger holding the address to his house? Honestly, his heart skipped a beat—but he quickly reminded himself of his dismal romantic track record. By third grade, his luck with girls had already been exhausted. So he kept his expression neutral, though curiosity gnawed at him.

The girl was attractive, with a lively demeanor. Sure, her height was a bit of a letdown, but her energy more than made up for it...

"I'm looking for a place to rent!" she declared cheerfully. "I've been searching all day and couldn't find it until I decided to ask someone—luckily, you're the only person left in the park."

Hao Ren couldn't help but think her forwardness was a bit too much. But his attention quickly shifted to the key word: "rent."

Wait a second...

He was a landlord. A few days ago, he'd placed an ad in the local paper about a vacant unit. Was this girl here to rent?

After months of no tenants, finally—rent money!

He folded the paper and handed it back. "I know exactly where this is. I'll take you there."

Her face lit up. She stuffed the paper into her bag and patted it. "Thanks a lot!I've been searching forever..."

As Hao Ren stood up and stretched, something suddenly felt off. "Wait a minute—you were looking for this address all day in the city center?!"

She nodded vigorously, her earnestness almost endearing. "Yep, totally lost!"

"Of course you were!" Hao Ren almost snapped. A suspicious thought crept into his mind—Did we know each other in the past and she's here to prank me?

"Didn't you notice the address says 'Southern Suburbs'? Southern Suburbs! You spent all day looking for a suburban address in the city center?"

"But it said 'Bai Shi Building'!" she protested, pointing toward a commercial high-rise downtown. "Isn't that in the city?"

Hao Ren froze. Then it hit him. "It's Bai Shi Road in the Southern Suburbs—not Bai Shi Building downtown!"

He almost added: "Do you only read the first two characters of every place name?!"

"Ah-ha!" She snapped her fingers, looking sheepish. "I always get details mixed up. But you know where Bai Shi Road is, right? Lead the way!"

Something about her still felt... off. But Hao Ren was a man of few worries. She was just a potential tenant, and after years of being a landlord, he'd learned not to pry too much. He pointed toward the park exit. "We'll need the bus. The Southern Suburbs are far—it'll be dark by the time we get there. Oh, and one more thing: I'm your landlord. That house you're renting? It's mine."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "Whaaat?! Really?!"

He nodded.

"No way! What are the odds? Landlord, we're fated to meet!" she exclaimed, practically bouncing with excitement.

Hao Ren rubbed his temples. Since when did she get so... hyper?

"Aren't you afraid of being kidnapped?" he blurted out. "What if I'm a scammer?"

Okay, that was a euphemism. Truthfully, he thought she was ridiculously naive. Wasting an entire day searching for a suburban address in the city, then blindly trusting a stranger enough to let them guide her to a deserted suburb? Were modern women this defenseless? Was she just that lucky, or had human traffickers taken a vacation? dozen theories raced through his mind in seconds. But before he could say more, the "airhead" (was that too harsh?) suddenly looked wary. "Kidnap? You're a trafficker planning to sell me?!"

"No!!" Hao Ren sighed. I need to keep my distance from this girl. If not for the rent money, I wouldn't waste another second talking to her.

She nodded satisfactorily. "Phew, good. I hate scams. Let's go?"

With a weary sigh, Hao Ren led the way out of the park—his steps feeling heavier with every step.

---

The bus ride to the suburbs was far from boring.

Hao Ren quickly discovered his new tenant was not just overly familiar and energetic—she was also incessantly talkative. From obscure celebrity gossip to real estate prices in second-tier cities, she chattered nonstop. Hao Ren had no idea how she transitioned between topics so smoothly, but her energy was relentless. As long as he occasionally nodded, she’d keep going like a runaway train.

At least it kept him entertained. And it gave him a chance to learn about his new tenant—a landlord's essential duty. The faster he gauged a renter's personality, the fewer problems he’d face later.

Her name was Liu Lili, though she insisted he call her "Lili." She claimed to be a wandering pet veterinarian and part-time writer (whatever that meant), recently arrived from another city. She wasn’t picky about housing as long as it was clean and dry—her work was flexible, after all.

From this, Hao Ren concluded she was an adventurous soul with no steady job but no intention of causing trouble. That suited him fine. How much mischief could a petite girl really get into? Sure, she was a bit... odd. But that was her problem, not his.

As expected, when the bus finally groaned to a halt at a tiny stop in the Southern Suburbs, night had fallen.

Hao Ren led Lili off the bus, only for her to exclaim: "This is Bai Shi Road?"

"The sign says this is the Southern Suburbs stop. Bai Shi Road is an old street—you can't reach it by bus. Did you expect the bus to drive into an alley?"

"Ahaha, my bad!" She laughed, though after an entire day of talking, she seemed to have grown more comfortable with him. She glanced around, frowning slightly. "It’s so quiet here."

The bus stop sat on a worn road lined with decades-old buildings—cracked pavement, shuttered shops, and cramped five-story apartment blocks. This street was practically the only "urban" area in the Southern Suburbs. Sometimes, Hao Ren wondered if modern society had forgotten this place existed. But every month, utilities reminded him otherwise: the water company didn’t forget, the power company didn’t forget, even the insurance salesmen didn’t forget. If so many people cared about this forgotten corner, what was there to complain about?

"Let’s hurry," he said. "The area’s safe, but it’s late. Drunkards might be roaming around. I’ll get you settled first. Oh, and one more thing—don’t wander off at night. It’s safer for both of us."

This was not the kind of welcome speech that reassured tenants. Most would’ve bolted. But Lili just grinned. "Don’t worry, landlord. I fight really well."

Hao Ren stared. "That’s not what I meant—look, are you seriously not afraid of bad people?"

As a stranger she’d just met, he shouldn’t pry. But this girl was so unguarded it bordered on absurd. As a self-proclaimed good man, he couldn’t help but intervene.

She waved him off cheerfully. "You’re such a nice guy, landlord. But I’m not scared of thugs—I’m super strong and a great fighter. Every bad guy I’ve met ran away screaming."

Hao Ren muttered under his breath: "So you’ve fought thugs before... and now you’re this reckless because they all lost?"

Seeing his silence, she giggled and hoisted her massive suitcase. The moment she lifted it, thunk-thunk!—both rubber wheels snapped off and rolled away.

"Ahaha, guess it’s heavier than I thought!" She scratched her head awkwardly.

"No, the road’s just bumpy..." Hao Ren blinked at the ruined pavement, then sighed. Time to man up. "Here, let me carry it... What the hell is in this thing?!"

The moment he touched it, he realized something was wrong. The weight felt like a sack of cement. Despite his broad frame, he couldn’t even lift it off the ground.

Lili, however, didn’t notice his struggle. With a laugh, she slung the suitcase onto her shoulder as if it weighed nothing.

Hao Ren gaped as the petite girl—barely reaching his chest—marched forward effortlessly, carrying what had to be at least a hundred pounds. His worldview teetered on the edge of collapse. Only when she called out for him to hurry did he snap out of it, muttering: "Must be natural strength... Haven’t watched enough variety shows, clearly..."

Thus, one lost in thought and the other preoccupied, they left the main road and turned onto a dark alley—the final stretch to "Bai Shi Road," where Hao Ren’s ancestral home awaited.

Night had fully fallen. One of the two streetlights was broken, casting the area in deeper shadow. The crumbling houses and overgrown weeds made the atmosphere eerily desolate. Without the nearly full moon overhead, even Hao Ren—a local—would’ve felt uneasy.

He glanced at Lili beside him. Still no fear. Still smiling.

Black night. Empty street. Foreign environment. Strange man walking beside her. Any normal girl would’ve been on high alert. But "Liu Lili"? Not a hint of worry.

Was she really that oblivious?

"Flap-flap—!"

Just as Hao Ren’s overactive imagination spiraled, a strange rustling sound cut through the silence.

The sudden noise made him jump. He looked up—and saw a bizarre black shape dart between the walls of the alley.

It looked like a bat, but the size... definitely wasn’t right.

"Heh... What the hell is that?" Hao Ren forced a laugh to save face, then turned to Lili, expecting her to look terrified.

But in that moment, he saw something impossible: pair of wolf-like ears had just sprouted from her head.