Hao Ren stared blankly at the silver-haired girl before him.

The silver locks billowing in the cold wind, the golden eyes glowing faintly in the night, and—most striking of all—those pointed ears made it nearly impossible to reconcile this figure with the ditzy Liu Lili he’d just escorted from the city center.

Yet it was her. Beyond the unchanged face, her clothes were the same proof.

The wind was icy, the moonlight frigid, his clothes soaked with chill, even his breath fogged in the air—Hao Ren felt himself freezing, but the unnatural cold somehow kept him lucid. Especially with the thick, cloying stench of blood saturating the alley, that clarity was vital. It allowed him to stay alert while his mind struggled to reconcile reality with what he was witnessing.

He didn’t dare address Lili as casually as before. The eerie atmosphere robbed him of his usual boldness, and her transformed appearance left him unsure how to speak. Objectively, beast-eared girls were cute—but who knew if she’d developed some feral personality quirk upon transformation? Hao Ren could’ve sworn he saw a primal, predatory glint in her eyes, sending chills down his spine as his brain helpfully queued up every bizarre monster-girl anime and horror story he’d ever consumed.

As the cold and bloodlust thickened, frost crept across the alley’s ground, and the moon above bled into a dull red. Hao Ren, clad only in a thin summer shirt, shivered violently, while Lili seemed utterly unaffected. She inhaled deeply through her nose, her ears twitching.

"That damn bat’s masking its scent with blood... Don’t wander off, landlord. Flying types hunt at night—ambush specialists."

Post-transformation, her voice carried an eerie chill, but her words reassured him: no personality shift detected. Emboldened, he asked, "Lili, what the hell is going on? You—"

"I’m a werewolf." Her ears perked up even higher, pride lacing her tone. "Don’t know how, but it’s true. I’ve been hiding it all this time—this is the first time anyone’s seen me... Damn it, getting involved with flying freaks never ends well."

"Oh." Hao Ren could only nod, his lifelong worldview crumbling. But before he could respond, Lili’s head snapped up. "Incoming!"

Almost simultaneously, the edge of the crimson moon seemed to shudder. A black speck shot from the moon’s halo, hurtling toward them.

The dot expanded into a shadow—too large for a bat, more like a cloaked humanoid. Hao Ren had no time to process it. The thing was already upon them.

His muscles, tensed for action, reacted instinctively. He dove aside just as the shadow missed him by inches. Seizing the opening, Lili lashed out with a whip-like kick, the impact explosive enough to send a sonic boom rippling through the air. A flurry of rapid strikes followed—smack, smack, smack—each blow delivered with brutal simplicity.

To Hao Ren’s dazzled eyes, the silver-eared girl became a blur of motion, trading blows with the amorphous shadow in raw, unpolished melee. No fancy techniques, just direct, overwhelming force. The air itself seemed to ripple under the assault, and gradually, the shadow weakened, finally contracting into a bat shape as it fled skyward.

Lili’s final punch sailed harmlessly past as the creature scrambled onto a rooftop. Frustrated, she bared her teeth and let out a guttural "grrr"—a sound Hao Ren recognized from his childhood in the mountains. Wolf howls.

But there was no time to marvel. The bat didn’t retreat; it circled overhead, tracing lazy patterns in the air—S’s, B’s—as if mocking their inability to pursue.

Hao Ren’s pulse spiked. The wolf-girl couldn’t fly or shoot projectiles. And she was still acting like an idiot—if the bat dove again, would she even react in time?

"Grrr..." Her growl deepened, fur bristling along her ears. Then, with a sudden cry, she threw back her head and howled at the moon: "Aooooo—!"

The moment she did, the bat plummeted toward her in a dive. Hao Ren’s heart leapt into his throat. "Idiot! This is no time for dramatic poses!"

But just as the bat, wreathed in black mist, closed in, Lili’s arm snapped up. A blur of motion—whizzing through the air—a sharp crack as the creature was struck mid-flight, recoiling in a spray of vapor before scrambling back into the sky.

Only then did Hao Ren see what she’d been holding: a brick. A perfectly ordinary, brutally square red brick.

"Hah! Come back and fight me, you winged freak!" she shouted at the retreating bat. "Just ‘cause you’ve got wings doesn’t mean I can’t smash you! Ever since I became a werewolf, I’ve trained for this—Five whole years perfecting the Meteor Brick Technique! Let’s go!"

Hao Ren facepalmed. So the legendary werewolf finishing move was... throwing bricks? And it worked?!

The bat, clearly dazed, flapped erratically, the blood haze around it thinning. After a tense standoff, it let out one last circle over their heads before vanishing into the night.

Lili, unwilling to let it escape unscathed, hurled two more bricks. Hao Ren lost sight of them, but the bat’s wobble confirmed at least one hit. Five years of training pays off, he mused.

His bigger concern? Where those bricks landed. This girl’s strength was monstrous—those projectiles must’ve flown like cannonballs. Please let this area be deserted...

With the attacker gone, the night’s unnatural chill faded as quickly as it came. Summer’s muggy heat returned, and Hao Ren sneezed violently. "Damn temperature swings... Guess I’m getting sick."

He watched as Lili’s silver hair darkened back to black, her wolf ears vanishing. She sighed, scooped up her suitcase, and turned to leave. "So... I’m not renting your place. Go home, landlord. And keep quiet about tonight—I’ve got enough problems."

"Wait!" Hao Ren bolted after her. "It’s late—where are you going? Come back with me, at least get your stuff settled—"

She spun around, eyes wide with disbelief. "Why? You think that flying thing won’t come back? It’s after me—werewolves and those monsters are natural enemies."

Gritting his teeth, Hao Ren grinned. "Because I’m a good man!"