Chapter 1 A Forest of Broken Bones

A scattering of gray wolves lay in the pine forest, their bones broken, their mouths bloody. Hao Ren weaved through the battered pack, tending to their injuries. He was particularly grateful he hadn't indulged his earlier thought of barbecued wolf meat. When he'd smacked the creatures around, he'd merely sent them flying instead of dealing mortal blows. Otherwise, the atmosphere with this "old version" of Lily certainly wouldn't be so harmonious.

The wolves' injuries were severe, but none were life-threatening. Hao Ren didn't even need the high-end medical pod; two autonomous robots with portable bio-tissue repair devices handled the majority of the wounded. As he moved among the wolves, the "werewolf girl" followed closely, her mouth constantly running: "Aiya, you're so amazing… Aiya, those things you have are amazing too… Aiya, you can even heal wolves, that's amazing! Aiya, are you hungry? Aiya, when are we gonna become sworn siblings?"

"Do you have to add 'aiya' to every sentence?"

"Aiya, it's just a habit…" Lily scratched her hair. "I haven't talked to anyone in ages, I'm a little excited, hehe…"

"You ran away from where humans live, right?" Hao Ren glanced at this "old version" of Lily. He had to force himself to ignore the feeling of familiarity and instead interact with her as a stranger, to avoid arousing the husky spirit's suspicion. He knew Lily might be scatterbrained, but she was far from stupid, and she possessed an uncanny, beast-like intuition. If he showed anything suspicious, she might bolt like a wary wolf.

But looking at the girl's outgoing personality… Hao Ren started to doubt his assessment. Could she really be wary with such a carefree demeanor?

So Lily was always so outgoing from the beginning…

While Hao Ren was lost in thought, Lily blurted out, "I haven't lived with humans for years—speaking of which, seeing your skills, you're definitely not human either, right? I'm relieved! I forgot to hide my ears and tail when I jumped out just now, and only remembered halfway through fighting you. Aiya ma, I was so worried…"

Hao Ren finally understood why this husky spirit was acting so casually like a "werewolf" in the open. Apparently, she was so unvigilant about disguising herself in her early years. Fortunately, she lived in an era when mythology had faded. In the Middle Ages, she would have been targeted by demon hunters long ago.

"I… well, I can't really be considered human either, but your vigilance is too weak. There are plenty of dangerous individuals among the 'non-humans,' and they're often a hundred times more dangerous than humans," Hao Ren said, glancing at Lily. Even though he knew she was just a "projection" from the past, he still felt the need to offer a few words of warning. "There's a group called demon hunters who specialize in hunting down 'outsiders' like you who expose themselves."

Lily's eyes widened. "Wow! That dangerous?"

Hao Ren curled his lip, mentally summarizing Lily's characteristics during this period. She seemed to have just left her village, or perhaps been driven out. The elderly couple who would eventually adopt her should have already passed away. She seemed to lack understanding of the "outside world" and didn't have a strong sense of concealing her identity. She knew to hide her ears and tail from humans, probably because they had caused panic in the village, not to avoid demon hunters. She was currently hiding in the wilderness, living by commanding wolves. He wondered what had happened later that led her to choose the human world.

Thinking of this, he asked casually, "So you've always lived in this frozen wasteland?"

"No," Lily twitched her ears. "I originally lived in a village, but after my parents died, the villagers were scared of me, so I ran away. I was planning to go south. I heard there are bigger cities in the south, and lots and lots of people living together. That sounds really interesting! I'll definitely make a name for myself there!"

"You'll make a name for yourself?" Hao Ren was stunned. "What are you going to do in the human world?"

"I'm going to be a great eating performance artist!" Lily clenched her fist and held it to her chest, her face full of confidence. "I heard there's lots of delicious food in the human world in the south, and I can eat a lot!"

Hao Ren was instantly covered in a cold sweat, which was immediately frozen solid by the Siberian wind. He couldn't imagine what kind of worldview was brewing in this muddled husky's head. Her perception of the human world was almost 180 degrees off! And how did she come up with the phrase "eating performance artist?"

But that wasn't the most important question, because Hao Ren quickly realized another crucial piece of information:

Lily planned to go south to find a large human city—and she was currently wandering around in Siberia.

After eliminating the automatic corrections from the translation plug-in, Hao Ren carefully recalled that Lily had spoken to him in Chinese, with a thick Northeastern accent. It was completely different from her standard Mandarin in later years. A Northeastern Lily could only mean one thing: she had started from the Northeast provinces…

"Um, you said you wanted to go south to find a large city?" Hao Ren looked at Lily awkwardly, unsure how to explain the situation. "Do you know where you are?"

"No idea," Lily said matter-of-factly. "I got lost as soon as I left the village. There were mountains everywhere, and then snow everywhere after the mountains, or forests everywhere. Who knows where is where? But I asked the wolves for directions, and they said south was this way…"

What do wolves know about north, south, east, and west?! They know directions, but they don't understand the words north, south, east, and west!

Hao Ren could almost picture how Lily had asked the wolves for directions. She probably bared her fangs and claws, released her "wolf king" aura, and the wolf pups trembled and bowed down, making up directions to please the wolf king whether they knew them or not—the wolf king was happy, but she had gone all the way from the Northeast provinces to Siberia!

"What's wrong?" Lily seemed to notice something amiss on Hao Ren's face. She scratched her head. "Is something wrong?"

"Do you know this place is called Siberia?" Hao Ren asked, looking utterly hopeless.

Lily had clearly never heard of the place. "What's Siberia?"

Hao Ren sighed. "…You're going the wrong way! This is north, north! If you keep going, you'll reach the Arctic Circle!"

Lily: "…Wow!!"

Then she asked, "What's the Arctic Circle?"

Hao Ren: "…"

He spent ages explaining the situation to this silly girl, wondering how this ignorant, scatterbrained, naive, and misguided individual would become a literary giant and graduate from Peking University four times in later years. Great Goddess, this person, who would one day joke with Zhou Shuren, originally aimed to be an eating performance artist in the human world! If someone like that could succeed, did the world still make sense?

"Aiya, so I've been going in the opposite direction all this time," Lily blinked. "No wonder it's getting colder and colder. Everyone says the south should be warmer… So, if I turn around and keep going, I can find a big city?"

She cheerfully set her new goal, completely unconcerned about the life wasted by going the wrong way.

She didn't even think of beating up the wolves that had misled her.

"Thank you, ha," Lily seemed happy after setting her new life plan, thanking Hao Ren with a bright smile. "I probably wouldn't have found a big city in my life without you… We should definitely become sworn siblings!"

Hao Ren felt his forehead twitching. "Why is all you think about is becoming sworn siblings?"

"Because you're amazing! And you helped me so much," Lily said earnestly. "I'll recognize you as my big brother!"

Hao Ren waved his hands repeatedly. "No, no, no, you're going to be a big shot in the future, I can't become sworn siblings with you…"

But as he was refusing, he suddenly remembered something: he needed to find where Vivian was sleeping in this vast snowfield, and here was someone who was excellent at finding people and things! Not only that, but she'd been wandering around this place for a while, so she was very familiar with the local conditions, and she had an entire pack of wolves to help!

This was ready-made labor!

So in the end, he changed his tune. "Actually, we can put the sworn siblings thing aside for now. I was wondering if you could do me a favor?"

Lily tossed her hair. "Whatever you need, just say the word, big brother."

"No, no, don't call me big brother yet. I have a name, my surname is Hao, my given name is Ren, just call me Hao Ren."

"Hao… Ren, okay, I'll remember," the werewolf girl nodded vigorously. "I have a name too! You can call me Lily."

Hao Ren of course knew what the girl's name was. He was a little surprised that her original name was Lily, and that she hadn't changed it in the last hundred years. "Good name… what's your surname?"

"I don't have a surname," Lily replied.

"No surname?"

"I was abandoned in the forest, I don't know who my birth parents are. My adoptive parents named me Lily. At first, I used my dad's surname, Liu, but because I didn't grow up for a long time when I was little, and I could understand the wolves in the forest, the villagers said I was a wild animal's cub, and I couldn't use a human surname, or it would bring misfortune. But my dad was powerful back then, and they didn't dare to say it to his face. Later, my parents died, so I stopped using the surname Liu…"

Perhaps because she hadn't talked to anyone for too long, Lily's words were a little disjointed, but Hao Ren still understood the situation. He frowned. "So your surname is Liu. The people in your village are all idiots, don't pay attention to them."

Lily nodded readily (it wasn't clear if she'd understood), and didn't forget the earlier topic. "What favor did you want me to do?"

"Oh, I'm here to find someone…"