While she pondered, Ye Tang had already spotted two figures in the distance, one large and one small. The two figures stuck close together. The smaller one bent down to pick flowers after just a couple of steps.
It was Little Red Riding Hood.
“See? I told you! The birds around here sing so beautifully. It’d be a waste not to listen! And look, all these gorgeous flowers are blooming. If you pick some pretty ones for your grandmother, she’ll be thrilled!”
The tall figure speaking wore human clothes but sported a massive gray wolf head.
His cream-colored chest fur was exposed to the air, just like the gray-on-the-outside, white-on-the-inside tail. His long legs stretched his human trousers into capris, and his overly muscular chest made even the extra-large deep blue vest—with only one button—feel constricted. The white shirt inside could only be buttoned at the bottom two.
“Mm!”
Little Red Riding Hood picked a violet, stood up with a flower-like smile, and nodded at the Big Gray Wolf. She soon spotted another vibrant purple aster nearby and ran toward it.
Here she’d pick a few flowers, there a few more. Little Red Riding Hood realized her hands were full and finally paused her flower-picking to stuff them into her basket.
Watching Little Red Riding Hood’s unguarded figure, the Big Gray Wolf wagged his tail contentedly and asked in a deep, rich, magnetic young man’s voice: “By the way, little girl in the red cloak, didn’t you say your grandmother lives alone? Where does she live?”
“She lives under the Three Large Oaks! Once I see the Walnut Grove ahead and find the big oak in the Walnut Grove, I’ll reach Grandmother’s house!”
“Walnut Grove and Three Large Oaks, huh…”
The Big Gray Wolf grinned in satisfaction and said to Little Red Riding Hood: “Oh, look! How’s that flower blooming?”
“Where? Ah! Such a beautiful flower!”
Little Red Riding Hood looked where the Big Gray Wolf pointed and indeed saw a splendidly blooming iris. So she dashed toward the iris.
Thanks to the surrounding trees and Little Red Riding Hood’s constant running around, Ye Tang—who had tested the hunting rifle’s effective range on idlers—smoothly sneaked into the Big Gray Wolf’s blind spot behind him. When the Big Gray Wolf spoke to Little Red Riding Hood, Ye Tang unhesitatingly raised her hunting rifle and pulled the trigger.
This was her first time seeing a live werewolf—one that walked upright on two legs and spoke human language fluently. But that didn’t stop her from quelling her surprise in half a second and firing once she confirmed this was the “Big Gray Wolf.”
Bang!
His pointy triangular ears twitched twice. Just as the bullet from the hunting rifle was about to hit the back of the Big Gray Wolf’s head, he dropped into a roll, grazing the bullet with his scalp to dodge the sudden strike.
Ye Tang narrowed her eyes. She simply stopped hiding, charged out from the forest, reloaded while running, and aimed the hunting rifle at the Big Gray Wolf.
“M-Mommy…?”
Little Red Riding Hood was startled by the gunshot and dropped her basket. The wine bottle shattered with a crash. She stared in shock as Ye Tang flashed in front of her, blocking her view with her body.
“Angeline, don’t look. And don’t step out from behind me.”
As Ye Tang spoke, she fired another shot at the Big Gray Wolf. His head fur singed in one spot, the Big Gray Wolf dodged again. But this time, Ye Tang was closer. He avoided the fatal wound, but the bullet grazed his ear, drawing blood that flowed freely.
“W-Wait…!!”
A beast’s instincts far surpassed a human’s. Overwhelmed by Ye Tang’s presence, even though the Big Gray Wolf knew human hunting rifles usually held only five bullets—and that dodging three more would leave this frail, haggard human defenseless—his instincts still painted a vivid picture in his mind of himself splattered under the rifle.
“Madam, please wait—!”
“It’s ‘lady’.”
Ye Tang corrected offhandedly and racked the bolt again.
The crisp loading sound sent shivers from his scalp to his tailbone. After rolling on the ground a few times and looking rather disheveled, the Big Gray Wolf pleaded.
“Lady, please wait! I’m absolutely not a bad guy…!!”
Ye Tang narrowed her eyes with contempt: “Guy?”
“…W-Wolf! I’m not a bad wolf! Please believe me!”
The Big Gray Wolf on the muddy ground waved his paws frantically. His massive frame shrank pathetically, and he instinctively backed away.
“Believe you? Why should I? Just because you can speak human words and make those pitiful dog eyes?”
Ye Tang’s finger stayed on the trigger.
“Mommy—”
Little Red Riding Hood’s frail voice sounded from behind Ye Tang. She felt two small hands clutching her skirt hem.
“Mr. Lang really isn’t a bad guy! He saw me walking alone in the forest and protected me all the way! He even taught me how to make Grandmother happy. I—”
“Angeline, pies don’t fall from the sky. There’s no such thing as kindness without reason. How do you know this wolf escorted you not to pry out your grandmother’s location so he could eat her?”
Seeing Little Red Riding Hood stand up behind Ye Tang to speak for him, Lang thought Ye Tang might get careless out of concern for her daughter, giving him a chance to escape. But he soon realized he was gravely mistaken.
He had never seen such a flawless human. Clearly a frail woman less than half his size, the pressure she exuded pinned him in place.
And those eyes… Those glass-bead eyes seemed to pierce his fur and bones, straight to his soul. Her stare made his fur stand on end, as if he’d been thrown into a winter river.
His pointy triangular ears drooped into airplane ears. Ye Tang heard Lang’s desperate defense: “No, lady, really no! I did want to get the location of her grandmother’s house from this little girl in the red cloak, but I never planned to eat her grandmother! Please believe me! I had no choice; I just wanted—”
Ye Tang’s finger tightened on the trigger.
“Stop!!!”
“Angeline! Get down!!”
A small black shadow burst unexpectedly from the forest. Ye Tang frowned, twisted to shield Little Red Riding Hood’s peeking head, but kept the gun trained ahead—with this hunting rifle’s firing rate and her current body’s mobility, she couldn’t take out two targets in one go.
The Big Gray Wolf in front was closer and a real threat. That small shadow was a blur to her dynamic vision; it might be a feint. If she shifted the gun from the Big Gray Wolf, that’d play right into their diversion tactic.
Since their goal was to save the Big Gray Wolf, as long as she pinned him down, she’d hold the advantage.
To Ye Tang’s surprise, the black shadow didn’t charge her. Instead, it pounced in front of the Big Gray Wolf, puffed up its tiny chest, spread its arms wide, and blocked between Ye Tang’s gun muzzle and Lang.
“Don’t hurt my brother! Brother only thought of stealing from isolated humans for us—for our whole family!!”
Its big eyes brimmed with tears. The little werewolf, just a head taller than Little Red Riding Hood’s Angeline, trembled nonstop yet stubbornly tried to shield his brother with his body.
“Xiu! What are you doing!? Didn’t we agree? I’d draw the human’s attention, you’d stay hidden in the forest! If I fail, you run! Take Ben and the others and run to somewhere without humans!”
Lang tried to yank his brother behind him, but Xiu wouldn’t budge. He sniffled and charged toward Ye Tang, who gripped the hunting rifle.
“Kill me if you have to! Our home was taken by humans anyway! Without food, we’re all doomed to starve! If I die, maybe my siblings can live two more days…!”
“Xiu—!!”
With his brother offering himself up before his eyes, Lang reached out his claws amid tears. In his despairing, heartrending howl, Ye Tang lowered her hunting rifle.
She had planned to kill the Big Gray Wolf because he threatened Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother’s safety. But she wasn’t one to blindly charge ahead once decided.
These two werewolves had just said some intriguing things. She was very interested to hear this world’s reality, which diverged from the fairy tale.
“Stealing? Home taken by humans? No food? Can you two explain exactly what’s going on?”
“Awoo?”
“Whine?”
The big and little teary-eyed wolves froze simultaneously.
……
Lang and Xiu led the two humans back to the cave—or more precisely, Lang was forced back to the cave at gunpoint by one of them, leaving Ben, Mimi, and Kiqi—the three wolf pups—stunned.
“—See, lady? I didn’t lie. Right there, that mountain is—was—our home.”
The small cave overlooked the hillside dug into bald patches. Lang’s sharp claws pointed to where trees had been clear-cut and piled aside, and the mountainside hollowed out into a massive black pit.
“A month ago, a noble lord brought a bunch of people. They hammered everywhere, dug pits all over. Werewolves signed a peace treaty with humans over four hundred years ago and have lived deep in the mountains ever since, never coming out… You humans should know our hearing and sense of smell surpass yours. Humans invaded our home, kept us from sleeping or hunting, and their scent is so…”
Lang trailed off awkwardly here. He clamped his mouth shut, but his throat bobbed involuntarily, betraying him. Ye Tang understood the physiological reaction. After all, she’d salivate at the smell of roast chicken or duck too.
“So you attacked the humans?”
“No! Absolutely not! The humans attacked us!”
Xiu barked angrily, his tail fur puffing out fully, fangs bared. Lang rubbed Xiu’s head, soothed his siblings, and said to Ye Tang: “A few days ago, the noble’s men excitedly told him they’d confirmed our home—this mountain—held something called ‘coal’.”
“Those humans drove us from our home! They smashed our house! Burned all our stored food! Scared off all the game! And, and—”
Xiu sobbed uncontrollably, fat tears rolling down: “And killed Grandpa and Grandma who wouldn’t leave the mountain…”
Ignoring the dark gun muzzle, Lang silently crouched and hugged his brother tightly. The other pups couldn’t speak human yet; they crowded around their big brother, nuzzling him with snuffles and “awoos,” licking the tears from his face.
“…”
Ye Tang lowered the hunting rifle pointed at Lang’s head.
Not because this wolf family had moved her. But because she realized something: if the Big Gray Wolf’s goal was to eat people, Little Red Riding Hood wasn’t enough for their family of five, so he’d pried the isolated grandmother’s location from her. After getting the next prey’s spot from Little Red Riding Hood’s mouth, he should’ve attacked her then.
Ignoring the logic of fairy tales and considering only from a realistic perspective, it was inefficient for the Big Gray Wolf to trick Little Red Riding Hood deep into the forest, eat her grandmother first, then disguise himself as the grandmother to wait for Little Red Riding Hood to show up—who could guarantee that Little Red Riding Hood wouldn’t turn back home after picking flowers, wouldn’t run into a reliable adult on the road, or wouldn’t get eaten by other wolves first?
The Big Gray Wolf could have simply attacked Little Red Riding Hood right after learning the exact address of her grandmother’s house. Even if this Big Gray Wolf held to the creed of “saving the best for last,” he could have taken the unconscious Little Red Riding Hood to her grandmother’s house, eaten the grandmother first, then eaten Little Red Riding Hood.
But earlier in the forest, after Lang asked Little Red Riding Hood for her grandmother’s address, he hadn’t laid a hand on her.
Combining this with Xiu’s words, the inference that Lang had asked where Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother lived in order to steal food—and that he himself… no, this wolf had no intention of attacking humans—stood on firmer ground than the assumption that Lang’s goal was to eat Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother.
“Understood.”
It really wasn’t good education to shoot and kill, in front of a mere six-year-old child, a creature toward which she felt fondness and whose backstory was so tragic.
But Ye Tang didn’t sling the hunting rifle back onto her shoulder.
“Today, I’ll take you at your word and let you go.”
Lang was overjoyed at Ye Tang’s words. His airplane ears had just perked up slightly when he heard Ye Tang declare in a cold, merciless voice: “But if you dare to attack my mother or this child’s grandmother, I will drag your entire family out of that cave one by one and send you all to hell.”
One big wolf and four little ones—five wolves in total—each felt chilled to the bone. Lang and his siblings huddled together, the five fluffy creatures nodding vigorously like their lives depended on it.
“Angeline, hand them the egg cake from the basket.”
“Okay, Mommy!”
Angeline lifted the cloth covering the basket, and only then did Ye Tang see that the egg cake had already been soaked halfway through with wine.
She let out a breath, took the basket from Angeline’s hands, and tossed it straight to Lang.
“Make do with it. It’s not much, but it’s something to eat. Wait for me here tomorrow—I’ll come back.”
“L-Lady…?”
Clutching the basket that was still dripping wine, Lang and his siblings’ faces were full of question marks.
“In exchange, I want you to swear you won’t attack humans, won’t steal human food, or rob travelers. Otherwise—”
Under Ye Tang’s pressure, the five fluffy creatures nodded vigorously again like their lives depended on it, looking more obedient than pets.
“Then let’s go, Angeline.”
Holding the gun in one hand and Angeline’s hand in the other, Ye Tang led Angeline out of the cave. Angeline couldn’t help turning back to look at the five fluffy creatures inside.
The light in the cave was dim, so from outside, Angeline could only see five pairs of ghostly green eyes glowing faintly. The little girl, who had never known fear until now, finally shuddered at those ten orbs of green light. She looked up anxiously at Ye Tang, opened her mouth to say some words of apology, but found her throat too dry to make a sound.
—She knew it wasn’t easy for Mommy to raise her alone. She knew Mommy could live more comfortably without her. She knew all this because the village adults said so.
She had wanted to perform well, to tell Mommy she wouldn’t be a burden. But today’s events made her realize: she really was a burden, a good-for-nothing, a useless child. Not only had she ignored Mommy’s instructions to stick to the main road and not dawdle, she’d also talked to a stranger and given away her grandmother’s address…
Not only had she failed to deliver the egg cake to her sick grandmother, she’d even broken the wine Mommy had told her to take to Grandmother…!
…She couldn’t cry. Absolutely couldn’t cry.
What right did a bad child who only held Mommy back have to cry?
“—Angeline? Angeline? Are you tired? Want me to carry you?”
Noticing that Little Red Riding Hood had kept her head down the whole way, Ye Tang stopped. The little one holding her hand snapped back to attention and immediately looked up with a sweet smile.
“Mommy, I’m fine!”
Ye Tang had at least played other people’s moms before. In that world, the original host’s daughter had been nearly an adult, but that didn’t stop the daughter from showing the same look toward her mom.
It was a look suppressing guilt, fear of being disliked or abandoned.
Ye Tang let go of Angeline’s hand. Watching Angeline instantly reveal a pleading “Don’t abandon me!” expression, Ye Tang squatted down in front of her and beckoned with her back to Angeline.
“Come on up.”
Angeline hesitated for a moment before toddling forward on her short legs and pouncing onto Mommy’s back.
“Angeline, you did very well today too.”
“Mommy…?”
“The flowers you picked for Mommy before were all so pretty, and the ones you picked for Grandmother today were beautiful too.”
In the original host’s memories of the past month, the daughter barely existed. She hadn’t praised her daughter—not even once—and the original host, numbed by alcohol every day, had barely acknowledged her a few times.
The little daughter didn’t know how to comfort a mom who’d lost her husband, so she picked fresh flowers every day in hopes that the pretty blooms would cheer Mommy up. Ye Tang had noticed as soon as she held Angeline’s hand: the little girl who had lost her daddy had picked flowers until her hands were covered in blisters and thorns.
Yet the little girl’s biological mother hadn’t noticed her intentions. Having given up on child-rearing, she just thought her daughter was heartlessly playing outside every day. Thinking she was the only one in the world still missing her dead husband made her even sadder. And in her sadness, she grew even more dependent on alcohol—
“Angeline, Mommy won’t leave you alone anymore from now on.”
A patch of wet heat on her neck, but Ye Tang didn’t look back as she carried Angeline homeward.
Under the red cape, the golden-haired little girl clutched her clothes tightly on her back, silently crying her face full of tear tracks.