Xibei Village lay under a shroud of [Rules], a calm pond glazed with stillness. When Ye Weibai first stepped in, the quiet looked harmless. His gut filed it away as a remote, ordinary hamlet, peace set like lacquer over wood.

Even after the [First Day]’s dawn, when the villagers treated Philia with a mix of oddity and fear, his heart only trembled, not alarmed. He told himself there must be some hidden story, like fog hiding a path.

Information skewed the lens. He’d underestimated the laws of this World, and the undertow running beneath this village, a river gnawing under ice.

Who would have thought this medieval west, so ordinary on the face, hid man-eating [Monstrosity]? And worse—a cruel [Rules] that turns the slayer into the beast, iron carved into bone.

Now, remembering the [First Day], faces resurfaced like ink under water. A chill spread through him as those smiles came back—painted on like cracked lacquer.

Their smiles hid falseness, strain, and dread. Behind them pooled terror thick as ink, fear that wouldn’t dissolve, confusion with no outlet, and anger flashing like a blade.

Under that weather, forget getting along with Philia—neighbors couldn’t sit together without feeling thorns grow between them.

Yet to survive, they wore a peaceful mask. They pressed a lid over a boiling pot, pretending harmony while the steam built.

That repression twisted the [Oddity] further, a branch warped under too much heat.

This village… it’s close to rotting, isn’t it? The thought shot through him like a splinter. If this keeps on, if the negative air keeps growing, gathering, brewing—could it be—

In the end, would every villager slide into the abyss and become a [Monstrosity]?

The idea ran ice down his spine, winter water in a well.

On the other hand—

It’s been nearly half a year since that day. For six months, Xibei Village has slept beside a ticking bomb. Fear, anger, lostness, and—a rising, heady intent to kill the little girl—have been brewing like sour wine sealed in a jar.

Some villagers would snap. They’d try to kill her, or at least drive her out, or leave themselves, like birds fleeing a burning grove.

In all that, who was protecting Philia?

The answer seemed obvious. The single lamp in her dark house—her last kin, her brother, Owen.

But Owen, shaken and made frail and sickly by that ordeal—where would he find the strength to guard Philia? Unless—

Ye Weibai questioned and answered himself. He opened his notebook; paper sighed like dry leaves.

There, a thin thread tied [Owen] to [Monstrosity], two points stitched by a dark thought.

If I were Owen, in this storm of rage, there’s only one way to shield Philia—he walked the scenario in his head, eyes cooling like frost. Become a [Monstrosity].

Once a [Monstrosity], he’d have wolf’s teeth among sheep. To protect the sister he loved, a brother would stomach becoming a beast, ugliness be damned.

But if Owen really is a [Monstrosity]—what does he eat to live? How does he bear Philia, that “food,” near him without taking a bite? Family ties?

On the night of the [First Day], Ye Weibai was asleep. He saw nothing before a huge, razor claw punched through his belly like a spear. He crashed face-first to the floorboards; pain engulfed him like fire in straw. He saw only darkness and felt muscles peeled in strips, agony beating him toward faint—until death.

Was that a [Monstrosity]? Was that Owen?

Strip it down—what is a [Monstrosity], really?

Ye Weibai flipped to the next page. The paper felt cold, ink pressed in hard, as if the writer had scratched with a nail.

[Humans who think a Monstrosity’s hunger can be beaten by human feeling are fools.]

[A Monstrosity is a Monstrosity. It’s not a human in another form. It’s another species—one that feeds on humans.]

[There is no compromise, no coexistence—only you die or I die—and usually, humans die.]

[Don’t try to talk to a Monstrosity. It will treat you like an ingredient—whether it was once your friend, kin, or lover.]

[Now, it is only a Monstrosity.]

[A Monstrosity must be killed!!!]

The author had carved those lines with heat. Maybe they’d met someone who treated a [Monstrosity] as family. A despair that felt like a hand closing on the throat.

Treat humans as ingredients… Ye Weibai rolled the word “ingredient” on his tongue and felt a hard clarity. Humans can keep sheep as pets, but they won’t call blood-wet mutton a pet. That’s the split—sheep to humans, humans to [Monstrosity].

Then here’s the rub: if Owen really is a [Monstrosity]—the one that killed him on the [First Day]—how does he curb appetite and not eat Philia?

Unless—

A terrible thought rose like frost on glass, spreading cold through his limbs.

“Brother Bai!”

Right then, the wooden door pushed open with a soft sigh, and a short-haired, chestnut-haired girl slipped in. The warm spark of her voice broke his chain of thought.

“Dinner’s ready!” Daisy tilted her head and smiled, sunlight peeking out from a cloud.

“So soon?” He blinked and glanced at the window.

Just like [yesterday], bruise-dark clouds layered the sky. The light was strangled; a storm felt poised at the edge. The air hung heavy like wet wool, tight on the chest. While Ye Weibai was threading thoughts, Time had walked them to supper.

“Mm. Okay, I’ll be right down.” He paused, a string tugging inside him. “Daisy, is this book your dad’s?”

She eyed the black tome in his hand, a coal-brick of pages, and shook her head. “This one was left by the [Exorcist] who came last time. She said we could read it.”

“And did you?”

Daisy shook her head. “Dad opened it, and after the first page his face turned super sour—like I ranked dead last in class. No! Worse than that! He wouldn’t let me touch it at all.”

As she said it, Daisy pumped her tiny pink fists, a cotton-candy show of outrage. The fierceness was adorable, claws on a kitten.

Ye Weibai choked on a laugh, ready to tease. Then the thought struck like a snap of cold. His smile sealed; his face went strange.

Wait—his face changed after reading it. So before that, Uncle Shawn didn’t know these [Monstrosity] facts, did he? No, ignorance is normal—this stuff should be forbidden and sealed. Otherwise, social ties in this World would’ve snapped long ago.

So that [Exorcist] left this book on purpose, to deliver these truths. But why?

Daisy’s careless line turned Ye Weibai’s breath rough. Lightning flashed in his mind; a heavy, vast truth loomed just beyond a veil of fog—a blood-wet truth, teeth bared.

But he still lacked enough threads. He shifted his angle, probing to test his guess.

“Daisy, do you know Philia?”

“Yep! Philia and I get along great.” She went “hup!” and plopped by his bed, fearless as a sparrow. In a blink, she lay back, her head resting on the blanket over his shins.

“You’re bold,” Ye Weibai said, shaking his head, half helpless, half amused.

“Heh-heh.” As if she’d known he wouldn’t scold, Daisy grinned, fox-bright. “I haven’t slept enough! Honestly, my only talent is sleeping in. But Dad yanks me out of bed at dawn for class—so, super sleepy, okay?”

He understood at once. “So if I teach you at your house, you can sleep in?”

Daisy stuck out her tongue, a pink petal.

She looked so impish that Ye Weibai couldn’t help it—his hand went to her short hair and ruffled it, a palm over new grass.

Daisy didn’t resist. Like a restless kitten, she rubbed her head into his hand, giggling as she coaxed, “Teacher Bai, you gotta start class late, okay?”

Warmth gathered in his palm and eyes. In this Xibei Village twisted by [Monstrosity] and [Rules], Daisy’s bright kindness was a sunflower turning to the sun. She bloomed proud in mud, gold against brown.

Since regaining the [First Day]’s memory, his heart had stayed cold and tired. Now it felt soothed, stitched with soft thread.

And Ye Weibai, sensitive as he was, had already sensed it—Daisy sought him out because, dimly, she felt his fatigue and unease. This little girl was comforting me, in her way.

A resolve took root in that moment. He wouldn’t just break Philia’s [Lock]. He’d crack the entire [Setup] binding [Xibei Village]. If he couldn’t, he’d at least guard Daisy, persuade Uncle Shawn to take her somewhere else to live.

Xibei Village was already buckling. He refused to let Daisy grow up in soil gone black.

He looked at the giggling girl and set his jaw behind a soft smile.

…

…

Yet—

Ye Weibai couldn’t imagine what would unfold a few hours later.

[Nightmare].

…

…