Seven Days and Nights with the Werewolf

Day 2 · 06

Outside the door, Niu Xinyan fell silent for a long time. Half a minute later, a sharp clatter rang out as her ID card slipped to the floor. Li Sinian wrapped his hand around Fang Daichuan’s, forcing him to twist the doorknob. The door clicked shut silently, cutting off all sound from the world outside.

“Stop thinking about all this.” Li Sinian locked the door and pulled Fang Daichuan down to sit on the edge of the bed. He forced a smile, curving one corner of his mouth. “Did I hurt you? I’m sorry. I was just in too much of a hurry earlier.”

Fang Daichuan shook his head. He fell backward onto the mattress, his back flat against the soft fabric, and said nothing—silent as the dead.

Li Sinian nodded, his voice sharp with frustration. “Fang Daichuan, tell me. Are you giving up? Have you already resigned yourself to dying?”

Fang Daichuan still didn’t speak. He tugged the quilt over his head, making it plain he wanted to hear nothing, that Li Sinian should say nothing more to him.

Rage flared in Li Sinian in an instant.

He yanked the quilt off Fang Daichuan in one rough motion and reached for his trouser pocket. Fang Daichuan kicked his legs wildly in the air and shouted, “What the hell are you doing?!”

Li Sinian paid him no mind, not a word passing his lips. He tore open Fang Daichuan’s shirt in a few quick moves, and his cool right hand slipped in along the curve of his waist.

Fang Daichuan’s scalp prickled with shock. He clenched his fist and swung it at Li Sinian without a second thought.

With a heavy thud, Li Sinian tumbled backward onto the floor. For all his high intelligence, his skill with a g*n, even the fact he’d learned to fly a helicopter, hand-to-hand combat with Fang Daichuan was one thing he simply couldn’t win at. The fist slammed square into his jaw, and as he fell, he cracked the back of his head against the hard floor. He steadied himself, grabbed the edge of the bed, and pushed himself up, swiping his thumb gently across his stinging jaw.

Fang Daichuan froze, stunned. The punch had been pure instinct—he’d never meant to hurt Li Sinian badly. His fiery resolve crumbled in an instant, his lips moving several times as he struggled to find the right words.

“Does this make us even?” Li Sinian pointed to his jaw, a bitter smile tugging at his lips.

Fang Daichuan scrambled to his feet, desperate to check if he’d hurt Li Sinian badly. He knew his own strength; most people couldn’t take a punch like that. Yet after two steps, pride stopped him short. He bit down on the inside of his cheek, his voice gruff. “Why the hell were you groping me? I’m homophobic, so quit trying to take advantage of me.”

Li Sinian shook his head, his tone cold. “As if I’d want to take advantage of you. I was feeling for your poison. Aren’t you tired of living? Don’t go handing yourself over to the other side like a fool—I’ll finish you off for them instead.”

Fang Daichuan had always been the kind of man who softened to kindness but bristled at harsh words; he could never stand Li Sinian’s sarcastic tone. He spun around, pulled the vial of poison from his pocket, and slammed it down on the bed with a sharp c***k. “Come on then! Kill me!”

Li Sinian’s hand shot out, snatching the vial just before Fang Daichuan could smash the glass against the mattress. Thank god the mattress was soft—at Fang Daichuan’s strength, both vials would have shattered into a million pieces otherwise.

Fang Daichuan tilted his chin up, glaring at Li Sinian, his eyes blazing with a fierce, unbridled anger. It was an odd comparison, yet that fire in his eyes was breathtakingly bright.

Li Sinian’s voice softened despite himself. He let out a sigh. “Why couldn’t you have said all this to me upstairs? Let it all out, when it’s just the two of us. Who are those people downstairs, that you’d dare shout in front of them that you’re one of the five who voted Zhao Chu to death?”

“I know what you’re going to say.” Fang Daichuan turned away, walking barefoot to the windowsill. He bent one knee, propping his foot on the edge, and pushed the window open to light a cigarette. He pinched the filter, took a deep, harsh drag, and exhaled a thick cloud of smoke out into the air. His left hand raked roughly through the hair at the back of his head, his voice heavy. “I know the game’s already started, and thinking about this is just pointless worry. If I were sensible, I’d look out for my own skin, turn a blind eye to everything as long as I survive. But Li Sinian... I’m sorry. I can’t do that.”

His words were firm, unshakable.

The hair at the back of his head was a messy tangle, evidence of the rough, frustrated way he’d grabbed it. Li Sinian raised his right hand, resting it on the back of Fang Daichuan’s skull, his knuckles pressing against the stubborn, protruding bone at the base of his neck. He slipped his index and middle fingers through Fang Daichuan’s hair, smoothing it down gently, strand by strand. A faint, soft smile played on his lips as he followed Fang Daichuan’s gaze out to the distant sea.

“I’m listening. Say what you need to.”

Fang Daichuan’s heart had been a pile of dry kindling in the sweltering heat, ready to ignite at the smallest spark. But with Li Sinian’s hand on his neck, smoothing his hair, and the waves crashing against the shore over and over again in the distance, his turbulent emotions calmed, almost inexplicably.

He closed his eyes, took another drag of his cigarette, and spoke to Li Sinian through the hazy veil of smoke. “I don’t know what motives brought everyone here to this island, what feelings they harbor. Maybe you’re right—no one here is innocent, everyone has their own agenda. But Li Sinian, every vote we cast, every hand we raise... it’s that bullet. Me voting to kill a wolf to save myself is no different from a wolf killing a villager to save theirs. This isn’t murder versus self-defense. It’s two cold-blooded murders, plain and simple. One’s hidden in the dark, the other paraded in front of everyone’s votes. I can’t live with that.”

Li Sinian stared at his profile through the smoke, saying nothing.

“I’m done. You can yell at me now.” Fang Daichuan’s gaze remained fixed on the distant sea. The off-white curtains draped lazily over the other windows, leaving only his profile and upper body bathed in unbridled sunlight. When he turned his head slightly, the halo of light seemed to cling to him, swirling in his eyes.

Li Sinian smiled and stroked his hair, his eyes tinged with a faint melancholy. “I’m not going to yell at you. You’re right.”

Truth be told, as Fang Daichuan had said, there was no good or evil here. Factions were assigned at random, and a wolf killing a villager was no different in nature from a villager voting a wolf to death—only the voters wore the cloak of righteousness, of legitimacy. Li Sinian walked to the mini-fridge in the corner, pulled out a tray of ice cubes, poured a glass of water, and dropped a few cubes in before handing it to Fang Daichuan. “If we’re talking about it like that, then our guilt for killing starts long before today.”

“What do you mean?” Fang Daichuan froze, stubbing out his cigarette in the brass ashtray on the windowsill and taking the glass.

Li Sinian smiled again, the expression tired now, heavy with weariness. “Old Chen’s death. They called it luck, but isn’t it the same thing at its core? Thirteen of us survived, and the fourteenth died. A seemingly fair lottery, a ghost hunt... none of that lets us pin that death on fate. Thirteen people wanted to live, so we pushed one to their death. It’s that simple.”

The fire in Fang Daichuan’s eyes snuffed out in an instant. He held the cold glass of water, the ice cubes clinking softly, shakily, against the sides.