Werewolf? Let’s Play

The first script read-through went very smoothly. There was none of the sharp, hostile tension of a big production, and no reckless looseness from everyone completely letting their guard down either. They sat together talking about the script and the characters; the atmosphere was relaxed and harmonious.

September in City D still carried the lingering heat of late summer. Fortunately, everyone was tucked away in the hotel with the air-conditioning turned up high, so no one really felt it. By evening, the read-through was basically finished. Ke Wei ordered drinks for everyone and took the chance to organize an icebreaker team activity.

Ninety percent of the crew were young people, and since they still had work to do tomorrow, alcohol was naturally out. Ke Wei counted them up; there were only a little over ten people here, so she suggested some card or tabletop games.

After a full day of talking, even if they had only just met, everyone could at least remember one another’s names. Li Xingqing rarely took part in these kinds of activities at school, but she wasn’t the type to be awkward. More importantly, the game was only a means; the real goal was to get to know each other better.

Those who still had work to do left first, and the rest pulled their chairs around the long table they had used for the read-through.

Ke Wei looked over the dozen or so people who remained and came up with an idea: why not play Werewolf? First, it exercised the brain; second, everyone in the arts had a natural enthusiasm for things involving a bit of logic and deduction.

Sure enough, everyone who stayed immediately responded with enthusiasm.

In the first round, Ke Wei was the moderator, and the remaining ten players formed a setup of three wolves, four villagers, and three special roles.

It was a wolf-win round; once the little program on everyone’s phones finished dealing the cards, night fell.

Since this was no longer a script read-through, Xi Zhen moved from her original corner seat to Bai Mo’s side; directly across from her sat Li Xingqing. She wasn’t participating in the game and sat quietly as an observer.

Everyone closed their eyes. Bai Mo, as a wolf, happily identified his teammates, then finally pointed the knife at number five.

Number five was Zheng Yuyu.

The wolves closed their eyes, and the Seer stood up. Coincidentally, the Seer was Zheng Yuyu. He looked around the room and ultimately pointed to number seven across from him.

Number seven was Bai Mo.

Ke Wei gave Zheng Yuyu a thumbs-up turned upside down. He understood at once and slowly closed his eyes. The Witch did not save anyone on the first night, the Hunter did not shoot, and the dead player was number five, Zheng Yuyu. The Seer died outright; fortunately, there was a last statement on the first night.

After learning of his own death, Zheng Yuyu spoke to everyone briefly and directly. “I’m the Seer; number seven is a wolf.”

The public discussion began. There was no police-check phase. Since number seven had been accused as a wolf, he naturally had to defend himself.

It was now 19:06; number six began speaking.

Sitting in the number six seat was Ye Pingzhi, who played Yu Qing’s Omega father in the drama.

Because of the background setup, even though they played father and son in the show, the age difference between the actors in real life was only two years.

He looked like a game beginner; suddenly becoming the first to speak, he could only honestly say, “I’m a villager. I don’t know anything.”

When it was Bai Mo’s turn, he opened with, “I’m the real Seer. Zheng Yuyu was probably a wolf who self-killed. Last night I checked number four, and she’s good.”

Number four was Li Xingqing.

Someone had counterclaimed. After one round of speaking, it was time for number four Li Xingqing, the golden-water result, to decide the vote. Li Xingqing wasn’t playing this game for the first time, but this kind of situation really required careful thought. She looked up at Bai Mo, as if trying to judge whether he was telling the truth.

Aside from Zheng Yuyu, who had died on the first night, no one had counterclaimed Seer against Bai Mo, so naturally they couldn’t vote him out.

The Witch still had two potions, and the Hunter hadn’t fired, so the situation was still fairly safe for the moment.

If they voted out the suspicious number two from the earlier speaking order, it wouldn’t matter much even if he was a villager.

Li Xingqing briefly sorted through everything and decided to place her vote on number two.

Number two accepted his fate very calmly and died peacefully; night fell.

Bai Mo survived and decisively pointed the knife at himself. Number two was indeed his wolf teammate, but so what.

The Witch used the poison potion to save Bai Mo; last night had been a peaceful night.

Number one, the Witch, stood up and said the knife target last night had been number seven.

The situation on the board seemed to suddenly become clear. Numbers two and five were wolves; now they only needed to find the third one from the later positions, and the good side would win.

Bai Mo once again reported his check result: number nine was a wolf.

It was an unmistakable round. Number nine had no way to argue and was voted out in the end; night fell.

Bai Mo opened his eyes in the dark and held up the number one to Ke Wei with his hand.

Number one, the Witch, died. In her panic, she threw the remaining poison at number three, who had barely spoken at all from the start.

Day broke; dead last night were number one and number three.

But the game continued.

Bai Mo continued to reveal his check results and gave the dead number three a gold-water result.

Only number four, Li Xingqing, remained in the early speaking positions; among the later positions were numbers six, seven, eight, and ten.

The game still wasn’t over, and everyone’s suspicion finally turned to Bai Mo, wondering why the wolves hadn’t just killed him.

Bai Mo stayed very calm in the face of the doubt. “There’s no point killing me now. I don’t have a knife in my hand, I’m not a threat to the wolves, and it can even help clear my name, just as you’d expect.”

He went through the logic again and finally concluded that number two, the one voted out at the beginning, might really have been a villager.

Then there might be a wolf among numbers six or ten.

Just as the situation became hopelessly murky, Li Xingqing looked at Bai Mo as he defended himself, then suddenly shifted her gaze to the person beside him.

Xi Zhen was wearing a slightly loose shirt today; perhaps because of the heat, the collar had been opened quite wide.

With each rise and fall of her breathing, the collar moved up and down against her skin.

Her curly hair had been tied back, leaving only a few stray strands by her face. She held a phone in her hand and was scrolling casually, seemingly not the least bit concerned with the chaotic game state.

Yet Li Xingqing suddenly felt curious. She hadn’t heard this person speak all day, and she didn’t even know her name.

Yesterday she had already seen her following Bai Mo around, so she was... Bai Mo’s agent?

So devoted to work? Even a script read-through for an actor and she had to follow along? And that presence, that face... was she really not going straight into the entertainment industry?

Xi Zhen’s finger, which had been scrolling on her phone, paused on the screen. Sensing someone’s probing gaze, she looked up without a word. Her black-and-white eyes crashed straight into Li Xingqing’s.

Li Xingqing jerked in fright; the drink in her hand nearly spilled across the table.

She quickly withdrew her gaze and pretended nothing had happened.

But Xi Zhen had no intention of letting her off. She kept staring at Li Xingqing without turning away, a faint smile on her face, as if she were watching something interesting.

Being stared at like that made Li Xingqing’s skin crawl; yet her originally messy thoughts suddenly seemed to sort themselves out. There were still so many people left on the board. If nothing unexpected happened, Zheng Yuyu, who had died as number five, was probably the real Seer. Later on, everyone had been led astray by Bai Mo and forgotten the very first time Zheng Yuyu had jumped on Bai Mo.

If Bai Mo was a wolf, then it was easy enough to guess. Pushing out number nine had simply been an attempt to protect a teammate in a later position. In other words, one of numbers ten and eight had to be a wolf.

Once she sorted out the reasoning, everything became clear. Li Xingqing analyzed it in one breath, completely ignoring the fact that Bai Mo’s first gold-water result had been given to her.

Most of the remaining players were villagers. Li Xingqing stepped forward and said she was the Hunter; naturally, everyone followed the special role and voted Bai Mo out first.

After night fell, no matter who the wolves pointed their knife at, they couldn’t win.

When the first game ended, Zheng Yuyu, the real Seer who had only said one sentence the entire round, spoke up. “Yu Qing is the same as in the script. I’m the one he most wants to knife, aren’t I?”

At that, Bai Mo stuck out his tongue. “Can’t help it. Who told you to be the one who killed my lover?”

“Hahahahaha.” Everyone burst out laughing together, apparently amused by Bai Mo’s clever line. Even the number two who had played Xu Yinian joked, “Exactly. Once we found out Xiaomo and I were wolves, what other choice did we have?”

Another round of laughing and joking swept through the room.

Even Li Xingqing was caught up in the atmosphere and couldn’t help laughing. Her gaze, almost unconsciously, fell again on Xi Zhen across the table.

Their eyes met; it felt as if she had been burned.

A shiver spread through Li Xingqing’s whole body. Just as she was about to carefully sort out what that feeling meant, Ke Wei was already saying that the three losing wolves had to accept punishment and choose truth or dare.

Bai Mo eagerly wanted to choose dare. Then the card was flipped open.

[Truth or Dare: Maintain eye contact with the person opposite you for more than 30 seconds.]

This rectangular table had one person sitting on each short side and twelve people along the long sides.

Xi Zhen was sitting beside Bai Mo, while Li Xingqing was sitting beside Zheng Yuyu.

So the person opposite Bai Mo was—Zheng Yuyu.

To suddenly draw the actor opposite him, the one who had intimate scenes with his character in the script, even Bai Mo, an absolute top-tier extrovert, felt a little awkward at this moment.

Ke Wei, on the other hand, was very satisfied with this dare. She had wanted to see the chemistry between these two for a long time. After all, they were going to act opposite each other; and with the subject matter involved, there might even be promotional events later on. It was very good to let them build rapport in advance.

“Xiaomo, get ready, and I’ll start the timer,” Ke Wei said, tapping open the phone timer.

“I—I’m already ready. It’s just that Zheng... Zheng... ”

What was the rest of Zheng’s name again? Bai Mo, who had almost said it, suddenly got stuck.

“Zheng Yuyu.” The person across from him spoke calmly, showing no irritation at being forgotten. He lifted his eyes to Bai Mo. “I’m fine with it, Director Ke.”

“Then let’s begin.” Ke Wei pressed the timer; everyone’s eyes turned toward the two people accepting the punishment.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

Bai Mo looked into Zheng Yuyu’s eyes and felt as if his soul were being pulled in.

The character Zheng Yuyu played might not have been a good person in the script, but it was rare enough that he was described as good-looking.

As Bai Mo stared at him now, he suddenly felt that the casting director really was impressive.

Zheng Yuyu’s personality off camera could be said to have nothing whatsoever to do with Chi Zengshen, but at this moment, looking into his eyes, Bai Mo suddenly thought of the lines they had rehearsed earlier that day.

“Have you fallen in love with him?”

“...N-no.”

“But you’re crying.”

“I... hate myself.”

When he practiced this scene, Bai Mo actually didn’t quite understand Yu Qing’s feelings toward Chi Zengshen here.

After all, to call the feelings between those two love was too shallow; to call it hate was too heavy. Entwined with love and hate, Yu Qing could not love, and could not be allowed to love.

But he could not control his own heart, and the eyes were the window to the heart.

At this moment, Bai Mo’s gaze on Zheng Yuyu, in a daze, seemed to let him empathize with Yu Qing through the script.

Yes, so what if it started as revenge? Who could truly control their heart?

Feelings were the most unpredictable thing of all; sincerity was handed over without one even realizing it.

Thirty seconds passed in the blink of an eye. Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Bai Mo looked away.

The atmosphere had started to feel a little strange, so he hurriedly changed the subject.

“It’s over, Director Ke. Next one, next one.”

With the topic shifted away from the two of them, Bai Mo let out a breath of relief, lowered his head, and suddenly saw his sister staring fixedly at the person across from her.

Author’s Note:

I wrote this a long time ago; now I’m getting into Goose Goose Duck instead. It’s so fun, who gets it?!?!

Younger brother acting seriously: Xi Zhen: Oh wow, she’s so cute. I like her so much.

Li Xingqing: ??? Speak Chinese!