Compared to the tense expression on the other person's face, what concerned William Carter even more was that he couldn't understand a word she was saying. After hesitating for a moment, he finally looked down toward the edge, and in the sky, lightning flashed and spread out.

Boom—

In an instant, everything around turned white. William Carter instinctively looked up at the sky, then his foot slipped. As the loosened soil gave way, he lost his footing and his body plummeted rapidly.

His scream of “Ah—” hadn’t even left his mouth when his arms flailed instinctively, finally grabbing hold of a tuft of grass at the edge of the cliff. However, this only bought him less than a second; the little tuft of grass was yanked out by the roots. He only had time to see that silver-haired woman dash over like lightning and reach out to grab him!

Her fingers only managed to brush against his before they separated!

The patch of green grass atop the cliff receded rapidly, shrinking away. The last thing he saw was the woman’s figure leaping after him.

In his ears, there was only the howling wind!

Volume One

Chapter Two: Warmth

On his fourteenth birthday, he once received a fur coat.

The coat was made from the pelt of some unknown animal, lined with soft, warm short fur, as smooth as fine silk. Hugging it in his arms gave a comforting sense of solidity. It was a birthday gift from his mother, carrying special sentimental value. The only flaw was that the coat was a bit too long at the time, so he only wore it two or three times a year. The person who gave the coat didn’t really know the child’s height.

“Uh… it’s fine, you’re still growing. In another two years… no, by next year it shouldn’t drag on the ground anymore…” His mother, still as radiant as a girl in her twenties, flashed a brilliant smile and reached out to pat the head of the child who was only a little shorter than her. “Xiao Yi is getting prettier and prettier…”

Of course, of course, in another two years he’d be able to wear it properly. That was only logical…

Sometimes he wondered if, in his mother’s heart, she always mistakenly thought she’d given birth to a girl. When he was little, he could count on one hand the number of times his mother had held him. As a new mother, her feelings for her partner had suddenly faded, and she treated comforting the child or cleaning up after him as daunting tasks. After all, in both their hearts, he was just “that man’s” son.

Just as his mother had said, after his fifteenth birthday, he was finally able to wear the coat. It was still too long, but at least it no longer dragged on the ground. Wrapped in the long coat, he often looked like a lonely ghost, and if he suddenly jumped out of the darkness at night, he’d probably scare someone.

Later, one night, he went out wearing the coat. He’d long forgotten the reason for going out. The late-night streets were almost deserted, with hardly any cars passing by. The streetlights stretched out in rows, lonely and cold. As he crossed the road, he saw a girl walking in the middle of the street not far ahead. She seemed drunk, staggering along, occasionally spreading her arms and spinning around as if dancing. Her long hair hung down, covering her face so he couldn’t see her features.

Seeing a woman walking alone at night, he hesitated, wondering if he should go up and tell her to go home early. In this area, at this hour, public safety wasn’t great. But before he could decide, a car came roaring down the road from the other end. The boy rushed over and pulled the girl aside.

The girl seemed to have drunk a lot, completely wasted. As soon as she felt someone holding her, she squatted down and started vomiting. The boy had no choice but to take her home. The streets were deserted, as desolate as the heart of the Taklamakan Desert. The two of them waited by the roadside for two hours before they managed to flag down a taxi. During that time, the boy took off his coat and wrapped it around the shivering, sobering girl.

Later, the two became friends, and he never got the coat back. According to the girl, it was the first gift he’d ever given her, and it was so comfortable that she gladly accepted it. In fact, it was also the only gift.

Wait, wait… he never got it back, so what’s going on now…?

To confirm the warm, smooth sensation in his arms, he instinctively hugged the soft object a little tighter, but in the next moment, the coat expanded, pushing his body aside. At the same time, he snapped out of his confusion.

Light shone in from the side, and the first thing he saw were two huge blue eyes and a gray-black nostril. As he stared at those eyes, they stared right back at him. Maybe it was the confusion of “what is this” that disrupted his thoughts, but as he gradually realized his true situation, he didn’t scream out loud. That was a good start.

“Pff—ch—”

He got up, feeling very uncomfortable, and the big head shook violently as the body stretched out. In front of him was a wolf with smooth, gray-blue fur!

—A giant wolf at least two meters long!

My god, just now he had hugged this huge, fierce creature as if it were a harmless fur coat, not only stroking it all over but even giving it a squeeze out of curiosity… At this thought, William Carter was utterly shocked that his body was still intact.

After stretching out its body, which had been uncomfortably hugged, the giant wolf turned and ran out of the cave where they were. Then William Carter noticed another giant wolf still lying beside him, watching him. The wolf’s eyes were large, as pure as sapphires.