Chapter 98

Hao Ren and Vivian waited until noon, but they didn't see any sign of Lily.

That girl was quite punctual—especially when it came to meal times. As a husky, she wouldn't give anyone a chance to snatch her food, so she usually returned home an hour before mealtime. Today, she had even promised to be back by noon, so her delay was puzzling to Hao Ren.

"She's never been late for a meal before," Vivian set the food on the table and looked curiously at the front door. "Did something come up?"

"I'll give her a call," Hao Ren took out his phone and dialed Lily's number, then shook his head after a while. "No answer."

Hao Ren and Vivian stared at each other, and the latter finally spoke up: "Does she have any other friends or places to go here?"

"No, she came here just like you, a lone wolf. She's not familiar with the area," Hao Ren slowly stood up, feeling more and more uneasy. "And she usually doesn't keep things to herself. If something happened, she should have called right away. Could something be wrong?"

"What could happen to her? Her fighting skills aren't for show," Vivian said casually. "You're being too anxious, aren't you?"

"You're right, she is a werewolf... at least a fierce dog."

Even though Hao Ren said this, the inexplicable unease in his heart didn't subside. He didn't know where this unease came from. Logically, Lily had only been out for a few hours, and it was just that he couldn't reach her by phone. There was no reason to be anxious, but Hao Ren just felt something was off. It seemed his sixth sense, which had been quite sharp for a long time, was stirring again—this was slightly annoying but also helpless.

"I'll send out a few bats to search the nearby streets," Vivian, seeing Hao Ren's restless state, stood up and conjured a few black bats. "I know the places she usually goes. If we can't find her, we'll go out to look for her."

Just as Hao Ren was about to nod, the phone on the armrest of the sofa started ringing like crazy. He quickly picked it up, and the screen showed Lily's caller ID: a white husky, which Hao Ren had set as her profile picture for some reason last night, using a screenshot from a video of Lily transforming two days ago.

"Hello, Lily?" Hao Ren waved to Vivian, indicating it was the husky calling. "Where are you? Why didn't you come back at noon?"

"Landlord, landlord, I ran into two lunatics," Lily's voice was low and mysterious. "Two foreigners, they say they're my 'parents' and want to take me back to the family. I don't know where I am now."

Hao Ren's heart skipped a beat, his face changed, and Vivian immediately leaned in. "What happened?"

Hao Ren waved at Vivian to be quiet and asked urgently, "Where are you now? What do the two foreigners look like? What did they say to you? Are you safe?"

"I don't know where I am," Lily's voice still sounded energetic, indicating she hadn't been harmed, but she sounded confused. "They're mumbling and not making any sense. Oh, one of them is very tall, about 1.9 meters, as strong as a bear. The other one is about your height, with a hooked nose and a sickly complexion..."

Lily rambled on about the situation, and Hao Ren couldn't make head or tail of it. He could only conclude that the fool had been kidnapped. He was a bit exasperated: "How can you be so foolish! To be kidnapped so easily by strangers?"

"I didn't want to go with them!" Lily's voice sounded angry. "I was taken by a black mist! The big guy used magic, and the black mist brought me here. When the mist cleared, I was in an unfamiliar room. If it were any other time, I would have beaten them up, but these two seem pretty strong. I didn't know if I could beat them, so I didn't dare to act recklessly... Landlord, come and save me quickly!"

"I'll go out with Vivian. Tell me what you can see, so I know where you are. By the way, are the two foreigners who kidnapped you nearby? Will they notice you making this call?"

"They went out to buy food, but one of them didn't go far. I can smell his scent nearby, but he can't hear anything from here because of the distance and the walls," Lily's voice was even lower, almost inaudible to Hao Ren, showing that even huskies have their own brains. "I'm in a pretty dilapidated room, with peeling walls. It looks like an abandoned house. The big guy sealed the doors and windows with black mist, so I can't go out or see outside. But when they opened the door, I saw that it's like a warehouse outside."

Hao Ren was taken aback: With this little information, how could he figure out where she was? There were countless abandoned warehouses in the entire T City, and there must be at least a dozen that fit the description...

"Look around the room and see if you can find any landmarks," Hao Ren realized he couldn't get any valuable information from Lily's clues, so he quickly thought of another way. "If it's a warehouse guard room, there might be some old signs or papers. Look around."

"Signs...?" There was a rustling sound from Lily's end. "This place is pretty run-down, but those two lunatics seem to have cleaned it up. It's spotless, with nothing left... Ah, I found something! There's an old iron sign here. I can't read it clearly, but it says something like 'Hao Yun'... Is it useful?"

"Hao Yun?" Hao Ren immediately racked his brain, trying to recall if there were any abandoned warehouses in the city that matched "Hao Yun." At that moment, he heard a faint sound of an iron door being pushed open, as if the warehouse door was being opened. Then Lily's voice came: "They're back, I have to hang up."

"Be careful!" Hao Ren managed to say only one last thing. "Don't fight them, they use magic!"

Lily responded with a "Mm-hm" and hung up.

"What's going on?" Vivian asked, coming over. Despite their frequent conflicts, she was equally worried.

"That fool has been kidnapped... or at least it sounds like a kidnapping," Hao Ren had calmed down, but the sense of unease remained. "She's so strong and still got kidnapped... this world is really dangerous."

Hao Ren then explained Lily's situation to Vivian, who, after listening, looked relieved. "Don't worry, the big dog will be fine."

Hao Ren gave Vivian a strange look, and she reminded him, "Do you remember that Kasa Aiben you met?"

Hao Ren felt goosebumps on his back. "That muscular gay guy?!"

"Why do you only remember the 'gay' part?" Vivian glared at Hao Ren. "If I'm right, Lily was taken by Kasa Aiben. She was discovered by her 'kin.'"

"Kin?" Hao Ren suddenly understood. "You mean that gay guy is a werewolf?!"

"The Aiben family, if I'm not mistaken, it should be them," Vivian sighed, looking a bit annoyed. "Tsk, I shouldn't have been so careless. It seems that the past hundred years of comfort have made me lose my vigilance. I should have thought of them when I heard 'Aiben.'"

Hao Ren blinked. "If they're werewolves, why did they kidnap Lily?"

"What else? To bring her back to the family," Vivian shrugged. "The Aiben family is one of the few remaining groups that still dream of reviving the 'mythical era.' They are the only werewolf clan that values 'family.' They have been searching the world for lost kin. Initially, they only gathered their own family or distant relatives, but in the past two hundred years, they have expanded their recruitment to the entire werewolf population. Any werewolf, like Lily... who would think a husky is a werewolf unless they saw it with their own eyes?"

Hao Ren: "..."

Clearly, the two unfortunate werewolves who "kidnapped" Lily were in for a surprise.