Slay the Gods: Agent of the Wolf God, Close Your Eyes When Night Falls

Snow blanketed the ground. On New Year's Eve, snow pellets struck the window lattice, sounding just like the faint scratching of some creature's claws. Lin Qiye had just pasted the character for “fortune” upside down on the door when a voice, cold with the winter air, called from outside. “Mr. Lin, I'm here to wish you a happy New Year.” His hand paused on the doorknob, his fingertip brushing old frost still caught in a crack in the wood. The visitor wore a black coat washed almost white. A few strands of silvery-gray hair showed beneath the hood, and a kraft paper envelope in their fingers exuded cold mist. A blurred wolf's-head emblem was stamped in one corner. “The thing you've been waiting for,” the visitor said in a low voice, mingling with the occasional firecracker in the distance, “has to be opened before midnight.” Lin Qiye took the envelope. A sudden sting ran through his fingertip, but when he looked down, all he saw was snow falling onto the back of his hand and quickly melting into water.