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Team Happy strolled in first and made themselves at home. Tang Rou sat down at a table of three, her fingers reaching out to deftly shuffle the pack of opened cards. Baozi alone took up half the couch, resting his arms on the top of the furniture like a gangster. Mo Fan lurked by the karaoke box while Luo Ji stood awkwardly next to him. An Wenyi looked around a bit before sitting down next to Tang Rou.
One by one, the rookies trickled in, each greeting barely familiar faces, trying to place the avatar to the player. Some came with genuine interest, while others had been forced by their captains to come socialize. The five from Heavenly Swords hadn’t come; Lou Guanning had joked that they wouldn’t intrude on the children’s playtime.
At fifteen past 7, a total of 18 rookies had gathered: the five from Happy; Qin Muyun and Song Qiying from Tyranny; Lu Hanwen from Blue Rain; Shu Keyi and Shu Kexin from Misty Rain; Zeng Xinran from Hundred Blossoms; Ge Caijie from Void; Zhang Qi and Mi Xiuyuan from Thunderclap; Guo Shao, Xiang Yuanwei, and Jia Xing from Miracle; and Li Jiu from Parade.
“So who wants to play Werewolf?” Baozi asked. Tang Rou, Qin Muyun, Lu Hanwen, and Zhang Qi joined Baozi by the couch, which was already over capacity with just five players. The Shu twins exchanged a glance before joining a moment later.
“Let’s go there,” Tang Rou said, pointing at the large, circular table at the center of the room. Without waiting for the others, she headed over.
There were three more empty seats, and Ge Caijie and Guo Shao sat down.
Luo Ji stared at the table headed by Baozi, then at the last empty seat. Quickly leaping up, he scanned the room full of unfamiliar objects for something that would allow him to make a clean getaway. “Does anyone want to play Go?” he spoke rapidly, dusting off a board that had clearly been unused for a period of time.
“I’ll play with you,” An Wenyi answers in amusement, getting up.
Luo Ji thanked his lucky stars that his opponent was normal and wouldn’t think the goal of the game was placing bricks for his opponent to surround or something. Meanwhile, the other rookies eyed the two Happy players’ choice of game rather oddly.
Mo Fan reluctantly joined the Werewolf table, which then decided on a cast distribution of one narrator, three werewolves, one witch, one seer, one hunter, and three villagers. Song Qiying, Zeng Xinran, Mi Xiuyuan, Xiang Yuanwei, Jia Xing, and Li Jiu broke away to play Fight the Landlord. The rookie’s game night officially started.
“Night has fallen,” Baozi whispered in what he thought was a creepy tone. “ClooOOOose your eyes or forever hold your peace~”
Baozi proceeded to wail like a ghost.
“Werewolves, wake up. Who do you want to kill?”
The three wolves decided on a person, and Baozi continued.
“Werewolves, go back to sleep. Witch, wake up. Are you going to use a laxative tonight? That Mo Fan is always up to no good, you can consider poisoning him.”
Ge Caijie stared at Baozi, shaking his head.
“Seer, wake up. Who are you divining the identity of?”
Shu Kexin, suspicious of Baozi’s earlier words, pointed at Mo Fan.
“This person is…” Baozi shrugged. “I forgot. Hey, Mo Fan, can you tell me what your identity is?”
The table facepalmed at this unreliable narrator. “Do you really know how to play this game,” Zhang Qi muttered.
Mo Fan pointed his thumb up and Shu Kexin nodded, closing her eyes.
“Everyone, open your eyes. Haha, Tang Rou, you were killed today, so who do you want to shoot in retaliation?”
The unfortunate hunter, shot the first night with no information on the identities of the people around her, asked: “Do I have to shoot?”
“Of course!”
Tang Rou pondered. “Then Mo Fan.”
Mo Fan looked liberated.
“Three wolves invaded where Tang Rou lived in the middle of the night. One brandished his poisonous claws at Tang Rou, but she struck out and kicked Mo Fan out the window and into the pool—wow, I want a pool! Mo Fan wouldn’t have died, but he didn’t know how to swim! Ah, what a pity, what a pity. Anyways, the two wolves silenced Tang Rou.”
The villagers stared at Baozi. “You’re not supposed to tell us the identity of the dead,” Zhang Qi said.
“I didn’t!” Baozi exclaimed.
Already deciding to oust this narrator the next round, the villagers agreed that they wouldn’t kill anyone tonight. The first night passed.
The next night, three wolves woke up. Mo Fan was a regular townsperson. Baozi sighed. How unfortunate was it that Tang Rou killed the teammate who lived next door instead of any of the three wolves? Shu Keyi had accidentally locked herself in a room and couldn’t even participate in the killing! It was a 2v1, couldn’t Tang Rou handle that?!
The innocent Baozi happily asked everyone for their next round of actions. What a boring night; the wolves wanted to kill Guo Shao but the witch actually saved him.
As soon as the villagers’ discussion started, Song Qiying spoke. “I’m the seer. Zhang Qi is a wolf.”
Immediately, Shu Kexin turned to look at Song Qiying.
“I’m not a wolf, you’re the wolf!” Zhang Qi cried.
“And I’m the seer,” Shu Kexin said with narrowed eyes.
“Then we know who the two remaining wolves are: Zhang Qi and Shu Kexin. We can only kill one tonight, but whoever’s alive tomorrow can vote the other one out,” Song Qiying analyzed.
Shu Kexin denied it. “I’m the seer. On the first night, I checked Mo Fan, and he’s actually innocent. That means there are three wolves left in our midst. If you kill off any two innocent people, then you’ve won.”
Guo Shao shook his finger at Zhang Qi and Shu Kexin. “What do you mean! Although he shouldn’t have, the narrator revealed that a wolf had died. You can’t make up lies just like that! If Mo Fan wasn’t a wolf, why didn’t you tell us all the night before? You can’t just try to kill me for no reason!”
“How am I supposed to know what the narrator is thinking? Besides, if I told you such useless information the night before, that would be painting a fat ret target on my back for the wolves without reason! Do you think I’m dumb?”
Ge Caijie frowned, sensing something amiss. Song Qiying, Guo Shao, Shu Keyi, and Lu Hanwen voted for Shu Kexin, with Shu Kexin and Zhang Qi voting Song Qiying. Ge Caijie hesitated, before also voting Song Qiying.
On the second night, Shu Kexin was sentenced to death, and the third night began. Baozi once again asked for actions before beginning his narration.
“BANG! The wall busted open and a wolf growled from behind his captain. Guo Shao dropped his wallet. ‘You can have my money,’ Guo Shao cries. ‘Don’t take my life!’ But the evil wolf lunged and hit him with a brick, taking his life.”
Guo Shao laughed, not the least bit bothered by the death Baozi narrated. “Do I look very rich to you? I don’t have that much money.”
While the narrator and ghost were happily chatting away, the villagers at the table had long decided to vote Zhang Qi out. Ge Caijie sighed. They had already lost the last round.
And sure enough, Baozi immediately declared: “The werewolves won!”
“So who were they?” Zhang Qi asked, unamused.
“Song Qiying, Shu Keyi, and Little Lu!"
Baozi was understandably demoted from narrator to player. The mastermind of the last game, Song Qiying, took his place.
“It’s night time, close your eyes.” Song Qiying spoke. “Werewolves, wake up. Who do you want to kill?”
Baozi’s eyes shot open and he pointed straight at Song Qiying. Ge Caijie, who was sitting next to Baozi, felt a gust of wind and raised an eyebrow at this blatant action.
“You can’t kill the narrator,” Song Qiying said.
“I want to kill the narrator! I want my position back!” Baozi announced to the whole world.
“Do you really think you’ll live past tonight, the way you’re playing?” Zhang Qi said.
Across the room, Qin Muyun and Zeng Xinran had teamed up and were thrashing the four other players in a very one-sided fight. Hearing Baozi's outburst, Li Jiu spoke. “Let’s go play Werewolf. If the noise this past half hour has been any indication, it seems pretty fun."
When Tang Rou, Baozi, Mo Fan, Luo Ji, and An Wenyi returned, it was already 11. Team Happy was gathered in Ye Xiu’s room. Su Mucheng was snacking on sunflower seeds as she made Ye Xiu binge the latest episodes of a currently airing drama with her; Wei Chen had crashed, smoking and loudly conversing with a deadpanned and sleepy Fang Rui. Chen Guo saw the five of them enter and casually waved her phone at them. “Hungry? I can order some takeout.”
Fifteen minutes later, most of Happy sat at a table, opening their McDonald’s packages and eating their Zhou Zekai-endorsed ice cream.
“Let’s play another game of Werewolf!” Baozi yelled, dumping the deck of cards he accidentally swiped from the game room onto the table. Laughter permeated the night, before Team Happy was shortly asked to quiet down due to noise complaints from next door.
Tyranny headquarters.
The lights in the hallways were already dim this time at night, and the sound of the two returning boys’ footsteps echoed loudly in the empty corridor. Song Qiying and Qin Muyun walked towards the only lit room and quietly opened the door.
“Captain,” Song Qiying greeted the person in the room. The vice captain was nowhere to be seen; it was ten minutes past his bedtime.
Han Wenqing turned around and nodded at the two. “You’re back.”
“Little Lu, had fun?” Huang Shaotian asked, swiveling around in his chair the moment he heard the door open and saw a familiar head poke in. “Did anyone bully you? Do you need your brother, I, to teach them a lesson?”
“It was just a game night, and everyone was very friendly,” Lu Hanwen affirmed in all seriousness.
Huang Shaotian nodded, about to ask if Little Lu emerged victorious in his many bouts against rookies from other teams, when Yu Wenzhou set the pen in his hand down and spoke. “As long as you had fun and made new friends. It's getting late; you should sleep soon.”
Not to be beaten, Huang Shaotian sounded his assent: “Children shouldn’t stay up past their bedtime. If you don’t sleep soon, you’ll look like a panda tomorrow and stay an imp next year. Do you want to—”
“Yes Captain, Vice Captain. Good night! The two of you have worked hard; go rest soon too.” Lu Hanwen, laughing, bid farewell as he quickly shut the door behind him and headed towards his room.
The twin sisters of Misty Rain quickly walked into their shared room after returning from the rookies’ social gathering. Shu Kexin immediately plopped onto the bed as Shu Keyi rolled her eyes and entered the restroom to remove her makeup.
Chu Yunxiu gently knocked on the door, having heard the noise from across the hall. Shu Kexin opened the door and sat back down on the bed immediately after, to which Chu Yunxiu smiled. “Tired? Get some rest, we need to get up at 7 tomorrow.”
Zeng Xinran, Zhang Qi, Mi Xiuyuan, and Li Jiu returned together. Zeng Xinran’s room was the first, and he nodded a goodbye at the others, swiping his card at a room marked with a blossom flower. Li Jiu’s room was right next to it, and he, too, swiped his card. After the two retreated, the Thunderclap rookies made their way around a corner to their own room in silence.
Two floors higher, Ge Caijie and the trio from Miracle stopped outside a room with a Void logo. The door was slightly ajar and two voices loudly discussing Peking duck could be heard from outside.
Guo Shao, Xiang Yuanwei, and Jia Xing straightened their backs and greeted Li Xuan and Wu Yuce, who had walked out.
“If Captain Chu hears, she’s going to have a misunderstanding,” Ge Caijie also greeted his seniors. Turning to face Guo Shao, Ge Caijie spoke again. “Good luck in your match tomorrow.”
Guo Shao grinned. “I can’t wait to fight Senior Ye! I’ve prepared quite a bit since the last match with him.”
One by one, the rookies retired for the night. And one by one, veteran players trickled into a familiar room on the minus first floor.
Fang Rui, now wide awake, slapped his hand on the poker table. “Why are we meeting here? If we’re going to play, we should go to Zhang Xinjie’s room. Tyranny should show some hospitality as hosts this season, right?”
Huang Shaotian immediately started bickering. “Did you leave your brain at home? Tyranny is staying in their headquarters. It’s only a ten minute drive to the stadium, they don’t need to stay in a hotel.”
“You said it yourself; it’s only a ten minute drive, they can drive us there.” Yu Feng joined his two friends.
Meanwhile, Zhang Jiale (who specially called a cab to come over) sought out Sun Zheping, and Qiao Yifan found Gao Yingjie. Su Mucheng and Chu Yunxiu sat by the corner, heads lowered in a quiet but intense discussion, the cards on the table long forgotten. Other pros mingled about, taking advantage of the fact that most of their captains hadn’t come and let loose, leading to a boisterous, relaxed atmosphere.
For rookies, this game night was simply an opportunity to talk to other people of the same debut generation or commiserate about shared woes under strict leadership.
For the veterans they would become, it was a cherished chance to reunite with friends and erstwhile teammates, without a duel for their current team’s glory looming the next day.
How it was, to be young.