"Calm down, sweetheart. Don't panic," Aunt Li said softly.
Her voice trembled slightly, but she tried her best to keep everything under control. The room was filled with heavy silence — a silence that spoke of sorrow and disbelief. Everyone's eyes were fixed on Nattalie.
The girl who had become the newest victim of a centuries-old curse.
"How can I possibly calm down, Auntie?" Nattalie cried, her voice breaking. "I—I turned into something strange. I couldn't control myself! Am I going to be like this forever? Why me?"
Nakulla drew a deep breath, his expression solemn. "Then you deserve to know everything," he said.
And so, the story began.
He told her how the curse was born — how their ancestor's sins had condemned every woman in their bloodline. He explained that it had been passed down from generation to generation, touching only the daughters of the Huang family.
Eleven generations in all.
And since Nattalie was the tenth, there was still one more female descendant yet to bear this burden — the final link in a chain of misfortune.
Nattalie listened, her mind reeling. She had always been bright, sharp, quick to understand. But this—this was too much.
Still, her analytical mind couldn't help but process the details: how long the transformation would last, what symptoms might appear before it began, and what precautions she would have to take to protect herself.
Then came the part that made her heart stop.
Whenever she transformed, she would return to her human form without a single thread of clothing.
The absurdity of it forced her to believe — because there was no other choice.
She would have to be extremely careful. Always aware of her emotions, her surroundings, her heartbeat. Because if she lost control — even for a moment — she could change in front of everyone.
And return naked.
The thought made her blood run cold.
Her face went pale. "No… no, Auntie, this is too much. It's awful! How am I supposed to face my friends tomorrow? The holiday's over — I have to go back to school!"
Her panic rose like a wave.
Nattalie Huang, once the most confident girl in her class, was now terrified of her own body — her own heart.
She still had a year and a half left before graduation. She had entered high school early, a full year ahead of her peers. She was already in her second year, top of her class, adored by teachers and classmates alike.
And now? All of it — her school, her dreams, her public life — was falling apart.
Her sixteenth year was supposed to be the most exciting time of her life. The age for laughter, freedom, and chasing dreams. She was even working part-time in the entertainment world — modeling, performing, preparing for auditions.
But the curse had taken everything.
Realization struck her like lightning. She turned to her parents with wide, desperate eyes.
"Mom, Dad… what about my work? My career in entertainment? Does this mean I can't continue? I can't be in public anymore? Even after all the effort I put in — after winning first place at my international school?"
Her voice cracked, trembling with anger and heartbreak.
"No!" she shouted suddenly, clutching the blanket tighter. "Almost all my friends saw me just now! They screamed when my ears appeared — when those dog ears popped out of my head!"
The memory burned in her mind — their horrified faces, their screams, the way they had looked at her like she was some kind of monster.
Her eyes flashed with fury as she turned to her parents again.
"So that's why you didn't let anyone bring their phones or cameras tonight?" she demanded. "You made everyone lock them up in that big cabinet by the front door — you even checked every single guest yourself! I thought you were just being paranoid, Dad. But it was because of this?"
Nakulla didn't answer.
"You were afraid something would happen — afraid I'd change!" she continued bitterly. "You said it was for security reasons, but it was really to protect your secret. Our family's curse!"
Her voice echoed through the room, trembling with pain and disbelief.
"And even if you managed to hide the footage — what about their memories, huh? Everyone saw me! My ears! My tail!"
Lilian stepped forward gently, placing a hand on her daughter's shoulder.
"Calm down, darling," she murmured. "Like your aunt said, this will pass. You'll learn to manage it — to live with it."
Nattalie turned on her with a look of sharp disbelief.
"Learn to live with it?!" she snapped. "How am I supposed to live like this?"
Lilian hesitated, then looked at her husband meaningfully.
Nakulla took a deep breath and spoke.
"You don't need to worry about what happened tonight," he said carefully. "Your mother and I… we've already handled it. I sent someone I trust to give everyone a memory-erasing draught before they left. I made sure every single guest drank it — no exceptions. By tomorrow morning, they'll remember nothing."
The room went dead silent.
Nattalie froze, her expression caught between shock and horror.
"You… you have a drug that can erase memories?" she whispered.
Nakulla nodded solemnly. "Yes. It's been in our family since the seventh generation. Perfected over time. It's safe — and it works. No one who's taken it has ever remembered what they saw."
Aunt Li — Sherly Gong — stepped forward to confirm.
"Your father's telling the truth, Nattalie," she said softly. "That same potion once saved me, too. In my early years, before I learned to control my emotions, I changed several times by accident. Your father helped me erase the memories of those who saw."
Nattalie stared at her, speechless. "You mean… you gave people drugs to make them forget?"
She wasn't the only one stunned.
Her three older brothers, who had been silently standing by, exchanged uneasy glances. They had known about the curse — but not this. Not the potion.
None of them had imagined that such a thing existed in their family.
The Huang curse was not just a burden now — it was a secret sealed with memory and silence, passed down like a shadow from one generation to the next.
***