Shi Mu avoided mirrors the next morning.
Not because she was afraid.
But because she wasn't sure what she'd see.
The mark on her wrist had dimmed again—no longer glowing, but now visible under her skin like faint ink. She had bandaged it before leaving the room, though the system noted it as "non-physical interference."
A superficial gesture.
She wasn't hiding it from others.
She was hiding it from herself.
During her early classes, she couldn't focus.
The whispers weren't in her head anymore—they were in the walls.
The floors.
The glass.
And especially in the reflections.
She passed a hallway mirror between classrooms. A large, ornate one mounted in the corridor's center. Dozens of students passed by it without a second glance.
But she stopped.
Because in the reflection, she wasn't alone.
She stood still, heart calm, eyes sharp.
The figure behind her looked almost like her.
Same eyes. Same height. Same uniform.
But older.
Worn.
Marked.
And smiling.
Not kindly.
Not cruelly.
Just knowingly.
Shi Mu didn't turn around.
She simply asked, "Is it you?"
The figure in the glass tilted its head.
Then lifted its hand.
And traced a word against the inside of the mirror.
A name.
Her own.
But not as she knew it.
A different character. One she hadn't used since she was a child.
One no one else knew.
Except—
The one she made the oath with.
She stepped closer.
The figure didn't vanish.
It simply faded, like memory sliding back beneath the surface.
Leaving the mirror whole again.
And her heart, anything but.
Later, in Room 415, she told Fu Yunshen what she saw.
Zhou Zhi watched in silence, holding his hot water bottle like it was spiritual protection.
"It knows your name," Fu Yunshen said softly.
"My real name," she replied.
"Then it knows your past."
"And it's tired of waiting."
[System Notification]
Memory Tag Triggered – Identity Fragment Activated
Oath Bond: Name Recognition Confirmed
Brotherhood Value +150 (Unspoken Past Confronted + Support Maintained)
Current Total: 4,560 / 1,000,000
That night, she stood in front of the mirror again.
But this time, she didn't flinch.
She traced her own name—
The forgotten one—
Against the glass.
And said softly:
"I remember you now.""Do you remember who you were?"
The mirror stayed silent.
But something behind the reflection…
Smiled.