The following morning brought no peace.
Not even silence.
Shi Mu's name was already circulating online.
Someone had leaked footage of her appearance at the funeral. Photos. A short video clip. The headline blazed across the top of search results:
"The 'Deceased' Heiress Returns: Ghost or Survivor?"
The comment sections were chaos.
"Is this a publicity stunt?""Did the Shi family lie about her death?""Who fakes their own funeral?"
Shi Mu scrolled for only a few minutes before shutting her phone off.
The world had always been better at tearing people down than understanding them.
She wasn't going to explain herself to strangers.
Downstairs, Fu Yunshen was already preparing breakfast. He didn't greet her like anything was unusual.
Just set out a plate.
"Rice porridge with salted egg and steamed buns," he said. "The kind you like when your stomach hurts."
She blinked.
"You remembered?"
"You remember the people you bury," he said quietly, "especially when they come back."
She ate in silence.
Halfway through, she murmured, "I have to go back."
"To the Shi family?"
"No. To where it started."
Fu Yunshen didn't ask for clarification.
He understood.
The cliff.The place she fell.The place they pushed her from.
Later that day, they stood together at the edge of that forgotten road, the wind tugging at Shi Mu's coat. The cliff overlooked a quiet stretch of forest. Peaceful now. Deceptively so.
"I remember the feeling," she whispered."Falling, thinking I wouldn't hit the bottom. That maybe I'd already died before I even let go."
Fu Yunshen said nothing.
He let her speak.
She turned to him.
"I came back different."
He nodded.
"That's what surviving does."
[System Notification]Trauma Site Revisited – Memory Repaired
Emotional State: Resilient
System Note: Target has exceeded baseline parameters for recovery
Brotherhood Value +235 (Survivor's Mark + Memory Reconciliation)
Current Total: 10,905 / 1,000,000
Shi Mu closed her eyes.Let the wind hit her face.Then stepped away from the edge.
Not in fear.
In freedom.
She turned back once more before they left.
Not to mourn the place—
But to promise:
No one else would fall here again.Not if she could help it.