Shi Mu didn't expect visitors.
Not here.
Not at this house.
So when someone knocked on the door just past midnight, she froze.
No footsteps.No headlights.Just a knock—soft, deliberate, and wrong.
She rose silently from the sofa, stepped to the window, and peeked through the curtains.
Nothing.
No one.
Just the pale glow of the streetlamp casting strange shadows across the pavement.
Then another knock.
This time louder.Not impatient—intentional.
She opened the door halfway, heart steady, hand behind her gripping the charm Fu Yunshen had left her.
No one stood outside.
But something had been left on the ground.
A black envelope.
Shi Mu knelt, picked it up carefully, and closed the door before opening it.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
No signature. No seal.
Just five words, written in red ink:
"YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED DEAD."
The air chilled instantly.
Shi Mu didn't panic.
She folded the letter, placed it into a protective pouch, and set it beside her incense burner.
Then she reached for her phone.
Fu Yunshen picked up after one ring.
"Shi Mu?"
"I got a message," she said calmly.
He didn't ask for details.
"I'll be there in ten."
[System Notification]
External Threat Detected – Source Unknown
Protective State: Activated
Memory Thread Safety: Tier X Level Secured
Brotherhood Value +235 (Fear Resisted + Threat Contained Without Panic)
Current Total: 11,835 / 1,000,000
By the time Fu Yunshen arrived, she had already salted the entryway and relit every warding charm she owned.
He took the envelope, eyes narrowing.
"This ink isn't ordinary."
"It's not meant to scare," she said. "It's meant to warn."
Fu Yunshen nodded slowly.
Then said the thing they were both already thinking:
"Someone else knows you didn't die."
"And they wish you had."
Shi Mu stood in the middle of her reclaimed home, eyes hard, voice cold.
"Let them come," she said.
"I'm not the same girl they pushed over the edge."