Chapter 5 The Red Silk Warning
For a heartbeat, the world went still.
The red silk swayed in the breeze thin, delicate, unmistakably deliberate. A color reserved in old folklore for two things:
binding fate… or severing it.
Lian Hua felt her stomach knot.
Shen Wei stepped out first, his expression calm but his shoulders rigid with quiet alertness. Lian Hua followed, her hand gripping the doorframe before nervously releasing it.
The silk twisted gently, catching the moonlight like a drop of blood.
“Why would someone leave this?” she whispered.
Shen Wei didn’t answer. He reached up and untied it from the branch, fingers brushing the fabric with surprising care as if touching something from a long ago memory.
Lian Hua noticed the faint tremor in his hand.
“You said it’s a warning,” she pressed. “From who?”
Shen Wei lowered his gaze. “Someone who once walked the same path as me.”
Her heart tightened. “A friend?”
A wry, bitter shadow crossed his expression. “No, Not a friend.”
He turned the silk over in his hand. Embroidered on the backside, in tiny black thread, was a single character:
危 — danger.
Lian Hua took a sharp breath. “Who would go this far?”
Shen Wei exhaled slowly. “Someone who knows I’m not supposed to be here.”
The words chilled her skin.
Shen Wei slipped the silk into his pocket before she could examine it further. The gesture was protective but also secretive.
“Come inside,” he said quietly. “It’s cold.”
But Lian Hua didn’t move. “Shen Wei… are you in danger?”
He hesitated.
“Maybe,” he admitted.
Her pulse quickened. “Because of the moon gate? Because of your visions?”
“Because I chose to come here,” he corrected softly.
The cryptic answer settled between them like mist. Lian Hua swallowed her questions not out of fear, but because she felt in her bones that forcing him would only drive him further away.
Instead, she followed him inside.
The clinic felt warmer once the door closed behind them. Shen Wei sat by the wooden table, resting the silk on its surface. He stared at it for a long moment, brows drawn.
Lian Hua lit a lantern, its soft glow wrapping them in gold.
“That symbol,” she murmured. “Danger. Does it mean someone wants to hurt you?”
Shen Wei shook his head slightly. “Not hurt, warn.”
“Warn you about what?”
Again, silence, controlled, careful.
Lian Hua’s fingers curled. “Shen Wei… you trusted me enough to stay in my home. To recover here, please trust me with this too.”
Her voice trembled not from fear but from something gentler.
Something that strung a fragile line between them.
Shen Wei finally lifted his eyes to hers.
Something within him softened defenses lowering for just a breath.
“I’m trying,” he said quietly.
“More than you know.”
Lian Hua felt her heart move painfully.
Before she could speak, his gaze drifted past her, toward the window.
“The person who left this silk…” His voice was low, controlled. “They never appear unless an old boundary is about to break.”
“Boundary?”
“Between past and present,” he murmured.
The room chilled despite the warm lantern glow.
Her breath hitched. “Shen Wei… what exactly are you looking for in this town?”
His lashes lowered, hiding the emotion flickering in his eyes.
“…Someone I failed.”
Lian Hua’s chest tightened painfully.
Failed someone?
In this life?
Or another?
Before she could ask a Sudden Knock
BANG! BANG! BANG!
A violent pounding erupted on the clinic door.
Lian Hua gasped. Shen Wei rose instantly, protective instincts flaring like a blade drawn in the dark.
The knocking came again urgent, frantic.
“Who?” she began, but Shen Wei gestured for silence.
He approached the door cautiously, placing one hand on the wooden panel. For a moment, he simply listened.
Then he opened it a crack “Healer Lian!” A breathless voice cried out. “Please please help!”
Lian Hua hurried to the door. A young villager stood there, shaking, tears streaking his cheeks.
“It’s Elder Qiu he collapsed again he won’t wake!”
Lian Hua grabbed her medical bag. “Take me to him.”
The young man nodded frantically and sprinted off.
Shen Wei reached for her wrist gently but firmly.
“Be careful,” he said softly. “Tonight… something feels wrong.”
She looked up into his dark, steady eyes, feeling that same pull ancient, haunting, familiar.
“I’ll be fine,” she whispered, though she wasn’t entirely sure.
Shen Wei didn’t release her hand right away.
His fingers lingered warm, reluctant before he finally let go.
“I’m coming with you.”
There was no room for argument in his voice.
And though she should have refused lian Hua found herself relieved.
Together, they stepped into the night.
The red silk lay on the table behind them motionless now,
but humming with meaning.
Unseen threads of fate stretched tighter around them…
And the boundary between this life and their last
began to crack.