Thump, thump, thump.
The knocking sounded again, still in that same rhythm—three knocks in a set, with two-second intervals.
Both of them turned to look at the door at the same time.
Suddenly, Lin Wanwan stood up, walked to the door, and peered through the peephole. It was still the same courier, holding another box in his hand, slightly larger than the previous one.
She opened the door.
The courier handed her the box and said, “There’s one more package. I left it in the car earlier.”
Lin Wanwan took the box.
The courier turned and left, his footsteps quickly fading away in the hallway.
She glanced down at it.
This box also had no sender information, but a small white sticky note was attached to the seal—the kind you could buy at any ordinary convenience store.
On it were only two words, written in black marker: Gift Two.
Lin Wanwan brought the box back into the room.
Xu Jia stared at the box, her expression changing.
“Wait.”
She walked over, took the box, and gently shook it.
There was a faint rattling sound inside, like something rolling around.
Xu Jia’s face instantly paled. She hurriedly placed the box on the table, took two steps back, and lowered her voice to a whisper: “Don’t open it.”
Lin Wanwan looked at her: “What’s wrong?”
Xu Jia took a deep breath, her fingers trembling slightly.
“I’ve heard that sound before.”
“Twelve years ago, one of the artists under me wanted to terminate her contract, and things got very tense with the company.”
“One day, she received a package.”
“Inside the box was…”
She paused, her throat moving: “A bullet.”
The room fell silent for three seconds.
Lin Wanwan looked at her, and Xu Jia looked back.
Then Lin Wanwan took out her phone—not to start a livestream or send a message, but to directly call the police.
“Hello, I’d like to report a crime.”
“Someone sent me a suspicious item. I suspect it’s dangerous.”
After reporting the incident, she hung up.
Xu Jia looked at her, her expression complicated: “Aren’t you afraid?”
Lin Wanwan pointed at the box on the table: “What good would being afraid do?”
She then pointed at her phone: “Besides, I’ve been recording.”
“Everything from the moment you shook that box is recorded.”
Xu Jia was taken aback for a moment, then laughed. As she laughed, her eyes grew red.
“You,” she said, “really aren’t afraid of dying.”
Lin Wanwan didn’t respond. Instead, she opened her phone’s camera and aimed it at the box on the table: “But before I die, I want people to know how it happened.”
The police in Jiangcheng arrived quickly.
Twenty minutes later, two police cars parked downstairs, and four officers walked into the cluttered storage room filled with cardboard boxes.
The officer in charge was surnamed Zhou, in his forties, and he spoke and acted with efficiency.
Wearing white gloves, he carefully opened the box. Inside was a used bullet casing. But there were dark red stains on the casing—not rust, but an unknown red liquid.
Captain Zhou’s expression changed.
He looked up at Lin Wanwan: “Have you offended anyone recently?”
Lin Wanwan pointed at the USB drive and the letter on the table: “There’s also this. These were sent together.”
After reading the letter, Captain Zhou had the technician review the video. His frown deepened, and he picked up his walkie-talkie: “Captain, we have a situation. The evidence may involve biological material. We need support from the forensics team.”
A young female officer took Lin Wanwan’s statement, asking detailed questions: who she had met recently, who she might have offended, and whether she had received any other threats.
Lin Wanwan answered each question one by one.
The female officer finished taking notes, closed her notebook, looked at her, and suddenly said, “You’re quite brave, but also very sensible.”
Lin Wanwan didn’t quite understand. “What?”
The officer pointed to the phone in her hand. “Receiving an unknown object, and instead of going live to gain sympathy or running away, you called the police first.”
“In my eight years on the job, this is the first time I’ve seen that.”
Lin Wanwan fell silent for a moment before saying, “If I went live, they’d know I was scared.”
“If I’m scared, they win.”
The officer looked at her but said nothing. However, when she left, she handed Lin Wanwan a business card.
“Call me if anything happens,” she said. “I’m available 24/7.”
#Lin Wanwan Receives Bullet Casing!# (Trending)
#Bullet Casing with Red Liquid!# (Trending)
#Is This a Threat?# (Trending)
The topic’s views surpassed two billion within an hour.
The comments section exploded:
“This is a warning! Or a threat!”
“Who did this?! Find out!”
“It must be someone from Xingyao Media!”
“Wasn’t Li Jianguo arrested?”
“There are still people behind him!”
“Lin Wanwan, run! Don’t stay there anymore!”
At the same time, major official media outlets began to speak out:
@Jiangcheng Evening News: [Brief Comment] Threatening someone’s life and safety is a serious criminal offense. We hope the police solve the case as soon as possible and bring justice to the victim.
@Jiangcheng News: [Breaking News] Actress Lin Wanwan receives a threatening object; police have launched an investigation.
@Jiangcheng Police Online: A special task force has been established to investigate the case thoroughly.
The forensics team collected the bullet casing, USB drive, and delivery box. Two hours later, preliminary results came in.
Captain Zhou approached Lin Wanwan with a grave expression. “We found something. The package was sent from a delivery station in the western part of the city.”
“The sender’s registered ID information…”
He paused. “Belongs to Li Jianguo’s cousin.”
Lin Wanwan was stunned.
Xu Jia blurted out beside her, “Li Jianguo’s cousin? Isn’t Li Jianguo in detention?”
Captain Zhou nodded. “He is. But his cousin is still out there.”
“We checked. This person used to be a driver for Xingyao Media and disappeared after Li Jianguo’s arrest.”
“Surveillance footage from the delivery station captured him wearing a mask, but his build matches.”
“We’re conducting a citywide manhunt now.”
After the police left, Lin Wanwan went live. Her stream instantly drew over ten million viewers.
She sat by the window. Outside, the sky was growing dark, and scattered lights flickered in the buildings of the urban village.
The chat flooded with messages:
“Don’t be afraid, sis!”
“We’ll protect you!”
“Have they caught him yet?”
“Run! Don’t stay there!”
Lin Wanwan waited for the chat to calm down slightly before speaking.
“You’ve all seen it.”
“Someone wants to make my life difficult.”
The chat erupted again. She raised a hand to quiet them and continued.
“Am I scared? Yes.”
“When I received that box, my hands were shaking.”
“But what good does being scared do?”
She paused, looking calmly into the camera. “The more they do this, the more it shows they’re scared.”
“Scared I’ll tell the truth.”
“Scared I’ll keep living.”
“So…”
She spoke slowly and deliberately into the camera. “I’m going to live.”
“Just to show them.”
As soon as the live stream ended, a voice suddenly echoed in Lin Wanwan’s mind:
[Ding!]
[Host’s life detected to be under severe threat]
[Threat level: High]
[Passive skill “Danger Sense” unlocked]
[Skill Description: When danger approaches, the host will experience an instinctive warning. The intensity of the warning is proportional to the level of danger.]
Lin Wanwan was stunned.
She closed her eyes, trying to sense something, but felt nothing out of the ordinary.
Yet, when she instinctively looked towards the window, a sudden chill ran down the back of her neck. The sensation was faint and fleeting, like a passing breeze, then it vanished.
She opened her eyes, staring into the pitch-black outside the window, seeing nothing.
Only the lights from the building opposite and the occasional passing silhouettes.
But she knew someone was watching her.
Xu Jia had been standing beside her, silent.
Only when Lin Wanwan opened her eyes did she speak:
“You can’t stay here anymore.”
Lin Wanwan looked at her.
Xu Jia continued, “They know where you are.”
“Tonight, something could happen at any moment.”
She pulled a key from her pocket, the kind covered in rust: “I have an old house in the suburbs, left by my mom. No one’s lived there for twenty years.”
“It’s a bit run-down, but it’s safe.”
“No one knows about it.”
Lin Wanwan looked at her, silent for a few seconds.
“Aren’t you afraid?” she asked.
Xu Jia smiled.
“Afraid of what?”
“I waited ten years to find someone daring enough to go crazy with me.”
She paused, her smile fading, but her gaze remained serious: “If I let her die, wouldn’t those ten years have been a waste?”
By now, the sky was completely dark.
Lin Wanwan packed a small bag: two changes of clothes, that old laptop, and the battered guitar she’d brought from the company.
At the doorway, she turned back for a look.
This storage room she’d lived in for three years, just over ten square meters, was piled with cardboard boxes. In the corner was a folding bed, and the bunch of white chrysanthemums on the windowsill had completely wilted.
The countdown note on the wall was still there, the writing on it now somewhat blurred: 96 days until the contract expires.
She stared at it for a few seconds, then reached out, tore the note off, folded it, and put it in her pocket.
Xu Jia watched from the side, saying nothing.
Lin Wanwan turned and pulled open the door.
The two of them stepped into the night.
The motion-sensor lights in the hallway flickered on and off along their path, their footsteps echoing in the empty stairwell.
Downstairs, the ride-hailing car Xu Jia had called was already waiting.
Before getting in, Lin Wanwan looked back at the building.
Four stories, dusty grey exterior, warm yellow light glowing from some of the windows.
She’d lived here for three years but had never really looked at it properly.
“Ready to go?” Xu Jia asked.
Lin Wanwan withdrew her gaze and opened the car door.
The car started, turned out of the alley, and merged into the city’s traffic flow.
Hot Search Updates in Real-Time:
#Lin Wanwan Has Been Relocated!# (Trending)
#City-Wide Manhunt for Li Jianguo’s Cousin!# (Trending)
#Protect Lin Wanwan!# (Explosive)
Beneath the topics, countless people were still spamming:
“Where is she?”
“Is she safe?”
“Have they caught anyone?”
No one answered.
Only one comment had been pushed to the top:
“Where she is doesn’t matter.”
“What matters is that she’s still alive.”
“As long as she’s alive, those people won’t be able to sleep.”
The car drove for forty minutes, heading further and further into the outskirts, finally stopping at the entrance of an old residential complex.
Xu Jia’s so-called “old house” was on the top floor of a six-story building with no elevator.
The light in the stairwell was broken; the two of them climbed the six floors in the dark.
Xu Jia fumbled with the rusty key for a long time before the door finally opened, releasing a musty smell.
Groping around, Xu Jia found and turned on the light.
An old-fashioned incandescent bulb, low wattage, its dim yellow light barely illuminating the room.
A two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment, with furniture covered in white sheets and cobwebs gathered in the corners, but the doors and windows were intact, with water and electricity available.
Xu Jia walked over and opened the window. Cold wind rushed in, dispersing some of the musty smell.
“Make do for now,” she said. “I’ll clean up tomorrow.”
Lin Wanwan stood in the middle of the living room, looking at this unfamiliar place. Then she set down her bag and walked to the window.
Outside the window was a cluster of old buildings, and in the distance, the city lights were densely packed like countless stars.
Her phone vibrated once—a text message from an unknown number. The content was just one sentence: “Moved? Good. But remember, what’s coming can’t be avoided.”
Lin Wanwan stared at the line of text, her fingers tightening slightly. Then she turned off her phone and closed the curtains.