"Don't move!"
"Protect the chief!"
The instant Su Mingfeng charged forward, the soldiers behind him instinctively took action too.
More than a dozen dark gun muzzles swung as one toward the enormous snow leopard.
They thought the beast was about to attack.
"Roar!"
The snow leopard felt the cub sliding off its back, and it also sensed the threatening killing intent coming from every direction.
It was enraged.
A king's dignity could not be challenged.
It abruptly stepped forward, catching Nuannuan halfway down with its back, while opening its blood-red maw and letting out a deafening roar at the soldiers closing in.
The sound rolled outward, even stirring up the snow on the ground.
Intimidated by its presence, the soldiers faltered, but their grips on their guns tightened.
The standoff was on the verge of erupting.
"All of you, put your fucking guns down!"
Su Mingfeng sounded frantic. As he charged forward, he turned back to roar at his men.
"I'll say it one more time! Whoever dares to shoot, I'll shoot him dead!"
The soldiers were all stunned.
They had never seen their chief lose control like this.
Those bloodshot eyes were like an enraged lion's.
In that brief moment of hesitation, Su Mingfeng had already reached the snow leopard.
Without the slightest pause, under the beast's icy-blue gaze, he reached out with trembling hands and swept the tiny, burning-hot body sliding off the leopard's back into his arms.
What he felt in his hands shattered him.
She was too light.
A five-year-old child, as light as a handful of cotton.
Through her tattered padded jacket, he could clearly feel the scorching heat of her body and the bones with barely any flesh on them.
"Nuannuan... my Nuannuan..."
Su Mingfeng pressed the child tightly against his chest. In an instant, the melting snow and grime on Nuannuan soaked and stained a large patch of his crisp military uniform.
He felt as though his heart had been plunged into boiling oil. The pain left him barely able to breathe.
Five years ago, he had personally placed his exquisite little niece in his younger sister's arms.
Five years later, what he held in his arms was a pitiful little child covered in injuries, barely breathing, her fever so high it was nearly killing her.
What exactly had she endured in those five years?
Regret, self-reproach, heartache... all those emotions tangled together like knives, cutting through his insides again and again.
This man of unyielding resolve, a war hero who had never so much as blinked in a hail of bullets, now had frighteningly red eyes.
"Don't be afraid... Nuannuan, don't be afraid... Uncle's here... Uncle's right here..."
Clumsily, over and over, he stroked Nuannuan's sparse, yellowed hair with his large, rough hand, his voice choked beyond recognition.
The snow leopard saw him take the cub away, but did not attack. It only gave wary whines deep in its throat and advanced step by step, seemingly wanting to snatch Nuannuan back.
"Don't shoot! It means no harm!"
Su Mingfeng immediately noticed the snow leopard's intention. Holding Nuannuan, he backed away while shouting at the soldiers behind him.
He saw it clearly.
There was no predator's greed in this beast's eyes, only a kind of... protective anxiety.
It was the leopard!
It was the leopard that had brought Nuannuan here!
That realization completely transformed Su Mingfeng's view of the beast.
In Su Mingfeng's warm, broad embrace, a faint trace of consciousness returned to Nuannuan.
She smelled that familiar scent, the same one as on the medal.
So safe.
So warm.
She struggled to open her eyes and saw countless dark gun muzzles aimed at her big kitty.
"No... don't... hurt... my cat..."
She reached out a little hand and weakly pushed against Su Mingfeng's chest, repeating those words in a tearful voice so faint it was barely audible.
That young voice, so protective of her own, struck Su Mingfeng's heart like a heavy hammer.
He could no longer hold back.
"Did you all hear that?!" He turned and roared at all the soldiers, "Put your guns down, all of you! It's not an enemy! It's our Su Family's benefactor!"
"It saved my niece! It's a hero!"
Every soldier present was so stunned by those words that his head rang.
His niece?
The Su Family?
That Su Family in the capital?
They looked at the little girl in their chief's arms, dressed in rags and covered in injuries, then at the imposing snow leopard that had never once attacked, and finally understood something.
Clatter-
A perfectly synchronized burst of metallic sounds rang out.
All the soldiers put away their guns and stood at attention.
The wariness and hostility in their eyes gave way to shock, sympathy, and... profound respect.
Their muzzles no longer pointed at the beast.
With their own bodies, they formed a wall of steel, protecting the man, the beast, and the child at its very center.
This wall was made of fully armed soldiers.
This wall was this country's strongest shield.
From that moment on, this place was no longer a dangerous snowfield, but the child's safest haven.
"Medic! Where the hell is the medic?!"
Holding the child who was burning hotter and hotter in his arms, Su Mingfeng was frantic with worry as he roared toward the rear of the group.
"Hurry! Get your ass over here!"
A young military medic carrying a medical kit scrambled through the snow toward him.
"Chief! I'm here!"
"Quick! Examine her! Hurry!"
Very carefully, Su Mingfeng tried to lay Nuannuan flat on the military overcoat he had spread out.
Just as he moved Nuannuan's body.
Clink.
A crisp sound of metal striking ice rang out.
An object rolled out from inside the lining of Nuannuan's tattered padded jacket.
It fell onto the pristine white snow.
It was a medal shaped like a five-pointed star.
It was stained with blood that had long since dried and turned black.
Against the stark white snow, that dark red looked especially jarring.
Su Mingfeng's gaze instantly froze.
The instant he saw that medal, his pupils shrank to pinpoints.