Lin Wanyi pushed open the door that had been shut for five years.
"Nuannuan, this is your room." Her voice was very soft.
Everything in the room was pink. A pink bed, pink curtains, and a big rag doll. The air held a faint smell of dust and the fragrance of plum blossoms.
Su Mingfeng gently set Nuannuan down on the little bed.
The bed was very soft.
Nuannuan's body sank into it.
Her little hands gripped the sheet, her fingers curling. The softness unsettled her. In the woodshed, there had only been moldy straw, cold and hard, but that was the feeling she knew.
"Do you like it? Your mother prepared this for you." Lin Wanyi sat beside the bed and helped her take off her little shoes.
Nuannuan nodded. She did not dare say she disliked it.
Seeing how obedient she was, Lin Wanyi felt another pang of heartache. She tucked the quilt around Nuannuan. It was new and smelled of sunshine.
"Go to sleep. Grandma will be downstairs. Call Grandma if you need anything." Lin Wanyi kissed Nuannuan's forehead.
Nuannuan closed her eyes.
She could hear Grandma's footsteps going downstairs, very softly. Then came the sound of a door closing.
The whole room fell quiet.
Too quiet.
In the woodshed, she could always hear the wind and the squeaking of mice. Here, there was no sound at all.
Nuannuan opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling. A beautiful crystal chandelier hung from it, like a string of rock sugar.
She did not like it.
She quietly lifted the quilt and climbed out of bed.
Her feet touched the floor, which was covered with a thick wool carpet, so soft it felt like stepping on clouds.
She did not like that either.
She went around the room and finally walked to the corner. There was a tiny gap between the wardrobe and the wall.
She crawled into it, curled into a ball, and wrapped her arms around her knees.
This position made her feel safe.
This was how she had slept in the pile of straw in the woodshed. That way, when the wicked old woman came in during the night, she would not find her so easily.
She buried her face in her knees, smelling the faint scent of medicated soap on her body.
She missed Big Kitty.
She did not know where Big Kitty had been taken.
Downstairs, the living room was brightly lit.
All the men of the Su Family sat on the sofas. No one spoke. Su Zhenbang held the bloodstained medal, rubbing it over and over.
Lin Wanyi came downstairs carrying a glass of hot milk, her eyes still red.
"What is it? Is Nuannuan asleep?" Su Zhenbang raised his head.
"She is." Lin Wanyi set the milk on the table, her voice slightly choked. "But I still can't stop worrying. That child is so well behaved it breaks my heart. In all these days at the hospital, she never cried or made a fuss."
"It's not that she can't cry. She knows crying does no good." Su Mingfeng's voice was heavy. Whenever he closed his eyes, he saw Nuannuan in the snow, shielding the snow leopard with her tiny body. "Over these five years, she cried all her tears dry."
Su Mingguo slammed his fist onto the coffee table, making a teacup jump.
"Liu Guifang! Tomorrow, I'm taking men to Li Family Village myself!"
"Big Brother, don't be rash." Su Mingzhe pushed up his glasses. "Dad has already made arrangements. You don't need to deal with a shrew like her yourself."
"I just can't swallow this!"
Lin Wanyi sighed and stood up. "I'd better go up and check on her again."
She could not rest easy.
She quietly pushed open Nuannuan's door without turning on the light.
By the light from the hallway, she saw that the bed was empty.
Lin Wanyi's heart instantly leaped into her throat.
Where was Nuannuan?
Her gaze swept quickly around the room. At last, in the shadows of the corner, she spotted a tiny, curled-up figure.
Nuannuan was sleeping on the carpet, her little body curled into a ball like a wounded little animal.
Tears spilled from Lin Wanyi's eyes at once.
She covered her mouth to keep herself from sobbing aloud.
This was the Su Family's princess, the treasure they could hardly bear to cradle in their palms for fear she might melt. Yet she did not even dare sleep in a soft bed, preferring to curl up in a cold corner.
How had she endured those five years?
Lin Wanyi walked over slowly and crouched down.
She could hear Nuannuan's faint murmurs in her sleep.
"...Don't hit me... Nuannuan will be good..."
Unable to hold back any longer, Lin Wanyi wept silently, tears streaming down her face.
The door behind her was gently pushed open, and Su Mingfeng walked in. When he saw the scene in the corner, his whole body went rigid.
He hurried over and carefully lifted Nuannuan from the floor.
The little girl was very light, her body still trembling slightly.
"Mom, don't cry." Su Mingfeng's voice was terribly hoarse. "It won't happen again. I swear on my life, it will never happen again."
He put Nuannuan back on the bed and tucked her in.
Lin Wanyi wiped away her tears and sat beside the bed, refusing to leave no matter what.
Su Mingfeng left the room. Instead of going downstairs, he brought over a chair and kept watch right outside Nuannuan's door.
He would watch over her here, like a sentry guarding his most important position.
The night deepened.
The entire Su Family compound fell asleep.
Su Mingfeng leaned back in his chair, listening to the steady breathing from the room, and felt a little more at ease.
Just then, he heard a strange sound.
It was low and rhythmic, like the breathing of some large animal.
It came from the direction of the window.
Su Mingfeng sprang to his feet and warily approached the window at the end of the hallway.
Nuannuan's room was on the second floor. Outside the window lay an open stretch of ground, and beyond that stood the compound wall.
He looked toward the sound.
Then his pupils abruptly contracted.
Outside Nuannuan's window, beneath the bare old locust tree, an enormous white figure lay in the snow.
It was the snow leopard!
At some point, it had escaped from the truck and found its way here.
It neither cried out nor ran around. It simply lay there quietly, its huge head raised high, its ice-blue eyes fixed unblinkingly on the faintly lit second-floor window.
A cold wind blew past, sweeping snow from the ground and flinging it against its thick fur.
It did not move, like a statue carved from ice and snow.
A complicated, indescribable feeling welled up in Su Mingfeng's heart.
He had thought that keeping watch by the door would make Nuannuan feel safe.
But he had been wrong.
The little girl's true guardian was outside.
Just then, the snow leopard seemed to sense his gaze. It turned its head, and its ice-blue eyes met Su Mingfeng's in the darkness.
Then it did something Su Mingfeng had not expected.
It stood and walked with graceful steps to a spot directly beneath the small building.
Its hind legs bent slightly, then pushed off hard.
Its massive body silently leaped onto the second-floor windowsill like a white cannonball.
Su Mingfeng's heart skipped a beat.
He saw that the snow leopard made no attempt to enter the room.
It merely, very carefully, pressed its large, furry head gently against the cold windowpane.
A low, contented purr rumbled in its throat.
The sound passed through the window and along the hallway, reaching Su Mingfeng's ears clearly.
It reached the room, too.
Nuannuan, whose brow had still been furrowed in her sleep, seemed to hear that familiar sound.
Her little brow slowly relaxed.
The corners of her mouth curved slightly upward.