"Breakfast is ready!"
Morning sunlight streamed through the window lattice into the dining room of the Su Family Compound.
A huge round rosewood table was laden with a sumptuous breakfast. The millet porridge had been simmered until golden, soft, and creamy, with red dates and goji berries sprinkled on top. The white-flour steamed buns were big and soft, still sending up clouds of steam.
There were plates of delicate side dishes: pickled cucumbers, shredded kelp salad, peanuts, and a plate of golden scrambled eggs.
In the very center sat a large bowl holding a dozen or so freshly boiled eggs.
This was Nuannuan's first proper breakfast since returning to the Su Family.
For this meal, Lin Wanyi had risen before dawn and busied herself in the kitchen. She wanted to make up, little by little, for everything the child had been deprived of over the past five years.
Holding Nuannuan's little hand, Lin Wanyi led her to the table.
She wore an old padded jacket that Lin Wanyi had stayed up altering to fit her. Though it was still a little big, it was clean and warm. Her hair had also been combed into two little braids tied with red cord.
Su Zhenbang, Su Mingfeng, Su Mingguo, Su Mingzhe, and Su Mingyuan-every man in the Su Family was there. They had canceled all their meetings and arrangements that morning just to have this meal with Nuannuan.
"Nuannuan, come sit beside Grandpa." Su Zhenbang patted the chair next to him, a loving smile on his face.
Nuannuan sat down beside him, a little ill at ease.
The chair was so high that her feet could not reach the floor and dangled in midair.
"Go on, eat. See what you like." Lin Wanyi ladled a small bowl of millet porridge for her, then placed a white-flour steamed bun in front of her.
Everyone looked at Nuannuan expectantly.
They imagined that this child, who had gone hungry for five years, would wolf down the food when she saw so many delicious things.
Yet Nuannuan merely lowered her head and sat motionless, her little hands on her knees.
She looked at the fragrant bowl of millet porridge before her and smelled the aroma of the steamed bun. Her stomach betrayed her with a growl.
She was very hungry.
But she dared not eat.
In Li Family Village, only those who did the most work could get a dark coarse-grain bun. A "jinx" like her could only wait until everyone had finished, then scrub the pot and wash the bowls. If she was lucky, she might get a little rice water left at the bottom of the pot.
More often, there was nothing at all.
"Why aren't you eating, Nuannuan?" Lin Wanyi asked, her heart aching. "Is it not to your taste?"
Nuannuan shook her head.
She reached out her little hand and cautiously picked up the white-flour steamed bun.
The bun was soft and hot, like a ball of cotton in her hand.
She only looked at it and smelled it, not daring to bring it to her mouth.
"Eat, silly child." Su Mingfeng could not bear to watch any longer. He peeled a hard-boiled egg and placed it in Nuannuan's little bowl. "This is an egg. It's very nutritious."
Nuannuan's eyes lit up at once.
An egg!
She had only ever seen one in her dreams.
On Goudan's birthday, his mother had boiled him an egg. He was the village brigade leader's son. Its aroma had drifted through half the village.
She looked at the round, tender white egg in her bowl and swallowed.
Then she did something no one present had expected.
Her little hand darted out, snatched up the egg, and swiftly stuffed it into her loose sleeve.
She moved as fast as a little squirrel stealing food.
Afterward, she glanced around nervously, as though terrified someone might discover it.
The air in the dining room froze.
Everyone was stunned.
The smile froze on Su Mingfeng's face.
Lin Wanyi's hand stopped in midair, still holding the bowl of porridge.
Su Zhenbang, who had just picked up his chopsticks, also stopped moving.
They did not understand.
Why had she hidden the egg?
"Nuannuan, you..." Lin Wanyi's voice trembled a little. "Why aren't you eating it?"
Nuannuan lowered her head and said quietly, "This... I can't eat it."
"Why can't you eat it?" Su Mingfeng pressed.
Nuannuan clutched her cuff tightly, as though some priceless treasure lay hidden there. After hesitating for a long time, she finally spoke in a voice as faint as a mosquito's hum:
"I... I have to save it."
"Save it for whom?"
"For... little brother..."
Little brother?
What little brother did the Su Family have?
"We don't have a little brother in our family." Lin Wanyi looked at her in confusion.
Nuannuan raised her head, her large, clear eyes filled with bewilderment and a trace of fear.
"There is..." she said softly. "The bad granny said that whenever there's something good to eat at home, little brother Goudan has to have it first. If I sneak a bite, I'll get beaten... and burned with red-hot fire tongs..."
As she spoke, she instinctively shrank her neck, as though those scorching tongs might land on her the very next second.
Crack!
A deafening sound rang out.
Su Zhenbang slammed the rosewood chopsticks in his hand onto the table.
The pair of chopsticks snapped into four pieces.
This founding hero, who had commanded vast armies on the battlefield without so much as a change in expression, was now trembling with rage.
His eyes reddened, like those of an enraged lion.
"Liu! Gui! Fang!"
He all but forced each syllable out through clenched teeth.
His towering fury seemed to plunge the entire dining room to freezing point.
Su Mingguo shot to his feet, the chair legs scraping shrilly across the floor.
A cold gleam flashed behind Su Mingzhe's glasses.
Su Mingyuan clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
Su Mingfeng's expression was darker still, as though water might drip from it.
They finally understood.
It was not that Nuannuan did not want to eat. She did not dare.
From everything she had learned over the past five years, good things like eggs did not belong to her at all. Sneaking a single bite meant a vicious beating and burns.
That fear had seeped into her bones. Even after she had returned to her own home, facing a table full of delicious food and her closest family, it could not be dispelled.
Unable to hold back any longer, Lin Wanyi pulled Nuannuan into her arms, tears falling like beads from a broken string.
"My darling... my Nuannuan..." She sobbed so hard she could barely speak. "It's Grandma's fault. Grandma didn't find you sooner..."
Nuannuan was frightened by this sudden turn of events.
She did not know what she had said wrong, why Grandpa was so furious, or why Grandma was crying so bitterly.
She thought they had discovered her hiding the egg and were going to beat her.
"Grandma... I was wrong... I won't hide it anymore..." She hurriedly took the egg, still warm from her body, out of her sleeve and held it out to Lin Wanyi. "Give... give it to little brother... Nuannuan won't eat it... Don't hit Nuannuan..."
Those words were like the sharpest of knives, plunging deep into the heart of everyone present once again.
"No!" Su Zhenbang abruptly stood up. He walked over to Nuannuan, crouched down, and cradled her little face in his large, callused hands.
His voice was hoarse with overwhelming anger and heartache.
"Nuannuan, listen to Grandpa."
"You have no little brother. In this house, you come first. You get the first taste of anything delicious. You get the first turn with anything fun."
"If anyone dares fight you for anything, Grandpa will break his legs!"
He took the egg from Nuannuan's hand, peeled it himself, broke it in half, and put one half into his own mouth. Then he held the other half to Nuannuan's lips.
"Eat! This belongs to our Nuannuan! No one can take it away!"
Nuannuan looked at Grandpa's reddened eyes, then at Grandma, whose face was drenched in tears, and her uncles, their faces filled with anger.
Only half understanding, she opened her little mouth and ate the half egg.
The rich flavor of the yolk spread through her mouth.
It tasted good.
So good.
As Su Zhenbang watched her eat in tiny bites, he finally could no longer hold back his tears, and they rolled down his cheeks.
He stood up, turned to Su Mingguo, and gave an order.
"Mingguo, pass the word."
His voice was quiet, but carried unquestionable authority.
"Escalate the investigation into Li Family Village. I want that woman named Liu Guifang to pay a hundredfold, a thousandfold, for every single thing she has done!"
"I'll make her understand that not just anyone can lay a hand on a child of the Su Family!"