The snow leopard now had an "official post."
With special approval from the military district's logistics department, it was given the code name "King of the Snowy Mountains," registered under the Su Family, and granted treatment reserved for recipients of special-class military merit.
The news sent the entire Su Family Compound into an uproar once again.
Before, there had been fear. Now, there was reverence.
No one had expected the Su Family to bring back not only their little princess, but also a "decorated leopard."
From then on, Big Kitty's standing in the Su Family Compound skyrocketed.
Its daily meals were specially supplied by the logistics department: fresh beef, lamb chops, and fresh milk flown in from Inner Mongolia just for it.
Its meals were of a higher standard than anyone else's in the compound.
It no longer needed to lie in the snow, either. Su Mingfeng had people build it a luxurious, heated "leopard house" beside the small residence.
But Big Kitty did not seem to like its new den.
Every night, it would still sneak out, leap onto the second-floor windowsill, and press its head against Nuannuan's window. Only after listening to the breathing inside could it fall asleep at ease.
Under the Su family's attentive care, Nuannuan's health improved day by day.
But she still slept restlessly at night.
That night, she once again woke with a start from a dream.
In her dream, there had been Liu Guifang's hideous face again, and the red-hot fire tongs.
She sat up, clutching her quilt, unable to get back to sleep.
The room was quiet, with only Big Kitty's steady breathing coming from outside the window.
"Squeak... squeak..."
A faint sound came from the corner.
Nuannuan looked toward it.
There was a tiny hole in the baseboard at the corner. A little gray mouse was poking half its head out, its two black, beanlike eyes curiously surveying the room.
It was a mouse from the capital.
It looked a little different from the mice in Li Family Village-a little fatter.
Nuannuan remembered the little mouse with one missing ear that had kept her company in the woodshed.
She felt a special fondness for mice.
She did not make a sound to frighten it, simply watching quietly.
The little mouse seemed to sense that she meant no harm. Growing bolder, it crawled out of the hole.
It sniffed around the room, as though searching for food.
Nuannuan thought for a moment, then climbed out of bed and walked over to her little desk.
In the desk drawer were the biscuits Lin Wanyi had bought for her that day.
She opened the drawer, took out a biscuit, broke off a small piece, and gently placed it on the floor.
The little mouse caught the scent and immediately ran over.
It glanced warily at Nuannuan, then at the biscuit crumb on the floor. After hesitating for a moment, it finally gave in to the lure of food, snatched up the crumb, and darted back into the hole.
A little while later, a head poked out of the hole again.
It was the same little mouse.
It had finished the biscuit and come out looking for more.
Nuannuan broke off another small piece for it.
After a few such exchanges, the girl and the mouse actually grew familiar with each other.
Nuannuan sat on the carpet, while the little mouse sat by her feet, holding the biscuit crumb and crunching away.
What's your name? Nuannuan asked softly in her mind.
Ever since her blood had dripped onto the medal, she had been able to clearly "understand" the animals' thoughts, and make them "understand" hers.
"Squeak!" (I don't have a name. My mom calls me Xiao Hui.)
The little mouse's thoughts appeared directly in Nuannuan's mind.
Xiao Hui, have you always lived here?
"Squeak, squeak!" (Yes, I was born here. A very pretty woman used to live in this room. She smelled nice, and she liked giving me things to eat, too.)
A pretty woman?
Something stirred in Nuannuan's heart.
It was Mommy.
Where... where did she go afterward?
"Squeak." (I don't know. She's been gone for a very, very long time. Before she left, she hid something in this room.)
Hid something?
Nuannuan's eyes lit up.
What was it? Where did she hide it?
Xiao Hui finished the last bite of biscuit and wiped its mouth with its front paws.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak!" (It was an iron box. Hard, and it didn't smell nice. It's right under that floorboard. That woman took it out to look at it every night.)
The little mouse pointed with its front paw at a floorboard beneath the bed.
Tell me, and I'll give you a whole biscuit, Nuannuan "negotiated" with it in her mind.
Xiao Hui's eyes instantly lit up.
"Squeak!" (Deal! Right there! That floorboard sounds different from the others when you step on it! That woman always pried it open with a thin piece of wire!)
It ran to the bedside and scrabbled hard at that floorboard with its tiny paws.
Nuannuan's heart pounded.
Something Mommy left behind.
What could it be?
She glanced at the hole in the corner, then at the seemingly ordinary floorboard.
She knew she had discovered a big secret.
Only she and this mouse named Xiao Hui knew that secret.
She took a whole biscuit from the drawer and placed it at the entrance to the hole.
Thank you, Xiao Hui.
The little mouse joyfully dragged the biscuit, which was bigger than its head, back into the hole.
Nuannuan climbed back into bed, but she was no longer the slightest bit sleepy.
Her gaze remained fixed on the floorboard beneath the bed.
How could she open it?
She had no wire.
She looked outside the window. Big Kitty's head was still pressed against the glass.
Big Kitty's claws were very sharp.
Maybe... Big Kitty could help?