"The mice told me."
After Nuannuan finished speaking, she still held half an unfinished biscuit in her little hand.
Su Mingfeng and Su Mingzhe stopped breathing for an instant.
The entire study was so quiet that they could hear the faint rustle of wind passing through the treetops outside.
A dead person's bones.
Those words pierced the two men's hearts like an ice pick.
Su Mingfeng's hand tightened on the desk, his knuckles drawing taut. He remembered the wounds covering Nuannuan's body, remembered that bloodstained medal. A savage killing intent surged from the depths of his heart, only for him to forcibly suppress it. He could not frighten the child.
Su Mingzhe reacted faster. He showed no emotional fluctuation, merely crouching to meet Nuannuan's eyes. His voice was gentle, as though they were discussing some ordinary little matter.
"Nuannuan, can you tell your third uncle what else the mice said?"
Nuannuan tilted her head and took a bite of her biscuit, her cheeks bulging. She earnestly recalled the little mice's squeaks, then relayed them in her own words.
"They said... that bad granny's cellar really stinks."
"There's a big vat for pickling vegetables."
"Under the vat are bones."
Her description was halting, yet exceptionally clear.
Su Mingzhe's gaze sharpened. He continued, "Did the mice say whose... bones they were?"
Nuannuan thought for a moment, then said, "They said that person wore green clothes. Just like yours, Uncle."
Green clothes.
Su Mingfeng's pupils abruptly contracted.
In this era, apart from soldiers, only postal workers wore standard-issue green uniforms year-round.
This was murder.
Su Mingfeng and Su Mingzhe exchanged a glance, each seeing the same conclusion in the other's eyes.
"She didn't just abuse Nuannuan. She killed someone, too." Su Mingfeng forced the words through clenched teeth, each one edged with ice.
The resistance the investigation team had encountered earlier, Liu Guifang's screaming tantrums-now there was a reasonable explanation for all of it. She was not simply being obstinate. She was desperately concealing a shocking secret that could cost her her head.
"Brother, we can't wait any longer." Su Mingzhe stood, his expression grave. "The comrades on the investigation team follow regulations. She'll stall them indefinitely. Right now, she must be trying to coordinate stories, or even move the evidence."
"I'll go myself." Su Mingfeng picked up the military telephone on the desk without the slightest hesitation.
He needed no further questioning, no further investigation.
Nuannuan's words were the most reliable intelligence.
The mice's words were the most conclusive testimony.
He believed them.
Unconditionally.
Su Mingzhe nodded. He walked over to a heavy steel security cabinet in the corner of the study, removed a key from around his neck, then took another from a compartment in his briefcase.
Click, click.
With two soft clicks, the cabinet door opened.
He solemnly placed the tin box containing the diary and mineral vein map inside, then locked it again. Only after completing this did he finally breathe a full sigh of relief. The clues his younger sister had left were far too important. Nothing could be allowed to go wrong.
He turned and saw that Su Mingfeng had already put down the telephone.
"Who did you notify?"
"The guard company." Su Mingfeng's reply was brief and forceful. "Assemble downstairs in fifteen minutes."
With that, he bent down and picked Nuannuan up from the floor. The little girl seemed a little sleepy. She gave a tiny yawn and buried her face in the crook of her uncle's neck.
"Uncle, are we going to beat up bad people?" she asked drowsily.
"Yes." Su Mingfeng brushed his chin against her soft hair. "We're going to help Mommy beat up the very, very worst person."
His voice carried the force of mountains collapsing and the earth splitting apart.
Just then, the other telephone on the desk, a red one, suddenly rang.
Su Mingzhe strode over and answered it. After listening for only a moment, his expression turned somewhat peculiar. Covering the receiver, he told Su Mingfeng, "It's our eldest brother. He's asking... whether we're taking the King of the Snowy Mountains along."
"King of the Snowy Mountains" was the snow leopard's official code name.
Su Mingfeng froze.
He had not even had time to work out how to explain this operation to the family, yet his eldest brother, Su Mingguo, already knew.
Su Mingguo's steady voice came from the other end of the line. "Mingfeng, I don't care what you're going to do. But since you're going to deal with the root cause of Nuannuan's suffering, make a bigger show of force. Sometimes, when reason won't get through, you have to let those animals hear a wild beast roar."
Su Mingfeng clenched his fist.
His eldest brother was right.
Reasoning was useless against a belligerent troublemaker like Liu Guifang.
Then he would use the most primitive, most direct method to crush every last one of her hopes of getting away with it.
He glanced out the window.
In the darkness, the enormous snow leopard lay quietly on the lawn below the small building, its golden pupils astonishingly bright in the night. As though it had already sensed something, it slowly rose and shook the dew from its body.
Su Mingzhe hung up and walked over to Su Mingfeng, lowering his voice. "Our eldest brother also said he's already had the military region's logistics department include the vehicles and supplies for this operation in the 'Field Adaptation Training for a Special Military Experimental Subject' program."
Su Mingfeng understood.
His eldest brother was clearing every procedural obstacle out of his way.
Once the Su Family decided to do something, the entire vast war machine would turn for it.
"Third Brother, stay home." Su Mingfeng made his decision. "Mom and Dad will need you to reassure them. Also, keep investigating that drawing in secret."
"No, I'm coming with you." Su Mingzhe pushed up the glasses on his nose, his gaze behind the lenses calm and resolute. "You're a soldier. You'll handle breaking down the door. I'm a researcher. I'll handle breaking her spirit. We need a two-pronged approach against Liu Guifang."
He paused, then added, "Besides, I need to see for myself exactly what kind of environment can turn a person into a devil."
Seeing the determination in his younger brother's eyes, Su Mingfeng stopped trying to persuade him.
He held Nuannuan tighter in his arms and headed downstairs.
The living room downstairs was lit, and Grandma Lin Wanyi and Grandpa Su Zhenbang were both still awake. At the sight of her two sons coming down with such murderous gravity, worry appeared on Lin Wanyi's face.
"It's so late. Where are you going?"
Before Su Mingfeng could work out how to answer, Nuannuan rubbed her eyes in his arms and said in her sweet little voice, "Grandma, Uncle's taking me to get rid of ghosts!"
"There's a really bad person in the village. She buried an uncle in green clothes in the cellar."
A child's innocent words knew no restraint.
Yet they were like a thunderclap, exploding soundlessly in the quiet living room.
Su Zhenbang's hand froze in midair, his teacup still in it. Lin Wanyi covered her mouth, her eyes filled with disbelief.
They finally understood why their sons were assembling late at night, brimming with killing intent.
It turned out that, somewhere beyond their knowledge, Nuannuan had not only suffered abuse but had also witnessed... a long-buried murder.