The village committee compound in Li Family Village was brightly lit.
A dozen or so men carrying hoes and shoulder poles surrounded three investigation team members dressed in cadre uniforms.
"Just because you're officials from the city, you think you can bully us country folk however you like?"
"Exactly! You say Sister Guifang abused the child. Where's your evidence? We watched that little girl Nuannuan grow up. Sure, she was a little skinny, but whose kid isn't?"
"I think you're just throwing your weight around and trying to snatch the child away!"
In the middle of the crowd, Liu Guifang sat planted on the ground, both legs stretched straight out, slapping her thighs with both hands and wailing loud enough to shake the heavens.
"Oh, my poor sister-in-law, you died so young! I worked myself to the bone raising your daughter. Even if I don't deserve credit, I deserve something for all that hard work, and now they're calling me heartless! Where's the justice?"
"I went without food and drink and saved all the white-flour steamed buns for that little brat, and what does she do? Comes back with her city relatives and turns around to accuse me! Where's the justice?"
As she wailed, she smugly eyed the surrounded investigation team leader out of the corner of her eye.
She had spent half her life using the tactic of "first cry, then make a scene, then threaten to hang yourself," and it worked every time. The villagers were simple and hostile to outsiders, making them easy to incite.
As long as she stubbornly denied everything and tied the whole village to her side, what could these city officials do to her?
The investigation team leader's surname was Wang. He was a demobilized serviceman in his thirties. His face turned livid with anger at the scene, but there was nothing he could do.
They had come to investigate, not to fight. Faced with these incited villagers, they could not make themselves heard, however sound their case was.
Caught in the middle, village Party secretary Li Laosi was sweating with worry, continually pleading, "Everyone, calm down, calm down! Let Team Leader Wang and his people say something!"
"Say something, my ass!" Liu Guifang's son, Li Goudan, a young thug in his early twenties, shoved the village Party secretary aside and pointed arrogantly at Team Leader Wang. "Unless you give us a satisfactory answer today, none of you are getting out of this gate!"
Team Leader Wang trembled with rage and was just about to explode.
Suddenly-
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
A dozen or so dazzling beams of light abruptly pierced the thick darkness from the direction of the village entrance like sharp swords.
The beams shone straight into the village committee compound, lighting it up as brightly as day.
The sudden glare left everyone unable to open their eyes.
The noisy scene fell silent in an instant.
Then came the low, powerful roar of engines, drawing closer from the distance with an irresistible sense of pressure.
The villagers looked toward the village entrance in bewilderment and uncertainty.
A dozen or so green "iron contraptions" unlike anything they had ever seen approached slowly in a line, then stopped on the grain-drying ground at the village entrance.
The doors opened, and soldiers in crisp uniforms, armed with loaded guns, jumped out. Moving in perfect unison, they swiftly formed a square on the grain-drying ground.
Those cold steel guns and that grim, murderous atmosphere made the calves of the villagers who had just been brandishing hoes and shoulder poles and shouting begin to tremble.
When had they ever seen anything like this in their lives?
This was not the county militia. These were regular troops!
The People's Liberation Army, with real guns and live ammunition!
Liu Guifang, who had been sitting on the ground throwing a tantrum, froze too. Tears still clung to her face, her mouth hung half-open, and for a moment she forgot to wail.
Under everyone's gaze, the front passenger door of the first jeep opened.
A tall officer with gold stars on his epaulets stepped out.
Su Mingfeng.
He did not look at the villagers, or even at the surrounded investigation team.
He simply took off his military overcoat and reached back to drape it over Su Mingzhe, who had just climbed out of the back seat. Then he bent down and gathered Nuannuan, bundled into a little ball, securely into his arms.
His movements were very gentle, as though what he held was the most precious treasure in the world.
Only after doing all this did he raise his head and sweep his icy gaze over everyone.
What a gaze it was.
Like a cold front from Siberia, it carried a blade's sharpness and a lofty indifference.
Everyone his gaze swept over felt a chill shoot from the soles of their feet to the crowns of their heads. They could not help lowering their heads, not daring to meet his eyes.
The village committee compound, so noisy a moment ago, was now as silent as death.
Everyone was cowed by his powerful presence.
Liu Guifang also spotted Nuannuan in Su Mingfeng's arms.
The little girl wore a pretty red padded jacket unlike anything she had ever seen, wrapped in a military overcoat that looked expensive at a glance. Her little face had grown fair, plump, and rosy with good care, without a trace of the sallow thinness she had had in Li Family Village.
Intense jealousy and greed instantly surged through Liu Guifang's heart.
That wretched girl really had climbed onto a higher branch!
Her eyes shifted, and greed suppressed what little fear she felt. So what if they had made a grand entrance? In broad daylight, in a lawful world, would they really dare kill anyone?
Steeling herself, she prepared to use her old trick again. She sprang up from the ground and was about to throw herself at Su Mingfeng, her rehearsed lines already on her lips. "My dear niece, you've finally come back! Your auntie missed you so much..."
But she had only taken one step.
Su Mingfeng's icy voice, devoid of any emotion, rang across the entire grain-drying ground.
"Zhang Li."
"Present!" Guard company commander Zhang Li stepped forward.
"Put this woman rolling around on the ground and obstructing military duties in handcuffs."
Su Mingfeng's tone was perfectly even, as though he were saying, "The weather's nice today."
Liu Guifang froze in her tracks.
The smile froze on her face, and a flicker of panic crossed her eyes.
Hand... handcuff her?
How dared he?
The surrounding villagers were dumbstruck too.
They had never expected this officer to order an arrest the moment he spoke!