Nuannuan's voice was quiet, but in the stillness of the night, it rang out with unusual clarity.
Everyone instinctively followed her voice and looked toward the dark jeep.
The villagers were still wondering what the little girl was calling for.
The next second, the jeep's door was pushed open from inside.
An enormous white head emerged from the darkness.
What kind of eyes were those?
Golden, icy slit pupils, without a trace of emotion.
In the headlights, they gleamed with an eerie light that made hearts tremble.
Then a massive, agile body leaped soundlessly out of the vehicle and landed firmly on the ground.
A snow leopard!
An enormous snow leopard, even more powerfully built than a calf!
The snow leopard stood there and elegantly shook out that magnificent coat, its long tail sweeping slowly behind it. It made no sound at all, yet the terrifying pressure of a predator at the top of the food chain instantly enveloped the entire grain-drying yard like an immense, invisible net.
"Good heavens! It's... it's the tiger from the mountains!"
"Run! The tiger's come down to eat people!"
The villagers screamed in terror, and the crowd scattered with a roar, scrambling backward and wishing their parents had given them another pair of legs. The village committee compound, packed so tightly moments before that not even water could get through, instantly emptied out over a large area.
Liu Guifang and Li Goudan were scared witless too.
When had they ever seen a fierce beast that existed only in legends?
Li Goudan's legs buckled, and the little burst of courage he had just mustered was instantly washed clean away by fear.
Merely standing there quietly, this snow leopard exerted a hundred times more pressure than a dozen dark gun muzzles.
Yet Nuannuan showed no fear at all.
She ran up to the snow leopard on her little legs, stood on tiptoe, and reached out a small hand to pat its big head.
"Big Kitty, be good."
Then she turned, raised her little hand, and pointed toward Liu Guifang's courtyard nearby.
"Go."
Her voice was soft, but the command allowed no questioning.
A low growl rumbled in the snow leopard's throat, as though answering her.
The snow leopard turned its head, golden eyes locking onto that courtyard.
Those eyes seemed able to sniff out the rotten stench of evil.
Under everyone's horrified gaze, the snow leopard moved.
It did not run, merely walking toward the courtyard at an unhurried pace, its feline steps elegant and deadly.
Every step seemed to land on their hearts.
As Liu Guifang watched the beast draw closer and closer to her home, a final burst of madness erupted from her extreme terror.
"No! Don't go in! Get away! You beast!"
She screamed and struggled desperately.
Yet just as the snow leopard was about to step through the courtyard gate...
Nuannuan suddenly spoke again.
Instead of looking at the courtyard, she walked with tiny steps to an old locust tree at the village entrance.
A large yellow guard dog was tied beneath the tree.
Frightened by the snow leopard's imposing presence, the dog had tucked its tail tightly between its legs and lay trembling on the ground.
Nuannuan walked up to the dog and crouched down.
"Woof, woof?" (H... hello...)
Nuannuan sent the dog a simple greeting in her mind.
The yellow dog jerked its head up and stared in bewilderment and uncertainty at the exquisite little girl before it.
She... she could understand its words?
Nuannuan took out a piece of milk candy she had been reluctant to eat earlier, unwrapped it, and held it to the yellow dog's mouth.
"Here, this is for you."
The yellow dog hesitated, then stuck out its tongue and licked the candy.
The sweet taste instantly put it at ease.
"Little master, were... were you sent by Grandmother Mountain God?" The yellow dog's voice sounded in Nuannuan's mind, filled with awe.
"Let me ask you," Nuannuan said, ignoring its question and going straight to the point. "Did that bad granny go to the firewood pile behind her courtyard this afternoon?"
The yellow dog immediately answered, "Yes, yes! She was sneaking around and moved a big rock aside, as though she wanted to hide something underneath. Then she heard something in the village and hurriedly moved the rock back!"
Having gotten the answer she wanted, Nuannuan looked up at the sparrows chirping in the treetop.
"Did any of you see what was in the cellar?"
The sparrows clamored in Nuannuan's mind, each trying to speak first:
"We saw! We saw! It was pitch-black!"
"There was a big vat! It stank!"
"There were white bones under the vat! We carried off a little piece last time. It was hard and didn't taste good!"
The information matched completely.
Nuannuan stood and dusted off her little hands.
She seemed merely to have played with cats and dogs at the village entrance, but in fact, in one short minute, she had already finished cross-examining all the "animal eyewitnesses."
The secret Liu Guifang had believed perfectly concealed had been laid completely bare before Nuannuan's "beast-speech investigation."
For her every move, all the animals in the village were informants.
Nuannuan walked back to Su Mingfeng and tugged at his trouser leg.
Su Mingfeng bent down.
Pointing at the inconspicuous firewood pile in the corner of Liu Guifang's courtyard, Nuannuan said in her babyish voice, "Uncle, Big Kitty said the smell is coming from there."
"It really, really stinks."
She cleverly conveyed the information she had gathered by attributing it to the snow leopard.
Su Mingfeng's gaze instantly shifted to the firewood pile.
As for Liu Guifang, who was being held up by her arms, her body shuddered violently at the words "firewood pile," and the last trace of color drained from her face.
What she had hidden there were a few belongings stripped from the postman all those years ago that she had not yet had time to destroy.
She had thought no one would ever know.
She had never imagined that a beast would sniff them out!
Now whispers began to rise among the villagers as well.
"This little girl... she really is amazing. How does she know everything?"
"Look how fair and plump she is now. Does she look like a child who never gets enough to eat, like Liu Guifang claimed?"
"Exactly. Liu Guifang's always been sharp-tongued and mean. Can we trust anything she says?"
Without anyone noticing, the crowd's attitude had already begun to shift.
The looks they directed at Liu Guifang changed from sympathy to suspicion.