"Let go of me! You damned bastards! Let go!"
Liu Guifang's screams pierced the deathly still dusk of Li Family Village.
Two tall soldiers dragged her toward the military truck like a torn burlap sack. Her hands were cuffed behind her back in cold steel, and her body left two sorry trails through the mud and chicken droppings.
Her clothes, which had originally been reasonably clean, were now filthy.
She struggled desperately, kicking both legs wildly as she tried to hook them around anything she could brace herself against.
"Nuannuan! You little jinx! Look at me! I'm your mother-in-law! Tell your uncle to let me go! Otherwise, you're an unfilial child! Heaven will strike you down!"
Her face contorted, Liu Guifang screamed at the tiny figure in Su Mingfeng's arms.
She wanted to coerce the child with the same lines that had worked best over the past five years.
As far as she was concerned, as long as she shouted loudly enough and made enough of a scene, the little brat would give in out of fear.
This time, however, she had miscalculated.
Nuannuan merely buried her little face a little deeper in her uncle's warm military overcoat. Her small body did not even tremble.
Su Mingfeng stopped.
He did not turn around, merely casting a cold glance at Zhang Li, the guard company commander behind him, with eyes full of storms.
"Gag her."
His voice was quiet, but it carried an authority that brooked no resistance.
"Yes, sir!"
Zhang Li darted forward, giving Liu Guifang no chance to react. He pulled a rag he had prepared earlier from his pocket, deftly balled it up, and shoved it hard into her mouth, which was still spewing vicious curses.
"Mmph! Mmmph-!"
All her words were stopped up, leaving only animal-like whimpers.
Liu Guifang's bloodshot eyes bulged like brass bells. She stared fixedly at the little red padded jacket sheltered so securely in Su Mingfeng's arms, her gaze filled with venom, resentment, and an overwhelming sense of absurdity she could not comprehend.
How had this happened?
How had that little bastard who never dared make a peep when she beat and cursed her, that pitiful little thing who relished even sour swill, suddenly become a precious treasure held in the arms of such a high-ranking official?
And how had she, a woman who had lorded it over Li Family Village for half her life, ended up being dragged away in front of everyone like a dead dog?
That gulf between heaven and earth struck her heart like an enormous invisible hammer, smashing the last of her wishful thinking and arrogance to pieces.
She began convulsing violently, not as an act, but from terror deep within.
Holding Nuannuan, Su Mingfeng turned to face the villagers, all silent as cicadas in winter.
Nuannuan was light in his arms, as light as a feather, and it made him unconsciously tighten his hold on her.
His gaze swept over every face, whether numb, frightened, or ashamed.
"Today, in my capacity as commander of the military region, I will announce the charges against Liu Guifang before everyone in this village."
His voice carried clearly through the cold air to every person's ears.
"First, suspected murder of a public servant. A preliminary examination has identified the skeletal remains discovered in the cellar as those of Comrade Zhang Jianjun, the postman who disappeared two years ago. This is murder, an unforgivable crime!"
The crowd erupted in an uproar.
Although they had already guessed most of it, the conclusion carried an entirely different weight when spoken by a senior military officer.
"Heavens, she really did kill him..."
"How vicious! Old Zhang was such a good man..."
"Second!" Su Mingfeng's voice abruptly rose, scraping across everyone's eardrums like a blade of ice. "Abuse of a martyr's orphan! The child in my arms, Nuannuan, lost her father when he died heroically in battle defending our country. Her mother worked herself sick for the nation's scientific research and died of illness in that service. They were heroes! Nuannuan is the child of heroes!"
He paused, every word seeming to be forced through clenched teeth.
"But over the past three years, Liu Guifang embezzled the state-issued martyrs' benefits and worked a hero's daughter like livestock, making her live in a woodshed and eat sour swill, constantly beating and cursing her! She even intended to sell her to a widower in his sixties for fifty jin of dried sweet potatoes!"
His words struck like peals of thunder over the villagers' heads.
A martyr's orphan?
That little girl whom the village had called a "jinx" and a "bastard" for three years was actually the child of heroes?
Everyone froze.
They looked at the tiny girl in the red padded jacket in Su Mingfeng's arms, then remembered the scenes of the past three years: her washing clothes in the snow in thin, ragged clothing, digging for wild vegetables in the mud, and being chased, beaten, and cursed by Li Goudan...
An immense, belated guilt and fear gripped their hearts.
The gossiping women who had joined Liu Guifang in calling Nuannuan a "bastard" were especially terrified, their faces deathly pale and their legs so weak they could barely stand.
Su Mingfeng did not look at them again.
Holding Nuannuan, he turned toward the jeep.
To him, these people's repentance was worthless.
Just then, Nuannuan, resting against his shoulder, seemed affected by the oppressive atmosphere around them and shifted her little head.
She brought her small mouth close to Su Mingfeng's ear and asked in a babyish voice only the two of them could hear:
"Uncle, that bad granny... she won't ever be able to steal my dried sweet potatoes again, will she?"
That single question instantly reddened the eyes of Su Mingfeng, a hardened man who shed blood but never tears on the battlefield.
Behind him, Zhang Li and the soldiers of the guard company also heard those childish words, filled with boundless hurt and hope.
Veins stood out on the soldiers' hands as they gripped their rifles.
They turned their heads in unison, their knife-sharp gazes stabbing at Liu Guifang, who had been dragged to the truck and was still struggling with muffled whimpers.
If looks could kill, Liu Guifang would already have been cut into a thousand pieces.
Gritting his teeth, Zhang Li gave a low order to the two soldiers holding Liu Guifang. "Throw her in! Make it hurt!"
"Yes, sir!"
With their orders received, the two soldiers dispensed with any gentleness. Together, they lifted and swung Liu Guifang, who weighed over a hundred jin, and hurled her into the truck's high bed like a sack of garbage.
A dull thud sounded, accompanied by a muffled scream.
Liu Guifang landed heavily on the cold, hard metal floor, feeling as though every bone in her body was about to fall apart.
Before she could even groan, Li Goudan, who had likewise soiled himself in terror, was thrown in the same way and landed heavily on top of her.
The truck's tailgate was locked shut with a clang.
Darkness and despair engulfed the mother and son like a tide.
Liu Guifang knew she was finished.
Utterly finished.