Su Mingfeng carefully tucked the tiny pair of tiger-head shoes into the inner pocket of his military overcoat, closest to his chest.
That spot had once held his military medals.
Now, it held a belated father's love and remorse.
He did not order them to leave immediately. Instead, holding Nuannuan, he slowly turned around to face the villagers of Li Family Village once more, all of them like birds startled by a bowstring.
His gaze no longer held the towering fury of moments before. Instead, it had become extraordinarily calm.
But it was precisely this calm before the storm that sent everyone's heart into their throat.
"Let me ask you."
Su Mingfeng spoke, his voice quiet, yet each word struck everyone's heart like a heavy hammer.
"Two years ago, when Comrade Zhang Jianjun, the postman, disappeared, did any of you look for him? Did any of you report it?"
The crowd was deathly silent.
The villagers looked at one another, then lowered their heads, none daring to meet his eyes.
Back then, they had merely exchanged a few words in private, saying Old Zhang might have fallen into the river and been swept away, or gone back to his hometown. No one had taken it seriously. A postman from another village had disappeared-so what? What did it have to do with them?
An icy smile curved Su Mingfeng's lips.
"Fine. No one."
He continued questioning them, his voice devoid of emotion.
"Then, over these past two years, you watched every day as Liu Guifang mistreated a five-year-old child. You saw her washing the whole family's clothes in the snow, wearing only a thin layer. You saw her so hungry that she gnawed on tree bark and dug for wild greens. You heard her crying when she was locked in the woodshed. You saw Li Goudan chasing and beating her like a dog..."
His gaze swept with surgical precision over several men in the crowd who had once watched the spectacle and even joined in the jeering.
"Did any of you stand up and say a single word? Did any of you give her a bite of hot food? Did any of you step in when she was being beaten?"
No one had.
There was still only deathly silence.
Everyone had become mute.
The villagers who had once turned a blind eye to Nuannuan's suffering now felt their faces burning, as though they had been slapped countless times in public.
It was not that they had not known. They had simply thought it better to avoid trouble.
That was Liu Guifang's family business. What did it matter to them whether an outsider's "bastard" lived or died?
"No," Su Mingfeng answered for them. "You did nothing."
Holding Nuannuan, he slowly walked over to the village Party secretary, Li Laosi, one step at a time.
Li Laosi was already so terrified that his face had drained of color, and both his legs shook like sieves.
"C-Chief..." he stammered, trying to plead for mercy and shirk responsibility. "I... I really didn't know about this! Liu Guifang... she was so good at pretending, she fooled our entire village! We're victims too!"
"Victims?" Su Mingfeng repeated the word, his eyes full of mockery.
"As the head of this village, you failed to notice a murder within your jurisdiction. A martyr's orphan was abused right under your nose for five years, and you turned a blind eye. And now you're telling me you're a victim?"
Su Mingfeng's voice abruptly sharpened. "Li Laosi! Where are your principles? What about the responsibility on your shoulders?"
The barrage of questions lashed Li Laosi like a whip, leaving him utterly flayed.
With a thud, he collapsed to the ground, his face ashen.
"I... I..." He could not get a single sentence out.
Su Mingfeng stopped looking at him and gave a direct order to Zhang Li, the guard company commander behind him. "Notify the county People's Armed Forces Department. Have them send people down immediately to take over this case. Village Party Secretary Li Laosi is to be removed from office at once and placed in isolation for investigation! I suspect he was involved with Liu Guifang in embezzling the martyr's pension and state relief grain. Investigate all of it thoroughly!"
"Yes, sir!" Zhang Li answered loudly.
At those words, Li Laosi's eyes rolled back, and he fainted outright from fright.
Among the crowd, several village officials who had thrown their weight around because they were related to Li Laosi were also trembling, sweat pouring off them.
They knew it was over. The sky had fallen.
Having dealt with Li Laosi, Su Mingfeng swept his gaze over the crowd again.
Several half-grown children were being held firmly down on the ground by their parents, kowtowing toward Nuannuan.
"Nuannuan, we're sorry! Please, little ancestor, forgive our Gousheng! He doesn't know any better!"
"Please, young lady, we failed to raise him properly! Be magnanimous and don't hold it against him!"
These were the very brats who used to trail after Li Goudan and bully Nuannuan alongside him.
Their parents were now sick with regret.
Had they known this "bastard" had such a terrifying background, they would have broken their own children's legs rather than let them provoke her!
Nuannuan looked at the children kneeling and kowtowing on the ground. There was no pleasure in revenge in her eyes, only a trace of bewilderment and fear.
She shrank further into her uncle's arms, not wanting to look at them.
Su Mingfeng gently patted her back, telling her through his actions that she need not be afraid.
His gaze finally settled on several gossiping women cowering at the back of the crowd.
Those women had once loved taking their little stools to the village entrance, where they pointed at Nuannuan and made the most vicious, cutting remarks.
Now, they trembled in terror, wishing they could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
Su Mingfeng did not name them.
There were more effective ways to deal with people like them than beatings and scoldings.
"Zhang Li."
"Here!"
"Send telegrams in my name to the county, the city, and the provincial military district simultaneously." Su Mingfeng's voice was clear and cold.
"Given the corrupt village ethos and moral decay of Li Family Village in He Province, whose villagers turned a blind eye to a murder and collectively remained silent over the abuse of a martyr's orphan, displaying utter callousness, I recommend permanently disqualifying Li Family Village from consideration for all future collective honors, including Advanced Brigade and Model Village!"
An uproar erupted.
If removing Li Laosi had frightened only some of them, these words struck every person in the village where it hurt.
In those days, the word "advanced" meant more than honor. It brought tangible benefits.
It meant larger fertilizer quotas, more subsidies for farm tools, and larger allocations of relief grain.
Disqualification meant cutting off the entire village's hopes and most of their extra income.
It hurt them a hundred times more than going door to door and beating them would have!
"Chief! Please don't!"
"We were wrong! We really were wrong!"
"Please, give us another chance!"
At last, the villagers panicked, crying out and begging for mercy.
Yet Su Mingfeng's expression did not soften in the slightest.
No snowflake was innocent in an avalanche.
He would not forgive their past indifference because of their tears.
He would make these people pay for their callousness and selfishness.
Holding Nuannuan, he turned and climbed into the jeep.
"Let's go."
At his command, the engines of more than a dozen military vehicles roared. They stirred up clouds of dust and sped away amid the villagers' despairing cries.
Inside the jeep, Su Mingzhe looked out the window at the villagers weeping bitterly and sighed softly.
He knew that his eldest brother's move, seemingly heartless, was the best way to handle this.
Some wrongs could not be forgiven with a simple "I'm sorry."
He withdrew his gaze and looked at the letter he had set aside separately, the one bearing the words "Green Pine."
His brows knitted tightly once more.