The compound's "animal United Nations"

"Woof! Woof, woof!"

A vigorous bark shattered the early-morning quiet of the military district compound.

Black Wind, the German shepherd belonging to Deputy Chief of Staff Zhang next door, was patrolling the yard with his head held high and his chest out.

He was a retired, decorated military dog, with keen eyes and a steady gait, radiating a pride that said, "strangers, keep away."

An upstairs window in the Su Family's small house opened, and Nuannuan poked her little head out.

She wore the little pink padded jacket her grandma had just bought her, her hair neatly braided into two pigtails. She looked like a lucky child from a New Year print.

She watched the imposing big black dog curiously.

Black Wind noticed her too. He stopped and looked up at the unfamiliar little thing, a wary growl rumbling in his throat.

Nuannuan wasn't afraid of him.

To her ears, that growl automatically translated into clear words: "New cub? What unit are you from? Password!"

Nuannuan blinked and took a piece of milk candy her grandma had given her yesterday from her pocket. She peeled off the wrapper and set the translucent candy on the windowsill.

"Here, have some," she said softly.

A sweet scent drifted down on the breeze.

Black Wind's nose twitched twice, and the growl in his throat stopped. The wariness in his eyes slowly turned to puzzlement.

"Candy? What kind of new weapon is this? It smells... like it isn't a threat."

Just then, a white shape streaked down from upstairs like lightning and landed silently in the yard.

It was Big Kitty, the snow leopard.

Black Wind's fur instantly stood on end. He took an attacking stance and let out a threatening roar at the snow leopard.

"Warning! Unidentified large creature intruding! Identify yourself!"

The snow leopard couldn't even be bothered to lift his eyelids. He simply walked beneath the windowsill, picked up the milk candy in his mouth, chewed twice, and swallowed it with a crunch.

Only then did he cast a lazy glance at Black Wind.

It was the look of a general regarding a raw recruit.

"I'm under her protection. Got a problem with that?" The snow leopard's voice sounded in Nuannuan's mind, carrying an unquestionable dominance.

Black Wind's roar caught in his throat.

From this enormous white beast, he felt an irresistible pressure that reached deep into his bloodline. It was a king's absolute dominance over a soldier.

He tucked his tail, whined, and slunk back into his own yard. He lay by the door, only daring to steal glances out of the corner of his eye.

Nuannuan giggled.

She thought this big compound was so interesting.

Over the next few days, Nuannuan's health improved considerably, and Lin Wanyi allowed her to play in the yard.

The Su Family Compound was like a little kingdom of its own. Military district officers and their families lived here, and the grounds were lush with greenery, with decades-old locust trees, rockeries, and a pond.

And this place became Nuannuan's "animal paradise."

She soon discovered that this compound was practically an "animal United Nations."

Besides Deputy Chief of Staff Zhang's proud military dog, Black Wind, there was Snowball, the lazy big white cat belonging to Master Wang, who worked in the kitchen. Snowball loved sunbathing on the kitchen roof and cared about nothing unless you had dried fish in your hand.

A chattering family of sparrows lived beneath the eaves. They were the entire compound's "broadcasting station." Whose family had meat today, whose child had gotten a spanking-nothing escaped their eyes or beaks.

A timid squirrel also lived in the huge walnut tree in the backyard. Its most important daily task was hiding every nut it found in a different place, then spending most of the day searching for them again.

Nuannuan's daily routine was to "patrol" the compound with a pocketful of candies and biscuits from her grandma.

She would break biscuits into small pieces and leave them on the windowsill for the sparrows, listening as they all talked over one another to "report" the day's news from around the compound.

She would put milk candy on the grass and wait for Snowball, the big white cat, to approach with elegant feline steps, give it a reserved sniff, and carry it off in one bite, offering a piece of intelligence in return: "That new calico behind the canteen stole a fish from Master Wang last night."

She would also find the squirrel's hidden walnuts and put them somewhere more obvious, watching its delighted expression when it found what it had "lost." In return, the squirrel would tell her which tree hollow held nuts it had forgotten to eat last autumn.

As for Black Wind, the military dog who had been so proud at first, after witnessing the snow leopard's strength and experiencing Nuannuan's "sugar-coated bullets," he had thoroughly become her "loyal subordinate."

Every day, the moment Nuannuan stepped outside, he would be the first to run over, circling her with his tail wagging and escorting her on her walks around the compound.

In her own simple way, Nuannuan built deep "friendships" with these little animals.

She had no idea just how earth-shattering what she was doing appeared to Su Mingzhe and Su Mingfeng.

With her at its center, a living, all-pervasive "animal intelligence network" covering the entire military district compound quietly took shape without anyone noticing.

Every "agent" in this intelligence network-sparrows, cats, dogs, squirrels-was so inconspicuous, yet everywhere.

They could see every corner the guards couldn't see and hear every sound that couldn't be heard through the walls.

And all this intelligence ultimately converged on this little girl of just five.

That afternoon, Su Mingfeng and Su Mingzhe returned from outside to find this scene.

Nuannuan sat on a stone stool in the yard, with the snow leopard lying at her feet.

Before her, Black Wind the military dog sat ramrod straight, Snowball the big white cat lay on the stone table, seven or eight sparrows perched on a nearby branch, and a squirrel crouched on a rockery not far away, hugging its tail.

All the animals watched Nuannuan in perfect silence.

Nuannuan was carefully dividing a walnut cookie into several portions.

"This one's for Big Kitty. You're the biggest, so you get the most."

"This one's for Black Wind. Yesterday, you helped me chase away Xiaopang when he wanted to bully me."

"This one's for Snowball. You told me Grandma Li's heating pipe was broken, so she didn't have to suffer in the cold."

"And you..." She scattered the tiniest crumbs on the ground. "You told me Auntie Wang's little grandson was being naughty again."

Standing a short distance away, Su Mingfeng and Su Mingzhe exchanged a glance, each seeing a trace of shock in the other's eyes.

She wasn't playing.

She was holding a meeting.

She was rewarding her "agents" according to their contributions.

Su Mingzhe adjusted his glasses and said softly, "Brother, I used to think our Su Family's strongest weapons were your guard company and Second Brother's logistics department. Now I realize I was wrong."

He looked at that tiny figure surrounded by animals, his voice carrying a trace of awe that even he hadn't noticed.

"She is the most unfathomable weapon our Su Family-and even our entire country-has."