"No!"
Inside the carriage, an older child who had just recovered from his terror saw the shocking sight and let out a scream of despair.
In his eyes, the little girl in the tattered red padded jacket was like a fallen leaf swept away by a gale, plunging without hesitation into the endless darkness outside the carriage.
The wind howled past her ears.
The world spun rapidly.
Nuannuan's tiny body tumbled helplessly through the air, falling.
The icy air pierced her skin and marrow like countless needles.
She squeezed her eyes shut, her little hand pressing the medal tightly against her chest.
Daddy...
Nuannuan is coming to find you.
If I can't find you, I'll go be with Mommy...
The agonizing pain she had expected never came.
Her falling body suddenly stopped.
It felt as though she had landed in a huge, warm net of cotton.
No, not cotton.
It was something thick and soft, carrying the warmth of a living body.
It was fur.
Nuannuan cautiously opened one eye.
She saw snow.
The blizzard swept rapidly past her eyes.
She looked down.
Beneath her was fur as white as snow, dotted with beautiful black rosettes.
She... had been caught.
The instant she jumped out of the carriage, another enormous white figure had leaped like lightning through the opening.
In midair, it twisted its body at an incredible angle, presenting its broad back to catch the tiny falling figure steadily and gently.
It was the snow leopard.
It did not even roar. As it landed, it simply bent and straightened its powerful legs, absorbing the entire impact.
Then, carrying the little thing on its back that weighed next to nothing, it broke into a run across the knee-deep snowfield.
Its movements were so fluid and steady that, lying on its back, Nuannuan barely felt any jolting, only the buffeting wind and snow.
Her little hands instinctively clutched the thick fur on the snow leopard's back.
So warm.
It was the warmest thing she had felt in all her memory, apart from the old Party secretary's military overcoat.
That unceasing warmth passed through her tattered padded jacket into her body, which was almost numb with cold, nearly making her moan with comfort.
Exhaustion and sleepiness washed over her like a tide.
She wanted so badly to fall asleep just like this.
"It's not... over..."
A voice sounded in her mind. It was not the snow leopard's, but her own.
She could not sleep.
She had escaped, but the danger had not passed.
She had to find Daddy.
But where was Daddy?
All she knew was that Mommy had said Daddy was in a big city, somewhere with lots of uncles dressed in green.
But these were snowy mountains and wilderness. Where was there a big city?
Nuannuan forced herself to lift her head and squinted, straining to look ahead through the blizzard.
The green train was slowly crawling like a long snake up the mountainside ahead.
It was moving slower and slower, as though the slope ahead was extremely steep.
A dim yellow light shone on the locomotive, like a lone eye in the blizzard.
And behind the locomotive, something seemed to be hanging on the first carriage.
It was a red emblem.
She could not make it out clearly through the wind and snow, but Nuannuan recognized its shape.
It was a five-pointed star.
A five-pointed star just like the one on the medal against her chest!
Mommy had said Daddy was somewhere with stars like that!
"Big kitty..."
With all her strength, Nuannuan patted the snow leopard's neck beneath her.
"Catch... catch up to it!"
She shouted in her mind, reaching out a little hand to point at the locomotive.
"Catch up... to that locomotive with the red star!"
The snow leopard seemed to sense the urgency in her thoughts.
It suddenly ran faster.
"Roar!"
A restrained growl rose from deep in its throat, not in intimidation, but in excitement.
It began to accelerate.
The king of the snowy mountains revealed its true strength.
Its four legs were like the most powerful springs, each push launching it a tremendous distance across the snow.
It traversed the rugged snowy slopes and bottomless gullies as though they were level ground.
The wind and snow became a shrill whistle in its ears, and its white figure left an almost invisible afterimage across the dark snowfield.
The distance between it and the train slowing on the uphill climb shrank visibly.
Fifty meters.
Thirty meters.
Ten meters.
The snow leopard changed direction. Instead of running parallel to the train, it began cutting diagonally toward the tracks.
It was going to run ahead of the train!
Meanwhile, inside the enclosed freight carriage.
Of the two traffickers whom the snow leopard had terrified out of their wits, one had already become a cold corpse, while the other lay unconscious on the floor, his fate unknown.
After their initial terror, the dozen or so remaining children slowly quieted down.
Huddled together, they watched everything happening outside through the enormous opening.
They saw the youngest little girl jump out.
They saw the legendary beast catch her.
Then they saw the girl and the leopard racing across the snowfield, chasing the train.
The boy who usually did nothing but cry, whom they called "Little Mute," now stared wide-eyed at the white figure growing farther and farther away.
He saw that the beast carrying the little girl had actually caught up with the train and run ahead of it.
His heart began pounding uncontrollably.
Maybe...
Maybe they could be saved too?
Trembling, he nudged one of the oldest children beside him and pointed outside, forcing out two hoarse words: "She... she..."
He wanted to say that she had gone to get help.
But he also felt that it was too unbelievable.
How could one person and one leopard possibly stop a train?
Just then, a sharp, piercing screech of grinding metal suddenly rang across the entire snowfield.
It was the sound of the train's... emergency brakes!