Su Mingfeng

Biodata

Background

Su Mingfeng is a battle-tested military commander and the older brother of Su Mingyue. Six years before his reunion with Nuannuan, he gave Mingyue his first and most treasured First-Class Combat Hero medal as a wedding gift. He personally engraved a wish for her lifelong happiness on its reverse 10 11.

Five years before the train encounter, Mingyue and her husband were reported dead in an accident, and their infant daughter Nuannuan disappeared. The Su Family searched extensively without finding her. Mingfeng remembered holding Nuannuan as a newborn and placing her in her mother’s arms 8 10.

Appearance

• Build: Tall, with broad shoulders 30 31.
• Uniform: Introduced wearing a crisp military uniform with two bars and four stars on its shoulder boards 8.
• Bearing: Carries an imposing military presence that remains noticeable even in casual clothes 23.

Personality

Mingfeng’s soldiers know him for exceptional composure under pressure, making his emotional response to Nuannuan’s condition startling. Although accustomed to battlefield danger, he becomes visibly distraught when confronted with her injuries and the keepsakes left by his sister 8 10 36.

His tenderness toward Nuannuan contrasts sharply with his treatment of her abusers. He carries and comforts her, watches over her recovery, and suppresses his anger when it might frighten her. Against the trafficker who injured her, however, he breaks both wrists and threatens further violence during questioning 12 13 20 28.

He also holds bystanders responsible for allowing cruelty to continue. At Li Family Village, he rejects the villagers’ belated pleas for forgiveness and seeks administrative consequences for their indifference. His protectiveness extends to Big Kitty, whose rescue of Nuannuan earns his gratitude despite the regulatory trouble of sheltering a snow leopard 16 22 37.

Abilities & Skills

Military Command

Commands armed teams, coordinates security operations, and issues rapid orders during emergencies 8 12 41.

• Organizes combat readiness, supply protection, and controlled disembarkation aboard the military train 8.
• Leads the operation that frees more than a dozen kidnapped children from a sealed boxcar 12.
• Mobilizes the guard company for the Li Family Village investigation 28.
• Receives emergency authority to mobilize any Capital Military Region force except the garrison troops for the Great Wall investigation 43.

Field Tactics and Firearms

Combines battlefield experience with threat assessment rather than pursuing every enemy immediately 10 41.

• Uses binoculars to locate a concealed rifle scope after Nuannuan identifies a watcher’s position 41.
• Fires a warning shot that drives the observer away 41.
• Avoids pursuing a professional sniper through unfamiliar mountain terrain 41.
• Redirects the convoy to a military airfield to reduce the risk of further surveillance or an ambush 41.

Investigation and Operational Security

Works with Su Mingzhe to turn Nuannuan’s animal-derived information into searches and actionable intelligence 28 31 39.

• Orders searches of the cellar and firewood pile where crucial evidence is recovered 31 33.
• Places the Li Family Village operation’s documents and physical evidence under top-secret classification 39.
• Insists that Nuannuan’s ability remain a closely guarded family secret because exposure could endanger her 39.
• Handles field operations, arrests, and interrogations within the Great Wall investigation group 43.

Equipment & Significant Items

• Sidearm: Takes it when leaving the train to approach Nuannuan and the snow leopard 8.
• Binoculars: Used to examine the blocked railway and later identify the mountainside observer 8 41.
• Military greatcoat: Repeatedly used to wrap or cover Nuannuan against the cold 14 41.
• First-Class Combat Hero medal: His cherished award, given to Mingyue before her wedding and later carried back by Nuannuan. Its bloodstained return overwhelms him with grief and guilt 11.
• Tiger-head shoes: Recognizes the shoes Mingyue sewed during pregnancy among the intercepted mail. He places them in his inner coat pocket, where he once kept his medals 36 37.

Relationships

• Nuannuan — His missing niece, whom he rescues from the snowy railway. He becomes a constant protector during her recovery and safeguards the secret of her animal communication 10 17 39.
• Su Mingyue — His deceased younger sister. He gave her both the engraved medal and a diary later found among her hidden belongings; those belongings help reopen questions about her death 11 26.
• Su Zhenbang — His father and the Su Family patriarch. Authorizes the Li Family Village operation and later appoints Mingfeng to lead the Great Wall group’s field work 14 29 43.
• Lin Wanyi — His mother. Shares in Nuannuan’s hospital care and witnesses the lasting effects of her abuse after she returns home 14 19 20.
• Su Mingguo — His brother and logistical supporter. Arranges procedural cover, vehicles, and supplies for the village operation 28.
• Su Mingzhe — His brother and investigative partner. Mingfeng supplies force and field leadership while Mingzhe analyzes evidence, handles sensitive documents, and develops intelligence leads 26 28 43.
• Su Mingyuan — His brother, a hospital deputy director and cardiac surgeon. Works with him on Nuannuan’s care and later calls him when a suspected enemy courier is identified 15 16 50.
• Big Kitty — Nuannuan’s snow leopard companion and the Su Family’s benefactor. Mingfeng initially tries to send it back to the mountains, but later defends its right to remain with Nuannuan 13 16 22.
• Zhang Li — His subordinate and guard company commander. Executes his security, arrest, and search orders 14 30 31.
• Liu Guifang — Nuannuan’s abuser and a suspect in the postman’s murder. Mingfeng orders her capture, searches her property, and publicly exposes her treatment of Nuannuan 12 31 35.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Railway Rescue

A snow leopard carrying an injured girl blocks Mingfeng’s military train while wolves gather nearby. Recognizing something familiar in the child, he forbids shooting and leads a team into the snow. When she collapses, he rushes forward and takes Nuannuan into his arms 8 9 10.

He prevents his soldiers from firing on the leopard, calls for medical treatment, and recognizes the bloodstained medal that falls from Nuannuan’s coat. Believing his connection to the medal helped make Mingyue’s family a target, he kneels in the snow and apologizes 10 11.

Nuannuan’s warning about other captive children sends him to the third boxcar from the rear. His troops rescue the children, and his interrogation of the surviving trafficker identifies Liu Guifang as the woman who sold Nuannuan 11 12.

Homecoming and Big Kitty’s Protection

Mingfeng brings Nuannuan to Capital West Station and accompanies her to Military Region General Hospital. He initially leaves Big Kitty under guard aboard the train, but the leopard escapes and finds the hospital. Mingfeng prevents another armed confrontation and orders food, water, and protection for it 14 15 16.

After Nuannuan returns home, he discovers how deeply abuse has shaped her behavior: she leaves her bed to sleep in a corner and pleads not to be beaten. He also witnesses Big Kitty’s purring calm her through the bedroom window 19 20.

He defends the leopard against security objections and hostile gossip. During its military assessment, he confirms that its complex responses come from Nuannuan’s bond with it—not training he provided 22 23 24.

Li Family Village Investigation

A hidden tin box containing Mingyue’s diaries, a photograph, and a Project 713 mineral-vein sketch prompts Mingfeng and Mingzhe to investigate her death secretly. When Nuannuan reports that mice have seen human bones in Liu Guifang’s cellar, Mingfeng accepts her information and assembles the guard company 26 27 28.

The operation uncovers the remains of postman Zhang Jianjun and intercepted mail. Mingfeng announces Liu Guifang’s suspected crimes, orders an investigation into village secretary Li Laosi, and recommends that the village lose eligibility for collective honors 33 35 37.

Before leaving, he helps Nuannuan retrieve a heart-shaped stone from the woodshed where she was imprisoned. When Big Kitty collapses its rotten roof, he describes the destruction to the villagers as renovation of an unsafe building 40.

Green Pine and the Great Wall Group

The recovered letter from Base 713 leads the brothers toward Green Pine, which Mingzhe identifies as an enemy spy organization. Mingfeng imposes secrecy on the evidence and recognizes that Nuannuan’s ability is both an intelligence asset and a source of danger to her 34 39.

After a mountainside observer tracks their convoy, Mingfeng changes the return route and requisitions military air transport. Back in the capital, Su Zhenbang establishes the secret Great Wall investigation group and places him in charge of field operations, arrests, and interrogations 41 43.

Mingfeng subsequently witnesses Nuannuan rewarding her animal informants and watches Mingzhe teach her tracking and reconnaissance through games. The supplied passages end with Mingyuan summoning him to the hospital after identifying a suspected Green Pine courier 44 46 50.

Notable Quotes

“It saved my niece! It’s a hero!” 10

“This snow leopard saved my niece’s life. It’s a member of the Su family now. Anyone who wants to touch it will have to get past me first.” 22

“From today onward, Nuannuan’s ability is the Su Family’s most highly classified secret. We must protect her.” 39

Trivia

• Inconsistent sibling order: Chapter 15 identifies Su Mingguo as the eldest Su brother, while Chapter 43 explicitly calls Mingfeng the eldest son and Mingguo the second son. Later passages also refer to Mingfeng as Nuannuan’s eldest uncle 15 43 47.