Chapter Summaries

Five-year-old Nuannuan endured hunger and abuse from Liu Guifang while keeping the medal her mother had left her, hoping it would lead her father to her. Liu Guifang stole the medal and planned to sell Nuannuan to a widower, but Nuannuan charged after her to get it back.

• Liu Guifang forced Nuannuan to wash laundry in the freezing snow and denied her food.
• Nuannuan showed Mousey the bloodstained medal her mother had left, saying it would help her father find her.
• Liu Guifang broke into the woodshed, beat Nuannuan, and seized the medal, mistaking it for gold.
• Liu Guifang said she would sell Nuannuan to a widower for fifty jin of dried sweet potatoes the next day.
• Nuannuan climbed to her feet and charged at Liu Guifang to reclaim the medal.

Nuannuan fought Liu Guifang for her gold medal, but after village officials intervened, Liu Guifang locked her in the woodshed and planned to sell her. As Nuannuan developed a fever, she began understanding animals and learned that dangerous intruders were approaching the courtyard.

• Liu Guifang struck Nuannuan and slammed her onto the threshold stone while Nuannuan struggled to reclaim her medal.
• The old Party secretary found Nuannuan injured, ordered Liu Guifang to return the medal, and warned her against abusing the child.
• Liu Guifang threw the medal into the straw, then locked Nuannuan in the woodshed and planned to sell her to an old widower.
• Nuannuan found the medal and, feverish overnight, heard mice discussing Liu Guifang's money and understood that animals were speaking.
• Big Yellow warned Nuannuan that bloodthirsty strangers had entered the village and were heading toward the courtyard.

Nuannuan used her strange power over animals to resist the traffickers who abducted her, then called to a snow leopard for help while imprisoned in a freight car. The snow leopard noticed her plea and fixed its gaze on the train.

• Nuannuan ordered mice to destroy Liu Guifang’s hidden money pouch, distracting the traffickers as they tried to abduct her.
• Nuannuan mentally commanded Liu Guifang’s German shepherd to attack the scar-faced trafficker, but his accomplice stabbed the dog and carried Nuannuan away.
• Nuannuan awoke bound among other children in a freight car traveling through the far northwest mountains.
• Nuannuan saw a snow leopard on a snowy slope and sensed that she could communicate with it.
• Nuannuan called to the snow leopard for help, and it stopped and locked its ice-blue eyes onto the freight car.

Five-year-old Nuannuan communicated with a hungry snow leopard and offered the traffickers as meat in exchange for sparing the children. As the leopard attacked the freight carriage, Nuannuan freed her bound hands.

• Nuannuan sensed the snow leopard’s hunger and told it that two child traffickers inside the carriage were bad people it could eat.
• Nuannuan warned the snow leopard not to eat the children, and it answered with a promise to take the meat.
• The snow leopard leapt onto the moving carriage roof and began tearing at the metal, waking the traffickers and frightening the children.
• While the traffickers panicked, Nuannuan sawed through her rope against a sharp piece of metal inside a torn sack.
• The rope snapped, leaving Nuannuan’s hands free as the attack on the carriage continued.

Nuannuan escaped her restraints as a snow leopard tore open the train carriage and attacked Scarface. She jumped into the snowy darkness to seek her father, leaving the other abducted children behind.

• Nuannuan freed her hands while the men panicked as something ripped open the carriage roof.
• After the tall, skinny man fell unconscious, Nuannuan took his knife and cut the rope around her ankles.
• A snow leopard climbed through the roof, and Nuannuan pointed Scarface out to it as prey.
• The snow leopard attacked Scarface while Nuannuan climbed toward the opening in the roof.
• Nuannuan jumped from the moving train into the darkness, determined to find her father.

Nuannuan leaped from the moving train, but a snow leopard caught her and carried her across the blizzard toward the locomotive marked with a red star. As the leopard raced ahead of the train, the children inside heard its emergency brakes screech.

• Nuannuan fell from the carriage, and a snow leopard caught her on its back.
• Nuannuan spotted a red five-pointed star on the train and urged the snow leopard to catch up to the locomotive.
• The snow leopard raced across the snowy slopes and overtook the slowing train.
• The children watched Nuannuan and the leopard race ahead, and Little Mute wondered if they might be rescued.
• The train's emergency brakes screeched across the snowfield.

Nuannuan and the snow leopard raced ahead of the military train and blocked its path, while she used her power to summon howling wolves from the mountains. The train stopped, and Nuannuan nearly fainted as the snow leopard warned the approaching passengers to stay away.

• Nuannuan and the snow leopard overtook the train as the traffickers recovered in the boxcar.
• The tall, thin man grabbed Scarface’s pistol and fired at Nuannuan, but the snow leopard kept running and the man lost consciousness after falling.
• The snow leopard stopped on the tracks in front of the locomotive, and Nuannuan used her remaining strength to call the mountain animals.
• Wolves howled from across the valleys, and the frightened driver ordered the train to stop.
• The train halted, Nuannuan nearly fainted, and the snow leopard growled a warning to anyone who might approach her.

Su Mingfeng’s military train stopped when a snow leopard blocked the tracks with a little girl on its back, while wolves gathered in the surrounding valleys. The girl stirred memories of his missing niece Nuannuan, and Su Mingfeng left the train to approach her.

• The train made an emergency stop, and Xiao Zhang reported a huge white leopard on the tracks.
• Su Mingfeng spotted a little girl in a ragged red coat on the snow leopard’s back and ordered the soldiers to prepare for combat.
• The radio operator reported that wolves filled the nearby valleys, but Su Mingfeng forbade anyone from firing.
• Seeing the girl sway as if she might fall, Su Mingfeng led team one off the train and walked toward her.

Nuannuan encountered Su Mingfeng and recognized him as the uncle her mother had told her to find. After he called her by name, she fainted and fell from the snow leopard.

• Nuannuan feared the approaching soldiers and told the snow leopard not to let them come closer.
• Su Mingfeng ordered his men to stop, saw Nuannuan's injuries, and tried to comfort her with his military coat.
• Nuannuan recognized the soldiers as good people and wondered whether Su Mingfeng was the uncle her mother had told her to find.
• Nuannuan shielded the snow leopard when Su Mingfeng and his soldiers approached, reminding him of his sister Su Mingyue protecting a kitten as a child.
• Su Mingfeng called Nuannuan by name, and she recognized him as her uncle before fainting and falling from the snow leopard.
• Su Mingfeng rushed forward and shouted Nuannuan's name.

Su Mingfeng rescued his badly injured niece Nuannuan from the snow leopard and ordered his soldiers to stand down after she begged them not to hurt her cat. As a medic arrived to treat her, a bloodstained medal fell from her coat and left Su Mingfeng stunned.

• Su Mingfeng rushed to Nuannuan and ordered his soldiers not to shoot the snow leopard.
• Su Mingfeng held his feverish, badly injured niece and recognized that the snow leopard had brought her to him.
• Nuannuan briefly woke and begged Su Mingfeng not to hurt her cat.
• Su Mingfeng told his soldiers the snow leopard had saved his niece, and they lowered their guns and formed a protective barrier.
• Su Mingfeng called for a medic, and a bloodstained five-pointed-star medal fell from Nuannuan's coat, startling him.

Su Mingfeng recognized the medal Nuannuan had carried as the gift he gave his sister, Su Mingyue, and blamed himself for the danger that had destroyed her family. As doctors treated Nuannuan on the train, she revealed that bad people had captured many children at the back, and Su Mingfeng turned toward the threat with killing intent.

• Su Mingfeng picked up his First-Class Combat Hero medal and read the message he had engraved for Su Mingyue.
• Su Mingfeng realized his connection to the medal had helped make his sister's family a target, then knelt in the snow and apologized while holding Nuannuan.
• The military doctor warned that Nuannuan's fever, frostbite, injuries, and malnutrition required immediate treatment, so Su Mingfeng rushed her to his train compartment.
• Su Mingfeng ordered the doctor to save Nuannuan, had the compartment heated, and ordered his soldiers to secure the snow leopard without harming it.
• As the doctor treated Nuannuan, she murmured that bad people had captured many children at the back of the train.
• Su Mingfeng heard Nuannuan's warning and faced the danger with renewed killing intent.

After discovering that Nuannuan had been injured, Su Mingfeng led soldiers to the train’s third boxcar from the rear and rescued the kidnapped children. He ordered the captured trafficker sent to a military tribunal and demanded Liu Guifang be seized in Li Family Village, leaving the manhunt underway.

• Su Mingfeng ordered Teams Two and Three to prepare for combat and set out to find the suspected boxcar while Nuannuan lay unconscious.
• Su Mingfeng and his soldiers found the third boxcar from the rear wired shut and discovered more than a dozen kidnapped children, an unconscious man, and a corpse inside.
• The oldest boy identified the unconscious man and the dead man as the kidnappers.
• Su Mingfeng broke the trafficker’s wrists and forced him to admit that he and his accomplice had used both hands to hurt Nuannuan.
• The trafficker blamed Liu Guifang from Li Family Village for selling Nuannuan, and Su Mingfeng ordered him sent to the military tribunal.
• Su Mingfeng ordered the military subdistrict to surround Li Family Village and bring Liu Guifang in alive or dead.

After rescuing Nuannuan from the trafficker, Su Mingfeng stayed by her as she recovered from a fever. He allowed the snow leopard that had saved her to stay with her and ordered a telegram to announce that she had been found.

• Su Mingfeng returned to his compartment and learned from the military doctor that Nuannuan’s fever was falling and she needed rest.
• The snow leopard waited outside the compartment, and Su Mingfeng tried unsuccessfully to send it back to the mountains.
• Nuannuan woke, saw the snow leopard, and pleaded with Su Mingfeng to let it inside.
• Su Mingfeng let the snow leopard enter, and it rested beside Nuannuan’s bed while she stroked it.
• Su Mingfeng ordered a top-secret telegram to the Capital Military Region Headquarters announcing that the Su family’s missing daughter had been found.

Su Mingfeng brought the frail Nuannuan to Capital West Station, where Su Zhenbang and Lin Wanyi were waiting to welcome her home. As the family rushed her to the hospital, the snow leopard remained on the train, watching her ambulance leave.

• Su Mingfeng prepared to disembark with Nuannuan while the snow leopard stayed beside her.
• Su Mingfeng stepped off the train and reunited Nuannuan with Su Zhenbang and Lin Wanyi.
• Lin Wanyi wept at Nuannuan’s frail condition, and Su Mingfeng apologized for failing to care for her and Mingyue.
• Su Mingfeng ordered Zhang Li to guard the snow leopard and keep it safe on the train.
• Su Zhenbang, Lin Wanyi, and Su Mingfeng followed Nuannuan’s ambulance to Military Region General Hospital as the snow leopard watched it depart.

The Su family learned the full extent of Nuannuan’s abuse and vowed to investigate and punish everyone involved. The chapter ended with the family ordering a search for the snow leopard after it escaped, hoping to protect the animal that had saved Nuannuan.

• A military doctor reported that Nuannuan had suffered prolonged abuse and was in critical condition, leaving the Su family devastated and furious.
• Su Mingfeng said the military and public security authorities were hunting the traffickers and Liu Guifang, while Su Mingguo and Su Mingzhe ordered investigations into everyone connected to them.
• Su Mingyuan reviewed Nuannuan’s injuries, and Su Zhenbang declared that the Su family would no longer remain silent.
• Zhang Li reported that the snow leopard had escaped from the train station and disappeared into the night.
• Su Mingfeng explained that the snow leopard had rescued Nuannuan, and Su Zhenbang ordered his men to find and protect it.

A huge white leopard appeared outside the Military Region General Hospital, and Su Mingfeng recognized it as Big Kitty, Nuannuan’s devoted companion. He ordered everyone to protect it as it waited outside her ward, while Su Mingyuan warned that the Su Family would need to address its presence.

• A guard reported that a huge white leopard was lying outside the hospital, and Su Mingfeng recognized it as Big Kitty.
• Su Mingfeng and Su Mingyuan rushed outside and found Big Kitty watching Nuannuan’s ward as armed guards and medical staff surrounded it.
• Su Mingfeng told Big Kitty that Nuannuan was safe and being treated, and Big Kitty stayed where it was.
• Su Mingfeng ordered the guards to provide Big Kitty with food and water and forbade anyone from harming it.
• Su Mingyuan urged Su Mingfeng to report the leopard to their father, while Su Mingfeng acknowledged that its appearance would bring trouble to the Su Family.

Nuannuan woke up in the hospital with Su Zhenbang beside her and called him “Grandpa” for the first time, bringing the Su family to tears. After reassuring her that Big Kitty was guarding her outside, she fell asleep again as her family gathered around to support her recovery.

• Su Zhenbang gently fed Nuannuan tangerine and reassured her that she was safe in the hospital.
• Nuannuan called Su Zhenbang “Grandpa” twice, and he wept as he held her hand.
• Lin Wanyi, Su Mingfeng, Su Mingguo, Su Mingzhe, and Su Mingyuan joined Nuannuan at her bedside, and she called Lin Wanyi “Grandma” and Su Mingfeng “Uncle.”
• Nuannuan worried about Big Kitty, and Su Mingfeng told her the snow leopard was keeping watch outside.
• Nuannuan fell asleep, and the Su family vowed to care for her while Big Kitty remained outside the hospital.

A snow leopard brought a snow hare to the hospital for the injured Nuannuan, strengthening the Su family's understanding of its bond with her. The family learned that Nuannuan could communicate with animals and decided to keep her ability secret while she recovered.

• Zhang Li reported that the snow leopard had caught a snow hare and delivered it to the hospital entrance for Nuannuan.
• Su Mingfeng and the Su family found the hare beside the snow leopard, and Su Mingfeng ordered the guards to have it made into soup for Nuannuan.
• Su Mingyuan questioned the snow leopard's unusual intelligence and emotions, and Su Mingfeng explained that Nuannuan could communicate with animals.
• The Su family reacted with shock to Nuannuan's ability, but Su Mingguo ordered them to keep it confidential until she recovered.
• The guards took the hare to the kitchen, while the snow leopard stayed outside and watched Nuannuan's hospital window.

After her condition stabilized, Nuannuan left the hospital with the Su family and returned to the Su Family Compound. She found the room her mother had prepared for her, while the family welcomed her home and Su Mingguo said it was time to punish those who had hurt her.

• The military doctor said Nuannuan could leave the hospital, and Su Mingfeng and Lin Wanyi prepared to take her home.
• Su Mingfeng told Nuannuan that Big Kitty was waiting outside, and Su Zhenbang arranged transport for the snow leopard.
• The family brought Nuannuan to the Su Family Compound and showed her the house where she would live.
• Lin Wanyi showed Nuannuan the room her mother had decorated and kept for her.
• Nuannuan embraced Lin Wanyi as the family watched, and Su Mingguo said those who had hurt Nuannuan would pay.

Nuannuan struggled to feel safe in the bedroom her family had prepared, and Lin Wanyi and Su Mingfeng discovered how deeply her years of abuse had affected her. Outside her window, the snow leopard she missed found her and comforted her through the glass.

• Lin Wanyi settled Nuannuan into her pink bedroom, but Nuannuan climbed out of bed and curled up in a corner to sleep.
• Lin Wanyi found Nuannuan on the floor, murmuring that she would be good and pleading not to be hit, and Su Mingfeng carried her back to bed.
• Su Mingfeng kept watch outside Nuannuan's room and heard a strange breathing sound near the window.
• Su Mingfeng spotted the snow leopard beneath Nuannuan's window, and it leaped onto the windowsill and gently pressed its head against the glass.
• Nuannuan heard the snow leopard purr in her sleep, relaxed, and smiled slightly.