The shouting outside was like boiling water, almost hot enough to burn through the thin wooden door.
“I know she’s in there! I can smell that slutty stink on her!”
Zhao Guihua’s shrill voice was grating on the ears, accompanied by the whispers and gossip of the surrounding neighbors.
“Commander Lu usually looks like such an upright man. Could he really be hiding a woman?”
“Who knows? You can know a person’s face but not their heart. Refusing to open the door this late at night—there must be something going on.”
“If it’s true, that’s a serious moral conduct violation. He could be stripped of his uniform for this!”
Every word was like a knife hanging over Su Man’s head.
Inside the room.
The atmosphere was so oppressive that it was almost suffocating.
Lu Zhan was still standing there with one hand on the doorknob, his back to Su Man.
His bare back was taut with tension, every defined muscle carrying the fury that was on the verge of exploding.
Su Man knew that this man was like a live volcano right now.
At any moment, he could erupt and burn both the shrewish woman outside and Su Man herself to ashes.
She had to save herself.
And she had to do it quickly.
Suppressing the excruciating pain in her ankle, Su Man took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.
The decades of suffering she had endured in her previous life had taught her the most important lesson of all:
In desperate situations, tears were the most useless thing in the world.
Only when there is benefit can one move people’s hearts.
Especially a man like Lu Zhan—powerful, decisive, and accustomed to killing without hesitation.
“Commander.”
Su Man released her grip around his leg.
She braced herself against the floor and struggled to stand, but her legs were too weak, and she collapsed back down.
So she simply stopped trying.
Kneeling on the cold concrete floor, she looked up at his tall figure.
Her voice was no longer trembling. Instead, it carried an oddly calm determination.
“The woman outside is my stepmother.”
“She wants to sell me to the idiot from the neighboring village for three hundred yuan, so she can use the money to get her son a wife.”
“I escaped.”
Lu Zhan did not turn around or say anything.
But the fingers gripping the doorknob loosened slightly.
He was listening.
Su Man knew she had made the right bet.
She continued, speaking quickly, but every word was clear.
“If you open that door now, I’ll be dragged back. I’ll either be beaten to death or driven insane.”
“And you…”
Su Man paused, her gaze falling on Lu Zhan’s broad shoulders.
“You’ll be accused of ‘improper conduct’ and ‘harboring a fugitive.’”
“Even if the truth is uncovered afterward and I’m proven innocent, once that dirty water is splashed on you, do you really think it will wash away completely?”
“Your promotion, your future, and your reputation in this military compound will all be stained because of tonight’s farce.”
Lu Zhan finally turned around.
He narrowed his eyes as he studied the disheveled woman on the floor.
Was this really the same pitiful woman who had been crying and begging for help just moments ago?
In only a few seconds, she seemed to have become an entirely different person.
She was still drenched from head to toe, shivering like a drenched kitten.
But there was a sharpness and cunning in her eyes.
She was bargaining with him.
Threatening him.
“You’re trying to tell me what to do?”
Lu Zhan took a step forward. His military boot landed beside Su Man with a dull thud.
He crouched down, bringing his eyes level with hers.
His cold, stern face drew close, his hot breath brushing against Su Man’s chilled cheek.
The distance between them was dangerously intimate.
“I don’t care about gossip.”
Lu Zhan reached out, his rough fingertip brushing away a speck of mud from Su Man’s cheek.
The gesture looked gentle, but the pressure behind it carried an unmistakable warning.
“I, Lu Zhan, have always conducted myself with integrity. Once I open this door, I have plenty of ways to shut that shrew up.”
“As for you…”
He let out a cold laugh. His finger slid down her cheek and stopped at her slender, fragile neck.
“You trespassed into a military installation. I could shoot you dead right now.”
Su Man’s heart clenched.
She could feel the calluses on his fingers, marks left by years of handling a gun.
With the slightest bit of force, he could snap her neck.
But she did not retreat.
Instead, she met his gaze and leaned slightly forward.
The movement brought them even closer.
The cool, faint fragrance of rain and mud clinging to her body drifted straight into Lu Zhan’s nose.
The fabric across her chest was soaked through and clung tightly to her skin, outlining curves that were impossible to ignore.
Lu Zhan’s gaze involuntarily swept downward before he immediately looked away as though he had been burned.
His Adam’s apple bobbed.
Damn it.
Was this woman some kind of enchantress?
Su Man caught that brief flicker of discomfort.
She finally understood.
This man wasn’t truly heartless.
And he wasn’t completely without weaknesses.
“You can shoot me.”
Su Man spoke softly, her voice carrying a gambler’s reckless determination.
“But I’m betting you won’t.”
“Because you’re injured.”
She raised her hand. Her fingertips trembled as she pointed toward the area beneath Lu Zhan’s left ribs.
There was an extremely faint wound there. Although it had already scabbed over, the skin around it had turned an abnormal bluish-purple.
It was a sign of poisoning.
In her previous life, Su Man had read reports about Lu Zhan in the newspapers.
In the winter of 1976, he had been poisoned by a rare snake venom while carrying out a mission along the border.
Because it had not been treated in time, the toxin had penetrated deep into his bones. He suffered for years afterward, and it even affected the hand he used to hold his gun.
That was also an important reason why he eventually had to leave the military and transfer to civilian work.
And right now, the poison had only just begun to take effect.
Lu Zhan’s pupils suddenly contracted.
The killing intent radiating from his body erupted instantly, like a beast whose tail had just been stepped on.
He seized Su Man by the wrist, gripping so tightly that it felt as though he might crush her bones.
“Who are you?”
“Who sent you?”
Even the military doctor knew nothing about this injury.
Lu Zhan himself had only discovered that something was wrong after returning moments ago.
How could this unidentified village girl possibly see through it at a glance?
Unless…
She was a spy.
Su Man’s wrist throbbed with pain, cold sweat breaking out across her forehead, but she clenched her teeth and did not make a sound.
She knew this was the most critical moment.
If she could not explain herself, she would really die here.
“My name is Su Man. I’m the daughter of Su Laosan from Qianji Village.”
“I know a little about herbal medicine. I learned it from my grandfather when I was young.”
“There are red lines spreading around your wound, aren’t there? And every night, especially around midnight, do you feel an unbearable itch deep in your bones, followed by alternating chills and fever?”
She was making all of it up.
Her grandfather had been a carpenter. He knew nothing about medicine.
Those symptoms were things she had read about in the newspapers in her previous life.
But at this critical moment, they were her only lifeline.
Lu Zhan stared at her, seemingly trying to determine whether she was telling the truth.
Yet the strength in his grip gradually eased.
She had gotten everything right.
The wound was indeed strange. At first, it had neither hurt nor itched, but over the past two days, the symptoms had begun to flare up, leaving him unable to sleep through the night.
“You can treat it?”
Lu Zhan asked suspiciously.
“I can.”
Su Man lied without batting an eye.
In reality, she only knew a few folk remedies, and she had no idea whether they would actually work.
But for now, she needed to keep him under control.
“As long as you keep me safe tonight, I’ll help you draw out the poison.”
“This is a transaction, Commander.”
Su Man looked directly into his eyes, her gaze unwavering.
The pounding on the door outside continued.
In fact, someone had even begun ramming into it.
“Commander Lu! If you don’t open the door, we’re coming in!”
It was the voice of the security officer in charge.
Things had gotten out of hand.
Lu Zhan released Su Man’s wrist.
He stood up and looked down at her from above.
His expression was impossible to read.
After a few seconds, he turned toward the wardrobe and pulled out an oversized military coat, tossing it to her.
“Cover yourself.”
“Hide under the bed.”
“And if you make a sound, I’ll kill you myself before that shrew even gets the chance.”
Su Man felt as though she had been granted a new lease on life.
She quickly grabbed the coat, which still carried the warmth of his body, and wrapped herself tightly in it.
Then, enduring the pain in her ankle, she awkwardly crawled beneath the hard wooden bed.
The space beneath it was narrow and dark, covered in dust.
But to Su Man, it was the safest place in the world right now.
She curled herself into a ball and peered through the gap beneath the hanging bedsheet, watching the pair of black military boots walk toward the door.
“Click.”
The sound of the lock turning rang out.
Su Man held her breath, her heart pounding in her throat.
The real confrontation had begun.