Morning light slanted through the windows of the green-skinned train, striking the carriage. A layer of stubborn gray grime clung to the glass.
At this hour, more than half the passengers were still snoring.
Tushan Xiaobao sat on the edge of a hard seat, his two short legs dangling in midair and swinging back and forth.
Faint footsteps came from the aisle.
Xiaobao turned his head warily.
It was the little girl who had been kidnapped the night before.
She was still shuffling along in the same two mismatched shoes, and her coarse-cloth clothes were wrinkled and rumpled.
But she was completely different from the dazed, muddle-headed state she had been in last night.
Her back was held perfectly straight.
She stopped in front of Xiaobao and gave him a proper, deep bow.
“Thank you for saving me yesterday.” Her voice was crisp, and every word was exceptionally clear.
Xiaobao looked her up and down, then waved his hand casually.
“You’re welcome. It was nothing. Has the drug completely worn off? What’s your name, Older Sister?”
“Shen Siqing.” She walked over to an empty seat and sat down, folding both hands over her knees. “It wasn’t nothing.”
She paused for a moment, her tone even and matter-of-fact.
“I counted. From the moment you first questioned that woman to the moment you finally called that soldier over, you used four steps in total. First, you tested her. Second, you made that man go scare himself in the carriage ahead. Third, you helped me neutralize the drug. Fourth, you used the momentum to close the net.”
Xiaobao blinked.
“You knew all that?”
“I wasn’t completely asleep.” Shen Siqing’s face was expressionless.
“That trafficker forced medicine down my throat yesterday. Later, the thing you stuffed into my hand was very invigorating.”
Xiaobao was secretly startled.
This was the first time he had encountered someone his own age with such a clear mind.
The treasure Grandpa Ginseng had given him absolutely could not be exposed.
He laughed it off. “It was just a root I picked on the mountain. It cures motion sickness. Older Sister, do you remember where your home is? Once we reach a major station, the train attendant will take you to find the police officers.”
Shen Siqing nodded. “Of course I remember. My stepmother deliberately got rid of me and sold me to those two men.”
“Your stepmother?” Xiaobao tilted his head.
“Mm.” Shen Siqing glanced at Tushan Yao, who was still asleep, and lowered her voice.
“My birth mother died when I was one. My father quickly married a new wife, who brought along a daughter. Before I turned three, my stepmother was always beating me and refusing to give me food.”
Xiaobao furrowed his little brows. “Then didn’t your dad do anything?”
“He’s a battalion commander in the army. He’s away on missions and only comes home once in a long while. How could he manage anything?”
Shen Siqing gave a cold laugh.
“In front of him, my stepmother treated me even better than her own daughter. As soon as he left, I couldn’t even get the leftovers.”
Xiaobao had heard plenty about the twists and turns of household intrigue from the old yao who had lived for centuries inside the barrier. His ears had practically grown calluses from it.
He propped his chin up in both hands. “Then how come you didn’t starve to death?”
“When my grandparents came to visit me, they found out what was happening and took me away.”
At the mention of her grandparents, the tension finally eased from Shen Siqing’s small face, revealing a few expressions more fitting for her age.
“My grandfather works at a research institute. He taught me to read and study all these four years. I’ve already finished the first-year middle-school textbooks.”
Xiaobao’s eyes widened.
First-year middle school? This older sister was a little genius!
“Then how did the traffickers catch you again?”
“Half a year ago, Grandma died of an illness. Grandpa was too busy with work to look after me, so he planned to send me back to my father.”
Shen Siqing clenched her fingers, the veins on the backs of her hands standing out.
“The teaching conditions where my father was stationed were better. My stepmother came specially to pick me up, but halfway there, she abandoned me. I saw her put money into the trafficker’s hands with my own eyes.”
“Report her to the police and have her arrested!” Xiaobao raised his little fists.
Shen Siqing shook her head. “It’s useless. I have no evidence. Even if I told my father, he wouldn’t believe a seven-year-old child. He would only think that I had wandered off and gotten lost. My stepmother could fool him just by shedding a couple of tears.”
Xiaobao let out a heavy sigh.
This older sister was unlucky too.
Having a father was no different from having no father at all.
“That’s why I’m not going to say anything now.” Shen Siqing raised her head.
“When I grow up, after my grandfather retires from his key project, I’ll settle the score with her myself.”
Xiaobao nodded repeatedly.
The Old Ancestress and the others often said that a gentleman could wait ten years to avenge himself.
That saying really did make sense.
Shen Siqing pulled a piece of lined paper folded into a square from an inner pocket.
She had borrowed paper and a pen from the train attendant and written on it just now.
She handed the note to Xiaobao.
“This is the address of the military region where my father is stationed. The police will take me away today, and they’ll contact my grandfather to come get me. If you run into trouble in the future, you can come find me at this address.”
Shen Siqing met Xiaobao’s eyes.
“I owe you my life. When I grow up, I’ll repay you.”
Xiaobao accepted it happily.
When he opened it, he saw two lines of neat fountain-pen handwriting:
“Northern Military Region, a certain field regiment’s family compound. Shen Siqing, daughter of Second Battalion Commander Shen Jianguo.”
Xiaobao stared at the address, stunned.
The place looked incredibly familiar.
On the terrain map Uncle Fengqi had drawn for him before they left, his cheap dad, Huo Yunzheng, was stationed in a certain field regiment in this very Northern Military Region.
Regimental Commander. Battalion commander.
Xiaobao’s eyes rolled once. He folded the note carefully and tucked it into the pocket against his body.
“Older Sister, I’ll keep this address.” Xiaobao’s eyes curved into a smile. “What a coincidence. I’m going there too. I’m taking my mom to find my dad.”
Shen Siqing looked surprised. “Your dad is a soldier too?”
“Yep! He’s a very important officer.” Xiaobao patted his chest. “Don’t worry. Once you get there, if some idiot dares to bully you, just give them my name. I’ll protect you!”
Shen Siqing looked at the baby-faced little boy before her, who barely came up to her chest, and tugged at the corners of her lips. She revealed the first genuine smile she had shown during the entire journey.
“Good. It’s a promise.”
The carriage broadcast crackled to life, the name of the major station ahead mixed with the buzzing of electrical interference.
The train conductor came over with two attendants.
“Siqing, get ready to get off.” The conductor beckoned kindly, then turned and gave Xiaobao a thumbs-up.
“Little guy, we have you to thank for yesterday. Police officers are waiting on the platform ahead, and the traffickers will be taken away directly. This girl can contact her family too.”
Shen Siqing stood up and straightened her ill-fitting old clothes.
She turned around, her gaze falling on Tushan Yao, who was sleeping against the window over there.
Her face was deathly pale.
“Your mother’s illness is very serious.” Shen Siqing leaned close to Xiaobao’s ear.
“My grandfather knows a very skilled old traditional doctor. If it’s a difficult illness, he might be able to help. I’ll see you at the military region.”
“All right! Goodbye, Sister Qingqing!”
The carriage doors opened and closed, letting the early-winter wind whirl in before scattering away.
Xiaobao climbed back onto the seat and sat cross-legged.
He touched the slip of paper in his pocket, feeling delighted.
This trip would not only let him find Dad and have him extend Mom’s life, but he had also picked up a well-read older sister who could serve as a useful connection.
He had struck it rich.
Just then, an extremely faint sound came from beside him.
“What are you making such a racket for…”
Xiaobao whipped his head around.
Tushan Yao’s eyelashes trembled.
After sleeping soundly through the night, she finally opened her eyes.
Under the light, her long, narrow fox eyes held a trace of confusion.
“Mom! You’re awake!” Xiaobao threw himself at her, clutching both hands around her knees.
Tushan Yao raised a hand and rubbed her temples, her voice hoarse. “This lousy metal shell still hasn’t arrived?”
“Almost! We’ll reach Dad’s military region this afternoon!” Xiaobao eagerly brought over a half-filled thermos of warm water.
“Mom, have some water. A moment ago, an older sister complimented you on how pretty you are.”
Tushan Yao lazily leaned back.
“We’ll arrive this afternoon?”
She pinched Xiaobao’s chubby cheek.
“Once we get off the train, bring out all those skills you have for pretending to be obedient. If that cheap excuse for a dad of yours refuses to acknowledge us…”
Tushan Yao let out a light laugh. Her laughter carried a bewitching allure, while also revealing a vicious edge.
“I’ll skin him alive and stew him into soup.”
Xiaobao shivered and nodded repeatedly.
If Mom said she was going to skin him and stew him into soup, then she definitely would not steam him whole.
Dad, you’d better pray for yourself.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away.
At a field military-region base in the north.
The morning fog had yet to disperse.
The thunderous sound of slogans already rang across the training field.
On a late-autumn morning in the north, the temperature was close to freezing.
Huo Yunzheng was bare-chested, his powerful upper body exposed. A military-green towel hung over his shoulder as he led the way through the final kilometer of an armed cross-country run.
The soldiers around him all had red noses from the cold.
He alone was steaming all over with heat.
Sweat flowed along his knife-carved abdominal muscles and disappeared into the waistband of his trousers. His entire body radiated intense masculinity and a terrifying baleful aura.
As an elite soldier chosen from ten thousand, this amount of cold could not even penetrate his flesh.
“One, two, three, four!”
As the final command rang out, the formation was dismissed.
Huo Yunzheng grabbed the towel and wiped his face perfunctorily. He had just begun walking toward the barracks when he suddenly stopped.
Without warning, his chest gave a hard thump.
Immediately afterward, he shuddered violently.
In the past five years, this was the first time he had felt cold.
“Regimental Commander, are you all right?” His guard jogged over and hurriedly offered him a canteen.
“It got much colder last night. Did you kick off your blanket and catch a chill?”
Huo Yunzheng took the canteen but did not drink. His brows drew tightly together.
Catch a chill?
Even if this body of his were thrown into an ice cavern and soaked there for three days and three nights, he would not even sneeze.
Yet in that instant just now, his subconscious had produced an utterly absurd intuition.
It seemed that something carrying a chill was crossing thousands of miles and inching toward his territory.