The first rays of sunlight pierced through the morning mist along the border.
Yet the entire Special Forces Brigade camp was shrouded in an eerie, oppressive atmosphere.
Inside the interrogation room, the surviving mercenaries had already confessed everything they knew.
There was only one reason for that.
Su Man had made each of them swallow a red pill.
She called it the upgraded version of the “Truth-Telling Bean Bun” — the “Truth Gu.”
Those hardened men, who had all undergone anti-interrogation training, had burst into tears after taking the pill. They sobbed and confessed everything, right down to the fact that one of them had secretly watched the widow next door bathe when he was eight years old.
Huo Feng held the interrogation records in his hand. His face was as dark as the bottom of a cooking pot, yet his eyes betrayed an unmistakable hint of… pride?
Zhao Gang sat across from him, the teacup in his hand trembling nonstop.
“Old Huo, how are we supposed to write this report?”
“Should we tell it like it happened?”
“Should we write that our entire brigade went on full combat alert, only to have two five-year-old children and a bunch of snakes beat us to it?”
“Or should we write that the minefield that had plagued us for ten years was cleared by your wife’s wild boar?”
Huo Feng slapped the interrogation records onto the desk, and the corners of his lips actually curled upward.
“What? We’re not allowed to write the truth?”
“My son has a talent for mine clearance. That’s called natural ability.”
“My wife is skilled at taming beasts. That’s called family heritage.”
“This is called civil-military unity. Understand?”
Zhao Gang rolled his eyes and nearly spat out his tea.
What the hell kind of civil-military unity is this?!
This was clearly a max-level boss slaughtering a group of newbies!
“Reporting!”
Zhang Dabiao’s voice came from the doorway.
The usually loud and boisterous Shandong man now looked like a wronged little wife. He was carrying a battered woven sack in his hands.
“Come in.” Huo Feng reined in his smile.
Zhang Dabiao entered the office and placed the woven sack on the floor.
Clang-clang-clang!
The sound of metal colliding came from inside.
“Captain, this… this was confiscated from Little Xie.”
“Confiscated?” Huo Feng raised an eyebrow.
Zhang Dabiao wore a miserable expression.
“That kid said he dug up some ‘local specialties’ in the mountains behind the camp and wanted to bring them home as toys for his little sister.”
“I took one look and nearly pissed myself.”
Zhang Dabiao cautiously loosened the mouth of the woven sack.
Zhao Gang leaned over for a look.
“Hiss—!”
He suddenly sucked in a sharp breath and shot to his feet, his back pressed firmly against the wall.
Inside the battered sack was a densely packed assortment of land mines!
There were M14 pressure mines, Soviet PMN blast mines, and even two Type 69 bounding mines!
Most outrageous of all—
Every single fuse had been removed!
The disassembly work was clean and precise, the cuts smooth, as if they had been made with precision equipment.
And mixed in among the terrifying explosives were several enormous wild mushrooms and a few wild pheasants tied up securely.
“This…” Zhao Gang pointed at the sack, his finger trembling. “These are toys?”
Zhang Dabiao looked utterly devastated.
“That’s what he said!”
“Little Xie said the round one—the anti-tank mine—could be used as a cushion for his little sister, and the long one—the bounding mine—could be used as a rolling pin.”
“He even complained that the mines were poorly made and said the gunpowder inside wasn’t pure enough. According to him, it was nothing compared to the Thunderbolts his mother makes.”
Huo Feng stared at the pile of dismantled mines, a thoughtful look flashing through his eyes.
That method of disassembly was absolutely not something a five-year-old could have learned on his own.
Unless…
Su Man had taught him.
Or perhaps this kind of life—dancing with death—had simply been their everyday existence for the past five years.
At that thought, Huo Feng’s heart felt as though something had stabbed it hard, leaving behind a dense, aching pain.
For the past five years, what kind of environment had that woman endured with her two children?
The Ten-Thousand Mountains.
The forbidden lands of Miao territory.
That place held far more than beautiful scenery. There were poisonous insects, ferocious beasts, and, even more frighteningly, people with hearts more vicious than either.
“All right. Send the stuff to the armory for destruction.”
Huo Feng waved his hand, his voice somewhat heavy.
“And tell the cooks to stew those pheasants and send them to Sister-in-law.”
“Yes, sir!”
Zhang Dabiao saluted and hurried away with the sack, looking relieved, as though he were carrying a ticking time bomb.
Just then—
A commotion suddenly came from outside the window.
“Wow! That’s amazing!”
“Little girl, can I ride it too?”
“Does that pig really listen to you? It won’t bite, will it?”
Huo Feng walked to the window and looked down.
On the training field, Huo Xiaoman was sitting astride Dahua, surrounded by a group of off-duty soldiers.
The little gluttonous girl was holding a huge roasted corn cob in her hand, chewing on it while directing Dahua through various tricks.
“Dahua, sit!”
“Oink!”
The five-hundred-pound wild boar obediently sat down, kicking up a cloud of dust.
“Dahua, shake hands!”
The wild boar actually raised one of its front hooves and placed it in the hand of a young soldier.
The entire crowd burst into laughter.
Where was this supposed to be a ferocious beast?
It was practically a giant, slightly scruffy-looking dog.
Not far away, on the horizontal bar—
Huo Xiaoxie was hanging upside down, holding a copy of Advanced Mathematics that he had somehow gotten his hands on. He was reading it with great interest.
Beside him, the golden-ringed snake had coiled itself into a complicated geometric shape, as though it were helping its master solve a problem.
The scene was harmonious in the strangest possible way.
Yet it was also filled with a vitality that made it impossible to look away.
Huo Feng watched them, his gaze gradually softening, but his resolve only grew stronger.
No matter how many secrets Su Man was hiding.
No matter how “monstrous” these two children were.
They were his children.
She was his woman.
That was enough.
“Zhao Gang.”
Huo Feng suddenly spoke.
“Here.”
“Look into what happened at the Miao village five years ago.”
Huo Feng turned around, his gaze as sharp as a blade.
“I want to know who drove her out back then.”
“And what exactly this so-called ‘Gu King inheritance’ is all about.”
Zhao Gang froze for a moment before immediately understanding what Huo Feng meant.
He was going to stand up for his wife and settle some old scores.
“Understood! I’ll contact Intelligence right away.”
Just as Zhao Gang was about to leave, the door suddenly opened.
Su Man walked in.
She had changed into a clean Miao outfit, the silver ornaments glittering in the sunlight. In her hands, she carried a clay pot that was still steaming.
“What? Investigating my background first thing in the morning?”
She gave Huo Feng a half-smile and placed the pot on the desk.
“Instead of digging up old scores, Captain Huo should worry about your own health first.”
“You inhaled quite a bit of poisonous miasma in the minefield last night. If you don’t drink this medicine, you’ll be impotent tonight.”
Huo Feng’s face instantly turned black.
Zhao Gang, meanwhile, struggled to suppress his laughter. He hurriedly slipped out of the room, thoughtfully closing the door behind him.
Only the two of them remained inside.
The air was filled with the faint scent of traditional Chinese medicine, mingled with the distinctive fragrance of orchids clinging to Su Man.
Huo Feng stared at the woman before him and slowly advanced.
He kept moving until he had backed her against the edge of the desk.
Su Man remained completely unperturbed. Instead, she lifted her chin and provocatively met his gaze.
“What? Want to fight?”
“Don’t forget. You can’t beat me.”
Huo Feng planted both hands on the edge of the desk, trapping her within his territory. His voice was hoarse.
“Su Man.”
“Hmm?”
“Who exactly are you?”
“That fragile Saintess from five years ago didn’t have the ability to treat a minefield like her backyard.”
Su Man let out a soft laugh.
She raised her hand, her fingertips gliding over Huo Feng’s bobbing Adam’s apple.
“Who am I?”
She leaned close to his ear, her breath carrying the fragrance of orchids, but her voice was filled with a chilling menace.
“I’m the vengeful ghost that crawled back out of hell to come collect my debt from you.”
“Huo Feng, can you ever repay what you owe me for these five years?”