The night came quickly at the border.
Just moments ago, the setting sun had painted the sky blood-red, but in the blink of an eye, deep darkness had swallowed everything.
Yet tonight, the anti-drug unit’s camp was brightly lit and unusually lively.
The news that “Wolf Head” Huo Feng had a wife and children—and that his wife was an extraordinarily beautiful Miao woman whose children rode wild boars and played with venomous snakes—spread throughout the entire base like wildfire in less than half an hour.
Even the neighboring border defense regiment called to ask whether it was really true that a wild boar had rammed through the main gate.
At that moment, in a row of family quarters at the easternmost end of the camp, Huo Feng stood there with a dark expression, staring at the chaotic scene before him.
The originally neat and spacious suite had been transformed into something resembling a… spider demon’s lair.
The corners of the walls were covered with strings of dried herbs he couldn’t identify, filling the room with a strange but not unpleasant smell.
Several pitch-black jars sat on the table, and every now and then, the sound of something crawling inside could be heard.
The five-hundred-pound wild boar, Dahua, was sprawled on its back in the middle of the living room, snoring so loudly that it had forced Huo Feng’s military cot into a corner.
Meanwhile, his boy-girl twins were sitting on Dahua’s belly, happily devouring braised pork brought over from the mess hall.
“This is so delicious!”
Huo Xiaoman’s mouth was covered in grease as she mumbled, “It’s ten thousand times better than the roasted bugs Mommy makes!”
Su Man, who was sorting herbs nearby, paused.
She turned around and shot her daughter a sharp look.
“Huo Xiaoman, do you want to sleep outside and feed the mosquitoes tonight?”
The little girl immediately shrank her neck and buried her face in her bowl, not daring to say another word.
Watching this scene, Huo Feng once again felt an indescribably absurd yet warm feeling well up inside him.
He walked toward the door and was just about to step inside when his foot suddenly landed on something soft.
He looked down.
A tiny emerald-green snake was coiled on the doormat, flicking its tongue at him.
The corner of Huo Feng’s eye twitched.
This wasn’t a home.
It was practically an exhibition hall for poisonous creatures.
“Um… Su Man.”
He cleared his throat, trying to reclaim some of the dignity of the head of the household.
“The army has regulations. Soldiers aren’t allowed to keep pets at will, especially… dangerous animals like these.”
Without even turning around, Su Man calmly placed an enormous spider into a jar.
“This is the family quarters, not your military barracks.”
“Besides, they’re not pets. They’re my bodyguards, and they’re also how I make a living.”
“If you don’t like it, you can go sleep somewhere else.”
One sentence left Huo Feng completely speechless.
This was his own quarters!
And now he was being kicked out by his own wife?
Just then, the sound of high heels striking the ground came from outside.
Click, click, click.
The crisp, hurried sound stood out strangely in a military camp where the only usual footsteps came from rubber-soled shoes.
Then a sweet yet slightly arrogant voice rang out.
“Brother Huo Feng! I heard you were injured! Is it serious?”
Before the words had even faded, a young woman in the military uniform of the cultural troupe rushed inside. She had delicate features, fair skin, and was carrying a thermos.
Her face was filled with concern.
She was none other than Lin Xue, the star performer of the cultural troupe.
Relying on the fact that her father was a senior officer in the military district, as well as being the belle of the cultural troupe, Lin Xue had relentlessly pursued Huo Feng for years.
Everyone in the unit knew that she wanted to become “Wolf Head’s” wife. She often acted as though she were already his fiancée.
When she heard that Huo Feng had been poisoned today, she immediately made chicken soup and rushed over to show her concern.
However, when she burst into the room, what she saw was not a weak and injured Huo Feng lying in bed.
Instead, she saw a stunningly beautiful woman with an exotic charm that made her green with envy.
There were also two children happily eating braised pork, and… a gigantic wild boar.
Lin Xue’s footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
The expression on her face instantly froze.
“You… Who are you? Why are you in Brother Huo Feng’s room?”
Lin Xue looked Su Man up and down. When she saw her barefoot and dressed in Miao clothing, a trace of disdain immediately appeared in her eyes.
“Where did this country bumpkin come from? Who let you in?”
“This is a military restricted area, not somewhere you country folk can run wild! Get out!”
Her shout startled Huo Xiaoman, who was eating nearby. The piece of braised pork in her hand fell to the ground.
The little girl immediately became unhappy.
She slid down from Dahua’s belly and marched over to Lin Xue on her short little legs. She tilted her head back and said fiercely in her childish voice,
“Ugly Auntie, you woke Dahua up!”
“Ugly Auntie?”
Lin Xue’s face turned green with rage.
She was the belle of the cultural troupe. Wherever she went, she was surrounded by people fawning over her.
Yet this little wild child had actually called her an ugly auntie?
“Whose uncultured brat are you?!”
Lin Xue raised her hand and moved as if she were about to shove Huo Xiaoman.
“Stop!”
Huo Feng’s expression darkened, and he was just about to step forward to intervene.
But someone was faster than him.
Huo Xiaoxie, who had been sitting quietly nearby, suddenly flicked his finger.
A small black pill flew straight into Lin Xue’s open mouth.
“Cough! Cough, cough!”
Lin Xue felt a chill in her throat as the pill slid straight down her esophagus.
“You… What did you make me eat?!”
She clutched her throat and screamed in horror.
Huo Xiaoxie leisurely wiped his mouth. A devilish smile appeared on his cool little face.
“Nothing much. Just a candy bean that makes people tell the truth.”
“A… truth candy?”
Before Lin Xue could process what he had said, her head suddenly felt hot, and her mouth began speaking against her will.
She looked at Huo Feng with dazed eyes. The words of concern she had intended to say transformed into something entirely different.
“Huo Feng, you stupid blockhead! I’ve chased after you for three years! I’ve given you so many things, and you never even bothered to look at them!”
“What did I ever see in you? I only liked your looks and your family’s background! Otherwise, who would willingly come to this godforsaken place to suffer?!”
“And your room! It stinks! It reeks of sweat and pig manure! If I weren’t trying to become your wife, I wouldn’t set foot in here!”
The entire room fell silent.
Several soldiers watching from the doorway nearly dropped their jaws.
Was this really the gentle, elegant, well-mannered Lin Xue they knew?
The contrast was simply too outrageous!
Lin Xue herself was stunned. She desperately covered her mouth, but the thoughts buried in her heart poured out like a floodgate that had been opened, impossible to stop.
“Mmm… I… I actually hate soldiers the most… They’re dirty and smelly…”
“Who is this woman…? She’s prettier than me… What a vixen…”
Su Man folded her arms and leaned against the doorframe, watching the spectacle unfold with an amused smile.
“Commander Huo, the quality of your admirers is rather questionable.”
Huo Feng’s face was as dark as the bottom of a cooking pot.
He coldly stared at Lin Xue, who was still blurting out one embarrassing secret after another, then shouted at the guards outside,
“Take her out! Send her back to the cultural troupe! Let her sober up!”
“Yes, sir!”
The two guards suppressed their laughter as they grabbed Lin Xue from either side and dragged her away while she continued to expose her innermost thoughts.
“Let me go! I’m Lin Xue! My father is… That vixen poisoned me… I’m going to report all of you…”
Her voice gradually faded into the distance.
The room finally fell silent again.
Huo Feng turned around and looked at the entire room full of “monsters and demons,” feeling his temples throb.
He looked at Su Man and was just about to say something.
But Su Man simply yawned, walked straight into the bedroom, and slammed the door shut.
“We’re going to bed, Commander Huo. Make yourself comfortable.”
“Oh, right. Don’t forget to clean up the braised pork on the floor.”
Huo Feng stood in the middle of the living room, staring at the closed bedroom door.
Then he looked at the wild boar beside him, which was watching him menacingly, and the two little brats who were staring at him as though they were enjoying a show.
For the first time in his life, the mighty “Wolf Head,” feared throughout the border, experienced what it meant to…
have nowhere to go.
He stood there for a long while.
Finally, he let out a helpless sigh and resigned himself to picking up the broom.
However, the moment he bent down—
a butterfly glowing with a faint blue light suddenly slipped through the crack beneath the bedroom door.
It circled around Huo Feng once before landing on his shoulder. Its wings fluttered gently, scattering a thin layer of luminous powder.
Huo Feng felt the restlessness and exhaustion in his mind instantly settle.
It was an “Anshen Butterfly,” a unique creature of Miaojiang known for calming the mind.
And it was Su Man’s silent… little gesture of tenderness.
Huo Feng looked at the butterfly on his shoulder, and his gloomy mood suddenly brightened.
He straightened up and gazed at the tightly closed bedroom door, a tenderness he had never shown before flickering in his eyes.
“Maybe… this life isn’t so bad after all.”
As long as he could keep her by his side.
Even if it meant sleeping in a pigsty, he was willing.