Dare to shirk responsibility? This adorable little one will tear down your military district!

"He's the one who took my dad away." Niu Dan's throat felt like it was stuck with a shard of glass, his voice hoarse beyond recognition. "I'll never forget the smell he gave me."

Ya Ya lifted her little head from his chest.

She still held tightly to Niu Dan's waist with both of her small hands, not daring to loosen her grip.

"What did you say?" Ya Ya frowned. "Wasn't your dad a martyr who died in a military mission?"

Niu Dan's eyes were frighteningly red, with bloodshot veins forced out of them. His chest heaved violently as he gasped for breath, his hands digging into the blue bricks behind him, his fingernails filled with blood and dirt.

Gu Changfeng walked out from behind a pillar a few steps away. He put the half-burnt Daqianmen cigarette back into his overcoat pocket and strode to the base of the wall.

"Ya Ya, let go." Gu Changfeng's voice was deep.

Ya Ya glanced at her father before loosening her grip on Niu Dan's waist and taking two steps back.

Niu Dan lost his support, his legs went weak, and he slid down the cold blue brick wall. Gu Changfeng reached out his large hand, grabbed him by the back of his collar, and forcefully lifted him up, making him stand upright.

"Explain yourself clearly." Gu Changfeng stared at Niu Dan's face, which was covered in dust and tear stains. "Your father was an outstanding reconnaissance soldier in the elite unit of the field army. Did you see him leave on a mission?"

Niu Dan wiped his eyes hard with the back of his blood-stained hand.

He clenched his back teeth, making a clicking sound.

"I saw it." Niu Dan's voice hardened. "One summer a year ago, it was raining particularly hard. That night, I got up to relieve myself in the yard and saw a black Jeep parked outside my gate."

The drafty corridor was cold and damp. A gust of wind swept through, blowing up rotten vegetable leaves on the ground.

Niu Dan's thoughts were completely drawn back to that stormy night.

"A man got off the bus. It was too dark to see his face, but he was wearing the same black rubber raincoat he was wearing today and a large mask. He walked under the eaves of my house and talked to my dad."

I hid behind the chicken coop. That person had a strange medicinal smell about them, with a lingering, bitter herbal odor underneath. The rain couldn't wash it away.

As Niu Dan said this, he clenched his fists tightly, and his knuckles made a cracking sound from the force.

"My dad wasn't even wearing his military uniform. He was just dressed in ordinary coarse cloth clothes and carrying a tattered canvas bag. He got on the bus with the man in the raincoat. From that day on, my dad never came back."

Upon hearing this, Gu Changfeng's two sword-like eyebrows furrowed into a tight knot.

Not right.

Something's really wrong.

Niu Dan heard about his father's death notice while he was in the army. The army's explanation was that he was ambushed while on a routine patrol mission on the border, and they couldn't even recover his remains.

An elite reconnaissance soldier in a regular field unit would absolutely follow strict contact procedures when carrying out routine combat missions.

The military personnel sent to pick up the person, whether clerks or communications officers, would never be wearing such an unidentified black rubber raincoat in the middle of the night, nor would they have any strange medicinal smell on them.

This is not a routine transfer order at all.

This is more like an extremely secretive private meeting, or perhaps a secret rendezvous by some special department.

What happened next? Niu Dan's uncle's family took the large sum of compensation money issued by the army and drove Niu Dan to compete with pigs and dogs for food. Later, the man in the raincoat also appeared in the cowshed and stabbed to death the stray dog ​​that was protecting Niu Dan.

"Are you sure this is the person?" Gu Changfeng asked.

"I'd recognize him even if he were ashes!" Niu Dan was like a little wolf cub guarding his collar.

"His walk, his smell, even the black patch on the right sleeve of his raincoat today—it's all exactly the same! I'm going to kill him today!"

After saying that, Niu Dan craned his neck and was about to rush forward to push the rusty iron gate.

Gu Changfeng raised an arm and placed it firmly across Niu Dan's chest, blocking him back.

"You didn't even bring a knife, and you're going to go out and scratch him with your fingernails?" Gu Changfeng sneered. "He dares to show his face in broad daylight in a crowded department store, which means he's carrying a real weapon. If you rush out now, he can easily give you a syringe of medicine and send you down to see your father."

Niu Dan was frozen in place by those words. His chest heaved violently, and tears and resentment mingled in his eyes.

Ya Ya patted the dust off her little hands and moved closer to Gu Changfeng.

"Dad, something's fishy about this," Ya Ya whispered.

"That guy in the raincoat was acting suspiciously in the line for buying winter cabbages. He didn't seem like he was buying vegetables; he looked more like he was spying on someone. As soon as Niu Dan made a sound, he ran faster than a rabbit. That guy has excellent counter-surveillance skills."

Gu Changfeng nodded. He knew this tactic all too well; the route the man in the black raincoat had taken to slip away into the crowd was entirely blind spots—a skill honed through professional training.

"Niu Dan, listen up." Gu Changfeng placed his large hand on Niu Dan's shoulder, applying a little pressure.

"You are now my son, Gu Changfeng's son, and I will see this through to the end. Whether your father was dead or alive back then, and whether the person who took him away was a human or a ghost, I will find out the truth for you."

Niu Dan raised his head and stared intently at Gu Changfeng, his madness slowly subsiding. He knew the capabilities of the man before him; he had even annihilated the foreign devils of the Savage Mountain. If he said he could investigate, he would definitely investigate thoroughly.

"Let's go, your mother is still waiting outside. We shouldn't stay here any longer."

Gu Changfeng pulled Niu Dan's arm and turned to walk out of the corridor. Ya Ya followed behind with her short legs, glancing back at the pushed-open iron gate before leaving. The dead-end alley outside the gate was deserted, without a soul in sight.

The three of them retraced their steps back to the fabric section of the first-floor grocery counter.

Lin Wanrou was hiding in a blind spot behind the counter, clutching tightly to several large net bags filled with cotton and cloth.

The onlookers had long been dispersed by the department store's militia patrol, and the ground was covered with trampled cabbage stalks.

Seeing her husband and two children return safely, Lin Wanrou breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Is everything alright?" Lin Wanrou quickly went to greet him, using one hand to brush the dust off Niu Dan's cotton-padded coat.

"I ran into a pickpocket, but couldn't catch him," Gu Changfeng casually made up a lie, not intending to elaborate in this crowded place. He took the large net bags from Lin Wanrou's arms. "Have you bought everything?"

"It's all done. It was just that there was a commotion earlier, and all the people lining up the vegetables scattered. We won't be able to buy any winter-stored cabbages today." Lin Wanrou looked at the mess on the ground with a bit of regret.

"These few cabbages won't make a difference. Let's go home first," Gu Changfeng calmly arranged.

The family of four stepped out of the department store's glass doors. The cold wind outside cooled the sweat on Niu Dan's body, and he became completely awake.

He followed silently behind Ya Ya, his dark eyes occasionally sweeping over the corners of the street.

Back in the Gu family's side courtyard in Nanluoguxiang.

Old Sun was sitting in an old rattan chair in the courtyard, basking in the sun. The medicinal cuisine restaurant was closed today, and the courtyard was very quiet.

Gu Changfeng placed several net bags filled with things on the octagonal table in the main room.

Lin Wanrou began to gather the newly bought cotton and floral fabric, planning to take advantage of the good weather to quickly make winter clothes for her family.

Ya Ya took Niu Dan to the backyard, drew a bucket of cold water from the well, and made him wash his hands and face.

Niu Dan soaked his hands in the icy well water. The bloody cut on his palm from the iron gate turned white and curled up in the water, but he acted as if nothing had happened, silently rubbing the blood and dirt off his hands.

Ya Ya pulled a small porcelain bottle from the pocket of her tactical vest. Inside was a wound medicine powder prepared by Old Master Sun, which she usually kept in her spatial storage, nurtured with highly concentrated spiritual spring water. Its medicinal effects were dozens of times greater than those on the market.

She grabbed Niu Dan's wet left hand, wiped it with a clean cloth, and poured the medicine powder directly onto the wound.

"If it hurts, just yell it out. Don't hold it in." Ya Ya stuffed the small porcelain bottle back into her pocket.

"It doesn't hurt." Niu Dan's voice was still muffled. "Sister Ya, if I had brought a knife today..."

"Even if you bring a knife, you can't cut him," Ya Ya interrupted him. "He planned his escape route perfectly. Even if you stick close to him, you can't catch up. Listen to my dad, don't act impulsively."

This side of the main house.

Gu Changfeng sat in an old rosewood armchair and lit a cigarette. Soon, the room was filled with the aroma of Daqianmen cigarettes.

He looked at the two children fetching water in the yard, his mind racing as he considered the events of the day.

Niu Dan's father's file was something he had no authority to access back when he was in Xiahe Village. At that time, he was just a regimental commander in a field army. But now things are different. He holds the powerful transfer order of the deputy chief of staff of the Beijing Garrison Command and has made a great contribution by protecting the top-secret map of the Savage Mountain.

A strange smell of medicine, a black rubber raincoat, and a secret abduction of the ace scout late at night.

These jumbled clues pieced together formed a huge mystery. If Niu Dan's father didn't die in a routine mission, then something far more complicated was involved. It might even be related to those shady underground deals on the border.

This matter cannot be delayed. The man in the black raincoat showed up at the department store today, proving that these people are operating within the Beijing area.

Gu Changfeng rolled out the half-smoked cigarette on the edge of the table and stubbed it out forcefully.

He stood up, walked to the coat rack, grabbed the thick military overcoat, and put it on.

"Wanrou, you stay home with Grandpa Sun and the children. Be careful when you go out these next few days," Gu Changfeng instructed. "I need to go to the Garrison Command Headquarters; I have some urgent business to attend to."