A jinx, me? But I bring good fortune to my whole family!

Old Mrs. Lin slunk away, and the people at the courtyard gate dispersed.

Su Xiulan carried Nuannuan back to the main room, kicked the door shut, and bolted it. Only then did she realize that her legs were too weak to support her, and she sat down on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) with Nuannuan in her arms.

"Come on, stretch your feet out."

She placed Nuannuan on the kang (a heated brick bed) and bent down to look at her feet.

Warm little feet were ice cold, with several red marks on the soles of their feet, two of which had oozing blood.

It was scratched by pebbles; a piece of skin was also scraped off next to my big toe, revealing tender pink flesh.

Su Xiulan's hand trembled slightly.

She brought over warm water, wrung out a cloth, and carefully wiped the mud off Nuannuan's feet.

When the handkerchief touched the wound, Nuannuan hissed and pulled her leg back.

"pain?"

Nuannuan shook her head: "It doesn't hurt."

Su Xiulan didn't say anything, she kept her head down and continued wiping, the water in the basin turned red.

She wiped for a while, then stopped, her shoulders twitching.

Tears fell into the basin of water.

Gu Jianguo squatted by the kang (a heated brick bed), rummaged through the cabinet and took out a small bottle of ointment, unscrewed the cap, scooped out a little and applied it to the soles of Nuannuan's feet.

His fingers were rough and calloused, but when he touched warm, tender feet, he was incredibly gentle.

Nuannuan twitched her toes and her little mouth twitched, but she stubbornly held back from making a sound.

"Mom, don't cry."

Nuannuan reached out to touch Su Xiulan's face, wiping her cheeks haphazardly with her little hands, making tears everywhere.

"Nuannuan is fine, it's just that the soles of her feet are a little itchy."

Su Xiulan was both amused and wanted to cry by her comment about itching, so she grabbed her handkerchief and wiped her face hard.

"You still say it itches, but you've rubbed your skin raw!"

She wrapped Nuannuan's two little feet up and tucked them into the blanket to cover them, then reached out to touch Nuannuan's arm.

When you roll up your sleeves, you can see a ring of purplish-blue finger marks on your arm, from where Old Lady Lin pinched you.

Su Xiulan stopped.

The main room was silent for several seconds.

Gu Jianguo put down the ointment bottle and slowly screwed on the cap. He didn't look up, but his jaw was clenched tightly.

"Mom, put some medicine on."

Gu Xiaoan brought in a bowl of hot porridge at some point, and when she saw the marks around Nuannuan's arm, she almost dropped the bowl.

The porridge spilled and burned his hand, but he hissed and didn't care.

"That old hag was incredibly ruthless!"

Nuannuan quickly pulled down her sleeves, puffing out her little face.

"It doesn't hurt! My skin is thick and warm!"

Gu Xiaoan was so angry that her teeth itched. She put the porridge on the table and squatted down in front of Nuannuan.

"Little sister, don't be so stubborn. It looks painful."

Nuannuan pouted and reached for the bowl of porridge on the table.

"Nuan Nuan is hungry."

That one sentence released most of the pent-up energy in the room.

Su Xiulan quickly brought over the porridge, blew on it, and fed it to her spoonful by spoonful.

Nuannuan took two sips, then suddenly remembered something and reached her little hand inside her jacket.

The hard object was still pressing against her.

"dad."

Nuannuan put down her spoon, took out a yellowed kraft paper envelope from her jacket, touched it, and handed it over.

"this."

Gu Jianguo took the envelope and flipped through it.

The envelope was crumpled, with frayed edges, and there was no writing or stamp on it.

Gu Xiaoan leaned closer, and Gu Da'an, who had somehow ended up standing behind Gu Jianguo, watched silently.

Everyone stared at the letter.

Gu Jianguo tore open the envelope and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

The paper was thin and yellowish. When unfolded, a few lines of writing were crookedly written on it.

The handwriting was messy, the strokes were all wrong, and several characters were even written backwards.

"My dearest daughter, Dad is far away. Wait for Dad to come back and pick you up. Listen to Grandma."

Just those two sentences.

Su Xiulan leaned over and took a look, then breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's it? What a piece of crap! The characters are all wrong. It's obviously made up."

She reached out to take the letter and crumple it, but Nuannuan suddenly tugged at Gu Jianguo's sleeve.

"Dad, there's something hard inside."

Gu Jianguo paused.

He held the envelope upright and tapped it twice against his palm.

A small object slipped out from the corner of the envelope and landed in his palm.

It made a very soft "ding" sound.

All eyes were on that thing.

A piece of metal.

It's not big, a little longer than a thumbnail, oval-shaped, with shiny edges.

It has a string of numbers and a few letters engraved on it. The letters are very small and deeply engraved, so they are not very clear under the oil lamp.

It wasn't money, jewelry, or anything of value.

But it was this inconspicuous thing that made Gu Jianguo's expression change.

He gripped the piece of metal and turned it over to look at the back.

There are also words on the back, but they are smaller and blurry.

His fingers began to tremble.

"Jianguo, what's wrong?"

Su Xiulan's heart skipped a beat when she saw the expression on his face.

Gu Xiaoan also sensed something was wrong and took half a step forward.

"Dad, what's this?"

Gu Jianguo did not answer.

He stood up abruptly, took two steps to the door, and pushed the latch again to make sure it was securely fastened.

He turned around and went to the window, closed the half-open window, and then blocked it with a wooden stick.

The room suddenly went dark, with only the oil lamp on the table remaining, its flame flickering twice.

Su Xiulan's heart was in her throat; it was the first time she had ever seen Gu Jianguo so serious.

Gu Jianguo leaned closer and finally saw the words on the metal plate.

It is an abbreviation of two letters.

"This belongs to the military."

Gu Jianguo's voice was hoarse, and every word was forced out.

"From the military?"

Su Xiulan and Gu Xiaoan spoke up almost simultaneously.

Gu Xiaoan stood there, mouth agape.

"What kind of military unit?"

Gu Jianguo picked up the metal sheet and examined it over and over, his fingers trembling.

"Identity tags are only for soldiers."

He had served in the military for a period of time, and he had seen this kind of thing before.

It's issued to new recruits, engraved with their unit number and identification number, used to identify them during battles.

If you don't pick them while they're alive, they'll go with you when you die.

Su Xiulan's mind went blank for a moment.

Is Nuannuan's biological father a soldier?

No, Nuannuan's biological parents died while saving people in the flood. Everyone in Niulan Village knows about this, and they were even commended at the time.

How did that identity tag end up in Old Lady Lin's hands?

"Jianguo, what exactly is Nuannuan's biological father's identity?"

Gu Jianguo didn't reply, staring at the numbers and letters on his ID card, a vein throbbing on his forehead.

He didn't recognize the number.

But he recognized the specifications.

This isn't a sign from an ordinary military unit; a simple sheet of metal would suffice.

The texture, thickness, and fineness of the engravings on this piece are all different.

During his time in the army, only one type of person was entitled to this badge.

He didn't say.

Nuannuan held the bowl of porridge, tilted her head, and watched her father's reaction, her little brain working.

"Little Green, what's a piece of metal?"

Little Green's ginseng whiskers trembled: "I don't know, I'm a ginseng, not a blacksmith, but the aura on it is very strange, the aura of the first person was very strong."

"What does 'very strong' mean?"

"He's not an ordinary person."

Nuannuan remembered what he said, lowered her head and took another sip of porridge, without saying a word.

Gu Xiaoan squatted by the kang (a heated brick bed), her mind racing.

"Dad, do you mean Nuannuan's biological father is a soldier?"

Gu Jianguo let out a sigh of relief.

"It's hard to say. This brand might not belong to her biological father. It could have been obtained by Old Lady Lin from somewhere else, but this thing shouldn't be in Niulan Village."

He flipped the ID card over to the back and spent a long time trying to decipher the last line of small print.

It is a name.

Two characters, small but clear.

After Gu Jianguo finished reading those two words, the last trace of color drained from his face.

He gripped the sign tightly in his hand, his fingers cracking.

Su Xiulan grew anxious: "Jianguo, say something! What does it say?"

Gu Jianguo opened his mouth, but swallowed the words back.

He glanced at Nuannuan.

Nuannuan was holding a bowl of porridge, with rice water around her mouth, and tilting her head to look at him.

Gu Jianguo then looked at Gu Xiaoan and Gu Daan.

He took the ID card out of his hand and carefully wrapped it layer by layer with the tattered cloth on the table, making it into a small square.

"This thing is worth more than the three Yuan Shikai silver dollars that Old Lady Lin has."

He paused for a moment, then added, "It's even more deadly than that."

Su Xiulan shuddered.

"From today onwards, no one is allowed to mention this thing again. Just pretend you've never seen it."

Gu Jianguo glanced around, his voice kept to a minimum.

"Xiao An, did you hear that?"

Gu Xiaoan nodded vigorously.

Gu Da'an stood behind, silent, but nodded.

Nuannuan put down her porridge bowl and muttered softly, "Nuannuan won't say anything either."

Just as Gu Jianguo was about to put the wrapped items into his clothes, a sudden screech of brakes came from outside the courtyard gate.

The tire screeched as it rolled over the gravel.

Gu Jianguo's hand froze in mid-air.

Who would drive here at this hour?

He had only thought for a moment before his hand moved, stuffing the small cloth-wrapped square into Nuannuan's hand and leaning down to whisper in her ear.

"Nuan Nuan, hide."

Nuannuan understood immediately, clenched her little hand, and the thing disappeared.

Gu Jianguo straightened up.

Bang, bang, bang. There was a knocking sound at the door.