Sold into a ghost marriage? Four-year-old and his thuggish father go on a killing spree.

"able."

Under Gu Yanqiu's bloodshot, abyss-like eyes, Gu Niannian mustered all her strength to utter a single word.

Her voice wasn't loud, even a little childish, but it was like a heavy iron hammer, striking Gu Yanqiu's frantic heart.

can.

A five-year-old child calmly told him that one can kill without a knife.

Gu Yanqiu's body trembled violently, and the madness and death in her eyes slowly faded.

Instead, he experienced a deeper, almost consuming pain.

He looked at his daughter.

Looking at this small, thin daughter who should be nestled in her parents' arms,

At this moment, however, she looked like a little adult, quietly gazing back at him with her clear, unblemished eyes.

There was no fear in her eyes, only heartache and a kind of tenderness completely out of character for her age.

A heartbreaking understanding.

Gu Yanqiu's throat bobbed, and the earth-shattering hatred he felt was forcibly suppressed back into the deepest part of his chest under his daughter's gaze.

He cannot fall.

He can't go crazy.

What will happen to Niannian if he goes crazy?

He slowly loosened his bloodied fist, slumped against the cold mud wall, and gasped for breath like a fish thrown ashore.

"dad……"

Niannian, with her short legs, ran to his side, took out the clean handkerchief that Aunt Wang had given her from her pocket, and carefully tried to wipe the blood off his hands.

But the wound was too frightening; splinters and dirt were mixed with flesh and blood. Her little hand froze in mid-air, too afraid to touch it.

Tears, finally, like beads from a broken string, rolled down from her large eyes that she had been trying so hard to keep open.

"Daddy, it hurts..."

This cry of "pain" was not a question, but a statement tinged with tears.

It was as if Gu Yanqiu was the one who was hurt, but she herself.

Gu Yanqiu's heart felt as if it had been scalded by that single, burning tear.

He suddenly reached out with his other, uninjured hand and pulled his daughter into a tight embrace.

"It doesn't hurt... Daddy, it doesn't hurt..."

He buried his face deep in his daughter's neck, his voice hoarse, "Niannian, I'm sorry... Daddy scared you..."

Niannian shook her head in his arms, her little arms tightly wrapped around him, and she choked out:

"Dad, let's...let's not go looking for them, okay?"

"It's not good now."

She looked up at him with her small face, her eyes brimming with tears, and spoke each word clearly:

"We can't beat them if we go now. They outnumber us and they'll throw tantrums. Grandpa Cheng can't help us either."

Gu Yanqiu's body stiffened.

He knew his daughter was right.

Rushing to the Zhao family's house and beating that beastly mother and son to a pulp? And then what?

He will be arrested, and Niannian will truly become a helpless orphan.

"Then... what should we do?" Gu Yanqiu asked blankly, like a lost child.

All his strength and his backbone seemed to be completely drained the moment he learned the truth.

"Live life well."

Niannian used her tear-stained little hands to vigorously wipe her father's face.

"We live better than them, eat better than them, and dress better than them. We keep our bodies in great shape and save a lot of money."

"When we become very, very strong, so strong that they can only kneel on the ground and beg us, then we'll tell them how their mother died."

"Dad, that's the greatest revenge. It lets them know how wicked and stupid they are, makes them regret it, and makes them live in fear for the rest of their lives!"

The little girl's words were like a thunderclap, exploding in Gu Yanqiu's chaotic mind!

He stared blankly at his daughter.

These words, this mindset, this forbearance and ruthlessness... could a five-year-old child really say such things?

He thought of his wife, Song Wanqing, a woman who was gentle on the outside but strong on the inside, intelligent and opinionated.

Yes.

Niannian is her daughter.

She is their daughter!

A surge of warmth welled up from the bottom of his heart, washing away the coldness from his limbs and bones.

Looking at the small but seemingly powerful daughter in his arms, Gu Yanqiu's confusion and pain were gradually replaced by a cold and resolute light.

Correct.

Niannian is right.

Death would be too good for them.

Let them live, live in regret and fear!

"it is good."

Gu Yanqiu slowly nodded, gently stroking his daughter's hair with his blood-stained hand, and solemnly made a promise:

"Dad promises you. Let's get ourselves on our feet first."

"One day, I will make the Zhao family, Song Jianguo, and everyone who killed your mother pay the price!"

After that night, Gu Yanqiu seemed like a different person.

He remained silent, but that silence was no longer simply forbearance; it was a hardened resolve forged in fire.

He wrapped the letter soaked in blood and tears and the letter severing ties with oiled paper, layer upon layer, and kept them close to his body.

That became the spark that ignited his revenge.

He's working even harder than before.

During the day at the brick kiln, he could do the work of two people. Even when his back was covered in blisters from the scorching bricks, he would just grit his teeth and not even flinch.

Seeing that he was willing to work hard, the foreman gave him a few more temporary worker positions and asked him to find people for him, from which he could take a small management fee.

At night, he no longer just buried himself in repairing farm machinery.

He carried a small bag of dried mushrooms and a few eggs and solemnly knocked on the door of Chen Zhiyuan's educated youth settlement.

"Teacher Chen, I'd like to learn to read and do arithmetic with you, is that alright?"

Chen Zhiyuan stared blankly at the man covered in mud but with an astonishingly bright gaze, then realized what was going on.

He nodded: "Okay. As long as you want to learn, I'll teach you."

From that day on, a unique scene appeared in the nights of Chengjiawan.

In the Gu family's dilapidated mud-brick house, under a dim oil lamp, two figures, one tall and one short, always sat upright at the table.

Gu Yanqiu's hands, which held the pencil, were covered with calluses from years of hard labor, making them appear particularly clumsy.

He has to write the simple character "的" more than a dozen times before he can barely remember its structure.

Meanwhile, Gu Niannian, who was standing next to her, was engrossed in reading a self-study book on junior high school mathematics that Chen Zhiyuan had given her.

"Dad, look, this is called an 'equation.' If you know one number, you can calculate the other. It's similar to how we calculate work points, but even more amazing!"

"Dad, Uncle Chen said the newspaper said that the country will rely on science and technology in the future. What is science and technology?"

Looking at the thirst for knowledge on her daughter's face, Gu Yanqiu felt a mix of sadness and warmth in her heart.

He didn't know what the future held, and he didn't even know what use these square characters he had learned were.

But he knew one thing—knowledge was the only thing that could not be taken away by others.

He wants to learn.

He wants to study with his daughter.

That night, the father and daughter studied until late again.

The oil in the lamp was almost gone, and the flame was crackling.

Gu Yanqiu carefully carried Niannian back to bed and covered her with a blanket.

He himself was wide awake, so he sat back down at the table and, using the last bit of light, opened the Xinhua Dictionary, which he had read so many times that the edges were worn.

Unbeknownst to him, a figure had been standing for a long time outside the courtyard wall not far from his house.

Captain Cheng Tiezhu puffed on his pipe, the embers flickering in the night.

Through the crack in the window, he looked at the clumsy yet incredibly earnest man inside, a complex yet approving glint in his cloudy eyes.

He tapped his pipe on the sole of his shoe, as if he had made up his mind, and turned to walk home.

The next day, Gu Yanqiu was sweating profusely as he moved bricks at the brick kiln when Cheng Tiezhu's son ran over.

"Uncle Yanqiu! My dad wants you to go to the brigade headquarters right away! He says he has some really great news for you!"

What a wonderful thing!

Gu Yanqiu's heart skipped a beat, and she looked up at the blazing sun.

He couldn't imagine what good thing could possibly happen to him in this world.

He put down the brick, wiped his sweat, and ran towards the brigade headquarters.

Little did he know that from this moment on, the gears of his destiny would begin to turn in a completely new direction, one he had never imagined.

Little did he know that as he ran toward opportunity, a pair of venomous eyes were fixed on his back from behind the window of the Gu family mansion.

"You've really made something of yourself... You've already managed to get close to Cheng Tiezhu?"

Gu Yanchun smiled coldly and slammed the teacup he was holding onto the table.

"I'd like to see if he can fly up to the sky!"