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

The autumn wind swept up the fallen leaves on the ground, and the weather grew cooler day by day.

Gu Yanqiu firmly established himself at the agricultural machinery station.

He is highly skilled, hardworking, quiet, and never gets involved in gossip.

Station Master Han valued him more and more, not only assigning him all the maintenance tasks of large equipment, but also raising his salary.

It rose from eighteen yuan to twenty-two yuan.

In Qinghe County in 1965, this was already a high salary that would make countless people envious.

On the weekend after receiving her second month's salary, Gu Yanqiu clutched those brand-new ten-yuan bills, her heart burning with excitement.

He did something big.

He asked the station for a day off, and early in the morning he rode that old-fashioned bicycle that rattled everywhere except for the bell.

We sped off towards Chengjiawan, bathed in the morning light.

He needs to go back and pick up Niannian.

He wanted to bring his daughter to the county town for a stroll.

When the bicycle came to a creaking stop at the familiar courtyard gate,

Gu Niannian, who was reading a book in the yard, suddenly looked up.

"dad!"

The small figure, like a cannonball, rushed into Gu Yanqiu's arms.

Gu Yanqiu picked up his daughter and kissed her hard on her little face.

"Niannian, come on, Daddy will take you to the city!"

"Going into the city?"

Gu Niannian's eyes widened instantly.

For her, "county town" was just a place name in a book, the place where her father worked, a distant and vague concept.

She never imagined that she would be able to go there one day.

She rode on her father's wide back seat, her little hands tightly gripping the hem of his clothes.

The bicycle left Chengjiawan, and the bumpy dirt road turned into a relatively smooth gravel road.

The scenery on both sides of the road is changing rapidly.

Low-rise mud-brick houses are becoming fewer and fewer, while houses with blue bricks and tiles are gradually becoming more and more common.

The pedestrians on the road were no longer farmers carrying hoes, but city dwellers wearing clean Dacron shirts and Zhongshan suits.

Occasionally, a green Jiefang truck or a black Volga sedan would honk its horn and whiz past them, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Gu Niannian looked around curiously, her little head turning this way and that, she couldn't take it all in.

"Dad, what building is that? It's so tall!"

That's the county government.

"Dad, what kind of car is that? It's going so fast!"

"That's a car, it's for the leaders."

When the bicycle finally entered Jiefang Street, the most bustling street in the county, Gu Niannian couldn't help but exclaim "Wow!"

What a wide road!

On both sides of the road, there are two or three-story buildings with red slogans painted on the walls.

"Department Store", "Xinhua Bookstore", "State-Owned No. 1 Hotel"... one after another, the large, gilded signs gleamed in the sunlight.

The streets were bustling with people, filled with the clanging of bicycles and the sounds of conversation; it was incredibly lively.

Gu Yanqiu, with her daughter, stopped at the entrance of the county department store.

He locked the car, took Niannian's little hand, and said with a mix of excitement and trepidation, "Niannian, today is your fifth birthday. Daddy... Daddy has wronged you before. Today, whatever you want, Daddy will buy it for you!"

This is Niannian's first birthday in this world.

Her father led her into this magnificent, golden place she had only ever seen in her dreams.

Inside the department store, rows of glass display cases were polished to a shine.

Inside were colorful floral fabrics, a shiny thermos, and a brand-new enamel basin.

And that brand-new Forever bicycle, which she had only ever heard about on the brigade headquarters loudspeaker.

The air was filled with a pleasant scent of face cream mixed with new fabric.

Gu Yanqiu led her directly to the counter selling food and toys.

"Niannian, look, these are White Rabbit milk candies and fruit hard candies. Pick one."

"And that, the doll, the one that blinks, do you like it?"

The saleswoman, a very friendly auntie, smiled and said, "Little girl, just tell me what you want. I'll make sure you bleed today!"

Gu Niannian looked at the colorful candy wrappers and the dolls in pretty dresses in the counter, a hint of longing flashing in her eyes.

But she only glanced at it and then shook her head.

She held her father's hand and walked around and around the huge department store.

She walked past the clothing counters, past the shoe and hat counters, and finally stopped in a corner.

It was a counter selling stationery and books.

Inside the counter, various notebooks, pencils, ink, and several brand-new books tied together with red string were neatly arranged.

Gu Niannian's gaze was drawn to one of the books, which had a dark blue cover with three large gold-embossed characters.

Xinhua Dictionary.

She pointed to the book with her little finger, looked up, and stared at her father with bright eyes.

"Daddy, I want that one."

Gu Yanqiu followed her finger and stared in astonishment.

He thought his daughter would want candy, new clothes, and that pretty doll.

He never expected that what she wanted was a dictionary.

"Niannian...aren't you going to choose candy? Aren't you going to choose new clothes?" Gu Yanqiu squatted down, his voice a little hoarse.

Gu Niannian shook her head, her little face extremely serious: "Daddy, once the candy is gone, it's gone; once the clothes are too small, you can't wear them anymore."

She pointed to the dictionary and said, word by word, "But a dictionary is different. Once I know the words in a dictionary, they're mine forever. A dictionary can last a lifetime."

One dollar and two cents.

For Gu Yanqiu, it was half a day's wages.

Without hesitation, he immediately had the salesperson wrap up the dictionary.

The surrounding customers and sales clerks looked at the little girl with surprise and admiration when they heard what she said.

"Oh my, whose little girl is this? She's so well-behaved!"

"Absolutely! To understand the importance of studying at such a young age is remarkable!"

The saleswoman handed the dictionary, wrapped in kraft paper, to Nian Nian and couldn't help but pat her head: "Little girl, you're sure to have a bright future!"

Holding the heavy dictionary that still smelled of ink, Gu Niannian's little face showed an unprecedentedly satisfied smile.

At noon, Gu Yanqiu and her daughter splurgeed a little.

They went to the state-run No. 1 Restaurant and ordered two bowls of steaming hot shredded pork noodles.

Snow-white noodles, emerald green scallions, and fragrant shredded meat—Gu Niannian buried her head and ate with gusto, even drinking the soup clean.

After finishing the bowl, she patted her round belly and then looked longingly at the half-bowl left in her father's bowl.

Gu Yanqiu felt both sorry for him and amused, and pushed her bowl over, saying, "Eat, it's all yours."

Niannian smiled sheepishly, ate another half bowl, and was so full that she kept burping.

On the way back, the autumn sun was warm and pleasant.

Gu Niannian sat on the back of the bicycle, clutching the brand-new Xinhua Dictionary tightly in her arms. Her little head rested against her father's broad and sturdy back. Smelling the faint smell of engine oil on her father and listening to the whistling wind in her ears, she fell asleep without realizing it.

She had a beautiful dream.

In her dream, she knew all the words in the dictionary, and she could read all the books in the world.

Gu Yanqiu sensed the even breathing behind him and slowed down his cycling speed.

He felt an unprecedented sense of peace and happiness.

He felt that as long as his daughter was by his side, even the hardest and most tiring days had a purpose.

However, he did not know that storms always brew quietly in the calmest of times.

Just as he was enjoying this rare moment of father-daughter warmth, his mother-in-law Zhao and her family, who had already signed a letter severing ties with him, swarmed around him like flies smelling blood.

Once again, greedy eyes were cast upon him.

Unbeknownst to him, an even more insidious and vicious net was quietly being cast.

This time, they weren't just after his money.

But it was his lifeline, his whole world—Gu Niannian.