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

"Li Huilan! Wanqing's coworker at the textile factory!"

Gu Yanqiu, as if grasping at a lifeline, immediately recounted in detail how Li Huilan handed over her belongings and gave her fifty yuan.

"She told me herself that Wanqing's greatest wish before she died was for me to raise Niannian to adulthood. Those belongings were what she entrusted to me!"

"good!"

Cheng Tiezhu slapped his thigh.

"This is the most important witness! A third-party witness who has no family relationship with either of you—his words carry the most weight!"

He immediately took out paper and pen from the drawer.

"Write to her immediately! Explain the situation clearly, ask her to help write a written statement specifying Wanqing's last wishes, then get it stamped by the factory's labor union or the local street committee, and send it over!"

"With this certificate, plus the one issued by our brigade, proving that you've been diligently raising your child and are a responsible father, even if Zhao makes a huge fuss, she won't have a chance!"

Gu Yanqiu was so excited that his hands were trembling.

He took the paper and pen, leaned over the table, and began to write, stroke by stroke.

He wasn't highly educated, and his handwriting was crooked, but every word in the letter was filled with sincerity and urgency.

After writing the letter, seal it and write the address: Xichuan Province First Textile Factory, Li Huilan.

Gu Yanqiu clutched the letter tightly in her hand, as if she were holding onto all her hopes.

"Uncle Cheng, thank you!"

"No need to thank me!" Cheng Tiezhu waved his hand. "I also bear some responsibility for this. I should have thought of this when we divided the family property. Go to the post office and mail it as soon as possible!"

Gu Yanqiu nodded and pulled Niannian to leave.

"dad."

Niannian, who had been silent all along, suddenly grabbed his hand.

Gu Yanqiu turned around and saw her daughter looking up with a serious expression.

"What's wrong, Nian Nian?"

"Dad, let's take a picture."

"Take a photo?" Gu Yanqiu was stunned.

What kind of photos should we take at this time?

"Okay." Niannian's eyes were unusually firm. "Let's take a picture of just the two of us."

She looked into her father's eyes and said clearly, word by word:

"From now on, no matter who tries to take me away from you, I'll show them this photo."

"In the photo, I am your daughter, and you are my father. Neither of us can change that."

The four-and-a-half-year-old child declared her belonging in the most straightforward way.

Gu Yanqiu's heart felt as if it had been struck heavily by something.

A mix of emotions—bitterness, emotion, and pride—choked him up.

He knelt down and hugged his daughter tightly in his arms.

"it is good."

His voice had a heavy nasal tone.

"Daddy will take you to have your picture taken. We'll take the best one."

There is only one photo studio in Qinghe County, called "Hongxing Photo Studio", which is located diagonally opposite the supply and marketing cooperative.

The shop is small, with a few black and white photos hanging in the window. Some are of soldiers, some are of newlyweds, and each person's face is filled with the simplicity and joy unique to that era.

When Gu Yanqiu led Niannian inside, the old photographer was wearing reading glasses and repairing an old-fashioned camera.

"Take a picture?" The old man looked up.

"Okay, take a picture."

Gu Yanqiu took out some money from his pocket and asked the price.

A one-inch black and white photo, with the negative, costs 50 cents.

That's enough to buy five pounds of cornmeal.

Gu Yanqiu did not hesitate at all.

"shoot."

The background is a blue curtain with several faded folds.

The master craftsman had Gu Yanqiu sit on a square stool and Niannian stand in front of him.

"Come on, young comrade, smile."

The experienced technician was hiding behind a black cloth behind the camera, giving instructions.

Gu Yanqiu was stiff all over. He had never had his picture taken before, and he didn't know where to put his hands and feet.

Niannian was also very nervous; her little hands gripped the hem of her clothes tightly, and her face was tense.

"Think of something happy!" the old master said, peeking out from under the black cloth.

Something happy?

In Niannian's mind, the image of the whole village cheering when her father fixed the diesel engine flashed through her mind.

She forgot the weight of the first five dollars and seventy-two cents her father handed to her.

She missed the clumsy yet gentle movements of her father tying the red ribbon in her hair with his rough hands.

Her lips involuntarily curved upwards, revealing a beautiful smile.

Her eyes, too, smiled like two crescent moons.

Looking at his daughter's smiling face in front of the camera, Gu Yanqiu's weathered and stern face miraculously softened.

There was no smile in his eyes, but something warmer than a smile.

It is light.

It is the light that only appears in a father's eyes when he looks at his precious daughter.

"Snap!"

The experienced craftsman captured that moment.

The flash of the old-fashioned camera flickered with a "poof," releasing a faint smell of gunpowder.

The first, and possibly last, photo of the father and daughter together was captured at this moment.

"Come back in three days to pick it up."

The old craftsman wrote a receipt and handed it to Gu Yanqiu.

After leaving the photo studio, Gu Yanqiu went to the post office to mail a letter, using express mail.

Then, he took Niannian and, for the first time ever, went to a state-run restaurant and ate a bowl of shredded pork noodles.

A bowl costs two cents, and there are five or six shreds of meat floating in it.

Gu Yanqiu put all the shredded meat from his bowl into Niannian's bowl.

"Dad doesn't like to eat meat," he said.

Niannian looked at the high pile of shredded meat in the bowl and didn't say anything.

She picked up a piece with her chopsticks and held it to Gu Yanqiu's lips.

"Dad, you eat."

Gu Yanqiu was stunned.

"Daddy, eat," Niannian insisted.

Under the dim light of the small restaurant, the father and daughter shared the few precious shredded meats, one for each of them.

On the way home, Gu Yanqiu felt at ease.

The letter was sent, and the photos were taken.

We have both witnesses and physical evidence.

He felt that he had finally grasped some trump cards that could rival the Zhao family.

However, he didn't know.

Zhao's actions were much faster than he had imagined.

She had no intention of waiting for his reply.

That letter was merely the "courtesy" in the "courtesy before force" approach.

The "gift" has been delivered; the next step is the "military."

three days later.

Gu Yanqiu took Niannian to the county town to pick up the photos.

The photos are very well taken.

In the black and white photograph, the little girl smiles brightly like the sun, while the tall father's eyes are gentle as water.

Niannian wrapped the small photo in three layers of handkerchiefs and carefully placed it into the earthenware jar her mother had left behind.

This is her treasure, her talisman.

However, when they returned to the entrance of Chengjiawan Village, they found a large crowd gathered under the big locust tree at the village entrance.

The villagers were pointing and whispering about the three strangers.

The leader was a woman in her fifties. Although she wore patched old clothes, she stood up straight, her chin slightly raised, and her face was shrewd and mean.

Behind her followed a thin man in his early thirties, timid and hesitant, like a son who hadn't been weaned.

Beside the man was a woman with an unusually loud voice, standing with her hands on her hips, yelling at the villagers.

"What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen city relatives visiting the countryside before?"

"We're here to find my niece! Gu Niannian! Who is Gu Niannian?"

Gu Yanqiu's steps froze on the spot.

The blood in his body turned completely cold in an instant.

It was them.

Zhao Shi, Song Jianguo, and his maternal aunt Sun Fenglan.

They actually... came to our door in person!

Niannian hid behind Gu Yanqiu and saw the woman in the lead through the gap between her father's legs.

That face was the nightmare she feared most when she woke up in the middle of the night.

Those eyes had once coldly watched her being stuffed into the cold wooden box.

Those hands once received two hundred yuan as a "bride price" from human traffickers.

It's my maternal grandmother!

Niannian felt a sudden dizziness, as if all her strength had been drained, and her legs went weak, almost causing her to collapse to the ground.

She gripped her father's trouser leg tightly, her nails digging into his flesh.

"dad……"

Her voice trembled like a leaf falling in the wind.

"Dad...I'm scared..."