Chapter 1: A Four-Year-Old "Cargo"

The winter of the early nineties was brutally cold. The northern wind cut like a knife, stinging faces raw. Lijia'ao, this poor mountain ditch of a village, was sealed tight under heavy snow.

The abandoned cowshed at the west end of the village had cracks everywhere. The freezing wind howled through the gaps, wailing like ghosts. In the corner, a pile of blackened, rotting straw. Curled up on that straw was a tiny little thing.

That was Tuan Tuan.

She was four years old. But she looked barely two or three—skin and bones, thin as paper. Her head was too big for her tiny body, like a malnourished bean sprout. She was wrapped in a torn burlap sack, the kind used for fertilizer, stiff and stinking. Underneath it, she wore only a thin, worn-out padded jacket. The cotton inside had clumped into hard lumps. It didn't keep her warm at all.

Tuan Tuan's little face was flushed bright red, like an overripe apple. She was burning with fever. Her body was scorching hot like a tiny furnace, but her hands and feet were cold as stone.

"Mommy… Tuan Tuan's cold…"

The little girl mumbled hazily, her voice quieter than a mosquito's buzz. She clutched half a cornbread bun against her chest like her life depended on it. It was leftover dog scraps from last night. Green mold spots had grown on it. It was hard as a brick. But it was Tuan Tuan's only food.

Outside the cowshed, snow crunched underfoot. Someone was coming. More than one.

"Hey, Brother Daqiang, this is the girl you were talking about?" A raspy male voice drifted in, thick with the stench of cheap tobacco.

Then came the stepmother Wang Guifen's shrill voice, sharp enough to hurt your ears. "Aiyo, Brother Scar, don't let this little brat fool you—she's tough as nails! No dad since birth, and that short-lived mother of hers dropped dead too. She's been dumped in this cowshed half a month and still hasn't frozen to death. That's what they call a cheap life, easy to raise!"

Wang Guifen talked while blowing warm air into her hands, her tone dripping with disgust.

Tuan Tuan heard that voice. Her tiny body shuddered violently. The bad woman. And the limping uncle. They were going to sell Tuan Tuan. She was little, but she understood. Last night, Uncle had gotten drunk and roared in the yard—said selling this worthless money-pit of a girl could get him several hundred yuan to gamble with.

Tuan Tuan didn't want to be sold. Before Mommy died, she'd said Daddy was a big hero. Daddy would come get Tuan Tuan. Tuan Tuan had to wait for Daddy.

The cowshed's rotting wooden door was kicked open with a crash. Cold wind and snow swept in all at once. Tuan Tuan choked and coughed violently. She tried desperately to burrow deeper into the straw.

Three adults walked in. The man in front had a long, ugly scar slashed across his face—terrifying to look at. He wore a thick military coat, and his eyes swept over Tuan Tuan like a venomous snake.

Li Daqiang limped forward, rubbing his hands together obsequiously. "Brother Scar, want to inspect the goods? This girl's only four, but she can really work. Feeding pigs, sweeping, gathering firewood—she can do it all."

Scarface took a drag of his cigarette, blew out a smoke ring, and sneered. "That's it? She looks like a sick kitten. I'd have to pay for her medicine before I could even use her. Three hundred. Not a cent more."

Wang Guifen panicked and slapped her thigh. "Three hundred?! Brother Scar, you're robbing us! The old bachelor in the next village paid a thousand for a dumb wife! This girl's small, but she'll grow! Besides, she's—" Wang Guifen's eyes darted and she swallowed the rest of her sentence. She's that man's seed. Even if that man was dead, everyone said he'd been a soldier. Good bloodline.

Scarface waved impatiently. "Cut the crap. Four hundred. Take it or leave it. The mountain passes are snowed shut—who else is gonna buy a half-dead money pit like this?"

Greed practically oozed from Li Daqiang's eyes. Four hundred yuan. That was enough for days at the town gambling den. "Deal! Deal! Sold!" Terrified Scarface might change his mind, Li Daqiang reached out to grab Tuan Tuan.

Tuan Tuan shrank back in terror, her tiny hands clutching the moldy cornbread bun for dear life.

Just then—a dark shadow shot through the crack in the door. A wild dog. In this blizzard, the mountain dogs were starving mad. It had caught the scent of the cornbread. Its green eyes locked onto the food in Tuan Tuan's hand.

"Woof!" The dog bared its fangs, drool dripping, and lunged straight at Tuan Tuan. It was a full-grown mongrel, taller than her standing up. One bite could snap her twig-thin neck clean through.

"Aiyo!" Wang Guifen shrieked and hid behind Li Daqiang. Li Daqiang froze, too scared to move. Scarface watched with amusement, making no move to help. He wanted to see if this "merchandise" could survive the test.

Tuan Tuan stared at the wild dog lunging at her, its gaping jaws right in front of her face. The stench of rotting meat hit her nostrils. She was terrified. But that was her cornbread bun. It was her only hope of staying alive long enough to wait for Daddy. No one was taking Tuan Tuan's food.

A surge of heat suddenly erupted from Tuan Tuan's frail little body. Survival instinct. The wolf-blood buried deep in her veins.

Just as the wild dog's jaws were about to clamp down on her wrist—Tuan Tuan moved. Her speed was nothing like a sick child's. That tiny hand, covered in frostbite sores, shot out and grabbed the wild dog by the throat with terrifying precision.

"Arf?" The dog froze. It couldn't comprehend how this tiny prey dared fight back.

The next second, the impossible happened. Tuan Tuan gritted her teeth, her little face turning purple with effort. "GO AWAY!!" she roared in her baby voice. Then her tiny hand swung. The wild dog—a full thirty to forty pounds—was lifted into the air with one hand. And hurled like a rag doll.

CRASH. The dog slammed into the cowshed's mud wall. Dirt rained down from the impact. The dog let out a pitiful yelp, hit the ground, twitched twice, and went still.

Silence. Dead silence. Only the wind outside remained.

Li Daqiang's jaw dropped so far it nearly hit the floor. Wang Guifen's eyes bulged like she'd seen a ghost. "This… this damn brat… she's possessed by a demon!"

Only Scarface. His murky eyes suddenly blazed with ecstatic light. The look of a man who'd just discovered a priceless treasure. The look of a man who'd just found his golden goose.

He stepped forward, crouched down, and reached out to squeeze Tuan Tuan's skinny arm. Tuan Tuan glared at him warily, like a wounded cub, a low growl rumbling in her throat.

Scarface grinned. A mouthful of yellow teeth. "Well, well. Interesting. Born with heaven-defying strength. If I sell her to the underground fighting rings… or to those rich bosses with special tastes… tsk tsk tsk."

Scarface stood up and dusted off his hands. He pulled a crumpled wad of cash from his coat and threw it straight at Li Daqiang's face. "Five hundred! The girl is mine!"

Li Daqiang scrambled to catch the money, his face cracking open with joy. "Yes yes yes! Brother Scar, you're a real man! This worthless brat is yours!"

Tuan Tuan watched the banknotes flutter through the air. That was the money they were selling her for. Her life was worth five hundred yuan.

She hated them so much. She hated Uncle. She hated Stepmother. And she missed Daddy more than anything.

Daddy, where are you? Tuan Tuan can't hold on much longer. Tuan Tuan misses you so much.