When Gu Zhenhua returned to the compartment after his meal, the faint fragrance of food still lingered in the air.
With a single glance, he understood. The Li siblings had already finished their lunch.
He sat inside quietly, his gaze sweeping across them with practiced subtlety. And he noticed the change in their behavior.
They had grown noticeably restrained.
No one spoke openly anymore. Even when they exchanged words, they leaned closer, whispering softly into each other's ears, as though wary of being overheard.
He was not unaware of the reason.
His earlier probing, though deliberate, had not been gentle. To children their age, it must have seemed more like an interrogation than a conversation.
Yet he had no choice.
In times such as these, vigilance was not optional. And this girl… Li Shuying was far too unusual to ignore.
The journey continued in a subdued rhythm.
The train rumbled steadily across the vast northern plains.
Gu Zhenhua remained in his seat, a book open in his hands. His posture was upright, composed, his expression unreadable as his eyes moved across the pages.
Occasionally, however, his attention would drift—not to the scenery outside, but toward the quiet figures seated across from him.
For a fleeting moment, Gu Zhenhua's gaze softened. Then, just as quickly, it returned to the book.
By late afternoon around five o'clock, the siblings stirred awake. After a brief exchange, they decided to visit the dining carriage.
The canteen was modest, they ordered a simple meal, a bowl of clear cabbage and tofu soup, a stir-fried dish of potatoes with green peppers, and several coarse grain buns.
The food was plain, but warm. And in such times, warmth alone was a luxury.
Li Jianmin ate with visible satisfaction, while Li Jianguo maintained his usual composed demeanor, though his pace betrayed his hunger. Even Li Shuying, who was accustomed to more varied food through her hidden means, found comfort in the simplicity of the meal.
"Not bad," Li Jianmin muttered, tearing into another bun. "At least we don't have to chew on cold rations."
Li Jianguo gave a faint nod. "A journey like this… even simple food tastes good."
Li Shuying smiled but said nothing.
On their way back, they overheard people saying that the train would reach Baicheng in approximately three hours.
That single piece of news stirred something deep within Li Shuying.
Her heart tightened with excitement, nervousness, anticipation all tangled together.
She was finally going to see her father. After more than sixty years of separation in her previous life… and for the first time since her rebirth. Though his face had grown blurred with time, she still remembered his eyes, warm, steady and unyielding.
Memories surfaced, one after another.
As a child, she had followed him into the mountains, watching in awe as he hunted wild game with practiced ease.
She remembered his strong arms lifting her effortlessly, carrying her as though she weighed nothing at all.
She remembered laughter, rare, but genuine, as they played in the courtyard, beneath the open sky.
Her chest tightened and unknowingly, her eyelids grew heavy and somewhere between memory and longing she drifted into sleep.
When she opened her eyes again, everything had changed. She was no longer in the train. Instead she stood once more in Taonan County. Before her, a crowd of people moved in the same direction, their steps hurried, their expressions tense, their voices overlapping in restless murmurs.
Li Shuying frowned.
How…?
She clearly remembered being on the train. So how had she returned here?
Yet strangely her body did not resist. As though guided by an unseen force, she found herself following the crowd. Step by step. As she walked, a sense of familiarity crept into her heart.
Then, voices began to reach her ears more clearly.
"Have you heard? They caught him!"
"A traitor, such a disgrace to our county!"
"What exactly did he do?" someone asked, curiosity laced with anger.
Another voice replied sharply, "What else? He was a Japanese spy inside the military and leaked intelligence!"
"What?! Such a dog! Even death is too light for him!"
"His whole family line should be cursed!"
"Traitor! Betrayer of the nation, may his ancestors never rest in peace!"
Someone beside her spoke, his tone vicious, "I even brought pig's blood. When they bring him out, I'll drench him and let everyone see what kind of filthy creature he is!"
Another added, "Good! That's what such people deserve!"
Li Shuying's steps slowed and her breathing grew uneven.
Her heart felt unbearably heavy.
The noise around her seemed to blur, yet every word struck her like a hammer. A chill crept up her spine.
The noise around her seemed to blur, yet every word struck her like a hammer.
A chill crept up her spine.
No…
Her thoughts trembled.
Is this… a dream? Or was everything else the dream? Her rebirth, the week with her Mother and brothers… the system space… all of it… was that the illusion?
Her breath grew unsteady as she lifted her head and saw the execution ground. Exactly the same. The same open field. The same crude wooden platform.
Her legs weakened instantly. Yet they did not stop. Step by step, as if dragged by fate itself, she continued forward.
Hundreds of people had gathered on the ground. They all stood in a wide semicircle, leaving a long, empty stretch of land in the center.
"This isn't right!" Li Shuying cried, her voice breaking as she forced it out with all her strength. "My father is innocent! He is not a traitor! It was Zhao Hongmei and Zhao Xiaojun, they framed him! It was all their doing!" She shouted until her throat burned.
But no one turned, no one reacted, no one even paused. Her voice just did not exist here. Tears welled in her eyes, blurring her vision. Her throat tightened painfully as realization struck her.
She looked around in desperation and understood. No one could see her. No one could hear her. She was there, yet she was not.
Then...
Boom.
A heavy drumbeat echoed through the field. Her heart lurched violently. She turned instinctively toward the sound and saw him.
Her father.
Li Guoqiang.
For a moment she could not breathe. He was no longer the tall, straight-backed man she remembered. No longer the figure who stood like a pine tree against the wind.
Now he looked broken. His clothes were torn and stained, hanging loosely over his frame. His once broad shoulders seemed to have collapsed under invisible weight. His face was swollen, patches of bruised purple spreading across his skin. Dried blood clung to the corners of his lips.
One eye was half-shut. The other… barely open. His steps were uneven, dragging, as though each movement cost him unbearable effort. Two soldiers walked beside him, not guiding, but almost dragging him forward. He could not even stand properly.
"Father…!" The word tore from her throat like something ripped apart. Tears flooded her eyes as she ran toward him, stumbling, reaching out. "Father! Can you hear me? It's me, your little Shuying! I'm here! Please look at me!" She waved her hands desperately in front of him, her voice trembling, breaking, pleading.
But there was no response. His gaze passed through her as if she were nothing but air.
Around them, the crowd erupted. Rotten vegetables, Filth, garbage, human excret and even pig's blood, all of it was hurled at him without restraint.
"Traitor!"
"Dog of the enemy!"
"Shameless scum!"
The curses came like a storm.
"Stop it! Stop it!" Li Shuying screamed, rushing toward those throwing the filth. "What are you doing?! He is innocent! You're wrong, he never did any of that!"
She grabbed at them... or tried to. Her hands passed through their bodies like mist.
"No… no…" Her voice trembled violently.
She turned, running toward the soldiers guarding her father. "Comrade! Please listen to me! He served the army his whole life! He fought on the battlefield! He protected the country! Is this how you treat him? At least investigate properly! Please listen to me!"
She knelt, she begged, her forehead almost touching the ground. But the soldiers stood unmoving.
Her throat grew dry and her voice turned hoarse but she refused to stop. She ran back to her father and tried to embrace him, spreading her arms as if she could shield him from the filth, from the hatred, from the entire world.
"I'll protect you… Father… I'm here… I won't let them hurt you…"
But her arms passed through him.
A broken sob escaped her lips. Seeing him like this her heart felt as though it was being torn apart piece by piece. Hatred surged within her as she thought of Zhao Hongmei and felt like killing her in the spot.
"Zhao Hongmei," Her scream tore through her chest.
Then a loud voice rang out. A military officer stepped forward, unfolding a document. "Li Guoqiang," he announced coldly, "is charged with sabotaging military food supplies intended for the front lines during a time of war. Furthermore, he is accused of profiteering from said supplies and maintaining illicit connections with Japanese agents, acting as a spy to leak military intelligence. Evidence includes Japanese calligraphy and correspondence recovered from his residence. Based on these findings, the verdict has been reached... execution, to be carried out immediately."
The crowd erupted in cheers, curses, and applause.
"No! That's false! It's all false!" Li Shuying screamed, shaking her head violently. "Those were planted! He was framed! He would never betray the country, never!"
But her voice drowned in the roar.
Then her eyes froze. In the crowd she saw herself along with her brothers standing together looking at Li Guoqiang. Their faces cold and distant, filled with disbelief… and something worse, doubt and even resentment.
Her heart shattered. She knew that look. Because once she had stood there too and she had thought the same.
"No… no…" She ran toward them frantically. "You're wrong! All of you are wrong!" she cried. "You know what kind of man Father is! He taught you to love the country, to stand upright, to be righteous! How could such a man betray it?" She grabbed at them, desperate. "Shuying! Elder Brother! Second Brother! Third Brother, can you hear me? Go and appeal! Ask for reinvestigation!" she begged. "Find Uncle Liu Baitao, he can help you! He can help you reach Father's superior! There's still time!" Her voice cracked but her pleas fell into silence.
Suddenly the crowd fell quiet. An eerie stillness spread across the field. A voice began counting. "Ready...!"
Her body froze. Her eyes snapped back toward her father. He stood there barely upright, exhausted, and broken. But his gaze was fixed on the crowd, on his children to he presice. Warm, gentle, and searching their eyes for their trust on him, just as she remembered.
Tears slipped silently from his eyes when he saw the expressions on their faces and slowly he lowered his head.
"Fire...!" Gunshots rang out sharp and merciless. Bullets tore through his body and he collapsed.
"FATHER...!!!" A shrill, heart-wrenching scream ripped from Li Shuying's throat, echoing across the void. And in the next instant she opened her eyes and found herself back into the moving train.
Her body trembled violently her face was soaked with tears and sweat. Her chest heaved as if she had been running for miles.
Li Jianguo, Li Jianmin and even Gu Zhenhua were crouched in front of her, staring at her with wide, shocked eyes.
"Little Shuying, what happened?!"
"You were shouting… you kept crying… what's wrong?"
But she could not hear them clearly, her ears rang with gun shot and her heart pounded. And in her mind that final image her father falling refused to fade.
Her composure shattered completely.
A broken cry tore from her chest as tears streamed uncontrollably down her face.
"Father…" she whispered hoarsely, her voice trembling beyond control as she buried her face in her hands.
Those tears were not merely born of fear.
They carried anger, fierce and unforgiving, directed at herself for once doubting him.
They carried grief, deep and suffocating, for the pain he must have endured in his final moments.
And beneath it all a quiet, burning resolve for vengeance.
The small figure curled in on itself, shoulders shaking, her cries raw and unrestrained.
Gu Zhenhua stood frozen, he had faced gunfire without flinching, walked through battlefields strewn with the fallen, but this sight of a young girl weeping as though her heart had been torn apart left him at a loss.
He turned instinctively toward Li Jianguo, his brows slightly furrowed. "Why is she crying for her father?" he asked in a low voice. "Are you not on your way to meet him in Baicheng?"
Li Jianguo shook his head, equally bewildered. "I… don't know," he admitted. "Perhaps she had a nightmare."
Li Jianmin quickly crouched beside his sister, his tone gentler than usual. "Little Shuying, it was just a bad dream. Don't think about it anymore. We will see Father soon. The train will reach Baicheng in less than half an hour. There is nothing to worry about."
Li Jianguo nodded in agreement. "Yes," he added, his voice calm but firm, "weren't you the most eager to meet Father? You even prepared all those dishes for him yourself."
Gu Zhenhua remained silent for a moment, then unscrewed the lid of his military canteen and extended it toward her. "Drink some water, It will help."
Hearing their voices Li Shuying slowly returned to herself. Her sobs gradually weakened, though her breathing remained uneven. After a long moment, she lifted her head.
Her vision was blurred with tears, but she could make out their faces—her brothers, filled with concern… and Gu Zhenhua, watching quietly, his expression unusually gentle.
She took the canteen with slightly trembling hands. She quickly lowered her gaze and drank.
Slowly her breathing steadied, her sobs faded and her thoughts began to clear.
Gu Zhenhua gave a small nod. "Do not dwell on it," he said in a calm, reassuring tone. "It was only a nightmare. Your father is well. He will be glad to see you at the military compound."
Li Shuying lifted her head slightly, intending to thank him. But the moment her eyes fell upon his uniform that deep green her pupils trembled.
In an instant, the scene returned, the soldiers, the rifles.
Her fingers tightened unconsciously around the canteen. When she looked up again, her gaze was no longer uncertain, it was steady.
"Comrade Gu," she said slowly, her voice still hoarse but firm, "my father is the best man I know. He is a true patriot. A man who would give everything for the country. Everything he believes in, every value he holds, has been forged through blood and sweat on the battlefield."
She paused briefly, her voice softening, yet growing more resolute.
"He taught us from a young age, to place the nation before ourselves. Because only when the nation stands strong… can its people live in peace and dignity."