Soldiers—ferocious as demons.
They had come looking for Su Ning’s younger brother. They had even opened fire, and someone had died!
It took the people from the Northeast a moment to fully grasp what those words meant.
Then everything went black before their eyes. Dizzy and reeling, they nearly lost their footing. Everything had been going so well—better than they ever could have expected. They had secured food supplies and even oil, and all they had to do in return was protect the oil field...
Now, it was all about to fall apart!
In the ensuing silence, Su Ning’s voice suddenly rang out, utterly devoid of emotion:
“Soldiers causing trouble for my brother?”
Her expression remained perfectly calm, not the slightest different from before. Yet she reminded people of the surface of the deep sea—serene above, while storms raged below, waiting only to erupt and lay waste to heaven and earth.
Her gaze moved slowly.
Faintly.
Yet when it settled on someone, it felt as heavy as ten thousand jun. At least, that was how the Young Marshal felt. He heard Su Ning ask, sounding almost puzzled:
“My kinsman has always been honest and straightforward. He works diligently and has never caused any trouble. How did he suddenly bring such deadly misfortune upon himself?”
“Oh, I understand now.”
“It’s because of me.”
She was smiling, but it was a cold smile.
“Are you trying to give me a warning?”
Someone immediately stepped in to explain. “No, absolutely not. Our side in the Northeast would never have such an intention. There must be some misunderstanding. To be frank, we’re the ones who have benefited from this arrangement. Even if we consider the worst-case scenario, this would be the last time we’d choose to offend you. Perhaps someone is trying to stir up trouble between us.”
“Please calm down first. We promise we’ll investigate this thoroughly and find the culprit.”
The words came out both hurried and resolute.
They had no choice.
If they did not say this, the duck they had already caught would fly away—and it was a duck fat enough to drip with oil.
Before this, their relationship with Su Ning could still be considered one of equal trade. In terms of social standing, if circumstances had not been so unusual, a mere merchant like Su Ning would never have had the standing to speak to them as an equal.
But things were different now.
The other party had come to trade with genuine sincerity, and their side had actually gained more from the arrangement. Yet now something like this had happened...
Some of the older men were practically blushing with shame.
Inside, they were cursing furiously as they tried to guess who had done it.
The Japanese?
The Nanjing government? The Communists?
Or some other warlord from elsewhere?
There was no way one of their own men could be that stupid.
One sweep of Su Ning’s eyes was enough for her to know what they were thinking. She gave a scornful laugh. Sometimes, the answer people were least willing to believe was the truth.
That was fine, too. The more painfully their faces were slapped, the more unbelievable it would seem—and the harder they would strike back.
“Whether it was a misunderstanding or not can be discussed later. I’m going upstairs to see what happened.”
Someone tried to stop her.
The man was certainly already dead.
Anyone could guess that a seriously wounded person would have no means of defending himself. Who knew how much torment he had endured before dying? Seeing it with her own eyes would be different. As the saying went, even when beating a dog, one should consider its owner. There was no need to think about it—Su Ning would only become angrier.
But she clearly was not asking for permission.
The moment she finished speaking, she strode forward.
The others could only follow. Along the way, they encountered numerous doctors and nurses who had taken shelter, trembling in fear. Clearly, the incident had happened only moments ago.
The closer they drew to their destination, the worse the destruction became: overturned chairs, scattered brass shell casings, blackened holes still smoking, and blood...
At last.
At the entrance to the hospital ward, two men lay sprawled on the floor. Their cries of pain could still be heard from a distance, and everyone assumed they were doctors or nurses who had been caught in the crossfire—or perhaps people from Su Ning’s side.
But when they came closer—
Oh, for heaven’s sake. Why were they wearing uniforms from the Northeastern Army?
Both men were clearly injured, blood flowing steadily from their wounds. Their faces were deathly pale, yet despite their injuries, they had been bound up like dumplings with the tubing from the IV drips. From head to toe, only their heads were still able to move.
At the sound of approaching footsteps, one of them struggled to turn his neck. The moment he recognized the people coming, his eyes lit up.
Someone else, meanwhile, felt their vision go dark.
Then they heard—
“Marshal, Uncle Zhang, Uncle Li… hurry and save me! I’ve been shot several times, and I’ve lost so much blood. I’m getting weaker and weaker, and I’m freezing. Am I going to die? Waaaah, I don’t want to die…”
The man bawled so hard that his tears and snot ran together, leaving him in a pitiful mess.
Su Ning turned her eyes away.
How ugly.
It hurt her eyes just looking at him.
Everyone else misunderstood her reaction. They glared at the sobbing man, exasperated. They were the ones who were truly cold all over now.
Most of the people present knew this fellow.
He was a second-generation heir.
His elders were familiar with them, but unfortunately, his father and uncles were all away fighting. That left the uncles without any blood relation to him to step forward and take the blame.
“Guo Er, why are you here? Did you notice something suspicious and come to protect Miss Su’s younger cousin? What are the casualties? And by the way, did you notice anything suspicious?”
Every word was aimed at helping him distance himself from the incident.
There was no other choice.
After that howl of his, no one would believe them even if they claimed not to know him.
Those who had suspected that Su Ning had staged the whole thing to force down the price now abandoned that idea as well.
“No, why are you asking me so many questions? The important thing right now is to save me… Fine, I’ll tell you.”
Though the situation had forced his hand, Guo Er was in too much pain and too terrified to think straight. Without even stopping to consider the consequences, he confessed everything:
“I heard someone say that Su Ning was only pretending to mend her ways and support us. In reality, she had ulterior motives. She wanted to use someone’s life to cover up the flaws in her penicillin, and then make the outside world believe that we had received some huge favor from her and that she was a great philanthropist. When I heard that, I thought, how could we let her bully the Northeastern Army like that?”
“Then I brought some people to the hospital. I swear, I didn’t intend to do anything too outrageous. I just wanted to see whether the penicillin really worked and, while I was at it, teach Su Ning a little lesson…”
Everyone’s expressions turned uniformly grim.
The evidence was conclusive.
Completely conclusive. This really had nothing to do with the Northeastern Army. How were they supposed to explain this?
Most of them had heard the same claims about the penicillin before, and truth be told, they had found them quite convincing. After all, there was that saying—no one did anything without a motive.
So this development seemed perfectly reasonable, with no apparent holes in it.
None of them dared look at Su Ning’s face.
Actually—
Su Ning herself felt fairly calm. Anyone chosen by the mastermind to die in this operation clearly wasn’t going to be very intelligent. They had to be impulsive and reckless, not particularly bright, and possess a status important enough that their death would drive her into total opposition with the Northeastern Army…
That was quite a long list of requirements, yet somehow, there really were two people who managed to meet every one of them.
It must have been hard on the mastermind to find them.
She curled the corners of her lips as she thought this.
At that moment, someone noticed something was off.
“Why are you tied up? Does that mean someone rescued Miss Su’s cousin?”
Guo Er was cut off, and he looked a little dazed. It took him a moment before he nodded blankly.
“Yeah, he’s fine. You don’t know what it was like over there. We had dozens of men, but somehow we still couldn’t beat the few guys on the other side. Damn it, those cowards ran the moment they realized they were losing...”
No one was listening to the rest of what he said anymore.
He was fine.
Miss Su’s younger kinsman was fine.
That meant there was still room to turn things around.
It was as though fireworks were going off in everyone’s heads. Their tense bodies finally relaxed, leaving them more exhausted than if they had run several thousand meters. One person even raised a hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
He said to Su Ning, “It seems this whole matter was an accident after all. It was also because we failed to keep proper order under our authority and allowed rumors to spread, which led to this mess. Fortunately, good people are blessed by Heaven, and your kinsman escaped unharmed. We will certainly give him satisfactory compensation.”
Su Ning had yet to say anything.
But Guo Er below suddenly grew anxious and shouted, “It wasn’t an accident at all! Someone was pulling strings behind the scenes...”
“Shut up.”
Someone rebuked him impatiently.
They all assumed he was trying to shift the blame because he was afraid. The sequence of events was perfectly clear. If anything, Guo Er was responsible for most of it. To appease Su Ning, he was bound to receive a severe punishment.
The next moment—
“I want to hear him out. Let him speak.”
The woman’s voice was neither warm nor cold. Guo Er immediately looked at her with gratitude.
Su Ning: “...”
There was no doubt about it now.
He really was a rather “simple” man.
“I’m not trying to shirk responsibility. There really was something suspicious going on. I’m not an idiot—I knew we could grab someone to make a show of force, but actually injuring them would be a different matter. I made that clear to the men before we came. But as soon as we arrived, someone suddenly opened fire, and everything descended into chaos. I panicked and was just about to stop it when one of our own men shot me!”
“Are you sure?”
Someone asked in a low voice.
“I’m sure.”
Guo Er’s eyes were filled with indignation as he turned toward his “companion,” who was tied up beside him and had remained silent the entire time. He shouted loudly:
“It was him!”
