The next morning, Liu Tiezhu really came.

Not alone.

He brought three others. All were my father's comrades from back then.

Four middle-aged men, full of uprightness, walking with vigor.

They came to my shop first.

Liu Tiezhu stood at the entrance of "Nora's Kitchen," looking up at the signboard for a while, his eyes turning red.

"Yuanzheng, your daughter has made something of herself."

Once inside, I cooked them a table of dishes. Braised fish, lion's head meatballs, dry-fried green beans, and a soup.

These were all skills taught to me by Grandma C, with a northern flavor, heavy on oil and salt.

Liu Tiezhu took a bite of the lion's head meatball and was stunned.

"This taste... it’s like the taste from your father's military canteen."

"Grandma C was once the head chef at the provincial government guesthouse; she specializes in northern cuisine."

"Good, very good." He put down his chopsticks and looked at me solemnly.

"Nora, tell Uncle the truth. What do you plan to do about your mother's illness?"

"I will not undergo matching."

"Uncle doesn't mean that. Uncle is asking, if she dies, can you live with it?"

I was silent for a long time.

"Uncle Liu, I don't know. But I know that if I agreed, I would never be able to move past it for the rest of my life."

He nodded and didn't try to persuade me further.

After the meal, the four of them went straight to the hospital.

Not to see Beth.

But to find Gary.

I didn't follow. But Lu kept me updated on the situation the whole time.

Thirty minutes later, Lu called, her voice trembling with excitement.

"Nora, your Uncle Liu and the others have blocked your stepfather in the hospital corridor! Four retired soldiers standing in a row; your stepfather's face turned green with fear!"

"What did they say?"

"Your Uncle Liu told your stepfather to return the house and said if he didn't, he would go to the inspection department of the provincial military district to report that someone was embezzling a martyr's legacy. Your stepfather didn't dare say a word."

"And what else?"

"Your Uncle Liu said something that scared your stepfather so much he almost sat on the ground."

"What was it?"

"He said, 'Yuanzheng’s ashes are in Babaoshan; you’d better weigh if you are qualified enough to touch his daughter’s property.'"

Chapter 15

Liu Tiezhu and his group spoke with Gary in the hospital corridor for a full forty minutes.

I don't know exactly what was discussed.

But the result was clear: Gary agreed on the spot to cooperate with the property transfer and would no longer stand in the way.

Sienna, my lawyer, received a call from Gary's lawyer, Sun, that afternoon, saying they were willing to settle through negotiation.

But that wasn't the point.

The point was that before Liu Tiezhu and his men left the hospital, they met with Beth.

Liu Tiezhu had gone into the patient room and sat for ten minutes.

After he came out, he called me, his voice sounding deeper than I had ever heard it.

"Nora, your mother told me something."

"What is it?"

"She said that before your father passed, he saved a sum of money for you. It wasn't in the pension account; it was money he saved from his own allowance. It was in a fixed-term passbook, and it was in your name."

My heart skipped a beat.

"Where is the passbook?"

"She said she doesn't remember."

"She's lying."

"I think so too," Liu Tiezhu said, pausing for a moment. "But she said something else—"

"She said that if you come to do the matching test, she’ll tell you where the passbook is."

I stood in the back kitchen, still gripping a handful of chopped green onions.

"She’s using my father’s legacy to blackmail me."

"Nora—"

"Uncle Liu, the money my father saved for me—she hid it away, didn't give it to me, and now she’s taking it out as a bargaining chip to trade for my liver. Do you think a person like that is worth saving?"

On the other end of the line, Liu Tiezhu didn't speak.

After a long silence, he said, "If your father were still here, his heart would break."

That night, I stayed in the shop by myself until very late.

After everyone else had left, I sat in the empty dining hall with a cup of tea that had gone completely cold in front of me.

My father saved money for me.

He scrimped and saved in the military, with an allowance of only a few hundred yuan a month, yet he actually managed to save money for me.

It was in my name.

He knew his job was one where something could go wrong at any moment. He had left a backup plan for his daughter in advance.

And Beth had hidden this backup plan away.

For twenty-two whole years.

She used the pension my father traded his life for to remarry, transferred my father’s house into another man's name, and collected various subsidies in my father's name—and then took the money my father personally saved for me and turned it into her final bargaining chip.

Forcing me to trade it with my own body.

I pushed the teacup aside and took out my phone.

I flipped through an album I hadn't opened in a long time.

There was only one photo in it.

It was the one Officer He had copied for me—my father holding me, both of us smiling.

The little girl in the photo didn't know what the future held.

She only knew that her father’s embrace was warm and that he had two dimples when he smiled.

I turned my phone face down on the table.

Just then, the door was pushed open.

Cole stood at the entrance, carrying a bag of oranges.

"Lu said you were alone in the shop and asked me to come check on you."

"No need to check."

He walked in, sat down opposite me, and placed the oranges on the table.

"Have you been crying?"

"No."

"Your eyes are red."

I looked away.

He didn't say anything else; he peeled an orange himself, broke it into two halves, and handed one to me.

I took it and popped it into my mouth.

It was so sour it made me grimace.

"Go ahead," he said, leaning back in his chair and watching me.

"Go ahead and what?"

"Do whatever you want to do. I support you."

"I want Gary and Beth to cough up everything that belongs to me. Every single cent, every square meter."

"Good."

"I want everyone to know how they treated a martyr’s daughter."

"Good."

"I don't want to donate my liver."

"Then don't."

"But I want to know how much money my father saved for me. Where that passbook is. Not because of the money, but because it’s something he left for me."

"Then let's find it."

I looked at him.

"You’re just saying 'good' to everything?"

"Because every decision you've made is right." He handed me the other half of the orange. "You don't need anyone's permission."

I looked down at the orange in my hand.

Just then, my phone rang again.

A text message. From an unknown number.

I tapped it open.

"Nora, the passbook is in the pocket of your father’s military uniform from before he passed. That uniform is in the attic of the old house. Your mother doesn't know about this; I discovered it later. Go get it quickly, it’ll be too late if you wait. —Your second uncle."

Chapter 16

I stared at the text message, reading it three times.

My second uncle.

The very same second uncle who treated my father’s house like a business venture.

The same second uncle who took a ten-percent kickback from Zhou Dafu.

He was actually telling me the location of the passbook.

Cole leaned over to glance at the phone screen.

"Do you believe him?"

"Not entirely. But I have to confirm this."

"When are you going?"

"Now."

The old house was in the military family compound in the east of the city, Building 3, Unit 2, 501.

Although the title had been transferred to Gary’s name, the court had already accepted my lawsuit, and the property was currently under a preservation order, meaning it could not be traded or disposed of.

Gary should still be living there.

At 1:00 AM, I stood downstairs at the family compound and looked up at the fifth floor.

The lights were off.

Cole stood beside me. "I’ll go up with you."

"No need, you wait downstairs."

"What if that guy surnamed Gary is inside—"

"He isn't. After Uncle Liu and the others finished talking to him, he went back to his old hometown in the town. Lu confirmed it for me."

I went upstairs.

The security door on the fifth floor had been changed to one of those old-fashioned tin doors.