This man was far more reliable and even found her a birthday newspaper.

Although it was old-fashioned, she could feel the sincerity behind the gesture.

Su Xiangwan didn’t want him to die.

If he died, she’d have to remarry, and she couldn’t even imagine the kinds of men she would meet next—scoundrels of all shapes and sizes.

Like the revolutionary youth whose heart was said to have the shape of a red five-pointed star, or the married man claiming to be a government official, yet living in poverty.

At that moment, Su Xiangwan thought about her future and suddenly couldn’t bear the thought of Song Qingshan dying.

“Things like this, we must go first. How can I trust others to go?” he said. “Xiao Su, get in my car, take the kids, and head to the dormitory area. Hurry.”

Su Xiangwan didn’t argue. “Take care of yourself.”

“By the way, should we have another child?” Song Qingshan suddenly grabbed Su Xiangwan’s arm. “Let’s have another one.”

“You’re crazy!” Su Xiangwan grabbed the car keys, pulled away from his grasp, and started running. “It’s hard enough to raise these four!”

Lu Dan and Gou Dan didn’t really understand the bomb situation.

They had only ridden in their father’s jeep on the way here and had been too scared to say much.

But Li Chengze said, “Aunt Su, you really have no conscience.”

“Why?” Su Xiangwan, who was driving the manual transmission for the first time (having always driven automatic cars before), was struggling. The car made noise but barely moved forward. In her panic, she was pressing on the gas without shifting gears.

Li Chengze quickly helped her change gears, and the car shot forward.

He said, “My uncle might die.”

“Well, then I have to get all of you out of here.” Su Xiangwan replied, “In times of disaster, the first thing to think about is preventing casualties. There’s no time for personal feelings.”

Li Chengze sat back down, paused for a while, then said, “I caught seven fish for you.”

“Where are the fish? And Chengze, you know, I didn’t want fish. I wanted you to confess. Cooperate honestly, or you’ll be in trouble.” Su Xiangwan had realized that the child was sincerely apologizing, but he had his pride, arrogance, and a grand young master’s attitude. He was afraid but wouldn’t admit it.

Su Xiangwan was determined to force him to cooperate, to teach him that being secretive and evasive would only bring trouble in the future.

Li Chengze angrily plopped down in the back seat, still refusing to confess.

“Fasten your seatbelt.” Su Xiangwan, now more confident with the manual transmission, drove the car at full speed.

The bomb had a safety distance. She drove the car up the mountainside and stopped near the soldiers’ camp.

The entire dam platform had already been evacuated. It was the weekend, so there weren’t many people at the camp. Most of them were at the dam’s floodgate, working to stack sandbags and create the first line of defense.

As for Song Qingshan, she couldn’t see him.

He was probably at the bottom of the dam near the floodgate, trying to disarm the timed bomb.

Li Chengze, acting like a little crow, muttered, “Four minutes left.”

To be precise, the bomb was now in its final countdown.

Gou Dan and Lu Dan tightly clung to Li Chengze’s shoulders. “Brother, what will happen if it really blows up?”

“We still don’t know the type or the power of the explosives, but… 10, 9, 8…” Li Chengze was counting, but he wasn’t the only one.

People below the dam were shouting too, but when they reached 5, the shouting stopped.

Then, a cheer erupted.

A group of soldiers tore off their shirts, and those carrying sandbags dropped them, jumping and shouting with joy.

It was a matter of life and death, but since they survived, they celebrated.

Li Chengze muttered, “My uncle is really amazing. He defused the timed bomb just five seconds before it exploded.”

After a life-or-death moment, Song Qingshan crawled out from the floodgate area, patted Liu Xiangdang’s shoulder, and strode off.

His walk was strong and confident, almost like a clock swinging back and forth.

On the dock, a group of people was still carrying explosives.

They were the ones behind today’s explosion plot.

They should be caught soon, but Song Qingshan had to go check on that situation too.

And was it just a simple explosion, or was there a larger conspiracy behind it?

Song Qingshan needed to investigate everything himself.

If things weren’t handled properly and the hidden dangers weren’t cleared, he and Li Yifan’s group—along with the leaders of Qingshui County—would face military law.

Su Xiangwan was still at the dormitory area, walking up the mountain road, looking at the cave dwellings where the soldiers stationed by the reservoir lived.

Lu Dan and Gou Dan were peeking into one room after another.

The bunk beds were exactly the same, the blankets folded neatly like tofu blocks, and the washbasins and toothbrushes arranged in the same way—everything was so healing.

“Brother, I want to be a soldier in the People’s Liberation Army when I grow up,” Lu Dan said to Li Chengze.

Gou Dan also said, “I want to be in the army too. Then, I can help Brother Lu Dan with his toothbrush.”

In terms of daily life, Li Chengze and Gou Dan were both very meticulous, while Lu Dan was different.

Though he was cheerful, warm-hearted, and a bit careless, he was also a typical sloppy guy.

After using his toothbrush, he would just throw it aside carelessly.

His toothbrush was often put in the wrong place.

If he wasn’t using Li Chengze’s toothbrush, he was using Gou Dan’s towel to wash his face.

He would often shout because he couldn’t find his pants.

Su Xiangwan found him the most troublesome in daily life.

Right now, she was giving a live lesson: “Song Donghai, you need to be able to find your own toothbrush and toothbrush holder before you can become a soldier. With your current messy state, the army wouldn’t even look at you.”

Just then, Chen Aidang walked by, patted Lu Dan on the head, and said, “These things can all be trained. New recruits! If I’m still in service when you join, I’ll wear down your rough edges.”

After rubbing Lu Dan’s head, he added, “Comrade Su, you really can’t leave tonight. I have to show you how to roast a whole cow.”

“Are you roasting it alone?” Su Xiangwan asked.

Chen Aidang stopped walking. “Of course. I can roast a whole cow by myself in two hours. Just wait and see.”

“Aren’t you involved in dealing with the bomb case? Doesn’t Political Commissar Chen take part in that?” Su Xiangwan asked.

Chen Aidang saluted before saying, “I received orders from the commander. He’ll handle the bomb issue. My task is to roast the whole cow for you.”

“Mom, what does beef taste like?” Gou Dan stopped and asked Su Xiangwan, tilting his head.

Actually, it wasn’t just Zhi Zhi who was pitiful.

As Su Xiangwan thought about it, the most pitiful character in the entire book was little Gou Dan, the main antagonist in the novel.

He was a foodie and had a bad habit of craving food.

There was a part in the story where it mentioned that when Song Xiling was a child, he once tried to please a little girl who looked like a young A’she.

He had heard that the girl’s grandmother loved beef, so he went to a store to steal some beef.

He was caught by the supply and marketing cooperative’s buyer and chased.

Then he had nowhere to hide and saw a sewer, so he hid there.

He intended to wait until the buyer left and couldn’t find him anymore, then come out.

But then a car arrived and parked right on top of the sewer cover.

The car stayed there for three days.

So, Song Xiling squatted in the stinky sewer, holding a piece of beef, and waited for three days.

Finally, after three days, he thought he could finally avoid getting beaten, but as soon as he came out, he ran into the buyer again.

So, he was chased and beaten again, holding a piece of rotten beef.

When reading this part of the book, Su Xiangwan laughed loudly, thinking how satisfying it was to punish the bad characters.

But now, she sighed, looking at this poor, skinny little foodie.

Originally, she wanted Zhi Zhi to go home earlier.

But for the sake of a beef meal, she decided to indulge the child.

“Political Commissar Chen, where are you roasting the beef? Can we come and watch?” Su Xiangwan asked.

Unexpectedly, even Lu Dan, who wasn’t particularly fond of food, and Li Chengze, who was particular about food, both lit up at the idea.

They were excited to watch Political Commissar Chen roast a whole cow.

“Report to the commander, our artillery company is being surrounded by all the villagers of Xiaozhou Village. We request the use of weapons!” Just as Song Qingshan and the others were heading to the dock, they heard Liu Xiangqian’s voice over the intercom.

Song Qingshan grabbed the radio from the communications officer’s hand. “How many people are there?”

“Commander, you can’t imagine it! The villagers are all going crazy!” A static noise followed, and the radio went silent.

Xiaozhou Village was located just below Xiling Mountain, with another dock there.

Song Qingshan looked back at the deputy commander, both of them having a bad premonition.

Even though they expected the situation to be serious, when they arrived at Xiaozhou Village, they were still shocked.

It was indeed a violent conflict.

The entire village—men, women, and children—were armed with weapons: wooden forks, iron forks, kitchen knives, and pig slaughtering knives.

One villager even had explosives strapped to his body.

When the artillery company went on their mission, they didn’t carry many weapons, and only half the soldiers were on duty.

Over a hundred soldiers were surrounded by the entire village.

Liu Xiangqian had been slashed by someone, and his arm was badly injured, bleeding profusely.

“Commander, aren’t we supposed to be like family with the people?!” Zhou Duoduo, who was covered in explosives and waving a kitchen knife, shouted. “We don’t want any of our soldiers to be harmed, but the dam must be blown up!”

Behind him, the villagers—even the children—shouted, “Blow up the dam!”

Liu Xiangqian, already angry, was suddenly poked with an iron fork.

He turned and pulled out his gun, shouting, “Who the hell stabbed me from behind?”

Someone behind him shouted, “Blow up the dam, blow up the dam!”

Even the children of Xiaozhou Village were shouting, “Blow up the dam!”

One furious platoon leader from the artillery company raised his gun and aimed at a child. “You better not shout again!”

“Commander, these people aren’t ordinary civilians; they’re devils! They must have been controlled by demons,” Liu Xiangqian shouted loudly while retreating. “I’m going to tear their nets apart today.”

If the gun went off, the explosives on Zhou Duoduo’s body would likely kill a lot of people.

“Tell me, why do you want to blow up the dam?” At this moment, only Song Qingshan remained calm.

The men from the village raised their hands in surrender.

Zhou Duoduo, trembling from nerves and previous electric shocks, said, “Your dam has ruined our feng shui. Our village has had many deaths recently. My second uncle died mysteriously in the reservoir a few days ago, and several children drowned while swimming.”