With a crack, the ropes binding me broke simultaneously. The two women in the room screamed, which drew the other two women outside the door.

At this moment, seeing what was happening, the women outside the door pulled out their guns. Pointing their guns at me, they said, “Don’t move. Or we will shoot you!” Xiao San and Xiao Qi looked at each other, expressed a tacit smile, and held their guns. After that, I laughed and said to them, “I don’t get it. Why do you put your hope on your guns? Are guns useful to you? It’s just a concept introduced by foreigners! In their eyes, American weaponry is definitely better than millet plus rifles. But the truth is, what decides the winner is not the weapon but the capability. Like now! If I tell you that your guns will kill you, would you believe that?” While I was saying that, I snapped my finger with a crack. Then with a swoosh, Xiao San and Xiao Qi grabbed their guns and pointed it at the women!

Of course, they were not able to see Xiao San and Xiao Qi with their mortal eyes. What they saw was me cutting the ropes loose with a glance and moving their guns away with a snap of my fingers. Then the guns turned over, suspended in the air and pointed at themselves. They were so shocked that they shivered, with their hands covering their heads, and with their mouth crying out…

The middle-aged woman also got stunned! I sat at the table with the guns placed in front of me. Then I took out a cigarette from my pocket, lit it and said, “I don’t know why you hate my dad. But I am not him. I am myself. Although I don’t know your past, you are an elder to me. I should call you “Aunt”! Now you can tell me what happened in the past. If my dad really did something wrong, I will uphold justice for you in an impartial way.”

Her eyes lit up at once and said, “Can you really help me?” I answered, “Of course. You have my word!” Then she said, “Okay. I will tell you about the past!” I waved my hand and said, “This is your hospitality?” She immediately came to her senses and said to the two women at the door, “Go make some tea!” I said to her again, “Wait! One more thing, now my fellows are after the other two who robbed us. I am afraid that your henchmen would be having a hard time now! If they dared to take out their guns, their wrists might have already suffered a comminuted fracture! Let me give them a call!” I knew well that only Xiao San and Xiao Qi were in the calabash gourd with me, the others who were with Lin Feng and Chongxi were around them. Therefore they wouldn’t lose.

She took my phone out from her purse. It turned out after I passed out, they took away my phone and turned it off in fear of being tracked by GPS. I turned on my phone again and got through to Lin Feng’s phone, “Brother Lin, how are you holding up there?” He answered, “Alas, why did you turn off your phone? I have caught them already. If they weren’t two women, I would have beaten them up by now! We are heading to meet you now. Chongxi didn’t meet any danger either and is on the way to meet you too!” “Bring them back! It is a misunderstanding. Call the other team to come back too!”

As the woman told me about the ins and outs of the matter, I finally knew the reason why my dad wasn’t willing to come to Inner Mongolia!

In the lunar year of Bing (the third of the Ten Heavenly Stems) Chen (the fifth of the Twelve Earthly Branches), meaningly the year of 1976, there was a kind of epidemic disease raging in the northern ranches. It spread at a fast speed with a high death rate. People who got it would have a high fever that wouldn’t recede. Back then, the People’s Commune was still in charge, and medical service was free. The local doctor wasn’t able to cure it. The penicillin and streptomycin in stock were used up, but it still didn’t work. The disease was spreading.

At that time, a young man around 20 years old came around on a horse, wearing a local Mongolian robe and carrying a military haversack printed with a word saying “Serve the people.” He called himself Murong Hai who was from a near ranch and claimed that he could cure the disease. There were many patients. So the production brigade took charge of giving out the medicine he brought along.

Oddly enough, people started to feel better on the second day after they took his medicine and recovered in a few days. Because he didn’t ask for payment, people all thought that he was an extraordinary young man. Back then, people queued up to invite him to meals, which was arranged by the production brigade. People took turns to treat him in their house every day. Because he cured the disease, everyone treated him with the best food they had at home! This Murong Hai didn’t decline the treats either (My dad was not only a good cook but also a gastronome. To put it in plain language, he was a foodie). The head of the production brigade, also the director of the Revolutionary Committee, was a man named Bayinchaolu. Bayinchaolu had a sister whose name was Wulan. Wulan was 18 years old and also suffered from a kind of disease. Therefore they also wanted Murong Hai to try to treat her. The disease she got was quite strange. When she didn’t have an attack, she was as sane as a normal person. But once she recurred, she would get hysterical, crying, shouting, hitting, cursing, and undressing, with her mouth mumbling dirty words! Now there were two young female members of the Revolutionary Committee guarding her! Therefore Bayinchaolu asked Murong Hai for help. Murong Hai agreed without a single shred hesitation.

Bayinchaolu took Murong Hai to the outside of Wulan’s Mongolian Yurt. He shouted a few words in Mongolian. Then some noises came out of it as if there were a fight inside. After quite a while, they were told to go in. Murong Hai entered and saw a young woman around 18 years old. Her clothes were in a mess. Apparently, she was dressed by the others with force. She was barefoot without boots and had two young women holding her arms and shoulders down. The moment she saw Murong Hai, she said in broken Mandarin, “What a handsome man you are! Do you want me? Come here!” Bayinchaolu felt so embarrassed that his face turned red and pale. Then after a pause, he managed to get a hold of himself. Without turning a hair, Murong Hai smiled subtly and checked her pulse on her wrist. However, although her arms and shoulders were held down, she moved her foot to tantalize him under his crotch. But Murong Hai didn’t even think about it! After checking her pulse, Murong Hai said, “In the concept of us Han people, this is a disease called being possessed! It is not serious. She will be fine after I remove that thing in her!” Then Murong Hai took out a hip flask, took a mouthful of wine, and spat it on the woman with a puff. In the meantime, he glowered at the back of the woman! Her head immediately fell backward and got still. After a long while, she came to herself. Seeing the mess in front of her, she got quite embarrassed. Then she got dressed and fixed her hair. Seeing that the patient got cured, Bayinchaolu laughed heartily, held Murong Hai’s hand, and said, “Bro, thank you very much! Now, let’s go for a drink! …” At this point in the story, I said in mind, “Well, my dad surely had a Liuxia Hui style! If I were him, I would not be able to control myself!”

However, on the next day after Murong Hai left, Wulan got sick again. After hearing that, Murong Hai went back to Wulan’s Mongolian Yurt. This time, he directly entered it without giving a second thought. But when he showed up in the yurt, Wulan recovered right away, putting her clothes back on. In this way, it repeated a few times. Later on, Bayinchao found Murong Hai and asked him if he could stay there for a while until Wulan’s condition stabilized. Seeing this situation, Murong Hai had no other choice but to stay. Therefore they spent every day together during that period. And Wulan fell in love with this handsome young man. However, Murong Hai thought otherwise.

At that time, with Murong Hai around her every day, Wulan didn’t need the two members of the Revolutionary Committee to look after her anymore. Bayinchaolu came to talk about this with him privately. He said, “You know my sister’s condition. And you are the only one who can keep her from getting sick again. What’s worse, as a grown woman, every time she recurs, you were there to see her nudity. How could she ever find a husband like this?” But Murong Hai rejected with his face full of helplessness. Knowing that Murong Hai rejected to marry her, Wulan started crying and shouting again. After a while, she recurred. This time, the two members of the Revolutionary Committee were away. There was only Murong Hai with her naked. And because of the emergency, he had no choice but to hold Wulan down with his body…

No one knew how Murong Hai cured Wulan. But Wulan knew that she didn’t lose her virginity! Without a third party, a man’s personality could be tested more thoroughly. That was why Wulan grew more attached to Murong Hai. This time Wulan didn’t recur again. Only that when she woke up, she found that there was a palm-size calabash gourd held in Murong Hai’s hand. Therefore she presumed that Murong Hai had put some medicine into her mouth with this calabash gourd while she was unconscious! The gourd was empty now. Wulan took a closer look at the strange patterns on the gourd and said, “They look beautiful.” However, the truth was that she wanted to have the calabash gourd as a love token! Certainly, Murong Hai didn’t know that!

On a stormy evening two days later, the production brigade’s sheep flock was attacked by a wolf pack, and Bayinchaolu was killed by the wolves. When morning came, Murong Hai left. Wulan saw him off riding on a flying sword without looking back. And the calabash gourd was gone too!

A few years later, in a semi-grassland and semi-farmland region on the edge of the steppe, a pack of bandits on horses showed up from time to time. No one knew their background nor their appearances, because they were all wearing a mask. And no one knew who they were…