"Some children are born with frail health and are still sick. Rainy and cold days are hard to endure. I'm thinking—there's a church not far behind our house. Because the grounds include a cemetery, no one wants to go there. We could clean it up and use it as a temporary dormitory for the children. With the three cars making a few trips, we should be able to transport them all."
Her plan was orderly and thorough.
Victor was the same—always taking everything upon himself and sorting it all out.
I looked at her and thought of Victor again.
I wondered what that man was busy with right now. He hadn't been home for three days. Did he miss me the way I missed him? Was he still angry?
Maybe thinking of him made the approaching car look like his.
Before I could collect myself, a familiar figure stepped out of the car.
I snapped back to reality, startled to find that the person in my mind had actually appeared.
I immediately turned my back, inching away in small steps, pretending to help load the straw mats, hoping to slip by unnoticed.
But behind me came Victor's cold snort:
"It seems every guard at the General's Estate today will be visiting the interrogation room for twenty lashes."
The bodyguards who had come with him were somewhat puzzled.
They didn't know I had come out—I had sneaked out wearing his military uniform and had stayed close to Grace the whole time.
There was no reason to make innocent people suffer lashes for my sake.
I quickly turned around with a placating smile. "Victor, I haven't seen you in so long. How have you been?"
He was immune to my attempts at flattery. He brushed past me and spoke directly to Grace: "I'll handle these matters. Go home first. It's best not to be running around at this hour."
Victor was leading his men to dismantle the Green Gang hideout by hideout. This group was deeply rooted locally—numerous and complex, with tangled connections to the local business community and political figures.
"We were just worried you'd be too busy, so we're handling what we can..."
Grace's gaze drifted to me, realizing he was using this as a pretext. Her voice grew quieter as she explained.
Then she asked with a smile, "How is my brother-in-law?"
Victor replied in a low voice, "They caught some suspicious people. He's interrogating them."
Oliver hadn't been home for a long time either. So interrogating prisoners was his specialty.
"Juno!" A cry pulled me from my anxiety and embarrassment.
A little girl with pale lips had collapsed on the ground.
Several older children rushed forward—some supporting her, some pinching the spot between her nose and lip, some pouring rice broth.
Everyone thought she had fainted from hunger.
I hurried over too. I saw her jaw locked tight, her twitching limbs looking very abnormal.
I pushed through and told them to stop their chaotic efforts. "Lay her flat! Lay her flat!"
The older children, though confused, quickly and cooperatively laid her down.
I tilted her head back slightly to keep her airway clear and checked her carotid pulse.
Without hesitation, I began chest compressions.
My force seemed heavy against the girl's frail body.
Owen hovered anxiously at my side. "Ma'am, is my sister going to be okay?"
I didn't know. I could only maintain a rhythm of two compressions per second. I pressed for nearly half an hour.
Finally, the girl let out a groan and woke up.
I was drenched in sweat, sitting on the ground and gasping for a long while before I could answer Owen's question: "She's okay now."
The awakened little girl was carried to a straw mat to rest.
We didn't delay any further. We decided to use the three cars plus Victor's car first, cramming in Juno and twenty other children with disabilities.
Grace suggested, "I'll go with them to the church and arrange for the estate's medical staff to come examine them. You wait here for the cars to come back."
Victor, meanwhile, ordered his subordinates to bring military trucks. "One trip at a time—when will that ever finish?"
Hearing him say that, I knew he wouldn't stop us from settling the children in the future.
Grace smiled and ushered the children onto the cars, departing first.
I said I wanted to go too: "I'll sort out the unused old blankets from the General's Estate. The children only have straw mats—even in the church, it won't be warm enough."
Grace looked back at me and Victor. "Let Mrs. Lambertu handle that. The other bodyguards can split up to buy supplies. You and Victor stay here with the remaining children and wait for the trucks."
Grace's arrangements were crystal clear.
I had nothing to say. Victor had nothing to say either.
It was dark now. The old factory had only the children and the two of us adults.
Seeming to realize the children were afraid of him, Victor stood far away.
I sat with the children by the fire on the straw mats.
A boy brought a bowl—one of the few without a chip—filled with multigrain porridge and offered it to me. "Ma'am, have some to warm up."
I wanted to say I wasn't hungry, but his eyes were so bright and hopeful that I couldn't refuse.
So I picked up another bowl and poured out the thin liquid for myself, leaving the thick portion for him.
"Thank you. I like the rice broth."
He held the remaining thick porridge, hesitated, and finally gathered the courage to ask, "Ma'am, what was that thing you did for Juno just now?"
Somehow I'd been mistaken—the children all called me "Ma'am" following Owen's lead. It felt odd.
"Don't call me Ma'am. My name is Rose, or you can call me Sister."
I had exerted myself a lot saving her, and now the sweat was cooling, leaving me feeling unwell.
I took a sip of the hot rice broth, which at least warmed me a little.
"That's called CPR. Juno probably has a heart condition."
"When Juno fainted before, she'd wake up on her own. But it got harder and harder. If not for you, Sister, she might have ended up like my younger brother..."
Hearing that he had lost his own brother, my smile faded and my heart ached.
But before I could comfort him—
The sorrow on his face cleared away. "Sister, I want to learn this CPR too. Maybe I can help other people..."
His eyes were bright. He didn't let himself sink into past pain—he always looked forward.
These impoverished children all possessed resilient spirits. Though living in darkness, they helped one another. No matter how difficult things got, they kept striving to live, full of hope, yearning for tomorrow.
A surge of strength and courage rose in my heart, and I unconsciously looked toward Victor.
He had been standing alone at a distance, but at some point, Owen had walked over like a little adult and was chatting with him. And as Victor spoke, his gaze seemed to land on me, ever so subtly.
I withdrew my gaze and told the boy named Little Yuan to drink his porridge first.
Then I gathered the children around me, intending to teach them some first aid basics.
All the children who were waiting for the truck, except Owen, crowded around me.
I had one child lie on a straw mat, found the spot for chest compressions, and placed my hands one on top of the other, interlacing my fingers. I demonstrated once, then carefully taught the children gathered around.
"A human life is precious. Don't give up easily. No pulse, no independent breathing—that doesn't mean someone is dead..."
After they learned chest compressions, I took a handkerchief from my pocket and placed it over the mouth of the child lying on the ground.
"Learn rescue breathing too, and you can give critically ill people one more chance at life..."
Just as I was about to demonstrate, a few children giggled:
"I know—that's kissing."
I said seriously, "This is not kissing. Look, you first cover the mouth with cloth, and then you have to pinch the patient's nose..."
They laughed and laughed, then suddenly fell silent, their gazes all lifting upward in unison, as if something terrifying had appeared above my head.
Tonight's moonlight was brighter than the campfire, yet I found myself in a shadow.
The person behind me dropped a single sentence: "It's late. I'll take you back."
His tone brooked no argument.
I knew Victor was behind me, but I didn't turn around. Instead, I looked outward. "There's no car. Are we walking back? That would be dangerous."
"The car will be here soon." Victor's palm appeared before me.
Sure enough, the moment he finished speaking, Victor's car and a military truck arrived.
I thought about how I'd been sitting on the ground and my hands were dusty.
So I pushed myself up, brushed off my hands, and was about to help the children onto the military truck.
But he grabbed my arm and pulled me into the car.
Outside, the driver guided the children, helping them one by one onto the truck. Each little face beamed with joy. He was more thoughtful—he'd called a truck so all the children could go in one trip.
I dutifully admitted my mistake. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have sneaked out."
Though in my heart I didn't really think I was wrong—I didn't feel I had done anything wrong.
But I had to consider things from his perspective.
So as not to light the fuse on this firecracker and have it blow up in my face.
He didn't dwell on it, though. Instead, he asked, "You don't seem like a doctor or a nurse. How do you know how to do everything?"
"I had a heart condition when I was young, but it was cured later. Being sick for so long made me sensitive to these things."
At this, he fell silent.
He didn't know me.