When I was discharged from the hospital, I was directly taken to the police station for arson.

About to stand trial with me were those beasts from Dequan Village accused of buying, selling, and raping women.

Of course, Zhao Tiezhu couldn't escape either. The police found seven women's corpses in the pigsty at his home. Some of these bodies had completely decayed, while others were relatively intact.

Zhao Tiezhu never expected that the corpses he had buried in his own backyard, for fear of being discovered if buried on the back mountain, would become the strongest evidence against him.

The police wiped out a trafficking chain involving several villages, including Dequan Village, arrested countless suspects, and also sent those women who longed to return home back to their families.

The promise I once made to them, "Survive, I will take you home," finally came true.

But there was a secret only I knew—

Initially, I never intended to rescue any trafficked women. I just wanted to bring back my sister; that was my initial thought.

This thought persisted until the night I encouraged the village women to escape together. As I struggled to lead my incoherent sister out, she clutched my hand tightly, leaned on my shoulder, and said:

"Sister has never been wrong. My brother is a bona fide man, someone who will be a ray of hope for others."

Hearing those words, I was stunned. I looked at my sister, who still had that foolish look but looked at me with unwavering trust.

So after successfully escaping and settling my sister, I went to the county police station, smashed a few things, and then fled back to the mountains, setting a fire along the way.

Fortunately, I almost failed to be the man my sister believed I was.

Time flew by, and after serving my sentence, my sister recovered after treatment.

She took me to a cemetery in another city, and we stopped in front of a tombstone.

In the black-and-white photo on the tombstone was a girl with a bright smile.

Tombstone

engraved with—In memory of Huang Sijia.

On that chaotic night when everyone was escaping, she sacrificed herself to stop Zhao Laoer and other villagers from recapturing Meizi, ultimately succumbing to her injuries.

This girl, who once harmed others for her selfish desires, finally redeemed herself, giving hope to others through her sacrifice.

The secrets deep in the mountains were ultimately burned away in a forest fire...