The Cunning Thorn

The Cunning Thorn is a full-length novel by military author Fenwu Yaoji (real name Dong Qun) in the Bullet Scars series, and the first of the five-volume Cunning Thorn set, published by Yunnan People's Publishing House in April 2010. Set against the backdrop of China's Fifth Special Forces, the book's main thread is the transformation of the boy Feng Yinglou: born into a military family, his temperament turns timid under his father's harsh discipline and his classmates' bullying, and he is raised as a "cat." At age eight, a remark from an instructor at the Fifth Special Forces elite training school to his father—"Your son was born a tiger, but you raised him a cat"—changes the course of his life. This volume begins with Feng Yinglou's childhood and an accidental encounter with a young murderer, then follows him through sworn brotherhood, selection into the Fifth Unit, and selection and field survival training so harsh as to be almost cruel, as the "kitten" who dared not fight back is gradually honed into a blade of the army. Through the special forces' code-name system, the book sets out its core premise: snipers are mostly called "Eagles," soldiers responsible for VIP protection or battlefield medical rescue are called "Shirts," and comprehensive elites who can adapt quickly to any environment and independently complete all kinds of combat missions are called "Thorns." Feng Yinglou ultimately receives the code name "Cunning Thorn." This volume mainly lays out the characters' origins, the causes of their personalities, and their growth during training, focusing on the process of "how the weak become strong" and planting seeds for later plotlines such as counterterrorism infiltration, family upheaval, and international special forces competitions.