A lone bird, separated from its flock, swept across the distant rainy sky, slowly beating its wings as it flew farther away.
Li Ping'an raised his head and gave a lazy yawn.
He and Old Ox had been traveling with the troops for over a month.
They climbed several hills and finally arrived amid a dense thicket.
Li Ping'an hauled supplies with a group of new recruits.
Their living conditions could not be called harsh, but they were certainly far from good.
Sometimes they crawled into tree hollows; other times they slept beneath trees.
Unlike the other soldiers, Li Ping'an spent every day writing away with a brush.
Among those hauling supplies with him was a young soldier called Datou.
He always liked to sidle up to Li Ping'an and ask what he was writing.
Li Ping'an said he was keeping records, which he would sort and file away later.
They would serve as proof of his travels, and he would even have to find someone to stamp them~
Datou could not understand what Li Ping'an was talking about.
In any case, Li Ping'an struck him as different from everyone else.
Though he was blind, people could still sense that he knew a great deal.
He could write essays, play the erhu, and talk about places from the farthest south to the farthest north.
There seemed to be nothing he did not know.
The wine of Gannan, the strongholds of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, the little bridges and flowing streams of Jiangnan, the dazzling world of Capital City, the yellow sands of the northwestern frontier...
All of it filled people with curiosity about him and anticipation.
His literacy had also earned Li Ping'an a position as a junior commander.
Datou asked Li Ping'an whether they were really going to