Setting Out to Enlist

Wang Qi and his adoptive father worked through the night and finally skinned more than a dozen wolves before dawn.

Both father and son were deft with a knife, so the skinning went quickly.

Then they took a pole and strung the butchered wolves from it. With one carrying the front and the other the rear, they hauled the dozen-odd carcasses back along the mountain path they had come by.

Neither looked particularly tired. After all, Wang Dashan had spent thirty years tempering his body and could still withstand work of this intensity.

Meanwhile, the warm internal energy in Wang Qi's body flowed without end, making him seem to have an inexhaustible supply of strength and vigor.

He reckoned the wolf carcasses weighed six or seven hundred kilograms altogether, yet the two of them still strode along as though their feet had wings.

They had stopped and started on the way there, but hurried straight back on the return journey, finally emerging from the mountain forest that afternoon and reaching their little house.

But after dropping off the wolf pelts, they did not linger. Together, they carried the wolf carcasses into the mountain village...

They immediately became the most welcome people in that nameless little village.

In the past, the father and son had occasionally shared some game with the villagers when a hunt went well, but more than a dozen wolves was quite a haul. It was practically a festival.

Wang Qi was not actually the only person in Wang Family Village going to enlist.

Knowing that the next recruiting party would take men north, with terms far worse than those offered this time, all the village's young men of eligible age planned to try their luck in the county town.

That day, everyone simply took advantage of Wang Dashan and his son's haul, bringing out seasonal vegetables and side dishes grown by their own families to put together a farewell feast.

Everyone ate their fill at the feast as they saw off their loved ones.

In times like these... being recruited into the army essentially meant parting with one's family forever.

Leaving home as a boy and returning as an old man-that was exactly what this meant, and even that counted as a "good end."

How many could truly rise above the crowd and return home in splendid robes? Most would simply become a handful of yellow earth beyond the northern frontier.

After a few extra cups, the old village head began calling out the village youngsters one by one...

"Big Doggy, you're the oldest. Remember to look after the brothers traveling with you."

"Second Doggy, you're always the quickest to fight, but once you're in the army camp, you mustn't act up anymore. You'll face military punishment for that..."

"Doggy Boy, you're too honest. This old man's afraid you'll get the short end of the stick."

"Little Second Doggy, you haven't even grown any hair above your lip, and already you're leaving home..."

"Little Dog Egg, Grandpa doesn't know whether he'll live to see you come back and marry..."

The more the old village head spoke, the sadder he became... Everyone surnamed Wang in this village was kin or a neighbor. Even one person's absence usually left an emptiness... and now, so many young men would be gone at once.

Finally, he came to Wang Qi.

"Little Qi, truth be told, you're the one this old man worries about least. Seeing how you usually keep that lout Dashan so thoroughly in line tells me enough... All I ask is that, if any of the village boys travel with you, you look after them a little more for the sake of being fellow villagers."

Wang Qi let out a great sigh of relief and nodded repeatedly. Thankfully, the old village head had not used the "nickname" he had briefly had as a child: Forsaken Doggy.

He had no idea how the old village head's mind worked. Every nickname he gave the village children belonged to the "dog" generation.

There were eleven young men of eligible age in the village. Wang Qi, hauling "ten dogs" along with him, made up the recruits from Wang Family Village in the mountains of Langya Commandery.

He and these "doggies" received the whole village's warm regard, each getting new clothes made by the village housewives, plenty of local produce from various families, and an iron sword forged by the village smithy for self-defense.

These had all been paid for with money pooled by the villagers. They had originally wanted to provide each of them with a suit of armor as well... but the village clearly could not afford that expense.

Since men who brought their own equipment to the army camp received preferential treatment, every household in the village had truly worried itself sick over these boys.

And so, amid everyone's heartfelt blessings, Wang Qi set off for the county town with his "ten dogs" in tow.

Wang Dashan did not accompany him this time. Using the wolf pelts he needed to process as an excuse, he did not even come to see him off.

Instead, Wang Qi found himself unable to stop worrying... He felt Wang Dashan might not be able to get a good price for those wolf pelts, and he worried that the man would be all alone with no one to rely on.

He even thought of the young widow in the village, who always seemed rather shy when she looked at Wang Dashan. Perhaps he could bring the two together...

And so he hit the road with his companions, fretting over things no one his age should have had to fret about.

After coming out of the mountains, Wang Qi and the others still had fifty or sixty li to walk before reaching the nearby county town.

They were all young and quick on their feet, and naturally hoped to reach Jiqiu City before dark.

Along the way, those "doggies" all treated Wang Qi with respect but kept their distance.

Perhaps it had something to do with the maturity he had shown since childhood, or perhaps the bloody aura from his wolf hunt in the mountains had yet to fade... The others chatted and laughed along the way, while Wang Qi remained alone.

Fortunately, he did not need anyone's attention. Instead, he patiently analyzed the circumstances of this recruitment.

In his view, the village elders had clearly been a little too optimistic.

The first round of recruitment offered generous terms, but the recruiting officer would obviously have equally high standards for his recruits... This might no longer be a question of whether someone wanted to enlist, but whether anyone would deem him worthy!

Of course, Wang Qi would not consider the second round of recruitment to guard the northern frontier, so he would have to think carefully about the abilities he should demonstrate when the time came.

Wang Dashan had told him not to stand out too much, but surely he still needed to show enough ability.

Besides, he was a mountain hunter, so his performance needed to fit his "identity and occupation."

As he mulled this over, they covered the road and finally reached Jiqiu's county town as dusk deepened, just before the gates closed.

But they did not enter the town directly. Curfew would begin shortly after they went in, and they did not have enough travel money to stay at an inn.

So they simply found somewhere out in the wilderness to make do for the night... They were all mountain villagers, after all, and were not so fussy...

Wang Qi was deeply opposed to this.

Although autumn had arrived, the wilderness was still teeming with mosquitoes and other insects... Under these circumstances, he would rather use some of his private savings to spend a night at an inn in town!

And so he once again proved himself out of step with his companions. After seeing that everyone had settled down, he hurried off on his own and dashed through the gates before they closed.

The soldiers at the gate knew from his clothing that he had come to enlist. After inspecting his travel permit, they let him through.

Wang Qi then took a room at an inn in town that looked reasonably clean, spending nearly half his private savings in one go...

For all his usual penny-pinching, he had a "bottom line" when it came to his quality of life that others could scarcely understand.