Mountain Village

After those days of recuperation, he was left with a lame foot.

Inside the room, Li Wei half-knelt as he supported their mother, looking apologetically at Li Yan. "Old Fifth, Third Brother..."

"Third Brother, you don't need to say anything. The family will need you to look after them from now on." Li Yan smiled faintly at his third brother and cut him off. "Maybe I'll make something of myself as a general one day. Then I'll take all of you with me to enjoy a good life."

Li Wei looked at him. After a long while, he let out a soft sigh, then looked at their mother, who was still sobbing quietly as their fourth sister patted her back. Comfortingly, he said, "Perhaps Old Fifth will be the one to bring honor to the Li family in the future."

In truth, Li Wei and Li Yan had heard their father and those villagers who went into the city to sell game meat or pelts, or returned after buying daily necessities, speak of it before. This was a border town; south of them lay the State of Meng, and the chances of border war were high. Wars had broken out now and then over the past few years. Thus, troops were frequently conscripted here. In the past, conscription required every village to provide written guarantees proving a man's age, identity, and past conduct at home. Now, as long as the village chief sent him over, he could join the army. This was also because the current emperor ruled the realm through the Way of Letters and the Classic of Virtue. Within the court, civil officials flourished while military strength waned, causing neighboring states to stir restlessly. Military chaos rose from time to time. In recent years, war had erupted not only in this direction, but along borders in other directions as well. The troops dispatched by the central dynasty could not meet the needs of local garrisons, so the stationed forces could only recruit soldiers locally to replenish their ranks.

Some of the local people knew that enlisting meant a high chance of going to war, so they were not very enthusiastic about joining the army. Yet the local garrison, constrained by the current emperor's laws of ruling through the Way of Letters and the Classic of Virtue, could not forcibly conscript men. Therefore, in recent years, anyone who enlisted could first receive a sum of money for his family. It was, in truth, settlement money, meant to stir up a tide of enlistment. Once this policy was introduced, quite a few farming households sent their sons to join the army. Naturally, these were mostly poor families; wealthy merchants and great magnates would never do so.

But the women in the village would not know such things. In this world where men stood above women, men rarely spoke of such matters to their wives, mothers, or daughters-in-law. These things were instead fit to become conversation when the men gathered at the village entrance or traded crude jokes in the fields.

Especially in their mountain village, more than two hundred li from the county seat, where there were only twelve or thirteen households in all, not a single person might enlist in the army for years. Yet the brothers Li Wei and Li Yan could hear such things while working in the fields or traveling into the mountains with the group.

After that, the room fell silent again. A long time later, Old Man Li knocked his tobacco pipe against the threshold a few times and said, "I'll go find the village chief. You all get some rest." With that, he walked toward the village beneath the moonlit night. Before long, his figure vanished into the early autumn moonlight.

Moonlight spilled through the wooden window lattices, where several holes had torn through the paper, and onto the kang bed. Several tattered cotton quilts, their stuffing exposed in places, covered the two men as Li Wei and Li Yan lay back to back.

"Old Fifth, when you encounter trouble in the army, stay calm. Endure where you can. Don't force your way into the spotlight."

"Mm."

After a stretch of silence, Li Wei said, "If... if there's a battle, and no one is watching, don't rush to the front. Hang back a few steps."

"Mm."

After another stretch of silence, he said, "Don't worry about home. With the enlistment money you bring in, I'll take good care of Father and Mother. Use more of your monthly pay to buy yourself meat."

"Mm. Third Brother, do more work in the fields. Father and Mother are getting old."

"Alright. As long as I'm here, Father and Mother won't go hungry."

"..." Silence continued, broken now and then by scattered words.

The moonlight was like water, and the night carried a clear chill.

In the middle of the night, the door to the main room gave a soft sound. The two brothers stopped talking. Then low, nearly inaudible voices rose from the side room as their father and mother spoke. Not long afterward came the quiet sobs of their fourth sister and mother. It seemed their fourth sister had been keeping their mother company all along.

Li Yan still lay with his back to his third brother, staring blankly with open eyes at the wall in the darkness. Under the hazy moonlight, the cracks on that wall seemed like the voices of one family member after another, like memories one after another, spreading from his head into his heart.