Mountain Village

The days of healing had left him with a limp.

Inside the room, Li Wei, who was half-kneeling while supporting their mother, looked at Li Yan with an apologetic expression and said, "Fifth Brother, 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 said, interrupting him with a gentle smile. "Perhaps I'll manage to become a general or something one day; then I'll bring you all to enjoy a life of comfort."

Li Wei looked at him, sighed softly after a long moment, and then glanced at their mother, who was being patted on the back by Fourth Sister while still sobbing quietly. "It seems Fifth Brother is the only one who might bring honor to the Li family," he said comfortingly.

In truth, Li Wei and Li Yan had heard from Father and the villagers who traveled to the city to sell wild animal meat or furs, or to purchase daily necessities, that they lived in a frontier town. To the south lay the Meng state, and the probability of border conflicts remained high; war had broken out periodically over the past few years. Consequently, conscription had become frequent. In the past, enlisting required each village to provide written guarantees verifying age, identity, and background. Now, one only needed the village head to escort them to enlist. This was because the current Imperial Dynasty's Emperor governed the world through the Way of Literature and the Classic of Virtue, leading to a state where literature flourished while martial strength declined. This weakness had left neighboring countries restless, with military disturbances erupting constantly. In recent years, it wasn't just this border facing conflict; wars had broken out on other frontiers as well. Since the central Imperial Dynasty's garrison forces could not meet the demands of local defense, they were forced to conscript soldiers locally to bolster their ranks.

Some of the local populace knew that the chances of seeing combat were high, so their enthusiasm for enlisting was not particularly high. However, the local garrison, constrained by the Emperor's edicts regarding the Way of Literature and the Classic of Virtue, could not force conscription. Thus, in recent years, anyone who enlisted would receive a sum of money upfront to give to their family—a settlement fee, in essence—to stir up a wave of enlistment. Once this policy was implemented, it did manage to entice many farming families to send their sons off to the army. Naturally, these were almost exclusively impoverished families; the wealthy merchants and grandees would never do so.

However, these circumstances were not things the women of the village would know. In a world where men were held in higher esteem than women, men rarely discussed such matters with their wives or daughters-in-law. These topics were reserved for the village entrance or the fields, serving as fodder for gossip among the men, especially in this mountain village located more than two hundred li from the county seat. The village consisted of only a dozen or so households, and it was rare for anyone to enlist in the army for years at a time. Yet, brothers Li Wei and Li Yan had been able to overhear such talk while working in the fields or following the teams trekking into the mountains.

The room fell silent once more. After a long while, Old Man Li knocked his pipe against the threshold and said, "I'll go find the village head. You two get some rest." With that, he walked toward the village under the moonlight, his figure vanishing into the early autumn night shortly thereafter.

Moonlight spilled onto the bed through several wooden window frames with torn paper, illuminating the tattered quilts, which were shedding cotton, covering the two of them. Li Wei and Li Yan lay back-to-back.

"Fifth Brother, stay calm when you encounter trouble in the army. Endure what you must, and don't be too eager to stand out."

"Mm."

After a period of silence, "If... if there is a battle, and no one is watching, don't charge to the front. Hang back a few steps."

"Mm."

After another silence, "You don't need to worry about the family. With the settlement money from your enlistment, I will take good care of Father and Mother. Use your monthly stipend to buy yourself more meat to eat."

"Mm. Third Brother, you'll have to do more of the field work. Father and Mother are getting old."

"Fine. As long as I am here, Father and Mother will not go hungry."

"..." The silence continued, punctuated by the occasional word.

The moonlight was like water; the night was cool and clear.

At midnight, a soft sound came from the main room door, and the brothers ceased their talking. Soon after, the low, barely audible voices of Father and Mother drifted from the side room. Not long after, the soft sobs of Fourth Sister and Mother followed; it seemed Fourth Sister had been keeping Mother company all the while.

Li Yan remained lying back-to-back with his Third Brother, eyes wide open, staring at the wall in the darkness. Under the hazy moonlight, the cracks on the wall looked like the faces of his family, and their voices and the events of the past spread from his head deep into his heart.