Journey Afar

In a daze, Li Yan was shoved awake. When he opened his eyes, he saw it was his Fourth Sister, Li Xiaozhu. His Third Brother was no longer beside him. With swollen, reddened eyes, she looked at him and said, "Fifth Brother, the village chief is here. Father told you to get up and go over."

Li Yan had barely slept the night before.

It was not until the rooster had crowed several times that he finally drifted off in a haze. Sitting up, he said to his Fourth Sister, "Fourth Sister, I'm going now."

Li Xiaozhu did not move. She merely kept looking at him with reluctant eyes.

Li Yan smiled. "Fourth Sister, don't be like this. I'll come back to see you all next New Year. Though by then, I don't know whether you'll still be at home."

Li Xiaozhu froze, then her face reddened. "Glutton for words." She turned and left the room.

Watching his Fourth Sister's retreating back, Li Yan could not help letting out a soft sigh.

He did not believe his own words either. Coming back next New Year—though it was already late summer and early autumn, never mind what might happen half a year from now, he did not even know what circumstances would be like next year or the year after.

After washing up simply, Li Yan went to the front room. Five people sat inside: his father, mother, Third Brother, Fourth Sister, and a burly man in his forties.

The burly man sat in a slightly taller, larger chair. He had a square face covered in a thick beard and wore a short-sleeved hunter's outfit. Yet in the early-autumn morning of the mountain village, he did not seem cold at all. His muscles bulged in knots, and even seated there, he carried an imposing air.

When he saw Li Yan enter, he smiled. "Li Yan, you got up rather late."

Li Yan walked up to the burly man, bowed, and said, "Good morning, Uncle Guoxin."

The man was named Li Guoxin, the village chief. Besides tending fields and farming in his daily life, he was also an excellent hunter, often leading the village's young and able-bodied men into the outer reaches of the mountains to hunt.

During the locust plague of the past two years, it was thanks to him that the village had managed to live a little better than the others. At the very least, no one had starved to death.

Li Guoxin looked at Li Yan, then glanced at Li Yan's mother, Li Wei, and Li Xiaozhu before saying, "Originally, I was going to the county seat two days from now. The second son of Old Shan's family and the eldest son of Li Tian's family are going there to work as a kitchen helper and a blacksmith's apprentice, respectively. They asked me to take them there and provide proof of identity. Last night, Uncle Chang came to my house and told me about Li Yan, so I decided to set out today."

Li Yan's father was named Li Chang, and the villagers all called him Uncle Chang. Li Guoxin glanced around at everyone again and continued, "Actually, yesterday I also told Uncle Chang that Li Yan could go to the county seat and find work like those families. That would be a steady livelihood. But I must make this clear: half-grown lads like you have no experience, so you must begin as apprentices."

"First, apprenticeships require a fee. Second, apprentices have to do every kind of work, and they must sign a contract. If anything happens during the apprenticeship, the master's household will not compensate you. But Uncle Chang still decided to let Li Yan enlist and earn his rations."

This was mainly a matter of money. Li Yan's family had little money to begin with. Though the apprenticeship fee was only five hundred coppers, for a family of five whose monthly expenses were around fifty coppers, it was nearly a year's worth of living expenses. They simply could not afford it.

The second reason was that apprenticeships were grueling. Apprentices had no personal freedom, and before they learned their trade, they had no dignity. It was common enough for masters to beat apprentices injured—or even beat them to death.

After looking at Li Yan, Uncle Chang said, "Then it's settled."

Then he smiled at the village chief. "We'll have to trouble you, Guoxin."

Li Yan's mother, whose eyes were red and swollen, hurriedly asked the village chief, "He's leaving today?"

The village chief nodded. "Yes. Though conscription is a common matter these days, someone returned from the county seat yesterday and said that Marshal Hong began recruiting soldiers yesterday morning. This batch may be for the city's guard troops. Such guards generally protect the families of officials within the city and defend the granaries, armories, and the like."

"They usually do not encounter much of a fight, so they should fill their ranks in two or three days at most."

Li Yan's mother grew anxious at once. "Ah, there'll still be fighting?" Li Xiaozhu also looked anxiously toward Li Guoxin.

Hearing his wife's words and seeing his fourth daughter's worried expression, Uncle Chang slapped the table in front of him in displeasure. "Didn't Guoxin just say so? They're guard troops, staying in the city and guarding the home. They won't fight. Look at the way you're acting."

Li Xiaozhu and Li Yan's mother timidly glanced at Li Guoxin. After looking at Uncle Chang, Li Guoxin nodded and offered them some reassurance. Only then did they relax and stop asking questions.

Since entering the room and offering his greeting, Li Yan had remained silent. Seeing his mother and Fourth Sister like this, sorrow at parting welled up in his heart. A sour ache lodged in his throat, and his eyes slowly reddened.

When I earn money someday, I'll come home and stay with Father, Mother, and the family. I won't leave them again. I want to see their satisfied smiles every day and enjoy the warmth of a harmonious, happy home.

Though the guard troops normally did not have to join battles, once war came and there were insufficient forces, no one would care whether they were guards or not. At the very least, they would have to take the city walls and defend them.

The enemy's blades, spears, and arrows during a siege had no eyes. They could not distinguish guard troops from generals; they would simply shoot down everyone in one sweep. And perhaps they might even have to leave the city to meet the enemy, where it would be a true clash of short weapons.

Still, compared to the other units recruited in ordinary times, the guard troops were indeed much better overall. Beside them, Li Wei watched Li Yan with concern. He vaguely knew that things were not as simple as the village chief had made them sound.

Seeing that Li Yan had not spoken, Li Guoxin asked, "Do you have anything you want to ask?"

Li Yan replied, "Uncle Guoxin has already said that the guard troops were personally recruited by Marshal Hong to guard the granaries and armories, even to watch over officials' homes and courtyards. This is already an excellent, hard-to-come-by position. I will certainly do this job well."

Hearing this, Li Guoxin frowned lightly. He thought Li Yan had truly believed everything he had said.

On the road, I'll have to explain things properly to this boy. He mustn't really believe this is a job without the slightest risk.

Li Guoxin then bid Li Yan's family a temporary farewell. "We'll set out in half a quarter-hour. This time, only I and the three young men will go. No one from the families can come to see us off."

"It's more than two hundred li of mountain roads. If every family sends someone to accompany them, together with the baggage, the cart will not be able to move quickly. We may not even reach the county seat today."

There were only two good horses in the village. Once they were hitched to the cart and bore the weight of the four of them, reaching the county seat before sunset would already be the limit.

Not long after the sun rose, the carriage had already left the village. The mountain village slowly receded behind them. Looking at the few households still standing at the village entrance, and the several women crying among the crowd, the other two children in the carriage, both only thirteen or fourteen, began to sob and wipe away their tears without pause.

Li Yan gazed at his Fourth Sister and mother crying amid the crowd, as well as his Third Brother, who limped as he supported their father. He remained silent.

Until Li Yan climbed into the carriage, Third Brother and Father did not say another word. They only tried their best to smile. Fourth Sister and Mother, however, kept tugging at the hem of his mostly new coarse-cloth clothes, as if afraid they were not straight enough.

They cried as they gave him all sorts of instructions, telling him to come back and see them when he had time. There was dry food and pickled vegetables in his bundle; he was to eat when he got hungry.

Li Yan did not cry. He was merely forcing back his tears as waves of bitterness surged through his heart. He squeezed out a smile and waved to them. "Father, Mother, Third Brother, Fourth Sister, take care. Next time I come back, I'll bring you lots of things from the city. Third Brother, take good care of the family."

"Old Fifth, remember it, remember it. Go on, go on."

"Fourth Sister, once I'm settled, I'll send you rouge and cosmetics from the city."

"Old Fifth, Sister will wait for you... sob..."

"Old Fifth!" With that heart-rending cry, Li Yan's mother collapsed into Fourth Sister's arms.

The other two families around them were also weeping one after another, while the sobbing in the carriage grew louder. Li Yan could no longer hold back his tears and let them flow freely down his face.

At last, the carriage slowly traveled farther and farther away—away from the place where he had grown up, away from the foot of Great Green Mountain, away from every familiar blade of grass and tree. As the carriage turned around a mountain bend, the mountain village gradually shrank into a dark little speck before finally vanishing from sight. Yet the crying from the village carried on the wind, seeming to grow a few degrees louder.