Chapter 8 Military Service

As dusk fell, tinged with the color of blood, Lin Changning, carrying a bamboo basket, turned past the old locust tree at the village entrance.

Er Ya tiptoed to reach the newly sprouted elm seeds on the branch, when San Ya suddenly tugged at her sleeve: "Little aunt, there's an official's horse at home."

The smell of medicine wafting from the kitchen was three times more bitter than usual.

When Lin Changning reached the front door, he heard the sound of a ceramic jar shattering coming from inside the house.

Liu Lang's coughing broke the deathly silence: "Cough cough... military register... cough cough... one out of three men..."

"Your Honor, all the men of my Lin family have been smothered in the frozen soil of the northern frontier!"

Lin Changshi's voice cracked, and the memorial tablet in her arms hit the corner of the table.

Lin Changning peeked through the crack in the door and saw his mother's withered hand with bulging veins, gripping his father's memorial tablet tightly.

The bailiff's leather boots crunched over the broken porcelain shards: "It's written in black and white that it's Lin Changping, just turned fourteen. I don't know anything about you and me, but the conscription quota has already been allocated, and it's your son's name. Unless he dies here, he can't avoid conscription."

Lin Changning stared at the scarlet tassel, his heart filled with resentment.

Suddenly, Madam Niu knelt down: "Sir, please have mercy! Liu Lang's health is such that he coughs all night long and can't sleep. He's no fit to be a soldier. If we send him to serve, how can he possibly come back alive..."

Before he could finish speaking, the token was smashed down in front of him.

"What are you doing? I'm just a constable. Look, it's clearly written in black and white that it's your family. No matter how much you talk to me, it's useless. You still have to perform your duties. If you don't, that's desertion, and your whole family will go to jail!"

"Alright, I won't talk to you anymore. I need to go to the next place. I'm leaving in seven days, so I should get ready."

Lin Changning's fingernails dug into the splinters in the door panel.

She saw Liu Lang sitting behind the curtain in the inner room, his pale knuckles clutching a handkerchief, his phoenix eyes burning brightly.

No wonder Lin Erniu has been so quiet these days; he was waiting for them here.

It's her fault, she thought that as long as she didn't sell the land and kept the money, everything would be fine, but who knew...

She should be more vigilant.

As the constable turned to leave, Lin Changning hurriedly stepped aside, scattering the freshly picked shepherd's purse from his bamboo basket all over the ground.

Er Ya and San Ya bent down to help pick up the shepherd's purse and put it into their own baskets.

As dusk settled, the flames in the stove licked the bottom of the medicine pot.

The room was filled with the sounds of sobbing.

Lin Changning was poking at the charcoal with fire tongs while boiling medicine when he suddenly heard the sound of porcelain shattering coming from the inner room.

Liu Lang's heart-wrenching cough mingled with Lin Changshi's sobs: "My son... don't vomit up the medicine..."

When she rushed in, she saw Liu Lang grabbing a shard of porcelain and slashing his wrist. The blood splattered on the yellow earth and instantly seeped into the ground, turning into a dark red stain.

"Mother, let me go. My life will only be a burden to you..."

Suddenly, Madam Lin erupted in anger, slapping her son across the face with her withered, twig-like hand: "Are you trying to wipe out the Lin family line?!"

The room was in complete chaos, with people of all ages crying and making a scene.

Lin Changning stood at the door, his heart filled with hatred.

Before the ashes of the funeral paper had even settled, a strong smell of medicine filled Lin Changshi's room again.

As Lin Changning stepped over the threshold, he crushed a piece of dried mugwort. The cracking sound startled Wang Shi, causing the medicine bowl in her hand to tremble. The brown medicine seeped into a semi-circle along the rim of the bowl.

"Fifth Sister, what is this...?"

Before Zhao finished speaking, the girl knelt upright on the floor of the west room.

Moonlight streamed through the drafty window, illuminating the white velvet flower pinned in her hair, which trembled slightly. It was a white flower made from scraps of Liu Lang's mourning clothes.

In the candlelight, the girl's figure was slender yet firm, exuding a strong sense of resilience.

Madam Lin sat up and placed the old cotton-padded jacket that her father used to wear behind her back.

Her eyes were sunken like dry wells, and her gaze suddenly froze when it swept over her daughter's loose indigo short-sleeved brown clothes.

This is clearly a new garment made by Liu Lang in early spring, with medicine stains still remaining on the cuffs.

"I swapped clothes with my younger brother."

Lin Changning loosened her hair tie, and her dark blue hair fell over her shoulders, turning a brownish color in the morning light just like Liu Lang's.

"The other day I went to my uncle's house to get medicine, and everyone in the village along the way mistook me for Liu Lang."

She raised her hand and wiped her face. The charcoal ash mixed with cold sweat left bluish marks on her cheeks, making her look nine-tenths like her brother's sickly appearance.

The medicine spoon in Wang's hand clattered into the bowl.

Yesterday, when she was combing Wu Niang's hair, the girl suddenly wanted to imitate a man's hairstyle, which was all for this purpose.

As Niu Shi twisted her handkerchief, she recalled the past. Erlang always said that Wu Niang was not only clever but also had a strong will. If she were a boy, the family might have another scholar who could have passed the imperial examination.

"Do you think the border region is some back mountain valley?"

Lin Changshi's voice turned shrill, and the rough porcelain bowl slipped from her hand and rolled into the shadows under the bed, "Those soldiers are worse than jackals..."

He suddenly choked up at the end of his sentence, seemingly realizing that it was inappropriate to say these things to his daughter.

Lin Changning suddenly loosened his belt, revealing bandages wrapped under his inner garment.

Wang gasped – the girl had said she got cut while chopping firewood on the mountain that day, but it turned out she had used strips of cloth to forcefully bind the boy's flat body.

"Mother, I have to join the army anyway, so let me go."

I want to join the military household! If I join the military household, I will have my own residence and land to cultivate.

Even if I die, there will be no male descendants in our household registration. If we need to enlist in the army, Lin Erniu's family will be the first to be affected!

Even if Lin Changqing passed the imperial examination and became a scholar, he would still have to be sent to fight on the frontier!

Since they've set their sights on our family, let's all just give up!

I'll go in Liulang's place. After I'm gone, Mother, you should sell the land and take your sister-in-law and nieces far away.

"Let's register Liu Lang's household registration at my uncle's house so he can continue taking the imperial examinations; that way, there won't be any problems."

"I stood at the door when the constables came the day before yesterday."

The girl's clear, melodious voice startled the swallows that had built their nests on the beams at night.

"The leader stared at me for the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, but still couldn't recognize me."

As she spoke, she pulled a cable tie from her bosom: "If I tie my hair up, no one will recognize me."

Lin Changshi's withered fingers dug deeply into her cotton-padded jacket, the collar of which was stained red from when Liulang coughed up blood.

She suddenly remembered the day she gave birth, when the midwife said that only one of the twins could be saved, and her husband, with red eyes, shouted:

Both of them must live!

The kneeling girl in the morning light overlaps with the drowsy figure of her infant son on the bed on the wall, resembling two babies embracing each other in their placenta years ago.

"Mother, let me go."

Lin Changning suddenly touched his forehead to the ground and remained motionless for a long time.

Both daughters are her flesh and blood; Madam Lin couldn't bear to sever the last bloodline of her husband's family, nor could she stand by and watch her youngest daughter jump into a pit of fire.

He felt immense torment, his heart bleeding as he looked at the almost identical faces of his youngest daughter and son.

Suddenly, there was a sound of something heavy falling to the ground.

Lin Changning looked up, leaped up like lightning, and caught Liu Lang in her arms before he fell.

The boy's burning forehead pressed against her neck, his breath scorching: "Sister...don't go...to the Northern Frontier...cough cough...they eat people..."

"Sister, I don't want to, cough cough cough cough, you cough cough for me..."

When Madam Lin looked up, she saw Fifth Sister standing at the boundary between light and shadow, holding her infant son horizontally.

They have identical phoenix eyes, one burning with blazing flames, the other rippling with a deep, still pool.

The shadows on the wall were lengthened by the rising sun, vaguely resembling twin lotus blossoms growing in blood-stained mud.

Liu Lang suddenly grabbed his sister's collar, the blood he coughed up staining the white silk binding her breast red: "Sister, what is there for a man to fear in death? I don't need you, cough cough, to die for me!..."

Lin Changning's fingertips touched the old scar on her younger brother's collarbone, a crescent-shaped mark made by an icicle. "I might not die, but with your body, going would be certain death!..."

Lin Changning tossed her younger brother around and felt that Liu Lang was even more frail.

She didn't know if it was just her imagination, but ever since she recovered from her illness, she felt that she had become a little stronger. She had secretly tried it before and found that hitting Lin Erniu was a piece of cake. She hadn't exerted any effort at all when she bounced him a few times.

She didn't have this much strength back when she was at the martial arts school.

Lin Changning effortlessly pressed his younger brother back onto the bed, then pulled the quilt over him and wrapped him up tightly: "Brother, listen to me, I'm not going to my death. This is a decision I made after careful consideration."

With that, the girl turned and went out the door. After hesitating for a moment, she weighed the stone roller in the yard in her hand. Feeling that it wasn't too difficult, she picked it up and went into the house.

Looking at the group of women in the room with their eyes wide open in disbelief, he pursed his lips and weighed the stone millstone again.

“Mother, ever since I recovered from my illness, I feel a little stronger. I'll go in my brother's place, perhaps…”

"Oh my goodness! Fifth Sister, quickly put the wick back, lest it fall on your foot..."

Seeing his sister-in-law stagger over to take the millstone, Lin Changning shook his head: "I'll put it back now, sister-in-law, you go back inside and wait."

Back in the room, Madam Lin and her two daughters-in-law looked at each other in surprise, and the two young maids also opened their eyes wide. Lin Changping on the bed, however, calmed down.

"My son, do you really think you can go in Liu Lang's place?"

"yes"

"Does he really have that much strength?"

"yes"

What if someone bullies you?

"One against five is no problem!"