Good News

"This man should be receiving the Azure Guardian Medal. By regulation, he should stand before the Coalition flag and receive our salute. "And yet, he never revealed his identity..." With one limp arm and blood still seeping from his wounded left shoulder, the forty-year-old depot station chief faced such a situation for the first time in his life. Involuntarily, his facial expression and body language conveyed the bewilderment and confusion in his heart. Only after a long pause did he finally persuade himself to bypass this question for now. In a heavy voice, he continued, "Therefore, the situation we are dealing with is extraordinarily complex." Having laid that groundwork, the station chief issued four orders in a single breath: First, temporarily seal all follow-up information, with the news blackout extending even to Lao Jian and Squad 764, who had come as reinforcements; immediately implement emergency internal oversight regulations. Second, relocate the depot at once. Third, bypass ordinary channels and report the specific details of the incident directly to the Supreme Council at the Azure Coalition Huaxia Front Headquarters. Fourth, continue the investigation: determine which organization these Cleansing Faction operatives belonged to, find out how they learned the location of the hidden storage depot, and investigate who "that person" was. As the person at the center of it all, Han Qingyu naturally knew... nothing. And Lao Jian, who originally was the only collaborator capable of offering a guess, didn't know either. He had coughed so much blood onto his steering wheel that it was too slick to grip... and urgently needed medical rescue. On the winding mountain road, the jeep sped toward the medical station. The bicycle was racing home. By this time, it was already past eight in the evening. It was the night before Han Qingyu was to leave home. ... What Han Qingyu did not know was that earlier that day, around dusk, his village had been quite lively. First of all, since early morning, Fenglong'ao had been buzzing with a rare topic of excitement. From one end of the village to the other and out in the fields, the villagers had spent nearly the entire day enthusiastically spreading an explanation offered by the elders: Regarding Fulong Mountain's peak, which had collapsed in last night's torrential rain, some of the older generation had come forward to declare that a dragon had broken free of its bounds to soar into the nine heavens. The younger generations of Fenglong'ao finally had hope of making something of themselves, and from now on, they could leap into greatness. These were auspicious words. It was human nature—who didn't wish the best for their descendants? And so, virtually all the villagers quickly embraced this explanation, rejoicing and dreaming from the bottom of their hearts. "Hey, Han's wife, did you hear about that?" At dusk, Zhang Jiexia was in the courtyard gathering dried vegetables after cooking dinner when the woman next door, holding a large white porcelain bowl, leaned over the wall to chat. She turned her head. "Hear about what?" "The dragon breaking free and flying to the heavens," the neighbor said with great solemnity. "Ah... I did hear something." Zhang Jiexia didn't stop her hands as she nodded in response. To say she didn't believe it at all would be untrue. In fact, deep down, she had even grumbled a few times, complaining that the mountain had collapsed too late. "Speaking of which, it really is a shame," the neighbor said, hastily gulping down a mouthful of food as she lamented. "Qingwa-zi was just off by a few days when he sat for his exams. If not for that, maybe he would've passed this time and become a university student... Sigh, the boy just has bad luck, I suppose. Such a bright future, gone just like that." "..." The words probably weren't ill-intentioned, but how had a pleasant chat suddenly turned into her son having bad luck? Zhang Jiexia felt uneasy. She turned to look at the neighbor and managed an awkward smile. "There's no such thing. University isn't something anyone can just pass anyway. His father and I are both mud-legged peasants; there's no reason to expect our child to accomplish great things just to save face... As long as he goes to school and learns a bit more culture and literacy, that's enough." Sending children to school had always been a subject of debate in the village. The vast majority believed that getting into university was a pipe dream, and that elementary or middle school was plenty. Han Qingyu's two consecutive failures in the college entrance examination seemed to bear out that view. "Well... this might not sound pleasant, but literacy is only useful up to a point. Take the village chief's son, Jiasheng. He still had a year left before finishing middle school, but didn't he just get his notice today? It's settled—he's going into the army..." Lacking both education and tact, the neighbor's wife straightforwardly droned on with her entrenched opinions. Zhang Jiexia felt stifled listening to her, but had no way to refute it for the moment, so she simply kept her head down and stopped replying. "Oh my, a military vehicle from the People's Armed Forces Department! A big jeep, look!" On the other side of the wall, the chattering neighbor suddenly pointed into the distance with her chopsticks and shrieked. Zhang Jiexia straightened up, turned around, and stood on tiptoe to peer out. Far off on the dirt slope at the village entrance, an olive-green jeep, its body coated in yellow dust and streaks of dried mud, kicked up sand and gravel as it labored up the incline before slowly advancing along the narrow village path. At this hour, villagers were holding their dinner bowls, eating and chatting outside their front doors. Seeing a commotion, several immediately stood up, bowls in hand, and followed along. Perhaps in the back of their minds, they even hoped to score a celebratory drink. "That vehicle must be here to pick up Jiasheng, right? What a grand show!" "Couldn't be. How could it be so fast? It's probably here to deliver the notice." "No way. Delivering a notice doesn't take such fanfare, driving a big jeep right to the house... Besides, didn't someone say the notice was already delivered at noon?" "..." The villagers discussed it along the way. Whatever their opinions, they all consciously or unconsciously assumed the big jeep was headed for the village chief's house. Even Zhang Jiexia thought nothing different. Deep down, she hoped her Qingwa-zi could join the army just like the village chief's Jiasheng, but they had only gone to make inquiries this morning; how could anything happen so quickly? Sure enough, the jeep swayed along, passing right by her courtyard gate. Zhang Jiexia watched with a twinge of envy and longing, but also with an aching heart. She had heard that all the conscription notices for this year had already been sent out, and that recruits would be leaving within the next few days... She didn't know whether there was still time for her Qingwa-zi. Then—*screeech, skiiid*. Two sudden sounds rang out. The big jeep, having already passed half the courtyard wall, slammed on its brakes and stopped at the edge of the Han family's wall. Immediately after, a head poked out of the window and called toward the courtyard, "Hello, comrade! Is this Han Qingyu's home?" "..." They hadn't gotten the wrong house, nor were they asking for directions. The cadre had named him directly—it was the Han family's Qingwa-zi... At once, the neighbors and onlookers grew intensely curious. "Ah... yes." Zhang Jiexia was stunned for a moment before hurriedly setting down the bamboo sieve in her hands. "You are..." The car doors opened, and two neatly dressed cadres from the People's Armed Forces Department stepped out. "It is Han Qingyu's home, then. We've rushed over to deliver the enlistment notice." With that, the cadre unzipped a leather bag, pulled out a crisp, brand-new enlistment notice, and placed it into Zhang Jiexia's hands. "This..." It was so sudden. Zhang Jiexia recognized her son's name on the paper, but even after the initial shock of joy, she couldn't help holding the notice up to check it several times over. Before she could even manage a word, the surrounding villagers were already buzzing with talk. "What? Didn't they say only Jiasheng got in? Qingwa-zi was recruited too?" "Looks like it, but nobody heard anything about this." "Yeah, I heard earlier that our village only managed to secure one spot. Even the village chief's wife's nephew couldn't get in." "Then what's going on here?" "Who knows..." Just then, Han Youshan returned from the fields. Seeing such a crowd gathered in front of his house from a distance, noisy and excited, he panicked. He quickened his pace, squeezed into the courtyard, and blurted out, "What happened? What happened?" In his panic, he didn't even notice who was there. "It's good news, Old Han! Our Qingzi... here, see for yourself!" Excitedly, Zhang Jiexia shoved the notice into her husband's hands, unable to keep from announcing, "Our Qingzi can go into the army... Look, the leadership made a special trip just to deliver the notice to us!" As she said this, she realized she had been so happy she'd forgotten her manners. She hurriedly brought out stools for them to sit and rushed to brew tea. "No need for trouble, sister-in-law. We have to leave right away, or it'll be dark soon." One of the cadres from the People's Armed Forces Department tried to dissuade her, but seeing that it didn't work, he didn't insist. Turning to Han Youshan, he explained: "You must be Han Qingyu's father, right? Here's the situation: Han Qingyu's case is rather special. A telegram and official document were sent down specifically from higher up, singling him out for special recruitment. "The telegram only arrived just before we clocked off this afternoon. Seeing that time was short, the two of us rushed to prepare the paperwork and bring it over." Seemingly also answering the doubts of the surrounding crowd, the cadre offered a rather detailed explanation, though he naturally didn't mention which specific level of leadership the order had come from. In truth, the two of them were still observing and guessing—just what was the Han family's deal, and what kind of background and connections did they possess? For now, judging by Han Qingyu's parents, they couldn't see anything out of the ordinary at all.