Beyond the Zenith

The forty-year-old veteran station chief stood with one arm hanging limp, his left shoulder still seeping blood at intervals from the wound. This was the first time he had ever faced a situation like this in his life.

His expression and body language unwittingly conveyed the confusion and bewilderment he felt inside.

“This person deserves an Azure Guardian Medal. He should be standing under the Coalition flag, receiving our salute. But he didn’t identify himself...” After a long pause, he finally convinced himself to skip past that and continued in a low voice, “So the situation we’re facing right now is, in truth, very complicated.”

Having laid that groundwork, the station chief issued four orders in rapid succession.

First: Temporarily seal all subsequent information. This applied to Lao Jian, who had come to assist, and to Platoon 764. Emergency internal-oversight protocols were to be enacted immediately.

Second: Relocate the supply depot at once.

Third: Bypass the normal chain of command and report the specifics of the incident directly to the Oriental Republic Coalition Council.

Fourth: Continue the investigation. Determine which organization those Wipers belonged to, why they knew the location of the supply depot, and identify the unknown individual.

Han Qingyu, the individual directly involved, naturally knew nothing of any of this.

Lao Jian, the only other person able to offer some guesses, also knew nothing. He was too busy trying to keep a slippery grip on the blood-coated steering wheel and urgently needed to deal with his wounds first.

The SUV drove along the winding mountain road, headed toward the medical station.

Meanwhile, the bicycle headed home.

It was past eight o’clock in the evening, the night before Han Qingyu departed from home.

***

Unbeknownst to Han Qingyu, his home village had been quite lively around dusk of that same day.

Fenglong Valley had received a rare piece of exciting gossip since early that very morning, and the villagers had been enthusiastically spreading the claim made by the village elders from one end of the village to the other, across the fields all day long.

Fulong Mountain’s peak had crumbled in a landslide during the violent storm the night before, and some of the old-timers had come forward with an interpretation: It was the dragon breaking free of its bonds and soaring to the nine heavens. This meant the younger generations of Fenglong Valley had good prospects ahead and would finally be able to leap upward.

This was great news. What person didn’t hope for good things for their children and grandchildren?

Thus, the villagers almost unanimously accepted this explanation very quickly, joy and anticipation brimming from the bottom of their hearts.

At dusk, as Zhang Jiexia was finishing dinner and collecting dried vegetables in the courtyard, the wife of a neighboring family leaned over the wall with a large white ceramic bowl and called out to her, “Hey, Mrs. Han, did you hear about that thing?”

“What thing?” Zhang Jiexia asked, turning her head.

“The dragon breaking free, ascending to heaven,” the neighbor said with a serious expression.

“Oh, right, I heard about that.” Zhang Jiexia nodded in acknowledgment, hands working the whole time.

In truth, she wasn’t completely disbelieving of it; in fact, she’d even quietly grumbled a few times to herself that the peak had collapsed too late.

“When you think about it, it really is a shame.” The neighbor took a moment to swallow a hurried mouthful of rice before sighing. “Tadpole was just a bit unlucky with his timing on those exams. If not, maybe he would’ve gotten in and become a university student this time. Too bad the poor child just doesn’t have the luck. Such a promising future, and it’s gone.”

The words themselves probably held no ill intent, but the shift in conversation toward her son having bad luck left Zhang Jiexia a little unsettled.

She gave the woman a sideways glance and smiled awkwardly. “It’s not like that. University was never something you could just decide to take and pass. My husband and I are both just farmers ourselves. There’s no particular reason our child should need to amount to anything remarkable to be acceptable. It’s good enough that he got some schooling and became a little cultured.”

The village had always been divided on the matter of sending children to school. The overwhelming majority held the view that university was too ambitious a dream, and a primary or middle school education was plenty. Han Qingyu’s two consecutive failures in the university entrance exam seemed, to those people, to be proof of exactly that.

“Well, I’m going to say something a bit harsh here,” the neighbor’s wife continued, possessing neither education nor tact. “Education is fine, but really, you just need enough to get by. Take Jiasheng from the village head’s family; he didn’t even finish middle school, still a year short, but today he just got word that it’s been confirmed he’s going into the army...”

She rambled on, candidly laying out her long-held views. Although resentment was building in Zhang Jiexia’s chest, she couldn’t quite find a way to argue back, so she just buried her head in her work and stopped responding.

The chattering woman, now perched on the wall, suddenly thrust out her chopsticks and pointed into the distance. “Oh! A military SUV from the Armed Forces Department, and a big one at that. Look at that.”

Zhang Jiexia straightened up, turned around, and stood on her tiptoes to look.

A military-green SUV, its body streaked with yellow dust and dried mud, was laboriously climbing up the earthen slope by the village entrance in the distance. It scattered gravel as it moved slowly down the small village lane.

It happened to be the time of evening when the villagers were eating dinner at their doorways, chatting as they ate. This interesting sight had some of them immediately standing up, bowls in hand, and following along. They didn’t know why they did this either; maybe some were hoping to get a cup of celebratory liquor.

“That car must be coming to pick up Jiasheng, right? What a setup.”

“No way, how could it be that soon? They’re probably just delivering the notice.”

“That can’t be right either. Why would you need to drive a big SUV all the way to the door just to deliver a notice? Besides, didn’t someone say the notice was already delivered around midday?”

The villagers debated as they followed along. Whatever their views, they all tacitly and unanimously assumed the big SUV was heading to the village head’s house.

Even Zhang Jiexia didn’t think otherwise. While she secretly hoped that her Tadpole could enlist just like the village head’s Jiasheng, he’d only gone out to ask about it that morning. There was no way it could have happened this fast.

Sure enough, the SUV swayed and rattled onward, eventually passing by the front of her courtyard gate.

Zhang Jiexia watched with a mix of envy, longing, and quiet worry. She had heard that the enlistment notices for this year’s intake had all already been delivered and that the recruits would be leaving in the next few days. She didn’t know whether there was still time for her Tadpole.

Then, a squeaking screech filled the air.

The big SUV, which had already driven half a courtyard wall’s length past her gate, abruptly slammed the brakes and stopped right beside the Han family’s courtyard wall.

A head then leaned out the window and called back toward the courtyard, “Excuse me, comrade, is this the home of Han Qingyu?”

This was no wrong turn, nor a mere ask for directions. The officer had called for the Han family’s Tadpole by name. The neighbors and curious onlookers all perked up at once.

“Oh.” Zhang Jiexia was stunned for a moment before she quickly set down the bamboo sieve she was holding. “Yes, it is. You...”

The car door opened, and two Armed Forces Department officers in neat uniforms climbed out.

“Good, this is the right place. We’ve come to deliver the enlistment notice.” The officer pulled out a brand-new recruit’s enlistment notice from his briefcase and handed it to Zhang Jiexia.

“This...”

Zhang Jiexia was speechless. This had all happened so suddenly.

She recognized her son’s name on the paper, but even after the initial shock gave way to joy, she still couldn’t help but examine the notice carefully several more times.

The chatter of the neighbors around her started up before she could muster up any words.

“How’s that possible? I thought it was only Jiasheng? Now Tadpole too?”

“I suppose so? But I haven’t heard anything about this.”

“Right, and I heard our village only got one slot. Even the village head’s wife’s nephew wanted to go and couldn’t get in.”

“So, what’s going on?”

“I have no idea.”

Just then, Han Youshan returned from the fields and spotted a crowd gathered in front of their family gate from a distance. He panicked, hurried forward in a few quick strides, and squeezed his way into the courtyard.

“What happened? What happened?” he asked, so anxious he didn’t even look at the people around him properly.

“Great news, Old Han! Our Little Qing! Here, look for yourself.” Zhang Jiexia excitedly pressed the notice into her husband’s hands. “Our Little Qing is going to enlist! These officers came specially to deliver the notice.”

As she said this, she realized she’d been so caught up in her happiness that she’d forgotten to attend to their guests, so she hastily brought over a stool, invited the officers to sit, and then hurried off to make tea.

“Don’t trouble yourself, Ma’am. We have to leave right away, or it’ll be dark soon.” One of the officers tried to wave her off, but when that had no effect, he let it go and turned to explain to Han Youshan instead. “You’re Han Qingyu’s father? Here’s the situation. Han Qingyu’s case is somewhat special. Our superiors sent a telegram and official document specifically requesting his special enlistment.

“The telegram arrived just before the end of the workday this afternoon. The two of us could see the timeline was short, so we got everything sorted and rushed it over.”

It seemed the officer was deliberately explaining with just enough detail to address the questions of the gathered bystanders, though, of course, he didn’t say which level the order had come from.

In truth, the two officers were wondering about it themselves. What was this Han family’s background? What connections did they have?

They couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary just from looking at Han Qingyu’s parents.