Heal These Battle Scars | MxM

Chapter Twenty-Five - If Teardrops Could Be Bottled

The trucks moved out before dawn broke, curving through the empty bumpy tracks, leaving the village for Shang Yu town. It would be another three days before their arrival, yet the soldiers' faces were hardened like steel, and they gripped their weapons tightly till their knuckles turned white; prepared to shed the enemy's blood at any given moment. Prepared to put their lives on the line for the greater good — for all of China, whether in the present or future.

The Red Army passed by five villages: two abandoned, three cramped with people. All the villages were the same; there were mostly children running about, and old men sitting under tree shades playing card games to delay. The young men of those villages were nowhere in sight, but there was quite a beautiful set of young women roaming about. Some winked and giggled at the soldiers as the trucks passed by, and some hurried off with fright in their eyes.

Eventually, three days had passed, and the Red Army trucks pulled along the roadside highway three miles off Shang Yu, pressed between thick forested trees in the early morning hours.

One by one, the soldiers dismounted the trucks.

When Wang Yi's feet touched the ground, he shivered a bit while squinting his eyes, trying to get a clearer view of his surroundings. However, the morning mist was as thick as clouds, and there was not much he could make out. If he had known the mist would have covered these parts during the early morning, he would have planned an attack beneficial to them. Although a complete album of photographs was delivered to him by Lieutenant Xie Yang from Nanjing, he had never visited Shang Yu — nor these parts before.

All this was strange to him, and despite his previous victories, there were always doubts about whether he was leading his army into a slaughterhouse.

By noon, the sun came out in a scorching flare.

Frowning, Yi's back had been pressed alongside a parked truck. In his hands, he held a large white paper sheet, a blueprint of Shang Yu town. Wen Han had scribbled the routes of the town using the photographs — yet he had done a terrible task. Two of the streets were all wrong – misplaced from what Yi could remember while scanning through the photographs last night. Although he would not want to bash the loyal soldier for the mistake; a mistake like this could cost them their lives.

Yi clicked his tongue. "Wen Han wants to kill us all," he mumbled in irritation to himself before he peeled his eyes from the blueprint, searching for Wen Han. He needed to scold the incompetent soldier — they were all going slack on him lately.

It was then, from the corner of his eyes, that he caught a glimpse of Xiao Fang, seated in the front seat of one of the trucks — he had been there all morning, refusing to step outside.

Xiao Fang's saddened eyes wandered out the window, watching some of the soldiers huddling in a circle, their rifles curled around their fingers while bickering amongst themselves.

The doctor seemed lost in thought; or lost entirely, Yi could not point a finger at it. And yet, it caused his heart to ache. What was going through Xiao Fang's mind? Was he worried? What was he worried about? Xiao Fang had cried on his shoulder back in the village, fearing he would lose Yi — fearing Yi would die. Ah, Xiao Fang; his fragile heart was not fit for war.

Sometimes, it still stuck Yi knowing he fell in love with a man.

Sometimes, mostly during the night, he wondered if his intentions, or desires were merely passing phrases, but when morning came, and Xiao Fang greeted him with a smile only meant for the heavens, he crumbled those thoughts and hid them far off; they no longer mattered.

"Commander Wang, may I have a word with you?" Zichen showed up in front of Yi, clutching a rifle in his hand. "Is..." He looked over to the parked trucks and scrunched his eyebrows at the sight of Xiao Fang. "Are we taking the prisoner along with us?"