“Commissar… I have nothing to say in my own defence. I admit I have failed Comrade Xia. But this matter has absolutely nothing to do with Comrade Lin. Comrade Lin and I are scarcely more than acquaintances! We simply happened to meet in the mess hall that day. I beg Comrade Xia not to drag an innocent third party into this. A woman’s reputation is worth more than anything in this world.” Gu Nianchen hastened to defend himself.
“Is that so? Lieutenant Gu—you and Comrade Lin Feifei of the Cultural Troupe… are you truly nothing to one another?” asked Yang Jianguo.
“I swear to you, Commissar—Comrade Lin Feifei and I are entirely innocent.” Gu Nianchen affirmed once more.
“Very well. Comrade Xia—Lieutenant Gu claims they are innocent. What say you?” Yang Jianguo turned the question to Xia Yuge.
“Indeed, Comrade Xia—do you have any proof they were courting?” put in one of the military wives. “Without evidence, this is slander. Defaming a serving officer carries real legal consequences.”
“With respect, Commissar I had only my suspicions at first,” Xia Yuge replied clearly. “But several days ago, Lieutenant Gu came to my quarters. We argued, and came to blows. Later that very same day, that ‘mere acquaintance’ Comrade Lin Feifei deliberately sought me out here at the guest house. She told me I was the man she had set her heart upon. She warned me if I so much as laid a finger on him again, she would make me pay dearly. She said I would live to regret it. And she had to ask the guest house staff just to find which room I was in. If you doubt my word, Commissar—you need only ask the staff.”
“Commissar I can confirm it!” called out Sister Wang, who had been watching from the crowd. “Comrade Lin did come looking for Comrade Xia that day. I myself escorted her to Comrade Xia’s door.”
“Which day exactly?” Yang Jianguo asked.
“Well… let me think… it was several days ago now. I couldn’t say for certain exactly which date, not off hand,” Sister Wang replied with a touch of embarrassment.
“It was the afternoon I came to your office, Commissar—the same day I returned from the mountain,” Xia Yuge clarified. “Lieutenant Gu had heard I’d come to see you. He jumped to the foolish conclusion that I regretted breaking our engagement and meant to beg you for help in winning him back. He was waiting for me right at the guest house gate the moment I returned exhausted, hungry, and still aching all over from the mountain. When he confronted me there, I lost my temper and slapped him. That was exactly why Comrade Lin Feifei came storming over afterward she came to call me to account for that slap.”
“Yes! That’s it exactly—I remember now!” Sister Wang chimed in at once. “That was the day! Lieutenant Gu came first and more than once, from what I saw. Then Comrade Lin arrived, and looking thoroughly displeased, too! I remember feeling quite concerned on Comrade Xia’s behalf that afternoon.”
“Very well the facts are now reasonably clear,” Yang Jianguo declared. “Comrade Xia, I shall look into this matter fully in due course. But what matters most right now is this: Commander Lu has formally submitted a marriage application naming you two. Comrade Xia what say you to it? If you raise no objection, I shall see the application forwarded through the proper channels at once. There is still paperwork and procedure to attend to, and time waits for no one.”
He looked toward Xia Yuge as he spoke.
“Commissar I raise no objection,” she replied steadily. “That said… after all that has come to light today… I cannot help but wonder whether Commander Lu still wishes to marry me. If he has changed his heart then let it be so. I shall not hold it against him. Marriage is a choice freely made by two hearts; it cannot be forced. But if if Commander Lu truly does not wish to go forward… then I have but one small request to make of the leadership.”
“And what is that request?” Yang Jianguo asked.
“Commander Lu once told me that I might ask the organization for one favour—that so long as it was reasonable, the Army would grant it.”
“Is that so? Did he indeed say that?” Yang Jianguo glanced toward Lu Tingxiao, his curiosity piqued.
“He did. If you doubt me, Commissar you may ask him yourself.” Xia Yuge looked over at Lu Tingxiao as she spoke.
“Very well. Then what is your request?” Yang Jianguo pressed. He sensed there was more between these two than had been spoken—namely, that debt of gratitude for saving his life.
“Commissar when Commander Lu spoke of this before, I told him then what my price would be,” Xia Yuge said plainly. “I asked that he give himself to me in marriage for I saved his life. Truth be told… I saved nearly every single person stationed on this mountain that day. If Commander Lu now regrets his promise… then I ask only this: that the Army grant me work enough to sustain myself. That is all I ask.”
Her words sent a shockwave through the crowd. She saved nearly everyone here? Confusion rippled across every face. When had she done such a thing? Why had none of them known?
No one looked more stunned than Gu Nianchen. His eyes bulged like brass bells. What exactly had he missed? What had this woman been doing all this time right under his nose without him having the faintest clue?
Their bewilderment did not last long. By dawn the next day, the notice went up on the bulletin board.
“Heavens! There was an old Imperial Japanese arms depot hidden up there all along—left behind from the war! Comrade Xia never lied to us! She truly saved every last one of us! No wonder she came back covered head-to-toe in filth she had gotten lost exploring the mountain!” exclaimed one military wife.
“Exactly! And thank heaven it was her who stumbled upon it!” added another, pale with relief. “If those enemy agents had found that depot first… we might all have perished!”
“Truly! She is a rare one kind-hearted, brave, and skilled in medicine too! Who would have thought it? A woman of such grace and ability!”
“To cast aside such a wife… Lieutenant Gu must have lost his senses entirely!”
“What else can it be? Some are blessed with fortune, and some are not—and it was never meant to be his. She and Commander Lu now there is a match made in heaven! Handsome, capable, and worthy of one another!”
“Just so! Exactly so!”
For days afterward, Gu Nianchen could scarcely walk anywhere without meeting stares of judgment and pity. Worse still both he and Lin Feifei were issued formal reprimands and censure before the entire base. As for Lin Feifei Yang Jianguo had nearly seen her dismissed from the Troupe entirely; only the fact that Xia Yuge’s engagement to Gu Nianchen had already been broken saved her from immediate expulsion. Even so her standing and prospects would never recover. All must answer for their choices and soldiers most of all.
Gu Nianchen himself received an official demerit and three days’ confinement.
And Lu Tingxiao? Far from shrinking back upon learning of her former engagement to Gu Nianchen, his respect and admiration for Xia Yuge only deepened.