That very night.
At the center of the dining table in the lieutenant colonel’s quarters sat a large pot, its contents boiling vigorously, with numerous spices and chili peppers swirling on the surface.
This was the grand meal, “hot pot,” that the senior medics had promised to make for her on the day she was first apprehended.
Diaclan customs bore a slight resemblance to those of her homeland in her previous life, including the tradition of gathering around a simmering pot to cook meat and vegetables in winter. Even though their latitude meant there was no true winter outside the mountains, they resolutely decided to celebrate Lin Yu’s successful acquittal in this manner.
Thin slices of pork, lamb, and beef, usually too precious to eat, were laid out, alongside numerous small plates brimming with fresh, dewy vegetables. Including Lin Yu herself, a total of eight people were gathered around the table.
In her previous life, this might have been considered merely an ordinary, perhaps even below-average, small hot pot gathering, given that the dipping sauces consisted solely of chili and soy sauce, without even a hint of coriander.
Now…
The various marbled meat slices ceaselessly tempted her gaze, while the occasional aroma wafting from the pot’s broth further enticed her appetite.
“This is truly wonderful.”
With her hands folded beneath her chin, Lin Yu leaned on the table, her brown eyes fixed on the flames beneath the iron pot.
In matters of food, Lin Yu found herself most impressed by the ingenuity of the Diaclan people. Beneath the pot, several magic tools, originally intended for cauterizing wounds and stopping bleeding, had been arranged in parallel like rockets and filled with the purest industrial magic stones; they now burned with the fierce intensity of a furnace.
On this cool late autumn night, the waves of heat emanating from the pot struck her face, providing a comforting warmth.
‘If I hadn’t climbed onto that train to sell steamed buns that day, I might still be holed up, starving, in a dilapidated hut in some mountain village.’
While she verbally detested the circumstances that followed her conscription (TL Note: ‘La Zhuang Ding’ refers to the forced recruitment of civilians into military service, often against their will), Lin Yu secretly quite enjoyed this life.
It was never boring, she never went hungry; it offered a balanced rhythm, a tapestry woven with both affection and animosity. The various problems and crises that occasionally arose, both large and small, could all be resolved, albeit with some peril, by applying her knowledge and skills.
Meeting Nangong and the seniors, along with the esteemed lieutenant colonel, was unequivocally the most correct decision she had ever made in this lifetime, almost on par with her previous self’s wish to be reborn into a world without drones.
Moments spent talking, teasing, and laughing with everyone were treasures she held dear, sufficient to be considered the most precious aspects of her life.
“It’s boiling, it’s boiling! Quickly, put in the vegetables!”
An excited shout came from across the table, prompting Nangong to hastily drop slices of meat into the pot with her chopsticks, while the others gathered around to watch.
“Alright, stop crowding around,” the lieutenant colonel declared. “Today’s a good day, I’m going to open a bottle of wine.”
“Oh—!”
Another cheer erupted from the excited table, though Lin Yu did not join in; she wasn’t particularly fond of alcohol, having found it merely spicy and flavorless in her past life, preferring Kvass (TL Note: A fermented beverage commonly made from rye bread, popular in Eastern Europe and Russia) instead.
‘Would such a beverage even be among the supplies provided by the Grand Duchy of Xylos?’ she wondered, finding herself rather nostalgic for Kvass’s peculiar taste.
The lieutenant colonel returned with two bottles of alcohol: one appeared to be wine, while the other contained a clear spirit. He posed the question to everyone, “Which kind shall we drink?”
Following a democratic vote, the unanimous decision was to have both. Two large men, along with Nangong, took charge of the potent spirit, while the other medics handled the wine.
Lin Yu, the “slightly thin” boy in the lieutenant colonel’s estimation, was also included in the ranks of those drinking the strong liquor, especially after Nangong informed the lieutenant colonel that she was already fifteen.
“Just a little,” the lieutenant colonel urged, placing a small, translucent cup filled with the clear spirit before Lin Yu and shaking it gently. “If you drink from that other bottle, there likely won’t be enough to go around.”
“Someone with such thin arms and legs as you, how can that be proper?” he continued, “You need to properly reclaim your masculinity!”
‘I’m terribly sorry,’ she thought, ‘but something that ceased to exist over a decade ago is quite beyond my ability to reclaim.’
More concerned with the pork, lamb, and beef slices bubbling in the pot than with the small glass of strong liquor, Lin Yu worried whether the beef would become tough from being cooked for so long.
Nevertheless, for the sake of the lieutenant colonel’s dignity, she accepted the glass and placed it carefully before her.
After a moment of hesitation, she leaned forward, pulling her nose away from the high-proof alcohol, and murmured at a volume only she could hear, ‘Please remember, drinking leads to sorrowful consequences…’
Her voice was swallowed by the boisterous clamor, much like her initial wish for world peace.
In this very moment, she sat beneath the roof of a concrete building, while in this very moment, the privates sat under an exposed, starlit sky.
She awaited the cooked meat and vegetables, the delicious, sauce-drenched morsels, and the inevitable gulp of strong liquor.
They awaited the thin gruel prepared by the mess cooks, perhaps accompanied by long-expired pickled vegetables, to be gulped down while sitting grimy in their fortifications.
The trench ballad resurfaced in her mind: ‘If you want to find the lieutenant colonel, I know where he is…’
‘…stuffing his damned belly.’
‘Never mind,’ she mused. ‘I won’t be strung up on barbed wire, so why bother thinking so much?’
She was merely a humble medic, responsible for treating the wounded in the rear. Even if the Lanforians charged forward in tanks, as they had in her previous life, as a non-combatant, she wouldn’t be troubled by them—especially since she also spoke Lanforian.
Excessive worry would only make her more distraught and lead to sorrowful consequences.
The lieutenant colonel then turned to Lieutenant Xia, pressing him to drink. Unable to refuse such hospitality, Lieutenant Xia also raised his glass, and all eight individuals, holding two different types of wine glasses, clinked them together directly above the iron pot.
“To health and longevity!”
“To soaring success!”
“Hahaha…”
“Cheers!”
As she sipped the entire glass of potent liquor, a stinging sensation traveled from her tongue’s tip all the way to her stomach.
Lin Yu’s small face crumpled, her chest heaving dramatically, before she quickly settled back into her seat. This reaction immediately drew a chorus of laughter from both the lieutenant and the lieutenant colonel—though the lieutenant was aware of her true gender, the lieutenant colonel was not.
With a bitter expression, she endured another glass before finally joining everyone in using her chopsticks to retrieve the thoroughly cooked meat slices from the pot.
“Lin Yu, are people from your mountainous province unable to handle spicy food?” a senior medic asked, as they served her meat, also inquiring about her tolerance for the numbing-spicy hot pot. “Should I get you a bowl of cold water to rinse it off?”
“No, no, please don’t trouble yourself; I can eat spicy food.”
In her previous life, Lin Yu had adored Chongqing hot pot, and though she hadn’t tried it in this life, she assumed she could still handle it…
Then, she was brought to tears by the spice three times: the first two were due to the alcohol, and the third was from the lethal quantity of chili peppers in the pot.
She bounced off to find cold water, guzzling several mouthfuls before she recovered, then wiped her mouth, preparing to ask a senior medic for a small bowl.
‘If they keep eating like this, their rear ends are definitely going to suffer tomorrow.’
The senior medic, noticing the tear tracks at the corners of her eyes, softly chuckled behind their hand.
Returning to the table, Lin Yu rejoined the conversation. “…Speaking of the quartermaster who reported me, he…”
“He’s been completely stripped of rank, demoted from second lieutenant all the way to private, and has now been sent to squat in the front trenches,” the lieutenant colonel stated matter-of-factly, betraying no emotional reaction to the officer’s fate.
Nangong, from the other side of the table, chimed in, “Oh, right, speaking of trenches, the other corporal who testified for you has also returned, but you haven’t even expressed your gratitude yet…”
“Indeed, I only exchanged a few words with him.”
“Are you full yet?”
“Almost.”
At this, Nangong rose and found a lunchbox in the back kitchen. After confirming that no one else needed it, she swiftly retrieved the last few slices of meat from the pot and added a generous amount of green vegetables.
Pouring a ladle of broth over the contents, she steamingly closed the lid. “Take this to him; he rightfully deserves a share of this dinner.”
Lin Yu numbly accepted the box, startled by the hot broth that had scalded her fingertips. “Are you… asking me to deliver it to him?”
“Otherwise, should I deliver it for you?” Nangong retorted. “Gratitude is best shown in person, face-to-face. If you truly want to thank him for testifying, the best way is to go personally and comfort him. Even as a corporal, his rations can’t be all that great, can they?”
No sooner had Nangong finished speaking than the lieutenant colonel interjected, “Bring your canteen over and take him some liquor as well. Boys his age love this stuff, and they certainly won’t get any in the trenches.”
A few minutes later, Lin Yu was ushered out of the lieutenant colonel’s quarters, strolling under the moonlight towards the trenches ahead.
The warm lunchbox held cooked hot pot ingredients, while her cool canteen contained half a flask of strong liquor, and she was tasked with finding the individual whose name she didn’t even know, somewhere within the moonlit expanse of the trenches.
‘Even if Lieutenant Xia told me the section he’s responsible for defending, searching through them one by one will be such a hassle…’
‘But I can’t just not deliver it, can I?’
Exhaling the warmth from her chest into the cool night air, Lin Yu lowered her head and walked towards the section of trenches where she had once endured shelling. ‘I just hope the Lanforians don’t suddenly go mad and start shelling again, or I’ll be completely finished.’