The Emperor’s Assault and Lin Yu’s Day

This offensive, known to posterity as the Emperor’s Assault, was named after Diacla, the Emperor who commanded the entire army at the time, and his six grand imperial assaults.

Of course, almost all of them ended in failure.

The tactic of battering the trenches with artillery and then sending infantry to assault them had long been outdated, yet it was employed from the very beginning of the war to this day.

The Emperor’s planned full-scale offensive was eerily predicted by a remark made by Lin Yu. Years of digging two trenches and countless bombardments, along with numerous infantry charges, had changed nothing about the war.

Moreover, to honor the Crown Prince, Diacla’s entire army was outfitted in white uniforms, making them exceptionally conspicuous on the battlefield and, from the Lanvers’ perspective, direct moving targets.

Five assaults, five failures. Wave after wave of white soldiers crashed against the meticulously constructed ‘seawall’ of the Lanvers, only to be met with the bright blue muzzle flashes of their guns, and batch after batch of Diacla’s soldiers fell in heaps.

It is estimated that on the first day of the offensive alone, Diacla suffered a loss of ten thousand soldiers, with a zero-kilometer advance. The no-man’s-land echoed with the cries of the wounded, with no one to rescue or bury them. They lay scattered between the two armies’ positions until death or decay claimed them.

However, Lin Yu’s side was remarkably at ease.

The irregular troops had their advantages. Lin Yu’s unit did not participate in this so-called ‘decisive battle for the empire’s rise or fall.’ Their few veteran soldiers were all reassigned to other units, integrating with new troops in smaller-scale assaults.

Without the support of veterans, this irregular army would become mere cannon fodder, the kind that fires two shots into the air and considers itself worthy of the royal rations. If not for the non-commissioned and commissioned officers repeatedly urging them forward with guns aimed at their backs, they might not even be able to fill the trenches.

On an ordinary day like this, Lin Yu was roused from bed by Nangong, who then embraced a dissection manual and began to study. Today, the mess hall seemed to be late with breakfast, and Lin Yu flipped through dozens of pages on an empty stomach before the robust figure appeared with the meal.

With a glance, Lin Yu immediately closed the book, wiped her hands on her clothes, and reached for the warm bun.

Upon closer inspection, she was pleasantly surprised to find that its shape differed from that of a usual bun.

‘Wow! Is this a dumpling today?’

‘No, it’s not,’ Nangong quickly dispelled Lin Yu’s excitement. She split the ‘dumpling’ in half, revealing its pure white interior. ‘It’s just a bun shaped like a dumpling.’

‘How cruel…’

Restraining the urge to chase after the mess hall attendant, Lin Yu silently imitated Nangong, splitting open the ‘dumpling’ and adding a few strips of pickled vegetables inside.

At least it’s a wheat bun, not a coarse grain flatbread.

Lin Yu silently repeated this to herself, suppressing the strong sense of contrast, and ate the bun piece by piece with warm water.

‘Speaking of which, it’s been a few days since the last wounded soldier visited the tent,’ Nangong said as she flipped through her large book while eating breakfast. ‘The last one left on a train a few days ago, right?’

Lin Yu recalled the figure who had waved to her from a distance on the day she went to sing for the lieutenant. She nodded in agreement.

‘It’s been quite peaceful, hasn’t it? That person who always gets hurt hasn’t come this time.’

Nangong’s casual remark immediately caught Lin Yu’s attention. ‘Who?’

‘You mentioned him before, didn’t you? You suspected he was intentionally injuring himself to escape to the medical tent.’

A face of ordinary handsomeness appeared in Lin Yu’s mind, followed by memories of his abstract behavior.

Lin Yu immediately frowned. ‘Who would pay attention to someone like that? He doesn’t know how to speak, and he doesn’t even know how to listen…’

He had left a very poor first impression on Lin Yu, though not as bad as the supply officer next door. However, it was far inferior to her initial impression of Lieutenant Xia, whom she met in the trenches.

At least Xia had shown her a way out of the trenches, while he had only brought her trouble and one surgery after another.

‘Maybe he’s lost his luck and is forever trapped in the trenches. Otherwise, with even a breath left, he’d crawl back here, as if determined to die in the tent.’

A hint of sadness rose in Lin Yu’s heart as she mourned the disappearance of a tool for meeting quotas. ‘Maybe…’

He did have his merits. Compared to other severely wounded soldiers, he required less time and effort to heal. Though Lin Yu outwardly disliked him, she had used him to rack up quite a few achievements in the background. A significant portion of her monthly bonus came from his battered body.

Lin Yu wiped her hands on a towel and placed her half-read dissection book in her personal belongings area. She waved goodbye to Nangong. ‘I’m leaving.’

‘Where are you going?’

‘I’m going to talk to the lieutenant about that plan.’

Nangong flipped another page of her book. ‘Should I have the mess hall save lunch for you?’

After comparing the lieutenant’s meals in her memory with the mess hall’s stew, Lin Yu immediately shook her head, declining Nangong’s offer. ‘No, I’ll eat there.’

The main purpose was to mooch a meal, and the secondary purpose was to discuss her indefinitely postponed ‘Surrounded by Enemies’ plan with the lieutenant. Their national anthem included the word ‘Chu,’ so the anti-war song would be ‘Chu Song,’ which made perfect sense.

‘You go there so often; be careful your cover doesn’t blow.’

‘How could it?’

Exiting the tent, Lin Yu walked towards the distinctive small building, encountering mostly people who had changed out of their white uniforms from the day of the declaration of war. Especially the supervisory team, who had switched back to their signature black uniforms the very next day, as if afraid others wouldn’t recognize them.

Along the way, she was formulating her arguments regarding the factory’s printing capabilities. She had even prepared to return to hand-copying leaflets—prepared to abandon this plan immediately upon hearing the news.

‘The schedule is a bit tight lately; they need to print war propaganda materials, so personal orders are being pushed back,’ the lieutenant informed her of the situation. ‘But to be honest, I’m more interested in the first step of your plan. Your record is quite popular in a small circle.’

Not… even war trench ballads? Can that be considered high art?

‘I… I can try to record a few more, as long as there are songs for me to sing.’

The prospect of a career in the arts was enticing. If she made a name for herself in the music industry, her life could instantly transition from a war story to an urban tale, free from the constant threat of bullets and shells, and untangled from the horrors of trench warfare.

Entering the lieutenant’s room, where he collected ‘records,’ a soft, sweet voice leaked through the crack in the door.

—Girl singing—

Soon, it was time for lunch, and Lin Yu seamlessly agreed to the invitation to stay for the meal.

The lieutenant’s dining standards far exceeded the mess hall’s uniform meals. It seemed the eldest of the seniors was the chef, preparing fresh, healthy, and delicious dishes with a high meat content, far surpassing the pork and vegetable stew that had once recruited her as a medical officer.

The entire table of food outshone the mess hall’s offerings by miles.

However, there was an even more captivating phenomenon at the dining table.

‘Ah…’

‘Eat mine first!’

The lieutenant was surrounded by the other two, who fed him mouthful after mouthful, and Lin Yu was inadvertently fed a full serving of dog food.

The medical officer who had prepared the meal angrily slammed the table, causing the rice bowls to leap into the air. ‘It’s only noon, and you’re already acting like this? Don’t forget, it’s my turn today!’

The eldest senior, on the other hand, kept piling food into Lin Yu’s bowl. ‘This dish is nutritious; eat up.’ It seemed he intended to fill her belly as well.

The lieutenant seemed to enjoy the atmosphere of the seniors vying for his affection.

Everyone had their own agendas, but Lin Yu focused on eating, silently piling up fat to make her chest grow faster, eager to escape the lieutenant’s target zone.

Nangong and the seniors had a good relationship, and the love between the seniors and the lieutenant was sweet.

Hadn’t Nangong mentioned that the lieutenant had pursued them all without coercion or the usual power dynamics and humiliation? Lin Yu could only see affection and a touch of drama.

Her opinion of the bespectacled man in his early thirties improved slightly, though she wouldn’t fully change her mind until she officially escaped the flat-chested club.

‘You two, tone it down a bit; you’re scaring her… Ah, it’s okay now.’

The lieutenant had intended to caution the girl beside him, but he noticed that Lin Yu was deeply absorbed in her meal, uncaring of their antics. So, he said no more.

Lin Yu blinked, sensing that she was about to become the brightest light at the dining table—who cares, have another bowl.

Licking her glossy lips, she resolved to eat the lieutenant out of house and home.