Seeing no sympathy at all in the faces around him, Chen Youzai began crying weakly again. Crying was the only way he knew to release any of it. These people could not understand him, he knew nothing about this place, and he did not even dare imagine what prisoners here might be made to suffer. The more he thought about it, the closer he felt to breaking down.
His soft, tear-choked sobbing even made the resting burly man’s gaze soften. He had not expected such an ugly face to produce such a strangely affecting voice.
In the middle of the commotion, a group of officers approached. Everyone immediately dropped into a proper kneel. Even the prisoners who had been causing trouble moments earlier hurriedly bowed their heads and waited in silence. Chen Youzai noticed the sudden hush, stopped bawling, and scrambled upright before kneeling in a rather awkward position.
Listening to the officers and runners talk, Chen Youzai managed to piece together the general situation. Most of the prisoners would be sent to garrison the frontier, clear wasteland, farm, build bridges, or repair roads. Stronger men from the newest group might be taken into military service. Young people who were good-looking and quick on their feet, meanwhile, could end up as household servants for local officials.
Of those possibilities, the last sounded by far the easiest. Chen Youzai pushed aside his misery and realized that the most important thing now was finding the least painful path available to him.
The moment he heard the words “good-looking,” hope returned. If the most handsome man in the world doesn’t count as presentable, then everyone here must have crooked mouths and crossed eyes.
Chen Youzai had been kneeling near the back, but as soon as he heard the officers’ criteria, he straightened his spine and shuffled forward on his knees into a more conspicuous spot, determined to catch their attention.
One officer did notice him and walked over for a closer look. Chen Youzai confidently raised his face. After studying him for a while, the officer moved on. Then another officer came to inspect him, followed by another. This continued for several minutes before they finally left the group.
That should just about settle it, right? I got more attention than anyone else. Chen Youzai could not help marveling that a good face truly was a revolutionary weapon.
A little while later, the burly man who had whipped Chen Youzai earlier returned and roared for everyone to get moving and haul stones.
At once, even the prisoners who looked half-dead struggled to their feet. Within moments, the patch of ground was empty except for Chen Youzai, who was still kneeling there by himself and looking painfully conspicuous.
As the burly man approached, Chen Youzai felt a stab of fear. He clenched his fists. Whatever. I’m going for it. How many chances does a person get to fight for a better fate?
“If I’ve been chosen, then I don’t have to move stones anymore, right?”
The burly man stared strangely at this prisoner who had been behaving oddly from the start and said nothing.
Seeing his confusion, Chen Youzai immediately wondered whether the man simply could not understand modern speech. He hurriedly activated his billions of brain cells and tried to assemble something that sounded suitably ancient.
“This humble commoner has a question. Those officers were selecting candidates just now. When will the results be announced? If this humble one is fortunate enough to be chosen, must I still labor with the others among these mountains and fields?”
The burly man’s expression did not improve, so Chen Youzai hastily added, “After you answer, just stick a ‘ye’ at the end and I’ll understand… No, no… sorry! Thou needst only append a ‘ye’ to thine answer.”
Elio’s Notes: Chen Youzai thinks the people around him cannot understand modern speech, so he tries to imitate “ancient-style” Chinese. The joke is that he assumes adding the Classical Chinese sentence-ending particle 也 (ye) will magically make him sound authentic. Keeping “ye” untranslated preserves the joke.
Chen Youzai grinned. One second later, he screamed. The burly man’s whip came down without mercy, leaving dark marks across the delicate body. “Go move stones!” the man roared as he struck him. “And you get no food today!”