Zhànshì: A Dark Retelling

by Anna Edwards

  “Fuck!” I yell, and a flock of pigeons flutters up into the sky.

  I should have stayed and helped him. He was a good man, a skilled fighter, and a vital part of the Yi Shu. His loss will be a big blow to us. I’d trusted in his abilities as a fighter and left him.

  “What happened?” I question one of our men who’s lying injured on the ground. He’s wounded but not badly. I’m sure he’ll survive after a trip to our hospital—one that’s run by the Yi Shu and not sanctioned by the city authorities.

  “It all happened so quickly.” The man is pale and looks defeated. The elation on the faces of the men who saved the stock from burning inside the warehouse is not present out here. “He was fighting one minute, then on his knees the next. Wang’s general appeared and took our general’s life. It seemed like it was planned. A trap.”

  I look back into the warehouse. We’ve been played. The fire was simply a diversion so the real target was left vulnerable. Wang, the leader of the Jīn Long, wanted to inflict a devastating blow to us and killing one of our top leaders did just that.

  I slump back against the wall of the warehouse behind me. I’m the most senior man here now. It’s my responsibility to call it in. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I search through my contacts, which are all written in Chinese even though it’s not my first language. I wasn’t born to Chinese parents—my family was of European descent. Each symbol represents a person and the way I see them. The person I’m looking for is represented by the word ‘King’. I locate his number and make the call.

  “Hello,” Gaozu, the leader of the Yi Shu mafia, answers after the third ring. His short greeting is terse, and I can tell he’s already been informed that a fight was taking place. “Jaxon, give me an update,” he orders.

  “The Jīn Long started a fire in the warehouse. We managed to put it out with minimum damage to the stock. However, it wasn’t without cost. I’m sorry, sir.”

  The other end of the line goes silent for a moment,

  “My brother?” Gaozu finally asks, and I look down at the headless body of our leader’s sibling.

  “I’m sorry, sir. He put up a brave fight, but it was a trap set for him. He didn’t stand a chance.”

  “I want his body brought back here.”

  “I’ll make sure it happens, and he’s treated with all the dignity he deserves.”

  We never wanted this war. Our aim has always been to support those who’ve come over from China and are trying to fit into a society with a very different set of beliefs. I embraced the Chinese way of life when I joined the Yi Shu, but it’s vastly different from the American way. Respect is key within Chinese culture. Our focus should be on helping our people rather than fighting a war over land with a rival faction, whose sole aim is to make money for those higher up within their society.

  “What about other casualties?” Gaozu eventually questions, his voice sounding tired.

  I let out a long sigh before I answer, my body flooding with exhaustion as the adrenaline finally leaves me.

  “There are a few, sir. Good, loyal men. I’ll ensure they are returned to their families with honor.”

  “Thank you,” Gaozu praises me. “Jaxon, I’ll need you to take over my brother’s role. You must look after our people and keep them safe while my family mourns.”

  “Of course, sir.”

  Gaozu pauses on the other end of the phone.

  “I need you to do something else for me. I’ve been putting this off for a while, but I think it might be our only chance to stop the Jīn Long. In order to increase our fighting force, we need to invoke the one male per family rule. Many of our men have been given their freedom, but it’s time to call them back into service. We face a threat we can’t beat without numbers, and so numbers is what we will get.”

  “It’s so exciting, Lia. I can’t believe that today you could meet the man you might marry and spend the rest of your life with. I wish I were old enough. I still have to wait four more years.”

  I wish I shared my sister’s enthusiasm for the day’s events. I turned twenty-one a few weeks ago, and tonight I’ll attend a debutante ball so I can meet potential suitors from our area of San Francisco. I’ve been dreading this day. I don’t have any interest in changing my way of life at the moment. I’d much rather stay at home and help my mother and father as they get older and need more help. My sister is welcome to take my place at the ball, but I know it’ll never happen. So instead, I plaster a forced smile on my face and fake happiness to placate her.

  “It will be exciting. I’ll make sure I tell you all the details when I return.” I take her hand and squeeze it in reassurance.

  “It’ll be late by the time we get home,” my mother interjects as she brings the brush through my waist length, black hair.

  She starts to separate out some of the strands to put up into an elaborate style. I adore my hair when it’s down and refuse to have it all up, pulling on my features like a weird version of a face lift. I certainly don’t need one yet, and hopefully, I never will.

  “Then I’ll tell you everything tomorrow,” I confirm to my sister who seems happy with the suggestion.

  “Lán, can you fetch the decorated box off my dressing table please?” my mother asks my sister who happily skips out of the room. “It’ll be all right. You’ll have fun tonight, I promise. I did at my ball and was blessed to meet your father at the same time. There’s plenty of men out there to choose from, Lia. You’ll find yours. He’ll be getting ready at the moment and feeling just as nervous,” my mother offers her words of encouragement in my sister’s absence. She obviously wasn’t fooled by my fake smile.

  “I know. I’m sorry. I understand this is a blessing, and we owe our lives to the Yi Shu, but I just don’t think I’ll make a good wife. I’m too restless.”

  “It will pass.” My mother twists the separated strands of hair into a rounded knot on the top of my head. “I was just as nervous as you. My family has been in America a lot longer than your father’s, but we still owe everything to those who brought us over here. I didn’t want to be a wife, but I knew it was the right thing to do, and I’ve since been blessed with a wonderful husband and two beautiful daughters. I’ve been lucky. I don’t want for anything. We have food in our bellies and a warm house, and I don’t have to work my fingers to the bone in the rice fields for a master who cares little for our welfare. Becoming a wife is your way of showing gratitude to the Yi Shu for providing us with a life in a vibrant city where everything is plentiful. You have to look at it that way, Lia.”

  “I do, Mama. I adore it here. I’m sorry. I’ll try harder.”

  I don’t want to upset my mother, so I concede my point to her. She’s right—we do have all we need. Life could be a lot worse. Even here in San Francisco, there’s a problem with homelessness. I’ve seen it for myself. I’m blessed to have a home and food, and I know I’ll still have it even when I marry.

  “I’ve got it,” my sister announces as she runs back into the room, carrying an ornate box.

  It’s been handed down through the generations on my mother’s side of the family. It will come to me when my mother dies, but I refuse to think about that. She’ll live forever, I’m sure. My sister opens it and places it down on the dressing table where I’m sitting. Inside are jewels, some of them centuries old. My mother pulls out a clip made of jade—it’s from the city where her family originated in China. She gives it a quick wipe down and then pushes it into my hair.

  “Beautiful, Lia. It matches your eyes.” My mum helps me to my feet and leads me over to the full-length mirror in the corner of the room.

  I’ve already seen my hair and the traditional make-up I’m wearing, but not my complete attire. I have on a cheongsam, which is a formfitting, heavily embroidered dress in red and gold colors with a high collar, and frog buttons. The modern version is short, but this is traditional, so it reaches my feet. As I stand before the reflecting glass, I’m stunned. I look different, older, ready to be a woma
n, but deep down inside, my body is screaming at me to run in the opposite direction. This isn’t me. The person staring back at me is a stranger. She’s someone I don’t know. I shiver, knowing no good will come from this. I’ll bring shame upon my family because I can’t be the person they need me to be.

  Stepping away from the mirror, I give another fake smile to my sister and mother, hoping it reaches my eyes. I want my mother to see I’ll do whatever is necessary to make this work.

  “Guòlái,” someone shouts from the street below, requesting us to join them outside, and my sister runs to the window to see who it is.

  “Who’s there?” I ask, trying to see for myself but finding my movement restricted by the traditional dress.

  “It’s several of the Yi Shu men. They’re calling everyone out.”

  My mother places her hand to her mouth in shock. “We better go, Lia. Hold your skirt up. We don’t want it to get dirty before tonight.”

  “I will, Mama,” I reply and follow her from my bedroom.

  My father joins us at the front door. His limp is bad today, and I drop my skirt to help him. We walk out into the streets where several of the Yi Shu men are standing. In the middle of them is a blond haired man. He doesn’t resemble the usual faction members, but something draws me to him. He looks powerful and strong.

  The surrounding men quieten the crowd, and he steps up onto a low concrete wall, built to ensure nobody can park on the pavements and spoil the appearance of the shops here in Chinatown.

  I hold my father’s hand, still supporting him and not caring that my skirts are dangling in a muddy puddle left by the misty fog and drizzle this morning.

  The man bows to us, and we respond likewise. He then addresses those assembled.

  “Nī hāo, I’m Jaxon, a general in the Yi Shu. Our gracious leader, Gaozu, has issued the following proclamation.” The man pauses then begins to read aloud from a white sheet of paper he’s holding. “We are peaceful people. We came to this country to live a good life, away from poverty, hunger and servitude to bullying masters. But now our way of life is being threatened. There is an enemy at our door. The Jīn Long would have us run drugs and weapons. They want us to kill indiscriminately at their will. We can not allow this to happen. We must fight to protect our freedom and to do this we must strengthen our army. I, Gauzo, remind you of your sworn allegiance to the Yi Shu and invoke the one male rule.” The man speaking doesn’t look up from the piece of paper in front of him, even when a collective gasp goes up from the crowd. My father sags. I feel his weight falter, and I give him more support to keep him upright. “The eldest male from each family line must report to the Yi Shu headquarters tomorrow morning by 5 a.m. There can be no exceptions.”

  “No,” my mother whimpers and looks to my father.

  I see the terror in her eyes. My father’s condition with the injury to his leg means if he goes, it is very likely he’ll not return to us.

  The eldest males from each family start to push through the crowd, demonstrating their willingness to serve the Yi Shu. Some are strong men, others barely through puberty. My father taps my hand and lets go of me before hobbling forward. I want to scream no but I know I must stay silent. Tears fill my eyes.

  One of the men accompanying the Yi Shu general looks at my father when he stands in front of him and salutes. It is obvious my father will be of little use to them in any battle.

  “Don’t you have any sons who can serve in your place?” the man asks.

  “I’m blessed with two daughters,” my father responds and turns his head back to look at us. My sister is crying in my mother’s arms while I stand frozen to the spot. This can’t be happening. I can’t lose my father.

  “What’s wrong?” The man with the blond hair jumps down from the wall.

  “He has no sons, sir, only daughters,” the soldier reports back to his superior.

  I see the blond man’s chest deflate as he approaches my father. “I’m sorry, but there can be no exceptions.”

  My father stands up straight, the weight on the right side of his body leaning heavily on the stick supporting him. “I know. I’ve fought before, and I’ll willingly do so again. I owe my freedom to the Yi Shu, and I’ll fight for the future of my descendants.”

  “Please no,” I whisper.

  “Lia,” my mother beckons me, and I follow as she leads me and my sister back into our house. “We have to be brave.”

  “He can’t fight, Mama!” I protest, “There’s every chance he won’t survive.”

  My mother shakes her head as my sister bursts into tears again.

  “You’re right, Lia, which is why we must put on a brave face. When your father leaves in the morning, it could be the last time we see him alive. We have to show him we’re proud of him, and we love him. He needs to know we’ll miss him greatly, but we understand he’s doing this for the honor of our family.”

  I shake my head, anger rising within me. There is no honor in an old man going to an almost certain death. He’s already fought and given so much for the Yi Shu. We came here to be free, but they have their claws wrapped around everything in our past, present, and future, and now they’re sending my father to his death for a fight that isn’t ours.

  “I won’t allow this to happen,” I respond angrily.

  “There’s nothing you can do, Lia, except stay strong—it’s the only thing any of us can do.”

  My father enters the house, and my mother and sister bow to him, but I stand ramrod straight, refusing to show deference to him as the chosen representative for our family.

  “It’s crap. The whole thing.”

  “Lia,” my father scolds me, but I don’t stop.

  “You know you can’t fight. The time when you could be of use to the Yi Shu is at an end.”

  “We don’t have an alternative, Lia. I don’t have a son.”

  “No, you don’t have a son, but you do have a daughter with more combat skills than most of the men out there. I’ve been learning to fight since I was a child. I can do this.”

  “No,” my father repeats and stomps off down into our basement, refusing to entertain my dissension any longer.

  I look toward my mother and sister. Shock is written all over their faces.

  “Lia, please listen to your father. You know that women are not permitted to fight in the Yi Shu. There’s nothing you can do,” my mother pleads with me, her hands outstretched.

  I shut my eyes before raising my hand and pulling the jade clip from my hair.

  “This isn’t me, Mama. This woman in make-up and a fancy dress. You know as well as I do I can save our father if only he’d allow me.”

  I place the clip down on the kitchen table before going to my room. Women may not be allowed to join the Yi Shu army, but that won’t stop me. Knowing now what I must do, I begin the transformation that will change my future forever.

  I don’t know why, but the last area I drafted men from was the hardest for me. There were some previously trained soldiers among them, but a lot were too young to be warriors. As for the older man with two daughters, he should be enjoying a peaceful life, not having to fight for his short-lived future. I couldn’t give any exceptions, though. It would have looked weak, and if we’re to survive the attacks on us by the Jīn Long, then weakness is something we can’t afford.

  My head hurts, and my body aches after the previous day’s fighting and traveling around today. I haven’t stopped, and I long to lay my head down on a pillow and get some sleep. Thankfully, Gaozu has given me leave to do just that before the recruits show up in the morning. A couple of my men have gone on the hunt for willing women to get their dicks wet, but that’s the furthest thing from my mind. I need sleep, and when I flop down onto my bed, exhaustion takes over and the world instantly falls dark.

  I reach my hand up to take the much larger hand of the man guiding me through the dusty streets of San Francisco.

  “Daddy, where are we going?” I question him, but he doesn’t respond
. His face is a mask of worry, lines marring his forehead, as he mutters something unintelligible to himself. “Can we walk a little slower?” I grumble. I’m only ten, and my legs are a lot shorter than my father’s. It’s almost impossible to keep up with him without breaking into a run.

  “I wish we could, Jax, but we need to hurry.” My father’s eyes dart around like he’s looking for something hidden in the shadows.“It won’t be long now. You’re doing really well.”

  “Okay,” I half moan but start running to keep up with my father.

  Eventually, we emerge out of the slum district of the city into a more opulent looking area. The houses are big, the lawns well-manicured, and the cars all look like they’re brand new and very expensive.

  “It’s just over here,” my father informs me as we head across the street.

  He’s still nervously looking around him, and I wonder what for. We’ve not seen anyone since we left our home in Chinatown. We’ve been living in San Francisco with my mother’s family since we arrived here when I was eight. People often ask me and my cousins how we’re related as we look so very different, especially me with my tuft of brilliant blond hair. I stick out like a sore thumb, but I never want to live anywhere else. Everyone is a lot nicer and more friendly here than where we used to live in New York.

  Eventually, we reach the biggest house on the block, and several men, wearing all black outfits, step out of the shadows like demons to stop us from going any further.

  “Tell Gaozu they’ve come for him. It’s time,” my father informs them, and the men hurry to let us in the gate and escort us into the house.

  We enter a grand entrance hall, and I’m so tired from running around the city after my father that I instantly climb up onto a soft-looking chair and collapse.