"Ma, I'm back!" Wei came rushing into the house cheerily with the bucket of laundry in his arms. "Uncle Song and his wife are still on their porch drinking tea. Did you manage to join them just now?"

I looked at my son quietly. Observing how he was almost as tall as the door frame that he just came through, watching the way that his gangly limbs hung from his body, and noticing for the first time that his cheeks had lost all of their baby fat. He was starting to resemble his father. 

When did he grow so big? I never noticed until now.

"Ma?" Wei asked questioningly.

I smiled a bitter smile. "Come, sit beside me for a while."

Wei hesitated. "But the laundry..."

"We could hang the laundry together later. Just put the basket beside the doorway for now."

Wei complied obediently and sat down next to me.

Even though I was the adult here, I found it difficult to start the conversation.

"Ma? What do you want to speak to me about?" Wei asked. Seeing that I didn't answer straight away, his face screwed up like he just ate a lime. "This better not be about the birds and the bees."

Despite everything, I hacked out a laugh. "I'll leave that for your Uncle Song to teach you."

"Phew. Thank goodness." Wei feigned wiping the nonexistent sweat on his forehead but soon turned solemn. "What is it, ma? Tell me."

I took a deep breath before I looked Wei in the eye. "Uncle Song told me about you wanting to join the military. Is that true?"

Wei quickly averted his gaze.  But after a moment's contemplation, he answered plainly. "Yes."

"Wei..." I called his name gently. "You're a bright kid. You could be a minister if you want to. Or a scholar. Why don't you try being a scholar, hmm?" I spoke in my softest voice in an attempt to coax him.

Wei shook his head resolutely. "But ma, I don't want to be a minister or a scholar. I want to be a soldier. I don't want to sit behind a stuffy desk only speaking or theorizing about doing things instead of actually taking action."

I pursed my lips and Wei could see my disagreement in that single gesture. "Are you... Against it?"

I lifted a hand and held my son's face like he was the most precious treasure that I had, which he was. "Wei, I lost your father to the military. I don't want to lose you too. Your father couldn't help but join the troop because of the royal decree. And because of that, he didn't even get to meet his own son. Not even when he passed away. You didn't get to meet your father because of that. And here you are now, wanting to join the military voluntarily when there isn't even a war to be fought."

Wei took my hand off his face and held it in his hands as he reasoned. "Then doesn't it make it safer for me to join the military? When the country is at peace. The most they'll do is to station me at the border." 

"Liu Wei." I pulled my hand away with a stern frown on my face. "Do you know how harsh the conditions are at the borders?" 

"You're speaking of it as if you know!" Wei raised his voice at me. This was a first. Wei never raised his voice at me ever since he learned how to speak. I widened my eyes. It would be an outright lie if I said that his outburst didn't sting.

I gritted my teeth and stood up. I walked to the door before carrying the basket of freshly-washed laundry out to hang.

Inside the house, Wei gave out a big sigh and roughly ran a palm of his hand over his face before rushing out of the house. "Ma! I'm sorry! I won't join the military, alright."

We were alone. Song, his wife, and even their children were nowhere to be seen.

I continued to hang the laundry in silence.

"Ma, I'm sorry." Wei apologized earnestly. "Ma, please talk to me."

I stared Wei square in the eyes. "You promise me that you'll never join the military?"

"I promise." Wei gave his sincerest promise.

A week passed and everything went back to normal. In the mornings, Wei attended the village school while I harvested whatever was in the garden and brought the extras to the market to be sold. In the afternoons, Wei would arrive home from school and have lunch with me before he attended his training sessions with Song. Even though I was against Wei entering the military, I still stood by my statement that the training with Song was a good exercise for Wei, especially during this time when he was growing at such a speedy pace. Wei trained with Song until nightfall when he'll return home and rest before the next day started all over again.

Today it was no different. I was laying down the dishes for lunch when I heard Wei enter the house. "Ma, I'm back."

"Wei, come and have lunch."

"Alright, ma."

Wei hung his cloth bag full of books by the door and walked over to the low dining table that was set up in the middle of the room before sitting down.

"So how was your day at school?" I asked as I picked the bones off a fish and placed the boneless flesh onto Wei's bowl of rice.

"It was good. But I think I saw a royal messenger on my way back home. He stopped by Fu's house." Fu was Wei's classmate at the village school.

"Hmm... I wonder what that's about." I commented absentmindedly.

There was a sudden knock at the door.

"I'll get the door. You eat up." I said as I stood up to answer the door.

It was the royal messenger.

"I am here on behalf of His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Yuan Si. His Imperial Majesty has decreed that each household is to provide one able young man of sixteen and above to join the military in an effort to expand the empire."

My heart dropped. I turned to look at Wei and couldn't hide the panic in my eyes.