Lantern of the Last Field

Bairui was sorting damp seed bags when the floor shook and a blue window lit up over his hands. His rank came back low, his skill looked useless, and the hunters around him laughed at a farm worker who could not swing a blade fast enough. Then the roots in his test plot healed a cracked stone wall, and he realized his fields could grow medicine that clinics no longer knew how to make. He hated how badly he needed that talent, because his younger sister was already in the Bureau's records, and his family name had become easy to stamp out. A brittle drug receipt in Classical Chinese lands in his hands, and every line of it feels like a clue and a threat. Bairui does not chase glory. He counts ...