Chapter Eleven: The Giant Rock in the Vegetable Garden

The Red Star Medal.

Theoretically the highest honor, rarely awarded during wartime, its historical significance and value are immeasurable. It symbolizes the early military honor system of Long Kingdom and is exceedingly rare, thus known as the legendary medal.

Cong Gui never even dreamed that one day he would actually see a Red Star Medal with his own eyes!

If this medal is genuine, even placing it in a museum would make it a treasured exhibit.

After hearing Cong Gui’s description, Sun Ting’s hands trembled as she held the camera.

She felt as if she were witnessing history itself.

A grand, stirring saga of blood and tears!

“Lies… it must be a lie…” Liu Dehai stammered, “Commander Cong… you just said the Red Star Medal might never have even been awarded. How can you be sure this thing is real?”

Liu Dehai grew more confident, “Maybe old Ye Head just heard legends about the Red Star Medal somewhere and made this as a fake?”

Cong Gui frowned deeply.

Liu Dehai’s suspicion was not without reason.

There was no authentic Red Star Medal to compare it against, so he could not definitively say if this one was genuine.

Though deep down, he trusted Ye Yuan.

But as a man in a position of authority, he could not act solely on his feelings.

He turned to Ye Yuan and quietly asked, “Old hero, who gave you this Red Star Medal?”

“Back then, I once met the great man I’ve followed my whole life,” Ye Yuan lifted his head slightly, his gaze filled with longing, as if transported back to those fiery days of war and bloodshed. “The commander told me that since our unit had just been formed, the medal system had been approved but not yet officially implemented.”

“He said I deserved to have such a medal… so he personally handcrafted this one and gave it to me…”

Cong Gui’s body trembled slightly.

Hearing Ye Yuan’s words, his mind went blank.

He felt as if he now knew who Ye Yuan was referring to.

“Say whatever you want!” Liu Dehai sneered, wishing he could trample Ye Yuan into the mud and bury him forever. “After all, these are just your words. Who can prove if they’re true or not?”

“Shut up!” Cong Gui glared fiercely at Liu Dehai.

Liu Dehai’s breath caught, and he fell silent.

---

Cong Gui took a deep breath and looked up at Ye Yuan. “Old hero, you said you buried your other medals somewhere. Where exactly?”

Ye Yuan raised a hand, pointing to the vegetable garden in front of his house. “All thrown in there.”

Cong Gui followed Ye Yuan’s finger.

The garden was about thirty square meters, planted with eggplants, cucumbers, and beans.

“Old hero, if we want to dig up the medals you buried, we might have to damage your garden, but don’t worry, we’ll compensate you for any losses.”

“Do as you please,” Ye Yuan waved off the concern without a hint of attachment.

The house had been burned down; what was there to cherish about a vegetable patch?

Hearing this, Cong Gui immediately called the garrison and requested reinforcements.

Soon, over twenty young, sturdy soldiers arrived, carrying shovels.

“Soldiers, there are very precious military medals buried in this garden. Start digging now, but be careful not to miss any medals.”

“Yes, sir!” the soldiers shouted in unison.

They had all witnessed Liu Dehai’s frame-up of Ye Yuan at the garrison and felt immense anger and sympathy for Ye Yuan’s plight.

So upon Cong Gui’s order, they charged into the garden and began to dig.

With over twenty strong men, the work was easy, especially since Ye Yuan had already tilled the soil previously.

Before long, a sharp clang caught Cong Gui’s attention.

“What’s going on?” Cong Gui strode over.

A young soldier scratched his head, embarrassed. “Commander, I didn’t notice a large stone underground, and my hoe accidentally struck it.”

Cong Gui looked down and saw a stone partially unearthed.

Since only a small part was uncovered, its full size was unknown.

“This stone has been buried here since I was a child,” Ye Yuan explained softly as he approached.

Goodness!

Cong Gui was stunned.

Ye Yuan was a veteran of the resistance.

If this stone had been there since his childhood, it must be nearly a century old, maybe more!

“Old hero, why is such a large stone here in your garden?”

Cong Gui smiled, then realized that perhaps the stone was so big that no one had been able to move it, so it had just stayed there all this time.

“I’ll have some men dig it out and move it to the yard,” Cong Gui said quietly.

“Do as you like,” Ye Yuan nodded.

Cong Gui immediately directed the soldiers to drag and haul the stone to a corner of the yard.

“This stone must weigh over a thousand jin. If broken, it would make several stone basins for pickling cabbage,” Cong Gui remarked, glancing at the mud-covered rock before looking away. “Keep digging.”

The soldiers resumed their work.

As they dug, the first medal was uncovered.

Then the second, the third…

Eventually, more than twenty medals were neatly laid out.

“So many! Even more than the ones Old Hero wore!” Cong Gui was dumbfounded.

Ye Yuan had said before that the medals on his body were left by his comrades, but these dug up from the ground were his own.

If that was the case, wouldn’t Ye Yuan’s status be even greater?

Liu Dehai’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

He stared incredulously at the dirty medals, unable to believe Ye Yuan really had them!

But…

If Ye Yuan was truly a resistance veteran, why was his name and deeds not recorded in the county annals?

“Fake! They must all be fake!” Liu Dehai blurted without hesitation. “These are all fake.”

“Or maybe he just stripped these medals from dead bodies!”