Shengxia, a demobilized female soldier born in 1995.
The year she was born, the country issued its first commemorative coin marking the fiftieth anniversary of victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan.
After that, a new coin was issued every ten years.
By 2025, four commemorative coins had been issued.
To her, they were four keys.
In Qingdao in 1925, she feels the working class’s defiance, becomes mired in the chaos of warlord conflicts, and witnesses the collapse of the old era.
In March 1938, during the defense of Teng County, the poorly equipped Sichuan Army uses their own flesh and blood to hold back the Japanese military’s steel tide. Their sacrifice buys four crucial days for the victory at Taierzhuang.
And she, a later arrival who knows how it ends, throws herself into this inferno and lies down forever on this scorched earth.
But this is only the beginning.
One commemorative coin, one journey back through the flames of war.
She falls again and again through the fractures in history.
When the final ten-year mark lights up, where will the fourth coin in her hand lead her?
This is a story about remembrance, sacrifice, and moving against the tide. It asks how a modern soul, across four lives amid a century of war, can answer the weighty question: “What if I had been there?”
P.S. The author isn’t great at history. Please point out any mistakes in the comments. Thank you!
