Chao compensates for his loss of stature in the company by taking courageous risks during the attack on Vietnam, but winds up in the minority of company soldiers who somehow make it back to their base camp alive. Chao’s ensuing case of survivor’s guilt worsens when he meets the mother, widow, and child of the company commander, an exemplary figure who had died after destroying the last Vietnamese blockhouse targeted during the raid. The obvious poverty of these bereaved peasants moves Chao to tears after they insist on paying all the debts left by the late commander. In a curious variation on the typical deathbed scene in formulaic Maoist war novels, the dying commander’s final action had not been to hand over his last wad of cash and gasp that it was for his Communist Party dues; instead, the commander’s trembling hand had held out a bloodstained list of debts incurred while he was assisting needy relatives over the years.