397 Hero (1/2)
A will!
Fools, you children don’t even know what the letter and words represent.
It represents the loss of a vibrant life, once this letter is opened again after being sealed!
It represents heart-wrenching agony!
It represents a regret that you can never repay.
We did the same back then, fooling around. Of our comrades whom we’ve teased or teased us back then… seven or eight out of ten of them are no longer here in this world now!
Yet, we who survived, we’ve never forgotten even now, the devastation we witnessed when we represented our brothers, our platoon, to send their belongings, wills, and pensions back to our late comrades’ homes.
We all read those wills before they got sealed. We didn’t feel anything then, only thought that it was fun and hilarious.
However, when they were actually torn open… when we saw the familiar words again, the tears were unstoppable, like a broken dam.
When you've experienced it once, you won’t want to snatch anyone’s will, ever again.
Each will is like a dagger stabbing into your own heart.
You fellows who are making so much noise now… you will soon know that the merry laughter today will bring you a lifetime of longing and heaviness!
When these comrades take a slash for you with their bodies, when they take an arrow for you with their heads, you will suddenly realize how precious today’s laughter is – how heart-wrenching and how memorable it shall be.
Laugh, have fun; we won’t interrupt you because this might be the last day you can joke around with these brothers in your lifetime.
After today, there might never be merry laughter anymore.
There were a lot of new blood that were unhappy with the veterans. It had been a long time coming.
These old ones acted so arrogantly just because they had fought a few wars. When the young ones came closer, they ignored them. How dare they?
Since the veterans ignored them, the new blood did the same.
However, such discontent would dissipate with a stark realization after the new blood went through a few wars and became veterans themselves.
The battlefield was a terribly realistic place.
There were actually reasons behind the veterans’ various behaviors. It was not that they were ignoring them, or they did not want to make friends – they dared not. Having to constantly say goodbye to friends were constant blows to their emotional state…
When one lingered long enough in the battlefield, one really would not want – dared not want - to make any more friends!
Only by making one's self-cold and distant could one’s heart be protected.
…
Each empire was making preparations and waiting to pounce. The aggressive aura was evident and formidable.
Yutang’s border was brimming with a fighting spirit, patriotism surging within everyone; there was no fear regarding their foes' imminent approach.
In spite of this, Yutang’s imperial court was grim, dark and ominous.
The emperor was hard-pressed during this time while Old Marshal Qiu Jianhan often stayed awake through the night with his brows permanently locked in a frown. The latter could not share his worries with outsiders, not even the emperor.
He was the only one in this world who knew that Supreme Wind, who could manipulate the battlefield, was perhaps… not in Yutang at this moment!
He did not know where he had gone to! This was what mattered the most.
Furthermore, from how bold and daring the other empires were setting off their troops, it was not difficult to infer that they might have conspired and trapped Supreme Wind. That would explain their reckless border invasion, intending to wipe out Yutang once and for all!
This highly probable inference weighed down the old marshal, so much so that he felt suffocated by it.
If it were really so, things were looking bad!
Yet, where had Supreme Wind gone to at this critical juncture?
Besides, it was impossible that Supreme Wind did not know a thing, given the aggressiveness displayed by the four empires. However, nothing was hinting at his return to assist them. This was highly suspicious indeed.
Would this become an unsolved mystery?
”Trigger all four nations’ spies!” Qiu Jianhan ordered, ”Collect all information on unusual activities. Clues must be found regardless of the price and be used to track down Supreme Wind’s current whereabouts!”
He paced to the window and gazed at the bright moon that hung in the sky, murmuring, ”Hopefully you’ll return in time! Otherwise, this war… Yutang’s current predicament… we won't walk out of this one unscathed!”
At the break of dawn on the same day, the Empire of Yutang’s emperor, Yu Peize, announced a nationwide dictum.
”Yutang does not owe anyone! Yutang has never been a money-making tool for anyone and this should not be a basis for others to initiate a war to conquer the world!”