Li Jin Qing: The one behind it all

Chapter 36: The side of war no one sees.

When Jin qing returned, she had shut herself in her room so she doesn't need to hear the wails of the poor woman who was the mother of Yi ping.

Yi ping was her only son, her pride and joy. Compared to his older siblings, he was nothing, his accomplishments seeming small compared to what Kai feng, Huan le, or Jin qing had done for the country.

But to his mother, he has done enough. And now that he had sacrificed his life to protect the great Wei...

Jin qing couldn't help but blame herself.

She didn't want to hear the crying from her family for Yi Ping's death.
She didn't want to see the fake tears the first wife would shed.
She didn't want to feel the pain and heartbreak over and over again.

All she wanted was to be alone... and for Yi Ping to return from the dead.

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The Wei was celebrating this victory in this early battle. The entire country was in great spirits, partying and celebrating, congratulating the soldiers who had survived and came home to loving mothers and fathers, grateful wives and children who had gotten the chance to see their son, brother, father, or husband after so many sleepless nights of worry.

Reunited families, friends, lovers and more.

You can hear them cheering, you can see the tears of joy flying down their faces as they are reunited with someone they had thought and feared they had lost.

for all they knew, their worst fear didn't come true. The gods and the heavens had spared them and allowed them to return to the people they knew.

But no one,
No one,
Paid attention to the people who aren't celebrating.

No one cared for the fatherless child who had promised her he'll come back home alive.
No one cared for the lonely lover who is sitting by an unlit hearth, crying for the loss of dreams family with a man who had died.
No one cared for the orphan on the street as their brother's life was taken by the heavy and bloody price of war.
No one cared widow who worried about how she was going to support all her children on her own without her partner to support her.

They stare in jealousy and in anger as they watched other people rejoice. They watch as others welcome back friends and family when those very people could be themselves.
They curse underneath their breaths as their friends welcome back their own family members while they didn't.

They didn't...

They didn't survive.

They didn't come home to the lives they have built for themselves before the cold grip of death took them away from the land of the living.

War can be so bloody. The victory of a single battle will cost so many lives. And when history records the battle, they will only write the name of the emperor and the generals involved, never giving the men who had made it all possibly any credit.

Why?

That's just how the world is.
They write about the victories, they write about what was gained in every victory, never about what was lost.

No one noticed how empty the smile felt as the Xue xian smiled and toasted to the victory of the Wei.
No one noticed how tired the Xue xian looked when they all congratulated her on her excellent work.

No one noticed the hole in her heart as the Xue Xian felt what so many other people in the country felt. To them, what is lost isn't important, but rather what's gained.