War is a terrible event.
War breeds hatred. Hatred towards strangers for trivial reasons.
Hatred turns close friends into enemies. Families are torn apart. Lovers despise each other.
Huan Jin, Shanxia, and I were close friends who fought together on the battlefield. The three of us grew up on the same land, the same mountain, and the same valley.
We went through dozens of wars, so each of us became a leader in our own families. Building power to protect loved ones.
I harbored feelings for the girl famous for her beauty and swordman talent.
Shanxia, the crane girl, was her nickname on the battlefield.
Whenever Huan Jin and I fought, she always mediated between us. She always smiled and listened to my complaints. Laughed when I told jokes. Got angry when I was injured on the battlefield.
Until one day, after the war ended, I decided to propose to her to be my lover.
But what I didn't know was that the girl had loved Huan Jin before me.
They married, becoming a king and queen in the Jin valley. Meanwhile, I was alone in the dark forest with my family's inherited power and wealth. Sitting on an empty throne in a kingdom in the forest.
It started with envy. Turning into jealousy. Turning into hatred. My unrequited love made me even angrier at Huan Jin.
Why him? Why that man?
I slept with a hundred beautiful women, but only Shanxia's face I remembered. No matter how beautiful the women I slept with, Shanxia couldn't leave my mind.
I became increasingly restless and insane because of the love that restrained my heart. Day after day, I always waited and heard news about Shanxia. Hoping she would leave Huan Jin.
That feeling grew into lust when I heard the news that the woman had died after giving birth to her second child, who was a girl.
I drowned in sadness and hatred afterward. Thinking that I could never meet Shanxia again, made my life more chaotic and my mind broken.
I raped many girls to remember Shanxia. Until one day I met that girl, a girl who gave me the idea to revive my love.
The idea to attack Huan Jin's kingdom and take his daughter.
Every year I always went to the Jin kingdom just to see the face of the little girl born from the woman I loved. Every year she grew more and more like Shanxia. And when she grew up, that's when I could no longer control my lust.
I killed my own friend who had fought under the scorching sun and blood-soaked ground together. Just to get Shanxia reborn.
But the girl managed to escape for a few months before I finally got her back only to see her bringing an unknown man standing beside her and taking her away from me again.
I told the girl who gave me the idea to chase the grown-up Shanxia but she said to wait because eventually she would come back to me sooner or later.
The girl kept piling up my lust so I was no longer satisfied with girls. I only wanted Shanxia, Shanxia, and Shanxia. Only she could satisfy me.
And finally, she returned. With a sword in her hand and challenged me to a duel.
Seeing her holding a sword really reminded me of Shanxia in the past. I was really angry when she came back with a sword in her hand and I was about to teach her a lesson.
But, everything ended differently. Fate taught me a lesson and I died, in front of the daughter of the woman I loved. In front of Shanxia reborn.
After I remembered it again. When she was little, I smiled when she gave me a lily from the pond.
"Shun Jin. Don't interrupt your father's conversation with his old friend. If you're impolite, Uncle Fong will get angry."
The little girl nodded but still came closer to me and held out the lily in her hand.
"Uncle Fong, Shun Jin has a flower for Uncle Fong."
At that moment, I thought such a relationship wasn't bad after all. The envy, jealousy, and hatred I harbored disappeared for a moment to see her small smile.
But it was all too late. I had already fallen deeper into lust and now hell awaited me.
Forgive me, Shanxia.
***