This is a very short part – I'll add the next one later this week.

Part Seven

"Mama, Baba! I have to tell you something," Mulan gasped, running into the family room. But she stopped. There were concerned and disturbed looks on everyone's faces, but Mulan guessed easily.

"Madam Wen was just here," Mama cried in distraction. "She's considering calling off the match, Mulan! What did you do?"

"My dear," Fa Zhou said to his wife, softly but firmly. "I'm sure that whatever happened, Mulan has a good explanation." They all looked expectantly at Mulan.

"Wen Jian-Die is a spy!" Mulan announced.

Grandma slapped her hand to her forehead and sighed at the absurdity.

"Enough!" cried Mama. "Mulan, Jian-Die is not a spy. He is a respected scholar. A girl from a family like ours rarely makes such a match! This is not a war-zone Mulan. It's no place for secret missions or espionage."

"I'm telling the truth, Mama!" Mulan cried. "I heard it myself! He's – "

"Perhaps you heard incorrectly, Mulan?" Fa Zhou offered.

"No," Mulan insisted miserably.

"We're going to have to visit Madam Wen tonight, and perhaps young Wen Jian-Die will understand – perhaps the match can still be salvaged," Mama said seriously, "but that's all we can wish. You will have to settle down without expecting special treatment."

"But Mama, when news comes, when the Emperor's messengers arrive – "

"Well, they have not come, Mulan. Captain Li has not returned. No one in the village knows of your victory, the very victory that saved their lives. They only remember how you shouted at the Emperor's counsel. Even if we were to tell them, it would be nothing more than a legend to them. Women are not soldiers. Mulan, I'm only trying to tell you – you must put aside your boyish ways. No matter how your tomboyishness has helped you, no matter how you used it to save the rest, people only care that you are a lady. That you marry." Mulan looked helplessly to her father and grandmother, but Mama wasn't finished. "Mulan, it's awful, but it's true – you are not a hero here."

With that last sentence, Fa Li had crushed every hope Mulan had feebly built since she'd returned, every glimmer that she might mean something outside of her family's courtyard walls. And worst of all, everything Mama said had been true. Thousands had bowed to her in the Imperial City, but they were just aping the Emperor. And though the Emperor himself had stooped his shoulders in respect, the feeling must have disappeared the minute after.

Mulan stood stiffly in front of her family, the only ones who believed her, yet the first to admit that her bravery was worth nothing now that she was a woman again. So frozen she could not even grope for the comfort of her cropped hair, she somehow managed to regard her mother.

"I've spent most of my life trying to convince my family and myself that I was worth something. When I was in the army, for a brief minute I felt it. Then I was a hero. It seems I may never be able to get that feeling back."

She wanted to leave, she almost wanted to let the village burn, and she scolded herself even for the unsaid thought. She started to retreat into her room.

"Mulan, wait," Grandma said. Mulan stopped. Grandma hobbled over and looked her granddaughter straight in the eye. "Mulan, you and I know how your mother tends to…ramble. What she's trying to say is this: you know who you are, we know who you are, and a few thousand people in the Imperial City know who you are. But the people around here still need to find out. And only you can make them see."

Mulan couldn't quite reply. Instead, she turned her face away, and slunk out of the room.

"That's not exactly what we meant, Grandma," Fa Li said after Mulan disappeared. Now Grandma looked her daughter-in-law in the eye.

"She'll go to her room, she'll cry a little, then she'll think about what I said. And she'll do what she needs to." Grandma stubbornly pushed a strand of white hair out of her face. "That's how Fa women roll."

"She's already cryin'," Mushu argued. "Now's the time to tell 'er."

Cri-Kee wasn't so sure. Wouldn't the news of Mulan's upcoming death make things worse? But it was too late to convince Mushu. He had already crept inside the room. "Mulan?" the dragon called. "I brought some te-ea. How ya feelin', girl?"

"Fine, Mushu. Thanks, but I don't need that now."

Mushu's jaw dropped. This wasn't the despondent Mulan he expected. He thought she would be so upset, she would have jumped out the window. (Of course it was the ground floor, but Mushu would have done it, and it would have splatted him.) In fact, the only sign of emotion in the darn girl were her eyes, which were red-rimmed and a little watery. Otherwise she was downright normal!

"Your ma just yelled at you!" Mushu said with a bit of resentment. "Arentcha upset?"

"I was," Mulan admitted. She was hunched over her writing desk, scribbling notes and a simple sketch that looked like a map on a scrap of parchment. She absently took a gulp of tea and immediately made a face. "Mushu, this is cold."

"I didn't want you to scald yourself," he said, feeling a panic coming on. "Go on."

"But I thought about what Mama and Grandma said," she said in a serious voice. "They were both right. It would probably be a good idea to settle down. I'm not going to be a celebrity, that's for sure, and the Emperor's not sending the message, so things really are going back to normal, and I have to accept that. And I would marry Jian-Die. If he weren't a spy – which he is.

"Like Grandma said, I know who I am, and I have to trust myself. Not everyone's going to believe in me. No matter what I do, or how I change, how much I try to conform, it's impossible to impress everyone. In a world like this, you have to fight battles every day. I forgot that. But I have a plan now."

"Does this plan involve going outside?" Mushu asked, hoping it didn't. There were all kinds of dangers out there.

"Well, yeah. I'm going to invite Jian-Die over to "patch things up". But I'm really just going to keep him here. If his mother is so concerned with appearances, she'll probably make him come, even though she dislikes me. And then he won't be able to deliver his message, and I'll send for soldiers to come and capture him. But I'll need your help."

Mushu had to think about it. Mulan thought that was incredible.

"Mushu!"

"Okay Mulan, I'll help. If you promise me something."

"What is it?"

"I want you to stay inside tonight," he said decisively. He figured she couldn't get hurt inside, and spring was definitely going to be here by the morning. What could kill her in her own house? Well, maybe chopsticks. He'd have to get rid of those.

Mulan considered this. "All right, Mushu, whatever you say. I need you to deliver a message to Jian-Die. Can you do that?"

"You bet I can!" said Mushu, enthusiastic now. He still had that man suit he used to deliver the message to Chi Fu in the army. "But even if we get him here, how will you keep him here?"

"Oh, I have my ways," said Mulan, smiling mischievously. She took the enameled magnolia hair comb from a drawer in her night table. "If it's a lady everyone wants, then it's a lady they'll get. After all, no one knows I'm a hero. So Jian-Die won't be suspicious. Besides, who would ever suspect a woman? You know, Mushu, sometimes, it takes a woman to save the day."

And she placed the comb firmly in her hair.