Perfect Bride

By- An Unknown Foreign Beauty

Chapter 12- Learning

Mulan could not recognize the girl in her reflection.

She untied her shirt and stared at her bare body patched with bruises. She tried to keep track of their appearance, from oldest to the newest, mishmash colors- from bright green and deep blue and brown. She changed as fast as she could. She wanted to let her hair hang loose because lifting her arms was still painful, but she could not take any chance. She looked at her reflection in the water stood still at her feet and saw a stranger. She had dark hair, a round face like her, but that was where the similarities stopped. She did not have bruises of various colors, and a split lip, or a jaw full of false beard. She was not as tanned as a copper plate. She could not possibly be her, though she moved when she moved. She looked nothing like the gentle bride from the Li house or the rebel daughter from the Fa family. She looked like someone else. Someone completely different.

By the time Mushu came back with his usual tasteless porridge, Mulan sat by the river, staring at her untied shoes. Her stomach still hurt from Ling's kick yesterday. It would hurt more if she bent down to tie her shoes. Gratitude surged through her heart as the tiny dragon sat at her feet and began to tie her shoes. She did not know what to do without him.

"Thank you," she said.

"Well, we would never get there on time if you had to tie them yourself," Mushu said handing her the bowl. "Come on. You can eat and walk at the same time. Everyone has already gathered in the training field." Then he helped her to stand. Her balance was still a bit iffy, but she steadied herself on her feet anyway. She had to. She would not give up, no matter what happened.

She crossed the path leading to the camp quickly. Every thump of her feet sent pain through her ribs, but she ignored it. By the time she reached the camp, everybody was already lined up in the middle of the training field.

"How are you feeling, Ping?" Chein-Po looked concerned as she limped in.

"Better than last night," Mulan assured him taking her place among the soldiers.

"Stumpy Legs over here turned into an old man overnight." Ling grinned, in a voice full of mock sympathy, "Are you still crying for your mommy? Do you need to kiss it better?" He busted into laughter at his joke, and Yao joined in.

"We are all awed by your incredible strength, Ping," added Yao. They had an ugly laugh, Mulan gritted her teeth. She needed to learn how to ignore it, if she wanted so survive here. The sooner, the better.

Today's lesson involved weight lifting. Mulan's heart sank at the sight of the barbells. There was no way she could move a single one in her current condition.

"Feeling a bit stiff, baby?" Ling whispered in her ear.

Captain Shang, standing in front of the pack, spoke before Ling could retort. "Are you going to follow me before I throw two of you out of the class?"

Everyone fell quiet. Mulan watched wide-eyed as Shang lifted the barbell to shoulder level in one motion and above the head in another, separate motion. His legs flexed at the time of the lift, and she feared he would stumble backward with the weight, but soon he straightened and returned to the same plane to complete the lift.

Chein-Po started with the heavier ones. He lifted them with such an ease that Mulan could not but envy him a bit. Ling and Yao had excelled with lighter weights already, so they went for the medium ones. Mulan decided to go for the lightest ones, but she could not find any when it came to her turn. Instead, her place was full of heavy plates, possibly heavier than herself. She turned to find Ling grinning widely behind her, and she realized that he might have switched the plates. She was planning to ask Mushu for help, but then she found Shang's stern gazed fixed on her.

Silently she scolded herself for being such a coward. Ling's insults shouldn't bother her, and she should focus on getting better at her task, not on how badly she did yesterday. And she should be willing, if not able, to defend herself instead of relying on someone else to do it for her. So she decided to go for whatever waiting for her.

"Follow me." Shang said as she bent to lift the weight, "You need to do exactly what I shall do now." He stood beside her and bent to lift his. "No matter how much strength you possess, you can do everything if you follow the right technique." He whispered close to her ears.

Startled, Mulan looked at his face. He sounded just like her father. But his voice was completely professional, devoid of all emotions.

It felt strange to work with him side by side, but his words had a strange effect on her. It made her feel more determined than she was at the beginning of the class. So she followed her instructor's words, memorized the way his body moved when he lifted the weight, the way his bare chest glistened with sweat. She tried to look past him and concentrate, but her eyes shifted back to her husband. She didn't know what she expected to see, or what she wanted to see if anything. Her knees buckled under the weight, and she was about to collapse, but she followed him without thinking.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself as an object of wide-eyed gazes. Surprised, she gazed at herself and realized that she had finally succeeded in her task. Even Chi-Fu looked surprised. After a moment of silence, the crowd busted into applause. Ling looked disappointed, but he kept his mouth shut from hurling another insult at her. Chein-Po patted her shoulder.

"Congratulations Ping." He smiled warmly.

"Thanks." She smiled back, looking at her husband expectantly. But he only lifted his shoulder casually, "Well done, Ping."

Mulan's heart sank. She was expecting some appreciation from the man who inspired her through the whole session, but he simply moved on to the next lesson, as nothing happened. She swallowed her disappointment and concentrated on the next part of their lesson.

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News from the outside world hardly reached the Yu-Shun camp. A messenger from the general came in that evening, with the news of the Huns burning down two villages near Wu-Chuan province. Two troops were killed to stop their invasion, but nothing could save those poor villages from destruction.

Mulan's stomach pinched as she heard the gory details. Out of the corner of her eyes, she watched blood draining Ling's face when he heard the names of the villages. Shang's frown only grew deeper. The messenger also informed that they were able to save a few and kept them in a nearby refugee camp. Mulan was tempted to ask the messengers about more details, but Shang dismissed them soon after the meeting.

That night she had trouble falling asleep. Her own village was only ten miles away from the place of attack. She had not yet received any message from her father, so she supposed that he kept his mouth shut for the sake of her safety. Now she felt worried about their safety. She asked Mushu if he could see or feel anything, but the tiny dragon said that he had no power to predict the future.

She buried her face in the pillow. Would she ask Shang to give her some hints about the current condition of her family? It would be unwise, because the moment he contacted her family, he would find out about her daring escape. She had a thousand questions, and they swirled in her head, now she doubted she would be able to sleep until she could answer them.

She heard a scuffle across the tent and lifted her head from the pillow. It took her a few moments to adjust to the dark. She heard another shuffling and the squeak of a shoe. A heavy thud. And then a wail that curdled her blood and made her hair stand on end. She threw the blankets back and stood on the ground with bare feet. She still could not see well enough to find the source of the scream, but she saw two human shapes trying to hide in the shadows. Another scream pierced her ears. Few more people rushed near the figures still trying to escape in the dark.

"Thieves!" Chien-Po was carrying a lamp, and Mulan saw a small crowd near the entrance of the tent.

"I got them," Yao said, wrapping his strong arms around one of the intruders.

"Let us go…" Cried one of them from the middle of the gathering, and it sounded surprisingly like a woman.

A woman's voice!

Chein-Po brought the lamp close to the crowd and shone it over the faces of the guilty. They squinted at the sight light. Mulan gasped when she recognized the intruders- Ling and a woman, almost nine months pregnant standing helplessly in the middle of the crowd.

Yao immediately released his hold on the woman's arm. His single eye was wide as a saucer. "Is this a woman?" He threw a perplexed gaze at his comrade.

"Have you just stepped so low to bring a harlot in the camp?" Chien-Po asked, still not able to believe his eyes.

Ling automatically placed a protective arm around his companion. "She is my wife." He protested firmly, "Her name is Ting-Ting." Ting-Ting still looked frightened at the sight of so many unknown faces around her. She leaned closer to her husband as if she was trying to melt into his body.

"But don't you know that women are not allowed here?" Yao shook his head disapprovingly. "Send her back, Ling. The captain and the royal advisor will have both you executed if they find her out."

"But she has nowhere to go." Suddenly Ling stood up straight, still keeping his arm around his wife's shoulders. Determination flashed in his eyes when he spoke, "The Huns has burned down our house. I have followed the messengers to the refugee camp with a hope that she is still alive, and found her there, being treated like dirt. Will you allow if this happened to your pregnant wife too?"

Mulan could not believe her eyes. Since their meeting, Mulan found Ling nothing but a complete jerk, only capable of insulting people. But seeing him protecting his wife in such a furious manner, made her respect this man all on a sudden. She could not but pity herself, her rotten luck, even when she was living so close to her husband.

So she decided to step forward. "We better talk with the captain." She suggested. "He is a reasonable man. I think he will give Ling's condition a thought."

Yao gave her a strange look like she had gone mad. Various suggestions began to appear, but no one was ready to let a woman live among men.

"It is disgraceful," Yao commented.

"A woman in the camp!" The crowd went silent hearing Chi-Fu's sharp voice from behind. He was walking towards the crowd with the captain in tow. Both of them were still in their nightdress. "I can't imagine your soldiers behaving like this, captain." He shook his head at the captain disapprovingly, "What a disgrace."

" I will make sure that this thing will not happen again, advisor," Shang assured him as he ordered the guards to take Ling away. The crowd parted, making way for the guards. None of them looked too sympathetic to stop the guards from taking their comrade away. Ting-Ting tried to reach for her husband, but another guard restrained her.

"But he was trying to…" Finally, Mulan decided to speak up for Ling, at least for the sake of his wife. But she was cut off by Shang's stern glare.

"Rules are rules, Ping. And I believe that you were told very well that no women are allowed in the camp." He said flatly. "When you are a soldier, you need to value the rules above your personal gain. The soon you learn it, Fa Ping, the soon you will become a man."

Mulan stared up at him. For the first time since she confronted him, she saw a hint of sadness in his eyes. She was tempted to ask if he had abandoned his own wife for the sake of rules, but he simply avoided her gaze and ordered the guards to bring the guilty to his tent for trial.

Reviews? Faves? Follows?

You may remember Ting-Ting from the second movie. The only difference is here Ting-Ting is not a princess in this story. In the next chapter, we shall see things from Shang's perspective.

Errors are all mine. Consider them nicely.