Chapter 5: Mulan

Shang gaped at Zhao in disbelief.

"Your soldier Fa must come from a different family with the same name," Zhao continued. "Fa Zhou has only one child, his daughter Mulan. But she is something else, I can tell you that."

Shang just kept staring at him, speechless, his mind reeling.

"She's sixteen. Very beautiful, but an oddball." Zhao looked at him. "You dropped your chopsticks."

"Huh?" Shang said, dazed.

Zhao picked up the chopsticks and handed them to Shang, who absent-mindedly took them from him.

"She does not act like other girls. She's actually very smart. Not one to keep quiet. She is already sixteen, but she's too much of a hand-full for a man to want to marry, unfortunately. Besides, I heard she set the matchmaker on fire when she went there," he chuckled as he mentioned the last part.

Zhao began talking about something else then, having exhausted the subject of Mulan as far as he was concerned.

Shang was overwhelmed with shock, anger and confusion. A daughter! Ping wasn't Ping? He was Mulan, a sixteen-year-old girl? Shang had read the conscription notice and it had definitely read Fa Zhou. It was not another Fa family. That explained a lot. The feminine quality he'd seen immediately in Ping, the weakness, the disastrous first weeks of training. He thought of her face, always looking dark and streaked with dirt…or something. She must have kept it that way on purpose so that they wouldn't be able to really see her face, see that she was a woman by her features. And that glimpse of the woman he'd seen at the lake that night. He hadn't been hallucinating and it hadn't been a spirit. It had to have been her!

She had lied to him, had completely deceived him. If Kai-Feng hadn't happened to get sick and Wang Zhao hadn't happened to be the medic who came he would still be in the dark about it. They'd all been fooled, but he was the captain. He should have seen something. Some captain he was. He couldn't believe it. This would never have happened to his father.

But why? What possible purpose could she have for doing this? It was against the law and was considered treason. Didn't she know that the penalty was death if she was caught? Why would she risk that? And they were preparing to go into battle! Did she really want to go to war and possibly get killed on the battlefield? Was she really that insane? And why had Fa Zhou allowed her to go?

"Is something wrong, Captain?" Zhao asked.

"Huh? Oh…no." Shang frowned.

"You seem to have something on your mind."

"I-I was just wondering…well, uh…what do you know about Fa Zhou? Now, I mean. Does he still fight?"

"No. He was wounded in his last battle. He is retired now."

Later that night, Shang wandered into the forest and down to the lake, deep in thought. He didn't know what he was going to do. He knew he couldn't tell Chi Fu about Mulan. Chi Fu was just looking for a reason to prove that he was unfit to be a captain. He had resented his father promoting him. There was no doubt that he would use this against him, as proof that he was unfit for the responsibility. Shang knew he was stymied. He had to keep this to himself. He had to make sure Chi Fu never found out. He had to make sure his men never found out or they would all take him for a fool. Just as she had. Anger welled up inside of him again and he imagined himself grabbing her and strangling her. He was furious at her, for deceiving him, for making him feel as stupid as he felt now; and for putting him in the position he was now in.

And he'd almost gotten rid of her! He'd let her go that night after their hike in the mountains. She could have been on her way home and he could have been free of this problem before it started; but instead the stubborn little imp had turned around and climbed up to the arrow, proving after all that she could do something that no one else in the camp could. He had allowed her to stay. And she had turned around and had become his best soldier. A girl. He had never agreed with the idea that women shouldn't speak without permission or that they were all brainless. His mother had been educated, and she had been an intelligent woman who always had important, fascinating things to say to him. His father had told him that his mother was different from other women, that other women were inferior. He had also been taught to believe that women were weak, that they needed to be protected. He certainly never thought they belonged in the army. And yet, here was this small girl who was smarter than anyone and had made it through the army training. Not only that, she had become better than anyone in the camp. She was as good as any of the men.

He was going to have to confront her. He decided that he would talk to her and then make a decision as to what he would do with her. He had to find out why she had done this. He was curious despite himself. Whatever it was it must have been important. He couldn't believe that she would do this just for the sake of making a fool of him or anyone else, or having fun at anyone's expense. He'd given her a way out, but she hadn't taken it. She had pushed herself and had found a way to stay. She must have had a reason to want to stay so badly.

His father had told him that being in command was not easy and that his first time training a group of men would be difficult. And it had been. But things had finally been looking up. He had succeeded. He'd whipped these undisciplined recruits into shape, even that girl. They were ready for battle. They had finally turned into a competent regiment. The report would be going to his father shortly and they would be leaving to join him, something Shang had been dreaming about with anticipation. And now he'd discovered her.

He marched straight to her tent, yelling for 'Ping'. She wasn't there.