I think by chapter 35 it'll end, hopefully haha. I said it was going to be 25 like, 15+ chapters ago :P.
Thanks for the comments! Waah, so happy :D.
Disclaimer: Whatever, I don't want to write it anymore..KOEI. >.>
Chapter 32: Secound Thoughts
Qing Wan wandered around the garden late in the afternoon, it's almost been a week since she had returned to Wu. Yet the whole time she's been home, she couldn't help but feel that something was missing. "Sis!" Xiang Wan rushed over to her older sister, "What are you doing here? You have to go get your measurements for the wedding dress!" she cried, dragging her across the castle. It was because Lord Sun Jian's condition was getting worse, Qing Wan and Lu Xun had decided to host their wedding as soon as possible. This way, if anything unspeakable does happen to Sun Jian, he would of at least watch one of his daughters get married. "Madam Wong! We're here!" Xiang Wan called to the elder woman, she was the head tailor for the castle. All the girls clothes and armour would go through her before they wear it. The girls in the kingdom loved her because she chose the right material that could still protect them, and it was always so stylish.
"There you are Qing Wan." Madam Wong pushed stands of her gray hair behind her ear. "I've got a surprise for you darling." She smiled, walking to the back of the room. She pulled out a gown from one of the trunks. Qing Wan's eyes grew watery seeing the same dress she wore almost a year ago when she was first going to get married to Lu Xun.
"Madam Wong…" she said, touched to see the sides of the dress all repaired. "I can't wear this, a concubine is only allowed to wear-"
"You're Lord Sun Jian's daughter! You can wear whatever you want, we don't always need to follow traditions." The woman snapped, handing her the dress.
"Thank you Madam Wong." She smiled. Soon after, Qing Wan crept out of the room while her sister and the other girls were talking about what they were going to wear at the wedding. She stepped into the peaceful garden where she was earlier and sat down on one of the stone hedges that was stuck on the ground. She couldn't explain why she had been so down lately, when she was with people she would always be laughing and smiling, but inside she knew it was all forced out.
"Lady Qing Wan!" a guard shouted from behind her, "Lord Gan Ning has returned to Wu, he has requested for your presence."
"Where is he?"
"At your quarters my lady."
"I'll go there right now, thank you." Qing Wan hurried back to her chambers where she saw the pirate in her room, playing with the tablecloth. "Xing Ba!" Qing Wan screamed, giving the pirate a hug. "You're finally home!"
"Yep!" the pirate placed his feet on the table, but quickly removed them seeing the glare. "It was a hassle to clean up all the war stuff after."
"Did you see Zi Long and Bo Yue? How are they?" she asked excited. Gan Ning scratched his head.
"I saw Lord Jiang, but didn't get to see Lord Zhao. Lord Jiang said that he was busy being an idiot again or something."
"An idiot?" Qing Wan wondered.
"Oh right, Jiang Wei asked me to give you back your bag. You left it at his house." He pointed with his thumb backwards to her bed where the pink bag lay. "It's so odd for a man like me carrying a pink bag out of a house you know. You owe me Cheng Qing Wan." He slapped his mouth, "I mean Lu Qing Wan."
"Shut up." Qing Wan smirked, kicking the pirate out of her room. "Bye!" she waved, slamming the door. Qing Wan sighed and picked up the bag, preparing to put away all the clothes she had packed when she went to Cheng An. Untying the knot, she opened the bag to be astonished a special object that lay in the middle of her neatly folded clothes. Qing Wan gasped in awe as she trailed the familiar markings of the object. There lying on her clothes was the green hair stick she saw during the festival months ago in Cheng An. "Who could of…" she asked herself, but thought back to that day when Zhao Yun carried her home. "Zi Long…" she said softly, holding the hair staff to her chest. She fell forward in shock when she heard a loud knock at the door, quickly she hid the hair staff under her bag and turned around. "Come in."
"Qing Wan?" Lu Xun opened the door roughly, "Lord Sun Jian's condition is getting worse." He told her sadly. Qing Wan's eyes widened in surprise as she rushed out of the room to Sun Jian's quarters, Lu Xun following her.
"Father!" Qing Wan brushed past the guards guarding the room and into the main chamber, Sun Jian's other children along with some generals all crowded the bed. "Father! Are you alright?" Qing Wan managed to push her way through the crowd and to her adoptive fathers bedside.
"Qing Wan," Sun Jian forced a smile, Qing Wan felt a tingle in her hand as the elder mans cold hand touched hers.
"Are you alright? What has the doctors said?"
"The doctors said Father doesn't have much time, his condition has gone worse these past days." Sun Ce explained painfully. Qing Wan stared at the man she's called a father for the past 20 years pale face, Sun Jian patted her hand lightly before coughing intensely.
"Father!" the Sun and Cheng children cried out, all preparing to help him.
"It's alright." Sun Jian coughed, "I'll be fine." He tried to reassure them, "Look at you all, don't be so sad." He coughed, "I have died a happy man to see all my children grown up so nicely."
"Father, you can't say those things." Xiang screamed, "You haven't even been to my wedding! You promised! You- haven't been to Qing's wedding either! Father!" tears fled down the little girls face, she was always a sensitive person and seeing someone close to her on the verge of death upset her. Shang Xiang held Xiang Wan to her closely, even if she was a big tomboy. Shang Xiang couldn't stay strong either.
"Yes," Sun Jian coughed, "I'm upset I can't see Lu Xun and Qing Wan's wedding, but perhaps it's fate on this old man."
"No father." Qing mumbled, "We'll have the wedding earlier, you have to witness it."
"No." her father strictly said, "We already picked out the good days, if you have your wedding on a different day. It'll bring-"
"Screw traditions!" she shouted, "You're the best thing that ever happened to me and Xiang, I want you to witness a big part of my life…"
"She's right Lord Sun Jian," Lu Xun who had been standing behind with the rest of the generals said, "You're very important to us all, and it wouldn't be the same without our Lord. It would be an honour for us, if you could see it."
"A wedding takes long time to prepare, I'm afraid I don't have that much time." Sun Jian replied them sadly, "Please, I'll watch from above."
"Father!" Qing cried, "Da Qiao, tell father it's possible." She looked over to Sun Ce's wife, who stood silently in the corner. Da Qiao was the wedding planner for Lu Xun and Qing Wan's wedding.
"Most of the wedding preparations are already complete my Lord," she replied, her voice wobbly because she saw Sun Jian more than a father in law. "It's just the food, and the guests we'd have to change."
"That's already too much."
"No it's not father!" Qing Wan explained, "We can just have a normal meal, it doesn't have to be big! And we can have another banquet for the guests who can't make it. Father, please consider it."
"I can't take your future because of me, that's too selfish."
"Father…"
"Lord Sun Jian," Da Qiao said softly, "I can handle all of that in two days, please. It'd really mean a lot to them." Sun Jian looked over at the eyes of all his children and generals, inside he knew that if he attended this wedding. It would be the best thing that happened in their life, and in his.
"Fine, but I want it to be perfect. Just for Qing Wan." He smiled, Qing Wan squealed and hugged him.
"Thank you father, it'll be an honour for me."
xx
Later that night, Qing Wan fumbled in her bed. Even though the wedding preparations were all set for the next two days, she couldn't help but think back to the gift Zhao Yun had left for her. "Cheng Qing Wan, you shouldn't be thinking these things." She scolded herself, "You're getting married already." Frustrated with herself, she threw on her night robe and headed towards the table, grabbing the hair stick from under the pile of clothes she stared at it intensely. "You're causing me so much problems!" she shouted throwing it to a far corner in her room. Defeated she walked over to the corner and picked up the hair stick, clutching it in her hand she walked out of her room and into the garden where she was earlier. Throwing her fists in the air, she plopped onto the grass and took a deep breath.
"What's the problem?" she looked up to see Zhou Yu's face looking down.
"Gong Jin!" Qing Wan said surprised, sitting up, "What are you doing here so late?"
"I should be asking you that question, but to answer yours. Xiao Qiao has a habit of telling me to go cook her something around this time, but by the time I cook it she's already sleeping again. So now I just take walks in the park and pretend I cooked her something."
"That's not nice to lie to her like that."
"Aren't you doing the same to yourself?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Qing Wan," Zhou Yu carefully sat down beside her, "I've watched you grow up."
"Yeah…"
"Alright, this may seem weird coming from me, but I have to say it anyways. I don't know what has happened in the last two months, I don't know what you did, who you met, what you felt. But I know you long enough to tell, that something is wrong."
"What do you mean? Nothing is wrong with me Gong Jin." Qing Wan quickly retorted, "There's nothing wrong."
"I don't know if you really love Bo Yan the way you used to do anymore." Qing Wan replied with silence, "Remember when we were younger, and you told me what you wanted when you grew older. You said you'd want a husband who'd only love you. No concubines, and for sure you would never be one. If he cheats on you, or gets married to another woman, that means he doesn't respect you the same you do for him."
"I know…"
"I'm not saying you being a concubine is wrong, but you've always lived up on that reputation of doing what you believe is right for you. And I can tell, as a God-brother, as a friend and as your commander, that your heart doesn't belong to anyone in Wu."
"No, I love Bo Yan." She said quickly, "My heart only belongs in Wu and father wants us to see us get married so I don't care if I am a—"
"You're getting married for Lord Sun Jian? Does that mean you don't love Bo Yan?"
"No! I love Bo Yan…"she cried, grabbing onto her head. "I, I'm doing this for my own good." She stood up, "I'm sorry, I'm tired. Good night." Zhou Yu called out to her as she began to run, he noticed something slipping out of her hands and falling softly into the grass.
"Qing Wan!" Zhou Yu called out, he picked up the emerald green hair stick in his hand. "I've never seen this before." He noted the patterns, "This isn't something that you can get in Wu." He looked up to see her figure slowly disappear. "Her hair was down, where'd this come from?" he wondered to himself, sighing he tucked the hair staff into a small long pouch which carried important letters and his royal stamp.
Xx
Okay, if you don't understand the whole tradition part. I'm not 100 hundred percent sure but I have a jist of it. People in China used to believe that to match a perfect couple, you'd have to compare their birthday. Not only was their birthday used for this comparison, but in the Chinese calendar your dates would be chosen depending on the month, the time you were born and some other stuff. Afterwards, most families would take those dates and find a good day to get married, and they'd have to get married at a certain time or they believed all the luck would of vanished. Yes it's really confusing, but that's the whole jist of it sort of.
So in the story, Sun Jian believes that if they have the ceremony earlier. There will be bad luck for the couple. Simple as that haha!
Oh and the part where Qing Wan says she can't wear the dress, cause in some traditions in China (not sure if it was the thing 2000 years ago). Concubines weren't allowed to wear red, but only pink because red was like 'the real' colour and only the first wife got to be all flashy with it. And wearing pink will let others know she's just a concubine.
Thanks for reading, and next chapter is the one everyone is waiting for…the TRUTH! Okay...no more history lessons. I promise :(
xREIKA