Lalala, hope I'll finish this by the end of the week.

Disclaimer: Koei, yeah. You're cool.

Chapter 26: Zhou Yu's Poem

Lu Xun paced back and forth in his tent, the sun was already reaching the highest peak and there was still no sign of Qing Wan or any of the soldiers. Zhao Yun, Jiang Wei and Gan Ning sat around the rounded table in the middle of the room, watching the man move. "Bo Yan, calm down." Gan Ning closed his eyes and shook his head, "Your pacing is giving me a headache."

"Where could she be?" Lu Xun muttered, "She should have been home already, but I still don't see any sign of her!"

"Did she even make it to the Wei camp?" Zhao Yun pondered, sipping his tea quietly.

"Reports say she didn't." Gan Ning replied sadly, "Maybe she got lost in the forest?"

"Impossible." Jiang Wei said, "I gave her a map of the actual colour coordinates." He frowned, "She said she understood!"

"She rushes a lot of things, I know it was a bad idea to let her go alone." Lu Xun threw his scripts off his desk. Suddenly the flap of his tent was pushed roughly as the other generals filed up in the small room. "What is it?"

"There's still no sign of Lady Cheng, that Cao Cao must have done something." Ma You slammed his fist onto his palm, "We must do something about it!" The other generals agreed.

"We don't know what happened." Jiang Wei tried to calm everyone down, "We should wait…"

"No, let us go." Lu Xun rose his hand to gather attention, "Men, gather your troops, we shall head out later." The generals nodded abruptly and headed out.

"Bo Yan, what are you doing?" Gan Ning shouted, "We can't attack like this."

"I'm just telling them to prepare their men, I never said we were attacking." Lu Xun replied, sitting down on his chair. He grabbed onto his head, "Qing Wan." He mumbled.

"Lord Lu!" a messenger ran into the tent, panting he handed him a letter. "Important letter from Lord Zhou Yu."

"Thank you." Lu Xun took the letter and stared at it.

"Why don't you open it Lu Xun?" Zhao Yun asked, curious on why there would be a letter.

"Why would Zhou Yu send us a letter?" Lu Xun wondered, the rest of them shrugged. Quickly he flipped open the letter and recited the poem written on it. "The horse runs gracefully across the field, until it reaches the harsh land, will it be tied up for good."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Gan Ning scratched his head, "That Gong Jin, if there's something important he should say it."

"Do you understand what this means?" Jiang Wei asked Lu Xun.

"No, Gong Jin's verses always have something very direct to them, but I can never tell what it is." Lu Xun stared at the letter, "across the field…" he repeated. It suddenly hit him, "Gan Ning, Zhao Yun quickly tell all the generals to hold off their men!"

"Why?"

"There's a traitor among us." Gan Ning and Zhao Yun quickly rushed out of the tent and informed all the generals of the new plan. "Bo Yue, let us figure this out." He led the Shu tactician to the desk; the two began to play with the poem. Rearranging the words, reciting it in different speeds and dialects.

"I can't seem to understand this." Jiang Wei said frustrated, "Lord Zhou Yu is truly a mastermind at these."

"Yes he is." Lu Xun scratched his head, Gan Ning and Zhao Yun walked into the tent, chatting about something. "Ah Xing Ba, Zi Long, how'd it go?"

"We informed most of them," Gan Ning replied.

"But Hua Tong told us that Ma You has already brought his men out the gates."

"Ma You?" Lu Xun frowned, "He left without my orders?" He paused for a second and looked over to the poem, repeating it to himself. "Xing Ba! Zi Long! Hurry and get Ma You! He's the traitor!" The four of them rushed out of the tent and jumped onto the nearest horse. Quickly the four men headed out of the base to see Ma You's men trying to get to escape. "Stop!" Lu Xun cried, Ma You turned his head and got his horse to run faster. While the three men continued chasing, Lu Xun steered his horse and went a different direction. He jumped off his horse and climbed up the archer tower, grabbing a bow and arrow from a fellow soldier. He aimed it at Ma You who was heading his way, pulling his arm back he strung the first arrow that stuck onto the ground in front of Ma You's horse. Scared, Ma You's horse jumped up, throwing the general off and onto the ground.

"Got you now." Gan Ning growled, all of Ma You's followers ducked down covering their heads. Jiang Wei and Zhao Yun circled the small group of men.

xx

"Your archery skills are truly amazing." Zhao Yun complimented Lu Xun as they all gathered around the tent again.

"Lu Xun and Qing Wan are known for their archery skills." Gan Ning boasted, "The two were a couple—"

"Gan Ning." Lu Xun coughed, "Anyways, now that we have the traitor out of the way. We have to find a way to locate Qing Wan."

"Too bad that Ma You won't say anything." Jiang Wei growled, "I'm really worried about Lady Cheng."

"Say Lu Xun," Zhao Yun asked, "How'd you figure it out it was him anyways?"

"Well, it was all thanks to you Lord Zhao Yun. Of mentioning the name of Ma You."

"Me?"

"You see, the verse is separated into three parts. The first part would be, 'The horse runs gracefully across the field.' Across the field gave me the idea of the traitor, and horse as in Ma, and gracefully would be You Mei. So simply, Ma You was our suspect."

"Oh that is such brilliant thinking." Jiang Wei said amazed. "What about the other parts of the verse?"

"The other parts of the verse were Zhou Yu trying to make it seem like a verse of a poem." Lu Xun smiled, "The second part of the poem is 'until it reaches the harsh land' harsh is a pun for Cao. Harsh land would be Cao land, in another way. Cao Cao's land."

"I can explain the third one then," Jiang Wei chuckled, "'Will it be tied up for good' means that once it reaches Cao Cao, he will serve Cao Cao loyally."

"That's right." Lu Xun folded his arms across his chest and nodded, "Zhou Yu always has his ways of doing these things."

"But wait, if Ma You and his men were the traitors. Wouldn't it mean that the men he sent with her are too?" Gan Ning suddenly brought up the topic, "That means she's in danger."

"We have to go help her." Jiang Wei said right after, suddenly a general dressed in purple rushed into the tent.

"Lord Lu Xun." The man bowed, taking off his helmet.

"Cousin!" Lu Xun rushed over to him, "Bo Zi, what are you doing here? I sent you to be with Qing Wan!"

"I was sent here by Lady Cheng," the man replied, "There was something fishy going on last night."

"Does that mean Qing Wan's okay?" Jiang Wei asked from the side.

"Yes when we were leaving she was. I don't know about now."

"She must still be in the forest right?"

"That's right Lord Gan," he nodded, "You see, we were walking through the forest normally until I noticed some of the men that came along with us began to rip off the markers we needed to return home! I reported this to Lady Cheng, and she sent me back here to tell you all she would handle it."

"Handle it? She's against 15 assassins!" Lu Xun shouted, "Qing Wan is always doing this to make people worry. Prepare me a horse, I will go to the mist forest to find her."

"Bo Yan, that's too dangerous." Gan Ning warned, "You may never make it back!"

"I have to find Qing Wan." He mumbled, "I can't lose her again because of war!" angrily he headed out of the commanders tent and into his personal tent.

"Bo Yan!" Gan Ning and Bo Zi shouted, running after him. Jiang Wei looked over to Zhao Yun who sat there on the stool quietly.

"I know you want to go."

"What are you talking about?" Zhao Yun snapped, "I would care less if she died, in fact I would be happy if she did die."

"I know you don't mean that Zi Long, you don't hate Qing Wan."

"What do you know?"

"I know that you share a special feeling for…"

"Bo Yue, shut it. I told you, I wouldn't care if she died."

"Why are you hiding from your true feelings? You've been avoiding her, and being mean to her for the past two weeks. She's so afraid of you, she doesn't even dare to look at you in the eye anymore, do you really want the two of you to be like this?"

"She has Lu Xun," he replied coldly.

"But I can tell she doesn't like Lu Xun."

"She's just lying to you Bo Yue," Zhao Yun looked up at him, "She's just lying to all of us." He yelled brushing past the Shu general and out of the tent.

"Zi Long…"

xx

And Ma You would of gotten away with it too if it wasn't for them meddling kids!
Lu Xun: Why are you quoting Scooby Doo?
Cause Scooby Doo is so cool.

Note: Yes, Zhou Yu's 'poem' doesn't make sense. Because I'm using both Cantonese and Mandarin ping yin to solve the riddle in a way. 'Harsh' in Cantonese is the same way you'd pronounce 'Cao Cao'. Uh Ma is a last name (my last name too) and it means horse, and uh You well, the story explained it hopefully.
This was a totally made up poem please don't hurt me! Hope you enjoyed it anyways!

XReika