A/N- MUAHAHA! I AM THE AUTHORESS AND I KNOW ALL! Okay, I have officially fallen off my high horse...anywhoo, I'm really glad that all of you like this. Oh, and Jade was just having a little spoiled moment. She really does like/love Shang, but her pride got in the way a bit. This chapter is slightly sad, but I hope it's good.

Chapter 4

"Mulan!"

"I'm coming!"

"Mulan!"

"I'm coming!"

"MULAN!"

"WHAT?"

"There you are!" Ming-Su cried out. She grabbed her arm and plopped her down in the mahogany chair. "Stop fidgeting!"

"What are you doing to me?" She whimpered as Ming-Su and her other handmaidens began pulling combs ruthlessly through her long black hair.

"We're fixing you! You look awful!" One of the younger maidens replied with contempt.

"Why, thank you," Mulan said, offended. She had just run out of the bathroom from her bath. She couldn't possibly look that bad.

"Don't listen to her, she's just jealous. She's been in love with Prince Jeeki since gods know when." The older handmaiden replied.

"Lena!" She yelled.

"Quiet!" Ming-Su called out. "All focus must be on Mulan right now, not your petty fights!"

And Mulan continued to endure her pain in silence, while trying to push down the suffocating anxiety that began to arise in the pit of her stomach. If she hadn't kept her mouth clamped shut, she would have blown chunks.

Ming-Su saw the grim look on the young warrior's face and muttered with a smile, "Nervous?"

Mulan nodded, disturbing her frustrated hair dressers.

"I remember how I felt on my wedding day," Ming-Su sighed reminiscently. "Do you feel like you are about to throw up?"

She nodded.

"Do you feel like you are falling through an endless pit?"

She nodded.

"Do you feel like crying every time someone talks to you?"

She nodded again.

Ming-Su grinned wider and said, "Then you will be just fine."

Shang was pacing back and forth around his room. He knew what he had to do…but he didn't like it.

A maiden entered his room and bowed to him. "Sir Mekhi will see you now."

He took a deep breath and followed the tiny maid out of his room and into the library. The maid bowed her way out and left the two men alone.

Mekhi gave Shang a fatherly grin and said, "You wished to speak to me, my son?"

Shang winced inwardly at the term of endearment the old man used. He bowed low to the ground and said, "Honorable Mekhi, I have come here to seek your daughter's hand in marriage."

Mekhi smiled and said, "You know, I was worried when she began to act a little distant to you a few weeks ago."

"She was still upset with me, sir."

"Yes, well she had no right to be. She was just being spoiled. I am glad to see that she is finally over it."

Just then Jade burst through the doors of the library. "Shing!" She cried out jubilantly. "Did you ask him?"

He forced a smile, took her in his arms and said with trouble, "Yes…d-darling, I asked him."

"And what did he say?"

Shang looked up at the old man, hoping that he would refuse the bond, but knew that there was no way that that would happen.

"Of course, I completely consent."

Jade shrieked with joy. She jumped up and down and wrapped her arms around Shang's neck. He tried his best to return her emotions, but could only weakly hold her. He wanted nothing more than to run away and never return.

Mekhi looked at the two with happiness in his eyes. He would finally be able to play with his grandchildren.

"What's going on here?" Thien asked as he walked into the room. "I heard Jade shrieking and thought that she had seen a bug."

"Shang has asked to marry me and father consented!" Jade cried.

Thien smiled, but he knew that marrying her was the last thing that Shing wanted. "Congratulations!"

She gave Shang a kiss on the cheek and said, "I have to find the maids quickly! I need to start planning our wedding!" And with that she ran off.

"I'm going to the temple," Shang said quietly to Thien and Mekhi.

After he left, Thien turned to Mekhi. "Father, I do not think that this is a good idea."

"Nonsense, of course it is a good idea," Mekhi waved the warning aside.

"But he does not love her," Thien argued.

"Of course he does, he would never have asked for her hand in marriage if he didn't."

"Father, I know Shing. He is a man of honor. He wouldn't have asked to marry Jade if he didn't think that he owed you something. He feels indebted to you."

"As well he should. We have spent much for his room and board and the least he can do is marry my daughter."

"But we know nothing about him! He knows nothing about himself! Who is his family? What if he fell in love with another girl before we found him? What if he was wanted by the government? This is dangerous!"

Mekhi gave his son a stern look. "Now look here, Thien. I will tolerate none of this pointless chatter and warnings. I know perfectly well what that young man is capable of. If he was a bandit, then we would have seen wanted flyers, you or I would have heard of an outstanding warrant for his arrest. If he fell in love with a young woman before he came here, then he surely must have remembered her. One never forgets the one they love. And who cares about his family? When he marries Jade, he will be a part of my own. Stop this now, Thien. We do not want to ruin their happiness."

What happiness? Thien thought.

Mulan stood on the balcony, tears forming in the back of her eyes. When the curtain came up, she had to walk down the steps to her doom.

Before the ceremony started, Ming-Su took her aside and gave her jade pendant. "This is a very special jade pendant. It has been in my family for years. It is a tradition that the older women give the girl that is marrying their son this pendant. I wish for you to take it, now."

Mulan now fingered the pendant. She felt the cool, smooth stone caress her cold fingertips. She had placed the pendant next to her half of the yin-yang necklace. The old and the new must coexist, she thought. It was a phrase that her father had often repeated.

The deep red curtain came up. She stood in front of all of Qui Gong, blushing as they all admired her beauty. She slowly descended the marble steps that led down to the marriage hall. She saw Prince Jeeki smiling at her, and she weakly smiled back.

Lord Chin stood in front of them and began to ceremony. No one noticed the tears falling out of Mulan's eyes.

A/N- I'm giving you a sneak peek, so be happy. Next chapter...Shang and Mulan meet again for the first time in two years! What will happen? Read and find out!