Summer Snow

Author: Atthla

See Disclaimer and Warning in chapter 1.

Wei was attacking them.

That fact alone should be able to raise extreme alarm among the ranks of Wu officers. The Kingdom of Wei had no small army and the latest report their spy had just conveyed with the utmost grimness had confirmed that. No less than a million of man force had built a gigantic camp at the north side of the Yellow River. True that the massive army had not made any movement since they had arrived yesterday night, but that did not mean they would only sit idly either.

Knowing Sima Yi, there must be secret plans to follow, Lu Meng thought pensively. Their High Commander, General Zhou Yu, had been sporting a grim face throughout the day, which had never been a good sign among his officers. But he was skeptical that the commander's mood would improve if he arrived and discovered the condition here at the meeting room. Or rather the atmosphere among his generals.

Strategy meetings, Lu Meng reflected sadly, should be much more sincere and less hostile.

Clack.

That sound again.

Lu Meng looked up from the fold of his hands just in time to catch Lu Xun throwing a glare to Ling Tong who in return regarded him with lazy, not-so-innocent eyes. They were engaged into a staring battle for a while before the younger of the two snorted and went back to his scroll. Lu Meng released the breath he didn't realize he had been holding and glanced at the other generals in the room, Huang Gai and Zhou Tai, who seemed to share his sentiment toward the predicament and were sporting an equally grim look on their faces. For a brief moment, their eyes met and both generals shook their head in a complete loss. Lu Meng frowned and found himself looking at Gan Ning who had not said a word since he had arrived and now was brooding at a corner with a particularly sullen look.

Minor dissensions were pretty often among Wu officers especially when it came to Ling Tong. His deadlock with Gan Ning was legendary and his tendency to formulate pranks everywhere he went surely helped to lengthen the list. However, he was a reliable general when situation needed him to be and Lu Xun was also a strategist who knew his time and place, so what–

Lu Meng's eyes widened when his gaze swept the rigid posture of the young strategist once again and noticed this time, an astonishing amount of pebbles gathering in the vicinity of his seat. The realization dawned on him when another pebble joined the pile and once he looked up, finding Lu Xun already standing with a hand on the back of his neck and wearing an extremely angry look on his face.

"That's it," he growled at Ling Tong who was still sitting on his own chair with even less care to the world. "If you have problems with me, Ling Tong, do fight me fairly."

"I do?" the other man replied in his usual offhanded fashion, only the faintest touch of amusement lending other sort of emotions to his voice. "Maybe you fall asleep when you're reading and daydream, Boyan. Or nightdream. Whatever."

"I do not fall asleep while reading my scrolls!" Lu Xun's indignant voice rose high enough to make Lu Meng wince.

Ling Tong seemed quite unperturbed by the outburst. If anything, he looked even more amused when he said again, "Then what do you call your baseless accusations?"

The young strategist coiled his hands into fists and a vindictive, almost hateful look flitted across his face, which set every alarm in Lu Meng's head off. He was about to intervene the argument when Lu Xun shouted, "I call them unbearably childish methods you use against me to express your annoyance merely because I saw General Gan kiss you!"

Lu Meng's hand stopped in mid-air.

Ling Tong's eyes flashed dangerously as the room lapsed into an even worse silence. At the corner of the room, Gan Ning twitched but still didn't say a word while others only stared at their youngest comrade in complete shock. The news was shocking indeed. Lu Meng would have never, for the life of him, guessed that it was the cause of their clash. The silence prevailed for a long while before Ling Tong finally spoke up again, his voice dripping with ice, "Nice way to go, Lu Xun. You'll just never learn, will you?"

At that moment, Lu Meng rose to his feet and placed himself between the two bickering officers, earning himself a hard glare from both sides. Adding a note of austerity into his voice, he said, "Please, generals, I need you to behave nicely here. The commander will arrive soon."

Both of them stared at him in the way a hawk would at a rabbit. All of a sudden, he was a part of the brewing war.

Allied generals, Lu Meng thought with mounting despair, should not have the desire to kill each other.

One day must have passed – according to Lu Meng's agonized sense – when eventually Ling Tong crossed his arms defensively in front of his chest, watching Lu Xun returning to his seat with narrowed eyes. None of them said anything more but Meng thought that it would be safer if he blocked the path Ling Tong's vindictive pebbles had to take in case the prankster decided to try Lu Xun's patience once more. He was still standing there when the door leading to the room was pushed open from the other side and their commander walked in. The frown on his handsome face deepened when he noticed the situation he was in.

"Is something happening?"

"No, Sir," Lu Meng responded automatically, fully aware that his answer was far from adequate but also wiser than trying to lie to the astute strategist.

Zhou Yu eyed him suspiciously, but decided not to pursue the subject. However, a fleeting look he gave to a certain nunchaku-user was enough to assure Lu Meng that the commander had a better – if not correct – grasp of the situation.

"Very well then," Zhou Yu said as he positioned himself at one end of the large table in the middle of the room. "The lord will arrive late so let us just begin the meeting."

The situation was indeed dire, Lu Meng found out a while later after their commander informed them of most recent developments. More Wei soldiers were arriving through land and water, swelling the astronomical number of the enemy and filling the large map laid out in front of them with red peons. A number of enemy ships were also sailing down the Yellow River without too much difficulty and Zhou Yu had spent the whole day berating his spies and watch guards as to why the news had just reached him this morning.

The High Commander looked at each of his generals after concluding his short explanation, eyes burning as if challenging them. "That is our condition now, more or less. Do any of you have anything to say?"

"I can't believe this," Lu Xun murmured, almost as if speaking to himself. "Do they want to repeat the Battle of The Red Cliff?"

Zhou Yu's eyes narrowed and the younger strategist, immediately realizing his mistake in mentioning that particular battle, cleared his throat politely and maintained a vaguely interested look to a random spot on the map, avoiding the older man's smoldering gaze. Mentioning Zhuge Liang or anything which was remotely related to the Shu strategist was a taboo in the range of Zhou Yu's hearing.

Lu Meng decided to prevent the situation from worsening even more by asking, "Do you have a strategy in mind, Commander?"

"In fact, yes," the longhaired man's answer was quick to come even though the stingy edge was still there in his voice. "There is a slight difference in regards of terrain to what happened two years ago. Last year's flood had created a small river here," he pointed to a spot in the map and dragged his finger into what appeared to be a portion of the land of Wu. "If a ship of ours battles their army and escapes through this route, they will pursue. We will prepare reinforcement here, waiting just around this corner."

For the first time that night, Gan Ning opened his mouth. "It's way too easy. Cao Cao is a brilliant strategist and unlike that battle, he personally leads his army this time. Don't you think he will see through that?"

"Oh, he certainly will," Zhou Yu replied with a smile that sent shivers down Gan Ning's spine. "I am pretty sure that he will not continue the pursuit for fear that there will be an ambush waiting for him. And that is where you come in, General Gan."

The former pirate quirked an eyebrow. "What is my job?"

"You will wait at the river banks with two companies of soldiers, one at each side of the river. At this season of the year, the night is cold and there is bound to be fog everywhere. You can use this to your advantage. Lay low until past midnight and then strike them using small boats. It's better to keep the ambush as silent as possible but once you are discovered, try to make the noise as loud as possible so our other ships can join the fight and help you." He paused, looking at each of the generals, and then added, "This one victory is important. If we succeed, they will lose their means of crossing the Yellow River. To build or send in another ship will take time and of course, we will not allow any of it to happen. The rest of their soldiers can swim for all I care."

At that moment, the door flung open and their lord barged in with a tired but bright grin on his face. "Hey, everybody! What did I miss?"

Zhou Yu repeated his explanation in a briefer version and Sun Ce nodded in agreement. "That ought to teach them a lesson or two about messing with us. So who's going to carry out the ploy?"

"General Gan will be the one setting up the ambush," Zhou Yu gestured to the former pirate who gave him a little nod in return. "As for the rest, we have yet to decide."

"Huang Gai should stay at the main camp and set our defenses," Sun Ce said decisively. "Let others take care of it."

"I concur," the longhaired commander voiced his agreement. "My initial plan was to let General Zhou and General Ling to attack from two sides simultaneously. Oce dusk has settles in, General Zhou will retreat first to direction of our port. If there are Wei ships pursuing him, they will be repelled by our guard towers along the shores. That leaves you, General Ling," he nodded at the named officer. "You will carry out the plan I have explained before and lead them to the point where General Lu Meng is waiting. Your ship will pass the point where General Gan is lying in waiting but he will not do anything at this point and stay put until night falls."

"They will not pursue further once you have reached the lower course of the river," Zhou Yu continued, once again pointing at the position on the map where the new stream was assumed to be. "They will retreat to their former position but I doubt they will continue their attack and once it is past midnight, General Gan will commence the ambush. Is the plan clearly understood?"

"Yes, Sir," Ling Tong replied in his usual flippant attitude, added with a growl from Zhou Tai's mouth and a nod from Lu Meng.

"You're forgetting Lu Xun, Zhou Yu," Sun Ce reminded his friend and grinned at the youngest officer.

"I am most certainly not," the High Commander retorted with a glare to his lord. "General Lu Xun will assist General Ling aboard his ship in case a situation that is not according to plan occurs. There is no one else I trust to take this position."

Lu Xun seemed to be swelling with pride at his commander's words and as the result, received smirks from many directions. Sun Ce prevented the young strategist from doing a massacre toward his friends by declaring, "Okay, that's all, folks. No need to get heated up now. Save it for tomorrow and win this battle to teach that Wei scum a lesson!"

For once, Zhou Yu did not raise any protest over his best friend's choice of language and merely said, "If there is no further question, the others but General Huang are dismissed. Rest well for tonight, everyone."

Ling Tong was the first to walk out of the meeting room, followed by Lu Meng who was speaking with a low voice with Zhou Tai. Ignoring them, he headed at once to his room at the west wing of the castle, convinced that he would have no time to rest tomorrow and so would take all the chances he could get now. He was thinking idly about his task when another voice rose from behind, clearly and loudly.

"Don't get yourself killed out there."

There was absolutely no need for him to turn around and find out who the speaker was and so he did not. He continued walking, neither hastening his pace nor slowing it down, and replied offhandedly, "You're the one setting up the ambush, pirate."

"You have to hold them down until dusk, remember?" Now Ling Tong could hear the other man's heavier footsteps following him with a most annoying persistence. "And then you still have to get away to where Lu Meng is. Who knows if you suddenly get one of your stupid ideas and decide to be stupid and charge at them and get shot in the head."

"I can assure you that I won't meet the same end my father did," Ling Tong retorted scathingly. When the other general did not answer, he turned around and faced him, an irritated look on his face. "What are you doing? Stalking me?"

An amused, almost victorious glint appeared in Gan Ning's brown eyes. "In case you don't remember, my room is next to our little boy's, who is your neighbour by the way."

Ling Tong snorted, not admitting his slip in speaking, and turned around again to leave when the former pirate spoke again. "Do you hate me?"

He started walking again – and to his mounting irritation, noticing the sound of Gan Ning's following footsteps – and answered curtly, "That isn't the question, is it?"

There was a momentary pause while they came across a group of patrolling guards who saluted both of them formally before leaving to resume their task. When Gan Ning's voice rose again, it was quieter, softer.

"Normally, when you kill someone's father, that someone will hate you."

"Then yes, I hate you," Ling Tong replied carelessly, not bothering what he was saying again at this point.

A sigh escaped the other man's lips, a little desperate and very much annoyed. "When will you accept the fact that I had absolutely no choice that time? I was working for your enemy!"

The other man shrugged indifferently. "Never thought about it. Maybe I have. Maybe I never will."

"I think you're just being difficult," Gan Ning accused and Ling Tong almost smirked at the tone his archenemy was using.

"Think what you want, pirate."

They lapsed into another silence, during which Ling Tong quickened his speed and Gan Ning lengthened his strides. The short journey had escalated into a race when they eventually arrived at the castle's western area. Ling Tong sent a prayer full of gratitude to the gods above when he rounded a corner and came in front of the door leading to his room. He glanced back at the other general who also had stopped, and said sarcastically, "Well, I need to rest now even if you don't. Can you go away now or just disappear to somewhere?"

To his utter astonishment, a wide grin bloomed on Gan Ning's face. "See? You're still talking to me! Why don't you just admit that you like me too?" the former pirate said, half-triumphant and – for some reasons Ling Tong did not want to know – half-dreadfully happy.

Every biting retort which was hovering on the edge of Ling Tong's tongue vanished into thin air. He stared at the other man, unsure and more than furious with the absence of his notorious eloquence. In the end, he only growled an 'I hate you' with the utmost of his infuriation and slammed the door in front of the other man's face.

Gan Ning grinned to himself and turned to head to his own room, relishing his victory even deeper when an angry growl and a loud crash echoing from Ling Tong's room. He was humming to himself when a small sound came from the mound of stones in the garden, followed by a muted curse a second latter.

"Who's that?" he barked at the stones sharply.

Lu Xun's face appeared from behind the mound a moment later, red with embarrassment and more than little annoyed at himself. Gan Ning opened his mouth, ready to shout what the hell the boy was doing there, when Lu Xun quickly said, "Sorry, it was not my intention to overhear. I was passing by."

"Really?" Gan Ning raised his eyebrows threateningly. "I don't believe you, so get out of my sight before I decide to chop that little hat of yours?"

"Well, excuse me for only trying to go to my own room," the younger officer replied angrily, putting both of his hands on his hips. "I wasn't eavesdropping if that is what you are implying! Do you have to be so rude?"

"I was born like this," Gan Ning shot back darkly, what little stock of his patience quickly diminishing.

Lu Xun scoffed and strode to his room, deliberately stomping the other general's foot in process and ignoring the streaming curses pouring out of the former pirate's mouth afterwards. Gan Ning was still hissing in his multicoloured language when the younger officer suddenly turned around and looked at Gan Ning with a pair of determined eyes. "You want to know something? I think General Ling does like you. He is just stuck with the predicament that you have killed his father."

"I'm not that stupid not to know that," the former pirate snarled.

Another flicker of irritation flashed across Lu Xun's face and he snapped back, voice rising as well, "I was just trying to help, General. No need to snap at me if that doesn't suit you."

"I think you just want to express your opinion, smart boy," Gan Ning replied with a sneer. Lu Xun seemed ready to strip himself off his every sense of courtesy when Ling Tong's door was opened with a loud noise and the general himself appeared at the threshold with a very livid face.

"Can you two shut up?" And the door slammed shut again.

Lu Xun shot Gan Ning a dirty look and hissed, "No wonder General Ling does not like you. It will be a wonder if anyone likes you at all." Another door was slammed shut.

"Hey, moping is a proof that you're still a kid, ya know!" he shouted to the closed door and wondered why everybody found it right a day to slam doors in front of his face.

--To be Continued--

A/N: Ah yes, a random battle for the sake of the plot. For those who don't know, the Battle of The Red Cliffs is the Battle of Chi Bi in DW 5. Zhou Yu's death, if we trace it back, was originated from this battle according to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. But of course my Zhou Yu is not dead – and neither is Sun Ce – so we can skip the death part.

Thank you for all of you who reviewed the first chapter. Review again? smile innocently