Sorry for taking so long. I couldn't find a way to continue past Yue Ying's and Lady Mi & Gan's conversation.

Enjoy, R&R!

Birth Throes - Chapter 1 – Maturity and Youthfulness in One

Lady Mi and Lady Gan, Liu Bei's two wives, were in the middle of their breakfast when a distressed Yue Ying had passed them. Lady Mi and Lady Gan had a certain routine they would use on anyone and everyone; they would always appear uninterested so then it seems the person who needs to talk seems desperate. They had special routines with in fact, almost everything.

"I need help." Yue Ying sat down on her little table, filling a cup with warm tea.

Lady Mi and Lady Gan ignored her, gossiping as usual.

Yue Ying stared up at the two women, who appeared clueless. "Mi! Gan!"

Lady Mi and Lady Gan looked over at Yue Ying. They seemed to have one mind. "Huang!"

Giving a sarcastic look, Yue Ying replied, "Ha, ha. Listen, I really need your help. There's something Liang wants that I'm not sure I can provide . . ."

"Will she ever stop talking like that?" Lady Gan muttered to her sister-in-law.

Lady Mi shrugged to Gan and then answered to Yue Ying, "What does he want? He doesn't seem like the man to ask for too much . . . no, he, really, only takes what he needs to survive; he never asks Lord Liu for any extra money or clothing. What can he possibly want?"

Lady Gan always had a perverted mind. "Mi, you know what he wants." And turning to Yue Ying, she said, "Why don't you just give it to him? You know you want it too!"

Yue Ying's face turned red. "What? No, not that! I'm talking about a son! Liang wants to have a son!"

"Oh, it's the second thing a man wants," Lady Gan whispered.

Yue Ying blew the surface of her drink, cooling it and continued, "I don't know what made him think of this so suddenly. I mean, he's never really mentioned children before . . . I don't know if I'm ready to have one. Lady Gan, you went through this. What did you do?"

"It wasn't exactly the same," Lady Gan answered. "I knew Lord Liu Bei had to have an heir, so if he died . . . so that's why I gave birth to Liu Chan, but he seems really incompetent, so that's why I also say he's Mi's son."

"So that's where it stared!" Lady Mi glared at Gan, who continued eating regularly. Lady Gan would always do something to Lady Mi, which none minded, not even Lady Mi herself.

"What can I do?" Yue Ying asked, setting her cup down, her eyes closed from fatigue. "He said it so suddenly and out of nowhere . . . and a few minutes after it went to our room to sleep. He usually just does that when he wants to think. Before he sleeps, he always thinks . . . too hard."

"I see you have been too," Lady Mi observed.

"Yes, it is visible isn't it?" Yue Ying rubbed her eyes, stretching her arms and back. "What should I do?"

"That would depend," Lady Gan answered, taking a bite. "What do you think of sons?"

She shrugged. "If he's filial and all that . . . I guess I wouldn't mind too much . . ."

Lady Mi continued Gan's questions: "And what do you think of the Prime Minister?"

"I love him, but he brought up the topic so suddenly-"

"Forget that," Lady Mi interrupted. "What do you think of the Prime Minister?"

" . . . I love him."

"Do you want to show him this?" Lady Gan took another bite, wiping her mouth clean.

"Yes."

"Then what are you waiting for?"

Yue Ying sipped her tea. "It seems too sudden. It's a confliction of a million emotions at once. I'm wondering why my husband would be thinking so, why he brought it up now, why it had to happen that way . . . I'm confused."

"Well, don't be." Lady Mi shook her head. "You want to please your husband. What else can you do? Do you realize how hard it is to please a man who asks for nothing?"

"That is a point . . ."

"And what will you do when your husband dies and there's no successor?"

"Let's avoid that for now. My husband and I are too young to die." Yue Ying set her cup down again and plopped a cracker into her mouth.

"So what are you going to do?"

"I'll put more thought into it," Yue Ying responded. "Part of me is ready to have a son, part of me isn't. I'm sure whatever decision I would make will be reasonable and mature." She stood up and left, leaving her food uneaten.

Lady Mi and Lady Gan exchanged glances.

"It's a woman and child in a woman's body!" Lady Mi exclaimed.

"How?"

"The way she talks is mature, but the way she thinks of this is a child's way! Would you think of a woman of this age who wouldn't want to sleep with Zhuge Liang?"

---

Zhuge Liang pulled up the curtains and let the morning sun flow into the room. His mind was on several different topics, one from the thing he said to Yue Ying last night and the other on the many things he would do for the kingdom today. He remembered Liu Bei needed to talk to everyone in Shu to discuss the recent crimes in the capital.

He left his room and started for the "discussion room", ignoring his need to eat. Once he reached the room, he noticed Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were already there, waiting.

"You're late," Liu Bei remarked.

"I know, just a little tired." Zhuge Liang took his regular seat. "So first things first; where is the map I asked Guan Yu to draw up of the recent crimes in the capital?"

"It's right here." Guan Yu pulled out a well-detailed map of Chengdu and handed it to the Prime Minister. "Do you see a chain?"

Zhuge Liang narrowed his eyes and rolled his fingers over the little red 'x's on the map. "All the places they struck . . . all of the signs have the character "good" in it; the character 'good' consists of the characters 'daughter' and 'son' written together. Not only that, they only target larger families, which means they might have something against that, or something stopping them from having a family."

Zhang Fei sat amazed at this. "How did you figure that so fast?"

"That's not important. Point is, they are either all men who couldn't find wives or men, possibly their wives and concubines, who were sterile."

Liu Bei took hold of the map and after examining it, said, "Are we sure yet that these are the same people who robbed the others at first?"

"I'm sure. They all left the same; they ruined all the rooms, not touching the men, kidnapping the women or leaving them there, on the floor, beaten."

Guan Yu pulled at his beard and then muttered thanks. "We'll find them and make sure they end up in jail with more than twenty strokes. Come on, Brother Zhang, let's go."

"It's way too early," complained Zhang Fei. "After we eat, at least. I. BEG. YOU."

After a moment of hesitation, Liu Bei remarked, "You're right. We all need to eat and obviously Zhuge Liang needs to as well. Come."

As the four sauntered downstairs, they had just happened to pass by Lady Mi and Lady Gan, obviously gossiping about Yue Ying.

Zhang Fei shot Lady Gan a dirty look. "Can you go one day without chatting it out with Lady Mi about some poor, pathetic woman or man in this kingdom?"

Lady Gan giggled, danced around Zhang Fei, exclaiming in her frightening tone, "You should see who the victim is today!"

A chill went up Zhuge Liang's spine. "Every time she talks like that," he began, shuddering, "Something bad happens."