Disclaimer: I do not own Mulan or any character of Mulan. I only own Li Xieng, Lee Mei-Ying, Chin-Hwa, and Chun Ushi.

Chapter 4: Trouble at Home

The sun began to set and soon all the generals began to leave the Imperial Palace, making their way home. Shang, who usually was the first to leave, took his time to pack his things. For some reason he got a bad vibe once it was time to leave, and knew for a fact Mulan could be upset. As he rode home, he still couldn't get his mind off Mei and Chin, mostly Mei. It was just their third encounter and he already felt something towards Mei that he couldn't explain. Shang snapped out of his thoughts, and before he even knew it, Ushi was standing outside of the house. The old woman's facial expression wasn't so pleasant, meaning things at home weren't so well. He dismounted the horse and greeted Ushi as he handed her over the reins. He took a deep breath as he removed his helmet and walked in his house. The house was silent as he walked slowly. "Seems like Mulan's not home" he thought to himself. He walked into his room, and there he saw his wife. Mulan was sitting up in bed with her arms crossed and breathing hard. She had a very upset expression on her face. Shang took a deep breath as he walked towards Mulan.

"I can explain..." Shang said as he put down his helmet.

"Alright. You can start with why you lied to me" she replied.

"Calm down Mulan..." he said softly.

Mulan glared at him and groaned out of anger as she stood up.

"Calm? How could I be calm? I slaved myself today and I have to hear that you had a 'meeting' when you didn't" she yelled out as she paced around him.

"Mulan -" he said dryly

"I mean why the hell did you even lie? You know I hate that." she continued.

"You're one least to talk about." he mumbled to himself.

Mulan got closer to him and looked at him.

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" she exclaimed.

Shang bit his lip and looked at her nervously. He knew he shouldn't had said that and scolded himself in his thoughts for thinking out loud.

"Look, if you want to know the truth, I was Mei invited me over to eat lunch and I really couldn't turn her down." he said as he sighed and sat on the edge of the bed.

Mulan raised her eyebrow and looked at Shang.

"Excuse me? Who is this Mei?" she hissed as she raised her voice.

Shang looked at Mulan and began to laugh. Just to see her getting all jealous was humorous to him. Mulan gave him a dirty look as she watched him laugh.

"I really don't find anything funny about this." she said sternly. "So really, who is this tramp?"

Shang attempted to stop laughing and took a deep breath.

"Mulan" he said as he chuckled, "She's the young girl I met yesterday."

Mulan rolled her eyes as he heard her husband rant about her.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. The tramp whom you flirted with." she said annoyed

"You still can't get over that?" he questioned as he rolled his eyes. "And I didn't flirt."

"Whatever. I just DON'T want you near her. Alright?" she told Shang

"Whatever Mulan." he replied "You're over-reacting, like always."

Mulan smirked at Shang and simply began to walk away.

"Oh and just for that, don't even expect anything happening in THAT bed tonight, Li Shang" she said as she left.

Shang looked at her with disbelief, as if she had told him she was leaving him, and sucked his teeth.

"Why does Mulan have to be this way?" he questioned himself.

After all it was just an innocent lunch date. However Mulan didn't agree with Shang's idea of it being an innocent lunch date. While dining with him and his sister, Mulan kept going on and on about the lunch, which also led to Xieng scolding him for his behavior and not honoring his wife. The more the two ladies kept attacking Shang over the lunch, the more furious he got. He breathed hard and squeezed his eyes shut as he clenched his fist, just hearing them repeat over and over, and being scolded as if he were a mischievous adolescent made him more furious.

"Alright, that's ENOUGH." he yelled as he banged his fists against the table.

Mulan and Xieng looked at him with their eyes widen.

"I'm not some adolescent you can scold at. I'm a GROWN man, the man of THIS house to be exact." he continued. "Alright, so I lied. Big deal. Like you two haven't done it."

"Hey, I only lied to just to keep you from leaving me." Mulan defensively said

"I NEVER WAS GOING TO LEAVE YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE!" he screamed

"WHY ARE YOU EVEN SCREAMING?" she screamed back

"Stop! Both of you!" Xieng intervened. "You both are acting like 3 years old."

"You know what; I don't need to deal with this anymore. If I don't want to come home to eat, then I won't. Neither of you are my parents nor have a say in MY life." he said sternly as he stormed off.

Mulan was astonish to hear Shang say such an absurd thing. She tried to control her tears as her face got hot.

"Fine then..." Mulan softly as she stormed off to the guest room.

Days passed, and Shang, with his rebellious attitude, only came home to sleep. Tensions between the young couple grew and they either didn't say a word to each other or they argued. Shang, in a way, felt guilty for acting so selfish, but he had too much pride to admit it. Mulan felt guilty as well, for overreacting and being jealous, but she knew she had a right to be jealous. After all, Xieng had told him he was a quite a ladies' man before he entered the army. But then again, he did change, she thought to herself. He had matured by becoming more serious, loyal, and brave.

But something told her inside, she had to keep a close on this so called Mei.