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A Tale of the Woman	By : lightbird Category: +M through R > Mulan (Disney) > Mulan (Disney) Views: 16127 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the cartoons of Disney Studios, nor any of the characters from them. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Part 1
- 2-Part 2
- 3-Part 3
- 4-Part 4
- 5-Part 5
- 1
- 2
- 3
Part 2: Gone
Chapter 6
Mulan wasn’t in town long before she did meet someone she knew. First thing in the morning as she wandered through the village, getting her bearings and looking for a place to sell her possessions, she ran into Doctor Liang.
“Mistress Li. What brings you to town?”
It took her a moment to come up with an answer that wouldn’t give her away.
“A necklace that the general gave me broke. I wanted to see if I could get it fixed,” she answered nonchalantly, but she could feel her cheeks warming slightly as she uttered the lie.
“Ah,” he replied, but there was just a hint of a knowing expression in his eyes. Or maybe she imagined it out of guilt. “You are looking pale still.”
“I’m alright. Thank you for looking after me for those weeks.”
“It’s my job. But, really, you are not looking well. Come inside with me. I have a strengthening tea that will put the color back in your cheeks.”
His voice was kind, almost fatherly, but she was reluctant to accept. This would detain her and the sooner she got out of that town the better. By now it was probably noticed that she was missing. And though this town was much larger than the village that she’d grown up in, out of all of the people there she’d already run into him just after arriving. Suppose Yun or one of the servants came into town and spotted her?
“The morning is just starting. You will have plenty of time to complete your errands.”
“Thank you,” she answered after another moment of hesitation. “You’re very kind.”
A short while later she sat at the table in the kitchen of his small but comfortable home, fingers clenching and unclenching nervously, as Doctor Liang brewed the tea.
“Make yourself comfortable,” he laughed. “There is no need for you to sit here with your cloak on.”
“I’m rather cold,” she answered. There would be trouble if he or anyone else saw that she was dressed in a man’s training clothing.
He finally joined her, setting two cups of tea down on the table. They sat in silence and Mulan sipped the hot liquid, mulling over several questions that were still on her mind. The doctor was observing her carefully, she noticed suddenly, and it nettled her.
“Something troubles you?” he finally asked.
He seemed genuinely concerned. She set her cup down and leaned forward with an intake of breath, prepared to speak. Changing her mind, she closed her mouth and sat back, frowning.
“Whatever you say will remain between us.”
“It’s nothing. Being ill has affected my mood. I’ll be fine,” she answered, forcing a reassuring smile to her lips.
“I am retired for the most part,” he told her, changing the subject abruptly. “Doctor Sun treats most of the people that I used to. It is only General Li’s family. He did not wish to use Doctor Sun anymore.”
“I heard they had a falling out.”
Doctor Liang began to chuckle heartily. “Yes, you could say that.”
Mulan raised her cup and sipped her tea, regretting that she’d made the comment.
“There are many goings on in the Li household. No one talks about it. But people know. You are not the first wife in that house to have abortion medicine slipped to her.”
The cup of tea nearly dropped out of her hand and she was rendered speechless with shock.
“You were unlucky and it worked,” he continued. “That is the only explanation for you not getting pregnant in all that time.”
Without warning, her throat constricted and she suddenly burst into tears. The cup clattered from the force that she used when she set it back down. She went to stand up, wanting to move away from the table, embarrassed at falling apart in front of him. That was no way to repay his hospitality. And what did he have to do with her troubles and sorrows anyway?
But he reached out and caught her arm before she could even stand.
“It’s alright, Mistress.”
She wiped her eyes quickly with the towel he handed her, muttering an apology. It wasn’t even the fact that she didn’t have a child that bothered her; that wasn’t even something she was prepared for anyway. But she felt invaded. And angry. How dare anyone try to control what happened in her body?
“Is that how you knew?” she sniffled when her sobbing had subsided.
“If you were having a real miscarriage at the time, you would have felt it in this area.”
He gestured.
“But you said you didn’t. You weren’t having a miscarriage. Something else was causing you to bleed. I believe that all the medicine that you were being given had accumulated in your system, making you ill.”
There was a knock at the front door and Mulan started. Doctor Liang stood up, gesturing for her to remain where she was, and stepped out of the room, sliding the screen door shut behind him and obscuring her from view of whoever was there, much to her relief.
She tried to hear what was being said, but the voices were mutters and whispers. The door shut and Doctor Liang returned.
“I must go to the Li house now. There has been an incident with Fourth Mistress.”
“What happened?” Mulan exclaimed in alarm, wondering if Honglian had finally jumped into the well this time.
“I fear that she may have harmed herself. I will not mention that I have seen you in town.”
“Thank you.”
“You don’t have to leave right away. Stay and finish your tea.”
Left alone, Mulan considered the next steps that she had to take. She would sell the small items, hopefully earning enough money to buy a horse and get home. She would have to camp along the way, something she’d never done before. But her father had told her stories of his days in the army, where he had to camp every day and she remembered every single one of them.
Thinking of her father made her feel sad once more. She couldn’t imagine what the house would feel like without his presence.
Mulan had always been devoted to her loving father. Fa Zhou doted on his only daughter and she had never been for want. At eight years old she’d received her first horse. With no son to pass his knowledge on to, he had taught her martial arts and the stories of the warriors of the past.
His injury in the war and his forced retirement had been a shock to the whole family. But the medic had treated him immediately after the battle and fortunately, after much care, he was able to walk again, though his leg was in great pain. Mulan played a large part in Fa Zhou’s care then, bringing him three cups of tea every morning as he said his prayers in the ancestral shrine and making sure he had his three cups at night as the doctor had ordered.
When she found that she was to be sent away to be General Li’s mistress, she had been heartbroken. The idea of leaving her home and her family was devastating, especially at a time when her father was so ill. She’d feared that he would deteriorate when she left home; and the circumstances under which she left made it worse. Guilt flooded her as she thought of the way he looked as he bid her goodbye. He’d looked beaten, as if all his hopes in the world had been dashed to pieces. She’d done that.
Tears glistened in her eyes again as memories of those days flooded her mind. She remembered the letter from her mother that brought the terrible news of his death. He’d been in such horrible, constant pain, Fa Li had written. Eventually, he began to slowly lose weight, his body wasting as the pain rendered him unable to move, or even eat in the end. A prisoner in his own body. Her eyes closed and images played on the backs of her lids of him lying in bed, frail and emaciated, his face drawn like it was the day she left, contorted in pain.
She wept bitterly.
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Pulling herself together finally, Mulan left Doctor Liang’s house and went about her business. She managed to get a decent amount of money for the jewelry that she sold. There was enough to buy a horse, a small tent and a blanket, and food for her continued journey.
Her preparations done, she pulled the hood of her cloak over her head and mounted her new, temperamental black horse. She headed out of town at an easy gait, then spurred the horse into a canter as she cleared the boundaries of the village, heading toward home. Mama and Grandma would be surprised to see her and she would have to come up with some explanation for her presence there.
But she would worry about that later. Right now there were more pressing concerns. She was a lone traveler, and a woman, which made her vulnerable. And the journey ahead would be a treacherous one.
Still, it was exhilarating to gallop across an open field on horseback again, to know freedom, to be outside of the walls of the Li compound that, as large a span as they encompassed, had come to represent a prison cell to her.
Eventually she rode into a thick forest and as night fell she made camp, pitching her tent under a thick canopy of trees. Wrapping herself in the blanket, she settled into her shelter for the night.
But she found herself wondering about Honglian’s fate, feeling oppressed with guilt that somehow she was responsible.
Sleep never came to her that night.
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“My, my. What beautiful blossoms we have this year.”
Even before she understood the ramifications of her failed session at the matchmaker, Mulan sat under the magnolia tree in the family garden after she had returned from town, absently combing her fingers through her long, loose hair and brooding. She had long ago unpinned the thick locks from the bun that was the style of the married woman. The comb with the magnolia flower that had ornamented it now lay beside her on the stone bench, forgotten.
Her father had cleared his throat as he approached hesitantly, and she looked up momentarily. Unable to face him, she’d turned away, lowering her head. Undaunted, he’d taken a seat beside her, casually beginning to remark on the blossoms of their favorite lang=EN style='color:black'>mulan tree.
“My, my. What beautiful blossoms we have this year. And look…this one’s late. But I’ll bet that when it blossoms, it will be the most beautiful of all.”
Long, thin dexterous fingers gently picked up the comb and tenderly placed it in her hair. Mulan turned to her father, whose smile expressed nothing but love for his daughter. Her own lips curved into a small smile.
Tears burned her eyes as the memory of that day played over and over in her mind. Somehow, even when Fa Zhou had spoken in riddles, she always felt a little better. His voice was always gentle and kind and those cryptic phrases that he used were the right ones. Sometimes it took her awhile to grasp his meaning; but she always did eventually.
Living in General Li’s house, she was part of his family. Tradition dictated that the woman became part of her husband’s family, and that even when she went back to visit her own family, she be treated like a guest. She was no longer part of her parents’ house anymore. Chances were that even if Fa Zhou still lived, she wouldn’t have been able to visit very often, if at all.
But it didn’t matter. She was still his daughter. Knowing that he was gone, that he was no longer alive on this earth cut her to the quick each time thoughts of him permeated her mind.
Wiping the tears from her eyes after a long, long time, she sighed. She remained sitting under the blossoming magnolia tree that she had arrived at, and which had sparked her weepiness and sad reminiscing, reflecting on the times she’d spent with him as a child, learning self-defense, watching him dance through sword forms when he was at his best; the first time he helped her mount onto her pony and taught her how to guide the horse, where the points were to coax him to turn, how to press him to gallop faster, how to draw the reins back and gather them tighter to slow him down and signal him to halt.
For the first time in her life she really understood how lucky she’d been to have him for a father and what a wonderful and privileged childhood she’d had. But after all he’d done for her she’d failed him as a daughter. Remorse weighed heavily on her heart whenever she had that thought.
Heaving one last heavy sigh, she stood up, determination swelling within her. Sitting here crying wouldn’t accomplish or change anything. She hadn’t been able to make things right while Fa Zhou lived; but she was resolved to somehow better honor his memory from now on.
Though she’d been bartered off as a general’s concubine, the fifth and lowest wife, she had the capability to be much more than that. She had a quick mind and a discerning intellect, and thanks to her father’s lessons she could take fairly good care of herself.
Was it so wrong to live up to her potential?
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A Tale of the Woman