snarky_panda (snarky_panda) wrote in mulanficspace, @ 2007-06-06 23:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | 5trueloves, a tale of the woman, au |
A Tale of the Woman, Part One, Chapter Two
Fandom: Mulan
Title: New Home
Author: snarky panda
Theme: #3, Moving
Pairing/Characters: Fa Mulan/General Li (Shang’s father, NOT Shang)
Genre: Drama
Rating: NC-17 (Rating for sex, adult situations, and for safety)
Disclaimer: Anything from the Disney movie belongs to Disney. Anything from Raise the Red Lantern belongs to Su Tong.
Summary: 1st part of a crossover fic (sort of) inspired by Raise the Red Lantern and alternate storyline based on another outcome that could have occurred because Mulan failed the matchmaker’s test. (Link to beginning of story)
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Chapter 2
Her nights were nearly as dismal as her days. At least she went outside and got air most days. Being as girls were rarely educated, her drawing room contained no books. Just decorations and art work, beautiful and worthwhile, but not much to keep her brain fed. She spent a lot of time outside, walking around in the garden. But she couldn’t shake the feeling of confinement; she never went anywhere outside of the Li compound. Though the grounds were expansive, she still found it restrictive, never being able to leave. It was enough to drive anyone crazy, being in one place and seeing the same handful of people all the time.General Li spent most nights with her, as Yun had predicted. He was an experienced man, seasoned with women as well as in battle, and he knew how to pleasure her. Though she didn’t love him, she became comfortable with him as she spent more time with him and she came to respect him. And she had become accustomed to him and to his touch. The feel and warmth of his body, which she’d found to be stout and oppressive at first, had come to feel comforting and protective when it was pressed against her.
The general was close in age to her father and the similarities between the two men made it easier for her to be comfortable with him. It occurred to her that they might have known each other, though her father had never mentioned that. And General Li never spoke of it.
She had no experience at all with men, but she had a sense that he was quite enamored of her for some reason that she couldn’t fathom. After all, he barely knew her. But, according to Yun, it was always better to remain in high favor with the master of the house; it ensured her some standing in the Li household.
Mulan visited the stable often during the days but found it empty usually. General Li was out during the day, his stallion with him, and the second horse obviously belonged to young Master Li. He’d gone back to the Imperial Academy after that weekend that she first arrived at the Li compound. She’d never been formally introduced to him; their only meeting was that fateful day in the corridor when she came across him practicing his sword forms. A pang of sadness tugged at her heart when she thought of it. The fact that they hadn’t been introduced said everything about how low her status in this household was. No wonder he’d stared at her with such disdain.
She no longer had to get up early to do chores anymore; everything was done for her. In the mornings she went for a walk when she first got up, or when General Li left if he had spent the previous night with her. Meals were taken together with the other two wives in a dining room in the main complex, where sometimes General Li joined them. Usually it was just the three women, though, and Li Ping, the general’s little son with his third mistress, Shan-hu, who she’d still never met.
In a very short time she came to know her way around the grounds and had even found a place all the way out at the end of the garden where one of the trees grew beside the wall. It was not a good climbing tree; but if she could figure out a way to scale the trunk she could reach the top of the wall; a way out. She paid close attention, investigating the grounds as she walked; and before long she knew every nook and cranny of the garden, every hiding place, every stone and plant. If nothing else, it kept her mind occupied.
One day as she circumvented the complex on one of her walks and headed toward the tree at the very far end of the grounds, she stopped in her tracks as she caught sight of a woman that she’d never seen before, sitting under the tree and staring into space. She had a beautiful face but her hair was unkempt and wild, her clothing bedraggled. Mulan was startled when she glimpsed the woman’s visage and saw how beautiful, and how young it was. This woman couldn’t have been more than two or three years older than her.
Wondering if it was the mysterious Shan-hu, she ventured toward her. The woman stood up before Mulan reached her and drifted over toward a tangle of vines. As she drew closer, Mulan realized that there was a well there. The mass of vines covered it and it was clear that no one drew water from this well anymore. Her steps slowed again when she saw that the strange woman was now walking in a circle, around and around the well, stopping every once in awhile to peer inside, her mouth moving as if she were talking to somebody down there. She didn’t even know that Mulan was there.
A shudder went through her as she watched. There was no way that this woman would have scaled the walls and climbed into the garden; no, she was a member of the Li household. The woman was clearly insane and obviously forgotten by the rest of the family.
Turning on her heel, Mulan hurried away.
oooOooo
There was a chill in the air and the hot tea warmed and soothed her as it went down.
“You should take it easy today,” Yun coaxed in a motherly tone. “Your face looks awfully pale.”
“That woman…” Mulan trailed off, unsure if she should broach the subject with her Second Sister.
“What woman?”
“She’s very pretty, but her clothes are all disheveled…I saw her at the far end of the garden…”
Yun gasped.
“No wonder you look so sickly! That is a place of death. You must stay away from there…”
“Who is that woman?”
Her Second Sister nodded sadly. “That is Fourth Sister, Honglian. She used to be the favorite of General Li.”
“She was walking in circles around the well and talking to it…”
“Yes, she’s quite mad.”
“What is she saying?”
“That she won’t jump. After General Li’s Third Mistress Shan-hu jumped into that well, Honglian went insane. She’s saying that she won’t jump into the well.”
oooOooo
The sad news reached her after she’d been living in General Li’s house for four months. Fa Zhou had passed away. In her letter to her, Fa Li spoke of the unspeakable pain that her father had been in. His death had been a blessing in a way.
Her letter accompanied a large trunk that had been sent to Mulan. Setting the letter aside, she tearfully opened the trunk and stared at the contents. It was her father’s uniform, armor and sword. She was confused as to why her mother had chosen to send it to her; perhaps he’d requested it. Whatever the reason, she was glad to receive this remembrance of him.
During her fifth month living in General Li’s house she returned home one afternoon and found that the trunk had disappeared. She searched her rooms frantically until she was sobbing at the loss of her only inheritance from her father.
“What is it, my love?” the general asked when he came to her room that evening and saw the state she was in.
“I had a trunk with my father’s sword and armor. It’s gone.”
General Li moved toward her and took her by the shoulders, attempting to soothe her.
“You’re a young woman. What need have you of a sword and armor?”
Hot tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared at him angrily.
“It was my father’s and he left it for me. Where is it?” she demanded.
The general looked genuinely remorseful. His hands moved to cup her face and he began to gently wipe her tears away with thick thumbs.
“I’m sorry, my love, but it’s gone. I…I didn’t realize it meant so much to you. I couldn’t see any reason for you to keep that sort of thing.”
“It’s my only remembrance of him,” she whispered sadly, lowering her eyes.
“Oh,” he murmured. “Forgive me. I didn’t mean to cause you such unhappiness, Mulan. I will never take anything from you again.”
She raised her gaze to him again and nodded. He genuinely regretted his actions, she could see that in his eyes; and, when all was said and done, he was the master of the house. Afraid to lose favor with him, she decided sadly that it would be better to let the matter drop.
“Now come, let’s have no more talk of it,” he coaxed, gently, taking her by the hand and leading her away from the window.
Usually he went right to sleep shortly after rolling off of her. But tonight he lay awake with her afterward.
“Anything you want you can have, my love.”
General Li lay on his side, gazing at her and stroking her face tenderly.
Mulan thought about that for a few moments. What she really wanted were some books; but she was completely certain that he would react to the idea of her owning books in the same manner as he had to her owning the sword and armor.
“My father told me about jewelry made of gems that the foreign merchants are selling in the marketplace in Chang’an.”
“Yes, the Persian merchants have beautiful gems for sale there. You would like a necklace maybe?”
“Maybe. I want something with lots of gems on it.”
She had absolutely no use for jewelry or gems; but she felt compelled to test him to see if he would actually buy her what she asked for.
If he did buy her something she would only wear it at night when he came to her.
He never did bring her the gems. But two weeks after this incident she returned to her rooms after one of her long walks and found that the trunk with her father’s armor and sword had been returned to her. A note from General Li accompanied it.
My dearest Mulan,
Only a heartless cad would deprive you of something that makes you happy.
Tears of joy sprang from her eyes as she opened the trunk and beheld its contents once more. And when the general came to her that night and they made love, for the first time she gave herself to him with complete abandon.
oooOooo
During the seventh month that she lived in General Li’s house, the Middle Kingdom was invaded. Barbarians from the north, led by a man who had reached mythical status in China according to the general. He had to immediately leave for the Imperial City and there was no telling when he would return. As the Emperor’s most favored general, it was up to him to recommend strategy and lead the Imperial troops to battle in order to stop the incursions.
There were whispers in the household about Mulan, especially now that the master of the house was gone, making her status nil for the time being. Whispers about how, despite the fact that General Li had spent most of his nights with her, she still hadn’t become pregnant. She was relieved and concerned at once about that. It was a relief, since she didn’t feel ready to bear her own children. But she was intelligent enough to realize that her status in the household would drop even further if she didn’t give the general a son. And now he had gone off to battle, making her chances of conceiving non-existent.
“Is this the life I’ve been reduced to?” she asked herself. “Worried about losing face in this household because I haven’t proven to be good breeding stock? No wonder Honglian went mad.”
(Link to Chapter 3)