Jian and Xian

Yun entered the room finding the girl he left behind turned into a full-fledged woman. She was playing with one of her sons while the other just looked seriously at him as if studying him.

Yun stood before the baby overcome by emotions he hadn't felt in over a year but this time they were different it was more like pride that he was feeling in his heart.

He knees down and picks the boy up only to feel the boy struggle trying to free himself of his grasp since he doesn't know him.

Yun has a smile on his face as he says, "He is a fighter."

"Father," says Mulan surprised as she finally noticing her father being in the room holding one of her sons.

"This must be Xian," says Yun holding the baby in his hand Xian because he seemed as serious as his father.

"That is Jian," says Mulan surprising Yun who almost dropped Jian since he wasn't at all like his grandfather but more like his great-grandfather.

"You do know that Jian was more like the child you are playing with, right?" says Yun putting the boy back down.

Jian then crawled rapidly toward his mother's side hiding behind her with his little brother who was looking at Yun with curious and playful eyes.

Yun looked at the other boy seeing his curious eyes and now he sits down looking at his daughter and her sons while saying, "I think both of them would have been happy to meet them if they were still alive."

The younger one crawled out from behind their mother and went for Yun or better said the people behind Yun. Yun intercepted Xian taking a closer look at him as he did with Jian before when he hears giggle leave Xian's mouth.

"Well, he seems to be more open-minded for now. But they will soon get to hate me once they get older," says Yun playfully hinting that he might train them in the future.

"You won't train them!" shouts Mulan at her father snatching Xian from his hands which made Yun laugh out loud surprising them.

"I never was talking about training but that I will be showing more affection to Fang's children since they won't have a father-figure in their lives," says Yun sadly after stopping laughing.

"If we had known about i-," says Mulan before she got interrupted by Yun.

"It was my fault. I was playing God instead of taking the situation seriously," says Yun blaming himself for his son's death because he tried to stick to his plan instead of altering it.

"If I had acted instead of rallying Zhang Fei up Fang would still be here with us. It was my fault and I will live with it for the rest of my life. You and Sun Quan did what you had to do to win against Cao Cao," says Yun in a sad tone as he looked at the twins feeling pity that he wouldn't be able to favor them like Fang's children in the future.

He would still love them but wouldn't spoil them as much as their cousins as he sighs when he says, "I really want to get to Guangling as fast as possible now to see Zhen Luo and your grandmother."

The mentioning of Madam Su seemed to have frozen everyone in place except for the twins and Yun who looked confused at them before asking, "Is something wrong?"

Mulan glared at Zheng and Sun Ren who covered under her glare when she says furiously, "You haven't told him."

"Told me what?" asks Yun seriously as Mulan looked at her father feeling pity that he didn't know it yet.

"Grandmother died when she saw Fang's body. Zhen Luo told us to keep it a secret until the war is over to not distract you with it," says Mulan informing Yun about what happened in his absence.

Yun wasn't showing it but his world seemed to collapse once again as he received another big hit. The woman who raised and suplorted him, one of his pillars in life had fallen.

"Zhen Luo is an intelligent woman. She knew I would drop anything and ride to Guangling to see her risking the victory for Sun Quan," says Yun knowing that Zhen Luo was keeping it from him so he wouldn't return prematurely since he could mourn after the war for both his mother and son.

Yun stood up as he turned his back to Mulan and the twins while facing Zheng and Sun Ren before passing them ready to leave when he says, "I really wanted to talk to Sun Quan about what I was going to do in the North but that will have to wait until I am done since I am needed in Guangling at the moment as is Hua."

"Wait are you really leav-" says Mulan or at least that was the only thing Yun heard until he was out of reach to hear her.

Yun walked through the corridor when he saw an unfamiliar face stop him in his tracks. Yun looked at the gentle face which could turn grim easily.

"I am sorry to stop you, General Zhao, but we have to talk about you stopping our momentum on claiming Jing," says the man still in a gentle tone or better said lazy tone.

Yun could find two familiar faces behind the man who were Lu Meng and Lu Xun. They looked at Yun nervously knowing that Yun must have heard about his mother death.

"You must be Lu Su one of Sun Quan's strategists. What do you want to talk about make it brief since I need to ride to Guangling immediately to see after my mother's and son's ceremony," says Yun coldly creating friction between himself and Lu Su.

"Like asked before why did you stop our momentum?" asks Lu Su now a bit more forceful now.

"Cao Cao is still needed in this game since he is controlling the North or at least parts of it for now. He won't attack the south for a while now that he has lost a lot of his men but Jing is not defenseless just because Cao Cao lost to us at the Red Cliffs. He stationed enough soldiers and Generals in the cities under his control.

I suggest we leave those trouble to Liu Bei and reap the final product when the time is right as he promised us," says Yun seriously before passing Lu Su and the other two who gave Yun a slight bow of respect.

Yun had right now something more important to do than to see his grandchildren and it was to bury his mother beside her husband. This would only be possible if Yun takes Xiapi as leverage against Cao Cao to travel to Zhending alone or with Hua and Qing if they wanted to join him.

Yun rushed himself to get to his camp as he needed to inform Hua about their mother's demise ignoring everything else on his way when he remembered Shadow trying to comfort him.

'She wasn't trying to comfort me for Fang but for my mother,' thinks Yun trying to hold his tears as he arrived at the camp which was surprised to see him back already.

They saw Yun rush toward Hua's side of the camp where all the cavalrymen were residing taking care of their horses when they see Yun having blood red eyes.

They thought that Yun was angry but he was only trying to hold his tears back as he reaches Hua who looked at Yun confused since he could differentiate between his moods.

"What happened?" asks Hua with killing intent in his tone thinking that something might have happened to Mulan.

"We need to talk alone since it is very important," says Yun as he walks over to Hua's tent and enters it followed by Hua.

"What happened?" asks Hua now worried since Yun would have told him what was going on infront of his men if it wasn't something important.

"Mother died," says Yun dropping the bomb over Hua who looked at him.

Hua seemed to not believe what Yun just said as he begins to laugh at first while saying, "That is a sick joke even for you, Yun."

Yun wasn't laughing and Hua turned serious when he tries to grab Yun by his collar while saying, "That can't be. She is the strongest woman I know. She wouldn't just drop dead."

He then starts hitting against Yun's chestplate until they turned bloody while tears begin to run down his face not from the physical pain but mental pain of having lost his mother as he looked up seeing his brother's blood red eyes figuring out that Yun was holding his tears back on purpose as their mother would always tell the others.

"You can cry you know," says Hua sadly grieving for their mother as Yun just looked at him seriously.

"I can't not while I am at camp. It would just drop the morale of the army if they see me like that just like back when I lost Fang. That's why I called you into the tent so you could cry your eyes out but I can't cry yet. Once Xiapi is in our hands again I will cry rivers for our mother but until then I will have to deny my tears as I always do," says Yun in a sad tone since he couldn't afford to drop the morale of the army right now.

Hua just screamed at his brother as he punched him with his bloody fist straight in the face which only made Yun flinch from it since Qi wasn't infused in that punch but he felt more mental pain from that punch than physical one.

"I need to take a bath. I don't want to be disturbed while I take a bath. We will ride back to Guangling immediately after I took that bath," says Yun cold as he leaves his brother while some of his blood was rolling down Yun's cheek.

Yun left right away to bath alone as he puts his head into the water and screams from the top of his lungs while crying his pain out without anyone knowing about what happened for now.