Fang Xin's view

As I left Xinye, I was troubled by the actions taken against her, so I went to the Magistrate and asked for a meeting.

"General Fang," he smiled warmly and stood up and indicated I sit across from him, "Please sit, and let us talk."

I nodded and sat as indicated.

"Tea?" he offered me, as he clearly had been having afternoon tea.

 I nodded my acceptance, and he poured me out a cup as a host and handed it to me to finish. As I had taken to drinking it black with no sweeteners, I blew and sipped it, looking at the man before putting it down.

"What brings you to me?" he asked.

"My wife," I said in a concerned voice, "I do not wish her to attend any more of these events your wife holds by herself. I do not want her to attend if I cannot be with her or Fergus or Chen Li."

"I see," he nodded sagely, "Might I ask why that is?"

"She is not very well, and although she may understand the language, she cannot speak it, and this, I feel, causes misunderstandings."

"I am surprised at your request," he mused, his hand stroking his beard in a meaningful way, "Do you understand her?"

"I do, but I do not know how I do; I assume it is the gift of her God; he has given many gifts to her. I owe her my life, and I do not want to see her humiliated because she can't be understood." I explained.

"My wife tells me that your wife was lucky in playing the Pipa. Is it true she has never played before?" the magistrate's tone was a bit snide.

"It is. She has never played the Pipa before," I agreed, "however, she has played a similar instrument in her time. She just took a while to adjust to the different sound that the Pipa has. I believe the instrument my wife learned on was called a guitar."

"I see, so it wasn't luck," the magistrate seemed thoughtful, "You should know, does she play anything else?"

"It is none of your concern whether or not my wife can play instruments," I rebuked him, "She is my wife, and I would like for her to be left out of political gossip and troubles. If this is not too much to ask for while she is here. I want her to recover her health."

The magistrate nodded, and our conversation went on about other issues like the war and Hong Taiji. I left not long afterward to do the afternoon drill with all the troops so we would not find ourselves at a disadvantage when the enemy attacked. 

While I was there training, a few of my men came up and went a few rounds against me, all of them not lasting more than 5 minutes before surrendering to go practice with an easier person to train with, "General Fang, where is the angel who healed us?" they would yell out just before I had sent them flying onto their backs and put a sword to their throats.

When they first asked me that, I asked, "What angel? I called no angels to help heal you."

"You know your wife?" One of them finally said.

"Oh, she is resting after all the trauma she has been through lately," I answered, "Stay away from her! Do you hear?!"

"Yes, Sir! But Sir, at some point, the men she saved," the man who had remembered their angel was my wife, "we want to thank her."

"I can thank you in your stead," I shook my head no; I was not going to let my troops near her. She was too valuable to me. 

As I thought that I was sent flying, Damn it! I thought,  Pay attention! You are not concentrating on this mission! Err exercise...

When I was satisfied with the exercise, I dismissed everyone, thanking them for their efforts, and hurried back to my sleeping wife. Only to find the bed bathed in blood. I woke her up in a panic, trying to find the source of the blood, only to find I need not have worried so much. Though I found it strange, she was suffering a cycle at her age, especially when she said her last one was well before she left the modern world. The maids serving us were not nice about it, but there was little either of us could do. Xinye because she was suffering so much, and me because of my responsibilities. Oh, how I hated them, and I wished I could be with her to help. Thankfully, it was only a week of this misery before we went back to normal.

We stayed there about a month, making the cannons; we also bought in existing cannons by ship, Taiji had ordered them some time ago, but they had not arrived until that month. The ones designed and made with Maelgwyn's directions were far superior to anything around, but there were only a few of them, and as there was only so much of the metal from the car, there were only a few outstanding ones.

At the end of the month, we were ordered to move out to retry taking Ningyuan. I had wanted Xinye to stay, but she refused, "I have outstayed my welcome, Xin. It is time I moved on. Is there somewhere I could go to, a place of your families that is out of the way and nobody goes to but either close enough to a city that we can get food, or there is the land to grow food? How do you even survive the winter here when no food can be grown?"

I could not help but smile at that. "I know of somewhere," I said, "I bought it when I was single and needed a place to hide. It was before I became Taiji's friend, general, and bodyguard. I was an irresponsible scamp, I must say."

"I find it hard to imagine you as irresponsible," Xinye replied, causing my heart to squeeze, perhaps in pride at her innocent belief in me. I was not the catch she imagined me to be. I had only become attractive to the opposite sex and matchmakers after I had met Taiji and settled down. My past was not something I was proud of. 

What I said then was not entirely correct. As a teenager, I had been raped several times by the maids my mother had sent me. Perhaps it was my mother's plan. I do not know. I was just thankful that no child came out of that painful time. The rapes were the reason why I had left home and become irresponsible. I tried everything to forget that pain, drugs, fights, gambling...

Nothing stopped the pain. It was a Buddhist monk who taught me about celibacy as a form of dealing with the pain—not allowing anyone to touch me at all. He also taught me sutra's to calm myself down and focus on God. It was a different sort of sutra in that it was a martial art. First, he taught me without the sword and then with it. My martial arts, to that point, seemed like Child's play to the things he was teaching me then.

I had bought that house to be near my master's temple. Being the oldest son, I was ineligible to become a monk, but I had wanted to become myself. I had successfully, I felt, separated myself from my mother's plans and designs through my interactions with Taiji. I found myself smiling at my wife fondly. I was thankful for her. I was grateful for the voice speaking to me, "Buy that woman. She is for you."

She was nothing like the other women I had interacted with. Despite the physical attraction we felt, she made no move on me. In fact, it was the opposite. She tolerated whatever I did to her and did not seek me out to interact on it. I was puzzled by this. Our interactions were so ordinary for the schwing that was happening. It was as if they had not happened. 

For that reason, I had found myself at the laundry, ordering clothes for her whenever she eventually went to the laundry. I thought it was a natural development. I did not know that she was so unassuming that she took weeks before Taiji interfered and sent her. It was only then that she received my gift. She only received it the same day I had returned from scouting and was injured.

It was then she forced me to strip. There was nothing sexual in it, despite the schwing. I objected initially, but soon I realised she was not chasing me for sex but rather to fix my wounds. I had thought I would be out of commission for weeks, but she fixed me up, capable for work the next day, hurting herself to heal me. It was then I decided I wanted her for my wife and told her so, and to my utter astonishment, she turned me down! 

I won her in the end, but I had to search for her first husband and Taiji helped me, but he was nowhere to be found. I was glad, as I could not be sure I would have allowed him to live. Despite what she felt for another, I was jealous of him, having someone as loyal as she was.

"Xin," she asked, "Can Fergus and Li stay with me?" After a short pause, she explained, "I worry for them at court. Random women are approaching Fergus since he was officially adopted as your son, and I can tell they make him uncomfortable. As for Li, she needs to return to her family for her wedding, but she must escape the court first to do that."

"Li? I thought he was a he," I said, confused.

My wife shook her head, "No, she was just lucky she had looks that could convert to looking like a man, but it is getting harder for her to hide herself."

"Ok, I will see what I can do," I nodded.

"Xin?"

"Yes?"

"Do you have to stay in the army?" she looked worried, and I could not blame her.

I thought about it, I had come to the end of my term some time ago, but I had stayed on because I had not wanted to deal with my mother, and Taiji had needed me, "I will see what I can do there too. I feel obligated to train someone to take my space."

Just then, Maelgwyn came by, "Who are you training to take your spot?"

"I do not know yet, but I have to train someone before I would be allowed to leave to be with your mother," I replied.

"Train me," he said, "I was wondering what I would do anyway. Most general are not hands-on. I know you were. Although I would not be the same as you, I feel confident I would be able to fill your shoes."

I could see his point; he was more intelligent than the average person, and he had quickly picked up Chinese. He looked like he was from china, with his brown hazel eyes and dark brown hair. He was well built but, as far as I knew, knew nothing of fighting.

"Have you fought anyone at all? Can you wield a sword?" 

"No, but I can learn. I can learn anything I want to learn," he said confidently.

"Ok," I said, "I will train you hard tomorrow. Can you read Chinese? I know you speak it, but can you read it?"

"No, no one has taught me," he said, "Can you teach me?"

"Yes, I will add that into my training," and sighed. I thought it would take at least a year for him to become literate and two years to be physically capable of taking over. I underestimated him. I even underestimated my wife's words, "That's a relief. Taiji will have a good general replacement. I'll get to keep you soon then! Drop us off at your place, and we will prepare it for when you are free to be with us."

Nothing prepared me for the fastness of how he learned. It seemed one day he was illiterate and unable to fight, and the next day he could do both. Of course, it was not that fast, but he had learned everything I had to offer in 6 months. 

I asked him how he could know the sword so quickly and received the oddest reply, "Mum taught me to dance as a child. She often told me it was to help swordsmen with their swordsmanship, but I did not believe her. I can see it now you have taught me, and I wish I had continued with it now, but I was too proud, and it was boring."

"Dancing to help with swordsmanship? I have never heard of it," I stated.

"Yes, it is a bit early to be known yet, but it is starting to be invented at the moment," Maelgwyn stated.

"I see. Well, if you are anything to go by, then yes, it does help," I nodded, "I have taught you everything I know, so it is now up to you to manage the next campaign. I will step in if you need help. Otherwise, it is all on you. If you succeed, I can finally go home to your mother."

Maelgwyn smiled cheekily and winked at me, "Ah yes, and I know what you will be doing then."

"Don't be cheeky, you brat!" I joked back as if he was not wrong.

We left the next day for my final war. I was looking forward to seeing what Xinye had made of the home I had left Fergus, Li, and her five months prior.

🍀A/N If you enjoyed this chapter, please take the time to vote by pressing the star. Please let me know if you see any errors, as this is unedited.