Burning Ambition

3. Xu Province/An Emperor's Plight

~~~ Sorry for the super long delay, but finals are slowly coming up and I haven't had a lot of time to spend on this story. I'm sorry if this chapter is boring and terribly written, but I wanted to hurry and write this while I had a little bit of time. Thank you so much for sticking with this story, and I hope you manage to enjoy this chapter, too! ~~~

Time: 194 C.E.

Two years had passed since the death of Dong Zhuo and nothing had changed - the land was still in chaos, and the ground was still stained with crimson blood; however, despite all of this, today appeared to be rather peaceful. Cao Cao sat at his desk and struggled to cope with the boredom of completing his governing duties for the day. His mind often wondered to Liu Bei, and he found himself wanting to send him a letter asking how he was, but he decided against it. Looking up from his paper work, he was surprised to see Xiahou Dun holding a letter. He quickly gave Cao Cao the letter and walked away, a scowl on his face. The man examined the letter and recognized the neat hand writing: it was from Xuande. Feeling happy to hear something from Liu Bei, he quickly opened it and began to read its contents.

Dear Mengde,

You recently wrote, asking if I could come visit again, but I'm afraid I must apologize because I cannot. Please don't get mad at me for it because you mean a lot to me, and I really want to come see you, but things are really busy here. Please don't doubt that you mean a lot to me, more than I can ever express; you let me fight under your banner and trained me yourself to battle the Yellow Turbans, and you even rushed over to help me when I was wounded by Lu Bu at Hulao. Writing this pains me more than you know because I really want to come see you, but now wouldn't be a great time. I know I've said this for almost a year now, and it's a terrible excuse, so I'm really sorry about it, but please don't hate me because I still love you dearly, more than those cute little kittens we looked at one time. I asked my employer when I could take another break and for how long, but he just said maybe in a year or two, so who really knows, but I miss feeling your arms around me, your hugs are just magical, but I feel like I'm ruining everything, so I'm sorry. Please don't hate me Mengde, I love you so very much.

Sincerely,

Liu Bei.

Cao Cao stared at the letter, he could see tear stains from where Liu Bei cried as he was writing it. The excitement he felt quickly shriveled up and vanished, sorrow took its place and he found himself wanting to cry, but instead he just sat there and felt his body become heavy, like it was lead. It's not like he couldn't cry for Liu Bei, there were tears welling up in his eyes, but he was trying to fight against them. He was sad that Xuande felt this way and even assumed that he could hate his guts, but how could he when he was the only one he ever loved? How could he reply to this letter and reassure Xuande that he could never hate him? He was unsure, but Cao Cao wanted to write back and tell him that he could never hate him because he loved him too much, so he quickly began writing a letter before his current thoughts vanished. He soon finished, hiding it in his desk as a messenger ran into the room.

"My Lord, your father, Master Cao Song, has been killed by one of Tao Qian's men." He stated, bowing at Cao Cao.

This was terrible news for Mengde, especially because of the timing. Now he had to cope with the loss of his father and his concern for Xuande. He felt anger boiling inside of him because of his father's death, and he needed a release, so he ordered the messenger to tell everyone that they were to begin preparing for war against Tao Qian, the governor of Xu Province. He bowed and at once he took off to inform the others. One hour later, the army was gathered and prepared to head into battle. Xiahou Dun walked up to his Cousin and stood with him, noticing that he was upset and highly irritated.