Love or Law

To Honor or to Dishonor?

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An hour later found Shang pacing agitatedly once again. It was becoming a habit of his. The worn spot on the ground within his tent was testimony to this. No matter how fast or how far he paced, though, the problem was still there; circling in his mind again and again and again were the same questions. Why did she? How did she? And more importantly, what should he do?

Shang now knew that it would be incredibly dangerous to approach Chi-fu with this matter. The man was arrogant, well-connected, and a stickler when it came to rules. If he ever discovered that Ping was a girl he would demand her immediate execution and Shang would have to follow through; even if he told himself over and over that he could not allow that to happen.

He still couldn’t figure out why he felt so strongly about this matter. If someone had asked for his opinion about this subject as a non-objective, 3rd party before he knew about Ping, his answer would have been the same as Chi-fu’s. Now, however, he had a face to put on the betrayer and he found himself unwilling to follow the laws that had governed the land since long before his birth.

Every time he even contemplated the idea of the execution he flinched. To picture the look on Ping’s face as his sword swept down towards her exposed throat made him feel sick. He knew that he could never face living with that. His conscious would not allow him to.

Then there were the other thoughts that kept invading his mind. The ones he was desperately trying to push away. When he allowed his thoughts to wander away from the problem itself they began to replay the moment he found out about her.

He could still see her rising from the dark water, the silver light from the rising moon illuminating her skin, seeming to emphasize its soft whiteness. Her hair dark as midnight and dripping droplets of silver water across her collarbone and further down her body. Her gentle curves had been completely bared to him in a moment of intimacy that he wanted to relive again and again. The picture in his mind made him long for something he knew he couldn't have. Not without dishonoring his family and that was simply not an option.

Shaking his head and growling in frustration, he quickly sat and rested his face in his hands. He needed to redirect his thoughts to something else, anything else. He couldn’t be thinking of such dishonorable things. What would his father do if he knew his son was thinking such thoughts about a criminal, even if she was a beautiful woman?

“Captain! Urgent news from the General!” Chi-fu burst through the entrance of Shang’s tent trumpeting his announcement and waving a roll of parchment around wildly. “We’re needed at the fight!”

Shang didn’t need to hear anymore. Either Chi-fu had seen the light and had written the letter himself to give him an excuse for going against what he had originally declared, or Shang’s ancestors had finally decided to answer his prayers. Shang didn’t care. This was exactly the kind of distraction that he had needed and in a flash of inspiration he came up with a plan to try and give Ping an honorable way out of the army and the encroaching war.

Even though he felt happy that he had finally thought of something, for some reason his heart ached with the thought of having to see the girl leave. Shang didn’t allow himself to dwell on it though. He had a feeling he wouldn’t like the answer that he would come up with to explain the odd symptom. 

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The next morning found the camp buzzing with activity. News had traveled fast and everyone was working together to strike the camp and load everything into wagons. It was a long, tedious process. All the canons had to be stacked neatly with padding around each one to avoid jostling or friction with another canon. If even one canon lit, it could set off a chain reaction with massive repercussions.