youfightgood:

Shang strolled quickly, leaving little time for Ping to dawdle as he surely would have without his commanding officer to lead him in the right direction. He held his chin up thoughtfully and glanced at the boy. Where would this niángpào be without him? Certainly not hard at work tending his family’s fields or performing his marriage duties and producing heirs. Li Shang frowned and rolled his eyes to the side.

The renowned  Hua Zhou — one of Shang’s heroes and a man his own father had spoken of with great admiration — raised this boy. And it was like Ping couldn’t care less that he was a huge disappointment to his captain. He stumbled about and tipped over pots of rice and systematically failed his exercises. From Ping, he learned that no matter how great a man one becomes, sons could still grow to be disgraces. Disheartening.

Well. He resolved to cultivate Ping into his own man, a man able to accomplish his own great feats. The Hua name would not be tarnished because Li Shang failed. No, that would be Ping’s own fault, and it depended upon whether or not the little soldier decided to comply with the standards his commanding officer set.

“Your family name is distinguished. All of China knows of your father’s military exploits,” Shang said, slow and even. He did not look at Ping. “Have you any other brothers that will join the military?”

Since joining the army, Ping had been exposed to more swears, curses, and just plain profanity than he’d ever realized existed.  Maybe “plain” wasn’t even the right word for it - Yao was certainly imaginative when it came to putting a comrade down and insulting his ancestors, and that was before the fists started flying.  As Ping blinked at the captain, turning the question over and over in his mind, all the recruit could think of were a few of those choice swears.  What was he going to tell Shang about his family?  "I, um, I uh,“ Ping cleared his throat and - having stopped walking a moment - hurried to match his commanding officer’s pace again.  

Ping cleared his throat.  "No, I don’t.  It’s just m- I’m the only son.”  After a moment his beating heart slowed and Ping could feel he’d been careful enough: It seemed safest, not to imply that there was no Hua Mulan.  Vaguely, he wondered what his parents had done or said to excuse their only child’s disappearance.  But the idea only caused Ping pain - he couldn’t afford to think of them right now, not that way.  

He chewed his lip thoughtfully, like a cow digesting cud.  Ping thought, I never realized how widespread Baba’s heroism was until the captain knew him by name.  Somehow that just made things worse.  Better than if Captain Shang had actually been a friend of the family - but bad enough.  Nobody expected great things of Hua Zhou’s daughter - so everything was expected of his son.  

If he had realized this before he left home, would he still have come here?

There had been no other choice.  

Ping glanced at the captain, wondering if he’d meant to encourage conversation.  "Do you have brothers?  Or sisters?  Captain,“ he added belatedly.