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“Cheng Pu complains a lot about ‘men of the north’… well, they all do, really… and they’re right,” Sun
Jian decided. “The men of the north are really, truly fools… the court is a
terrible place, run by eunuchs, just as the rumours said.”
“Yuck,” Sun Ce exclaimed. “Why
would they let eunuchs tell them what
to do?”
“Do you know what a eunuch is…?” Lady Wu asked.
“…I dunno… something terrible,
I guess,” Sun Ce replied. “I heard somebody say that they’re-”
“Go and play,” Lady Wu
ordered. “Your father and I have to talk.”
Sun Ce retreated obediently, and Sun Jian smiled dryly.
“…That boy is such a handful,” Lady Wu chuckled. “Still… he takes after
you, so that’s to be expected. Oh, and we did not greet you because your return
was not announced.”
“I… I realise that now,” Sun Jian said apologetically. “I probably
forgot… no, I did forget to send
someone on to tell you. I’ve been so angry…”
Lady Wu smiled comfortingly and said, “Why did you let them talk you
into going all that way, you silly man…?”
Sun Jian scratched his head awkwardly.
“…And making you an adviser???”
Lady Wu continued. “Just this once, I might have said that you should have been
at the front as some sort of warrior, or something; perhaps you might have
defeated them all by yourself.”
“Thanks,” Sun Jian said quietly. “Well, the hero of the day ended up
being Dong Zhuo, of all people… oh,
of course, you don’t know who he is, though.”
“Another fool,” Lady Wu
suggested.
“Close enough,” Sun Jian chuckled. “He used a ruse to escape defeat, and
never fought the enemy properly, yet he’s a hero because he lost no men. I
heard that he might be promoted.”
“Disgusting,” Lady Wu
grumbled. “Rewarded for running away.”
“The tribes and lawless rebels now rule Liang Province, so we have had
no victory; and we are told that the rest of us ‘failed to face the enemy’,
which I only accept because it sounds better than ‘failed to win’,” Sun Jian
scoffed.
“However, the whole thing has inspired rebellions in Changsha now, so I heard on the way
back… I suppose we’ll have to see what idiot the court sends from the north to
quell the west.”
Lady Wu touched Sun Jian’s hand and said, “The people that matter know
that you did your best. Forget the whole thing.”
Sun Jian nodded silently, but he knew that he would probably be dragged
into more irrelevant and unnecessary conflicts that would take him away from
his home and family, and the thought of it angered him more than ever.
*************