Yifan woke up, momentarily forgetting his fate for the day.

His hope, however, was short lived. 

He slowly got up and got dressed, making sure to take as long as possible.

It was in these minutes that he could finally appreciate his appearance. His family were right; he wasn't bad looking. Apart from the slightly larger-than-life eyebrows and an expanse of body parts large enough to make the Hun go into hiding, he could definitely be classed as handsome. 

After about an hour he finally gave into waiting and went down to the living space. 

Unlucky for him, his parents were already there. Both had a grim look on their faces. 

Great.

"Oh, look what the cat dragged in!" He mother strode over to him and hit him over the ear. 

"Why didn't you come out? And why was the matchmaker angry?" His father asked from where he was sitting. 

"Let me guess, you mucked up!? I knew it!" His mother carried on without waiting for an answer. "You can never do anything right! You are so selfish, you know that Yifan! All we wanted was you to grow up and get married and then carry the family name! We never asked for anything else!" 

"Why couldn't you just do as you're told for once?" He father asked. 

"Always getting things wrong, you know he gets this from your side of the family!" His mother cried, pointing an accusing finger at his father. 

"My side of the family? I think you're forgetting that it was your grandmother who was the e, love!" 

"She was poor! How else would she pay for food? And that's beside the point! Your grandfather was a lying cheat, and then your great great grandfather was a convicted criminal!"

"He was never convicted, i have you kno-"

"STOP!" Yifan shouted.

His mother and father stopped their argument and stared daggers at their son.

"J-just stop... Look, i'm sorry, ok?" He stuttered, not looking them in the eye. "I'm sorry i couldn't do the simplest thing, i'm sorry i couldn't uphold the family honour, i'm sorry for being a failure of a son... " 

He trailed off and kept his eyes down.

After a moment of silence, Yifan bowed to his parents and left the room.

He couldn't stand staying in the tense silence any longer. 

He had failed them. And so he cried.

He cried not because they had told him off, but because he had lost their trust. 

His thoughts and tears were stopped abruptly by the ringing of the towns gong. 

The gong was situated in the centre of town, above the town hall. 

He heard his mother and father rushing out the door and toward the town centre and he followed.

Yifans father had only heard it twice in his life, when he was 5 and the old Emperor had died and when the Huns had first declared war on China. 

This didn't bode well for the news the town were about to receive. 

"Attention Citizens!" Called a young man from a horse, carrying a scroll. "I have news from the Emperor. The Huns have invaded China!" 

There was a gasp from the audience. 

"The Emperor has ordered that one man from every family must serve in the army! I will hand out your scrolls now"

The man jumped down from his horse and called out the first name on his scroll. 

"The Wong family!" 

Wong Mei's father walked up to the man and accepted his scroll. 

"The Do family!" 

"Papa no! I don't want to do it!" The man sobbed to his father, only to give into the acceptance of the scroll. 

Yifan recognised the man from the matchmakers. 

It was Soo. 

"The Wu family" Yifan didn't notice his family being called up until he saw his father striding over to the man.

"Father! What are you doing?!" Yifan rushed over to his father. 

"I'm willing to defend my honour and fight for my country!" 

"But you're injured, it should be me that's going papa... "

"No. Yifan, i- i didn't mean what i said in there! You are my son and i love you..." Tears began to appear in the mans eyes. "Besides, have you ever seen how bad you are at sword fighting?" 

Yifan gave his father a watery smile and allowed him to pass. 

"How could you Zhou?! Why didn't you let Yifan go and fight? You are in no shape!" Yifans grandmother slapped his father across the face. 

"I couldn't let Yifan throw his life down the drain! He has so much to live for! Besides, he needs to find himself a nice girl and get married!"

"That's not going to happen, though, is it!" His mother said, giving him a sympathetic side glance. "He wouldn't be able to even marry Wong Mei!" 

"That's not the point! He needs to find himself before he can get someone! He's young! Give him time..."

"Pfft! But you must've "found yourself" before you were 17!" Yifans mother folded her arms and scowled at her husband. "Or you just put your pride aside so you could marry me!" 

"What does it matter if it takes him longer? He's our son! We need to be his role models, we need to be the people he looks up to!" 

"And throwing your life away is something a 'role model' would do, eh?" His grandmother frowned. 

Yifan listened to their not-so-hushed debate from outside the door. 

He was angry that his father was making decisions. Ok, so he knew his family only wanted the best for him, and he would never want to disagree with them on that.

But for his father to go to war on a bad leg?

Crazy!

Not matter how bad his sword skills were, its no reason for his father to fight in his place!

And as for the whole 'getting married' thing. 

He had to agree with his mother and the fact that there was no chance ever of him getting married. 

No matter how beautiful Wong Mei became!

He slipped from his hiding place as his mother announced that they should be getting to bed. 

He creped into his bed and slipped under the covers. 

His feet were cold, there was a slight gust of wind coming from the window and there was an annoying lump in his bedding. 

But it wasn't that that kept him awake. 

He sat up in his bed, ignoring the coldness of his room.

"That's it!" He muttered to himself. 

A/N~ Thanks for all the new subscribers!!! XDD AHHH! xoxox 

so i'm just gonna say i literally have no idea where this is really going... so... yeah....

if things dont make sense you know why XD