Big World

The weeks passed and Yun returned to Xuchang with his men to report to Cao Cao about his return before returning to Puyang.

He could see the city in the distance when he hears from Dian Wei sarcastically, "We are finally able to rest."

"There is no rest for the wicked," says Yun in a warm tone.

The soldiers learned a lot from the time they spend on the hill near Qiao. It might have been a distraction to keep Cao Cao safe until the Vanguard returned but they stayed and the real training began.

Now passing the gates of Puyang everyone could see that the recruits changed from all the experience they soaked in from the training they went through as the people were welcoming them back. Yun knew that now is the most important time to prepare for what is to come.

He knows that Cao Cao won't use him to retrieve the Young Emperor since he is in Puyang making him be too far away to move out immediately and to leave a great impression on the Young Emperor he would most likely lead the forces himself.

They were approaching the manor Yun and his family are staying in when Yun sees a familiar pair of crows spying on him.

The first one he saw spying on him while being in Puyang while the other was spying on him when he was outside the city making Yun suspicious of them.

'Who could be spying on me? It isn't a human since it is hard to tame a crow,' thinks Yun ignoring the crows as he entered the mansion when one of the crows enters the mansion as well.

Suddenly Shadow attacks the crow with her sharp talons making the crow retreat with almost no injury, making it obvious that the crows watching him weren't normal.

'There are only four names that come to my mind,' thinks Yun as Shadow lands on his shoulder before he says to himself, "Odin, Apollo, Morrigan, or Dhumavati, one of them is spying on me."

Yun jumps from Thunder's back before he walks through the courtyard before he gets surprise-attacked by his twins that jumped at him trying to make him lose his footing only for them to find out that their father feigned his fall backward while Shadow flew away.

"No fun at all. Dad just lost on purpose," says Mulan a bit disappointed that Yun would do that when she feels Yun's arm pushing her closer towards him.

"How should I hug my children if I don't pin them down by feigning weakness. It is one of the strategies used in war," says Yun as he gave them a long hug before kissing their foreheads.

Once he leans his head back he sees his wife looking at him with a gentle expression on her face while holding the youngest in her arms.

"Welcome back," says Diao Chan warmly as Yun smiles at her.

"I missed you a lot," says Yun as he stands up while holding on to the twins.

He releases them and grabs Zheng out of her arms and throws him lightly into the air before catching him. This made the youngest laugh madly until Yun stopped and was pinched on his cheek by Diao Chan for being so reckless with their youngest child.

Once Yun apologized she releases his cheek before she kissed her husband and helped him inside before the real threat appeared before Yun.

Snowflake lunged at Yun only to be thrown down and being attacked by Yun's fingers as they begin to tickle the big cat making the tiger happy. Zheng wanted to play as well going by how he was stretching his hands out towards Snowflake.

Yun soon stopped as he petted the tiger's head making him know that the game was over. Snowflake leaves happily since his owner gave him parts of his attention while Yun continued with his family as they went to look for his father and mother.

They were eating at the moment with their daughter and their son-in-law's family when Yun and his family enters the room. Yun saw them eating and asks a servant to bring more food so he can join them as well since there were already three bowls too much at the table which must be for Diao Chan and the twins since Zheng can't eat solid food yet.

"You are back. I heard you moved your army towards Qiao a month ago from some traveling merchants," says Wei Yan happy that Yun returned.

"We had to find and keep Cao Cao safe until the Vanguard returned to get him," says Yun as he sits down with Zheng in his arms letting Diao Chan eat first since his bowl wasn't there yet.

Yun looks at his nephew who was in his mother's arms at the moment and grabs him as well so his mother could eat at peace for now.

Once both Zheng and Wei Kang were in Yun's arms they looked at each other curiously while the women were nervous Yun sees them and was confused.

"It seems that both of your mothers are nervous about what is going to happen next," says Yun to the two children when Yun looked at his youngest knowing that he must be the problem because of his wild attitude.

"You both are the future of this family. We can't be in dispute or the family will fall because of our infighting. Do you understand Zheng?" says Yun knowing that Zheng couldn't understand him since he was still too young.

Zheng was looking at him confused not understanding him at all as Kang was sleeping soundly in his arms without a care in the world when the servant arrived and placed a bowl with rice before Yun.

"Thank you," says Yun to the servant while holding the two waiting for Diao Chan and Qing to finish eating since it seems that Zheng is most likely jealous of Kang for stealing all the attention from him.

"They are still children it is normal for them to not understand each other," says Madam Su defending her youngest grandsons.

"They are but Zheng doesn't need to feel jealous of Kang just because he gets all the attention. He needs to understand that he is like an older brother to Kang and not some rival he needs to take down," says Yun seriously as he didn't want his youngest son to behave like that.

"We can't change that at the moment. Once they are older and they understand what we are talking about we can discipline them. Until then we will have to keep an eye on Zheng and Kang so they don't fight with each other," says Diao Chan taking Zheng from Yun before Qing did the same carrying Kang.

Yun knew that they were right and that he can't force them at such a young age to behave civilized with each other since they are still young not like Fang and Mulan.

"You are right," says Yun taking this defeat not to heart as he looks at his twins and continues, "Mulan and Fang were the same at their age."

They began to have more small talk as Yun began to eat before Hua entered the room dejected surprising nobody. They all knew that Hua must have talked to Taiyin who must have rejected his proposal again.

"How about you look for another woman?" asks Yun making the room goes quiet as Hua sits down.

"I just have this feeling that she is the one just like you always told me how you felt when you first saw my sister-in-law," says Hua to Yun as he asked for a bowl of rice.

"We can't all have such luck. Maybe your woman is out there you just haven't found her yet," says Yun as he puts his bowl on the table and continues, "The world is bigger than we know about. There is so much land that we don't know about and many different people we haven't even seen before."

They all were now curious about what Yun was talking about when he says, "For example Strategist Huang, she is from the Land where the sun goes down. But there is even more land to the west of where her roots lie. The same can be said about the east if we crossed the sea we could find land on the other side."

"Is that true?" asks Hua curious now as Yun nods.

"There is but we will never see it but our descendants will maybe if we are lucky our grandchildren will be able to see those lands," says Yun as curiosity runs in their veins.

"That isn't some story you picked up from some drunkard right?" asks Xian as he was curious about it but not foolhardy enough to sail into the east to see if Yun was right.

"There is and I hope that one day a branch of our family could take roots everywhere in this big world," says Yun hopeful that his family name will survive that long.

"You have high expectations from our descendants," says Xian as he liked what he heard from Yun.

"It is just a vision that I hope comes true in the future but my mission seems to be to unite this Empire for the Emperor," says Yun with a sad smile since he won't be able to explore the world until the Empire is united and his people are safe.

They finish eating and Yun goes to his bedroom with Diao Chan and Zheng when he hears, "Maybe we can do that once the Empire is united."

Diao Chan smiles at Yun reading him like a book as Yun smiles at her and says, "We will be an old couple traveling on the Silk Road."

"I don't have anything against it as long as we are together," says Diao Chan as she places Zheng into his crib while Yun changes out of his armor and clothes.

"How about a bath just the two of us," says Diao Chan as she tempts Yun who grabs her right away before carrying her out of the room towards the bath.

Diao Chan giggles at Yun's reaction as she told a servant on the way to look after Zheng while they have fun in the bath.