Mulan’s departure begins as an answer to a medical emergency and becomes a test of what care and family honor demand. The Jade Rabbit cannot provide the cure on his own: wounded and unable to reach the Queen Mother of the West’s garden, he must accept Mulan’s help. She leaves her village at night to seek a remedy for Xiu, carrying both the means of travel and a worn cloth rabbit that keeps her connected to home.

The diagnosis and the missing remedy

The immediate cause of the journey is Xiu’s bite from a nine-legged spider. The Jade Rabbit identifies the resulting illness as Hupo poisoning and explains that saving her requires a decoction made from Dragon Beard Grass and a freshly picked blossom of the Essence of Heavenly Majesty. The remedy is conditional and urgent: the ingredients must be combined before the poison reaches Xiu’s vitals. The threat is therefore not simply that Xiu is ill, but that a particular cure must be found within a limited time.

The Jade Rabbit can prepare the decoction if he has its ingredients. He already possesses the Dragon Beard Grass, but lacks the blossom. That missing component turns the search into a journey beyond the village: the Essence of Heavenly Majesty can be found only in the garden of the Queen Mother of the West. Mulan recognizes the scale of the destination when she identifies its guardian as the Queen of the Immortals. The remedy’s rarity makes the rescue depend on access to a powerful, distant figure’s protected garden, rather than on the Jade Rabbit’s healing knowledge alone.

The Jade Rabbit had intended to fly to Kunlun Mountain on a cloud and reach the Queen Mother’s palace, though even that would not guarantee success. The Queen Mother is protective of what is picked in her garden. More immediately, the Jade Rabbit’s wounds from the White Fox’s attack have left him without the power to summon a cloud or change forms. He cannot make the journey as a rabbit. His condition converts a plan he had expected to undertake himself into a shared expedition, and makes Mulan’s offer to travel with him on Black Wind practically necessary.

Mulan chooses to go

At first the Jade Rabbit resists the idea of bringing a mortal along again, recalling a previous journey without explaining what happened. His hesitation is a distinct obstacle: Mulan’s willingness does not automatically make her participation acceptable to him. But she presses the question through the consequence that matters most to her—what will happen to Xiu if she stays behind? With the poison advancing and no other available route to the cure, the Jade Rabbit agrees that Mulan must come and urges her to gather her things so they can leave as soon as possible.

Mulan’s decision is shaped by her relationship with her younger sister. She remembers Xiu clinging to her before losing consciousness and recalls that Xiu, gentle and shy, had often looked to her for reassurance. Mulan also feels guilty for teasing her about spiders. Her memories make the task personal: Xiu’s kindness and trust sharpen Mulan’s resolve, while the possibility that she may not return makes the choice more frightening. Mulan asks when the poison will reach Xiu’s vitals, measuring the urgency against the time the journey may take.

That urgency brings Mulan into conflict with the lessons she has received about a daughter’s duties. She remembers her mother’s expectation that she bring honor through diligently caring for her family, rather than through boldness. At the same time, her father’s example gives sacrifice another meaning. He had described serving as a warrior after the defeat of Emperor Zhou, fighting the invading Rouran and sustaining a serious leg injury; he considered the sacrifice worthwhile if it brought honor to their ancestors. Mulan wonders whether leaving with the Jade Rabbit is honorable. Faced with Xiu’s condition, she decides that going to find the remedy is an act of care, even if it also defies the safer conduct expected of her.

The leave-taking

The village is asleep under the Jade Rabbit’s spell, and he has assured Mulan that even the loudest noise will not wake its inhabitants. She nevertheless creeps into the house and gathers food, clothes, and blankets, packing them hastily rather than with the care her mother would have expected. Her parents are motionless in sleep; her father’s injured leg is still bound. Mulan addresses them, explaining that she is leaving to find something that can save Xiu and expressing the hope that her choice will not dishonor the family. They cannot answer or consent, so the departure remains Mulan’s responsibility alone.

Before leaving, Mulan looks at Xiu and at the cloth rabbit hanging beside her sister. She takes the worn toy from its string and presses it to her chest, intending it to remind her of home while she is away. This small object makes the departure more than a practical gathering of supplies: Mulan carries a tangible connection to the sister she is trying to save. She bows farewell to each of her sleeping family members, then takes Black Wind’s riding gear and leaves the house to meet the Jade Rabbit outside the tulou.

The Jade Rabbit waits beside a silk bag, still in the form of an ordinary rabbit, though Mulan notices the silvery luster of his fur and the composed, upright bearing that distinguish him. He tells her that Black Wind is awake. The contrast between the quiet, sleeping village and the impending journey marks the separation plainly: Mulan leaves her familiar household without waking anyone, carrying what she can and trusting that she can return with a cure.

The first leg of the quest

Because the Jade Rabbit is trapped in his injured form, he says they will need help and names an old friend in the City of Rushing Water as their first destination. Mulan knows the city chiefly as a far-off place, reputed to have a different sky, and falters at the distance. The Jade Rabbit’s answer is practical: that is precisely why they must leave immediately. Mulan rides Black Wind, and the pair set out beneath the moon.

Their travel continues across successive nights and days. Black Wind gallops with such speed that Mulan suspects the Jade Rabbit is influencing the ride. They cross rice terraces layered like a dragon’s backbone, then pass green-edged mountains, small villages, and farmers whose curiosity is met with vague answers. Mulan finds their traveling arrangement amusing; the Jade Rabbit is irritated by it. These encounters establish the imbalance between what the pair are doing and what bystanders can understand: to others, Mulan appears to be a girl traveling with a pet, while the journey is a race to obtain a rare ingredient and save her sister.

As the landscape shifts into trees colored coral and amber, Mulan thinks of her father’s stories of crossing the empire as a warrior. She imagines that he may have passed through the same fields and trees while fighting to protect the realm, and feels wistful guilt that she cannot make the same kind of contribution. Her journey has begun as a rescue undertaken for one sister, but it also tests how she understands the family honor she inherited: not as a choice between obedience and boldness, but as a responsibility that may require her to leave home.