The streets of Xiang Yang is full of people going about their daily activities, much like any other major city. There are markets, shops, and street performers trying to earn their living with their chosen craft.
What is different about Xiang Yang, is the presence of a single girl performing an unorthodox art. Where most people show off various martial arts styles or tricks they can do with their bodies, the girl in question is playing with a puppet, a mere child's passtime.
"Boo!" rings out from amongst the audience, and it is echoed by several others. Several members of the audience begin to leave, leaving the girl with no more money than what she came with.
"Hey!" Bing-Gan exclaims, peeved. "Ban-Ban knows more martial arts than all of you put together!" To make her point, she puts the doll through several moves, as it waves its small scythe at the losers leaving the audience. "He's awesome! You should be honored to see him in action!"
Murmurs begin to ring amongst the audience, as they witness the rude display of the lone girl standing in front of them. More of the audience begins to turn away to leave.
Bing-Gan contemplates challenging one of them to a fight against her puppet, but quickly discards the idea as being too bothersome. Sighing, she instead collects said puppet and puts it back in her pack, muttering about people not recognizing Ban-Ban's coolness.
Done with that, she decides to check out the martial artists performing on the streets, while on the lookout for a place she could stay for the night.
The performers are not attracting many audiences, most of what is being performed has already been performed, either by the same martial artists or another one. The street performers usually do not stray far from the mainstream styles like the dao or jian, and the weapons are usually being used in such a way that it is pleasing to the eye, but does not offer too much actual combat values.
Ahead, a couple of inns lie on both sides of the street. Long Teng Ke Zhan, or literally "Dragon Soaring Inn", Sing Hui Ke Zhan, literally "Glorious Star Inn", and Yong Da Ke Zhan, or literally "Forever Achieved Inn".
The entertainers don't really entertain her, so Bing-Gan decides to go and check out the Forever Achieved Inn, briefly checking her cash supply once she's away from the crowd.
After she opens her wallet, Bing-Gan realizes why she was puppeteering in the first place: she is low on money.
She has about 10 bronze coins and 10 tael of silver. It is enough for a decent meal and a night or two of accomodations, but would not last much beyond that.
"Hello," a friendly waiter greeted as she enters the Forever Achieved Inn. "How many people?"
"One adult and one puppet," Bing-Gan replies. "We'll need a room for tonight, and something to eat. How much would that be?"
"That depends on what you would like to eat," the waiter answered. "A night's stay and a meal can be had for as little as two tael of silver or as much as ten."
"We'll go for the two tael thing, then," Bing-Gan tells him, shrugging. "No sense in using up all our money so soon."
"Two tael of silver can get you four steamed buns, green beans with beef, and a night in our Ren rooms, which is our average-class rooms," the waiter replied. "Will that be enough?"
"Sure!" She gives the waiter a smile. "That's the nicest thing anyone's told me ever since I came to this town, you know?"
Bing-Gan fishes out the money he asked, and hands it over, saying, "Here you go, two tael of silver."
The young waiter smiles shyly, and pockets the money.
"I'll show you to your room," he turns and begins to lead Bing-Gan upstairs. The room is not in the long hallway above the stairs, but one right turn after. He opens the door with a push, and gestures inside.
"Just come down to the restaurant when you want to eat."
Bing -Gan nods at him, and steps inside the room. She takes the time to unpack her puppet and settle it next to the bed comfortably. Once the waiter's left, she closes the door and lays down to take a short nap till supper.
After a nice nap, Bing-Gan wakes up in a good mood, having had her favorite dream where money flies over to her as she sunbathes lazily. Refreshed, she makes sure she's presentable, and decides to go downstairs and take that waiter up on his offer of food.
"Good evening," the waiter greeted as Bing-Gan came down the stairs. "Do you want dinner right now, or do you have other plans?"
"Dinner's good," she replies with an amiable nod. "Lead on towards the dinnery goodness!"
"This way," the waiter pointed to an empty table at the corner. "Do you want just the steamed buns and fried green beans with beef, or do you want to add more?"
"I'm good with the buns," Bing-Gan says, before tapping her chin thoughtfully. "I could use some company, though. Someone who could tell me more about this town, who's who, the usual."
"I can!" the waiter smiled brightly. "Hey, Bing Xiong! Take over for a second!"
Leading Bing-Gan to sit at the table, he began to stare somewhat intently at her. "So, what do you want to know?"
"I'm kinda interested in who the big shots here are. The good and the bad." Bing-Gan shrugs. "I'm also kinda curious about whether or not this town has any puppeteers," she adds after a moment's thought.
"Well, unlike most towns I hear about, the officials in our town is actually good. I hear a lot of other towns have corrupt officials, but we don't," the waiter explained. "As for the bad, Mo San Long is a big landlord around here that keeps milking people for money, especially farmers. His rates are expensive and he keeps raising, but we need the land so we have to pay anyway."
"What else do you want to know?"
"That sounds neat!" Bing-Gan exclaims. "It's a nice change of pace for me, actually. Lately, it seems that wherever I go, there are all sorts of nasty bandits and other baddies." She shakes her head. "Those people should instead get an honest job, don't you think?"
"Bandits?" the waiter asks, alarmed. "They didn't... do... anything to you, did they?"
"Nope," she answers, laughing. "I wouldn't go charging into a den of bandits, now would I?"
"You never know," the waiter shakes his head. "I've seen some pretty brave, but silly people around."
Bing-Gan shakes her head as well. "Yes, how silly of them." Giving him a smile, she says, "But, hey, you said that this town doesn't have these problems. That must be fun...."
A few moments later, she asks, "Say, what do people do for fun around these parts, you know, after work?"
"Well, there are the usual casinos and brothels," the waiter replied. "But that's about it, really."
"There are... other, less... public activities to do at home though..." he added as an afterthought.
"Huh, you don't say," Bing-Gan drawls, her eyes losing interest in the waiter and focusing on her food.
"I'll leave you to your dinner now, miss," the waiter says as he stood up to leave. It is company policy to not talk to customers when they're eating.
Bing-Gan nods absently, as she gives her supper the attention it deserves. It's not long before she's done with it, and with a wave at the somewhat helpful waiter, she retires to her room for the night.
Bing-Gan was awoken by loud noises coming from downstairs.
Bing-Gan dressed quickly, and after locating some water and splashing it on her face to wake up, moved downstairs with her staff.
OOC: My mind so wants to take the "moved downstairs with her staff" the wrong way... ^_^;
Or knowing you, that's possibly the right way :D
IC: When Bing-Gan arrives downstairs, she sees two groups of people quarrelling loudly over something, the argument becoming so heated that some of the members are waving their weapons in the air threateningly.
Bing-Gan looks around for a waiter, preferably the one from yesterday, to see if it's safe to approach him and find out what's happening.
OOC: Now, you'll never know, would you? ^^
The waiter is on his way towards a table, after having finished taking orders from the previous one.
Bing-Gan makes her way towards the table that is the waiter's target, trying to intercept him.
The waiter simply gave an absent hand gesture, the one that usually tells customers "I'll be right there."
Bing-Gan nods, and takes a seat at an empty table. As she waits for the waiter, she observes the loud bastards who woke her up, trying to make a rough estimate of their fighting skill (or lack thereof).
As Bing-Gan looks on, she finds out that they are rival gangs in the town, arguing over territory and profits. Most of them carry dao, and some of them are waving them in the air while others just stare at the rival gang.
She doesn't seem to be able to pick up on their skill level though, which either meant that they are either beyond her league, or that they are not seriously going to fight.
Bing-Gan carefully weighs her options. On the one hand, those idiots woke her up and should really be punished. On the other, they probably wouldn't be worth her time. Plus, she would have to do all that work for no pay, which would be annoying.
In the end, she decides to just have some breakfast for the time being. She could always kick the gangsters' asses later, after all.
The familiar waiter came to Bing-Gan's table and smiled in a business-like manner.
"Can I take your order, miss?"
"I'll have whatever you recommend," she answers with a smile. "I'm not too hungry, though," she adds, her smile dropping slightly, "since I lose my appetite when gangsters wake me up." Bing-Gan glances in the direction of the ruffians. "These are gangsters, right?"
"Shh!" the waiter held a finger over his lips. "Not so loud! Don't let them hear you!"
Bing-Gan smiles at him. "Sure thing! Anyway, I'm good with a light breakfast."
"I take it you want steamed buns then?" the waiter asks. "How many would you like?"
"A couple should do it," Bing-Gan says, stifling a yawn threatening to escape. "Unless you'd like to join me? I'll order more," she offers.
"That won't be necessary," a male voice called out as an arm was stretched in between the waiter and Bing-Gan, separating the two, if they were not already separated. "Bring the lady the best in the house, and put it on my tab."
"Absolutely, Mr. Lee!" the waiter nodded and quickly made his exit.
"So," the man said as he sat down, revealing himself to be a pleasant-looking young man, if very lavishly dressed. "What brings you here?"
"Here, downstairs, at this point in time... breakfast," Bing-Gan replies, smiling at this Lee. "Here, to this inn... the hand of fate." She shrugs then. "Not really sure why I decided to visit this particular town, though. Beats me, I guess."
She glanced at the lavishly-dressed man, studying him. "And you?"
"Me? Fate too, I guess," the man grinned broadly, resting his head on his hands, fingers interlocked together in a bridge shape, his eyes sparkling. "And what a pleasant flavour fate did me this time."
Bing-Gan nodded casually in acceptance of his corny pick-up line disguised as a compliment, reminding herself that the nice man was going to pay for the breakfast.
"So where're you off to next?" the man asked, never taking his eyes off Bing-Gan.
"Some place fun and exciting," she answers, shrugging. "Hopefuly, a place where people can appreciate the fine art of puppeteering." She gives the man an assessing glance. "Would you know of such a place?"
"My house?" the man's eyes twinkled hopefully.
Bing-Gan pretended to think about it. "I'll have to ask my puppet, first."
"So where's your puppet?" the man asked, apparently oblivious. "You can ask now!"
"It's a very complex procedure," Bing-Gan explained. "First, it must put on a show, then a collection must be taken, and only afterwards, during the encore, may we mere mortals converse with The Puppet."
Meanwhile, she waits for the breakfast, so she could eat already.
As if on cue, the waiter brings in a myriad of exquisit cuisine to the table, a simple look at the dishes will tell anyone that a single dish costs maybe twice as much as a normal meal. The whole meal probably costs a small fortune.
"Enjoy," the waiter smiled widely as the man shoved what seems to be several bronze coins into his hand.
"Enjoy," the man echoed as he leaned back into his chair.
"I'm Hao Long, by the way," he added, just now introducing himself. "Hao Long Li."
Bing-Gan rubs her hands happily at the sight of the food. "Thanks," she tells both the waiter and Hao, and then begins eating her breakfast calmly.
Taking a bite, she smiles at the taste, and finally says, "I'm Bing-Gan. And my puppet's called Ban-Ban. I'll introduce you two properly later."
Hao Long just smiled and let Bing-Gan finish her food. It was probably more food than one girl can eat, since the table is covered by dishes.
Bing-Gan finished eating at last, having eaten her fill. Turning towards Hao Long, she cocked her head, saying, "How about you show me some place where martial arts duels take place? I love watching them."
"Sorry," Hao Long tipped his head in apology, but grinned. "I'm a lover, not a fighter."
"Oh well. Too bad." Bing-Gan sighed theatrically. "Well, it's been nice meeting you." She stood up and made her way to her room upstairs, giving the man a parting wave.
"Hey wait!" Hao Long ran partially up the stairs and called to Bing-Gan before she made it into her room. "I know! There's a tournament in town tomororw, some guy is holding a tournament, the winner gets his daughter's hand in marriage. How 'bout we go to that?"
Bing-Gan stopped. "Sure thing, if you get us good seats. Meet me here tomorrow, an hour before it starts?"
OOC: Time skip! ^_^
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The next day, Bing-Gan is rudely awakened by an all too cheerful voice and a knocking on his door.
"Rise and shine, Bing-Gan!"
Bing-Gan yawns, and rises, zombie-like. After making herself presentable and taking her staff with her, she opens the door at last.
"Looking good as always, Bing-Gan," Hao Long greeted her with his everpresent grin. "Shall we go?"
Bing-Gan shrugs. "Sure. Lead the way."
Hao Long led Bing-Gan down the stairs and out of the inn, then through a series of twists and turns and side streets to come into an open area on what seems to be a major street.
A stage is set up on the open area, but no one is on it yet. The words "Tournament for Marriage" is written in large letters on the backdrop of the stage.
"So, this is it," Hao Long grinned at Bing-Gan. "There's still more than a ke before the tournament starts, and I don't think you'd want to enter, since you're a girl. What do you want to do?"
OOC: Refer to the translations thread for "ke" ^_^
"Let's go find a good place to watch the fight," she says, nodding to herself. "Or, you could just enter to show me how manly you are." Bing-Gan smiles brightly. "Up to you!"
Hao Long sweatdropped and smiled, albeit somewhat nervously.
"I told you, I'm a lover, not a fighter," he restated. "We could walk right up to the stage, that'll give us a nice view. It'll just be a fair bit more dangerous when swords and bodies come flying."
"That's okay, I'm sure we'll be safe enough," she says with just the right touch of obliviousness. Nodding happily, Bing-Gan makes her way towards the front of the stage. "So, who are the participants? Are there any favorites?"
"Well, anybody can participate," Hao Long explained. "There's no real favorites since no one knows who's going to participate. You can be from five thousand miles away and still participate. Before the event starts, the would-be bride will appear to let people know how she looks, so if she's hot, there's a lot more people participating."
Bing Gan nodded, silently agreeing with his words. It did sound logical to set the tournament that way, assuming the girl really was hot and really, really wanted to get married to a capable fighter as soon as possible. It was too bad, she mused, that the prize wasn't money or food, or anything actually useful.
"There's nothing we can do but wait and prepare to be entertained, then," she said at last, and resolved to do just that.
About half an hour later, the would-be bride appears. She has jet-black long hair that flows freely down to the small of her back. She is rather slim, and not broad-shouldered and does not look muscular by any means. With large, deep brown eyes that seem to sparkle with mischief or playfulness and a pair of seemingly inviting lips, she would, by most people's definition, to be very hot.
The turn out for the tournament should be quite good.
"Seems like we're in for a good show," Bing Gan commented to her escort.
Bing-Gan's comment is met with kind of an awed, silly, far away look in Hao Long's eyes.
As long as he isn't babbling to her like a fool, she doesn't really care. In fact, she does her best to forget about him.
After about half an hour, an older man walks onto the stage. Looking to be around 30 years old, he seems to be still muscular and strong despite being middle-aged, obviously a result of being a martial artist. The man looks to be a competent martial artist, and not many families hold these marriages tournament if they are not martial artists themselves, since the would-be groom would definitely be one.
"Thank you for your attendance, everyone," the man broadcasts in a loud, but gentle voice, betraying his somewhat gruffy beard look. "Today I'm holding a martial arts tournament, and the winner will the hand of my daughter," he pointed to the girl that came out earlier. "Li Ting, in marriage. May I have the first two challengers please?"
Two men steps onto the stage, carrying weapons. One is a burly, gruff man, wielding a dao, who looks to be packing a lot of power in his wide, muscular brame; and the other is a slim young man, who looks to be educated or refined in his posture and look, and carries a jian.
"On this side," the host announced, leaning close to the older man to ask for his details. "A local martial artist, Xia Long!"
"And on this side," the he leans close to the young man and did the same. "Also a local martial artist, Cheng Wen!"
"We're not fighting for life or death here," he added. "So stop if you find you're outclassed, or if first blood is drawn."
The two men bows to each other, then slips into their respective fighting poses. The older man has his left arm extended and his right arm, the one carrying the dao, held backwards, and his legs mirror that position. The younger man, however, simply has his arms confidently crossed behind his back.
The young man extends his arm in a "come on" gesture, inviting the burly man to strike first. And strike he did, he launched xa fury of slashes at the younger man, all aimed at or above chest height. Cheng Wen calmly parries the slashes with the edges of his jian. Xia Long increases the speed of his attacks, but it doesn't seem to be able to get through Cheng Wen's steel wall of defense. Visibly frustrated, Xia Long starts attacking with larger and larger movements. Sensing an opening in the wideer and increasingly more unfocused attacks, Cheng Wen simply thrusts his jian forward and stops it just short of Xia Long's throat, who halts his slash in mid-strike in surprise, then threw down his dao in frustration as he knows he wouldn't be able to win even if he persists.
A new young man steps onto the stage, about the same age as Cheng Wen, and is announced by the host to be Sheng Bao, and also carries a jian. This time, Cheng Wen doesn't cross his arms behind his back after bowing, sensing his opponent to be harder than his previous one.
Cheng Wen takes the initiative and flies towards his opponent with his jian extended. The intended recipient of said move immediately turns around and then half-flips to go into a handspring facing forward, then unleashed an upside-down soccer-style kick to the flying man's chest, the sword narrowly missing his leg by inches. As Cheng Wen falls to the ground on his back, Sheng Bao pushes off the ground with his arm and performs a 180 and double sommersault, his sword extended, as if he wants to cleave Cheng Wen in half. Rolling horizontally out of the way, he sweeps out Sheng Bao's legs from under him as he lands from the flip, then jumps backwards to put distance between them. As if thinking deeply, Sheng Bao stops all movement, and instead taps his chin in thought. Insulted by such blatant disregard during the fight, Cheng Wen flies towards Sheng Bao again in a duplicate of the opening move. However, at the last second, Sheng Bao avoids the blade by performing a bridge, putting his sword just high enough to draw blood from the airborne Cheng Wen's chest as he flies over Sheng Bao.
"And first blood goes to Sheng Bao!" the host announced. "Who's next?"
Another man steps up to the stage. And the next few fights progresses in a relatively predictable way, with new challengers every one or two fights, and no one winning for a long period of time. That is, until a good-looking young jian user, looking to be around twenty years of age, steps onto the stage and clearly outclasses his opponents by winning five matches in a row.
"Damn, he's good, isn't he?" Hao Long comments to his lovely companion.
Bing Gan contemplates the young man's skill, before she can answer.
As the young man has just won five matches in a row, it is obvious that he has a great deal of skill. The first two or three fighters are still a match for Bing-Gan, but the majority of the recent opponents that the young man has just defeated clearly outclasses Bing-Gan in terms of skill. There are a few along the way of the tournament that Bing-Gan knows she can defeat, but judging from the last few opponents that the young man has just defeated, Bing-Gan knows that the young man is clearly beyond her league.
"Yeah, he's cool," she finally says. "I'm kinda jealous. Not sure if it's of the bride or him."
Hao Long simply looks at his companion with wide eyes, a hurt expression on his face.
Taking pity on the guy, she says casually, "Probably of him, after all."
"See? I'm-urk!" Hao Long begins to say, but whatever he has in mind is cut off when he slams and slouches over the stage. If anyone cares to look back, they would notice someone from the very back of the ground pushing forward, causing a domino effect that ends in Hao Long getting slammed into the stage.
"And it looks like we have another challenger!" the host announces in his loud, clear voice.
"No, no, I was pushed! I'm not a challenger!" Hao Long waves his hands frantically in denial.
"Ah, such shyness!" the man teases. "He obviously wants to try winning the hand of my beautiful daughter, and is just too shy to say it!"
"No, no I'm no-AAAAAAAAHHHH!" he cries as he is physically thrown onto the stage by a large, burly spectator.
Hao Long lands on the stage face-first, narrowly avoiding breaking his nose from the stage floor on the landing.
He gets up and immediately tries to run off the stage, but his way is blocked by several mean-looking spectators whose looks promise pain if he tries to leave.
"Look, this is all a mistake," he waves his hands frantically and tries to explain as he backs away from the opposing young man. "I'm not a fighter, and I definitely don't want to fight someone like him."
The young man's features begins to cloud over as Hao Lao tries to talk his way out of the situation.
"Look, I don't mean anything bad," he tries to appease the other young man, Ao Ba. "But I just don't want to fight you. It's not like you're not good, or anything..."
Ao Ba's features clouds over a final time, then with a loud growl, runs forward with sword extended in an effort to impale Hao Lao where he stands, despite the host saying it is not a life or death tournament.
"No! Don't hit me!" Hao Long panicks and squats down, holding his head under his arms, making himself almost a ball.
Unable to stop his run in time due to anger, Ao Ba trips over the human ball and lands flat on his face, at which point the entire crowd erupted in laughter.
Even more angered and embarrassed, his face is twitching as he gets back up to glare at the cowering Hao Long.
Since Hao Long is still on the floor, Ao Ba begins to thrust his sword downwards, trying to impale Hao Long into the ground. The latter man begins to backpeddle desperately, much to the chargrin of Ao Ba, since he keeps backpeddling just mere inches away from being stabbed. Frustrated, Ao Ba begins to increase his stabbing force, but to no avail. Just as it seems that Ao Ba may be able to stab Hao Long, his missed stab accidentally gets his sword stuck into the wooden floor of the stage, and loses his balance and topples forward, just to slam face-first into the retreating Hao Long's knee.
"Err... are you okay?" Hao Long asks as he gets up, apologetic. His opponent answers with a loud growl, and gets up, wiping his now-bleeding nose. He charges at Hao Long again, who seems to have finally run out of luck as he blindly charges into the direction of the sword, flailing his arms and crying "don't kill me!"
His leg, however, accidentally gets caught in the small hole created by Ao Ba's missed stab, and trips, falling face-first onto the floor with a loud thud. Again unable to stop his momentum in time, Ao Ba trips over Hao Long's head and falls on top of him, and ends up slamming his head onto the floor and becomig unconscious.
Noticing a lack of movement from his opponent, Hao Long crawls out from under Ao Ba and stands up, at which point the host walks over to Ao Ba and checks for his health, and he is still alive, just unconscious.
"And we have a winner!" the host announces. "Who's next?"
"No, no, no! This was all a mistake!" Hao Long tries to explain again, desperately flailing his arms. "I was thrown on here! I, err, already have someone I love!"
Abruptly jumping down off the stage before anyone can react, he lands beside Bing-Gan and looks at her, desperately winking in an effort to convey the message "help me out here!"
"Well," she muses out loud, "I could probably challenge you and win, but wouldn't that mean I'd then have to marry that nice girl?"
"Err... just admit you love me out loud and then we get off!" he whispers urgently. "Hopefully..."
"I'm not sure we're at a stage where I'm supposed to get you off," she says, frowning. "If you want me to help you with the fight you won, I suppose I could... but it would cost your manly pride." Bing Gan shrugs. "Up to you."
"That's not what I mean!" Hao Long is almost at the point of tearing out his hair. "I meant we can just get away! And what do you mean by costing my manly pride?"
"Alas, it will be necessary to tear it to shreads, if you wish to keep your unmarried status," Bing Gan says gravely.
"No... thanks..." Hao Long drops his head in defeat, accepting the reality that Bing-Gan apparently doesn't intend to help him out of his situation. Hanging his head low, he begins to walk back onto the stage.
"Well, if I die here, it's been nice knowing you, Bing-Gan."
She sighs, but then follows him on the stage. "Fine, I'll try to do something without putting your all-important manliness in doubt," she grumbles. "Look, I just feel this really strong urge to fight this guy, okay?" she calls out, pointing at Hao Long. "Matter of honor, can't wait, really important I do my best to kick his ass this very instant."
"B-but you can't! Hao Long waves his hands desperately. "If you win, you may have to marry the girl!"
"Shut up and try to lose believably," Bing Gan hisses at him, before pointing her staff at him. "So, do we need a signal to begin, or can I just start with the beat-down?"
"But I don't wanna fight you!" Hao Long insisted. "You're a girl!"
Holding onto the staff firmly with both hands, Bing Gan attempt to use his distraction and smack Hao Long firmly on the noggin -- enouhg to knock him out, but not to do more damage.
"Ow!" Hao Long cries out in pain as he's smacked on the head with a staff. Apparently he must have a hard head or something, because he's not knocked out as Bing-Gan intended.
"Alright, I lost!" he quickly says to the host. "I admit defeat!"
Then he quickly runs off the stage and back to the previous spot he was standing in before getting thrown on stage.
"I, uh, guess that counts." Bing Gan shrugs. "Next?"
However, it seems that no one is volunteering. If Bing-Gan cares to look at the crowd, she would see half the audience smirking, probably waiting to see what she would do if she has to marry a girl.
"Man, what a bunch of weaklings. And cowards. Can't forget the cowards." Bing Gan does her best to sneer at the gathered male crowds condescendingly. "You're so pathetic my puppet could defeat you... with a blindfold!" She takes out Ban Ban to drive the point home, and waves him at the men.
A few men from the audience make the initial motions to leap onto the stage in anger, but are stopped by the spectators next to them. The men seem to calm down visibly after said spectators whisper in their ears, and the angry looks on the men's faces become replaced with a somewhat hostile smirk and stays in place, not moving onto the stage.
"You, the ugly one!" she calls out to a particularly unsavory-looking sort who seemed angered by her remarks earlier. "Yeah, the smirking guy who stands out like a wart on a sore thumb." She then proceeds to summarily insult his intelligence, parentage, appearance, atrocious clothing and finishes with an elaborate speculation about him prefering the men who seem to so lovingly hold him in place rather than fairly attractive girls.
The man in question seems to turn a variety of colors, his face turning into so many colours that it matches and exceeds the colours of the rainbow. Finally, his colour returns to normal and he settles down with a smirk on his face, crossing his arms in front of him and chooses to enjoy Bing-Gan's predicament instead.
A young man seems to have either fallen for the tauntings, or have taken pity on her, as he jumps onto the stage, disregarding the protests that a few of the audience made.
The young man looks to be around sixteen to twenty years old, and his choice of clothing distinctly separates him from most of the audience, as the material seems to be the kind of silk that is usally only affordable by the middle class or at least the higher end of the lower-middle class of people. He also seems to be a somewhat handsome young man, if slightly less so than Bing-Gan's current companion.
"Go for it," he said simply.
"Excellent," she says, putting the puppet away and smiling at the challenger. "Just a quick question, first. What's up with the stupid smirks from those guys? Don't really get them."
"I know some of them just wants to see your reaction when you find out you have to marry a girl and if you'll try to get out," the young man answers as more than a few members of the audience scowls at him. "But I don't know why some of the other people were smirking, sorry."
"Ah, I see," she replies. "I think it's too early for me to get married, plus there's a bunch of places I haven't seen yet." Bing Gan smiles again, and holds her staff in front of her. "Anyway, I'm ready now. Hope I won't bore you!"
OOC: RPed the fight scene over AIM. Here's the unedited log of the session ^_^
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The young man slips into a fighting stance, his left leg in front of his right leg, spread about shoulder-width, his left hand held in a fist, and his right hand is held in an open palm about eye-level, next to his ears.
"Ladies first," he invites Bing-Gan to attack. "I'm Ren, by the way."
Bing Gan adjusts her grip on the staff, so that one had is holding onto its end, while the other is gripping it at a shoulder's width distance. She raises it to chest level, tip pointed at Ren, she says, "Bing Gan," before thrusting it rapidly at him, the hand holding onto the rear of the staff altering its direction slightly each time.
Ren adjusts his rear hand slightly so it is just below eye level, still next to his ear, but about six inches in front of his face, for easy blocking. At the same time, he uses his left hand to parry the incoming thrusts with the palm of his hand, never solidly blocking with any bones.
Bing Gan steps in and twists her waist with the direction of the strike to maximize the power of her last jab, then leaps back lightly, raising the staff's tip.
Ren smiles slightly, as if in approval of Bing-Gan's technique, and rotates his torso about ten degrees to one side, and at the same time pivots his left arm up to hit the underside of the staff with the side of his elbow, causing the attack to abruptly change direction and veer diagonally off its intended target, missing his head by inches due to the angle it is now at.
Bing Gan waits for a moment to see if he'd try an attack, before proceeding towards him carefully, circling Ren slightly.
Ren simply stands where he is, still in fighting stance, and makes a "come on" gesture with his hand.
Bing Gan twirls the staff above her head, before stepping in aggressively for an overhead strike, with her right foot first, bent at the knee, while the left leg is kept behind, straight.
Stepping to the outside with his forward leg, Ren parries the overhead strike with one hand, and brings his rear leg forward to the direction of his forward leg, abruptly changing direction in midway to sweep out Bing Gan's extended right leg.
Bing Gan shifts her weight to her left leg, straightening up, while her right one moves back to take place behind her left knee. She retracts her staff as she does this, and lowers its tip to aim it at Ren's feet, waiting for a chance to strike at them.
Ren slips back to his now-familiar fighting stance again, and once again gestures to invite Bing-Gan to attack.
Bing Gan lowers her right foot, and sets it parallel to her left, a wide distance apart. She bends her knees somewhat, dropping lower, while swinging at Ren's front left leg with her staff.
Lashing out with his rear leg, Ren connects hard with the underside of the staff in mid-swing, and then leans backwards to avoid the staff careening upwards due to the change in direction. He reaches an arm out and grabs onto the staff as it flies over his head, and pulls hard to snatch the staff out of Bing Gan's hands, as she would be unable to recover from the abrupt change of movements as the staff is redirected, and performs an overhead strike with the same staff in one smooth motion, stopping the staff within an inch of Bing Gan's head.
"I guess it's a loss for me," she says, sighing. "At least you're better than the guy who lost by accident to my date, and then got so pissed about it that he knocked himself unconscious."
Ren nods, and politely handed Bing Gan her staff back, at which point numerous boos erupted from the crowd, probably at the man who wrecked their plans of seeing one girl marry another.
Bing Gan returns the nod as she accepts the staff, and then makes her way off the stage while glaring at the booing idiots.
"Wow!" Hao Long greets Bing Gan with his ever-present grin and a pat on the back as she exits the stage. "You were great!"
"Thanks. It'd probably have been less painful to my pride if we had to trash yours instead, but all's well that ends well." She shrugs then, and glances at him. "Wanna see how this will end, or leave?"
"I'm glad you didn't trash my pride though," he answers with a grin. "I kind of want to keep my equipment functional, you never know when you might use it."
"As for that," he points at the stage, where the host has once again stepped on and is seeking challengers. "It depends on what you want. You're the one who wanted to come here, you can decide when to leave. I'm just here."
"I guess we stay, then," she says, and settles in to watch. But she tries to keep on eye on the idiots with the smirks, especially the one she taunted personally.
The smirking population of the crowd seems to be satisfied with her loss or something, since they haven't made any special remarks or do anything they are not supposed to.
Apparently there are people who are not satisfied with the level of skill Ren displayed, as someone immediate steps up to the stage as soon as the host begins seeking another challenger.
An ordinary-looking man steps up onto the stage, carrying a six-foot long staff. After being introduced, he immediate goes on the attack when the match begins. His first attack is a staff thrust aimed at Ren's foreheard. Like his strategy against Bing Gan, Ren doesn't block the thrust, but instead hit the underside of the staff with an open palm and ducks, letting the staff sail harmlessly over his head. However, his opponent immediately spins and follows the thrust up with a swing to to Ren's ribs. Unable to parry or redirect the attack with it aimed at his midsection, he has no choice but to block it with his arm. Using the rebounding force from the block, the other man pivotes and unleashes a backhand swing aimed at Ren's temple. Just as Ren begins to strike upwards with an open palm to redirect the attack, his opponent suddenly forces the swing downwards. Suprised by the sudden change of angle, he is caught off-guard and is in the ribs.
Not letting up for a second, the newcomer immediately follows up with an overhead strike, hoping to capitalize on the previous success. However, Ren recovers just in time and uses an open palm to redirect the staff so it sails harmlessly off to a side, and lunges forward with a side kick aimed at his opponent's midsection. The man immediately releases his hold on the staff, and grabs a hold of the kicking leg and pulls, resulting in Ren doing the splits on the floor. He then uses Ren's head as a springboard, and flips over him and retrieves his staff from the floor, dashing back to keep the six-foot distance granted to him by his chosen weapon.
After getting up, Ren tries to go on the offensive, but every attack is either blocked by the staff or earned him a retaliative strike, and leaves him no closer to getting in close to the man, but receiving a few bruises for his effort.
Ren growls, visibly frustrated by his inability to close in on his opponent, and flies forward with a flying kick, almost as a desperation maneuver. His opponent smirks, then hops off to a side to dodge the flying kick, and then lashes out with a backhand swing to the back of Ren's head, causing him to fly off the stage instead of landing on his feet.
"Ring out!" the host steps up and announces the winner to be the newcomer. "Next challenger?"
The man defeats his next two opponents without much effort, but loses to a man wielding a jian. During a staff thrust to said opponent, the man thrusts out with his sword and literally splits the six-foot staff in half all the way up to where the man holds the weapon, then swings his sword upwards to point and stop dead at the other man's throat. Weapon lost, he admits defeat and steps off the stage.
Surprised at the skill that such a daring move requires, no one steps onto the stage after repeated prompting from the host.
After calling ten times for a new challenger with no takers, the host announces the jian user, by the name of Ping Liu, to be the winner of the tournament, and the soon-to-be husband of his daughter.
Bing Gan winces for the poor staff, and resolves to look out for her own better from now on. "We can go now," she tells Hao Long.
"Okay!" Hao Long replies with a grin, the contemplating look in his eyes disappearing seconds after Bing Gan looks at him. "Where to?"
"To eat something," she suggests. "I can show you what Ban Ban can do afterwards."
"Lead the way," he grins, gesturing with a hand. "I'll go wherever you go."
"Haven't been here long enough to find out the best places to eat," she replies. "Got any suggestions?"
"Depends on what kind of things you want to eat," he answers, his voice taking on the tone of a tour guide. "You can eat fancy at an expensive restaurant, a normal meal at a normal restaurants, or at one of the the stands on the side of the road."
"I could go for a fancy meal, since today was fun."
"Fancy it is!" Hao Long strides forward, leading the way.
Turning into a crossroad nearby, the duo continus on, lead by Hao Long, and turns into an alley way. About a quarter of the way into the long, deserted alley way, Hao Long stops abruptly.
"Err... wrong way," he says with his back turned, and one can hear there's a difference in his tone from his normal cheerful self. It sounds almost like... seriousness.
He turns around and starts heading out the alleyway, back onto the main road. "Err... it's this way."
"Sure," Bing Gan replies, checking out the alley for anything -- or anyone -- suspicious before following him.
The alleyway is still deserted on both sides, the two being the only ones in it.
Going back onto the main road, they make a few turns along the way and continue at a leisurely pace amongst many other passerbys until they arrive at an extravagantly-decorated restaurant called Ming Yue Lou.
Unlike their previous restaurant, the waiter of Ming Yue Lou doesn't recognize Hao Long this time. The waiter comes off as slighty condescending at first, however, a flash of a tael of gold quickly changes his attitude.
"Bring the lady the best in the house," Hao Long commanded, and the waiter almost squeals in delight as he skips off to the kitchen to put in the order.
Minutes later, Hao Long and Bing Gan find their fair-sized table covered by a plethora of dishes, from bear's paws to chicken in ginseng soup to a hotpot of deer meat, with a healthy selection of dishes in between.
Smiling at the food, Bing Gan takes out Ban Ban, and has him pick up a small dish and travel through the table towards Hao Long, offering it to him politely.
"Cool," Hao Long grins as he accepts the dish. "Neat trick."
He pats the puppet on the head, much like someone does to a small child.
"Thanks. Give something really good to Bing Gan too."
The puppet bows at the waist, and then salutes Hao Long, proceeding to place some deer meat on Bing Gan's plate. Ban Ban then settles down on the table, as if guarding his mistress.
"He can do martial arts, too," Bing Gan comments, placing the controls down and caressing the puppet. "I think it's very cool. Unfortunately, not many people in these parts do."
"Well, I'll make sure not to mess with him then," he smiles. "Or he might kick my ass like you did."
"Hmm... maybe you should go somewhere else then?" Hao Long suggests. "Maybe they'd like Ban Ban in another town."
"I've been thinking about that," she admits. "I'll probably pick a direction and go there first thing tomorrow. After all, there were quite a lot of places where Ban Ban got a decent reception." Frowning then, she adds, "Oh, and I'm sorry about the whole bump-on-the-head thing. It seemed like the quickest way of changing things without having you accidentally blunder through the challengers and to victory. Then, you'd have to marry that girl, and if you'd wanted that, you would've entered the tournament yourself, I bet."
"Yeah, thanks for that," Hao Long smiles. "She's good-looking and all, but I'm just not that interested in her. Don't worry about the smack on the head, I was just worried that you might actually end up winning and have to marry the girl. That wouldn't be very good."
"Sucks that you're leaving though," he frowns. "I was kind of hoping you'd stick around longer."
"Aside from a couple of people, which include you, the others here seem kinda rude and otherwise mean," Bing Gan says, her frown deepening. "It's very strange. Do you really like living in a place like this?"
"Well, every place has its share of rude people," he offers. "And once you get to know them, most of them aren't that bad."
Bing Gan laughs. "Yeah, I guess you're right about that."
"So why do you want to get Ban Ban a good reception anyway?" Hao Long asks. "Isn't it just a hobby?"
"It's more fun when other people can enjoy it too," she responds. "And it makes things easier, when there's no other way to raise money for food and lodgings."
"Must be tough," Hao Long consoles. "To be a lone girl trying to make money by yourself... you know, if you ever run into trouble getting by, you can always just ask me."
"Thanks," she says curtly, and diverts her attention back to the meal.
The duo eats the rest of their meal in silence. Somehow, between the two of them they manage to finish most of the food, despite having so much food that the table is covered with dishes. Hao Long motions for a waiter to go to their table, then has the waiter pack up the unfinished portions.
"So, err..." he hesitates, an unfamiliar nervousness creeping into his voice. "Wanna go, I dunno, watch a show or something?"
"Sure," she responds. "Sounds like a good way to pass the time." Smiling slightly, she adds, "Lead the way."
"Great!" he grins in reply. One can almost hear an audible sigh of relief when Bing Gan agreed to go.
Taking the packaged food along, he begins to lead Bing Gan out of the restaurant. After making a left into another main road, a beggar can be seen at the entrance of an alley, looking for food or money.
"Hold on a moment, I'll be right back," he says to Bing Gan.
Walking over to the beggar, Hao Long gently deposits the package of food on to the beggar's tray.
"Enjoy," he smiles, then walks back to his companion. "Alright, let's keep going."
Bing Gan simply nods at the gesture. "You like to help the helpless?" she asks him, as she prepares to follow him to the promised show.
"Sure," he nods as he begins leading again. "I mean, we can always get more food, but they can't. If they could, they wouldn't be sitting here begging for food and money. It can't be fun to bear the looks they get from all these people everyday."
After turning into another side road, they arrive at a stage with a decorated backdrop of mainly red as background colour.
"So, it looks like today they're going to be performing 'Lim Wu Tu Long'. It's a nice show, lots of fighting in it."
OOC: The name means "Wu Lim Kills the Dragon" or slaughters, instead of kills ^_^
Bing Gan's eyes light up. "Fighting's always good," she mentions casually.
"Yeah, I knew you'd like it," he smiles at Bing Gan as he gestures towards a row of chairs and allowing Bing Gan to choose a seat. "I can tell you like martial arts from, well, your smacking me on the head with the staff and the fight you put up against that one guy."
"Although, the fighting in this show may not catch your eye," he adds. "I can't tell though, it's not like I'm any good at fighting, and you've seen that firsthand."
"I already apologized for the smacking thing, and you did say you were going to get killed out there," she says a bit peevishly. "It's not like I could win without actually hitting you once."
"Sorry, sorry," he apologizes sheepishly. "I'm not trying to make you feel bad for hitting me or anything, it's just an objective comment. I don't really mind it or anything, at least it shows that you care."
Bing Gan laughs at his words. "Alright," she says. "And I do like martial arts. Practicing them is a fun way to go through life, and it helps keep one's body in shape, too."
Hao Long makes a point of looking Bing Gan over at hearing this.
"Yep," he grins. "Definitely in shape."
She decides to ignore it, and awaits the show.
Minutes later, several costumed actors come parading onto the stage, accompanied by a background music that consists mostly of percussion. The actors are villagers around the town, and bemoaning the presence of a dragon destroying all their crops and hard work, pleading for a hero to step up and rid the world of the evil.
The main character then comes on to the stage and circles around a few times, then comes to a stop and chants about the wild dragon terrorizing the world. After his chant finishes, another character in a dragon costume jumps out from backstage and faces off against the main character. They then begin an elaborately-choreographed fight scene. It's obvious from their ease and fluidity that they have done this scene many times before, but it's also due to the ease and fluidity they display that one can't tell if they are real martial artist or just actors with lots of practice at fight scenes.
The dragon manages to defeat the main character, who then declares he shall return, and retreats backstage to flee from the dragon.
"So, what do you think?" Hao Long says during the intermission.
"I could take that dragon... is what I'd like to say," Bing Gan replies, before dissolving into excited giggles. "This is actually a lot of fun. I can't remember the last time I saw a performance about fighting and dragons." Her laughter abating somewhat, she turns to look at him. "How about you? Do you actually like this sort of thing?"
"I guess," Hao Long shrugs helplessly. "I mean, I don't really like fighting or anything, but this is just a show, so I guess it's not bad."
She nods. "What do you like to do for fun, then?"
"Nothing much, really," he shrugs. "I go around here and there."
She nods. "I kinda do that, too, only on a much larger scale," she says with a crooked smile.
"You mean going from town to town like you mentioned?" Hao Long asks. "Mind if I join you?"
"Sure, but you'll have to keep up," she tells him. "I'm also not really sure if I'll be back through these parts any time soon, so...." She trails off, shrugging.
"Oh well," Hao Long shrugs. "It's not like I haven't been to other places before."
"Unless..." he looks at Bing Gan. "You don't want me to go with you?"
"I don't really mind," she repeats. "If you want to travel, it's all good."
Hao Long sighed.
"Yeah, I guess I'll come alone. So when're you leaving?"
"Tomorrow morning." She shrugs again. "Seems like a bad idea to leave mid-day, unless you absolutely have to, so that's what I always do."
"Why is it a bad idea to leave in mid-day?" Hao Long asks.
"Superstition," Bing Gan immediately replies. "Grandpa always said it was a bad idea, and the one time I didn't follow his advice I ended up attacked by freakishly large pets and barely got away. So... bad idea."
"Freakishly large pet?" he raises an eyebrow. "What freakishly large pet?"
"It's a long and tragic story of abnormally large barn animals used as... pets... by crazy rural farmers." She shivers. "Don't ask."
Hao Long sweatdrops, disbelief in his eyes.
"You... don't do any drugs, do you?"
She glares at him. "You're the one who asked."
"Hey, what am I supposed to think about freakishly large animals being kept as pets?" he retorts.
"Crazy rural farmers?" she asks in return. "Self-explanatory."
Hao Long shrugs, not saying whether he believes or disbelieves.
"Well, hopefully we won't run into that."
"We won't, if we leave early enough," she says with a giggle.
"Whatever you want," Hao Long says with a shrug. "Not like I have anyone to go or anyone to say bye to."
At that, the percussion music starts again, and the actors make their ways back onto the stage.
The play has the dragon continue to terrorize villagers all over various towns and causing massive panic, until the previous defeated hero resurfaces. To the actor's credit, the hero's very posture and presence looks to be more confident than his last encounter with the dragon.
Declaring his intention to take care of the menace once and for all, he launches himself at the dragon. The fight scene lasts much longer this time, and the hero ultimately triumphs, and villagers from the town run out from their hiding places and they embrace and thank the hero.
Finally, the entire cast of the play comes out and bows to the crowd, signalling the end of the play.
"Well, that's it," Hao Long announces the obvious.
"Yeah," Bing Gan agrees. She pats Hao Long's shoulder, saying, "Thanks for taking me here. It was fun."
After a small pause she uses to think, Bing Gan adds, "So, I guess I'll see you at my inn tomorrow morning?"
"Err... about what time?" he asks.
"Six o'clock. That sounds good," she tells him. "I'll be ready by then, so just wait downstairs. We could grab a quick breakfast and then leave."
"Alright, see you then," Hao Long says and begins to turn to leave.
"Actually, I'll see you back to the hotel," he apparently changes his mind and turns back around.
She acknowledges his suggestion with a nod, and begins walking back to her inn, the staff slung behind her back.
Hao Long leads Bing Gan back to her inn, apparently not taking any wrong turns this time.
"Alright, here we are," he says as they arrive.
"Till tomorrow," she says, and waves at Hao Long as she goes inside, heading straight for her room. A bath and then a nap seem like a good idea to Bing Gan.
Hao Long waves goodbye to Bing Gan outside of the inn. After she goes into her room, he walks into the inn and begins whispering to the clerk, then sliding what seems to be a tael of silver over to the clerk.
Sometime in the evening, Bing Gan hears a knocking on her room door, and a voice that says "dinner delivery!"
Bing Gan opens the door, glancing outside.
A waiter is standing outside the door, carrying two trayfuls of food.
"Your dinner is ready, miss."
"Thanks," she tells the waiter, offering him a smile as she accepts the trays. Balancing them carefully, she places them on her table, and then digs in.
The two trays are full of food that ends up covering her table. Much like her last meal, there are various exotic dishes amongst the more normal, average-priced dishes. All in all, a lot more than what Bing Gan has paid for, even if what she paid all goes directly to the food with the room being free, which it is not.
"Heh, must be Hao Long," she says to herself, sorting out the dishes she's most interested in. "The guy moves fast. I didn't even see him!" Shaking her head, she has her dinner.
The next morning, after Bing Gan wakes up and washes up and begins to head down the stairs, she finds Hao Long already sitting at a table by himself, pouring himself a cup of liquor.
"Hey!" she calls out to him, waving. "Just let me take care of the bill, and we can go, okay?"
"It's been done," Hao Long looks up from his drink and waves to Bing Gan, then pours himself another cup and downs it. "We can go anytime you're ready."
Score! Bing Gan gives him a toothy smile, saying, "Thanks!"
She inspects her gear for a few moments, and then nods to herself. "Readiness!" Bing Gan announces, and heads out into the street.
"So where're we going?" Hao Long asks as he gets up and follows Bing Gan, his footsteps slightly wobbly.
"Well," she drawls out, and points at one end of the street, "I came from that-a-way, so I figure we should go in the opposite direction."
"Alright, I know where the exit is," he gesutres with his hand for Bing Gan to follow. "This way."
"Sure," she agrees with a nod, and walks at his side.
Hao Long leads Bing Gan silently through the assorted roads and backstreets of the town, but she finds him stopping abruptly at a residential area, staring up at the second story of a house with an odd, pained look in his eyes.
"A girl who once rejected you lives there?" Bing Gan asks, nudging him with her elbow.
The pained look in Hao Long's eyes seems to be almost amplified tenfold at Bing Gan's teasing.
"Nevermind," he said, shaking his head and starting to walk again. "Let's go."
She pouts, but follows without saying more.
The duo walk silently along the way, Hao Long seemingly deep in thought and not paying attention to Bing Gan. They soon arrive at an unguarded archway, which seems to lead into a somewhat maintained grassland.
"Well, here we are," Hao Long resumes his tour guide duty, although without the usual cheer in his voice. "We're out of the city. Any ideas on where you want to go?"
"Let's go forward," she suggests. "Sounds like as good idea as any to me." She pauses for a moment, thinking. "You know these parts, right?"
"Not this way, no," he shakes his head. "I know the way you came from, but not here. I'm just as new as you are."
"Then it'll be full of fun surprises for the both of us," she tells him, smirking, and heads out.
"Why do I get a bad feeling when you say that..." he said rhetorically, shaking his head with a sigh.
"I have absolutely no idea!" Bing Gan says happily, walking slowly enough to allow him to catch up.
Hao Long shakes his head, but walks faster to catch up to Bing Gan anyway.
It doesn't take long for Hao Long to return to his previous cheerful self, and soon Bing Gan finds herself the target of questioning again.
"So, Bing Gan," he asks, partly in an effort to keep the journey from being boring. "You have any... boyfriends or anything?"
"Well...." She frowns slightly. "No boy friends, no girl friends. No friends at all, at the moment."
Hao Long frowns an empathic frown, then quickly grins again.
"Don't worry!" he says cheerfully. "You've got me!"
"You're a boy and you want to stick around long enough to become my friend..." she muses out loud. "Sure, okay."
"What?" Hao Long asks as he overhears Bing Gan's musings. "Did you have bad experiences with boys or something?"
"Not really, no." She shrugs. "Just with friends. Don't worry about it, though."
"Tell me," Hao Long insists. "What happened?"
"Well, friends always nag you about things," she attempts to explain. "Do this, don't do that... it's annoying. No friend I had could ever appreciate just looking at the clouds for hours, no, it was always do chores with me or other boring stuff."
Bing Gan sighs. "Plus, they would always steal my lunch. Food is important, you know!"
"So..." Hao Long sweatdrops. "The reason you don't have any friends is because of food... I... see..."
"Not just food," she replies, "though it played a large part." She then shrugs. "Friends just seem too troublesome to keep."
"So are you going to leave me too?" Hao Long asks, not looking Bing Gan but instead finding great interest in observing the ground five inches away from his feet as he walks.
"Huh?" Bing Gan looks at him quizzically. "What are you talking about? They were the ones to leave." She narrows her eyes. "With my hard-earned collection of sweets, at that."
Hao Long sweatdrops.
"'Hard-earned collection of sweets'?" he echoed. "Were you like, six or something?"
"Five and four months, but who's counting?" she replies flippantly.
"You, apparently," Hao Long returns with a smirk.
"Note to self," he says to himself, but making sure it's loud enough to be overheard by his companion. "Do not piss off Bing Gan, for she will keep grudges for over ten years."
"I was really looking forward to eating them on my birthday, you know," she tells him with a huff. Then she smirks herself. "Of course, in the end, vengeance was mine."
"What'd you do to them?" Hao Long asks, suddenly fearing for Bing Gan's childhood friends' lives. Or sanity.
"Fufufu." She smiles evilly. "Nothing much."
"So what's 'nothing much'?" Hao Long prods, not intending to give up.
Snickering, Bing Gan moves ahead of him on the trail.
"C'mon, tell me!" Hao Long quickly picks up his pace to follow.
"Ah, but it's your turn to tell me a story," she says in a chiding tone of voice. "It's just not right that I'm doing all the talking."
"No way!" Hao Long shakes his head excitedly. "You haven't even finished!"
"Oh my! What was I talking about again?" Bing Gan taps her lips with a finger thoughtfully. "Silly me, I forgot!"
"What you did to your friends!" Hao Long reminds her with a light growl.
"What friends?" she asks him, adding a moment later, "Friends are troublesome."
Hao Long lets out a growl and stretches his arms out animatedly, trying to resist the temptation to strangle his travel companion.
"You..."
"Oh, right!" Bing Gan nods excitedly. "You were going to tell me something, weren't you?"
"Nope," Hao Long replies simply. "Never was."
"Oh, that's too bad," she says. "So, you have traveling equipment with you, right? Stuff like a bedroll, and so on?"
"Don't need it," Hao Long waves off Bing Gan's suggestion. "I can sleep anywhere."
"If you're sure," she says doubtfully.
The duo continues on their path for a few hours, when Hao Long stops as they come upon a fork in the road.
"Alright..." he hesitates, pointing at the fork, one that northeast and one that leads northwest, where nothing of significance other than a continuing path for either side. "Where to?"
Bing Gan takes her staff, placing it vertically on top of the ground at the intersection, and lets it fall.
"That way, I guess," Hao Long points to the left path, where the staff lies pointing at.
It doesn't take long for them to reach another obstacle in their path... this time by way of three people blocking their paths.
"Pay the toll if you wish to pass," the man in the middle declares as he steps in front of the other two, arms crossed over his muscular chest, his feet shoulder-length apart.
Bing-Gan takes in the trio, paying special attention to what weapons they have visible.
Bing Gan sees that the man on the left is carrying a staff, but he doesn't seem to be in a fighting stance with it, it's merely casually slung across his shoulders, with each of his hands grabbing on the ends of the staff over his shoulders. The one in the right is brandishing a large spiked club - he doesn't have it slung on his shoulders for obvious reasons, and the man who spoke up earlier is currently gripping his dao in a fighting stance, obviously prepared to deal with anything who comes his way.
"Hey, hey, let's not fight," Hao Long steps up. "Can't we talk about this?"
The man in the middle swings his dao at Hao Long's neck at lightning-fast speed, and the latter man doesn't seem to be able to react fast enough to dodge, as he didn't seem to make a move until the dao stops an inch away from his neck.
"Err... I guess not..." he sweatdrops.
"Go get them, tiger," Bing Gan says in a dry monotone, slapping Hao Long on his back lightly. She keeps on looking at the robbers in amusement, leaning on her staff to stealthily adjust her grip on it so that she now holds her hand next to the release switch for the scythe.
"No thanks," Hao Long shakes his head emphatically as he starts to back away slowly, his hands up and shaking to show the lack of hostility, then tries to hide behind Bing Gan as he gets near her. "You know I don't fight."
"Oh, how disappointing," Bing Gan says with a pout, before turning to address the leader, "Anyway, I don't actually have money, so I can't pay any tolls. Mind if I pass?"
"Well, if you can't pay with money," the man on the right declares as he steps forward with a lecherous grin. "You can pay with your body, it looks nice enough."
However, before he can complete his first step forward, he suddenly kneels on the ground on one knee as if someone kicked his leg out. With a loud growl, he lifted the large spiked club and gets back up, then rushes at Bing Gan.
With a sigh at the predictable lameness of criminals, Bing Gan twirls her staff and makes an upwards slash with its concealed blade, opening it. Seeing that the guy is apparently going for an overhead swing, she aims between his legs, temporarily hardening the wood.
OOC:
Of the staff. >_>
The would-be robber whimpers, his staff stopping an inch above Bing Gan's head, and collapses onto the ground, writhing while clutching his manly parts.
With a loud war cry, the remaining two robbers rushes at Bing Gan with weapons at hand, seemingly deeming Hao Long to be no threat.
Bing Gan retreats, circling to the left as she does so to bring her closer to the bandit with the staff. She retracts the blade, ready to block and counter-attack with her own staff.
Without pivoting or retreating, the bandit adjusted his grip on his staff and performs a backhanded strike, aimed at Bing Gan's head.
Bing Gan doesn't try to overpower him, choosing to do the splits instead and let his staff pass over her head, thrusting her own upwards at an angle at the bandit's chin.
The man simply tilted his head to a side and let Bing Gan's staff sail harmlessly through the air, and retaliates with a low horizontal swing at Bing Gan's head, as the other bandit circles to Bing Gan's other side, his dao ready to strike.
Bing Gan triggers the blade again, and shifts her grip on her staff towards its middle, lunging forward. She pulls on the staff hard, arching the scythe at the back of the staff-holding bandit's neck, while keeping an eye on the other one, ready to block any of his strikes with the other end of the staff.
Since the man doesn't have eyes in the back of his head, he doesn't realize what Bing Gan is trying to do, and almost reacts too late as he ducks at the last second when he feels a chilling air approaching his neck, and skin gets scrapped off the back of his neck, clipping a large chunk of his hair off. At the same time, the dao-wielding bandit prepares to slice Bing Gan in half with an overhead swing. With a loud "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!", Hao Long launched himself at the bandit to try and save his companion, and ends up tumbling out of Bing Gan's sight along with the would-be robber.
She calls out, "Nice!" to Hao Long appreciatively, while retracting the blade once more, and twirling the staff vertically, hardening it as she tries to bring its other end on top of the scalped bandit's head.
Her opponent rolls to a side to avoid the scythe-blade of the staff, and presses his hand on the ground to come to an abrupt stop as he clears to safety, doing a low sweep with his staff at Bing Gan.
Bing Gan backflips, pushing off the ground with her left hand to assist her, and settles into a defensive stance, holding the staff at its end. Her arms on it are at a shoulder width, and she holds it at chest level, its other end towards the staff-wielding bandit. She also takes a moment to assess the situation.
Bing Gan sees that the would-be molester continues to lie on the ground with a pained, faraway look in his eyes, not moving in the slightest, his hand still cupping his manliness. Behind her, the third bandit seemingly lies unconscious on the ground as Hao Long seems to approach him cautiously, kicking the downed man's sides to make sure he's not awake.
Bing Gan approaches him slowly, jabbing at his midsection once she gets in range.
The man bats Bing Gan's staff aside with his hand, and uses the horizontal momentum to put more power into his swing, executed with his right hand, aimed at her waist.
Bing Gan pulls on her staff, bringing it downwards diagonally to force the tip her opponent's weapon down, trying to see if she can run it into the ground before it reaches her.
With his weapon forced down to the ground, the man pushes off into a handspring with his hands, ending his somersault with an axe kick to Bing Gan's head.
She slides to the side to avoid the kick, bringing her staff on a directly reciprocal direction to her earlier strike.
Since the man is still in the air as Bing Gan striked, he can do nothing but brace himself for impact, and ends up crashing into the ground on his side, scraping his arm bloody.
Bing Gan presses her advantage, advancing on him and jabbing several times at the ground where he lies, aiming for his midsection once more.
The man rolls horizontally on the ground to avoid the jabs, and comes to rest with a sweep of his staff, aiming to hit both the staff off target and sweep out Bing Gan's legs.
Bing Gan tries to block with her own staff, and turn that movement into a strike at his arms by sliding the staff down against his weapon towards them.
The bandit drops the weapon to prevent from getting hit, and rolls backwards and onto his feet, then launches himself at Bing Gan with a sidekick.
Bing Gan holds her staff at chest level again, and thrusts it to meet the bandit's attack, using the hand holding her staff's other end to direct it towards her opponent's groin.
Predictably, the man whimpers and collapses in pain, much like his comrade has done moments before.
Smirking, she approaches him, kicking his staff away, and hits him several more times in the same place.
The man just whimpers more, unable to do much else in his tremendous pain.
"Geez, what's with you and guys' groins?" Hao Long approaches the victorious Bing Gan with a smirk. "I guess I better watch myself around you if I want to keep my equipment intact."
"Not really, it only seems to happen to villains," she tells him with a bright smile.
"I guess I better watch out then," Hao Long answers with a grin. "If I turn into a bad guy I'd get my equipment smashed in."
"Occupational hazard," she agrees happily, nodding. Making sure the bandits are really out of it and not faking it, she proceeds to loot them.
Hao Long shook his head at the girl's antics.
"You know, by looting people like that, aren't you reducing yourself to essentially being a bandit, too?"
"They're bad people," Bing Gan says patiently, giving Hao Long a long look. "The money is not theirs. It belongs to the poor, helpless people they robbed. I'll just be holding onto it until one of those unfortunate souls asks for it back."
OOC: What's my loot, bitch? :p
Hao Long opens his mouth as if he wants to say something, but closes it again.
"Whatever," he waves it off as Bing Gan picks up a small money bag from each of the bandits. "Better you have it than them."
She nods enthusiastically. "Isn't it?"
Pocketing the money pouches, Bing Gan takes a look at the area. "Let's keep on going, okay?" she asks Hao Long. "I don't feel like kicking their ass again when they wake up."
"Sure, whatever you say," Hao Long gives off an ambivalent shrug and nodded.
The odd couple made an uneventful afternoon of the rest of the afternoon.
"So what do you want to do?" he asks as dusk draws near and the sky begins to darken. "It's going to get dark soon, and I have no idea how far we are from the nearest town."