FicWad

Chapter 2

It was a warm spring evening. While the sun had finished his day of work and gone to sleep, the city of Luoyang chattered away busily. Bright lamps lit the streets where citizens continued to celebrate their excitement from the event of the day - the arrival of the Xiwu Princess of the Morning Jade. In fact, many have travelled from far just to witness this historical event. It marked the beginning of an alliance of peace between Xiwu and Pan. Gone were the days of worrying about when the next attack from southwestern neighbors would be. Shouts of glee and singing of cheers to the rhythm of clanging of cups were heard from all corners of the city.

"Long live His Majesty, the King of Pan!"

"May the Princess of Morning Jade and His Majesty unite in happiness for a hundred years!"

"And one hundred royal children, too!"

"And may you, brother, also have as many children."

"Hahahahahaha!"

"Cheers!"

There was no person without a smile.

Perhaps except for one.

Xue Qian could not even manage a frown because the muscles of his face were tired from being wrinkled disgust all day. Disgusted that the lady of his pursuit is to be married to another man. Disgusted at himself for being unable to take her away before she stepped foot into the Palace. And now, he had to listen to these commoners' disgusting praise for their King and his new marriage.

At least the wine was good. Xue Qian raised the bottle to his lips and gulped the liquid down continuously until it emptied. "Waiter! One more bottle!" He shouted, but his voice was drowned out by cheerful chatters of the other customers. With the influx of visitors, it was no wonder that all the restaurants and inns found their business to be more prosperous than usual. Despite the owners taking advantage of the event and raising their prices threefold, all the tables and rooms were filled to capacity.

"Waiter!" Xue Qian shouted one again, this time much more anger in his tone. He slammed down on the table with his left fist. A few other customers quickly glanced at his direction and looked at him strangely but quickly ignored him and returned to their conversations.

Unknown to Xue Qian, his anger had caught the attention of another customer at the wine house. Apparently the festive mood had not penetrated everyone's psyche and perhaps rightly so.

Huo Yuan has been in Luoyang for more than a few days already, and he finds it almost disgusting that everyone seemed so happy about the marriage. Have they forgotten that Xiwu was their enemy? Have they forgotten about their friendship with Xiang, just as their fiend of a King had? Have they accepted the betrayal so easily, just so they could make it rich and big with the wealth held within Xiang's lands? And most baffling of all, how could they have trusted Xiwu's intentions as though they had learnt nothing from the stories of Daji, Baosi and Xishi?

Seeing the happy people around him, Huo Yuan wasn't sure which was more infuriating - the behaviour of these people or the fact that he was constantly under appreciated and set up by court officials who were more concerned of their personal vendetta against his father than for the well-being of Xiang.

Any petitions or suggestions he had nearly always received only silence in response or were rejected after months of antagonising wait. Yet an admirable efficiency was displayed the moment he requested for leave...

He gritted his teeth and stood up, holding his half-full wine jar in one hand and his trusty spear in another. He walked over to Xue Qian's table.

"What made you so angry at such a day, my friend?" He asked. He wasn't sure why he was talking to this man. Maybe he needed someone who shared similar feelings, albeit for different reasons, to talk to.

"Wine! Wine! Wine! Get me more wine!" demanded Xue Qian, momentarily ignoring Huo Yuan while pounding his fist against the table to attract the waiter's attention.

The cowardly waiter signaled back and reassured, "Just a second young master." He quickly ran to the counter and whispered to the owner of the inn, "I think we have trouble here. Everyone around us is celebrating, but those two men," pointing in Xue Qian and Huo Yuan's direction, "are the most solemn here. The nearly drunk young master is getting really difficult to please."

The owner ordered, "Go get Feng to take care of this." The waiter nodded and ran to the outhouse, where he found a lanky and dirty faced boy dutifully cleaning away any hint of waste matter on the ground and stall. He quickly grabbed the boy and exclaimed, "Feng, we're understaffed and you are required to help out with the restaurant today."

Feng jerked himself away from the waiter, "Oh. What do you guys need me to do this time?" He quickly tidied himself while hurrying to the restaurant with the waiter.

"There is another spoiled young master out front who you have to serve. He is getting quite drunk, and none of us wish to be a part of it." Entering through the backdoor of the restaurant, he motioned, "Quickly, go grab him another bottle of the best wine. He's sitting right at that table over there."

Feng walked towards Xue Qian's direction as he heard him yell out, "What does it take to get any service here?" Feng took a quick look at Xue Qian, lavishly dressed in the finest silk. "One would expect a person with such refined taste to be more well-mannered," thought Feng. He then saw the gentleman standing next to Xue Qian, also well dressed but much more sober with a slight frown on his face.

As Feng finally approached the table, Xue Qian grabbed the bottle from him, but then he immediately dropped the bottle. "What is that horrid smell?" Xue Qian finally looked up and stared at Feng in disgust. As if his day was not already miserable enough. He may be drunk, but he still could smell everything perfectly well, especially when the odor was feces. "Well, well, I would have never expect a first rate inn like Zhao Long Inn to have such a dirty employee."

Feng merely stooped down to pick up the pieces of the broken bottle, "Sorry about this young master, I’ll get you another wine bottle."

"Hmph! You have better get me another waiter too!"

At this point, Huo Yuan sat himself down and stared at Xue Qian, who turned to him and asked, "What do you want?" He was too drunk to care about social etiquette and too miserable to entertain company, but seeing that he couldn't ignore this person, perhaps rudeness would shoo him away.

But Huo Yuan was a patient man. He repeated, "What made you so angry at such a day, my friend?"

"Did I invite you to sit here and chat?" Xue Qian rolled his eyes and waved his left hand, motioning Huo Yuan to leave. "F--k off. I don't want to talk about your lecherous King."

"How dare you insult His Majesty!" a fat man from a neighboring table turned around after hearing Xue Qian's words. A few others chimed in agreement. Many sitting in the inn were already annoyed with Xue Qian's behavior as it spoiled the cheerful mood. Who puts on such a long face on such a festive night? Furthermore, he even dared to badmouth the King - a crime that could automatically have him beheaded.

"What? Am I lying?" Xue Qian retorted. "Isn't that what you people are celebrating today? How your greedy King has claimed another young maiden?"

"Humph. You dress like a human but you speak like a dog," the fat man taunted. "His Majesty is doing his best to ensure peace to his country and wealth to his people. He has a magnanimous heart, unlike some certain people sitting here who speaks with their a--hole."

"Hahahahaha!" The inn filled with laughter as many others have already turned their attention this way.

"Are you talking about yourself? Magnanimous heart? He's nothing but an opportunistic backstabbing leech! He saw the strength of Xiwu so he betrayed his old friend the Xiang and begged for a marriage with Xiwu instead."

"Bullsh-t! Xiwu should be thankful that Pan is willing to form an allegiance with them. They're the ones sucking up to us by marrying their daughter to us, not the other way ar---ARG!" Before the fat man could finish his sentence, a cup had smashed into his face, immediately knocking a tooth out. The shards of the cup had cut into this face and blood seeped from his cheeks and out of his lips. He spit out a mouthful of blood, "Why you lithle bathard!"

But before the fat man could speak further, Xue Qian had already pouched in his direction, grabbed him by the collar, and threw him to the ground. However, his body was too heavy and the momentum carried him over to the next table, knocking the table over.

The customers of that table angrily stood up and charged towards Xue Qian. Xue Qian grabbed them each and threw them in whatever direction he could, causing a few other tables to knock over. Most customers had been drinking in celebration all night and thus their disposition a bit more belligerent than usual. Soon enough, more than a dozen customers were throwing punches and kicks at Xue Qian. The entire inn had become a riot. Even those passing by on the street stopped to peak in and see what was going on.

Knowing such a scene was bad for his business, the owner tried to stop the men but they were much too engaged in the fight to pay attention to him. He tried to pull one man out of the fight but instead recieved a punch to the stomach and was shoved away.

While Xue Qian had been trained in the martial arts, he was never a fervent practitioner. He could fend off a few street rascals, but certainly not a crowd. It didn't take long for him to fall to the losing side of the battle.

The man is an a**. That, Huo Yuan could easily tell. But the way he was talking, he was either a Pan citizen who held serious grievances against his king, or was simply a foreigner like himself. Either way, the man wasn't going to get away easily for shooting his mouth off. The price was that at least a dozen feet was kicking at him while he lay on the floor shielding himself helplessly.

He probably deserved the beating, but such an unfair fight was most unsightly. As a professional soldier, Huo Yuan also finds this unacceptable. He had to step in, before the beating escalates into something worse. Besides, he agrees on what was being said about the King of Pan.

Looking at the crowd, he had to do something drastic to make them get away from the man.

"Stop!" He ordered, hitting the floor hard with the spear. The force was so great that the cement floor cracked a little, creating enough noise to stun the crowd and stop them momentarily.

Seeing the effect, he moved quickly to shield Xue Qian.

"He is only a drunkard. Must you kind sirs take offense at the words of a drunk man?" Huo Yuan appealed. However, a cold anger burnt his heart at this moment and he changed his mind about defusing the situation. "Besides, why let him ruin a good night that celebrates Pan's consorting with the enemy? Why stop the merrymaking when Pan will soon become more powerful and wealthier than before by ruthlessly betraying and annexing the lands of an old and faithful friend?"

"Wha... what! You... you are with him! What the hell!" Angry customers yelled out. A man lunged forward but was stunned to a quick stop when Huo Yuan jabbed the tip of his spear forward.

The owner of the inn panicked, "Heavens! My restaurant. Don't these stupid hot-blooded men have anything better to do? Feng, stop them!" Feng's colleagues also gathered around him and pushed him forward, "That's right. Do as the boss tells you."

Feng stared wide-eyed as he pondered how to stop the commotion. He barely knew any martial arts, but as he tried to come up with a scheme, it was already too late.

"Hey. Can you move? Or are you playing dead? Get up and run." Huo Yuan said as he nudged Xue Qian with his foot.

"What are we waiting for? Let's all attack him at once," suggested one of the restaurant's patrons.

"Damnit! Beat him up!" the crowd cried. Boosted in confidence by the number, all the men immediately surrounded Huo Yuan and lunged forward convinced that the bunch of them could take down one man. Unfortunately, they were wrong; they barely even scratched him.

Huo Yuan easily fended them off as he drew a quick circle with the bottom of the pole diagonally, tripping some while others were deterred from moving in further.

Several men jumped back in shock when they saw the spear heading towards their direction, and the more reckless men were forcefully pushed in various directions by the blunted end of the spear.

Building on that momentum, Huo Yuan swept in again and stabbed at the crowd's feet with the wooden end, forcing them off, creating a larger space in between. Now having a bigger and more comfortable space, Huo Yuan bent his legs and lowered his spear, the shiny tip pointed at the hostile crowd. He was prepared for a bigger fight.

// This feels kind of good. I must be really sick of them all! // He thought, laughing at their uselessness, and he felt good. Finally, a release for all those years of suppression by his own kind.

Suddenly, a figure swiftly somersaulted through the window and caught a man who was thrown back midair. He helped the man land safely and saluted Huo Yuan, "Greetings."

Huo Yuan eyed the older gentleman with interest as this was completely unexpected. The man was dressed in regular civilian clothes. Nothing was distinguished about him, yet he had this calmness that disturbed Huo Yuan. "This has nothing to do with you. Please step aside."

The older gentleman responded, "You're right, but this fight is unfair. These men are obviously not your match, and what joy is there in beating up civilians?"

Huo Yuan almost let it go until one of the patrons tried to sneak attack him from behind. He spun and kicked the patron. As the patron flew back, Huo Yuan jumped towards him with the spear racing towards his chest, "I hate sneak attacks. That's something only a son of a turtle would stoop to do."

The older gentleman quickly ran towards Huo Yuan and grabbed the back of the spear with his left hand, and then he used his right hand to gently push the back of the spear down. Although the motion appeared as gentle as a breeze, the force generated was so great that it caused Huo Yuan to lose control of the spear. The spear shot straight through the window, and both Huo Yuan and the older gentlemen jumped out of the window to retrieve it. Huo Yuan tried to palm the gentleman to push him away, but he was surprised to find that not only did he not hurt that gentleman, but the palm allowed the gentlemen to lunge forward farther to retrieve the spear.

When the gentleman landed, he walked towards Huo Yuan. He lifted the spear up with both of his hands and offered it to Huo Yuan. It was only then that Huo Yuan noticed the man walked with a limp.

The man spoke, "It is clear what that patron did is wrong. I hope he has learned his lesson." When the gentleman looked up at the patron who tried to attack Huo Yuan, the man looked down in embarrassment.

Huo Yuan smiled. It had been awhile since he had a good duel. "If you must intervene on their behalf then I have no choice but to let bygone be bygone. By the way, I am Huo Yuan. May I have elder's name?"

The gentleman smiled, "Who I am does not matter. I am glad to have encountered a reasonable young lad like you. If we have an affinity, perhaps we will meet again in the future."

"Even if elder does not share with me, I can guess that you are the famous Wu Hao Cun." Everyone in wulin knew that Wu Hao Cun suffered a major injury to his left leg during his fight against his greatest enemy seven years ago. And a man with such a high internal energy and great martial arts skills as the one Huo Yuan just fought can only be the one and only Wu Hao Cun, the one who possessed the legendary flying dagger.

The gentleman laughed and walked away.

Huo Yuan suddenly remembered Xue Qian. He rushed back and all the patrons cowered away from him. He gently kicked Xue Qian, "Eh, wake up. Are you dead?"

Just then, Feng rushed over with a bucket of fluid and splashed it towards their direction.

Huo Yuan deftly stepped aside when he saw the urine splashing towards them. What happened was that the entire bucket of the unfortunate liquid landed square onto Xue Qian.

Xue Qian opened his eyes and was startled as he smelled the fluid. "Urine? Why you stupid, dirty waiter."

Feng then panicked and ran away. He didn't realize that he grabbed the bucket of urine. He thought it was water in his haste to find something to help wake up Xue Qian.

"You piece of sh*t! I'm going to kill you!" Xue Qian cried angrily as he charged after Feng. All the other customers covered their noses and quickly jumped out of his way to avoid touching his urine soaked robes.

As he closed in on Feng, Xue Qian leaped forward to grab Feng's collar, but grabbed only air. Unfortunately, while the urine had woke him up, it did not clear away the effects of alcohol. He clearly misjudged the distance between himself and Feng. His momentum carried him forward but before he could react, he had already slammed head first into a nearby table.

For a split moment, he saw flashing lights. Then, he saw nothing and drifted away from consciousness.

"Ha! Now who's the stinky one?" Feng snickered. While he did not pour the urine on purpose, any feelings of sympathy had disappeared by now after seeing Xue Qian's attitude. The other customers also laughed and enjoyed watching Xue Qian make a fool out of himself.

"Take your friend away! What troublemakers you are!" The customers demanded.

Huo Yuan sighed and said, "He's not my friend, but I will take him away."

Xue Qian might have been rude and unruly, but at least they had common views. Plus, maybe he's a better person when sober.

Tying his spear to his back, Huo Yuan bent down, slipped his arms under Xue Qian's neck and legs and carried him up easily.

"EWWW!" The customers groaned. They were unable to understand how Huo Yuan could do that, considering Xue Qian was soaked and wet with urine. But in his younger days when he trained hard at his martial arts, and when court officials made things difficult for him, he had seen and experienced worse.

"Wait. What about the stuff you guys broke?" Feng came asking, apparently concerned about the loss they would make.

Huo Yuan looked at Feng.

"If you believe me, I'd come back here tomorrow morning to make the repayments." He said and leaves the wine house before Feng could stop him. He tried to follow but Huo Yuan had disappeared into the busy street.

"Aww... who knows if he will come back at all!" Feng muttered in dissatisfaction.

****

With the inns in Luoyang fully booked, there was no inn for Huo Yuan to return to. But considering they need to clean themselves up, Huo Yuan leaves the city and went to the closest available river stream.

Once they reached there, Huo Yuan placed Xue Qian down and went to wash himself as he observed the area. Clean, pristine looking, and better still, a large tree was just next to the river stream. Good place for sleeping too.

As for Xue Qian... Huo Yuan looked at the unconscious man lying on the grass.

He would remain there.

***

The older gentleman who walked away from Zhao Long Inn was indeed Wu Hao Cun. He smiled, slightly pleased that despite his disappearance, the younger generation of martial artists heard of him. Thinking about his encounter with Huo Yuan, he thought, "That young lad is quite rational. Most young pugilists are too proud and want to parry recklessly just to save face, but this lad is different."

Then he sighed and touched his left leg. He was well aware that his limp disclosed his identity. This handicap... it would forever be with him. It would forever be a reminder that he was not as invincible as he once thought he was. Perhaps he was too proud, too conceited, and too confident in his abilities. It was partially the reason for his seclusion from the martial arts world these past six years. But these were things of the past. Currently, he had a more important task at hand.

It was getting late. He had wandered the streets of Luoyang long enough and now had to return to his room in Zhao Long inn. When he entered the room, he took out two scrolls from his undershirt and unrolled them; each scroll had a drawing of a different person. He looked at the drawings for the hundredth time. Although he had never seen these individuals, he committed their faces to memory. He wondered how long it would take him to find them. The sooner the better.

As usual, he woke up early the next day to further explore Luoyang, hoping to find those three individuals.

**

The streets were still bustling from excitement due to the new alliance between Pan and Xiwu. Lanterns, candy, and special memorabilia were selling like hot cakes, in commemoration of the special event.

The scene now shifts back to Zhao Long Inn. On the roof of the restaurant sat a man by the name of Wang Ai Lang. He was dressed in a dark green outfit, black sash, black shoes. Strong, handsome, features. But he had something very distinguishing about him. Despite looking to be in his late 20's, this Wang Ai Lang was heavily graying.

Wang Ai Lang was observing the events blow him, unnoticed, "These people sure are a happy bunch. Drinking and eating, not a worry in their lives. Xiang was once like this. These people most likely have no idea how ruthless the conquest against Xiang was....Xiang, Pan's former ally. In their eye's they see their King as a great man, full of great ambition, wanting to expand the territory of Pan, but they do not realize how treacherous he is. I bet Xiwu too will have the same fate as Xiang...Once the King is bored with the princess, Xiwu too will fall.....and once again, many innocent people will lose their lives.....just like Yu (as in Jade)....I must go find the dog of a king," Wang thought to himself.

Wang then left the roof to prepare for what would lay ahead.