Wei Li Na was secretly delighted. Praying to the heavens that Commander Lou would accept the fight. At the moment, Commander Lou only looked like he had swallowed an egg whole. He was turning red with anger, shooting eye darts towards General Li TengFei. People were whispering on the side, ready to pile bets on Commander Lou.
"Naturally, this General's silver will back up his words." Li TengFei staked his bet on Wei Li Na, should she lose then he'll pay off all those who bet on Commander Lou.
"Since General Li wants to throw silver into the river, this Commander will not obstruct you." Commander Lou was appeased. If General Li TengFei wanted to make a fool of him, he can pay for it with silver. Let the young General lose a small fortune for his words.
The gambling crowd was buzzing.
"Li Na greets Commander Lou, please enlighten this servant." Wei Li Na offered cupped hands and a low bow. Commander Lou responded with a grunt.
She walked to the weapons rack and picked a pole weapon. The pole blunted at both ends, with no blade. But it had a hook at one end. The pole was two heads taller than herself. When she held it at an attack stance, it looked like the weight of the pole would fall over and pull her forward. It was too pitiful!
Commander Lou's mouth actually twitched at the sight of this small ant, barely holding a pole weapon in a horizontal position. He was impatient to get this farce over with, he raised both his wooden sabers with intention to strike. The sight of his attack stance was frightening, after all this was a veteran of many battles. One well acquainted with crawling out of mountains of corpses.
The bell struck, the signal to start. Commander launched himself into a full attack, he was not one to show any mercy. He had every intention to rain blood today, his expression and killing aura frightened even those standing behind Wei Li Na who had full view of the Commander's attack.
Then something unexpected happened. The heavy pole in Wei Li Na's hands actually weighed down and tripped her forward. Just as Commander's feet left the ground, Wei Li Na was taking a dive forward. She flatly landed on her stomach, the pole weapon following.
The bell struck again, the signal to stop. The ring referee raised a flag, indicating Wei Li Na had won! The crowd gasped. When Wei Li Na tripped, the end of her pole landed on the foot of Commander Lou. This counted as first contact with the opponent's weapon, meaning Wei Li Na was the winner!
Commander Lou was dumbfounded, he was frozen in place and had even forgotten to bring down his wooden sabers.
Those who lost bets, which means everybody except Li TengFei, were grumbling and protesting. Nobody thought to bet on Wei Li Na. There was no chance she would win! It was a complete fluke that she won!
"Fair game! Fair game! The rules are the rules. Li Na's weapon made first touch, which means this stinky brat is the winner!" Nobody opposed Li TengFei, it happened before everybody's eyes. All saw how the pole weapon launched to touch the Commander's foot. Li TengFei was gloating in his heart, and collected a huge amount of winnings.
"Next fighter. We're going for a winning streak!"
Wei Li Na dusted her knees as she got up. She saw the huge loot Li TengFei was shamelessly clawing into a sack. She calmly walked over to Li TengFei's side and pulled at his sleeve.
"What is it?" Li TengFei bent his head, and spoke softly to Wei Li Na.
"I want a cut of your winnings." As Wei Li Na knew, she was really poor. "I want 50%"
"What about 10%"
Wei Li Na's face crumpled with discontent. The sight made Li TengFei feel sorry for her, but he only laughed.
"OK." It was a quick agreement, she didn't want to argue with Li TengFei. As long as she gets a little, it was enough to feed herself when the time came to leave.
Somebody who had been waiting too long at the que wanted to enter the ring. He didn't care he was fighting against a little new recruit. This fellow had no guilty feelings towards beating a child, he just wanted his chance at a fight. After throwing off that kid, he'll be able to face off with a real challenger.
"Jai Chou challenges the little fighter. Please enlighten me."
Wei Li Na faced off with a young man, hair tied neatly in a tight bun on top of his head. He held cupped hands and a bow, waiting to be accepted. The fellow had broad shoulders and well formed hands, the very image of a leading male hero!
"Li Na accepts! Big brother, please do not be too hard on me!" Wei Li Na had her head bowed, nobody noticed the creepy, perverted smile she had on her face, except Li TengFei's sharp eye.
The bell struck to start. As usual, only Li TengFei had his silver on Wei Li Na to win. Everybody else thought her first win was complete luck! No way will it happen again. Besides, Jai Chou was a zealous fighter. Young and ambitious, whatever he lacked in brains he made up for with his daring personality.
Wei Li Na's fight stance was now more relaxed. She held the pole weapon at a diagonal, in a form for defence rather than attack. Jai Chou had chosen a long wooden dao sword. And just like the hero in the novels, this fellow made a valiant charge with sword in the air. Ready to slash anything in his way!
Wei Li Na just barely evaded. The sword struck the pole weapon, the hit caused the pole to strongly vibrate. Wei Li Na was forced to let go of her weapon, unable to endure the power of the hit. Her body dramatically flung to the side, avoiding Jai Chou's sword. She gripped his wrist for support, Jai Chou felt a sharp pain from his wrist and released his weapon, his arm was pushed at a wide angle breaking his defence. Wei Li Na didn't waste any time, she used her momentum to barge into Jai Chou and "accidentally" fall into his embrace?
Jai Chou was knocked off balance, painfully falling backwards to the ground. Wei Li Na closely followed, she landed on his chest using Jai Chou's body as a cushion. Jai Chou was breathless, it all happened too quickly.
"Big brother saved this little one, Li Na is grateful forever! How does Li Na repay big brother's kindness?" Wei Li Na said this in a tone that sounded like she wanted to cry. She was earnestly rubbing her check against Jai Chou's chest. Her hands were pawing here and there. Li TengFei standing on the side, his eyes rolled up to the skies in second hand embarrassment. How can there be such a shameless female!?
Wang Lei who had been silently observing this entire time, narrowed his eyes. These actions of Wei Li Na were too familiar. Wang Lei gave a shudder, goosebump crawled all over his body.
The bell struck, the signal to end the match. The referee waved a flag, declaring Wei Li Na the winner.
"What!" Jai Chou propped himself up on his elbows. He was too stunned to notice Wei Li Na plastered on his chest, eating his tofu. Too much in disbelief, he wanted to confront the referee for such a ridiculous judgement call. With a casual wave of his hand, Wei Li Na was cast aside like lint off his robes.
But the referee's call clear as jade to all, he pointed to Jai Chou's leg where Wei Li Na's pole weapon lay, it had been there the entire time.
Wei Li Na helplessly rolled to the ground when she was brushed off Jai Chou's chest. She bonelessly got into a kneeling posture and kowtowed, "Big brother, this weak Li Na is eternally grateful for your life saving grace. Call on me anytime so Li Na can repay you. I live at… ahhhhhh!"
Before Wei Li Na could give out her address, she was pulled up by the ear by Li TengFei. The dejected Jai Chou didn't even spare her a glance. He was too upset by the loss. Waving a hand towards Wei Li Na to say, "Forget it." Jai Chou walked off, he had lost interest in the games. The crowd carefully parted a path for him.
Wei Li Na sadly looked on Jai Chou's parting figure. Even his back was beautiful. She didn't even leave him with her address. Aside from her ear being pulled, she also got a light smack behind the head from Li TengFei, "You stinky monkey. Just got out and already creating mischief." In a low voice Li TengFei added, "Don't give out your address randomly! That's just common sense." ...and you live where I live, don't start rumors!
Although her ear hurt, Wei Li Na's self esteem hurt even more. As she remembered from her school days, she did get rejected a good number of times. So arriving in ancient times for a new life, has only become a continuation of that single-since-birth kind of destiny.