The Wen Long Academy was close to the city center, and An Hao and Li Zhao had agreed they would meet up there and walk up to the main festivities from there.
Li Zhao was neatly dressed in a blue silk robe with his long black hair tied into a ponytail, he had many women stopped in their tracks to catch a glimpse of Li Zhao as he headed towards the Wen Long dormitories.
When Li Zhao arrived at An Hao's dormitory room, waiting beside her was An Jian, standing there leaning against the wall biting some straw in her mouth. An Hao had dressed up for the occasion wearing a bright light blue flower pattern dress and had forced An Jian to also wear a yellow flowery patterned dress. Li Zhao thought An Hao was extra enchanting today and if he didn't already make a sibling like mental block concerning An Jian, he would have thought An Jian was quite beautiful as well.
An Hao smiled at Li Zhao: "An Jian will be joining us today, she insisted she would come, probably because she wanted to dress up" Holding An Jian by the shoulders showing her off in her yellow flowery dress.
An Jian eyes widen "You know that is not the reason! I came to make sure Li Zhao is honorable", glaring at Li Zhao. An Hao hugged An Jian from behind, "I'm so happy my baby sister is finally dressed like a lady". An Jian broke free pouting with An Hao laughing.
Li Zhao looked at An Jian "I had no thoughts other than honorable thoughts.. and it's fine to want to dress like a woman sometimes." smirking
An Jian clinched her fist, but An Hao grabbed her hands and pulled her forward "Lets go!" with a big smile.
The streets were lined with colorful lanterns and stalls sold festive deserts and pastries shaped like colorful orchids. The atmosphere was lively. Li Zhao went up to a vendor and bought 4 red bean rice cakes. One for himself, one for An Hao, and two for An Jian as he was familiar with her enormous appetite. An Jian proceeded to stuff them down her mouth and was scolded by An Hao. "You could try eating more like a lady, I should have scolded you sooner, now it's become habit". An Jian looked away and continued chewing and spoke with her mouth full "I'm .. going to … spend m..ost of my life in the army anyways... it doesn't matter". An Jian then looked across the street following her nose to the smell of lamb skewers. She then pulled on An Hao's sleeve, "Can I burrow some copper, I forgot my pouch when you force me into this dress, I'll pay you back". An Hao shook her head and laughed then handed her some copper.
An Jian ran over to the meat skewer stall. An Jian's eyes glowed excitedly, "I will get three sir", then turned to An Hao and yelled "you want any?" An Hao shook her head and yelled back "Don't fill yourself all up right now, we still have lots more to explore".
An Jian came back with a skewer already in her mouth and held two skewers one in each hand for An Hao and Li Zhao, "Th..ere.. r..eally good". An Hao and Li Zhao laughed realizing An Jian was probably never going to change.
As they continued to stroll into the center of town the sound of drums rang out followed by "oohs" and "awes".
As they got closer it turned out Guang Yi Academy, the rival school to Wen Long Academy, was promoting there school by giving martial arts demonstrations. One feat that got the crowd going was the lightness kung fu demonstration running across 10 buckets of water laid out side by side. The two men performing the demonstration were also tall and handsome attracting a lot of female attention in the crowd.
These two were the Yang brothers, top martial arts students of the Guang Yi Academy. When they saw An Jian and An Hao, their beauty caught their attention. Yang Bo the younger of the brothers even thought how An Jian chewed her skewer was kind of adorable. Yang Bei had his eye on An Hao before seeing the handsome Li Zhao beside her who seemed to notice his stare and was looking right back at him.
An Jian not really impressed as it was nothing she couldn't do or seen before was about to keep walking pass the demonstration when Li Chu, Li Zhao's half brother, the despicable son of Madam Li showed up and kicked all the water buckets over.
It seemed Li Chu was already slightly drunk "Guang Yi Academy is dog shit, only losers train there. this lightness kung fu garbage is for beginners, I will show you the real strength of Wen Long Academy kung fu".
Li Chu had actually been rejected by Guang Yi Academy before Madam Li used her influence to get Li Chu into Wen Long Academy.
Yang Bo remembering one of Wen Long's top male students was named Li Zhao, asked "Then are you Li Zhao of Wen Long Academy?"
An Jian almost split out her lamb skewer in laughter.
Li Zhao looked to An Hao then looked down in embarrassment.
An Hoa laughed as well "It seems you already made a name for yourself".
Li Chu looked angrily at Yang Bo "I am not that loser, I'm Li Chu, the genius student of Wen Long Academy".
An Jian had thought about stepping in for the name of Wen Long Academy but wasn't against the idea of seeing Li Chu get taught a lesson and decided to just keep watching.
Yang Bo thinking maybe he had misremembered the name Li Zhao for Li Chu accepted the challenge.
"Why doesn't Wen Long's genius show me his great kung fu then" .
Li Chu grinned, "I'm glad your not a chicken shit, but pretty boys like you needs to be taught a lesson" and ran forward with a barrage of punches, Yang Bo defended successfully but was surprised by the intensity. "I thought we were merely going to have some friendly competition but it seems that was not your intention".
Li Chu faced turned red "stop running around like a coward" and ran forward with another barrage of punches, but was deflected by two kicks with the third kick hitting Li Chu in the chest sending him crashing to the ground in front of An Jian, An Hao, and Li Zhao's feet. Li Chu then looked up in a daze and saw Li Zhao. "Zhao, you better not coward and fight for the school name" before passing out.
The Yang Brothers ran over staring at An Jian and An Hao. "We apologize for the unfortunate display, I hope it didn't startle you" .
An Jian checked Li Chu's pulse, laughed "he had it coming" then dragged the chubby muscular body of Li Chu with ease, sitting him against a wall, causing Yang Brothers to take notice.
An Jian then walked to the buckets kicked over by Li Chu and started straightening them out. Yang Bo ran over and put out his arms to block her from finishing "Young miss, please don't concern yourself with this, it will only make me feel guilty seeing you dirty your dress". An Jian looked at him in surprised then pushed him aside and continued tidying up the buckets "It's no big deal, we are party responsible". An Jian got up bowed "Sorry for not taking care of our brother Chu". Yang Bo looked in surprised "You are from Wen Long Academy?".
An Jian continued to look down in a bow position "Yes, I am An Jian of Weng Long Academy"
Yang Bo held onto An Jian's elbows and tried to lift her up from her bow. "Are you An Jian the top female student of martial arts at Wen Long?"
An Jian stepped back "I think you overstate my reputation, but yes I am An Jian".
Yang Bei then looked at Li Zhao " I heard that man mention Zhao, then you are Li Zhao?"
Li Zhao then also bowed "Sorry for letting brother Chu take it this far, please do not harbor this against Wen Long Academy".
Yang Bei grabbed Li Zhao's elbow to stop him from bowing "Of course, you don't need to worry about this misunderstanding" He then turned to look at An Hao, "and may I ask who is this beautiful miss is?"
An Hao stared calmly at Yang Bei "I am An Hao, just a scholar at Wen Long".
Li Zhao stepped in between An Hao and Yang Bei "ahem. sorry our classmate has troubled you, but we will be on our way".
Yang Bei "so the two top students of Wen Long are here, would you entertain a truly friendly match then?" Yang Bei pulled out a red ribbon and said "Just a friendly match to see who can take this ribbon off the other", he then turned to look at the crowd "I heard Wen Long's formations were the best but I would argue Guang Yi was equal or not far behind. Would you two be willing to give us brothers some pointers?"
The crowd could be heard whispering "Wen Long Academy's kung fu seems lousy", "Who are those two girls, are the handsome brothers already taken?", "That girl is really strong".
An Hao noticing Yang Bo seem to take an interest in An Jian, nudge An Jian forward "Go ahead Jian, redeem Wen Long's Academy's name" with a little smirk.
An Jian looked back at An Hao unhappy.
Yang Bei "The beautiful miss is right, you can't let the crowd walk away thinking badly of Wen Long, please come and have a friendly match with us"
Li Zhao not liking how casually Yang Bei was talking to An Hao. Put his hand on An Jian's shoulder "Lets show them why Wen Long is the top academy"
Li Zhao then looked at Yang Bei with a grin "Since you wanted some pointers, it would be rude not to share".
Both groups tied a red ribbon to the side of their arms, the objective was simply to see which team would pull both ribbons off first.
A larger crowd gathered "What's going on? This is Guang Yi vs Wen Long, they are going to compete!", "Why does that team have a girl, isn't that unfair?","They seem pretty confident though"
An Jian then picked up a few pebbles from the ground walked over to Li Zhao and whispered something in his ear.
Li Zhao nodded and grinned.
Yang Bei then said "Shall we begin?"
An Jian smiled "Sure".
She then jumped and kicked of a wall leaving no trace of damage as if she was a feather back flipping above toward Li Zhao who then jumped up high into the air and bicycle kicked An Jian foot propelling her even higher onto the very top of the street's paifang gate.
The crowd was stunned "they didn't think it would be physically possible to even climb the tall gate"
An Jian then sat down on the edge of the paifang gate high above dangling her feet, and smiled yelling out "Li Zhao don't worry about your ribbon just get there's, I doubt they can reach me"
Li Zhao looked up and grinned, "They won't get mine either".
He went to work trying to grab the ribbons from the Yang Brother's. They were not ready for Li Zhao speed. He would fake to grab Yang Bei's ribbon causing Yang Bo to help out, only for Li Zhao to get into an advantageous position to grab the ribbon off Yang Bo.
Li Zhao with a grin said "That's one".
The Yang brothers looked at each other flustered.
As they tried harder to grab Li Zhao's ribbon, he was just to fast making it really dangerous to get close to him,
They then thought to try to go after An Jian as they tried the same launch move with a kick to push Yang Bo up, but then An Jian used a pebble and hit his feet causing him to tumble to the ground mid air.
His landing wasn't graceful and he seemed to land pretty hard from a great height.
An Jian from above yelled "Ahh Sorry... are you okay?"
An Jian then ran vertically down the pull halfway before kicking off and landing on the ground gracefully, The crowd was shocked at the athleticism.
As Jian ran towards Yang Bo to check on him.
Li Zhao yelled "Trap!"
An Jian yelled "Thought so!"
Yang Bo then sprang up trying to grab An Jian but An Jian slid underneath him and ran right passed him and also grabbed his foot pulling him off balance causing him to fall on his face.
An Jian in this one swift motion was also headed toward Yang Bei.Li Zhao was already going back and forth trying to take Yang Bei's ribbon almost overwhelming him.
As An Jian approached Li Zhao pulled Yang Bei Arm exposing his ribbon to An Jian and An Jian back flipped over him grabbing the ribbon with ease.
It was a complete domination by Wen Long Academy's Li Zhao and An Jian.
An Jian held the second ribbon in her hand, turned around and smiled with celebration.
The crowd who earlier were doubting Wen Long Academy were now whispering "The difference was quite drastic, no wonder they say Wen Long is the top school for martial arts", "Even a girl from Wen Long can beat Guang Yi's boys", "No she is one of Wen Long's best".
An Jian walked passed Li Zhao and they high fived each other without even looking or making eye contact.
An Hao studied Yang Bo who looked at An Jian with admiration.
Yang Bo walked up to An Jian looking down and said "Sorry about feigning to be injured earlier"
An Jian looked at him and smiled "It's all fair in war"
Yang Bo then said timidly "Can I accompany you to the fireworks tonight?"
An Jian seeming oblivious to her admires "You can do whatever you want, I will be watching over my sister" and walked away already scanning for food stalls up ahead.
An Hao shook her head and laughed at An Jian's naivety.
Yang Bei then walked up to An Hao "Your boyfriend is truly lethal".
An Hao smiled "He is just a friend, but he is the top of Wen Long".
Li Zhao seeing the interaction and her correction from boyfriend to friend walked up to An Hao, grabbed her hand "Shall we continue".
An Hao was kind of shocked but looked into Li Zhao handsome eyes smiled and said "Okay"
Yang Bei and Yang Bo watched them leave slightly heart broken in losing and in matters of the heart.
The night went on without incident and as they watch the fireworks, An Hao found herself pushing herself against Li Zhao. She couldn't tell if she had fallen for Li Zhao or was it a side effect of her forbidden internal kung fu. She had flashes of intimate fantasies while snuggled up against Li Zhao but resist anything further. Li Zhao wasn't sure what to think but tried to be a gentlemen while not resisting An Hao advances either.
An Jian would turn from time to time to look at them but figured, I guess that is what couples do and decided it couldn't be helped.
When they got back to the dormitory gates, An Jian extra stuffed from over eating went in first leaving An Hao and Li Zhao to talk.
As Li Zhao walked forward, An Hao stepped back and said "I had a good time but I can't be distracted right now there is stuff I need to do alone".
Li Zhao surprised "Do you mean studying? I'm great at studying, I could help you with that".
An Hao then said firmly "Don't you get it, I don't like you, just go tell your mother that you tried, but it didn't work out".
Li Zhao confused about why An Hao seemed to be pressing her body against him earlier was now so distant, didn't know what to say.
An Hao, turned and walked off without looking back.
She could feel the urge to be intimate with Li Zhao, it was a similar feeling to when she had the urge to drain the life force of a criminal. She could control this urge with will power but Li Zhao was harder to resist.
They wouldn't see each other except on formal terms until 2 months later when Li Zhao was on the brink of death.