I woke up the next day to loud voices infiltrating the serene cabin. No, I’m not hallucinating, there are people inside the cabin. I took a peek around the cabin after shooting up off the floor, trying to find Mr. Huang in case he wasn’t aware of our guests’ arrival.
When I couldn’t find him anywhere and the noises started to become louder, I rushed to the source, scared that Mr. Huang might be in trouble. It was a stupid thought, I know, but I have yet to see the old man’s limits when it comes to self-defense.
I found the source of the noise right outside of the cabin’s main entrance. A crowd of guys stared back at me. I scanned their faces that turned to stare at me before casting my eyes downwards, at the ground by their feet, searching for a body, thankfully finding none.
I scanned the faces once more and finally caught a familiar face in the crowd. My whole stance relaxed when I saw that Mr. Huang was alright and I slightly leaned on the doorframe to breathe in relief and let my heartbeat slow back to its normal pace.
“Xiăo Fú, these are my friends that I’ve invited over to help you train.” He spoke so calmly and softly I could barely register anything he was saying. Did he just say train?
“But Shī Fu, I’m not exactly emotionally stable after what happened.” I argued. This dude is crazy if he thought I was capable of taking down all these men after the emotional turmoil I just went through. I counted 4 of them and half of them were buff while the other two were lean and tall.
“Which is exactly what is needed to learn the next lesson. Improvisation. Your opponent will not sympathize on what had happened to you before the match. On the contrary, they would most probably use that against you. That is a weakness that you must control and that is what we’ll be doing today,” he explained. I saw sense in what he said but hell would have to freeze over if he thought I could win this spar.
Nonetheless, I obediently headed back into the cabin and changed into some more appropriate clothing to spar in. After tying my hair up, I got out of the cabin and faced the men that I’ll be fighting against.
“Good, you’re here. I won’t make any introductions because all you’ll be doing is fighting. Xiăo Fú, these men will ambush you and test your improvisation skills. You will have to act fast which will be great training for your reflexes.” The whole time that he was explaining to me what will be happening, I was still stuck on the word ‘ambush’.
“Wait,” I cut him off. “Can you repeat that first part again. Did you just say ‘ambush’? As in they’ll be trying to beat me up all at once?” I clarified. I instantly looked around at their faces. One offered me a smile and a wave, another shrugged and the other two simply looked at me with unreadable expressions.
“Like I said, this will be training your improvisation skills. You’ll have to combine everything you’ve learnt so far from your brother as well as from me these past few days and apply it on these men. None of you will be provided any gears or protection.”
And at that second, the only words that were resonated in my head were ‘I’m toast’.
We walked to an open ground a few trees away from the cabin and got ready to spar.
This is when my brain started scanning. I could feel my eyes straining to drink in every detail that I can find. Of course, that would require maximum observation skills, which wasn’t exactly working right then. My brain was too clogged up with the hurt and betrayal. But a girl can try and do her best.
The obvious characteristics; one was Caucasian and another was definitely Asian.
Only one of them was going in a slower pace than the rest, shoulders not hunched effectively and hands not covering his head right. That was my opening; his head.
The Asian dude had a good stance. I tried feigning a jab and the reflex I got was too slow. The stomach would do.
Before I could assess the other two, I heard footsteps behind me and I quickly moved to the left to dodge their advances. A body tumbled against the ground ahead of me but I remembered hearing more than one set of steps. There wasn’t time to move anymore though, so I merely spun my body around, my right hand curled into a fist.
My head turned first, trying to find my target before my fist came following through. When he bent over to tend to his head, I kicked his shin and sent him sprawling on the ground. Although they were down, they weren’t hurt badly enough to stay down. But that was the least of my worries. A second later, I finally registered the yell coming from my side. I saw the Asian dude coming at me and remembered what I found out from staring at him creepily. He’s got a slow reflex.
At the last second, when he was about to knock me off my feet, I turned my body to face him and swung a straight punch to his face. His eyes widened but his body was slow to react and soon enough, I felt a crack against my knuckles and blood trickled down my split knuckles.
Thank God for adrenalines.
Let’s hope that adrenaline’s not pumping through his veins as much as it is in mine and that he’ll stay down for the rest of the fight.
I face the last dude that wasn’t bruised up and didn’t waste my time running towards him. But he managed to side step me and kick me on my back, sending me stumbling over my own foot and falling.
I rolled to lessen the impact and got up to my feet instantly. The guy was already stalking towards me and all I could do was try my best to think straight.
I started with feigning a jab and he didn’t move to block it quick enough so I let my fist collide with him while my right hand flew in from the side to give him a nice hook. His guard was too low and that gave me another chance to get one last blow in. Next thing he knew, I was landing a double kick to his right thigh with my left foot and another kick to his ribs with my left foot.
I stepped back after he bent over only to feel hands grabbing me from behind. A hand reached across my face and I immediately dropped my head to cover my neck with my chin. When his arm came down onto my neck, he had already missed his window to try and choke me and I quickly gripped his hand that was pressed against my neck and side stepped him, a foot behind both of his feet. I took his hand with me as I ducked under his arm and maneuvered behind him, locking him arm.
I looked around to make sure the rest were still on the ground, before I walked back to Mr. Huang and bowed. He nodded at me with a small smile before approaching his friends. I Trailed behind him and helped them up.
I offered the Asian dude a hand and pulled him to his feet. “I’m sorry for your stomach and face.” I said bluntly, earning a laugh from him.
“Are you always this nice to your opponents or should I feel special?” I smiled at him, already liking his laid-back attitude.
“You boys get yourself comfortable in the cabin and go rest for a while. I’m going to make us all a nice warm soup.” All 4 guys groaned with disgusted looks. When they didn’t hear me joining in, one of them turned to me and looked at me as if I were deranged.
“Why are you so calm? Have you not tasted his dishes? How are you not starved in this place?” I shrugged at his questions. The food wasn’t that bad, it was edible and that’s all that matters. I was
probably too hungry to even think about the taste.
After all the wonders and suspicions directed at my unfazed attitude at the mention of Mr. Huang’s meals, we finally piled into the kitchen and waited for Mr. Huang to serve his soup.
We all ate our food once it was served. They ate with their silly faces, mocking Mr. Huang and commenting on how horrible the food tasted. I ate in silence while Shī Fu tried to defend his cooking skills.
After all the adrenaline left my body, I felt it start to ache and excused myself to get cleaned up.