Chapter 11: The Test
"Mmm," Sakura munched, "This is very good homemade cooking." Sakura pulled the chopsticks up and started to slurp in her lo mien. "I've never tasted lo mien this good before. I could eat forever here." Sakura was too busy to look over to Syaoran, whose mouth was full of dumplings and pork buns. "These are the best," Syaoran said with his mouth full, "What's the limit to how much we can have?" A young, beautiful, blonde girl smiled at him, "Don't worry, it's on the house!" she gave a smile with her cute British accent.
"Mrs. Tien," Sakura called, "Do you and your husband run this diner alone?" Mrs. Tien shook her head, "The others who my husband harbors works here too," she said, "They don't do it for money, more or less, they are in debt to my husband and they love to help him, he has become somewhat of their savior." Touya gritted his teeth, in a nonchalant attitude, "Some savior," he sarcastically said, "If he's such a hero then why does he have to run this stupid test before he can help us?" "Because," Lung interrupted the room, startling everyone, "I want to make sure you are all worthy for even being rebels."
Lung started to walk towards Touya; he was stopped by his wife in his way. She silently looked up at him with a cheerful smile, "Hi Lung!" she said gladly. Lung returned her cheerful smile with a cold stare and rudely pushed her aside. Syaoran had his fist clenched and was ready to jump and assault Lung, but Sakura lightly held him back. Lung looked at Touya eye to eye, measuring themselves in height, skill, and determination. "Today," he began to say, "You will run your tests to make sure how much you really want this. So your first assignment is…" Syaoran was anxious to hear the answer. But Lung just simply got on the ground, and started to do push ups with one hand. "Do sixty of these!" he said said pointing to Sakura. Sakura gulped.
Sakura Narration
SIXTY! One hand push ups he wants me to do sixty? I can't even do one! What am I going to do? I can't back out, or I'll fail this part of the assignment. Hoe! What should I do? Wait a second I know! (Sakura remembers the Clow cards) "Power…" That's right, with power, I can now do as many push ups as I desire. Ha ha Lung is in for a big surprise.
End Sakura Narration
"Alright Lung, I'll do it!" Sakura said with a smile. Touya and Syaoran were a bit taken back. "Are you crazy?" Syaoran asked, "I don't want you to hurt yourself!" Touya turned her around, "Listen Sakura, this is not involving you." Touya stood in front of Sakura, "I'll do it!" he said, "I'll take the challenge; I wouldn't want my sister to suffer with our cause." Lung shook his head, "I don't think you understand yet Touya, I want her to do it because I know she will not fail you."
Sakura Narration
Does Lung know about the Clow Cards? If he does, then why does he still want me to even though he knows I won't be doing them naturally? "Listen brother, I will not fail you, I can do this!" (Sakura gets on all fours, and then she begins to put one hand behind her back and begin pushups)
End Sakura Narration
"One, two, three…" Lung began the count. Syaoran and Touya both closed their eyes in the beginning, but as they heard the numbers rise; they opened their eyes rooting for Sakura. "This is real easy!" Sakura said, "Come on Lung can't you choose a better test than this?" Lung put his face up to Sakura's ear, "Who said this is the only test?" Sakura shot her eyes open, "There's more?" she said shocked. "Of course," he replied, "When someone has magic, I think I should give them more than one test, wouldn't you agree?" Sakura nodded her head while doing her last push up.
"Sakura good job!" Syaoran patted Sakura on the back, "Don't ever scare me like that again!" He tried to scold her, but he knew if he did he would make Sakura upset, making himself upset. "Ok Lung, we did your stupid assignment, now let's go and join forces now!" Lung chuckled, "Who said we're done?" Everyone held their head down in tiredness, "What now?" Touya yelled anxiously. "Follow me!" Lung led them into the kitchen with a pile of dirty dishes in the sink. "I want you to clean every single dish in this room; I want it so clean, that I can see my reflection through the glass." Everyone sweat dropped as they began to work.
Sakura Narration
What a ridiculous assignment. Is this all even worth it? Is Touya this desperate that we need to stoop this low and begin to clean the dishes? Aww man I hate cleaning dishes, where is Tomoyo when you need her? And also, that Lung took all my cards, so I can't use magic. This is so hard!
Syaoran and Touya seem to be suffering too. Just look at them, they are wearing hairnets and look like little girls. Ha ha ha! I mean, I shouldn't talk, because I'm dressed in the same way. What is Lung's purpose for giving this assignment anyway? "I'm tired!"
End Sakura Narration
Sakura yelled at the top of her lungs with her hands in suds. "When are the dishes ever going to end?" Syaoran nodded with a tired expression, "This sucks!" he shouted, "Why do we have to clean the dishes anyways, can't we do anything else to prove ourselves?" All of the sudden, Mrs. Tien appeared out of nowhere whispering into Syaoran's ear. "Actually," she tried to say as soft as possible, "This is to pay off the food you ate, the other test is after this." Syaoran snapped, "I thought you said the food was on the house?" Mrs. Tien scratched the back of her head confused. "Yeah," she replied, "But that was my decision for paying for you, Lung's was to have you guys pay for yourselves." Everyone was tired and collapsed.
"I can't do this anymore!" Sakura moaned. "COME ON, YOU'RE ALL UNDER ARREST!" someone cried out. Sakura, Syaoran, and Touya all got up wondering what was going on. "Stay here!" Mrs. Tien commanded. However, the kids were as nosy as ever and followed her instead to see what was going on. Mrs. Tien finally had the courage to peek her head out to see what was going on. Soldiers, with brown uniforms grabbed people eating and pushed them all to the wall. Mrs. Tien bravely stepped forward drying her hands on her hand towel. "What's going on here?" she demanded to know, "You know you soldiers can't enter here, this property is specially bought from Lo Da, you cannot invade and arrest these innocent people." The soldiers turned around and looked at her, all with a perverted stare, examining her curvaceous body. "These refugees entered the country illegally, they are sentenced to death!" the leader responded, "However, we will gladly offer them stay in the country if you show us a good time tonight." All the soldiers had insatiable stares on their faces at her body. Mrs. Tien gave a sour expression as she yelled at all of them, "You sick creeps!" she shouted, "Find your whores elsewhere!"
Mrs. Tien slowly walked away, until suddenly, the leader grabbed her by her wrist. "I don't think you heard me correctly," he warned, "We want entertainment, and we want it now!" Mrs. Tien got disgusted and kicked him in his lower extremities. In an outrage, all the soldiers rushed to her trying to tackle her, until… "Wind! Send them away!" Sakura called as a huge gust pushed them all away. "Are you okay?" Syaoran asked as he kneeled to her. "Yes thank you!" Mrs. Tien smiled. "Okay, I don't know who you guys are," Syaoran grasped his sword, "But if you want to fight, then bring it on!" Syaoran pointed his sword at the leader. Touya came out from behind Syaoran and pointed his staff, Sakura pulled out another magic paper and was ready to shoot out more wind at them, and finally, Mrs. Tien took a fighting stance. The leader looked around, seeing his force outnumbered theirs, he lashed out his sword. "Take them!" he yelled out. "I don't think so!" a drunken voice called out from nowhere.
Suddenly, Lung popped out from behind the soldiers and attacked them all in one quick flurry of moves. Lung handled every single soldier with ease, until he finally reached the leader; he grabbed his head, made a hoop with his arms, and spun his head around like he was shaking a drink. The leader, disoriented could not see what was going on, and was directly socked in the face with a tornado kick. All the soldiers lay face down, all groaning from the quick pain. "Now listen up!" Lung spoke all sober again, "Get the hell out of my diner, if you show up again, I'll do the same thing that happened today, got it?" The leader nodded and left in a hurry, with his tail in between his legs.
Lung slowly approached his wife, who immediately hung her head down in disappointment. "Vung!" he yelled, "What did you think you were doing?" Vung silently mumbled something. "What!?" Lung questioned, "I you know that you can't start a fight with them, they will do something about it." Syaoran bravely stepped up, "Sorry Lung don't blame her," Lung looked at Syaoran, "We were the ones who started the fight, they were trying to molest your wife, so we…" Lung silently looked back at his wife with tears streaking down her face. Lung turned away from her coldly and approached Touya. "It seems you guys are the real thing." Touya nodded. "Follow me!"
Back at the Kingdom:
There he was, the new general, like royalty, he sat in his elaborately sewn red chair, with a wine glass in one hand. "How I do enjoy this life," Wuji said as he took a sip of his wine. "Those rebels aren't causing any trouble either, so I might as well relax. Wuji plopped his dirty flea infested feet on his table, his cape was hung on the hook and he was slouched in his chair with his back on the left arm of the chair.
"General!" a man stepped in bowing to Wuji. Wuji in a fury got out of his chair and smashed the wine glass on top of the man's head, making him bleed and give a blood-curdling scream. "You bitch!" he yelled, "I told you to never disturb me while I am in leisure." The man tried to hold in his screams while he bowed down for forgiveness. "What did you want?" Wuji scolded. The man in short pain stutters told him. "The…rebels…are…at…Tianjin…" Wuji put his finger under his chin, "What could they be going there for?" Wuji took a second to think about it, "Oh no!" he snapped his eyes open.
Tianjin:
"Where are we going?" Touya asked, "What's the big deal of dragging us all the way here?" Lung had led them to the front of a very huge double wooden door. "This is for you Touya." Lung opened the double wooden doors carefully and opened it full blast to let them see what was inside. As the doors opened, Syaoran, Sakura, and Touya were all in awe.
Touya saw a bustling crowd of rebels, all eating porridge and some were even loading and building weapons. "The British are excellent marksman," Lung began to tell Touya, "The Mongolians are excellent fighters, and the monks are great with a multitude of weapons." Touya was in shock at the surprising amount of men there were. "Why are you just giving me your men? Don't you need to test us?" Lung looked at him with a smile, "I already did, and you qualify." Lung walked into the building, as he let his foot touch the ground, he was saluted by all the refugees.
"Okay everyone!" Lung paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, "From now on, we are going to help the Japanese rebels, but I'm afraid I cannot be your commander, so for a while you will follow Touya's commands." Everyone nodded. In each person's face, there was a sign of respect for Lung; they all appreciated what he had done for them. "Today, get acquainted with him. Tomorrow before you follow his orders, we will have a departing celebration for all of you. How does that sound PEOPLE?"
"Yes sir!" they all yelled in unison. "Good!" he said, "Now Touya, they're all yours."
Character Bio:
Tien Vung Emily
Birthday: June 23
Age: 25
Zodiac: Dragon
Occupation: Helping Lung with the Tong An
Favorite Hobby: Gardening and reading
Least favorite Hobby: Having to give advice
Favorite Foods: Honey Garlic chicken, chicken soup, and chocolate chip cookies
Least favorite Food: shrimp, blood pudding, and pig
Favorite Colors: blue, black, and white
Favorite flowers: roses and magnolias
Something she can cook: chocolate chip cookies and cakes
Special Talent: a great green thumb and a fast learner of the martial arts
Wish List: To get Lung to stop drinking
Profile: Lung's wife, Vung, if the nicest individual in perhaps this little world. She treats everyone with respect and dignity and is always eager to help people out no matter what kind of situation they are in. Vung loves life to the fullest and is not afraid to seize the day. When she was 17, she and her family traveled to China, only to be kidnapped by a band of pirates. Her savior, Lung, gave her a second chance to live, too bad for her parents. From then on they were in love, but now, Lung is being extremely mean to Vung, why is that?