Zhou Yu swam around in the hot spring, his raven hair was for once, not
held up by his silk headband. It made his hair seem more light, it
immediately shown lustrous after the water contiguities it.
This is the first time he ever felt relaxed since he arrived at hotel paradise, the girls went out to pick up an appropriate garment for their first actual dates with him.
Zhou Yu sighed, he began to have a thought that this contest is pointless, 'How am I ever going to know who to choose? The closest I've ever gotten with a girl was holding hands, anymore closer would mean automatic marriage proposal. Ce can't seriously mean that I'll have to score everyone of them, that's going to result to many slaps-in-the-face. Even if I choose someone, the other 13's going to be left broken hearted, how did I ever gotten myself into this?? God!!!!-" Zhou Yu was disturbed while experiencing his mentally challenged moment.
" Sir! Master Sun's here!" yelled a servant from the other side of the wall.
" Huh? Ce? I'll be right there!" Zhou Yu yelled back, he got out of the hot spring, grabbing his clothing, until he heard a loud yell.
" YU!!!! GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE!!!"
" Ce?? Hold on! Give me five minutes!"
" FIVE MINUTES??? You have five seconds!!!!"
" What??"
" Get your butt down here or say bye-bye to Mr. Imperial Advisor!!!!"
The previous responds didn't intimidate Yu, but this one, caused him to grab a only towel for wearing, and ran down the stairs.
When he ran down, he saw Ce looking at the fishes.
" What is your problem!!" Yu bellowed out to Ce.
Sun Ce turned around, and laughed.
" Nice suit dude!" he said.
" Huh? Never mind that!! Why did you say I was going to loose my place?" Zhou Yu walked over to the benches.
" Oh! That! I haven't seen you for a long time, just thought that may rush you!" Sun Ce joked.
" What? You saw me yesterday!" Zhou Yu said, quite worried about his friend here.
" Did I? Man! Short term memory loss.he~he, so, how're you doing?" asked Ce.
" Are you okay pal??" Zhou Yu questioned.
" Yeah! I'm fine dad!" Ce replied.
" Dad?? Did you just call dad?" Zhou Yu getting more worried about his sworn brother.
Suddenly, an arrow was sent flying towards Yu, he swiftly caught it, a letter was locked on the end.
Zhou Yu immediately immediately took the letter off and read it.
" Dear Pretty Boy (Zhou Yu's nickname, Mei Zhou Lang):
Sun Bo fu's army has threatened the durance of my empire, his advance to Xu Chang would surely shook my throne. So, my people decided to teach him a lesson, by letting him die.
You have four choices:
One: Hike up to Mt. Ding-Jun to visit the high-skilled physician Hua Tuo, plead him for the red leafed herb, and feed it to Lord Sun, that way he'll be healed in a day. Have you ever heard of the Big Foot of Ding-Jung? He once caused 1000 casualties.now
Two: According to rumor Lord Sun can be cured if you bring him to the shores of the Black Sea located in the land of the whites, and cut his finger to allow his blood to bleed into the sea, and then hang him upside down for a week, that way, he should be cured immediately. It would approximately take up to two years to reach the place.
Three: Wrap him up with silk, prepare a bowl of a blood type same as his. Cut open both his wrist, let it the blood bleed for 1 hour, then quickly seal the wound using the 15th strategy of "The Art of War", right after sealing, let him drink the blood, he should be cured in a month with the daily inhale of rose fragrant. Do you know how dangerous that could be? Lord Sun could died if one small error was caused in the sealing.
Four: Hand over the land the Sun family has claimed, Sun Ce would be saved, no one would get hurt.
Hope you have a nice day. Li Yi Gong
Zhou Yu stared at the letter blankly, he quickly sat down placing the letter on the table.
He was in complete shock, the girls ran in at the moment, and made fun of the towel wearing Yu.
Zhou Yu now realized that he still hasn't changed yet, only his lower part of the body is cover by a towel.
He embarrassingly walked over to SSX and handed her the letter.
SSX curiously took it, and began reading the letter, her smile faded, almost fainting, Xiao Qiao ran over, holding SSX up.
" Lady Sun! Are you okay?" she asked.
SSX stood straight, and faced Zhou Yu.
" We can't hand over our land! Both my father and brother fought hard to own them!" she yelled.
Zhou Yu raised his head, and looked at Sun Shang Xiang.
" Do you think I'm stupid? Even if we hand over the land, I doubt he'll cure Ce."
" Well! What do you suggest we do then??" SSX clamored.
Before Zhou Yu could talk, Xiao Qiao replied.
" Hold on!! What's going on here? What did the letter say??"
" My brother Ce is going to die! To cure him! We have to hand over our land!" she said to everybody in the room.
" What?? That's preposterous!" yelled Xiao.
" Lord Ce's going to die?" Da alarmed , she went over to Ce, who's not moving one inch, cried, and her cry made the whole room go wild, girls trampling over each other, they're acting like fugitives.
Zhou Yu stood on the table, and yelled.
" Be quite people!! We're going to cure Lord Ce by ourselves! I'm going to Mt. Ding-Jun! To get the cure from Hua Tuo! Who's with me??"
At that moment, Yu seemed so heroic, but he'd look better if he wasn't wearing a towel.
" I'm going!" SSX yelled.
" Me too!" Da yelled.
" If sis is going! I'm going!" Xiao yelled.
(A/N: Please don't get bored!! This has something to do with Zhou's impression on the girls! So please read the rest!)
The next he knew, 9 of them is going.
As they were on the carriage reaching for Mt. Ding Jun, Zhen Ji asked out of curiousity.
" Lord Yu, why are we going with choice one? What about the others?" she said in a seductive tone.
Zhou Yu looked at Zhen Ji, now her hands are on his thighs, he tried to get away, but was a bit hypnotized there.
Xiao Qiao saw Zhen Ji making her mover already, so she went onto Yu too.
" Lord Yu! I'm also curious to know why we're going for this one!" she said adorably, now her hands are massaging Zhou Yu's shoulder.
Grinning, he looked at Xiao, noticing that he has nowhere to go now, both sides are blocked, just when he planned on getting loose from front, Diao Chan appeared.
" Lord Yu! You seem bored, watch me dance." Diao started dancing, but the carriage slightly shook, she fell right onto Yu.
Zhou Yu was in a very awkward position, when Diao fell, her head laid on Zhou Yu's chest, she robbed it in a bit even.
Da Qiao looked at the four, she spoke.
" Girls! Stop fooling around! The sake of the Wu territory is in our hands! Can't we just forget about the contest for once?"
Yu looked at Da, 'Moral Integrity....I like that! '
Diao, Xiao and Zhen Ji all let go of Zhou Yu.
Ma Yun Lu giggled.
" So! Pretty Boy! Why did we go with choice #1?" she said.
Zhou Yu answered.
"Number 2 and 3 sounds like what a madman would do, number 4, well, you know why." Zhou Yu said pointing at SSX.
Zhu Rong replied.
" So why did we choose choice nimber one? Isn't it equally risky as the others? I mean, the Big Foot of Ding Jun is a real creature(A/N: Not real, I made it up), how can we be sure that we can pass it?"
" We're not, but this is the only one that seems sane. All we can worry about is the Big Foot, and rest is easy job." Zhou Yu said.
" Lord Yu, how do you know that this isn't a trick? A trick to lure us away from the Wu territory so he can claim the land?" asked Sun Ran Er.
Zhou Yu chuckled, " Lady Huang, I bet you already know what's in my mind."
Yue Ying grinned.
" Well, it's just a guess, his shares his border with Liu Biao, so, to get to the Wu territory, he'll have to pass the River of Wu Ning, and that's the quickest route to the Wu Territory without crossing Yangtse. (A/N:I have no clue about Chinese geography).
But that's also where Shamoku resides in, and according to our latest news about Li Yi Gong, he fears Shamoku the Great Nanman tribe warrior ever since he learned the name, so he's probably going for the long way, which is going to take up to almost a year, that'll give us enough time to save Sun Ce and prepare for battle."
Zhou Yu smiled, " Lady Huang, you're a true genius!"
All the girls looked at her, she shyly accepted the compliment, which drove the others envious, Diao Chan tried to make a move again, but Zhou Yu ran quickly to the front of the carriage.
SSX and Da Qiao sat there in the front, Zhou Yu went up, patted Da and SSX on the shoulder, never thought it would drive the carriage to go crazy.
Zhou Yu steadied, and looked at their eyes, all a bit red, Da Qiao spoke.
" I yelled at him the other night for asking me to compete in this contest, I never thought that would be the last time he'll ever make me laugh again.." she said, more tears shed.
" Da! Don't cry! It's not your fault! Don't worry! He'll be fine! And I'm not saying that just to pick you up!" Zhou Yu made himself clear.
Da smiled a bit, Zhou Yu wiped her tears with his sleeve, SSX looked at them both.
" You two look cute together." SSX said without a bit of sarcasm.
" Lady Sun!" Da yelled, her cheeks getting redder.
" How many times do I have to tell you, don't call me Lady Sun, call me SSX! Like Zhou Yu here!"
" It just doesn't feel right, I feel I have to refer you as a noble." Da said.
" My god, how do you like it if I kept on calling you Lady Da?" SSX said.
" Big Lady?" Da replied.
*****************************************************************
They finally arrived at Mt. Ding Jun, they all got off the carriage, preparing to climb it.
Zhou Yu was looking for a place to park their carriage, Zhu Rong walked over.
" Zhou Yu! We've got the best weapon here, but if we silently sneak up, we shouldn't even confront the big foot." She said.
" Hope so, no one ever saw the big foot and lived before, I hope I'm doing the right thing." Zhou Yu said, taking a look at the huge mountain.
" Listen closely everybody! Whatever you see that seems to intimidate you, do not yell, that'll only alarm the beast. Everyone get a partner! That'll be a bit safer." He said.
Something moved sounded behind SSX, she immediately took out her chakram and aimed behind, and to only find a rabbit cowering under a leaf.
" SSX, you don't need to be that prepared." Zhou Yu laughed.
" Hey! I'm just trying to be responsible!" she said.
" Too responsible, don't be like Lady Sun here, we don't want to hurt our own people. Let's get going now!" he yelled, people found a partner and caught up.
Two Qiaos together, Zhu Rong with Zhen Ji, SSX with Diao Chan, Zhang He with Yue Ying, Zhou Yu was leading the team.
The poison ivy there was deadly, fortunately Diao Chan brought some medicine.
They never stopped to rest, just for safety. However, Zhen Ji insisted that they stop for a teeny bit, she can't go on anymore like this.
It took half a day to reach Hua Tuo' s home, Zhou Yu knocked.
An old man slightly opened the door.
" Who dares to knock my door?" he asked, only one of his eyes were to be seen.
" I Zhou Yu dares." Zhou Yu replied.
" What's your purpose of coming here?" He asked.
" To ask for the red leafed herb."
" What for may I ask?"
" To cure my friend of the Widow-Maker."
" Widow-Maker?? Please come in."
They came in and sat.
Hua Tuo looked at all the girls + Zhang He.
" Are these all your wives?" he asked.
" No! Of course not!" Zhou Yu replied.
" Hmm...Never mind that, you asked for the red leafed herb?"
" Yes, you do have it don't you?" Zhou Yu asked anxiously.
" Yes I do, but I cannot give it to you for free." He said.
" Okay, how much money do you want?" Zhou Yu said take out his wallet.
" I don't want money, it's no use for me."
" What do you want then?" Zhou Yu asked putting his wallet away.
" I want freedom, if you can get me out of here, I'll give you the red leafed herb."
" You want freedom? I thought you wanted a hermetic life." He said.
" I did, but not on this mountain, it's not safe, I haven't went out for so long now." He said.
Zhou Yu hesitated.
" Okay! We'll need to get down anyway, I'll see if I can, you go pack up, don't bring too much things though, we have to worry about the convenience of travelling. " He said.
" Sure, you're a kind man, but don't play any tricks on me, I use to be a prankster myself." Hua Tuo said.
Zhou Yu looked at him, " Why do you trust me?"
" I don't trust you, I'm taking a plain risk, if you left me out in the forest, I die when the big foot catches me, at least that's better than staying home all day." he chuckled.
" I see, let me go inform the girls." Zhou Yu said walking away.
The girls sat on the benches and the chairs, grounds, sleeping, they were so exhausted that they couldn't even move.
Zhou Yu looked, and began talking.
" Ladies!! Wake up!! It's almost time to go!" he yelled.
No one woke, he walked around to observe their status, and.
" WAKE UP!! THE BIG FOOT'S HERE!!"
Most of woke with a fall.
Hua Tuo entered the doorway.
" Okay, I'm ready, we can go now." He said, the stuff he was taking with him was a plain Chinese styled suitcase.
" The old man's coming?" Zhen Ji asked.
" Yeah! That's our part of the agreement, to set him free."
***************************************************************
They moved their way down the hill, trying to be very quite, Xiao Qiao tripped over a rock, nearly spraining her ankle.
After 2 hours later, the river of Ding Jun was seen, Zhen Ji rushed over.
" Yu! Let's stop now! We all want to get refreshed!" she yelled, cupping some water with her hands.
Zhou Yu turned around to look at all of them, they're either sweating like a pig, or panting like lion.
" Okay! We stop for 5 minutes!" he yelled, and most of them gathered around the river.
Da looked north, and saw some berries.
" Hey! Let me go pick some!" she said running over.
" Wait!" before Yu could've alarmed her, she's already there.
Da looked at the berries that were on the ground.
' Funny, these are half eaten, ahh...probably squirrels.' She thought, then she looked up a bit, and saw a giant bear paw.
As she moved a bit more up, she saw a creepy giant bear, more like a monster, its teeth covered with berry juice, it's red, which looked more like blood.
"AH!!!!" she yelled, and immediately took out her fans, its razor was only able to cut off some of it's thick fur.
Everybody heard her yell, and all their attention was now on the berry bushes.
Xiao saw her sister in danger, and dashed over, hitting the ground, she covered up her sister, not wanting her to get hurt.
The giant bear looked at Xiao, who now has her eyes closed, a chipmunk ran by, the bear firmly stepped on it, the blood of the animal sank in the soil.
This made Xiao more and more scared, she shivered loudly, the bear raised its paw, revealing its sharp hooks. Xiao Qiao screamed, the paw dropped down like a rock.
BANG! Was all they heard, Da cried in fright, " XIAO!!!" she yelled, then mumbled, " My sister!!!" she cried even louder.
" Yeah?" surprisingly someone replied. Da looked up, seeing Xiao still alive.
Then she got out from Xiao's coverage, and sees a boomerang retreating, the giant bear had its hand cut.
" WARH!!!!!" The bear roared loudly, Da immediately dragged the both of them out of the way.
The bear soon ran towards Zhu Rong, who threw the boomerang again, the bear knocked it out of the way, she took a rock from the ground and threw at it, didn't worked, she tried to retreat, but behind her was a river, she fell to the ground, protecting herself with her bare hands.
" ARGH!!!!" The bear was shocked by Zhen Ji's sound of the flute, it moved back, the sound caused him a headache, he went mad, and dig out the dirt from the ground, it knocked Diao Chan out cold, the bear came near to her.
However, SSX slashed it with her chakram, a small cut was seen. SSX kept on cutting, but the fur was way too thick, the bear whack her weapons away from her, she defended as she took Diao' s maces. Since she never used a mace before, she operated like a sword, the heavy end caused the weapon to get automatically thrown out of SSX's hand.
With no defense, she crossed her arms to cover herself. The bear soon dashed. Luckily, Zhou Yu got in front of her and slashed it with his Ancient Sword, the bear yelled, now a huge cut was seen on its stomach, he stared at Yu, and tried to aim.
However, Zhou Yu picked up some soil and threw it towards its eyes, it is now temporarily blinded.
Since its blind, it went the other direction, where no one was in the way.
Zhou Yu sneaked towards the river, and called everyone over.
" Okay, this river will lead us right down to the bottom of the mountain, in three, let's all jump in, and then ride on that log, be very quite though, the bear can detect us by its hearing." He said, everybody nodded, and got ready to jump.
" One!, two!, three!" he whispered, everybody jumped in except him, even Zhu Rong jumped in with Diao Chan in her hands.
Zhou Yu looked down, a grass weed got in his way, he cut it with his sword, and tried to jump again, however, this time, when he looked behind, the ferocious bear grabbed his robe, he poked its hand with the sword, it didn't let loose, so Zhou Yu took his robe off as quick as he can, revealing only a red trouser.
He jumped in, and quickly swam toward the log, Hua Tuo, Diao Chan and Zhu Rong was already up there, Zhu Rong pulled him and SSX up, Da and Xiao climbed on, Zhang He together with Yue Ying got pulled up by SSX. They all relaxed, until Zhou Yu yelled.
" Zhen Ji! Where's Zhen Ji??" Then realising that she was way ahead of them, crying for help.
Zhou Yu immediately jumped in the river, he swam towards her, grabbed her arm, however, that's when they realized, there's a water fall in front of them!!
" Everybody jump onto shore!!" Zhou Yu yelled, now grabbing the half unconscious Zhen Ji by the waist. Everybody already got onto shore, except them, Da Qiao ran fast and quickly grabbed Zhou Yu's hand, they stopped there right in the middle of the river, Da pulled hard, but it wasn't hard enough, so everybody came and helped her, another huge water current came, the group wasn't strong enough to hold onto him anymore, causing Zhou Yu to loose Zhen Ji a bit, Zhen Ji hit shore, and immediately woke.
She let out a yell after finding out where she is.
" You're awake! Thank god! You have to listen to me! See that rock over there? Swim over and grab it! I'll help you!" Zhou Yu said.
" What? That's way too dangerous! I'll die for sure!" she yelled, swallowing some water.
" Risk it! That's our best solution right now! The water current is way too strong!" he yelled.
" I can't do it!" she yelled in fear.
" Yes you can! Trust me! Even if it fails! I'll make sure that I catches you by the arm!" he said.
Zhen Ji cried, she looked into Zhou Yu's deep ebony eyes, and spoke again.
" Why don't you do it??" she asked.
" I would! If I'm as graceful and accurate as you!! Please try! I beg you!" he yelled.
After Zhen Ji heard those words, she smiled and nodded, Zhen Ji swam over to the upstream with the help of Zhou Yu, she tried to reach the rock, but the water kept on splashing her on the face, she looked at Zhou Yu again.
" You can do it! I believe in you!" he yelled.
Zhen Ji smiled, she roughly grabbed the rock, water kept on coming, but she never let go, she grabbed the rock wholly, and pulled herself up to shore, immediately after she got on, she aided the group, they tried once again this time with Zhen Ji, and they pulled Zhou Yu up.
They all panted, Zhou Yu came towards Zhen Ji and patted her on the back.
" Well done Zhen Ji! Keep up the good work!" he said grinning at her.
However, the ground shook bit by bit, Yu looked front, and sees the giant bear running towards them.
" Run downhill! Everybody!!" Zhou Yu yelled, everybody started running, they all ran as fast as rabbits, they all wanted to live.
They got near to carriage.
They sees the girls sitting in the carriage, Yu yelled.
" OPEN THE DOOR!! EVERYBODY JUMP IN!!" He said.
Ma Yun Lu immediately saw the bear, she open the door, everybody jumped in one by one, Zhou Yu stayed down to make sure that no one was behind, then he got pulled up by Ma Yun Lu to the front. Zhou Yu took the leash and pulled it, but the horses weren't moving much, he panicked.
" SOMEONE GET THIS DARN HORSE MOVING!!" Yu yelled, Ma Yun Lu suddenly jumped onto the horse, and it clamored, she used a whip to whip the horse, the carriage immediately began moving.
Zhou Yu panted hard, and laid back.
" Hua Tuo, where do you want to go now?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don't flame me, it took me so long to write this chapter, I know it has nothing to do with the contest, we'll get right back to that in the next chapter.
Below is the final results of round 1, the number of votes represents the amount of special romance scenes with Zhou Yu in the next round.
1.Xiao Qiao- 12
2.Zhen Ji- 10
3.Da Qiao- 5
4.Diao Chan- 3
5.Zhang He- 1
6.Ma Yun Lu(Ma Chao's sis)- 1
7.Zhu Rong- 1
8.SSX- 1
These are the 8 people that'll be advancing, the voting booth is now closed, await the update of the next chapter to vote again.
P.S: Just for you to know, the number of votes will be reset in the next poll for more accurate results.
Chibipearlball.
This is the first time he ever felt relaxed since he arrived at hotel paradise, the girls went out to pick up an appropriate garment for their first actual dates with him.
Zhou Yu sighed, he began to have a thought that this contest is pointless, 'How am I ever going to know who to choose? The closest I've ever gotten with a girl was holding hands, anymore closer would mean automatic marriage proposal. Ce can't seriously mean that I'll have to score everyone of them, that's going to result to many slaps-in-the-face. Even if I choose someone, the other 13's going to be left broken hearted, how did I ever gotten myself into this?? God!!!!-" Zhou Yu was disturbed while experiencing his mentally challenged moment.
" Sir! Master Sun's here!" yelled a servant from the other side of the wall.
" Huh? Ce? I'll be right there!" Zhou Yu yelled back, he got out of the hot spring, grabbing his clothing, until he heard a loud yell.
" YU!!!! GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE!!!"
" Ce?? Hold on! Give me five minutes!"
" FIVE MINUTES??? You have five seconds!!!!"
" What??"
" Get your butt down here or say bye-bye to Mr. Imperial Advisor!!!!"
The previous responds didn't intimidate Yu, but this one, caused him to grab a only towel for wearing, and ran down the stairs.
When he ran down, he saw Ce looking at the fishes.
" What is your problem!!" Yu bellowed out to Ce.
Sun Ce turned around, and laughed.
" Nice suit dude!" he said.
" Huh? Never mind that!! Why did you say I was going to loose my place?" Zhou Yu walked over to the benches.
" Oh! That! I haven't seen you for a long time, just thought that may rush you!" Sun Ce joked.
" What? You saw me yesterday!" Zhou Yu said, quite worried about his friend here.
" Did I? Man! Short term memory loss.he~he, so, how're you doing?" asked Ce.
" Are you okay pal??" Zhou Yu questioned.
" Yeah! I'm fine dad!" Ce replied.
" Dad?? Did you just call dad?" Zhou Yu getting more worried about his sworn brother.
Suddenly, an arrow was sent flying towards Yu, he swiftly caught it, a letter was locked on the end.
Zhou Yu immediately immediately took the letter off and read it.
" Dear Pretty Boy (Zhou Yu's nickname, Mei Zhou Lang):
Sun Bo fu's army has threatened the durance of my empire, his advance to Xu Chang would surely shook my throne. So, my people decided to teach him a lesson, by letting him die.
You have four choices:
One: Hike up to Mt. Ding-Jun to visit the high-skilled physician Hua Tuo, plead him for the red leafed herb, and feed it to Lord Sun, that way he'll be healed in a day. Have you ever heard of the Big Foot of Ding-Jung? He once caused 1000 casualties.now
Two: According to rumor Lord Sun can be cured if you bring him to the shores of the Black Sea located in the land of the whites, and cut his finger to allow his blood to bleed into the sea, and then hang him upside down for a week, that way, he should be cured immediately. It would approximately take up to two years to reach the place.
Three: Wrap him up with silk, prepare a bowl of a blood type same as his. Cut open both his wrist, let it the blood bleed for 1 hour, then quickly seal the wound using the 15th strategy of "The Art of War", right after sealing, let him drink the blood, he should be cured in a month with the daily inhale of rose fragrant. Do you know how dangerous that could be? Lord Sun could died if one small error was caused in the sealing.
Four: Hand over the land the Sun family has claimed, Sun Ce would be saved, no one would get hurt.
Hope you have a nice day. Li Yi Gong
Zhou Yu stared at the letter blankly, he quickly sat down placing the letter on the table.
He was in complete shock, the girls ran in at the moment, and made fun of the towel wearing Yu.
Zhou Yu now realized that he still hasn't changed yet, only his lower part of the body is cover by a towel.
He embarrassingly walked over to SSX and handed her the letter.
SSX curiously took it, and began reading the letter, her smile faded, almost fainting, Xiao Qiao ran over, holding SSX up.
" Lady Sun! Are you okay?" she asked.
SSX stood straight, and faced Zhou Yu.
" We can't hand over our land! Both my father and brother fought hard to own them!" she yelled.
Zhou Yu raised his head, and looked at Sun Shang Xiang.
" Do you think I'm stupid? Even if we hand over the land, I doubt he'll cure Ce."
" Well! What do you suggest we do then??" SSX clamored.
Before Zhou Yu could talk, Xiao Qiao replied.
" Hold on!! What's going on here? What did the letter say??"
" My brother Ce is going to die! To cure him! We have to hand over our land!" she said to everybody in the room.
" What?? That's preposterous!" yelled Xiao.
" Lord Ce's going to die?" Da alarmed , she went over to Ce, who's not moving one inch, cried, and her cry made the whole room go wild, girls trampling over each other, they're acting like fugitives.
Zhou Yu stood on the table, and yelled.
" Be quite people!! We're going to cure Lord Ce by ourselves! I'm going to Mt. Ding-Jun! To get the cure from Hua Tuo! Who's with me??"
At that moment, Yu seemed so heroic, but he'd look better if he wasn't wearing a towel.
" I'm going!" SSX yelled.
" Me too!" Da yelled.
" If sis is going! I'm going!" Xiao yelled.
(A/N: Please don't get bored!! This has something to do with Zhou's impression on the girls! So please read the rest!)
The next he knew, 9 of them is going.
As they were on the carriage reaching for Mt. Ding Jun, Zhen Ji asked out of curiousity.
" Lord Yu, why are we going with choice one? What about the others?" she said in a seductive tone.
Zhou Yu looked at Zhen Ji, now her hands are on his thighs, he tried to get away, but was a bit hypnotized there.
Xiao Qiao saw Zhen Ji making her mover already, so she went onto Yu too.
" Lord Yu! I'm also curious to know why we're going for this one!" she said adorably, now her hands are massaging Zhou Yu's shoulder.
Grinning, he looked at Xiao, noticing that he has nowhere to go now, both sides are blocked, just when he planned on getting loose from front, Diao Chan appeared.
" Lord Yu! You seem bored, watch me dance." Diao started dancing, but the carriage slightly shook, she fell right onto Yu.
Zhou Yu was in a very awkward position, when Diao fell, her head laid on Zhou Yu's chest, she robbed it in a bit even.
Da Qiao looked at the four, she spoke.
" Girls! Stop fooling around! The sake of the Wu territory is in our hands! Can't we just forget about the contest for once?"
Yu looked at Da, 'Moral Integrity....I like that! '
Diao, Xiao and Zhen Ji all let go of Zhou Yu.
Ma Yun Lu giggled.
" So! Pretty Boy! Why did we go with choice #1?" she said.
Zhou Yu answered.
"Number 2 and 3 sounds like what a madman would do, number 4, well, you know why." Zhou Yu said pointing at SSX.
Zhu Rong replied.
" So why did we choose choice nimber one? Isn't it equally risky as the others? I mean, the Big Foot of Ding Jun is a real creature(A/N: Not real, I made it up), how can we be sure that we can pass it?"
" We're not, but this is the only one that seems sane. All we can worry about is the Big Foot, and rest is easy job." Zhou Yu said.
" Lord Yu, how do you know that this isn't a trick? A trick to lure us away from the Wu territory so he can claim the land?" asked Sun Ran Er.
Zhou Yu chuckled, " Lady Huang, I bet you already know what's in my mind."
Yue Ying grinned.
" Well, it's just a guess, his shares his border with Liu Biao, so, to get to the Wu territory, he'll have to pass the River of Wu Ning, and that's the quickest route to the Wu Territory without crossing Yangtse. (A/N:I have no clue about Chinese geography).
But that's also where Shamoku resides in, and according to our latest news about Li Yi Gong, he fears Shamoku the Great Nanman tribe warrior ever since he learned the name, so he's probably going for the long way, which is going to take up to almost a year, that'll give us enough time to save Sun Ce and prepare for battle."
Zhou Yu smiled, " Lady Huang, you're a true genius!"
All the girls looked at her, she shyly accepted the compliment, which drove the others envious, Diao Chan tried to make a move again, but Zhou Yu ran quickly to the front of the carriage.
SSX and Da Qiao sat there in the front, Zhou Yu went up, patted Da and SSX on the shoulder, never thought it would drive the carriage to go crazy.
Zhou Yu steadied, and looked at their eyes, all a bit red, Da Qiao spoke.
" I yelled at him the other night for asking me to compete in this contest, I never thought that would be the last time he'll ever make me laugh again.." she said, more tears shed.
" Da! Don't cry! It's not your fault! Don't worry! He'll be fine! And I'm not saying that just to pick you up!" Zhou Yu made himself clear.
Da smiled a bit, Zhou Yu wiped her tears with his sleeve, SSX looked at them both.
" You two look cute together." SSX said without a bit of sarcasm.
" Lady Sun!" Da yelled, her cheeks getting redder.
" How many times do I have to tell you, don't call me Lady Sun, call me SSX! Like Zhou Yu here!"
" It just doesn't feel right, I feel I have to refer you as a noble." Da said.
" My god, how do you like it if I kept on calling you Lady Da?" SSX said.
" Big Lady?" Da replied.
*****************************************************************
They finally arrived at Mt. Ding Jun, they all got off the carriage, preparing to climb it.
Zhou Yu was looking for a place to park their carriage, Zhu Rong walked over.
" Zhou Yu! We've got the best weapon here, but if we silently sneak up, we shouldn't even confront the big foot." She said.
" Hope so, no one ever saw the big foot and lived before, I hope I'm doing the right thing." Zhou Yu said, taking a look at the huge mountain.
" Listen closely everybody! Whatever you see that seems to intimidate you, do not yell, that'll only alarm the beast. Everyone get a partner! That'll be a bit safer." He said.
Something moved sounded behind SSX, she immediately took out her chakram and aimed behind, and to only find a rabbit cowering under a leaf.
" SSX, you don't need to be that prepared." Zhou Yu laughed.
" Hey! I'm just trying to be responsible!" she said.
" Too responsible, don't be like Lady Sun here, we don't want to hurt our own people. Let's get going now!" he yelled, people found a partner and caught up.
Two Qiaos together, Zhu Rong with Zhen Ji, SSX with Diao Chan, Zhang He with Yue Ying, Zhou Yu was leading the team.
The poison ivy there was deadly, fortunately Diao Chan brought some medicine.
They never stopped to rest, just for safety. However, Zhen Ji insisted that they stop for a teeny bit, she can't go on anymore like this.
It took half a day to reach Hua Tuo' s home, Zhou Yu knocked.
An old man slightly opened the door.
" Who dares to knock my door?" he asked, only one of his eyes were to be seen.
" I Zhou Yu dares." Zhou Yu replied.
" What's your purpose of coming here?" He asked.
" To ask for the red leafed herb."
" What for may I ask?"
" To cure my friend of the Widow-Maker."
" Widow-Maker?? Please come in."
They came in and sat.
Hua Tuo looked at all the girls + Zhang He.
" Are these all your wives?" he asked.
" No! Of course not!" Zhou Yu replied.
" Hmm...Never mind that, you asked for the red leafed herb?"
" Yes, you do have it don't you?" Zhou Yu asked anxiously.
" Yes I do, but I cannot give it to you for free." He said.
" Okay, how much money do you want?" Zhou Yu said take out his wallet.
" I don't want money, it's no use for me."
" What do you want then?" Zhou Yu asked putting his wallet away.
" I want freedom, if you can get me out of here, I'll give you the red leafed herb."
" You want freedom? I thought you wanted a hermetic life." He said.
" I did, but not on this mountain, it's not safe, I haven't went out for so long now." He said.
Zhou Yu hesitated.
" Okay! We'll need to get down anyway, I'll see if I can, you go pack up, don't bring too much things though, we have to worry about the convenience of travelling. " He said.
" Sure, you're a kind man, but don't play any tricks on me, I use to be a prankster myself." Hua Tuo said.
Zhou Yu looked at him, " Why do you trust me?"
" I don't trust you, I'm taking a plain risk, if you left me out in the forest, I die when the big foot catches me, at least that's better than staying home all day." he chuckled.
" I see, let me go inform the girls." Zhou Yu said walking away.
The girls sat on the benches and the chairs, grounds, sleeping, they were so exhausted that they couldn't even move.
Zhou Yu looked, and began talking.
" Ladies!! Wake up!! It's almost time to go!" he yelled.
No one woke, he walked around to observe their status, and.
" WAKE UP!! THE BIG FOOT'S HERE!!"
Most of woke with a fall.
Hua Tuo entered the doorway.
" Okay, I'm ready, we can go now." He said, the stuff he was taking with him was a plain Chinese styled suitcase.
" The old man's coming?" Zhen Ji asked.
" Yeah! That's our part of the agreement, to set him free."
***************************************************************
They moved their way down the hill, trying to be very quite, Xiao Qiao tripped over a rock, nearly spraining her ankle.
After 2 hours later, the river of Ding Jun was seen, Zhen Ji rushed over.
" Yu! Let's stop now! We all want to get refreshed!" she yelled, cupping some water with her hands.
Zhou Yu turned around to look at all of them, they're either sweating like a pig, or panting like lion.
" Okay! We stop for 5 minutes!" he yelled, and most of them gathered around the river.
Da looked north, and saw some berries.
" Hey! Let me go pick some!" she said running over.
" Wait!" before Yu could've alarmed her, she's already there.
Da looked at the berries that were on the ground.
' Funny, these are half eaten, ahh...probably squirrels.' She thought, then she looked up a bit, and saw a giant bear paw.
As she moved a bit more up, she saw a creepy giant bear, more like a monster, its teeth covered with berry juice, it's red, which looked more like blood.
"AH!!!!" she yelled, and immediately took out her fans, its razor was only able to cut off some of it's thick fur.
Everybody heard her yell, and all their attention was now on the berry bushes.
Xiao saw her sister in danger, and dashed over, hitting the ground, she covered up her sister, not wanting her to get hurt.
The giant bear looked at Xiao, who now has her eyes closed, a chipmunk ran by, the bear firmly stepped on it, the blood of the animal sank in the soil.
This made Xiao more and more scared, she shivered loudly, the bear raised its paw, revealing its sharp hooks. Xiao Qiao screamed, the paw dropped down like a rock.
BANG! Was all they heard, Da cried in fright, " XIAO!!!" she yelled, then mumbled, " My sister!!!" she cried even louder.
" Yeah?" surprisingly someone replied. Da looked up, seeing Xiao still alive.
Then she got out from Xiao's coverage, and sees a boomerang retreating, the giant bear had its hand cut.
" WARH!!!!!" The bear roared loudly, Da immediately dragged the both of them out of the way.
The bear soon ran towards Zhu Rong, who threw the boomerang again, the bear knocked it out of the way, she took a rock from the ground and threw at it, didn't worked, she tried to retreat, but behind her was a river, she fell to the ground, protecting herself with her bare hands.
" ARGH!!!!" The bear was shocked by Zhen Ji's sound of the flute, it moved back, the sound caused him a headache, he went mad, and dig out the dirt from the ground, it knocked Diao Chan out cold, the bear came near to her.
However, SSX slashed it with her chakram, a small cut was seen. SSX kept on cutting, but the fur was way too thick, the bear whack her weapons away from her, she defended as she took Diao' s maces. Since she never used a mace before, she operated like a sword, the heavy end caused the weapon to get automatically thrown out of SSX's hand.
With no defense, she crossed her arms to cover herself. The bear soon dashed. Luckily, Zhou Yu got in front of her and slashed it with his Ancient Sword, the bear yelled, now a huge cut was seen on its stomach, he stared at Yu, and tried to aim.
However, Zhou Yu picked up some soil and threw it towards its eyes, it is now temporarily blinded.
Since its blind, it went the other direction, where no one was in the way.
Zhou Yu sneaked towards the river, and called everyone over.
" Okay, this river will lead us right down to the bottom of the mountain, in three, let's all jump in, and then ride on that log, be very quite though, the bear can detect us by its hearing." He said, everybody nodded, and got ready to jump.
" One!, two!, three!" he whispered, everybody jumped in except him, even Zhu Rong jumped in with Diao Chan in her hands.
Zhou Yu looked down, a grass weed got in his way, he cut it with his sword, and tried to jump again, however, this time, when he looked behind, the ferocious bear grabbed his robe, he poked its hand with the sword, it didn't let loose, so Zhou Yu took his robe off as quick as he can, revealing only a red trouser.
He jumped in, and quickly swam toward the log, Hua Tuo, Diao Chan and Zhu Rong was already up there, Zhu Rong pulled him and SSX up, Da and Xiao climbed on, Zhang He together with Yue Ying got pulled up by SSX. They all relaxed, until Zhou Yu yelled.
" Zhen Ji! Where's Zhen Ji??" Then realising that she was way ahead of them, crying for help.
Zhou Yu immediately jumped in the river, he swam towards her, grabbed her arm, however, that's when they realized, there's a water fall in front of them!!
" Everybody jump onto shore!!" Zhou Yu yelled, now grabbing the half unconscious Zhen Ji by the waist. Everybody already got onto shore, except them, Da Qiao ran fast and quickly grabbed Zhou Yu's hand, they stopped there right in the middle of the river, Da pulled hard, but it wasn't hard enough, so everybody came and helped her, another huge water current came, the group wasn't strong enough to hold onto him anymore, causing Zhou Yu to loose Zhen Ji a bit, Zhen Ji hit shore, and immediately woke.
She let out a yell after finding out where she is.
" You're awake! Thank god! You have to listen to me! See that rock over there? Swim over and grab it! I'll help you!" Zhou Yu said.
" What? That's way too dangerous! I'll die for sure!" she yelled, swallowing some water.
" Risk it! That's our best solution right now! The water current is way too strong!" he yelled.
" I can't do it!" she yelled in fear.
" Yes you can! Trust me! Even if it fails! I'll make sure that I catches you by the arm!" he said.
Zhen Ji cried, she looked into Zhou Yu's deep ebony eyes, and spoke again.
" Why don't you do it??" she asked.
" I would! If I'm as graceful and accurate as you!! Please try! I beg you!" he yelled.
After Zhen Ji heard those words, she smiled and nodded, Zhen Ji swam over to the upstream with the help of Zhou Yu, she tried to reach the rock, but the water kept on splashing her on the face, she looked at Zhou Yu again.
" You can do it! I believe in you!" he yelled.
Zhen Ji smiled, she roughly grabbed the rock, water kept on coming, but she never let go, she grabbed the rock wholly, and pulled herself up to shore, immediately after she got on, she aided the group, they tried once again this time with Zhen Ji, and they pulled Zhou Yu up.
They all panted, Zhou Yu came towards Zhen Ji and patted her on the back.
" Well done Zhen Ji! Keep up the good work!" he said grinning at her.
However, the ground shook bit by bit, Yu looked front, and sees the giant bear running towards them.
" Run downhill! Everybody!!" Zhou Yu yelled, everybody started running, they all ran as fast as rabbits, they all wanted to live.
They got near to carriage.
They sees the girls sitting in the carriage, Yu yelled.
" OPEN THE DOOR!! EVERYBODY JUMP IN!!" He said.
Ma Yun Lu immediately saw the bear, she open the door, everybody jumped in one by one, Zhou Yu stayed down to make sure that no one was behind, then he got pulled up by Ma Yun Lu to the front. Zhou Yu took the leash and pulled it, but the horses weren't moving much, he panicked.
" SOMEONE GET THIS DARN HORSE MOVING!!" Yu yelled, Ma Yun Lu suddenly jumped onto the horse, and it clamored, she used a whip to whip the horse, the carriage immediately began moving.
Zhou Yu panted hard, and laid back.
" Hua Tuo, where do you want to go now?"
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Don't flame me, it took me so long to write this chapter, I know it has nothing to do with the contest, we'll get right back to that in the next chapter.
Below is the final results of round 1, the number of votes represents the amount of special romance scenes with Zhou Yu in the next round.
1.Xiao Qiao- 12
2.Zhen Ji- 10
3.Da Qiao- 5
4.Diao Chan- 3
5.Zhang He- 1
6.Ma Yun Lu(Ma Chao's sis)- 1
7.Zhu Rong- 1
8.SSX- 1
These are the 8 people that'll be advancing, the voting booth is now closed, await the update of the next chapter to vote again.
P.S: Just for you to know, the number of votes will be reset in the next poll for more accurate results.
Chibipearlball.