3.
Zhou Que had been riding for days now. He didn't sleep well, the last couple of days. He knew that he would be hunted by the bandit group. As Li Gan probably was appointed as new bandit leader, they wouldn't rest until they found him. And although he was a skilled swordsman, a whole gang of bandits would be too much for him. So he rode, until he saw a village where he could rest.
But he didn't see any village in almost another week. When he finally entered the local inn, he could barely stand straight. "Good day to you sir." the owner spoke kindly. " You look exhausted, you're seeking for a place to stay at night?" Zhou Que tried to smile, but without success. "Yes please" he said shortly. "Can I enter right now?" he asked. "You can sir. There is an empty room in the hallway over there. It's the third room on your left." Zhou Que nodded and paid the owner. "Thank you sir, have a good night." the owner said. Zhou Que walked into the hallway. He opened the door and took a look at his new room. It looked quite comfortable, but didn't everything after traveling for weeks? No matter, he would sleep well this night. He laid down, and as fast as he slept in, he woke up. One of the maids woke him for dinner. A little cranky he stepped out of bed. But he was glad the maid woke him up, because his meal wasn't any decent on his travels. And he could really us a good meal right now. After that he went straight to bed again. And slept whole night long.
He woke up late , around one o'clock in the afternoon. He was surprised, he knew he was tired yesterday, but he never knew that he'd be this tired. Mostly he woke up around six o'clock, when he lived with the bandits…He shook his head, better not think of that right now. He had to think what to do next. Anyway, he had to eat some breakfast. He walked down the hallway, when the owner saw him he smiled. "Finally awake, good sir? You look much better than yesterday evening." Zhou Que smiled, "Thank you" he said. It was nice that someone acted nice towards him. He only heard bossy commands for a long time. He gave the innkeeper some extra money. "May the heavens bless you, good sir." He said gratefully. After a hearty breakfast, Zhou Que left the inn. The first thing to do was to go buy some food, he thought.
When he left the village, he didn't have an actual destination. He just went somewhere, hoping he would find a place to stay. He couldn't stay at one place for too long. The risk that the bandits would catch up with him was too big. After riding for two days, he suddenly noticed something. The city he was about to enter, was truly large. It was a magnificent sight to behold. On a sign in front of the city gate, there was written something. Zhou Que looked closely, it said:
'Jiangdong, home of Sun Ce, leader of the Sun clan.'
He heard of the Sun clan before. It was a great family, who did good deeds to the land. But that Sun Ce was their leader was new to him. He heard of the leader that he was called 'the Tiger of Jiangdong'. Sun Jian was his name, he remembered. Did he die? Well, it didn't matter much, as long as he could stay here for a couple days he was satisfied.
As he walked though the city gates, he could not help but notice the large amount of soldiers walking through the city halls. But it was not like they suppressed the people, they even greeted each other. "It looks like this Sun clan has a lot of authority around these parts." Zhou Que thought. He walked into an open field of grass within the village. It was nice and the sun shined down just softly enough, so that it would not be an intense light, but a beautiful light. He walked toward it. As he stood in the middle of the field, he felt peaceful. And suddenly that feeling of peace changed in a feeling of fear. Up ahead, a group of men, leaded by one man, started walking toward him. Zhou Que knew instantly who the leading man was. It was Li Gan.
Without saying a word, Li Gan drew his sword and gave the attack order. Every bandit charged at Zhou Que. Zhou Que also drew his sword, for he knew that he couldn't count on any mercy. He killed the first bandits quite easily, but then the bigger numbers came, and it became a truly hard fight.
One by one, the bandits fell to Zhou Que's blade. But the bandits just kept coming, and Zhou Que knew he couldn't hold on for long now. To his relief, Li Gan ordered the bandits to stop fighting. But there still was an uneasy feeling. "Don't think this is mercy." Li Gan said angry. "You and I will fight this out in a duel." he said. The bandits formed a circle around them. They were all cheering Li Gan on. And the battle was about to begin.
Li Gan swept his sword horizontally to Zhou Que. Zhou Que jumped backwards, and formed a counter attack. He slashed at Li Gan diagonally, only so Li Gan had no choice but to roll forward. And he did. As soon as he rolled toward Zhou Que, Zhou Que kicked him back, as Li Gan Fell on the ground. "Could it really be this easy?" Zhou Que asked himself, but as soon as he thought those words, he took them back, as Li Gan flipped back on his feet almost immediately. He looked furious. "Fine then! There is no need for us to fight, I have an entire bandit group under my command! Shoot him!" Zhou Que lost all the hope of living he had left. This was it, he was going to die. He heard the sound of bows shooting of their arrows, it were almost fifty bows. He closed his eyes.