“I challenge you to a duel!”

Chen looked down at Su Qin, obviously taken aback by her demand, and after a brief pause, scoffed. “Young lady, are you serious? I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

Su Qin glared at him, and scoffed, “What? You’re scared?”

Chen’s face flushed as he shot back.

“Of course not! How could I be scared of such a small fragile-looking girl like you.”

Su Qin smirked in response and beside her, Baixue was shaking her head, her face filled with worry. She wasn’t worried for Su Qin but rather for the young man who had brought out the young miss’s fighting spirit. As the crowd backed away to form a large clearing, it grew larger, drawing in more curious onlookers. The previous fighters handed them each a wooden practice sword, and Chen began his warm-up with a chain of expertly executed swings, jumps and spins. To anyone passing by, it would seem as if he was performing a sword dance alone. Once he finished, the crowd clapped and whispers drifted through the air. Everyone was impressed by the young man’s skill. Chen took a glance at Su Qin, expecting an expression of regret and was ready for her to apologize, call off the match and possibly scurry off but what he saw instead was a smug smile that sent a chill down his spine.

“This gentleman appears to know a bit of swordplay.” She mocked.

A bit?! 

Chen couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Originally he had planned to go easy on this girl, but now he decided he would teach her a lesson. I’ll finish her off so fast she won’t know what hit her.

“Hey! Are we going to start or not?”

Su Qin’s voice shook Chen back out of his thoughts. She was impatiently toying with the sword hilt but once she saw that Chen had regained his focus, she grinned. The mischievous glint in her eyes unnerved him and he began to wonder if he had made a mistake. There was no time for him to doubt his decision, as the countdown had begun.

“Three!”

“Two!”

“One!”

“START!”

He leapt forward, the tip of his sword aiming directly for her throat. All he had to do was let his sword touch her once. Just once, and the match would be over. There was nothing for her to lose, but he was a man. There was no way he would or could ever lose to a girl. That was just impossible. Yet she had evaded his every attack easily. She had done nothing but step from side to side, from front to back, but he just couldn’t hit her no matter how fast he swung at her. It was almost as if she could predict his every move.

“How dull.” Su Qin murmured.

Chen stopped, panting. He glared at her, and to his dismay there was not even a drop of sweat on her face and she had now completely disregarded his presence to inspect the wooden sword. He saw this as a chance, and charged forward. Su Qin side stepped once again but this time, instead of continuing to dodge his strikes, she moved towards him. As she passed him, Chen heard her let out a sigh, and barely caught the words she had whispered under her breath.

“Ah... this isn’t fun at all.”

The next thing he knew, she was behind him, he was on the ground, his sword up in the air and hers pressed against his neck. He gulped when his sword came back down and hit the ground between his legs with a clatter.

Su Qin withdrew the sword as the crowd clapped, whistled, and cheered. She smiled down at Chen, whose defeat had rendered him speechless and the shade of a just ripe tomato.

“The general Su’s manor holds free martial arts lessons every five to six days. Come take a look, you’ll need the help.”

Su Qin threw the sword towards the little boy from the match prior to her and Chen’s and asked, “Boy, what’s your name?”

The boy answered quickly, “Bing.”

Su Qin smiled.

“I - my miss likes talented boys like you, Bing. Feel free to drop by the manor. You could take the more advanced classes... unlike the young man on the ground over there.”

Chen scowled as she walked away, his face still beat red. There was nothing he could say. He had lost.

Baixue giggled and held onto Su Qin’s hands.

“Miss, you were super cool just now.”

“I was, wasn’t I.”

Baixue nodded and beamed.

“My miss is the best after all.”

That day, the story tellers had a new tale. It told of the fierce young girl from the general Su's manor, who had defeated a very upright gentleman with a single blow. To those who were not there to see it, the image of a girl standing next to the defeated body of a man was impossible to envision and the story was passed off as just another one of the story tellers' nonsense tales. Those who were there to witness the fight, however, all agreed on one thing: if a young maid, still a child, from the general's manor were so skilled, then even more so must be their seasoned and trained warriors. In the future, the general would surely be a man of power and an important asset to the country.