
08-05-2007, 04:00 PM
I love Dynasty Warriors and I love to write. So I combined the two. For all you DW fans out there, I hope you'll come in and let me know what you think so far.
Xiao Qiao and Zhou Yu are two completely different people. Xiao Qiao is a female who loathes men of every kind. She believes that all men are the same. She refuses to have anything to do with them. Though all of the men in the town have always paid attention to her. Zhou Yu is a male who respects women. He believes that all people are different. He refuses to allow any man to abuse a woman just because she is woman. All the women he grew up around adore him. Zhou Yu and his family are visiting a friend who lives in Xiao Qiao’s village. In fact, it is Xiao Qiao’s own father that they are visiting. Zhou Yu lives alone with his mother and his best friend, Sun Ce. Sun Ce’s family also live there with them. So they aren’t really alone. Xiao Qiao’s father, Chao Zhi, walks up just now.
“Welcome gentlemen!” He said. Sun Ce’s baby sister stayed home to tend Zhou Yu’s ill mother. “Thank you for coming.”
“Your message sounded urgent.” Sun Jian said as they shook hands. “What’s the urgency?”
“I have a proposition for your son Sun Ce.”
“For me?” Sun Ce brought his attention away from the girl he’d been staring at. “What did I do?”
“Nothing. I want to ask if you would be willing to accept my daughter’s hand in marriage.”
“Your daughter?” He looked back at the girl. She was coming toward them.
“Here she comes now.”
“Father.” She kissed his cheek. “Is this the man you wish for me to marry?” She eyed Sun Ce up and down.
“Yes. Da Qiao, this is Sun Ce. He’s a very strong young man who I think could do you some good.”
“It’s a pleasure Lord Sun Ce.” She bowed to him.
“The pleasure’s all mine.” He bowed back.
“May I show you around town my lord?”
“I’d be honored.”
They walked off.
“Sorry I don’t quite have a daughter to wed to you Sun Quan.” He looked sheepish. “But I’m afraid you’ll just have to look elsewhere.”
“No problem.” Sun Quan shook his head. “Besides, if I married another daughter of yours, I’d be marrying my sister-in-law. Excuse me, Father may I talk to you?”
They walked off leaving Chao Zhi and Zhou Yu. They started walking.
“Excuse me Lord Chao Zhi.” He said. “Lord Sun Jian always told me you had three daughters.”
“Well, one of them is barely five years. Sun Ce is marrying my oldest.” Chao Zhi nodded as the two of them started laughing in the distance.
“What about the middle daughter? Lord Sun Jian said there were three.”
“Ah yes…there’s a problem with the middle daughter.” He scratched his head. Then he pointed.
Zhou Yu followed his finger to a beautiful girl standing in the shade. There was a guy on one knee in front of her holding out flowers.
“Please allow me to ask for your hand in marriage.” The guy said.
She took the flowers from him and hit him in the face with them. “Get away from me you pig!” She commanded. “Never will I have anything to do with you or any other man in this world! Now beat it!”
He turned away with his feet dragging. She folded her arms and glared at him.
“Harsh.” Zhou Yu said.
“That’s my middle daughter.” Chao Zhi said.
“That’s her?” Zhou Yu couldn’t believe it.
“Yep. The problem with her is…well…she hates any and all men. She insists that she will die an unmarried woman and happy as ever.”
“Why does she hate men so much?”
“I don’t know. She has as little to do with me as she does with every other man here.”
“It seems unfair. She’s not even giving a guy chance to prove he’s worth it.”
“Aye. I wish there were somebody who could show her the mistake she’s made her life. But no man is brave enough to try.”
“That’s a shame. She’s so beautiful. And even in anger, her voice is sent from the heavens. Any man would be lucky to have her for a wife.”
“Willing to try?”
“What?”
“If you can convince her to marry, then her hand in marriage is yours.”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“Once a month, I try and get her to marry. She refuses, we get into a huge argument, and she disappears for a week. It’s the same every month.”
“I still don’t think it would be such a good idea to try. She seems to have her mind made up.”
“I should give up on her. I keep telling myself that, but I never do. Hmm…I have an idea.” He called her over. She came over scowling.
“Can I help you?” She said.
“I have a proposition for you.”
“Again with the marriage? You know my answer. You should give up while you still have some dignity old man.”
“Now just hear me out.”
“It won’t do you any good.”
“Please, just listen to me?”
“Okay. But it still won’t do you any good.”
“I’d like you to meet Zhou Yu. Now here is where my proposition. What would you say to spending a week with him from breakfast to dinner? If by the end of that week, you still insist that marriage is worthless and you want no part of it, then I will never again bother you with it. But if you should decide otherwise, then you will in fact marry on the same day as your sister. You’ll marry Zhou Yu.”
“Wait a minute!” Zhou Yu objected. “I never said that I wanted to go for this weird twisted scheme of yours!”
“You’ll never bother me again?” Xiao Qiao looked thoughtful. “You don’t mean it of course. Nice try though.”
“No I do mean it.”
“Can I get that in writing?”
“I’ll have it in writing by the end of tonight. We’ll both sign it.”
“Hmm…”
“Zhou Yu? Willing to give my proposition a try?”
“I…uh…”
“I’ll accept you proposal if he does.”
“Well…oh…okay. I’ll try.”
“Then you’ll start tomorrow.”
The next day, Zhou Yu picked her up right after breakfast. They talked about nothing in general. They barely talked at all. At dinner, her dropped her back off. It went like that the second day and the third day. On the fourth day, they were sitting by a pond. They were ignoring each other just as they had the previous three days. When Xiao Qiao stood up and looked at him.
“You know what bothers me?” She asked putting her hands on her hips. “The fact that you men just prance around wanting to marry off us women as if we aren’t important enough to decide our own marriage! And that’s just one of the reasons why I hate men.”
“Care to tell me the rest?” Zhou Yu asked standing up and looking her in the eyes.
She looked into his eyes. “Well…it’s sort of a long story. I don’t really want to talk about it. At least…not here I don’t.”
“Is there some place else you’d like to go?”
Just then a man jumped down and stood by the pond.
“Not you again…” Xiao Qiao gave an exasperated sigh. “Do you ever give up?”
“No.” He said. “I’ll take your hand in marriage! I promise you that I will! Or my name isn’t Zhang He!”
“Promises are cheap…” Xiao Qiao turned away and started walking.
“They are not!” Zhang He went to stop her. But Zhou Yu stopped him.
“Obviously, she wants nothing to do with you.” Zhou Yu said. “So step off before you get in over your head.”
Zhou Yu didn’t say anything more. He just threw him into the pond. Then he walked off to catch up to Xiao Qiao. They went off to a hilltop where they could be alone. They sat down.
“Thanks for earlier.” She said putting her arms over her legs. “He totally creeps me out. Even if I didn’t hate men, I still wouldn’t marry him if he were the last man on the planet.”
“I don’t like him much either.” Zhou Yu agreed. “He seems perverted and overall idiotic. But you’re right. We shouldn’t force women into marry us. It is wrong. But it’s been the way of our people for so long that nobody really dares to challenge it.”
“Well I do!”
“This I have noticed.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just that…I haven’t exactly had good experiences with men. When my mom first married, her husband, Da Qiao’s mom, was abusive. He hit her on a constant basis. He was rough with her in bed. He treated her like a slave. And one night, he was drunk. He nearly killed her. Da Qiao was only a year old. The neighbors came and took my sister. The doctors took my mom and cared for her. After my mom recovered enough to be on her own, she took my sister and left. She remarried a year later. The man knew she couldn’t take care of herself, much less a baby. So he married her. He was gentle. He was my father. A month after he found mom was pregnant, he went off after some bandits and died. Mom said that he told her he knew it was a trap. But he wouldn’t back out of going. He was irresponsible and dared to do so with a mother who was expecting with a two-year old. Well…as it wasn’t right for a woman to have so much money, the money was given to charity and my mother stripped of her only means of survival because Mr. Prefect didn’t think she deserved the money. After he stripped her of her only means of survival, she left again, taking both of us with her. We ended up here. She remarried a third time. Only this time, the husband was extremely abusive. He hit her. He would throw my sister around. He would lock me up in small spaces without food. That went on for five years. My mother’s current husband found out about his abusive treatment. He arrested her husband and took us into his care. A few months later, mom married him. Mom and sister love him. But I know what he’s about. He’s just another male influence that doesn’t think we women are of much importance.”
“I’m sorry you’ve seen such horrible men. Some men are like that though, but now all men. For example, if your stepfather were like them, would he have made this proposition with you?”
“Well…”
“Would he be looking for caring gentle men who could care for and protect his daughters?
“I…”
“I’m not trying to upset you, but you do realize that he’s just trying to show he cares about you.”
“And how is that?”
“Well, he knows me. He knows that I would never raise my hand to a lady. He knows that, if we marry, you would be safe. He knows I would love you and protect you.”
“Would you love me? Or are you just saying that?”
“The question isn’t would I love you. The question is…do I love you?”
She looked at him. “Do you?”
“I do.” He looked her in the eyes. “I do love you. You’re beautiful, smart, fun, you speak your mind, and you aren’t afraid to challenge the selfish ways that is our history. What isn’t to love?”
“My word…”
“What?”
Xiao Qiao found herself caught in his eyes. She couldn’t take her eyes away from him. In his eyes, she saw commitment, truth, and love. She saw a kindness she never thought she would see in a man’s eyes. She also saw worry and an intelligence that could put Sun Tzu to shame. She was finally able to take her eyes from his. She looked away quickly.
“N, nothing.” She said. “I just…never expected someone who was as intelligent as you. I see what you’re doing. You’re using your intelligence to get on my good side because you know what makes me tick. It’s almost dinner time, we should be heading back.”
“What?” He got up and looked at her. “Hold on! Where did you get that idea?”
“We’re leaving now.”
She walked off. Zhou Yu scratched his head. Where did she get the idea that he would do something like that? He wondered why she would think that considering that she hasn’t said enough to him for him to know what makes her tick. He walked off after her. Xiao Qiao was silent that night at dinner. Zhou Yu couldn’t stop talking at dinner. They were in two different houses. Afterward, Xiao Qiao went straight to her room. She sat there looking at the window at the moon. She was unaware of her mother standing in her doorway. Zhou Yu was also standing at his own window looking at the moon. They were thinking of each other. But neither knew it.
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