BuDao and the gang rushed into the room and stated, "We cannot keep on waiting like this. Me and the brothers will climb this impossible mountain to get the flower."

"I will go too," said JiuTian.

"No miss. Please stay here. We will go. We need you here just in case something happened. You are the only one who could stabilize her condition."

JiuTian was annoyed but her words were true and she had to stay put in case of emergency.

"You are going ZhiMei?" asked BuDao. "I cannot allow you to go. You are a girl and it's a dangerous trip into the treacherous mountain."

"No, buts. I will go and it's final. With just few of you. I don't know what other trouble you might bring."

They packed and departed on the same day. With BuDao leading the way, ZhiMei reading the map, Ah Zhong taking care of the rear and ShiBa carrying their supplies, they went to into the mountain range.

On their way, they fought some wild beast and avoiding poisonous plants.

"But why are we stuck here now?" asked Ah Zhong who was deep in the swamp with quicksand sucking him in as he looked over to ZhiMei who was also in the same predicament.

"It's stated on this map," replied ZhiMei who rolled her eye backwards with a 'I told him so' expression at BuDao.

"It seemed like a shortcut to me."

"He just wanted to reach the flower faster," mentioned ShiBa who was holding the bag up but maybe due to the extra weight was sinking faster.

"ShiBa, throw away the bag, I think it's making you sink faster," said Ah Zhong.

"No, it's food," argue BuDao.

The three men was struggling in the quicksand in the swamp, and it was making them sink even faster now.

"Stop it, the three of you. You guys are making all of this worse," said ZhiMei who came closer to stop them but was pushed away instead and falling into the quicksand.

Everyone stopped when she yelled for help.

BuDao quickly grabbed her hand while Ah Zhong let go of the bag which made ShiBa to lose his footing and fell backwards. The bag was thrown away when the man tried to save himself and is now sinking on its own.

"Great day!" said ShiBa sarcastically.

"That would make two of us," stated ZhiMei who finally stood up but had sunk deeper into the quicksand. "Are you alright?" asked BuDao at the girl while slightly blushing.

"Yes, I am alright," replied ZhiMei shyly as well.

They were in their own little romantic world while the two tried to figure out a solution to save them. "We need to get out of this soon," said ShiBa. "Ah Zhong tried to grab the vine dangling close to you."

"I can't reach it," said Ah Zhong as he made several attempts at the vine which seemed so far. ShiBa took his hand and said, "Try to reach it again. I will help you balance."

It was a funny scene as two men held each other hand and forming a straight line as they tried to reach the vine. "I got it!" cried out Ah Zhong when he grabbed hold of it but when the man used his strength to pull it, the vine was rotten and fell on top of him. His face grew red.

"No. Don't-"

Before ShiBa could finish his sentence, Ah Zhong who was so angry threw the vine away.

"Stupid fool, you just throw away our chance."

"That thing was no chance."

"We could still use it as a rope."

"Opps."

They were all back at square one although their situation was worse now. Everyone was sinking up till their waist.

"We need to stir it towards us," stated ShiBa who thought of another plan.

BuDao who understood his plan, took of his waist tie, and gave it to ShiBa and ordered Ah Zhong to do the same.

ShiBa tied up all the waist ties together and made a rope and handed it BuDao who collected their outer clothes and made it into a ball. The man then fashioned it into something like a grappling hook.

The bald man used his full strength to swing it towards the tree trunk and he managed to do it on his first try. "Good job boss!" complimented Ah Zhong.

"If you had a good eye, you would have done it too," stated BuDao at Ah Zhong who wore an eye patch.

"I will pull us out, ZhiMei grab hold onto me, and I will bring us both out first," said the bald man.

"Yes," supported ShiBa.

ZhiMei held onto the side of his cloth.

"No, put your arms around my waist," said BuDao who was focused on the task on hand that he forgot about being courteous and grabbed hold of the girl's hand and wrapped it around his waist.

"There and don't let go. You might be stuck."

"Yes, I might," said ZhiMei who was showing a very girlish side of her as her face blushed madly while Ah Zhong and ShiBa snickered between themselves.

"Way to go!" teased Ah Zhong.

When they reached safety, BuDao swing it to the ShiBa and cried out to Ah Zhong. "Grab hold together. I can pull you both out together."

"Just do it one by one," said Ah Zhong who refused.

"I can manage both of you. Just do it like what I did with ZhiMei. It will be faster," said BuDao. "Come on. Don't be sissy about it."

Ah Zhong rolled back his only eye and reluctantly hugged ShiBa's waist so BuDao can rescue both of them together. Now it was ZhiMei's turn to snicker at the two men who was unhappily bound together.

With his immense strength BuDao got them out to the edge.

"Not so fast boss. Something is stuck. Wait-"

However, BuDao didn't quite hear him and pulled strongly. Ah Zhong and ShiBa was unstuck from the quicksand but their pants weren't and they appeared with a naked bottom.

ZhiMei quickly looked away while BuDao laughed loudly.

"Don't you dare to tell the others," said Ah Zhong as he put the pants on again after the three men tried their best to find it from the quicksand. One big butt stuck between two white butts, the three of them kneeled at the side of the quicksand and kept scouring in the sand until ShiBa found their pants.

"It's your fault for losing your pants," laughed BuDao.

"It's ShiBa's fault that he threw away the bag or else I would have an extra pair of pants and we wouldn't have to keep hauling in at the thing," replied Ah Zhong.

"Me? Who was it who was fighting with me and caused me to fall and lost the bag," argued ShiBa.

"Ehem. Maybe we should stop talking about this episode. We need to hurry for the flower," said ZhiMei as night was quickly approaching but before they could manage to move forward, a small man with the height of a child appeared in front of them.

With a knife, he shouted at them threateningly, "Give me all your valuables if you still value your lives."

ZhiMei laughed at him while the men behind her was busying wearing their pants. BuDao walked up to the small thief and told him, "Do you think you look at all threatening?"

"What are the odds ex-bandits being rob by another bandit and by such a small fellow as well," said ShiBa jokingly at Ah Zhong who laughed with him.

"I am not but my brothers are."

Suddenly from the shadows of the forest, emerged a bunch of men all having the same stature as BuDao. They were all bald as him.

"Seems like we entered a temple," teased Ah Zhong who stood confidently with his sword in his hand, ready to take on the bald men while ShiBa was struggling to secure his own pants.

BuDao too was ready for some action as the men rushed at him with their weapons. It was three against one, however, BuDao was stronger than them. Even though they were of the same build, but BuDao had more muscles compared to the others.

He parried their attacks, and using his left hand, grabbed hold the closest man's waist belt and threw the man away with pure strength. The man landed with his back against a tree and fainted on impact.

The other men looked with terrified eyes at the man that resemble a bear in front of their eyes as he moved in closer to them. However, one man braved himself and attack him. Upon contact, BuDao slide the sword down and using force to unable his opponent to counter him.

Seeing how his friend was overpowered by the man, the other man fled.

BuDao was victorious while Ah Zhong and ShiBa was having some difficulties on their side. They had the same number of enemies and with the two of them, they would have surely breeze through their fight however, it didn't go as well as they had thought.

Ah Zhong fought of the first attacker while ShiBa defended against the second one. Ah Zhong parried the first attack and countered his enemy. He swung his sword to the left while the enemy defended, his pants fell out again.

"What the?!" shouted Ah Zhong as his attention was forced away. He quickly tried to grab hold of his fallen pants. In his haste, his attacker attacked him.

But it was parried by ShiBa who finally managed to tie his pants tightly around his waist. "How old are you already that you can't tie a secure knot?" teased ShiBa.

Ah Zhong was annoyed but ShiBa helped him like he always does, and he appreciated it.

"It was the blasted, under the butterfly thing. I got confused," as he tried to evade one of the attacks that was directed at him by ducking down while ShiBa came to defend him.

"Are you done yet? I would like some help here," said ShiBa as two swords came flying at his way. He barely escapes by taking a step backwards to avoid them.

"I am trying my best here," said Ah Zhong as he struggled still with his knot. "Is it supposed to go down after the knot."

ShiBa took the initiative and managed to land a slash on one of the attacker's arms. However, it was still very hard for him to defeat three of them together until a thought flashed across his mind.

With a smile on his face, the clever man drew his opponent closer as they fought. He managed to be close enough.

"What are you doing? Move away!" cried out Ah Zhong who was behind them.

ShiBa swung his sword to the right, the man blocked it with his sword.

Using that opportunity, ShiBa faked a parry to his wide-open side, the man tensed up and ready to take the attack head on, but ShiBa stretched out his leg and hooked his foot and tripped the man.

The attacker was unbalanced.

"Hey! That almost kill-"

Before Ah Zhong could finish his sentence, ShiBa kicked the bandit with his foot and the man dragged Ah Zhong together with him into the quicksand.

Now there was one less opponent to deal with and also one less baggage that he had to care for. "Killing two birds with one stone," said BuDao as he came to help him.

"Indeed," replied ShiBa as they took down the last two of the bandits with ease.

The small bandit boss tried to jump into the fight to help his fellow bandits, but ZhiMei appeared from behind and said, "Don't move or you might lose your little life."

There was a sharp dagger on his little neck. He immediately surrendered, followed by the other two.

"Hey! One more over here," said Ah Zhong in the quicksand.

"Please let us go!" cried the little boss bandit.

"Alright," said BuDao without hesitation. The boss bandit and the others were quite confused and surprised.

"You shouldn't be doing this. Go find some decent work," advised ShiBa.

"We are uneducated. No one going to hire us," said the bandit boss.

Ah Zhong continued, "You are all quite well built. There are work which do not require education. You can be labourers, or bodyguards. Your martial art skills are quite good although not as good as ours."

"You can look for work at shops," said ZhiMei. "Just tell them that you are acquainted with Miss ZhiMei, and you will be hired."

"I didn't know that I could meet my benefactors. I will bring my brothers together and work under you. Thank you so much."

"Umm... one more thing," said Ah Zhong.

"What is it?"

"Could you guys provide me with a pair of pants?"

They looked at each other and they all laughed as ZhiMei still avoid looking at him, with his naked lower bottom. "Use a piece of leave to cover yourself up. It's unbecoming," said ShiBa laughing.

They bid the bandits farewell and continued on their journey while arguing with each other.

"That was a brilliant idea."

"No, it wasn't," said Ah Zhong. "ShiBa sacrificed me."

"You were a necessary sacrifice," mentioned ShiBa proudly as they moved further into the forest.

"Be careful," said BuDao at ZhiMei as she almost tripped on a branch.

"We reached," stated Ah Zhong as they appeared out into the open. They looked haggard, with mud on their messy clothes but they finally reached their goal.

"I thought we couldn't be able to reach the top?" asked Ah Zhong confused.

"They mentioned if you came here with intentions."

"Or so our fighting and arguing helped us?"

"Yes, I think so. It was by pure luck. We are so distracted with our situation that we are able to come here."

"Nice!" said Ah Zhong.

"Let's quickly find the flower then," suggested ZhiMei. "We still wasted a lot of time to reach here."

The group searched high and low for the plant, but no flower was blooming at all. Not even a bud was apparent.

"I thought that we wouldn't be able to come here but seems like they are others who came already," stated BuDao.

Tan Hua Hero

Back at the hideout, JiuTian was taking care of JinGe. She was too tired to even stay awake for long period of time and was asleep. "If, the flower is found. But could they really find it?" thought JiuTian.

Their chances of finding the flower, is relatively zero. "JinGe would surely die this time," thought JiuTian bleakly as she held onto JinGe's cold hands.

"BuDao and the rest haven't come back yet," thought the girl as she tried rubbing them to give them more heat when suddenly a loud shout was heard downstairs. The voice was familiar to others, but JiuTian recognized it instantly. It was LiRen.

"No wonder, I thought I had forgotten something when I left the forest," thought JiuTian, finally remembered how she had asked LiRen for help when their eyes met for a moment. But she had forgotten about him when she was walking out of the forest with HanFeng.

The scholar walked into the hideout, all haggard and dirty, exhausted with a wooden stick at his side. He had been using it to trek the dangerous slopes and unchartered roads in the forest.

"LiRen," said ShiBa as he greeted the man. "I-I mean we thought that you had went home."

"No, I did not. I just went into the forest to get some medicinal herbs for my mother and the hideout when I got lost in it. Then I saw JiuTian being kidnapped. I was so shocked. I tried to find her but got lost even further in the forest," explained LiRen for his absence these few days.

"You must be tired," said ShiBa, as he helped the man unload his entire luggage. His bag was full of plants and flowers, thought ShiBa as he peeked into it. The man called another brother to get some food and water for the tired man while laying the bad at the side of the table.

LiRen who was exhausted took a seat on the long table and then JiuTian appeared. She walked over to where he is. The man looked at her.

The scholar was angry, even his tiredness was forgotten. He stood up from his seat and pointed at her, "You, and all because of you. I was lost."

Even though she already knew that it was partly her fault, however she doesn't like his attitude and she argued with him, "Why is it my fault?" said JiuTian. "You were the dumb one to got yourself lost in the first place."

"I was looking for someone who was possibly kidnapped by a demon. I searched every cave and every nook of the forest. While searching for it, the sky began pouring but I continued. With low visibility and slippery ground, I slipped and fell into a ravine and almost died. However I did not, instead I sprained my hand and leg," said LiRen as he showed her his poorly bandaged hand and leg.

"I spent days and night trying my best to walk out from the ravine and arrived out of nowhere, and I had to climb over a high mountain to get back here," continued LiRen all in one breathe. The man then took his bag out, "And look some of my herbs which I had collected had turned dried and useless," said the man.

"Show me," said JiuTian which she regretted deeply afterwards.

LiRen picked out one by one the plants, herbs and flowers in his bag, "Look, this is the herb which I had to climb up the upper levels of a waterfall to get it, and the thing had dried up due to the long journey home. Its medicinal potential had turned from spectacular to nothing." He placed the herb on the table, and then another and another until there were a row of them in front of him, consisting of flowers, herbs and even mushrooms which he stated that he picked them as rations.

"I would have died without them," exclaimed LiRen.

"Then they are useful, aren't they which means that not everything you bought back had turned useless," argued JiuTian who had already forgotten the reason which she was so mad at him. She doesn't even know what it was that they were arguing about.

Everyone was almost gathered there, looking at the show which was acted out by LiRen and JiuTian.

In the middle of it, LiRen took out a beautiful white flower with pink tips. He shook the flower in front of JiuTian, in anger while saying, "This beautiful would have withered, if I hadn't able to hobble back home in one piece."

"As if I care, aren't you back already in one piece," said JiuTian who shook the hand which held the flower, and due to her powerful shook, a piece of petal from the flower flew off.

However, the flower did not land on the table, neither was it on the floor because ZhiMei, ShiBa, Ah Zhong and almost everyone there came forward to stop it.

ShiBa grabbed hold onto LiRen while ZhiMei onto JiuTian and Ah Zhong who caught the flower. The rest was gathered in a circle around them, all hands reaching for the three spots.

Because the flower in LiRen's hand was no ordinary flower, it was the TanHua Hou (Queen of the Night Blossoms). Everyone had seen a drawing of it which ZhiMei had copied and given a copy to, to make it easier to procure the flower and ask of it whereabouts from other merchants.

LiRen was shocked, and so does JiuTian. However, when the moment had calmed down, JiuTian finally realized too, and she took a good look at the flower.

"It is the TanHua Hou," she exclaimed loudly unable to contain her excitement.

ZhiMei took the flower from LiRen's hand carefully while everyone else did not even dare catch a breath as if they were afraid that the flower would disappear as if it was an imagination of their desire.

When it left his hand, and ZhiMei bought the flower a few steps far away from the circle with Ah Zhong following behind with the petal, the people finally relax and the man looked at each other, giving a wink at each other and carried LiRen up on their shoulders.

The scholar was nervous and anxious and said to them, "What's wrong? What are you guys doing? I am injured, please put me down."

However, they did not care as they were too happy and they threw him up in the air while chatting, "Hip Hip Hurray! Long Live LiRen, the Tan Hua Hero."

A party was held to celebrate this joyous occasion. "Long Live LiRen, the Tan Hua Hero," shouted everyone. "Drink up," offered Ah Zhong who treated the man differently after knowing how great he is. He did not save DaJie once, but twice. Everyone was very grateful towards the young scholar.

The young scholar feeling anxious and scared took his first gulp and thus began another rowdiest party he ever had.

While the party was going downstairs, the female doctor,LiRen's mother was checking up on JinGe's condition. After his fight with JiuTian, JianYu had been missing from the hideout. He had only left the instructions for the making the cure and nothing else. As he was a guest, everyone in the hideout wasn't too concern about his leaving. "He is the type who came mysteriously and leave abruptly," was everyone thought on his departure. Thus, they called for a doctor instead.

LiRen's mother placed JinGe's hand back under the blanket after pulling out the last needle and walked back over to the table and placed the needles which she had used back into her medicinal box. ZhiMei looked at the woman, anxiously waiting.

The woman looked at her and said, "She will be fine, I have followed through everything on the paper and if according to what is written on this piece of paper, then the girl will be waking up in another hour."

ZhiMei thanked the woman and sent her out. LiRen's mother saw him and stopped in her tracks.

"Is there something, you forgot?" asked ZhiMei.

"Oh, nothing. I did not forget anything," replied the woman with a smile. She was glad that her stepson seems to have met some really reliable friends, thought the woman and she left the hideout.

Shoes

The night had gotten rowdy but until midnight, everyone was exhausted, and each found their own place to sleep in the big hall. The young scholar was sleeping away among the pile of people here and there.

However, one of the men rolled over to his side with his foot in the scholar's face. It smelled really bad, and it woke up the young scholar up, at night. He looked around, there were all sleeping men, snoring away.

He shook his head, trying to remember the events that had happened and recalled that the all the girls had already returned back to their rooms on the second floor, leaving the men, drinking and drunk till they were all asleep which included the young scholar who weren't spared.

Awake and unable to sleep anymore, he walked away from the snoring men and decided to have a drink of water. He took a cup and flipped it, making sure the cup was empty and after pushing away one of the men, he stood up.

It was then he saw JinGe with her blue robe, standing at the end of the dock, above the pond. He walked over to her with the cup in his hand.

It seems JinGe was deep in thought, that she did not notice LiRen's presence even though his limping was making squeaking noise on the wooden dock. He tapped her shoulder, and she turned around. Strands of her hair gently flown as the night's cold wind ran through it, she smiled at him.

It was a perfect smile, thought LiRen however, hidden beneath the smile, he could sense the sadness and heartache projected behind it.

"I heard it from the others. You were the one who had gotten the flower," said JinGe. "Thank you."

"I was just lucky," replied LiRen.

She curtsied to him and again thanked him.

"You do not need to be so modest," said LiRen as he stopped her midway. "If it was any other, they would have surely done the same for you."

She smiled at him again, this time, a real smile from the heart.

"I also heard that you argue with JiuTian," said JinGe.

He laughed, a small brittle laugh, as he was nervous finally in the long time, they were together, he was finally alone with the girl he loves, "I was just angry at how she abandon, forgotten and did not care about me."

"I wished to apologize on that on her behalf. There are many problems we are facing right now and mainly she was worrying about me," said JinGe as she took out a pair of shoes.

She gave it to him. "This is a thank you gift. It's not much but I made it myself." It was a pair of beige coloured shoes that had a simple pattern strewn across.

"This is wonderful. I never had anyone made shoes for me," thanked LiRen. "May I?" JinGe nodded as he sat down on the dock and eagerly tried them on but carefully avoiding injuring his foot further.

JinGe took a seat next to him and said, "Does it fit?"

"Yes. Fit as a fiddle."

She collected the old pair and noticed there were slash marks underneath them. "Did you do this?" she asked. He nodded. "I did. It helps to mark my things. I taught my first love and the habit become mine as well."

"First love?"

"Yes, I met her when someone bullies stole her embroidery shoes, and I helped get them back. I fought with the bullies and even got beaten to a pulp," said the man as he began punching the air.

"I came back with eyes bruised black and purple, but she was really happy when I returned it to her. Apparently, they stole a lot. There were a lot of 'shoes'. I don't even know which one were hers, so I bought back everything. I taught her then to mark the shoes like this," said LiRen proudly as he recollected the memories.

"The world is really small," thought JinGe. "He was the one who helped me when I was younger. Before I even become Sun YuQiao, before I meet LiQin."

"Did you meet her again?" asked JinGe even though she already knew the answer.

"No, I was forbidden by my mother to go out after that. She also kept me close whenever we go out for a house visitation, but I managed to escape when the nun was sick and we went back to the temple, but I couldn't find her anymore," he laughed.

"But she was my first love. I hope that she would be happily married now with children of her own and teach them this skill."

Her face slightly turned sad, and JinGe changed the topic, "Anyway about JiuTian, she was just blinded momentarily by anger. I hope that you will forgive her."

"Sometimes words carried weight and shouldn't be simply said," said LiRen whose words still carried some resentment.

"It's fine to be mad. It's normal and understandable. If I was you, I would probably be mad as well," said JinGe, her voice seems to sound a little bit more cheerful. "To be angry, to be sad and to be happy, is how a normal human would feel."

LiRen looked at her; somewhat the words which she spouted somehow carried a different meaning. The way she said it, made him feel that she seems really like another being from the another realm, "'Celestial' the name really befits her," thought LiRen. However, it was also such thoughts that motivate and gave him the bravery to do what he was bound to do next.

The scholar grabbed hold onto JinGe's hand and said the words which he had kept hidden in his heart. "Do not go. This is your home. You belong here, with us, with me. Would you marry me?" he said the whole sentence in one long continuous breath.

She was stunned, it was her first time being proposed. The relationship with YongSan, was something which was expected, something which would eventually fall into place; thus he never asked her and when the time was right, he went to ask her hand in marriage directly from her father and with ZhenYu, they were already married, therefore she was never directly ask in marriage.

LiRen continued, "Although, I am not very successful, or very talented neither am I very rich. Although, you are the head of this merchant group, and you are beautiful and even though you are married and have two children already. I do not mind. I mean I do not mind you are married and have children. I appreciated that you are beautiful. I like how you are honest and kind and also gentle," said LiRen who started to ramble as his mind was in a frenzy. He himself did not believe how he could have said such words.

JinGe looked at him, and then he stopped, and he looked at her.

"Marry me," said the man with a self confidence that JinGe never saw before in him. It's as if he was another person.

"It seems I can't sneak my way out of this," thought JinGe and she told him.

However, he did not hear her words because at that same moment, JiuTian called out towards JinGe and ran in her direction, hugged her tightly and powerfully that JinGe could not hold on to the dock and they both fell into the pond.

"Clumsy," said JiuTian towards JinGe.

"You are the clumsy one," replied JinGe as she splashed some water towards JiuTian, who retaliated with the same move. LiRen laughed and it made the girls notice him and they both splashed water at him as well. They played around for a few minutes until ZhiMei heard their ruckus and they were all scolded, especially JinGe.

"You have just recovered from a fatal wound and a crazy illness, and you tell me you were playing in the water at the middle of the night, because it was fun," scolded ZhiMei at the three.

"JiuTian should be more responsible and LiRen too, you should have stopped them, not join in the fun."

ZhiMei scolding them felt just like how a mother would and it made them felt childish again.

I am not very good at comedy, but I hope this chapter about the ex bandits and new bandits might be funny to you. What do you think?

What did you think about LiRen unexpected heroism (of finding the flower)?

See you again in the next chapter!