World Men à la Mode

Chapter Fifty-five - Forbidden City

~IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE - Voting has started for the next story! The options are in the Author's Note at the end!~

You thought that the one morning in Austria was bad, but how wrong could you have been? Get ready for possibly the worst morning on the trip so far. The alarm you set, or at least you thought you set, didn't go off. Samantha, having thought you set your alarm as well, didn't set her own because of it, thinking that yours would wake her up. Valerie never set an alarm, so she really didn't care if one went off or not. If it was up to her, the three of you would stay in bed all day and sleep. You, however, were not about that life. At least not most days that is.

When you finally woke up, you slapped your hand around on the nightstand to find your phone. Upon checking the time, you bolted upright, yelling for Valerie and Samantha to get up. The three of you only had a half hour to ready yourselves for the day, and that was not enough time for everyone to shower and do whatever else was included in your usual morning routines. Valerie and you forgoed showers, praying that a quick wash up in the sink, some dry shampoo and baby powder, and your deodorant would cover you until you could shower before bed. Not only that, but you managed to stub your toes against the wooden bed frame not once, not twice, but three times in your haste to find everything you needed. You were pretty sure you got a splinter, but that would have to wait until later.

The three of you were then late to breakfast, but not by much. During your meal, a nearby family's kids were hollering and carrying on about how they didn't want to eat what was on their plates, causing you to obtain a rather throbbing headache. Yao then received a call from the company your bus was rented from and was told that it was out of service for the day. However, he assured you that he would pull some strings to get another bus for the group. Well, that didn't happen for another two hours, so there you sat with your pounding head in the lobby after returning to your room to take a speedy shower and take care of that splinter you had gotten Unfortunately for you, you had run out of headache medication a few days ago and had forgotten to stop at a pharmacy to purchase more. Not wanting to bother your friends or Alfred or Yao for pills, you kept your mouth shut and prayed that you'd have free time sooner rather than later.

Yao, the kind soul that he is, noticed the way your brows furrowed and how you winced at every loud noise and offered you a pain reliever. You hesitantly accepted it and thanked him. From there, your morning got better. Your first stop of the day was at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall, where you all learned how to use a gun safely and took some practice shots at the various targets they offered.

You were having a bit of difficulty aiming, so Alfred came up behind you to help. He placed his hands over yours, causing a soft pink blush to dust over your cheeks. He instructed you how to breath to help you keep focus as he guided your hands to aim at some of the clay pigeons there were launching. This felt very much like a scene out of a movie as you pulled the trigger on his whispered command and took down the now crumbling scrap of clay. The blond praised you and gave you a hug after making sure you turned the safety on the gun back on.

After another hour of practice, your time at the range was up, and the group headed out to Tiananmen Square, one of the world's largest city square's, which housed Tiananmen, the gateway to the Forbidden City, as well as a hundred twenty-one foot tall obelisk. Yao led the group through the gate and showed everyone around the plaza, noting the various gates and archways you passed through before stopping before the Forbidden City.

"Welcome to the Forbidden City!" Yao began. "This palace complex served as the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty. That's 1420 to 1912 for those of you who don't know that dates. It includes nine hundred eighty buildings and is the epitome of traditional Chinese palatial architecture. This was the political center of China for about five hundred years until the last emperor of China was abdicated in 1912." He moved the group inside of the Palace Museum to continue explaining. "The Palace Museum, which we are now in, was formed in 1925. During Japan's invasion of China in 1933, much of the national treasures housed here were evacuated. After the end of World War II, some of the collection was returned here while the other half was moved to Taiwan due to Chinese Civil War. Today the Forbidden City is a World Heritage Site," he concluded.