Your POV
You peak around a wooden pole, staring at the men walking around with planks slung on their shoulders. Tents line up and down the grass, with red and yellow flags waving around in the wind on top of them. "Okay, this is it. Time to show 'em your man walk," Mushu explains.
"Man walk normally, you know-" Minsheng tries to inform. However, before you can hear him, you're already off doing your 'man walk'. You follow Mushu's advice, keeping your shoulder back, chest high, feet apart and strut. You can feel the weird stares stabbing through your body.
Perhaps this isn't a good idea. You walk underneath a tent, scrunching your nose at a man picking his own. "Beautiful, isn't he?" Mushu asks. Minsheng follows next to you and even he's disgusted.
"They're disgusting," you shudder.
"No, they're men," Mushu corrects.
"Hey, I'm right here," Minsheng rolls his eyes. "Besides, not men are like... that. There are some really nice ones out there. Take me for example." Minsheng grins at his last sentence. You punch his shoulder lightly, smiling.
"[Y/N]'s gonna have to act like these kind of men, so pay attention," Mushu says. You suddenly stop in front of a group of three men. One of them opens up his shirt, revealing a tattoo of a red dragon, who looks eerily similar to Mushu. "Look, this tattoo will protect me from harm," the man says proudly. The two other men hum and smirk at each other.
All of a sudden, the shorter man with a black-eye punches the tattooed guy right in the stomach. Tattoos falls right to the ground, grunting in pain. The skinny one laughs and points, cackling like a witch. "I hope you can get your money back," Skinny says in between laughs.
"I don't think I can do this," you mutter.
"Hey, it's okay [Y/N]," Minsheng reassures you. "Just... be yourself but a little bit tougher, you know? I don't want to say that you're not tough, because you are, I just mean-"
"It's all attitude," Mushu interrupts. "Be tough, like this guy here." He points to Black-eye, who spits at the ground and side-eyes you.
"What are you lookin' at?" he snarls as you back away. The last thing on your mind is causing a fight. If you want to make it out alive, you need to get on everyone's good side.
"Punch him, it's how men say 'hello'," Mushu says.
"Wait, [Y/N], don't-!" Minsheng yells. Unfortunately, you don't hear him in time. You've already punched Black-eye, who ran straight into a rounder and gentle-like man.
"Yao, you've made a friend!" the round man smiles, picking Yao up by the underarms.
"Good, now slap him on the behind. They like that," Mushu says. You take his advice and slap Yao on the behind. Yao clenches his butt and exclaims angrily. He grabs you by the collar and growls, "I'm gonna hit you so hard, it'll make your ancestors dizzy."
Minsheng grabs you away from Yao, pulling you closer into his chest. You quickly retract yourself from his arms. You don't want to draw any more attention to yourself. "Yao, relax and chant with me," Gentle Man says, taking Yao by the shoulders.
He rocks Yao from side to side, singing a small song as Yao growls and his face turns as red as a tomato. You raise an eyebrow at the scene. Yao sings along harshly with Gentle Man, his face becoming less red. He ends off his 'song' by muttering in gibberish.
"Feel better?" Gentle Man asks.
"Yeah," Yao mumbles, then turns to you once he's set down. "Ah, you ain't worth my time. Chicken boy."
As you turn to walk around with Minsheng, Mushu jumps out from your collar and shouts, "'Chicken boy'? Say that to my face, ya limp noodle!" Yao grabs your shoulder and spins you around. He pulls you in to punch you, but you duck down just in time.
Yao ends up punching Skinny across the face, knocking out a few teeth. "Oh, sorry Ling," Yao says sweetly, putting his hands together in an innocent manner. You try to crawl away, but Yao realises and pulls you toward him by the feet. Ling ends up kicking Yao in the behind, making him fly onto Gentle Man.
Ling joins them, jumping over your head and tumbling over them.
Minsheng snatches your wrist and pulls you away from the scene as it begins to escalate. You both stop in your tracks and glance around frantically. You've no idea where to go. "Oh, there they go!" Ling shouts, pointing at you and Minsheng.
You quickly run into the nearest tent and the three men follow behind you. You duck under a table and watch as the men run out the tent, thinking that you ran out as well. You cover your mouth and giggle.
You poke your head out of the tent and all you can see is a long pile of men falling over and dropping food everywhere. You wince. Suddenly, all the men turn to you and slowly start approaching. "Hey... guys," you say anxiously.
Minsheng steps in front of you, but not too much to the point it looks like he's protecting you. "Get them!" a man shouts in the crowd. You shriek loudly as they all start chasing you and Minsheng. You run as far as your legs can take you, not worrying about the pain in your hips.
Before you know it, you're in a crowd of men who are beating each other up. A few punches get thrown at you and you have no idea that this is how much punches hurt. You crawl up in a ball, and suddenly you hear a voice shouting out.
"Soldiers!" a male voice calls. All the men move out of the way and point to you.
"He started it!" they accuse. You move your hands away from your head and glance up to see a striking man standing in front of you. His jawline looks like it could grate cheese. You quickly help yourself up and brush yourself off.
"I don't need anyone causing trouble in my camp," he snarls, leaning in closer to you in an intimidating way.
"Sorry," you say a little bit high-pitched. You realise your mistake and try to talk deeply. "Uh... I mean, sorry you had to see that." You punch the man around the shoulder slightly. "But you know how it is when you get those manly urges, and you just gotta kill somethin'."
You slap your hands together, then shake them when you do it too hard. "Fix things... cook outdoors..."
"What's your name?" Jawline asks.
"Uh... I-, uh..." you stammer.
"Your commanding officer just asked you a question," the same blue-dressed man from the town growls.
"Uh, I've got a name," you say. "And it's a boy's name too."
"Ling, how 'bout Ling?" Mushu whispers.
"His name is Ling," you mutter, gesturing your head to Skinny behind you.
"I didn't ask for his name, I asked for yours!" Jawline says. You slowly start becoming more worried. Mushu whispering names in your ear, plus being yelled at by a really tall and intimidating man do not mix well.
"Try, uh, uh, uh, Chu!" Mushu says.
"Ah Chu," you say. Minsheng slaps his forehead beside you.
"Ah Chu?" Jawline repeats.
"Gesundheit," Mushu snickers. "Hah, I kill myself."
"Mushu," you draw out in a tone.
"Mushu?" Jawline asks again.
"No."
"Then what is it!"
"Ping! Ping was my best friend's name growing up," Mushu says.
"It's Ping," you finally say.
"Ping?" Jawline echoes.
"Then again, Ping did steal my-" before Mushu can finish his sentence, you grab his mouth and shut him up.
"Yes, my name is Ping," you nod.
"Let me see your conscription notice," Jawline orders. You follow his order and take out the notice, giving it to him. Jawline opens it and raises an eyebrow.
"Fa Zhou? The Fa Zhou?" Jawline asks.
"I didn't know Fa Zhou had a son," Blue Man says.
"Um... h-he doesn't talk about me much," you explain. You attempt to spit in a 'manly' way, but it takes a bit more effort than you thought. The saliva dangles from your mouth embarrassingly.
"I can see why," Blue Man mutters to Jawline. "The boy's an absolute lunatic." The men around you chuckle lightly.
"Okay, gentlemen," Jawline announces. "Thanks to your new friend, Ping, you'll spend tonight picking up every single grain of rice. And tomorrow, the real work begins."
You glance back and see everyone growling, punching their hands together or rolling up their sleeves. "You know, we have to work on your people skills," Mushu says.
"For once, I agree with the lizard," Minsheng nods.
"Hey, dragon. I thought we already established that," Mushu hisses.