Gateway to Happiness - Chapter 61

Chapter 61: An Embarrassment

Xiao Xue and Xiao Yu had only watched two rounds before turning slightly pale. Xiao Xue could not bear watching the fight anymore.

The cockerel kept attacking the other bleeding cockerel which was fleeing for its life like a frightened mouse. While everyone was laughing and entertained, Xiao Xue could not help taking in a deep breath and turning away from the fight.

Xiao Yu tugged Xiao Xue’s arm and begged, “It’s terrifying! Can we… can we not watch anymore?”

Xiao Xue glanced over to her sister and brother, as well as Lin Fang and the others, who were watching with excitement. She was hesitant as she could not understand their interest in such a grotesque display.

Xiao Yu shooked her arm and urged, “Let’s go somewhere else! I heard that there’s a lot of other fun and interesting stuff to see! We’re wasting our time here!”

Xiao Xue nodded in agreement, “Alright, I’ll tell my brother and sister first.”

Lu Xiao Shu was astonished. “The cockfight is so interesting! You don’t want to watch anymore?” She could not help adding, “This is such a rare chance that doesn’t come by often!”

“I don’t want to! I don’t want to! I want to go elsewhere. I’ll come back here to meet you, okay?” Xiao Xue shook her head hastily as she thought: It’s best if I don’t see any more of this else nightmares would come haunting me at night!

“Okay!” Lu Xiao Shu simply smiled, “It’s very crowded out there so you need to be careful of pickpockets! You can come back here to meet us. If we’re not here, you can just wait at Ying Xian Ju or leave a word to the shopkeeper there. Anyway, the town is only this big, we’ll find each other no matter what.”

“Okay. Then, I’ll go walk around outside.” Xiao Xue replied with a grin.

“Okay!” Lu Xiao Shu grinned in reply.

Finally, Xiao Xue and Xiao Yu regained their spirits. Hand in hand, they squeezed through the crowd and chatted happily, heading towards the bustling street where various trinkets were sold and acrobatics were performed. Soon, it was Lu Xiao Shu’s cockerel’s turn to fight.

Lin Fang ordered Cricket, “Go send it into the ring.”

Cricket glanced at Lin Fang with narrowed eyes. Lu Xiao Shu could see the hidden bitterness behind them.

“What are you waiting for? Why are you staring at me?” Lin Fang snapped.

“I can do it if you’re afraid.” Lu Xiao Shu volunteered.

“No!” Lu Qi and Lin Fang both disagreed just as she finished her sentence.

“You should just stay here! Do you see any girls going up there?” Lu Qi lectured.

“He’s right. You should just stay here and watch. Let Cricket do it.” Lin Fang said before turning to urge Cricket, “Go now! If we get disqualified, you better watch out.”

“Alright, alright, Master!” Cricket sighed as he unwillingly brought the cockerel up into the fighting ring.

Lu Xiao Shu asked curiously, “What’s up with him? He’s not a scaredy cat. I don’t believe he’ll be afraid of this.”

Lin Fang avoided her eyes and faked a cough, “Who knows what’s going on in his mind? Anyway, everything is fine now that he has brought it up.”

“Yes! You’re right!” Lu Xiao Shu grinned as she fixed her eyes on their cockerel. She muttered nervously, “You must not fail! Make it into the semi-finals, then the finals, and finally win me the first prize! Your days will be a luxury after this!”

Seeing that both parties had sent their cockerels up, the referee dropped his hands as a signal and the man in charge of the gong hit it loudly. “Gong!”. It was time for both owners to let their fighting cockerels loose and provoke the cockerels to fight each other.

Unexpectedly, when Cricket bent down to hold their cockerel in place, he was confused and did not know what to do. As the gong rang out, their opponent had long let go of their cockerel and it was heading right at them. Only when Cricket felt the wind of its flapping wings, he promptly let go of his cockerel with a shocked yell. Surely, his cockerel had no time to react as it got pecked ruthlessly by its opponent. It shrieked before fleeing for its life.

The audience guffawed at the scene.

The owner of the opponent cockerel could not help laughing along as he shook his head at Cricket. He crossed his arms behind his back and left the ring with a gleeful look while Cricket’s face was as red as a tomato.

The referee shouted, “Boy! Don’t stand there! Get out of the way! It’s not your stage here!”

Again, the audience could not help doubling over in laughter.

Cricket was blushing heavily as he turned and fled the scene.

Lu Qi kept expressionless as he tried his best to keep a straight face. He had always known that Lin Fang was unreliable when it came to getting things done.

Lin Fang looked rather irritated as his eyebrows furrowed together. Frankly, he was no different from Cricket as he knew almost nothing about cockfights. They thought that it was just cockerels fighting. As long as they had a cockerel that could fight, they struck gold! But when it came to the rules and how things work, err…

Of course, Lu Xiao Shu’s expression said it all as she turned towards Lin Fang wordlessly.

Cricket came back feeling embarrassed while Lin Fang snapped at him, “You’re such an idiot! Can’t you see how they do it after watching so many rounds of the fight? Look at what you’ve done!”

“Enough. That’s enough!” Lu Xiao Shu said.

Only then, Lin Fang let poor Cricket off the hook before going back to watching the fight.

Their current situation was a complete embarrassment as they watched their prized cockerel get beaten up. They were full of hope for it to win them the first prize. But now, all it was doing was fleeing and evading the attacks.

The audience was howling with laughter at the fight.

It was supposed to be an intense and nerve-whacking cockfight, yet it turned out to be a comedy.

Coincidentally, a man beside Lu Xiao Shu laughed head over heels as he exclaimed, “I can’t take it anymore! This is ridiculously funny! Gosh! Is it possible that the organizer staged this as a joke?”

“Haha! I think so too!” Another man laughed.

Lu Xiao Shu was very pissed off. She felt embarrassed as she turned around and squeezed her way out of the crowd, leaving the cockfight.

They probably got the last place and the audience would have agreed to it.

“Xiao Shu! Xiao Shu!” Lin Fang hurriedly followed her anxiously when he saw her leaving. “Xiao Shu, I didn’t know…”

“You don’t have to say anything. I’m just out for some fresh air and I don’t blame you anyway.” Lu Xiao Shu said unhappily, “What’s gotten into you? If you can’t make something happen, why must you be so boastful? Now that we’ve seen the truth, it hurts to be lied to!”

“I didn’t expect it to end up this way…” Lin Fang replied in dismay, “God knows that the cockerel was useless! Damn it! Others claim it is the king of cockfighting! What a scam!”

Seeing that he still stubbornly called that failure the “king of cockfighting”, Lu Xiao Shu got worked up again as she stomped her feet and complained, “Would you listen to yourself? What is there for me to say?”

Calling that joke the king of cockfighting? Then the other cockerels must be the saints of cockfighting! Perhaps even saints at their prime!

“I’m not lying! It really is the king of cockfighting!”

“You must have been scammed!” Lu Xiao Shu exclaimed, “Which bastard dares to play tricks on you? Come on, we’ll go teach him a lesson!”

“Erm…” Lin Fang felt momentarily awkward.

Lu Xiao Shu scoffed before leaving.

“Xiao Shu!” Lin Fang chased after her hurriedly.

Lu Xiao Shu snapped, “You’re a big fat liar! Stop following me! Leave me alone! If you dare to follow me, I’ll hit you!”

She left angrily.

What was wrong with him? If he could not find a good fighting cockerel, then he should just not do it! There was nothing wrong with it since she did not request him to find one no matter what. She was not an unreasonable person, but he should have never lied to her!

He bragged so much, yet what he delivered was a bluff. Today, she felt like she was lied to and tricked. It felt terrible!

“Xiao Shu!” Lin Fang wanted to follow her when he realized that she really was mad about it. Out of the corner of his eye, something behind him caught his attention. It shocked him greatly as he stopped right in his tracks. Forgetting about chasing Lu Xiao Shu, he turned and fled through a little alley at the side.

Lu Xiao Shu angrily walked a distance before realizing that no one was following her. She could not help feeling more annoyed as she stomped her feet and huffed, “What an insincere person he is! He was the one who tricked me, but he can’t even take a few words of criticism!”

She complained to herself for a moment before she got fed up with caring so much. She joined into the bustling crowd to watch the fun.

On the other hand, Lin Fang escaped to the alley with haste. He ran a distance before stopping to pant heavily, thinking to himself: That was close!

Yet a cold laugh resonated in front of him. He froze as his blood ran cold.

Lin Fang raised his head to find his third brother, Lin Huan, standing in front of him with a wide grin. The only problem was that the smile was formed from his muscles pulling on the skin while his eyes were full of anger and coldness.

Lin Fang forced himself unable to speak while he looked behind to flee, yet he found that his path was blocked by two servants.

“Third, Third Brother… Haha, what a coincidence!” There was nothing Lin Fang could do as he turned back to face his brother with a forced smile.

“Coincidence? I don’t think so. I came here looking for you.” Lin Huan said with gritted teeth. He leisurely walked to his little brother and scoffed, “Little bast*rd! You’re getting ahead of yourself! So it was you who stole my king of cockfighting, and made it lose! Do you know what you cost me with that lost?”

Lin Huan grew angrier as he spoke. He jabbed his brother’s head forcefully and snapped, “It would be fine if you lost, but look what you did to my king of cockfighting! It became a laughing stock!”

He thought of how he had looked for it the entire night, only to find his precious cockerel getting beaten up in a c*** fight. Furthermore, Cricket’s idiocy almost triggered him to go up there himself to beat him up.

Lin Fang suddenly felt enraged when he heard that. He said indignantly, “You’re blaming me? Huh? How could your cockerel be the king of cockfighting? You should have more integrity! You’re to blame for my embarrassment! I didn’t do anything to it since I got my hands on it last night. It was simply that way from the beginning!”

“You!” Lin Huan glared at him, “You didn’t do anything? Don’t you know that it’s even worse than doing anything at all? Don’t you know that the night before is the most important? How would you have known anything about preparing and training it? You didn’t do anything, how would it be in any state to fight? Damn it! You and I have nothing more to say!”

Lin Fang could not help realizing his mistake as he hung his mouth wide open.