"The art of war says, 'Know yourself and know your enemy.' Since I know my opponent is Xiang Yu, I also know he will not hold out. You will definitely fight me at the roundabout. I will not supply you with supplies and will arrive before you."
"That won't help. At most, we'll be one after the other. If you want to avoid my advance and take over Nan Yi Primary School first, I'll follow you in relentlessly."
"So I'll leave two thousand men for you to eat. As long as I can hold you off for a moment, my vanguard will head straight for Nan Yi Primary School. I'll also leave five thousand men to defend the four alleys along the only route from the roundabout to Nan Yi Primary School. It's a winding path, and one man can hold off ten thousand. By the time you clear it, I'll have already found supplies again at Nan Yi Primary School and set up camp."
I couldn't help but say, "From the roundabout to Nan Yi Primary School, you can get there by climbing over a wall. I went to Nan Yi Primary School myself. After I finished playing video games, our head teacher would block us in Sidao Lane, and I would escape by climbing over the wall."
Xiang Yu stared at the map and said, "If I take away your two thousand baits, it's equivalent to ten thousand against eight thousand. Do you still have a chance of winning?"
I added, "They're not going to just stand there and let you kill them, are they?"
Xiang Yu and Hua Mulan simultaneously scolded me, "Shut up!" I quickly fell silent.
Later I realized that it's the same principle as fighting. If ten people surround two people and they fight, even if the two people fight desperately, it will be useless. At most, they can only cause minor injuries to a few of the ten people.
When Mulan heard Xiang Yu's question, she confidently replied, "Let's talk after you've passed the Fourth Alley. By then, you'll have at most three thousand men left, while I'll have already captured South No. 1 Primary School, putting us in a defensive position again..."
Damn it, I dare say if the teachers and students of Nan Yi Primary School were to resist, Mulan's army would be utterly defeated. I went to school there from a young age and know very well that the school has a terrible atmosphere. From Principal Li to the first-grade students, everyone is good at using table legs.
Xiang Yu stroked the map and sighed, "Is this fierce battle at this small city in the south going to depend on fate again?"
I couldn't hold back any longer and rolled my eyes, saying, "Forget it, do you think the South Gate Police Station will just stand by and watch you invade the greenhouse of our nation's flowers?" But who knows? If a fight breaks out with thousands of people, what good will a street police station's pistol and a few batons do?
This time, Mulan didn't ignore my presence and asked, "What kind of place is a police station?" I gave her a brief explanation, and Mulan pondered, "It means that a powerful warlord also resides here, and we need to win them over. This makes the situation much more complicated..."
That night, I arranged for Mulan to sleep in Baozi's room, thus ruining my plans for intimacy with Baozi. Mulan, however, seemed quite intrigued; according to her, this was the first time she'd ever slept with a woman…
Baozi was on the early shift the next day and left early. My plan for today was to package Mulan. Mulan had developed the habit of sleeping in her clothes, and her shirt was all wrinkled in the morning. Although she wasn't ugly, this outfit was a bit terrible for a woman to wear out.
Mulan herself didn't seem to care much. After brushing her teeth with the toothbrush under my guidance, she gave me a knowing smile and said, "You're a lucky guy. Looking at Baozi's physique, he's definitely got the makings of a son."
I was speechless. Seeing my awkwardness, Mulan patted my shoulder and laughed, "Shy? You haven't seen her body yet, have you?"
I really wanted to tell her that I knew Baozi's body better than I knew my own—because there are certain parts of my own body that I can't see, but it's different for others. But I was afraid that saying it would cause embarrassment, since our views are completely different, and I was afraid she would think we were morally corrupt.
I solemnly told her, "Sister, today we're going to take the first step in being a woman: packaging ourselves."
"Package?"
"Yes, it's about dressing up."
Hua Mulan suddenly felt awkward, looked around, and said, "Do you have any powder here? What woman is as dark-skinned as me?"
To be honest, I don't think she's dark-skinned. It's a healthy golden-brown color, like how female protagonists in international blockbusters often deliberately paint themselves like that, as if they've just fought a female leopard, making them look exceptionally sexy.
I removed her hand from her face, looked her straight in the eye, and said, "Aren't you a soldier? You should have some pride. What's that saying again—a cook who doesn't want to be a tailor isn't a good driver."
Hua Mulan stared in disbelief: "What do you mean?"
"Uh... wrong, a soldier who doesn't want to be a general isn't a good soldier."
"But I'm already a general, and all I want now is to be a woman. Shall we buy some face powder first?" It seems Mulan is most insecure about her skin tone.
I waved my hand and said, "Painting white is outdated. Let's start from the top." I noticed that Mulan's hair was split due to years of neglect, so I decided to get her hair done first.
Once I got in the car, I noticed Mulan clutching her stomach with a pained expression. I cautiously asked, "Are you having your period?"
Mulan frowned and said, "My stomach hurts. It's an illness I picked up during the war." She clutched her stomach with one hand, and pounded on the car door with the other in pain. I drove to a pharmacy, bought her a bottle of medicine and a bag of hot soy milk, got in the car, and handed it to her, saying, "Take two pills."
"What's this?"
"Medicine for the stomach."
Mulan took two pills with soy milk, and soon she felt much better. She wiped her sweat easily, looked at me gratefully, and said, "I wish I really had a younger brother like you."
I thought to myself, "If you really had a younger brother like me, that would be great. You wouldn't have to go to war then."
Once the car was on the road, I asked her, "What do you think of this place?"
Mulan was overwhelmed by the sights and said, "It's definitely better than what we had back then, except that the women are dressed a bit less—look at that woman, her thighs are all showing."
Where? Where?
Hua Mulan pointed it out to me, and a curvy woman in a miniskirt walked right past us. This was the first time I'd ever looked at another woman with a woman in my life. If it weren't for Hua Xianfeng's sharp eyes, I would have almost missed the chance to see such a stunning beauty. I never expected that taking Hua Mulan out on the street would have this advantage.
After we looked at the woman's thighs together, I said, "Didn't you already look at them yesterday?"
Hua Mulan said, "I spent all my time arguing with Xiang Yu yesterday."
I hurriedly asked, "What do you think of Xiang Yu?" Actually, I really wanted Xiang Yu to accompany Hua Mulan today, but firstly, Xiang Yu didn't show much enthusiasm, and secondly, it was out of a sense of responsibility towards Hua Mulan—how could a woman dressed up by Xiang Yu be any good?
Hua Mulan's assessment of Xiang Yu can be summed up in just five words: "We can be brothers."
Oh no. Following "You're a good person," here comes the second most lethal weapon: "I've always thought of you as an older brother." Looks like there's absolutely no chemistry between them.
I found the best hair salon in the city and pushed Mulan in front of the simply dressed female stylist: "Just style my sister according to the standards for Miss World contestants, use all the ionic perm and molecular perm techniques you can think of."
The female designer stepped back, looked Mulan up and down, then tossed her hair with her hand and said with a smile, "This lady would suit big waves."
I said, "Isn't the big wave hairstyle a thing of the past?"
The designer laughed and said, "There's no such thing as a trend going out of fashion; it depends on individual temperament and circumstances."
I waved my hand and said, "Then you do it. Anyway, I won't pay if it doesn't look good."
The female designer gave a stiff smile and rolled her eyes at me when I wasn't looking.
Hua Mulan pulled me aside and whispered, "Do I really have to get it permed? Does it hurt a lot?" As she spoke, she glanced at the row of customers getting their hair permed and said with concern, "Look, so many people are injured."