The Flower That Blooms In Adversity | Male! Mulan x Reader

Chapter 6

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."