"Aiya, Wong Ch'ing! Zoukai, ke bu keyi?! [Aiya, Wong Ch'ing! Leave, why don't you?!]" Aggravated by the constant attention of an older Chinese male, a beautiful young woman dressed in a simple blue dress pushed him away, then continued walking towards the river. She was only nineteen-years-old, but her features and form were ravishing, if not exotic in of themselves. Her long, shining black hair, which was naturally highlighted with brown, was no longer in its traditional braided buns; instead, she had let it fall down to its full length. The slightly curled ends swept lightly past her waist. Her pretty face, with its sparkling amber eyes and small red lips, were fixed with a look of determination as she persistently shrugged off her unwelcome 'suitor.'

"Ni zhi zai pei wo wan youshi, Chun-li! Wo zhidao ni zhende yao wo! [You're only playing hard-to-get with me, Chun-li! I know you really want me!]"

Spinning around to face the taller boy, Chun-li glared into his dark brown eyes. Wong Ch'ing was a handsome young man, but he was three years her senior, was an arrogant and annoying guy, and anyway, Chun-li knew his attitudes towards women. They weren't very good at fitting her standards; that was all that she needed to know.

"Wo meiyou zai geng ni wan youshi, Wong Ch'ing! [I'm not playing hard-to-get with you, Wong Ch'ing!]" Chun-li snapped, her voice edged and sharp with anger. "Wo ye bu xiwan ni, tingjian le meiyou? Zoukai! Buyao zai fan wo le! [I don't like you, you hear that? Go away! Stop bothering me!]"

But instead of heeding her words and taking them seriously, Wong Ch'ing only sidled closer to her and grinned in that way that made Chun-li want to knock the living daylights out of him. "Ah, xiaojie...buyao xiang xheiyang! Wo ai ni, ni zhidao ma? Goulai...wo buhui hai ni de. [Ah, miss...don't be like this! I love you, don't you know that? Come over here...I won't hurt you.]"

"Forget it, Wong Ch'ing," Chun-li retorted in her fluent Mandarin, "my love already belongs to another. You are nothing compared to the one I love."

"You already love another? Does your mother know about this, Chun-li?" the older boy asked, his voice thick with malice. "If your mother finds out that you sought another without her permission, she would die of that faster than that illness..." Anger stronger than the rage she felt towards Bison welled up within Chun-li. Swiftly, before Wong Ch'ing even knew what had hit him, Chun-li had already roughly seized him by his shirt front. "Ni wengdan! Ni zai shuo e ci, wo hui ba ni de lan da ji tu, ting dao le ma?! [You bastard! Say that one more time and I'll smash your face in, you hear?!]" Fuming, she dropped the arrogant creep to the ground, pivoted on her heel, and left. *Arrgghh...if only Ryu were here sooner, I wouldn't be going through this right now,* Chun-li thought as she continued her walk to the river. Stomping was more like it, she thought as she mowed down every leaf and blade of grass in her way and temper. *That Wong Ch'ing pisses me off so much that sometimes I wish I were in Japan with Ryu. But right now, he's in Beijing, and I wonder if he's coming over at all.*

She could still recall that first time she saw him during their first 'Street Fighter' tournament. He was the handsomest Asian guy she had ever seen in her life; no one in her village or Hong Kong compared to him, yet. Those soft, innocent, and naive-looking brown eyes...that strongly-angled face...the dark brown hair that spilled carelessly over his forehead and white headband...and that shy, sweet expression on his face whenever he was embarrassed or terribly confused about something. Chun-li smiled in spite of herself, forgetting her anger towards the creep with the name that she didn't ever want to mention again. The first time she laid eyes on Ryu Hoshi was the best time of her life.

Finally, Chun-li glimpsed the river past the bend of flowers that adorned her path. The glistening, rippling, and crystalline ribbon twisted and turned in the sunlight, showing all angles and colors and reflections. Kneeling down on both knees, Chun-li peered into the limpid water. Her reflection came back at her with the softness of an angelic being.

*This outer beauty is only a shell, as Ryu said. He said that my inner beauty is like a pearl, and that that is the most precious treasure in the world. He told me to guard it...never to lose it...for once lost, it is very hard to regain back...* Smiling and seeing her natural beauty re- blooming, Chun-li climbed back to her feet, glanced around, inhaled in the fresh, clean air, then decided to go exploring in the forest in the back of the village.

After all, she had the whole afternoon to herself. *And if I'm lucky, I might find Ryu on the way, too!*

Ryu slung his duffel bag down near a tall, ancient-looking, gnarled tree and plopped down on the ground. He was exhausted. For the last day and night, he'd been walking all the way here to 'Luchuang,' but as of yet, he still had quite a few miles to go. As of now, he was too spent to do much than rest.

However, something nagged at his mind.

He had followed the farmer's directions, arrived at the train station, where he'd purchased a ticket, boarded the train, and headed for the city of Guangzhou. Once there, he'd continued walking until he was on the outskirts of the urban circle; there, he'd met some people, of whom he asked for further directions in order to get to 'Luchuang.'

Ryu closed his eyes in thought and sighed heavily as he leaned against the rough trunk of the tree. Here was the part that baffled and even hurt him. The people there had looked him over like as if he were a foreign alien...like as if he were an intruder. Normally, Ryu would be able to cope with people's stares, for that happened often, due to his attire and whatnot. But this time, it was different and it stung him to the core of his being.

It was like as if they couldn't trust him, no matter how much he tried to convince them that he was nothing to worry about. Their stares and expressions were clear enough in their meaning -- 'we want nothing to do with the likes of you.'

Why?

Ryu sighed wearily again. He was only a young man, in his early twenties. Sure, he was the world champion of street-fighting and all and knew the ways of martial arts combat and techniques, but he didn't fight until he needed to. He would never hurt anyone intentionally...and never anyone that never did him any harm. A match was a match -- a preplanned one-on-one battle, but innocent people? Ryu would never fight or kill innocent people, least of all his own Asian neighbors.

Finally exhaling his last breath of confusion and hurt, Ryu climbed to his feet, picked up his duffel bag, slung it over his shoulder, and continued walking. It would prove to be a long walk, but at least he would reach Chun-li's village before the sun set for evening.

It had taken him another four hours approximately, Ryu estimated, to even reach the edge of 'Luchuang.' Right now, he had crossed the small river that bordered the village, and was on the premises of reaching the threshold of the village's main gate.

Looking up, he saw on the wide wooden slat that was fixed above the gate, the Chinese characters for 'Luchuang' carved and painted in crimson. The kanji was easy for him to recognize, since Chun-li had written the elegant forms for him before -- since she often talked about her native village in an excited and high-strung voice. Ryu reflected on this, then returned his attention to the main gate.

*Time for me to enter, I guess.*

Laying a hand on the wooden door, Ryu pushed it in and entered. Closing the door behind him, he looked around. The place was nice enough...thatched huts with roofs of glistening straw and grass, animals like chickens and pigs scratching and rooting the soil, and children running about playing their games. Ryu had entered so quietly and so undisruptively that the children continued to play on, their attention spans focused on a huge spinning top which they twirled with a length of long, thick string.

Ryu smiled to see them so at ease with their childish play. However, that brief, sublime joy was soon broken as the door flew inward, slamming into Ryu's back and sending the young warrior onto his knees on the ground. Turning around and standing up, he found himself gazing steadily into the dark eyes of five young men. All of them were older than him by at least a couple of years, and all of them were looking at him with an expression of hatred that Ryu himself couldn't even define. One of them, a scruffy-looking, darkly-tanned one, turned to the young man standing in the center of the bunch and spoke a few words to him in rapid Mandarin.

"Ni kan, Wong Ch'ing! E ge Riben ren! Ta zhenmo lai dao zheibian, ni xian xian kan?! [Look, Wong Ch'ing! A Japanese! How did he get here?!]"

The one named Wong Ch'ing turned his narrowed eyes upon Ryu and replied back through the side of his mouth coldly, "Wo bu zhidao, keshi ta bu hui lui zai zheibian doujiu. Women jingtian jiu ba ta gan chutu! [I don't know, but he won't be here for long. We're get rid of him today!]"

Ryu understood some of the conversation being spoken and slowly slid into his defensive fighting stance. He didn't want to hurt anyone, but it looked like they were giving him no choice. Already, they were ringing up around him, their fists doubled and ready.

That was when that one fatal word struck him a painful and searingly sharp blow in the heart...that one word spoken by Wong Ch'ing, which was loaded with spite, contempt, and animosity. "Riben ren! [Jap!]"

And that was when Ryu realized that his arrival was unexpected by none other than Chun-li...and that for the rest of the village, he was probably going to get an unwelcome reception...