"Go on, go on. Fight to your heart's content!"
Lu Xuan flicked the back of his hand at the Middle-Parted Male Crane and watched as it flew toward the female crane.
In the distance, the female crane was waiting with her head craned high for the object of her affection.
Under Lu Xuan's gaze, the two cranes fidgeted coyly, then slipped into the tall water grass.
"Liii~!"
Lu Xuan had only just turned around and had yet to leave when a clear, melodious cry rang out from the grass.
At first, the cries were like "oriole song beneath flowers, smooth and winding." After lasting for a while, they turned into "rasping and jarring, hard upon the ear," before finally returning to "a lonely sandbar, cold and still."
The next day, Lu Xuan woke early and discovered that after the first pair of Spirit Cranes had successfully paired up, subtle and indescribable changes had begun taking place among the other Spirit Cranes.
It was as though something were brewing among them.
Seeing this, Lu Xuan knew the time was ripe. He decided to press the advantage and organize a grand Spirit Crane team-building event, working hard to match up paired Spirit Cranes.
He gathered all the Spirit Cranes together and said loudly, "Today, I've gathered you all here because I plan to organize an event for you, to play a few little games so you can become more familiar with one another and deepen your mutual feelings."
"There will mainly be three games. First, Who Is the Fastest Crane? For you, sometimes you need to be fast, sometimes you need to be slow, and sometimes you need to go three slows and one fast."
"What we'll be competing in today is who is the fastest. Bring out the speed of your