Even though all the male students were glaring at me, no one had the guts to come onto the stage with Auntie Ren standing next to me. All they could do was curse at me in their minds.
The female student cried on the stage for a while but walked off stage in disappointment after no one came to help her. She swatted the hands of a few fellow students who reached out to help her and walked to the shower room by herself.
Auntie Ren asked me while I was still seated on the ground and panting heavily: “Who’s been teaching you martial arts these past couple of months?”
I quickly denied it: “No-, no one. I learned it from watching Taichi on TV. I only seemed strong because that female student was too weak.”
The male students became angrier as they heard me call her weak.
Auntie Ren clicked her tongue, “If you can learn it that easily by simply watching TV, why don’t you do and learn the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms?”
I stammered, “That’s… a bit… difficult…”
Suddenly, the male student with the full beard yelled at Auntie Ren:
“Didn’t you say anyone under 18 can fight against Ye Lin… are you going to keep your word?”
Auntie Ren asked in return, “How old are you?”
Full-Beard: “I’m 17.”
“Ah?” Auntie Ren had a face of disbelief.
Full-Beard awkwardly scratched his chin: “It’s true, I can show you my ID if you don’t believe me.”
Auntie Ren turned around and said to instructor Huang: “Go bring us some water, a folding chair, a bucket, and a wet towel.”
Instructor Huang didn’t know why he couldn’t refuse her words. He handed the underwear bag to a boy with gla.s.ses (the one who was called a lolicon), then he went to gather the items as if he was one of Auntie Ren’s servants.
All the items were gathered fairly quickly. Then, Auntie Ren helped me onto the folding chair and fed me water and wiped my sweat like she was my boxing coach.
I took off Qing Zi Academy’s jacket under Auntie Ren’s orders. The black vest I was wearing over my muscular body was exposed.
The crowd exclaimed in surprise and someone whispered: “I never thought he would be so built. Was he playing with us by pretending to be sick?”
Full-Beard seemed to be shrinking back a bit in fear.
“What’s wrong? It’s a great opportunity to get revenge for our junior (TN: the female student).”
“That’s right. He might look built, but I think he’s actually sick. As someone once said: The right time to strike is when they are already down. So that means now is the best time.”
Auntie Ren wiped the wounds on my face (caused by young master Xu) while looking down the stage with a threatening gaze. No one had the guts to pick a fight while she was still on the stage.
“Can you still fight if you rest for ten minutes?” Auntie Ren asked me.
I smiled bitterly: “I don’t think I can even if I rest thirty minutes.”
“So you weren’t lying, you actually fought with the underwear thief.”
“That’s right… young master Xu is strong…”
I didn’t mention he was only strong after wearing panties on his head, nor did I mention I only beat him because I also wore panties over my head.
Auntie Ren suddenly intentionally raised her voice: “Which part of young master Xu do you think is the hardest part to deal with?”
Initially, I didn’t understand what she meant and I responded: “I guess it would be his dedication towards underwear….”
“No, no, no.” I quickly changed my mind when I saw Auntie Ren’s change in expression, “It’s his unpredictable kicks and it’s hard to guard against.”
Auntie Ren raised her voice even higher: “Then, how did you defeat young master Xu?”
The area below the stage immediately turned silent. Each of them p.r.i.c.ked up their ears and couldn’t believe their hero could have been defeated.
I was finally able to understand Auntie Ren’s intentions. She wanted me to describe young master Xu’s past so we could stall for time and also intimidate them.
Thus I purposely spoke slowly:
“Well, we would have to start from the time when I first met young master Xu. It was a warm spring day…”
Thus I retold the story of meeting young master Xu and the other hoodlums. I talked about how they were picking on a couple and I beat all of them 1v5. Especially about how I used my lawnmower attack to deal with peaked cap guy and Tang Jiang, and how I kicked away young master Xu’s knife. I described it vividly and colorfully without leaving out a single detail.
Some of the students said I was bulls.h.i.tting: “Young master Xu isn’t that kind of person, stop making things up!”
But a few of the students began to mutter when I mentioned Tang Jiang and the injuries on his face.
Full-Beard clapped his hands together as he came to a realization: “You… you’re the strong h.o.m.os.e.xual Tang Jiang mentioned!”
“You’re the one who’s a f.u.c.king h.o.m.os.e.xual.” I cursed, “That was a rumor Tang Jiang started because he couldn’t beat me.”
“That’s true…” one of them said, “If he was a h.o.m.os.e.xual, he wouldn’t have done perverted things to our (female) junior….”
Then I began to talk about our next confrontation. Of course, I had to omit some facts and I didn’t mention anything about the underwear.
It’s not like I’m trying to cover up for him, but if I mention the panties on his head, then I would have to mention I wore it too.
That’s why I removed all the unnecessary details and changed the fight into a scene from a wuxia movie. I added a lot of embellishments to my memory and made it seems like it was an evenly matched, hair-raising match.
Even though a lot of what I said may have been unreliable, I still made an impartial a.s.sessment of young master Xu’s martial arts skill. I was also able to perfectly summarize his style of fighting so the crowd had to believe I definitely crossed paths with young master Xu.
I drank some water to re-hydrate while Auntie Ren stared at a wall clock in the distance. Then, she whispered:
“Keep talking. It’s almost 10, Xu JinSheng should be here soon.”
As if to validate Auntie Ren’s room, instructor Huang ran back towards the stage after checking out the waiting area and said:
“The master is already here, he’ll come in after parking. Madam Ren, please talk to the master about your concerns…”
Footsteps echoed from the entrance earlier than expected and everyone’s eyes gathered at one spot.
A 1.8m tall man walked into the training grounds.
His white uniform reflected the dazzling white lights. What’s strange was his feet showed no signs of training and was as white as his uniform.
His hands actually gave off a refined feeling and he had an oval callus on the middle section of his right middle finger. Not really sure what he practices to get those calluses.
Finally, I looked at his face. He had gla.s.ses with a black frame and looked like a scholar…
By the way, he seems really familiar.
Even Auntie Ren was stunned.
Isn’t… he my dad? He got the callus on his right hand from writing for prolonged periods of time.
Wh-wh-wh-what is this situation? Why is he the master? Is Xu JinSheng your other ident.i.ty? I always thought you were a miserable man, but I never thought you would establish a large business behind your son’s back. How come I don’t know that you know martial arts? Also, you must have another family and wife. Is young master Xu my half-brother? Then that explains perfectly why we both power up unnaturally when we wear underwear over our heads.
I was still working really hard to manage the Love Shop! If you have such a large business, at least hire a housekeeper who knows how to properly season dishes to cook dinner for me! I’m starting to break down when I think about those long nights where you don’t return home, but you’re actually just spending time with a warm and harmonious family. There’s no G.o.d, both my parents are sc.u.m. I want to retaliate against society. I’m going to force myself on the cla.s.s leader, Gong CaiCai, Xiong YaoYue, Xiao Qin (actually I don’t really need to use force for her), then I’m going to head into the forest and live in the wild.
Instructor Huang and the thirty plus students were as surprised as me.
“May I ask who you are?”
My dad stood there awkwardly and blushed. Then, he pulled a fat man who was also wearing gla.s.ses and a uniform to the front.
“I told you we went the wrong way. There’s no washroom here.”
My dad blamed him before I realized the fatty was his old cla.s.smate, the vice-princ.i.p.al of some university who invited him to write teaching materials.
d.a.m.n, why didn’t you guys mention sooner you went the wrong way, you almost scared me to death. Although this place isn’t far from the University area, why did the two of you come here? Didn’t you only get released from quarantine yesterday?
Auntie Ren was one step ahead of me and asked:
“Why… are you following me?”
This was when my dad realized his son and old neighbor were on the stage.
“I, I never followed you.” my dad said, “My cla.s.smate invited me here to the dojang to loosen up after being released from quarantine. To tell you the truth, the area they have for professionals to vent their anger is amazing. They have specially designed wooden boards and bricks that would break in one hit. There are a lot of people relaxing there while still wearing their suits!”
Auntie Ren turned away and ignored him. I chatted with my dad for a bit and he was extremely interested when he heard Auntie Ren and I came as challengers.
Then, the real master, Xu JinSheng, who was close to 1.9m tall, walked in wearing a suit.