Chapter 1.1: Killing the Crop
"It hurts…" Su Jie put down the hoe, his hands coated with b.l.o.o.d.y blisters.
He tried to straighten his body to catch a breath of air, but the pain from the back and his hip bone made him unable to.
As a student from the city, toiling on the fields was fresh work, but after hoeing for half a day"s worth of labor, his arms felt heavy as if a thousand pounds of weight was on his back. His bones were like fire ants biting one another. But what was even more difficult to endure was the many b.l.o.o.d.y blisters formed on his hands by the use of the hoe.
Su Jie had been at Minlun Martial School for two days, enrolling himself in a short summer martial arts cla.s.s.
The martial arts instructor, Gu Yang, did not teach the students any martial arts move. Rather, he dragged the entire cla.s.s to the countryside and had them pick up the hoes to help the elderly who"d lost their means of labor to dig the land and work on the fields on their very first day.
For two entire days straight, Su Jie learned to lift hoes; dig, smash, dig, lift, and smash… over and over. This resulted in the hard soil growing softer and more breathable making it suitable for planting.
He had not expected that farm work would be a tiring thing. Wiping away the sweat on his forehead, he felt that it was now time to swat them to the ground. This laborious work felt like the creation of a poem: hard work makes a man humble.
"I am determined not to waste food in the future. To dig the earth with the hoe over and over is actually such hard work…"
Over the past two days, he observed Coach Gu Yang"s movements of hoeing the ground.
Each time Coach Gu Yang hoed, his feet would step on the ground as his body moved like a lever. Without using any strength, the heavy weighted hoe floated up only to fall just as quickly as it dug on the soil fiercely with its hook like pulling a big fish out of the water.
A large chunk of the soil was scooped up. With a knock from the hoe, the soil broke into several pieces that were as soft as steamed pastries.
Seeing Coach Gu Yang"s hoe turn over the soil, Su Jie felt relaxed and at ease as if he was looking at an art form.
At the beginning, Su Jie had trouble using the hoe. Even if he used all his strength, he would not be able to hoe the earth deeply, but after a thorough observation from learning and studying, he finally learned Coach Gu Yang"s method of digging which made him feel more relaxed.
When you dig, you"d need to twist your waist, move your shoulders, and use the strength not from the arms but from the waist down. When raising the hoe, you"d push your body forward slightly, and like a cat pouncing on a mouse, you"d push it down with all your strength. Only then can you dig the hoe deep into the soil.
Coach Gu Yang"s method was very detailed and hands on.
Looking up, the sun scorched the sky and burnt the skin of those whose arms weren"t covered.
Though Su Jie knew not the purpose of hoeing the soil and its connection to martial arts, he did his work seriously.
However, he found himself unable to peer deeper into Coach Gu Yang"s highly flexible movements that allowed him to twist and move his body around easily from head to toe.
Every movement was smooth and fluid, flexible like steel wires twisted around the springs of his body. He looked as if he was not the least bit tired from all the hoeing.
There must be a secret behind this, Su Jie thought.
"Hey, Su Jie, tired? Water?" Josh asked, a foreigner whose hands were soaked with blood and blisters from the labor..
Josh was a tall white man in his twenties, his pale skin fleshed with muscles. He looked like one of those jarheads.1He too observed Coach Gu Yang"s movement with a greater sense of apt.i.tude. He"d dig and toil the soils just as Coach Gu Yang had done. Josh"s moves were fluid and smooth, his learning speed faster than Su Jie"s.
Josh who lived on the other side of the world came here determined to learn Chinese Kung Fu and it was here in these short summer martial arts cla.s.s the two met.
City D was a martial arts city with many martial schools erected everywhere. Minglun Martial School was one of the most famous martial arts school. Over the years, the school produced heavyweight stars: special bodyguards, martial arts celebrities, fighting champions, and the likes.
Due to the profound skills the school taught, it attracted large numbers of foreigners from the distant seas to study and improve their knowledge.
Minglun Martial Arts School was located near the outskirts of the city. It was very lovely and foreign tourists were often spotted carrying bags on their back at any moment.
It was a fun sight.
Josh"s Chinese was bad but he truly admired Chinese Kung Fu. The guy even knew a varying lots of kung fu terms. The only problem was he did not know where to begin.
1Jarhead: An American slang used to call the U.S Marines.