Yandai Xie Jie No. 10

Act 22: Submiss to Violence

Liang Ze: Have you decided on the theme for May?

Editor: Um, we"ve decided on it.  May is the month of vibrant; we want to use young people and street culture as the theme.

Liang Ze: Oh.

Editor: Have you thought about what you would like to write for your column?

Liang Ze: No idea, just pick one for me.

Editor: What do you want to write?

Liang Ze: Heavy rain on Tomb-Sweeping Festival*, people walking in the rain in deep sorrow.

Editor: You want to write that in this month"s column?

Liang Ze: That"s right!

Editor: …I will contact you when I come up with a good proposition.

Liang Ze: …

Spring comes bringing blooming flowers, and the surrounding scenery is the definition of an April Spring in which all living things on earth are coming alive. However, Liang Ze was withering. It had been one week and he did not go see Hang Hang, and Hang Hang did not try to contact him. Liang Ze really missed Ikkyu and he also really missed the shop owner, but he did not have the courage to walk into that courtyard and say "h.e.l.lo" as if nothing happened.

That day, even though they did not say it out loud, they both understood it all too well — it is over between them.

Liang Ze really wanted to ask Hang Hang if they could still be friends, but in the end he didn"t because every part in his body already knew that it was impossible.

While he was staring at the Spring atmosphere around him, he turned his attention to Small Leaf and her partner nestling together in their cage.  He then looked over to Small Leaf"s baby which was sleeping soundly on the running wheel. Ah, in the end, he and Hang Hang still had not come up with a good name for the baby.

"Let"s call you Adachi Yoshimitsu." Liang Ze spoke to the sleeping baby, "Adachi Yoshimitsu."

When the phone rang, Liang Ze was still in a daze; it was sitting in front of the book in screensaver mode. He picked up the phone, the caller ID: Xie Jin Yan.

"h.e.l.lo?" Liang Ze picked up the call, leaning his back against the sofa backrest; his body looked extremely lazy one would describe it looking like a boneless spine worm.

"Liang Ze? Why do you sound so spiritless?"

"I"m still sleepy." Liang Ze conveniently replied back.

"Oh, ha ha. A date has been set for your book release, it is to be expected around mid-June. In a few days, a limited number will be pre-released where they will be distributed for promotional purposes."

"Everyone has worked hard."

"Therefore, at the end of this month, I"ve arranged for you to do some interviews; they"re all from well-known magazines."

"Not interested." interrupted Liang Ze, before Xie Jin Yan could finish what she was saying.

Xie Jin Yan did not know how to react to this. Liang Ze had never been so uncooperative before. Although he was unwilling sometimes, he had never actually straight out refused her.

"Anything else? If not, then I"ll hang up; I"m going to the gym now."

"Why don"t you want to do interviews?"

"I"m making a living with my work, not my face."

After hearing this, Xie Jin Yan had gone mute.

Liang Ze did not know why he was giving Xie Jin Yan so much att.i.tude.  He knew it was very rude of him to talk to women in such a manner, yet he really could not bring himself to smile and to reconcile with her. It was not good of him to offend Xie Jin Yan, really it was no different than offending the publishing house. But so what? What was done was done; at this point there was nothing for him to lose.

Liang Ze took his keys and exited the apartment.  On the way to the gym, he watched the people pa.s.sing by, and occasionally listened to their conversations.  He couldn"t understand why he felt like  his life was so miserable. He should be happy, casually laughing, looking for fun, casually going out to different parties and he should be casually chatting up some unknown faces. Except right now, he had no interest in doing any of that.

When he got to the gym, Liang Ze went to change his clothes and then immediately headed to his yoga cla.s.s. In two more months his membership here would expire and then he could go to a different gym to workout.  This would allow him to go to a gym where he would not have to be in a room full of women like this.

In this world, there exists a type of person — one who loves to air somebody"s dirty laundry*.
[T/N: to air somebody"s dirty laundry – deliberately publicizing somebody else’s weaknesses or secrets.]

Coincidentally, the perverted personal trainer was this type of person and he had just walked out of the equipment room and saw Liang Ze walking over. He stared at Liang Ze"s b.u.t.t, and noticed that it had become s.e.xier than the last time; it had a perfect tightness with such a curvy line, that…

With his next action, this person had become the most unfortunate victim of the night.  He reached out his hand to grope Liang Ze"s b.u.t.t without thinking. Actually, he thought of Liang Ze as someone who was harmless, because he occasionally would grope Liang Ze"s b.u.t.t.  Usually Liang Ze wouldn"t do anything, maybe he would curse at him once or twice. However, he did not know that the Liang Ze now was not the usual Liang Ze, the Liang Ze now was a lost tiger that is hungry and angry…So, Liang Ze"s b.u.t.t now is not the usual Liang Ze"s b.u.t.t; it is actually a tiger"s a.s.s.

What is that old saying again?

Ah right.

A tiger"s a.s.s is untouchable.

"You motherf.u.c.ker" was the opening sentence, "exercise my a.s.s!" was followed by the first punch, "son of a b.i.t.c.h" was accompanied by the first kick, and so on; the perverted personal trainer did not know what was going on after he was beat a few times by Liang Ze.

The unfortunate victim had become even more confused.

Actually, you see, you touched his a.s.s when he was in a bad mood, not just once but stroked it up and down twice. You dare to fight back? You dare to fight back with someone who is not of your level, don"t you know that an anxious rabbit would bite back when being touched?
{Translator Note: This whole paragraph is the original author"s words to the victimized perverted trainer LOL}

That perverted trainer did respond with a few hard punches back at Liang Ze. However, Liang Ze had never admitted defeated when in a fight. Why had he never admitted defeat? Because if his opponents had the upper hand, he would not fight them; he would always try to avert the situation. The incident today was unexpected, he did not know why he fought against such a macho man. Since he had started the fight, he could not lose it; even if he was to lose, he had to make sure that the other had learned a lesson.

Punch after punch was delivered but right when he broke the gla.s.s of the fire extinguishers case, he came back to his senses.

At that moment, the crowd in the gym exclaimed loudly as Liang Ze had smashed the gla.s.s and pulled the fire extinguisher out.  Liang Ze proceeded to graciously let the fire extinguisher elegantly greet the perverted macho man"s head.

After the perverted macho man was. .h.i.t once he fell, and the expression in his eyes was one of a martial artist master that had just found out they were being attacked from behind.  Needless to say, with one hit he was knocked out lying flat on the floor.

With the the trainer knocked out lying on the floor, the gym receptionist called the police. When the police came, the macho man had been carried away by an ambulance.

"You hit someone?"

Liang Ze was being withheld in the gym.

"Ah, right." He nodded earnestly.

"Come." A policeman pressed on his neck.

"Hey, you don"t need to do that.  I"m also very tired, so I won"t run away.  I will obediently follow you."

The policeman looked at Liang Ze, and then thought to himself: Aiyo, he is very well behaved.

 After Liang Ze arrived at the police station, no one paid attention to him sitting in the corner. Liang Ze did not complain, he continued to sit there in silence without even feeling tired.  His time spent doing yoga had finally paid off, right?

While sitting there, Liang Ze was thinking about his unfinished novel, or more specifically the part he got stuck at. Suddenly he was struck with inspiration.

"Hey, mister officer, do you happen to have an extra pen and paper?" Liang Ze said while staring at the fat man sitting at a nearby desk sipping his tea.

"Shut up, and sit still."

"Then, do you have them?" Liang Ze looked over to the female police officer at the next desk.

The female police officer laughed at Liang Ze, and then handed him paper and a pen, "it"s useless to write your self-reflection letter now," she spun her hair, "just wait until the injury report is out."

"Oh, I"m not writing a self-reflection paper.  I"m not in a rush."

Liang Ze sat in the same spot writing dozens of pages until 9 pm, only then a lanky policeman came over to him, "the person you beat up just contacted us and he said he will come over in a moment.  Give me your family contact so I can call them."

"Why? Is there a fine?" Liang Ze looked up, after he had drawn an open period at the end of his last sentence on the paper {Translator Input: in Chinese/j.a.panese writing – they end the sentence with 。instead of "."}, "If there"s a fine, I can pay it myself."

"What are you saying!" the lanky officer lit up a cigarette, "A fine? I"m telling you, he wants to sue you! You might have to serve jail time. With minor injuries, the minimum is three-months of jail time."

Liang Ze was shocked. Jail? Serving jail time?

For real?

That was it, at least he got to experience the feeling of rage once in his life.

"Say it, your family contact info!"

"Ah, 13910677*** Liang Bin, my older brother."

The lanky officer remembered the number, then looked over to Liang Ze for a short moment, "Why did you beat him up for no reason?" He did not see Liang Ze as a troublemaker.

"He groped my a.s.s." Liang Ze answered truthfully.

"Groped your a.s.s? Groped your a.s.s, so what? You"re not a girl."

"I didn"t want to be touched!" Liang Ze said fiercely.

"Are you gay?" The lanky officer frowned.

"Want to give it a try?"

After Liang Ze said that sentence, the tall lanky officer just ignored him. Sick b.a.s.t.a.r.d!

By the time Liang Bin got to the police station, Liang Ze was already being put into a cell. With quite a bit of gauze covering his head, perverted macho trainer was quietly sitting on a chair.

"Are you Liang Bin?" The lanky officer saw someone coming, so he stood up.

"Yes, how is my brother? You said he was involved in a fight?"

"Please sit down first," the lanky officer said and sat down, "he attacked first and this is the injured party.  As for your brother, we are temporarily detaining him."

"Why did he start the fight?" Liang Bin could not believe what he had just heard.

"Your brother said this person groped his a.s.s."

Liang Bin"s face immediately turned dark. This…

"I didn"t grope him." The macho man said in his own defense.

"Mr. Officer, I would like to see my brother."

"Why?"

"I"ll be honest, my brother is a writer, he only knows how to use the pen; he would never casually beat someone without a reason."

"Right, he has never beat someone, but when it happens he will give the other a concussion."

Liang Bin did not say anything further, he just stood his ground until they let him see his brother.

Liang Ze was in a cell with more than ten other people; the other occupants of the cell did not look anywhere near decent.  When Liang Ze saw Liang Bin coming, he stood up, "Brother…"

"I can"t deal with you anymore, what"s going on?"

As the two brothers were separated by a fence of heavy metal bars between them, Liang Bin listened to the story Liang Ze told him.  After the story was finished Liang Bin took out his cell phone, "Sun Wei, it"s Liang Bin, come to An Men Police Station…ah, it"s…yes, the sooner the better."

The tall lanky officer bizarrely looked at Liang Bin, "You called your relative to come?"

"No." Liang Bin said coldly, "My lawyer."

The perverted muscular trainer had never been so frightened in his whole life after the tailored-suit lawyer said calmly to him that he had two options: option one, file a lawsuit or option two, don"t file a lawsuit. For option one, if you file a lawsuit we will prosecute you for s.e.xual hara.s.sment.  At the time of the incident there were a lot of people watching, so there will be quite a bit of evidence to collect and witnesses to interview.  In addition with Mr. Liang"s power, we can easily have you serve a few years in jail. The second option, we will cover all medical expenses, the loss of wages for the time you don"t go to work and we will give you another 30,000 Yuan (appr. $4,000 US dollars) as compensation. If you decide on option two the money will be yours immediately.

For the perverted muscular trainer, he really only had one choice.

After Liang Bin had finished filling out all the doc.u.ments and going through all the procedures for bail, Liang Ze was able to be released that night. When they got into the car, the two brothers did not say anything. Liang Bin was not in a hurry to start the car so he calmly lit up a cigarette and gave one to Liang Ze.

Liang Ze took the cigarette, lit it and then leaned back in his seat.

After he finished the cigarette, Liang Bin asked, "Why did you beat him up?"

"I already said it, that a.s.shole groped my a.s.s."

"Just for that?"

"Yes, that"s it."

"Are you such a violent person? Not only do you start a fight but in general just having a conflict with others, you would never would have done this before!"

"It was a sudden rage."

"You…"

"Brother, I"m sorry for calling you out in the middle of the night like this." Liang Ze said while he  opened the door, "you should go back soon, it"s not good to leave sister-in-law at home alone when her belly is that big."

"Liang Ze!"

"Yes?"

"Did something happen?"

"Nothing." Liang Ze shook his head.

Liang Bin was quiet for a moment, "Get back in and wait until Hang Hang comes to pick you up."

Liang Ze was stunned, but only for a moment, he quickly regained back his normal self, "No need for that, it"s not like I"m the one with the concussion."

"You and Hang Hang…are ok?" Liang Bin tried to confirm that, because when he got back home earlier today, Zhong Yue Wen told him that she had been chatting with Hang Hang all afternoon, but…he just wanted to be sure.

"We"re alright! We"re still good!" Liang Ze forced himself to be cheerful. He could not say it was over between them.

"Ah, Ok, still good is great, you…"

"d.a.m.n!" Liang Ze slapped his forehead, "I just wrote something but I left the papers at the police station.  Brothe, you should hurry and go; I"ll go back to retrieve them."

Liang Bin looked at Liang Ze running back to the station.

Something was not right, something must have happened.

But Liang Bin could not think of what was wrong with his brother.

When Liang Ze ran back to the police station, the tall lanky officer was reading his ma.n.u.script  that was more than ten pages.

"Ah…excuse me…please let me have it back…"

"This is very well written.  Earlier your brother said you are a writer, have you published any masterpieces?"

"No, no, no masterpieces.  I"m just a freelancer."

Liang Ze came out of the police station with his ma.n.u.script, the night wind that blew by caused him to shiver. When he looked up to the sky, it was just like that night he walked out of Hang Hang"s home: a bright starry night.

Just like that he had lost a friend, a very close friend that shared most of his interests.

Liang Ze still wanted to beat someone up, but there was no one on the street at this hour. So, the old tree in front of the police station was the poor recipient as he fiercely landed a punch on the tree trunk.  But punching the tree was like throwing eggs at stone, Liang Ze"s hand was in pain.

Proofread: Jesse