Scaling, Degilling, and Smacking the Fish's Head: A Triple Combo

Black Shark leaped out of the ground, his jaws wide as he lunged viciously at Sing Sing.

"Watch out!" Amy cried.

Sing Sing remained calm and reached behind his waist with his right hand.

Silver flashed as the Pig Butchering Knife came out of its sheath.

He sidestepped Black Shark's lunge, twirled the Pig Butchering Knife in the air, and smacked the flat of the blade against Black Shark's cheek.

The force of the smack was just right.

The blow spun Black Shark around three times in midair. Dizzy and disoriented, he dropped back to the ground and plunged beneath it with a thud.

"You damned yellow monkey! I'm going to kill you!"

Black Shark raged helplessly underground. Using his ability to move through solid matter to his advantage, he circled Sing Sing frantically, looking for an opening to launch a second sneak attack.

Sing Sing hefted the Pig Butchering Knife in his hand.

"Since you won't do this the civilized way, I'll just have to deal with you the way they handle seafood at the market."

Black Shark leaped out again, this time from beneath a shipping container to Sing Sing's left.

"Step one: scale the fish!"

Sing Sing swung, the blade skimming along Black Shark with a swish and slicing his armguards into thin strips, as smoothly as scraping scales off a fish.

"Fuck!" Black Shark's face changed in alarm, and he hurriedly plunged underground.

Ten seconds later, Black Shark launched a sneak attack from behind.

"Step two: remove the gills!"

Sing Sing thrust the Pig Butchering Knife backward, jamming its hilt into the nerve plexus under Black Shark's arm.

Black Shark screamed. Half his body went numb on the spot, and he lay embedded in the ground, twitching like a dead fish.

"Final step: smack the fish's head!"

Sing Sing sank his qi into his dantian, tucked the Pig Butchering Knife behind his waist, then raised his right foot and stomped on the ground.

A powerful surge of Internal Energy blasted through the sole of Sing Sing's foot and into the ground.

He had originally used this move when he sold pork, to loosen the bones and sinews.

When a whole rack of ribs was too hard for customers to chop, he would send a jolt of Internal Energy through it from beneath the chopping block, and the bones and meat would come apart on their own.

Later, he discovered it worked even better on people than on pigs.

"Boom!"

Black Shark let out a muffled grunt as he was forcibly squeezed out of the ground and flung into the air.

He finally crashed to the ground, foam spilling from his mouth and his eyes rolled back, completely unable to fight.

The dozen or so crewmen watched their boss get dealt with in a few moves like a piece of seafood. Their legs turned to jelly, and they scrambled and crawled back to the ship.

The sea breeze blew over two shoes left on the ground by the fleeing men.

Sing Sing sheathed his knife, walked over to Black Shark, whose eyes were still rolled back, and crouched down.

"Crispy Shark, take my advice. Get out of the underworld. You won't even have a pension when you're old, and you'll have to pay out of pocket to see a doctor when you're sick."

"Come work with me. With your talent, you'll definitely be named a model underground worker at the municipal level within three years. When that happens, I'll give you double pay and a big red envelope. How about it?"

Black Shark lay on the concrete dock, foam still clinging to his mouth.

"Life is short. Turn back before it's too late. Look how great your ability is! You can swim through concrete, dirt, and asphalt. Do you know what that means?"

"Trenchless construction! Urban pipeline upgrades!"

"Underground utility tunnel inspections! Landslide rescue! Preliminary surveys for subway tunnel boring!"

Lorna stood nearby with her arms folded, watching Sing Sing grow more animated as he spoke, nearly using the Pig Butchering Knife as a pointer to draw plans on the ground. Finally, she couldn't hold back. "If you keep talking, the ship's going to leave."

Without looking back, Sing Sing said, "Lorna, don't interrupt. I'm giving a potential recruit some career guidance."

Lorna's face remained expressionless. "While you're giving career guidance, could you also think about how we're going to get aboard?"

"Wait a moment, I'm almost done—"

Sing Sing continued talking at Black Shark.

"You're in the underworld now, collecting protection money and extorting people trying to enter the country illegally. What are you going to do when you're old?"

"Do you have a pension?"

"Do you have health insurance?"

"If you swim in concrete for too long and get arthritis, does that count as a work-related injury? Who's going to certify it?"

Black Shark struggled to roll over and spat out a mouthful of sand.

"Shut... up..."

Hearing that, Sing Sing was even more distressed.

"See? You can't even listen to career counseling."

"Typical mindset of a small-time American operator. All you see is the cash in front of you, with no long-term security."

Black Shark's head buzzed, as though a hundred flies were singing and dancing around it.

"I'm begging you! Stop talking!"

Black Shark finally couldn't hold it in anymore. Tears ran from the corners of his eyes as he raised his head and gave Sing Sing a complicated look.

Never in his life had he seen a Chinese man blast him out of concrete and then try to persuade him to go to China to repair sewers.

It was more humiliating than killing him.

Even so, Black Shark gritted his teeth and held firm. "I'm not going with you."

"Why not?"

Black Shark braced himself against the ground and sat up, his voice hoarse. "I have a ship."

Sing Sing said, "You can bring the ship along. We've got plenty of coastal ports: Zhoushan, Ningbo, Shanghai, Shenzhen. Take your pick. If you want to try inland shipping, the Yangtze River welcomes you too."

A vein throbbed on Black Shark's forehead.

"I have brothers."

Sing Sing glanced at the two shoes left on the dock.

"Your brothers aren't very disciplined or well organized."

Black Shark fell silent for a second, then steeled himself. "I have a business too."

"Smuggling people, smuggling goods, extortion?"

"That's business."

Sing Sing sighed.

"All right, your ideological awareness doesn't meet the hiring standards yet."

Black Shark sneered. "So you're going to kill me?"

"Why is killing the first thing out of your mouth? You people are really violent!"

Black Shark said, "..."

Amy huddled behind Lorna. "He really won't kill him?"

Lorna remained expressionless. "No."

Sing Sing patted Black Shark on the shoulder.

"How about this? Even if we can't make a deal, we can still part on good terms. I won't force you."

"A melon picked by force isn't sweet, and a recruit hired by force is likely to slack off."

Black Shark looked at him warily.

Sing Sing held out his hand. "Five thousand US dollars for the tickets."

As he spoke, he gently pushed the Pig Butchering Knife's hilt with his right thumb, sliding it half an inch out of its sheath.

Moonlight fell on the blade like a thin line of snow.

A chill ran down Black Shark's back.

"All right!"

A smile returned to Sing Sing's face.

"That's more like it! We're all civilized people. Why make such a bloody mess?"

He pulled the stack of US dollars from inside his clothes, his hands still trembling as he counted the money.

With each bill he counted, the pain on his face grew.

"Five thousand exactly. Also, the receipt..."

Black Shark had just reached out to take the money when he heard the word "receipt." His face darkened.

"There isn't one."

Sing Sing grew anxious.

"How can there not be one?"

"You've got such a big ship, and you've taken ten thousand dollars, but you won't give me a single piece of paper?"

"You could at least write, 'Received ten thousand US dollars from Mr. Zhou for shipping services,' and add your signature and fingerprint!"

Black Shark gritted his teeth. "I smuggle people! And I only took five thousand! You're trying to pocket the difference, aren't you, kid?"

Sing Sing lowered his voice. "That's why I've already been very considerate and haven't asked you for an invoice."

Black Shark glared at him.

Sing Sing glared back.

The two stared at each other for half a minute.

Finally, Black Shark rummaged through a pocket one of his men had dropped on the ground and found half a crumpled bar flyer. He wrote a line on the back in pencil.

"Received 10000 dollars."

Signed: Black Shark.

Sing Sing took it and frowned as he looked it over.

"Where's the addressee?"

Black Shark clenched his fists.

"Don't push it."

Sing Sing thought for a moment and sighed.

"Forget it."

"Working conditions are tough at the grassroots level. I understand."

He carefully folded the half flyer and tucked it into his inner pocket.

Slug came over with a complicated expression. "You're the first person I've ever seen ask a smuggling captain for a receipt and actually get one."

Sing Sing waved a hand.

"That's negotiation."

"The key to negotiation isn't shouting louder. It's finding the other side's weak point."