Liu Huaisha

"Huang Haobing! What are you trying to do!?" Seeing the children rushing over, Ye Lingjing immediately stepped in front of little Jiaming. The chubby boy leading them was Huang Haobing. His father, Huang Bingxiang, was the provincial party secretary and one of the Huang Family's highest-ranking officials. As a result, Huang Haobing had always been the one bullying others.

"Hmph, Ye Lingjing, I'm looking for him, not you. Move aside!" In truth, Little Fatty was somewhat afraid of Ye Lingjing too. They were the same age, and Huang Haobing was also in third grade at Hongxing Primary School, though he was not in the same class as Jiaming and Lingjing. Lingjing was not only a good student and the Young Pioneers captain, but also good at fighting and tattling. The most impressive part was that she could beat someone up and still report them afterward, while the teachers always believed her. But with so many people watching, he could not lose face before the fight had even begun.

"Hmph, you're always bullying him. I won't let you bully him!"

"Hmph, it's vacation now. You can't go complain to the teachers, Ye Lingjing. Don't think I'm afraid of you!"

"Hmph, I'm not afraid of you either!"

As Lingjing spoke, she struck a martial arts stance. Little Fatty immediately retreated two steps. Trading hmphs did not hurt anyone, but if they really fought, no one was confident they could beat this girl. The TV adaptation of The Legend of the Condor Heroes was wildly popular at the time, and everyone held a certain reverence for the legendary martial arts. Thinking of the martial arts school Lingjing's family ran, along with the stance she had assumed, they all felt a little intimidated, afraid she might take on ten of them at once and knock them all down in a single move.

Having retreated like that, Little Fatty felt deeply embarrassed once he came to his senses. He looked at the little lackeys beside him before recovering some of his confidence. Puffing out his chest, he said, "Don't get cocky. There are so many of us!" But he did not dare puff it out too much, afraid of stepping into her attack range and getting punched.

"So what if there are a lot of you!" Lingjing shot back without yielding. Then she added, "If you've got guts, let's fight one-on-one. You're a boy bullying a girl and still relying on numbers. Shame on you!"

"Hmph, I'm not afraid of you." People said children did not understand things like pride, but in truth, children were in some ways the ones who cared most about saving face. Still, Little Fatty felt guilty after saying that. His eyes darted around before he said, "But do I even need to fight you myself? Chen Ming, help me beat her up. My opponent is Gu Jiaming. Jiaming, don't even think about running!"

If Huang Bingxiang had seen his son's quick wit at that moment, he would surely have been immensely gratified and sighed that there was someone to carry on his legacy. This move of shifting the target showed a profound grasp of officialdom, practically penetrating to the bone. Chen Ming was the biggest among the children. He had come with his father to deliver gifts, and his father had told him to keep the provincial party secretary's son company and build connections, so he had come. Though he did not know how to build connections, he did not dare disobey Huang Haobing. He timidly stepped forward.

Seeing how sly Little Fatty was, Little Lingjing naturally would not fall for it. She shouted, "Shame on you, Huang Haobing! Come out and fight me yourself."

"Why should I fight you? I'm here to fight Jiaming!"

"If you fight Jiaming, then you fight me!"

"No way. Why can't I have someone fight for me when you can fight for Jiaming?" Little Fatty firmly refused to step forward.

"I've always fought for Jiaming, because you're always bullying him!"

"What does it have to do with you if we bully him?" Little Fatty put his hands on his hips, and a brilliant line slipped from his mouth. "Could it be you're his wife? Ooh! Ye Lingjing is Gu Jiaming's wife! Shame on you, shameless..."

Everyone surely understood that, at that age, for a ten-year-old girl, that was absolutely the most devastating insult possible. As soon as Huang Haobing shouted it, the people behind him joined in. At once, mist welled up in the little girl's eyes, and she looked ready to cry. Standing behind her, Jiaming naturally could not see any of it. He was simply watching with great interest, as though it were a joke. Children's world was really interesting...

Just as he was thinking that, he heard Little Lingjing shout tearfully, "You're bullying me!" After that weak declaration, she leapt up and kicked Chen Ming, the boy standing in front of her, to the ground.

Seeing the martial arts expert suddenly explode, the children instinctively wanted to scatter. Yet after taking only two steps, they looked back to see the little girl pinning Chen Ming to the ground, crying as she threw punches at him wildly and desperately.

The one hitting was crying, and so was the one being hit. The children stood around, while Little Fatty was clearly still deciding whether he should go cry to the adults or save someone first. Jiaming watched from the side, prepared to grab Lingjing and run when the children swarmed them. With the speed they had developed through training, those guys would suffer heart attacks before they could ever catch up.

As he made those plans, Huang Haobing gritted his teeth a moment later. "Everyone, get them!" A group of children charged forward. Jiaming abruptly grabbed Lingjing. "Run!" Lingjing refused, though, still crying as she flailed and punched wildly in every direction.

Though this body had only trained for a little over two months, with some simple Qigong assistance, Jiaming was no weaker than Lingjing, who had trained since childhood. After pulling several times, he finally managed to move her. Yet after they had run only two steps, cries erupted behind them. Turning around, they saw a little girl in a bright red cotton-padded jacket charging into the crowd with a tree branch, fiercely swinging it at the children her age.

"I'll teach you to bully girls! I'll teach you to bully girls..."

Jiaming and Lingjing stopped. The girl was fairly pretty, but when she fought, she truly carried a trace of murderous ferocity. The branch was not particularly thick, but it was not thin either. It would not draw blood against their heavy cotton-padded jackets, but holding a stick gave her an immediate advantage in momentum. In an instant, several children had been knocked to the ground by her, including Huang Haobing, who lay in the snow crying.

"Don't run! Whoever runs, I'll hit first!"

After knocking down several of them, she shouted when the others tried to flee. Everyone immediately stopped, looking at the girl fearfully. She threw down the branch and pointed at the children on the ground. "Tell me, will you bully girls again!?"

The children merely cried. The girl picked up the branch again. "No crying! Answer me!"

"We won't..." Frightened, the children did not dare cry anymore and shook their heads desperately. The girl pointed the branch at several children nearby, and they too hurriedly said they would not dare. Jiaming stood there, finding it amusing, when the girl suddenly pointed the branch at him. "And you!"

"Ah, me?" Lingjing and Jiaming spoke in unison, then realized that the girl was naturally pointing at Jiaming. Lingjing laughed through her tears. "No, that's not it." Jiaming had already raised his hands with a smile. "I won't either, hehe... I never dared to..."

"Hmph, that's more like it!" The girl tossed aside the branch and said to Jiaming, "You're a boy, yet you need a girl to protect you. How pathetic!" Her words were full of disdain. Lingjing quickly spoke up for Jiaming. "No, it's just that Jiaming doesn't know how to fight." Jiaming put on a look of utter shame.

The girl clearly did not accept Lingjing's explanation, but she did not say anything more to make things difficult for him. She merely turned to the group of children and said, "If I ever find out you're bullying girls again, I'll beat you to death!" There was a small but natural authority in the way she looked around. "My name is Liu Huaisha! Watch yourselves!"

The moment they heard the name Liu Huaisha, all the children looked frightened. Jiaming, meanwhile, secretly understood. So it was this girl. Liu Huaisha attended Second Primary School, not far from Hongxing Primary School, and was one grade above them. These children had long heard rumors that she was incredibly good at fighting, to the point that even middle school students feared her. Jiaming naturally knew more. Jianghai City currently had three underworld gangs, and the boss of the Sand Bamboo Gang was Liu Zheng. Liu Huaisha was his daughter, raised from childhood as his successor. No wonder her last two kicks had carried a hint of Jeet Kune Do.

Having successfully planted fear in the children's hearts, Liu Huaisha jogged over. Jiaming thought she was coming to scold him again for not acting like a boy, but she simply smiled at Lingjing and said, "Hi, my name is Liu Huaisha. What's yours?"

"Uh, I'm Ye Lingjing." As the representative good student, Lingjing naturally knew the representative bad student from the neighboring school. Her impression of Liu Huaisha changed drastically at once. Seeing the other girl warmly extend a hand, she hesitated before extending hers as well, with the difficulty of ceding territory and paying reparations. Still, children's likes and dislikes never lasted long. After exchanging a few words, Lingjing had already let go of some of her reservations, and the two chatted happily.

"Lingjing, do you really know martial arts?"

"Of course. I know Wing Chun, Tai Chi, Changquan, Fuhu, judo..."

"Ah, really! Then can you teach me? I only know Jeet Kune Do. I want to become your disciple!"

"No, no. My family runs a martial arts school, so you can just go learn there. But you have to teach me Jeet Kune Do. I heard it's really powerful..."

The two girls chattered away, while Jiaming sighed inwardly beside them. The martial world would be much more eventful from now on...