"Kid, what's wrong? Why the long face?" After two more groups of customers had come and gone, Zhang Tie finished tallying the day's accounts on the abacus. There had been so many customers that Tang De hadn't sprawled in his usual chair; he'd stayed behind the counter to serve them.
Once Zhang Tie had finished calculating the past two days' accounts, he closed the ledger and set down his pen. Tang De immediately came over from the side and asked him what was wrong.
Damn it, was reading people's expressions an innate skill all fat guys had? Thinking of Barry, that fat bastard at school, and the grocery store owner standing right in front of him, Zhang Tie couldn't help wondering.
Zhang Tie smiled helplessly and told him what had happened at school that day. Once he'd said it aloud, he actually felt a little better.
"Heh... heh..." The unscrupulous grocery store owner grinned and gave Zhang Tie a thumbs-up. "I never would've guessed you had such a backbone. Regretting it now?"
"Fuck them. What are they, anyway? A few plates. I'd wash them for a friend, or even for a beggar on the street, but I just wouldn't give them the satisfaction. What were they going to do, bite my dick off?" Zhang Tie was close enough to Tang De that he didn't mind venting in front of the fat man. "By the way, have you ever run into this kind of fucked-up situation before...?" Once he'd vented, Zhang Tie didn't forget to ask the old bastard for advice on what to do. He'd worked at the grocery store for so long that sometimes Tang De felt almost like half a mentor to him, having taught him so much. And Tang De's life experience was far richer than his own.
"Anyone can go through something like that, because this world is full of self-important bastards. You could be sitting there minding your own business, and someone might still take a dislike to you and come over to stomp on your face just to feel good. When you run into bastards like that, you should screw them over hard. Do you know what you did wrong this afternoon?" Tang De asked Zhang Tie.
"What did I do wrong?"
"Since you'd decided to stand against them, you shouldn't have held back this afternoon. You should've given them a thorough beating, using every means at your disposal. You've got guts, kid, but you're too softhearted and indecisive."
Zhang Tie's eyes widened. After offending Gelisde and the others so badly, he'd still earned Tang De's verdict that he was softhearted and indecisive.
"Once you've made an enemy, what difference does it make whether you slap him once or ten times?" Tang De criticized Zhang Tie without mercy. "Did you really imagine those bastards would thank you for having the chance to slap them ten times but only doing it once? If I were you, I'd have quietly tossed their plates into the toilets, pinned the blame on them, and then denied everything. I wouldn't have simply walked away like you did. What do you think One-Eyed Dragon would've done when he found out the cafeteria plates had been tossed into the toilets? And what punishment would your school rules prescribe for that? They were the ones who lost the plates, so it couldn't be pinned on you. What were you afraid of?"
Zhang Tie was dumbfounded. If he'd actually done that, Zhang Tie thought, rules like "deliberately stealing or losing public property" and "damaging the school's reputation" could probably have been used to pin the blame on Gelis and the others. Even if those rules didn't quite fit, there wasn't a rule that said "don't be disgusting," but who knew how many days that iron-faced One-Eyed Dragon would've left Gelis and the others unable to get out of bed over such a revolting incident? Why hadn't he thought of that? Was he really too kind?
"That's the first mistake you made. Do you know what your second mistake was?" Tang De asked, exasperated.
There was a second one? Zhang Tie looked at Tang De innocently.
"Those guys got knocked out and were injured, so their overall strength must've taken a serious hit. At that point, you should've rounded up a few good brothers—or rallied the people in your year who were sick of Gelis and the others' usual behavior. You had the numbers on your side. Strike while the iron was hot, and finish them off while they were down. You should've waited for them on the way home after school, armed yourselves, and swarmed them all at once, leaving them crippled. You should've made sure they'd have to go around you whenever they saw you, or lost the ability to retaliate altogether. Instead, you're sitting here worrying about revenge. Even if you killed or crippled one of them, it'd be a group brawl among students. You're not even graduated—you're minors—and they started it by bullying people at school. If anyone pursued the matter, they wouldn't pin it all on you. The law doesn't punish a crowd, and everyone would help shoulder the blame. What were you afraid of?"
Zhang Tie stammered, unable to find a word. Facing Tang De, he felt as pure as a little white rabbit, while the grocery store owner seemed to grow more and more imposing. One of Tang De's fingers nearly poked him in the forehead, and when Tang De got worked up, his spit sprayed Zhang Tie's face. "Do you know the third mistake you made today—the most unforgivable one? You left the Airplane Brotherhood without saying a word, without explaining a thing. Are you an idiot? You had all those brothers and didn't know how to use them. Instead, you played the hero and showed off, then cut off your own support when you were in danger. What was the point? A pig's a hundred times smarter than you. The first thing you should've done was tell them why you'd clashed with those bastards, then get them to help you finish the bastards off after school today. If they chickened out and wouldn't fight, they'd be the ones who'd let you down. They'd feel guilty whenever they saw you and wouldn't dare challenge you again. But you walked away without a word. What does that make you? It makes you the one who let them down. If they don't know why, they'll look down on you, maybe even turn into your enemies..." Tang De got so worked up that he jabbed Zhang Tie hard in the forehead. "Did those boring Knight novels fry your brain, or did a door slam on your head? How can you fail to understand something so simple? You've eaten all that rice for nothing!"
Listening to Tang De's analysis, Zhang Tie wanted to stick his head between his legs. He'd thought he was being so noble and courageous, but after hearing Tang De lay it out, he felt like a complete idiot. If he'd followed Tang De's three suggestions, Zhang Tie thought, he'd now be outside the school with a bunch of older students who hated Gelis, armed with clubs and outnumbering them. One ambush, and they could've beaten the already weakened Gelis and the others—Captain Colin had thrashed them, after all—until they were rolling on the ground and begging for mercy. It wasn't impossible that he could've crippled those bastards in one go, solved his problem once and for all, and crushed their arrogance at school. He might even have helped the Airplane Brotherhood grow, bringing more people in and giving it real momentum. Why hadn't he thought of that? Why didn't he have Tang De's insight?
Wiping the spit from his face, Zhang Tie looked at Tang De's angry, contemptuous expression and sheepishly scratched his head. "So what do you think I should do now?"
"What should you do? The best opportunity's already gone. What else can you do? Go to school tomorrow and explain to your brothers in the Airplane Brotherhood what happened between you and Gelis and the others, and why you left. Even if you can't rejoin, at least get them to understand and eliminate this potential problem. After that, it'll depend on your luck and fortune. Just remember this: never assume your opponents and enemies are as kind as you, or that they'll follow those damn moral rules. The most terrifying thing in this world is the human heart. The bones of people who died at the hands of their own race would make a far bigger pile than those killed by other races. The human heart is the most frightening thing of all, so be careful. It doesn't matter if you can't beat Gelis. Don't throw an egg at a rock. If you have more friends than he does, bury him under your friends. If you hold a high position, crush him with your power. If you have more money, bury him in it. If you're smarter, outwit him. If you can endure, wait for a chance to ambush him and kill him. If you're shameless enough and have thick enough skin, you can use shameless methods to play him to death. For instance, get down on your knees and apologize, let him punish you, then join them and win his trust and favor. At a crucial moment, catch him off guard and blow his ass to kingdom come. Ask yourself where you're better than him, then use that advantage to play him. Just play him to death. If you're no better than him in anything, then all you can do is keep your distance. Those are the rules of this world. Got it, kid?" Tang De didn't seem to get many chances to lecture anyone, so once he got one, his mouth rattled on like the steam-powered repeating crossbows mounted on Black Flame City's walls, bombarding Zhang Tie until he was utterly battered before finally falling silent.
Zhang Tie stared at Tang De's old face for a long time, as if he were seeing the devious grocery store owner for the first time. He almost made the fat bastard fly into a rage before finally nodding hard and saying, a little shyly and awkwardly, "I think I kind of understand!"
"Think it over. On the Eastern Continent, what I just told you is the essence of the Hua Clan's secret Thick-Black Art, made specifically for dealing with bastards and shameless scoundrels!" Tang De said with a knowing wink, which made his words a lot less convincing.
The Thick-Black Art? It sounded like nothing more than thick skin and a black heart. And that was a secret art? Zhang Tie seriously doubted Tang De's claim, though he had to admit the old man seemed to make a lot of sense. Whatever. He'd cross that bridge when he came to it. At worst, those guys would beat him up a few times. What was the big deal?
Thinking of the first Flawless Fruit that would ripen tonight, Zhang Tie's heart slowly began to burn with anticipation...