The Thick-Black Art

"Kid, what's wrong? You look terrible." After two consecutive waves of customers left, Zhang Tie finished tallying the day's accounts on his abacus. Because business had been busy, Tang De hadn't retreated to his usual chair, choosing instead to help out from behind the counter.

Once the books were closed and Zhang Tie set down his pen, Tang De leaned in from the side and asked.

Damn it, is reading people a natural talent for all fat men? Thinking of that fatso Barry at school and the grocery store owner right in front of him, Zhang Tie couldn't help but harbor this suspicion.

Zhang Tie offered a helpless smile and recounted what had happened at school today. Surprisingly, just saying it out loud made him feel a bit better.

"Heh... heh..." The grocery store owner let out a wicked laugh and gave Zhang Tie a thumbs-up. "I really couldn't tell you had such a backbone. Do you regret it now?"

"Screw them. Who do they think they are? A few plates? I'd wash them for a friend, or even for a beggar on the street, but I just don't give a damn about them. What are they going to do, bite my bird off?" Having grown close to Tang De, Zhang Tie didn't mind venting his frustrations in front of the fat man. "By the way, have you ever run into this kind of bullshit before..." After venting, Zhang Tie didn't forget to ask for the fat man's advice. Having worked at the grocery store for so long, Tang De often felt like a mentor of sorts, teaching him many things. If nothing else, Tang De's life experience was far richer than his own.

"Anyone can run into this kind of thing because there are just too many self-righteous assholes in this world. You could be sitting there perfectly fine, and someone might just find you an eyesore and want to stomp on your face to feel better. When you meet such bastards, you have to hit them hard. Do you know where you went wrong this afternoon?" Tang De asked.

"Where did I go wrong?"

"Since you decided to stand against them, you shouldn't have held back this afternoon. You should have dealt with them ruthlessly, using every means at your disposal. Young man, you've got guts, but you're too soft-hearted and indecisive."

Zhang Tie's eyes widened. He had offended Gelisde and his cronies so severely, yet in Tang De's eyes, he was merely soft-hearted and indecisive.

"Since you're already making enemies, does it make any difference whether you slap him once or ten times?" Tang De criticized him mercilessly. "Are you still fantasizing that those bastards will be grateful to you for only slapping them once when you had the chance to slap them ten times? If I were you, I would have quietly dumped their trays in the toilet, pinned the blame on them, and then denied everything to the death, instead of just walking away like you did. Tell me, what do you think that One-Eyed Dragon at your school would do if he found the cafeteria trays in the toilet? What kind of punishment would your school rules dictate for such behavior? The trays were lost by them anyway, so they couldn't pin it on you. What were you afraid of?"

Zhang Tie was dumbfounded. If he had actually done that, he thought, charges like "intentional theft of public property" or "damaging school honor" could have been skirted onto Gelisde and his group. Even if those didn't stick, while the school rules didn't explicitly forbid "being disgusting," faced with such a revolting incident, heaven knows how badly that impartial One-Eyed Dragon would have beaten Gelisde and his crew. Why hadn't he thought of that at the time? Was he really that naive?

"That's your first mistake. Do you know what your second mistake was?" Tang De said, looking as if he were disappointed in Zhang Tie's lack of ambition.

There was a second one? Zhang Tie looked at Tang De innocently.

"Since those guys were knocked out and injured, their overall strength must have been severely compromised. At that moment, you should have rounded up a few good brothers, or incited those in your grade who were already dissatisfied with Gelisde's usual antics. With the advantage of numbers, you should have kicked them while they were down. You should have waited for them on their way home after school, prepared weapons, and swarmed them to cripple them once and for all. You need to make them walk the other way the moment they see you, or strip them of their ability to retaliate. Instead, you're here worrying about their revenge. Even if you had beaten one of them to death or crippled them, because it was a student-led incident and you haven't graduated yet, you'd still be considered minors. Plus, they were the ones who started it by bullying people. If responsibility were to be pursued later, it wouldn't fall on your head alone. The law doesn't punish the masses; with everyone helping you shoulder the burden, what were you afraid of?"

Zhang Tie was speechless. Facing Tang De, he felt as pure as a little white rabbit, while the grocery store owner's aura grew more imposing. Tang De's finger nearly poked Zhang Tie's forehead, and in his excitement, he sprayed spit all over Zhang Tie's face. "Do you know your third mistake, the most unforgivable one? You actually left that Airplane Brotherhood without saying a word, without giving a single reason. Are you an idiot? You have so many brothers you won't utilize, playing the hero, showing off, and actively cutting off your own reinforcements when in danger. Is that fun? Even a pig is a hundred times smarter than you. What you should have done was tell them exactly why you had a conflict with those bastards today, and then have them help you beat those bastards to death after school. If they chickened out and didn't dare to do it, then they would be the ones who failed you, and they'd feel guilty whenever they saw you in the future, not daring to challenge you again. But by leaving without a word, what does that make you? It makes you the one who failed them. If they don't know the reason, they'll despise you, or even become your enemies..." Tang De was so worked up that he jabbed his finger hard into Zhang Tie's forehead. "Is your brain fried by those boring knight novels, or was it caught in a door? You can't even figure out such a simple thing? What a waste of all the rice you've eaten over the years!"

Listening to Tang De's analysis, Zhang Tie wished he could bury his head in his crotch. At the time, he thought he was being noble and tough, but hearing Tang De put it this way, he felt like a complete fool. If he had followed these three points, Zhang Tie imagined he would currently be outside the school with a bunch of disgruntled students, armed with clubs, surrounding and ambushing Gelisde and his crew—who were already weakened by Captain Colin—until they were rolling on the ground begging for mercy. Crippling those scumbags in one go wasn't impossible. He could have solved his problem once and for all, crushed Gelisde's arrogance, and perhaps even strengthened the Airplane Brotherhood by pulling more people in. Why hadn't he thought of that? Why didn't he have Tang De's perspective?

Wiping the spit off his face and looking at Tang De, who was still glaring at him with disdain, Zhang Tie scratched his head sheepishly. "So, what do I do now?"

"What do you do? The best opportunity is already gone. What else can you do? Tomorrow at school, explain the conflict with Gelisde and the reason you left the group to your brothers in the Airplane Brotherhood. Even if you can't rejoin, you at least need to gain their understanding and eliminate this hidden danger. As for the rest, it depends on your own luck. But remember one thing: never imagine your opponents and enemies are as kind as you, or that they will follow those bullshit moral rules. In this world, the most terrifying thing is the human heart. The pile of corpses of humans killed by their own kind is definitely larger than those killed by the alien races. The human heart is the most frightening thing of all. Be careful. If you can't beat Gelisde, that's fine; don't throw an egg against a rock. If you have more friends than him, mobilize them to bury him. If you hold a high position, use your power to crush him. If you have more money, bury him with it. If you're smarter, outsmart him. If you're patient enough, find an opening to ambush and kill him. If you're shameless and thick-skinned enough, you can play him to death with underhanded tactics—like kneeling to apologize, letting him punish you, joining them, gaining his trust, and then stabbing him in the back when he least expects it so he can never recover. Ask yourself where you exceed him, and use that to play him until he's finished. If you're inferior to him in every way, then just stay far away. That is the rule of the game in this world, understand, kid!" Tang De rarely had the chance to lecture someone, so once he started, his mouth fired like the steam-powered crossbows mounted on the walls of Black Flame City, not stopping until he had shredded Zhang Tie's confidence to pieces.

Zhang Tie looked at the grocery store owner as if seeing him for the first time. He stared at Tang De's weathered face for a long while, almost making the fat man feel embarrassed, before nodding vigorously and saying, somewhat shyly, "I think I understand a little!"

"Think it over carefully. In the Eastern Continent, what I just told you is the essence of the Thick-Black Art, secretly passed down by the Hua Clan specifically for dealing with bastards and shameless scoundrels!" Tang De said with a wink, which made his statement sound significantly less convincing.

Thick-Black Art? It just sounds like having a thick face and a black heart; this is a secret technique? Zhang Tie was highly skeptical of Tang De's claim, but skepticism aside, he felt that Tang De's words actually made a lot of sense. Whatever, he'd just take things as they came. At worst, he'd just get beaten up a few times by those guys; what was the big deal?

Thinking of the first Flawless Fruit that would ripen tonight, Zhang Tie's heart began to burn with anticipation...

There is another chapter tonight. Thanks for the votes, everyone!