"Your future?"
"How have I gotten in the way of your future!"
Fang Shuwen rose to his feet and looked straight at Liu Mang as he approached.
The night wind swept in from the mouth of the alley, and the moonlight stretched long and short shadows across the bluestone road.
Liu Mang stopped five paces away.
By now, he had realized that the person waiting ahead wasn't Chen Da.
"Fang Shuwen!"
"What are you doing here?"
Liu Mang felt a weight lift from his heart. He didn't know why Chen Da wasn't there and Fang Shuwen was instead.
And the other man had even overheard what he'd said.
But so what?
Fang Shuwen was just a scrawny student. In a fight, he wouldn't stand a chance against him.
At the thought,
a smile even crept onto Liu Mang's lips.
He simply hadn't noticed the slumped figure in a corner of the courtyard.
All he saw was Fang Shuwen standing there alone, empty-handed.
"So you heard me. What of it?"
Liu Mang shoved his hands into his pockets and lifted his chin slightly, returning to his usual brazen swagger.
"I'd already decided to let you off, but you just had to stay home like you were told. Instead, you even dreamed of going to see Young Master Guo."
"So don't blame me for what happens next!"
Oh.
Fang Shuwen thought to himself, So that's how it is.
Liu Mang really had sent someone after him. There was definitely something fishy going on.
The last trace of doubt in his mind vanished, replaced by a chill.
He looked up at Liu Mang and spoke in an unhurried tone:
"So you were behind it when you egged me on at the temple fair to grab that rich girl's ass?"
"Only figured it out now?"
Liu Mang scoffed, pulled a cigarette from his pocket, stuck it between his lips, struck a match, and lit it. He took a drag.
"With a brain like yours, you're not even qualified to be a dog. The spot at Young Master Guo's side should've been mine, Liu Mang's. You're just the son of a doorman. You think you can compete with me?"
Fang Shuwen nearly laughed in anger at that.
What kind of brain did this guy have?
Competing to be someone's dog?
He wasn't the original Fang Shuwen. There was no way he'd go back to sucking up to Guo Ziming, let alone become someone's dog.
"You think I'm competing with you?"
Fang Shuwen shook his head.
"Liu Mang, you went to all this trouble to set me up, just to steal a job as Young Master Guo's lackey?"
"What do you mean, lackey!"
The words stung Liu Mang, and his voice abruptly rose:
"What do you know? That's Shenghai Martial University! Young Master Guo got in through a recommendation! If I follow him in, the worst I could do after graduation is land a squad leader's post at the Public Security Bureau!"
"If you were in my shoes, wouldn't you be tempted?"
An ordinary man could bow and scrape, flatter someone, and become their dog.
In return, he'd get the chance to enter Shenghai Martial University.
Even if he only sat in on classes and served as someone's companion while they studied,
after graduating, he'd be able to join an official institution and, at the very least, become a functionary.
Wasn't that exactly what Fang Shuwen's father was always talking about?
Old Fang had sold everything but the kitchen stove to pay for his middle-school education. Wasn't this what he'd been hoping for?
A fountain pen in his pocket, a position as a functionary, a chance to make something of himself.
The original Fang Shuwen had probably thought the same way.
That was why he'd followed Guo Ziming around, fetching tea and water, fawning over him and singing his praises. Wasn't it all to cling to a benefactor and climb into the upper class?
Unfortunately, the original Fang Shuwen was gone.
He'd died at that temple fair, beneath Chen Da's fist.
The Fang Shuwen standing here now had a different soul inside.
"Liu Mang."
At last, Fang Shuwen spoke. His words carried clearly through the night wind and reached Liu Mang's ears.
"You're right. In the past, I might really have been tempted by that path."
Liu Mang frowned, about to say something, but Fang Shuwen continued.
"But things are different now."
"If I want to get into Shenghai Martial University, I'll pass the entrance exam myself."
Liu Mang thought he'd misheard. He froze for a moment, then burst into laughter.
"You? Take the exam?"
"Someone like you thinks you can get into Shenghai Martial University?"
Fang Shuwen had failed six out of seven subjects. Without his PE score pulling up his average, he wouldn't even have qualified for make-up exams!
And now he was standing right in front of him, saying he wanted to get into Shenghai Martial University, the best martial university in the south.
Had the kid just crouched too long and starved his brain of oxygen?
Was he living in a fool's paradise? Had he gone delusional?
At the thought, Liu Mang laughed out loud:
"Do you even know what it takes to get into Shenghai Martial University? You need at least three bone cracks and an entry-level grasp of Bright Force!"
"You've trained in martial arts too, and you haven't even gotten through the door. What are you going to take the exam with? That mouth of yours?"
His laughter rang out, loud and grating.
But as he kept laughing, his voice gradually dwindled until even the smile froze on his lips.
Because Fang Shuwen didn't argue back.
He didn't get red-faced and shout, didn't lose his temper and lunge at Liu Mang. He didn't even look embarrassed, as if Liu Mang had struck a nerve.
He simply stood there, quiet and still.
In the faint moonlight, he looked completely at ease, as if he were staring at a fool.
That silence unsettled Liu Mang more than any retort could have.
"Are you done?" Fang Shuwen asked.
Liu Mang opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Just then, his gaze shifted, and he spotted a huddled black shape at the side of the courtyard.
Liu Mang's pupils shrank to pinpricks.
It was a person.
It was Chen Da.
Chen Da's neck was twisted at an unnatural angle. There was no way he could still be alive.
Liu Mang's laughter stuck in his throat.
It was as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over his head, chilling him from scalp to sole.
He jerked his gaze away from Chen Da's corpse.
His eyes locked on the young man in front of him, dressed in a gray robe and standing empty-handed.
"You... you killed Chen Da?"
Liu Mang's voice turned shrill, warping out of tune as his lips trembled.
"A martial artist with one bone crack—you beat him to death?"
"No, no, no, that can't be possible. How did he die? Who killed him?"
Fang Shuwen didn't answer the question.
He merely raised his right hand and opened his palm beneath the moonlight, then slowly clenched it.
His knuckles cracked.
It wasn't the usual pop of joints. The crisp snaps came from deep within his bones, like firecrackers going off inside his flesh.
One crack, then two.
Crisp, continuous, powerful.
Liu Mang's face turned deathly pale.
Two bone cracks—he knew exactly what that meant.
So Chen Da had been killed by Fang Shuwen!
"You... when did you..."
Liu Mang stared in stunned disbelief, his mind reeling at the sheer absurdity of it all.
But no matter how impossible it seemed,
Fang Shuwen was now far beyond anything he could take on!
"So, do you still think I'm competing with you to be someone's dog?"
Fang Shuwen took a step forward.
He stopped in front of Liu Mang and looked down at the man, who was nearly half a head taller than him and now backing away.
"Liu Mang, do you want my legs, or do you want my life?"
Liu Mang finally broke.
He dropped to his knees with a thump, his kneecaps striking the bluestone with a dull crack.
In a frantic scramble, he fumbled inside his clothes, and ten silver dollars clattered to the ground.
"Don't... don't kill me... Fang Shuwen... Brother Fang!"
Liu Mang's voice broke as snot and tears smeared his face.
"I've got money! Take it all! I won't fight you over Young Master Guo anymore. The spot is yours!"
"Brother Fang, let me go. I swear I'll never show my face in front of you again. I swear..."
Crack.
The next moment,
with a sharp snap, Fang Shuwen broke Liu Mang's neck.
"If I kill you, the money's still mine."