"Fist Training is a good thing. If A Wen actually gets somewhere with it, won't our family finally be able to hold our heads high in the Walled City?" his aunt said with a smile.
"The Walled City has over a million people. How many of them ever make anything of it?" His uncle shook his head, took a sip of soup, and continued, "They say there are four things people at the bottom here must never touch: whoring, gambling, Fist Training, and drugs... With gambling, at least you might get lucky and win some money. Fist Training really is a bottomless pit. Poor folk like us don't even dare touch it."
"How will he know unless he tries? If he doesn't take up Fist Training, he'll be stuck at the bottom all his life."
"A Wen is very bright. Back in the Prosperous State, circumstances didn't allow it, but as his elder, I hope he can get some education and find honest work."
"Fist Training is a perfectly respectable pursuit. If he picks up a few skills, he could become a stunt performer. Some big director might notice him, and he could even become the next Mr. Long."
"Survivorship bias... How many martial artists end up covered in scars without ever achieving anything? In the end, they're still doing backbreaking work at the bottom."
"You've been to school. You know everything. Happy now?"
"Can't A Wen earn his own money now?"
"If that boy relies on his own earnings, it'll be another six months before he can start training. Even once he starts, he'll still have tuition to pay. Where would he get the money?"
"So we're supposed to support him for the rest of his life? You know it takes money to train in martial arts. That twenty-thousand ransom already wiped out everything we'd saved over the years."
"Have him write an IOU. It's a loan, not a gift. A Wen is resourceful. I believe that even if martial arts doesn't work out, he'll find a way to pay us back."
"Yingmei, don't blame me for speaking out of turn... Honestly, if it weren't for A Wen, we'd already have moved out of the Walled City."
"Brother Yi, what are you trying to say?"
"If he'd just stayed put in the Prosperous State, none of this would have happened."
"He's a child. Of course he wanted to go out and make his way in the world. He was bound to stumble... A Wen already said he'd definitely pay you back that twenty thousand."
"How? Do you know how many people in the Fragrant Sea can't save twenty thousand in their entire lives?"
As Li Xiuwen's uncle, he had found his life unexpectedly thrown into disarray by the boy's arrival.
Chen Ziyi had built up quite a bit of resentment lately, so his words inevitably came out a little harsh.
His aunt wasn't angry. Chen Ziyi had already done more than enough.
A Wen's arrival really had made things worse for their already struggling household.
The sound of the door opening broke the silence. Li Xiuwen walked in and said with a smile, "Auntie, Uncle... I'm back."
Chen Ziyi asked quietly, "A Wen, you want to take up Fist Training?"
"Yes. I've almost saved enough for the tuition."
"That only covers the initiation fee and the first month's dues, doesn't it? What about after that?"
"I'll try it for a month first. If it turns out I'm not cut out for martial arts, I won't waste any more time. I'll find some proper work."
"I hear martial arts training is measured in years. It's hard to get any results early on."
"There's nothing I can do about that. We all have to accept reality."
Hearing that, Chen Ziyi softened. After a moment's thought, he asked, "How much are you short?"
Li Xiuwen knew his aunt had told his uncle after all. He quickly said, "Uncle, don't worry about this. I've got it under control."
Chen Ziyi took a stack of banknotes from his wallet, still warm from his body.
It was a payment he had just collected, several months' income from the Factory, three thousand in all.
He counted out twenty-three hundred, kept seven hundred, and handed the rest to Li Xiuwen.
"If I don't look after you, who will? Try it for a month first. If you really show some promise, I'll cover your tuition from then on, as long as I can afford it."
"But..." Li Xiuwen glanced at his aunt.
His aunt smiled. "Take it. Working to earn it yourself would waste too much time. You need to start training while you're young."
Li Xiuwen didn't make a fuss. He took the money, hugged his uncle, and said, "I'll work hard."
"I haven't finished. If you don't show any promise, I'll only pay six months of dues at the Martial Arts Hall, at most... Your uncle doesn't amount to much. I don't want your aunt suffering alongside me."
"Uncle, my parents died young, and I don't have any family left in the Prosperous State. You and Auntie are the only family I have. When I make it, I'll take care of you both."
"I'm not counting on you making it big. Just stay out of trouble once you've learned how to fight..." His uncle went to take a shower after saying that.
Back in his bedroom, Li Xiuwen beamed with delight. Even a single coin can bring a hero low. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to find a master!
By the window on the other side, his aunt and uncle talked quietly.
"Weren't you refusing to give him anything?" His aunt gave his uncle a pinch.
"Your older brother did our family a good turn. I won't forget that... Besides, A Wen getting beaten by Brother Ji last month was partly our fault for paying the protection money late."
Protection Money—that is, a protection fee.
"Brother Yi, you're so loyal! Hehe."
"Don't get your hopes up. Learning the moves isn't hard, but getting somewhere with them is like reaching the heavens. If he never amounts to anything, if neither studies nor martial arts works out, he'll just be wasting his time."
"People can't teach someone a lesson that experience can. Once will be enough... I reckon A Wen won't last a month before giving up. Martial arts training is brutal."
"I actually think he'll stick with it a little longer. But without talent, even hard work might not get him anywhere."
Early the next morning,
the previous day's torrential rain had left the streets a muddy mess.
Li Xiuwen trudged along, his feet sinking into the mud with every other step, humming a little tune from his memories to himself: I swayed and stumbled, like the rolling waves...
"Hit me!" He let out a Bruce Lee-like cry and lashed out with a kick. A large black rat scurrying across the street went flying south.
"Kid, where are you going?" Suddenly, an old man emerged from a dark alley. His eyes were sunken, his face sallow and gaunt, and his teeth black.
Li Xiuwen quickened his pace without answering him.
Whenever he encountered a dragon-chasing junkie, he kept his distance, afraid of breathing in the stench that clung to them.
"Don't run! I've got a peerless martial arts manual from the Prosperous State. Give me fifty and I'll teach you." The old man grinned and chased after him.
That old bastard's pretty quick. Li Xiuwen sped up and disappeared around a corner.
Having lost his target, the muddleheaded old man retreated into the dark alley, peering around like a rat.
"Wondrous beyond words, wondrous beyond words..."
What kind of technique costs only fifty? Buddha's Palm, or some Crazy Thursday deal?
Li Xiuwen cut through several alleys, still grumbling inwardly.
Before he could catch his breath, another person darted out from beside the road and stopped in front of him, watching him with a smile that never reached his eyes.
The man wore a short martial arts outfit and cloth shoes, his thick arms folded across his chest. His skin had a bluish cast, and veins coiled over it like old snakes.
"A Wen, haven't seen you in a month. You're awake now, huh?"
"Brother Ji..." Li Xiuwen turned his head and realized that a half-grown boy was standing at the other end of the road too, sneering
as he watched him.
The Children's Gang wasn't a specific gang but a category of people, essentially like the school delinquents of his previous life.
Only here, their numbers were much greater, and their behavior much worse.
They infested every corner of the Fragrant Sea like cockroaches, creating enormous problems for public safety.
The group Brother Ji belonged to called themselves the Longjin Road Thirteen Guardians.
They were a bunch of troubled youths gathered together by a few older martial artists, claiming the streets as their own territory-in other words, street thugs.
Their leader was the Third Master. Brother Ji was only third in command.
Brother Ji strode over with heavy steps, his broad back completely blocking the view.
At six foot three, he looked down at Li Xiuwen, who stood only five foot ten, picking his teeth with a toothpick as he asked with a grin,
"Where are you off to?"
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