"Off to work." Li Xiuwen smiled ingratiatingly, deftly pulled a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his pocket, and lit Brother Ji's cigarette.
"A Wen, you got paid a few days ago, didn't you?" Brother Ji puffed on his cigarette and smiled. "Don't you want to treat the boys to a decent meal?"
"Brother Ji, didn't my uncle-in-law just pay you 180 this month?"
"Your uncle-in-law paid for your household. You pay for yourself. Those are separate accounts."
"Well..." As Li Xiuwen hesitated, someone drove a heavy punch into his back, sending him stumbling to the ground.
It was the kid behind him.
"Come on, A Wen, hand over the cash." The kid grinned, looking every inch a young punk.
He was only seventeen, younger than Li Xiuwen.
If it had only been this little brat, Li Xiuwen wouldn't have been afraid.
But Brother Ji was a trained fighter whose arms were as thick as Li Xiuwen's thighs.
Li Xiuwen smiled. "You know how it is, Brother Ji. I'm no good at anything. It's not much, but please don't turn your nose up at it."
He took fifty from his pocket, bent at the waist, and offered it to Brother Ji with both hands.
Brother Ji snatched the money and patted Li Xiuwen's shoulder.
Li Xiuwen's face was pale as he lowered his head and coughed.
"A Wen, let me apologize for what happened last month." Brother Ji grinned. "How was I supposed to know you were such a weakling? One little smack and you passed out."
With that, Brother Ji left with his men.
Li Xiuwen gasped for breath. Only after Brother Ji had disappeared did he leave in a different direction.
How can I get by in this shithole without learning to fight? Getting bullied every day, watching everyone's mood, living in constant fear-what's the point?
Some time later, he quietly arrived outside a Tong Lau on the edge of the Enclave.
The sign on the Tong Lau read [Night Heron Martial Arts Hall].
He knocked on the door.
"Who is it?"
"Someone looking for a master."
A shirtless, cross-eyed teenage boy pulled open the Tong Lau's iron door, revealing a converted training room.
It wasn't large, but it counted as spacious in the Enclave. There weren't many people, either-only seven.
Anyone who could afford to learn martial arts here qualified as one of the Enclave's "young masters and young ladies."
Among them, a blond teenage boy stood out from the crowd. His face still had a childish look, but he was tall and broad, no smaller than Brother Ji, and carried himself with distinction.
The boy who had opened the door said to the blond boy, "Senior brother, someone's here to learn martial arts from Master."
The blond boy told everyone to practice on their own, walked over, and asked, "How old are you?"
"Twenty-one."
"Too old... Try somewhere else."
"May I ask if you're the head of the hall?"
"The Night Heron Martial Arts Hall is a reputable school, not some outfit of swindling charlatans. We don't accept anyone over sixteen, no matter how much they pay."
"I'd like to ask the head of the hall."
"Just go. He's in secluded cultivation. I'm being polite. He'll just tell you to get lost."
Seeing that he was getting nowhere, Li Xiuwen didn't insist. He turned to leave.
"You can try the Four Seas Martial Arts Hall across the way. They take anyone. As long as you have money, you're in."
The blond boy shut the door and laughed with his junior brothers. "Where did that old fossil crawl out from? At his age, he still wants to learn martial arts."
"Exactly. Your martial constitution is fixed by sixteen. Twenty-one rounds up to... thirty!" the cross-eyed boy who had opened the door said with a laugh.
Some time later, a tall old man with a lean face, white hair, and a youthful complexion came downstairs in a Daoist robe.
Behind him followed a curvaceous foreign woman with wavy blond hair and luminous pale skin, wearing a low-cut qipao.
"Longlegs Seven, someone wanted to learn martial arts?" he asked the blond boy.
"Yes, Master. He was twenty-one, so I sent him across the street."
"If there's no hope for him, we shouldn't let him waste his money. Unlike Old Huang, always chasing those few coins, taking anyone who comes along. He's utterly obsessed with money."
As he spoke, he looked toward another martial arts hall a short way down the street, its sign reading [Four Seas].
"Master, shouldn't we have checked his bones? What if he had a good martial constitution? Wouldn't it be a shame to miss him?" a disciple asked.
"At that age, even a good martial constitution would be mostly wasted. Not everyone can be a late bloomer." The tall old man turned and left.
He had something of a reputation in the Enclave, and plenty of people had come seeking to become his disciples over the years.
But he had turned most of them away.
For those living at the bottom of the Enclave, earning even a little money wasn't easy.
He was a kind man. He couldn't bear to take it from them.
Outside the Four Seas Martial Arts Hall.
Twenty-one and he calls me an old fossil? In my last life, people were still working to earn money at sixty! I'll remember you, you little blond brat.
Grumbling inwardly, Li Xiuwen knocked on the door of the Four Seas Martial Arts Hall.
This time, the person who opened it was a tall, slender woman of about thirty.
She wore a slit qipao and was beautifully dressed, exuding the charm of a fully mature woman.
She looked Li Xiuwen over with a smile. "What brings you here, young man?"
Suspicious, Li Xiuwen turned to look around, confirming that this wasn't the red-light district and that he hadn't come to the wrong place.
"I'm here to learn martial arts. Miss, you are...?" Li Xiuwen copied the fist-in-palm salute of martial artists and smiled.
"Come in. I'm Mrs. Huang. You can call me the proprietress or Third Aunt." The woman turned, swaying her hips and revealing her long legs as she led the way.
Martial arts are a good thing. I've got to learn, Li Xiuwen thought.
He casually noticed her shapely, strong calves, muscular without losing their graceful lines, and knew she was a trained martial artist.
Rumor had it that Xianghai's martial arts big shots had wives and concubines in droves, every one a beauty. Some even had blond foreign women from across the ocean. He had seen one himself today.
In Xianghai, foreigners stood above everyone else and looked down on people with yellow skin.
On the ground floor of the Four Seas Martial Arts Hall, sandbags, weapon racks, wooden dummies, and other training equipment were scattered around the cramped practice area.
Dozens of shirtless men and women in undershirts crowded into the narrow space, some sparring in pairs, others practicing alone.
It was much livelier than the Night Heron Martial Arts Hall.
A short-haired, middle-aged man in a blue tunic stood with his hands behind his back.
He was about five feet seven, wore cloth shoes, and held a folding fan as he instructed one of the girls.
"The fundamentals of the Sea Sand Style are all about drawing power from the ground and sinking with tremendous weight! Your body's already floating upward before your punch even goes out. How are you going to hit anyone?"
The girl said nothing, her face flushed with embarrassment.
Noticing someone had entered, the middle-aged man raised his eyes and looked over.
"Master, someone's here to learn martial arts from you," Third Aunt said.
"Li Xiuwen pays his respects to the head of the hall!" Li Xiuwen clasped his hands in salute.
He spoke.
The middle-aged man told the girl to practice on her own, then beckoned to Li Xiuwen. "Come with me."
Inside a small study with a rather elegant, old-fashioned air.
The middle-aged man said, "I, Huang Sihai, like to get straight to the point. Did you bring the money?"
Li Xiuwen took out a stack of banknotes and bowed as he offered them to the middle-aged man. "Three thousand five hundred. Please check it."
Without even looking, the middle-aged man said:
"Not enough."
"The recruitment ad in the newspaper said the initiation fee was three thousand, and the monthly fee was five hundred... I'll just study for one month, no longer."
"That was before. Not long ago, I beat a foreign devil in the Third Ring. Too many people want to become my disciples now."
"How much is it now?"
"An initiation fee of three thousand four hundred, and six hundred a month," Huang Sihai said mildly, closing his eyes.
"Then I'll take my leave."
Li Xiuwen turned to leave. So the price was the same as at the Night Heron Martial Arts Hall after all.
"Wait."
"Is there something else, sir?"
"You're from Sheng, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"We're fellow countrymen, then. Fine, I'll do you a favor. Three thousand six hundred-I'll knock off four hundred. How does that sound?"
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