In The Taking of Tiger Mountain, Comrade Yang Zirong once warned us that we must never let the villain speak first.
In Project A, Inspector Ma Rulong had pulled the same move.
In Let the Bullets Fly, Hu Qian, the Huang household's steward, had even used this approach to force Sixth Brother to cut open his own belly and kill himself.
In the comedy sketch To Help or Not to Help, Grandmaster Shen Teng had uttered a pearl of wisdom: whoever spoke first owned the problem.
"Ahem!"
Zhang Qingyuan interrupted Old Wang's impassioned speech with a cough.
Everyone turned toward Zhang Qingyuan and saw him step forward, one hand planted on his hip.
"Valiant men, heroes, I am Zhang Qingyuan, and this is my junior brother, Zhang Junbao!
"A trifling matter has stirred up such an uproar and chaos throughout the martial world, bringing all you heroes here despite your busy schedules. My brother and I are at fault. Please forgive us!"
Oh?
Everyone was thoroughly puzzled by these words.
In a duel, wasn't Old Wang supposed to say, "You came," followed by, "I came," then, "You shouldn't have come," and finally, "But I came anyway"?
Or shouldn't he roar, "Pay with your life for my son!" before both sides started fighting?
That had always been the procedure. What was he doing, rewriting the script?
But Zhang Qingyuan spoke so pleasantly, looked so handsome, and opened with an apology...
Of course they forgave him!
"It's no trouble, Young Hero Zhang. Please, go ahead," Murong Xi, the Holy Maiden of the Joyous Union Sect, replied sweetly.
The Joyous Union Sect knew what was what. No wonder they were so good-looking.
Once Murong Xi spoke, the others chimed in one after another.
As the saying went, you didn't raise a hand against a smiling face. Since he was being so courteous, it was only right to offer a few words in response.
Zhang Qingyuan said, "I believe you all know the general story. It began when the Wang family's eldest young master took a fancy to a hunting dog and offered five taels of silver for it.
"But when it came time to make the trade, he suddenly changed his mind and offered only four taels and eight mace.
"May I ask, Old Master Wang, was your family short of those two mace of silver?"
Old Wang knew the whole story too, but he absolutely could not admit it now. Too many heroes had come to watch. Admitting it would not only make him look like a petty villain, but also harm his family's business in the future.
That was why he had not attacked immediately at the outset. Instead, he had wanted to turn black into white and claim the moral high ground.
Unfortunately, Zhang Qingyuan had not given him the chance.
Now that Zhang Qingyuan let him speak, Old Wang hurriedly said, "Utter nonsense! My family's savings amount to far more than ten thousand strings of coins. How could-"
He wanted to say something along the lines of how they could possibly kill over two mace of silver, then stick firmly to that account, pin the blame on the dead mother and daughter, and establish his son's innocence.
Unfortunately, Zhang Qingyuan did not give him the chance.
"Then that settles it! If you're short of money, just say so. I imagine if Young Master Wang had borrowed from someone back then, he could have scraped together those two mace of silver."
"You..." Old Wang glared at him.
"Your Wang family is one of the wealthiest households in Luoyang. The agreed price was five taels of silver for a dog. If he hadn't brought enough money, couldn't your family even produce another two mace?"
"My family has over a million in savings!"
"You have money? You should have said so sooner! Having money but refusing to pay in full-isn't that bullying honest folk?"
With just a couple of sentences, Zhang Qingyuan had steered the conversation from vengeance for a murdered son to two mace of silver.
There was no untangling the matter of vengeance for a murdered son. He certainly could not dance to Old Wang's tune.
Selling houses worked the same way. Most customers came to view a property looking for faults.
So, as a qualified salesperson, you absolutely could not let the customer control the conversation. You had to use your sales pitch to steer the topic into your own territory.
A little smooth talking, and before they knew it, they had bought the house!
"I, I... this old man..." Old Wang's chest heaved with fury, his beard bristling and his eyes bulging. "It wasn't about two mace of silver! That day, my son-"
"It wasn't about two mace of silver? Then what was it about?" Zhang Qingyuan still gave him no opening and continued, "Fine, even if Young Master Wang had lost his money that day and couldn't scrape together five taels, the mother and daughter selling the dog didn't say anything else, did they?
"They asked Young Master Wang to go home and come back once he had enough money. That was reasonable, wasn't it?
"Perhaps someone might ask: it was only two mace of silver. Why not give him a discount and sell it for four taels and eight mace?
"Anyone saying that may not understand the lives of the poor. To ordinary people, two mace of silver meant two dou of rice, three feet of cloth, a full meal when hungry, and money for medicine when sick.
"Everyone, I believe some of you came from the bottom too. Think back to your childhood, how your parents ran themselves ragged and scratched a living from the soil just to give you something good to eat. That string of coins they finally managed to save bought you those two jin of meat, that little sugar figurine. These are the little things we poor folk live for!"
A clamor rose.
The way everyone looked at the Wang family changed.
They had only come to watch the spectacle at first, but somehow, they suddenly felt a little filled with righteous indignation.
Zhang Qingyuan continued, "The mother and daughter didn't want to sell to him, but he used his father's status as Luoyang's richest man to force them.
"When they refused, he ordered his men to beat them to death.
"Tell me, everyone, was it merely a mother and daughter he beat to death?
"No.
"Those he brutalized were women and children!"
A buzz swept through the crowd.
Women and children-what a weighty charge.
Why did it feel as though a horn had sounded, as though hot blood were stirring in their veins?
"My junior brother and I entered the martial world for the first time, our hearts full of hot blood.
"Heroes, I believe that when you first entered the martial world, you too burned with the desire to punish evil and uphold good, and dreamed of slaying demons, vanquishing devils, and becoming great heroes of your generation!
"The greatest heroes serve their country and its people.
"How could my junior brother and I spare him?
"Roar when you see injustice on the road, strike when it is time to strike, and storm through the Nine Provinces!
"We do not regret killing that beast. We only hate that we arrived too late to save the women and children."
Overcome with grief and indignation, Zhang Qingyuan lowered his head in shame.
He continued softly, "I dare not imagine how many more wronged souls and how much blood stained Young Master Wang's hands after all his years of lording it over Luoyang."
"Senior brother, we came too late!" Zhang Junbao chimed in.
Zhang Qingyuan raised his head and swept his gaze around. "I do not regret killing that beast. As his father, the Wang family head wants revenge, and I understand that.
"So I came today, solely to keep this appointment. Today, we will not stop until one side is dead!"
Before his words had faded, Zhang Junbao had already leaped into the air. As he descended, Zhang Qingyuan boosted him with his arm.
Zhang Junbao stepped on Zhang Qingyuan's arm and executed the lightness technique Cloud Ladder. With Zhang Qingyuan also circulating his True Qi to give him a boost, Zhang Junbao shot like an arrow piercing the clouds, reaching Old Wang in the blink of an eye.
Before Old Wang could even see clearly, Zhang Junbao slit his throat with a single thrust!
Even as he died, Old Wang could not understand. Weren't they still at the stage of trading insults?
Why had they suddenly started fighting?
He suddenly attacked me...
Zhou Haojie had not reacted either. During Zhang Qingyuan's speech, he had kept moving, walking forward as he talked. Everyone had been paying attention to his words and failed to notice that he had secretly closed the distance.
"Attack!"
Shocked, Zhou Haojie hastily shouted. Only then did the other guards react and charge at Zhang Junbao.
Zhang Qingyuan followed close behind. Before he arrived, his Sword Qi drove shadows forward, crisscrossing in all directions.
Purple Firmament Thunder Strike Sword Technique,
Swift as Lightning,
Lightning Flashes and Thunderclap,
Purple Firmament Assaults the Palace,
Light and Shadow Sword Immortal.
Sword Qi mingled with arcs of lightning. After four moves, eight people were already dead.
Zhou Haojie lived up to his reputation as one of the age's experts. With his eight great guards, he actually fought Zhang Junbao on even terms.
Zhang Junbao gathered Nine Yang Palm power in his left hand, unleashed the Thunder Ultimate Sword Technique with his right, and danced through the Wandering Body Footwork.
Meanwhile, Zhang Qingyuan cleared out the small fry around him so that he could fight without distraction.
Zhang Junbao pushed the Thunder Ultimate Sword Technique to its limit, his sword as swift as lightning. Apart from Zhou Haojie, no one could withstand even a single exchange with him.
At first, their numerical advantage had allowed them to hold their own, but after a dozen or so moves, the eight great guards began to buckle under his fierce swordplay and retreat again and again.
His elusive Roaming Body Steps carried him around them.
Another ten moves passed, and Zhang Junbao had cut down three men in succession.
Seeing this, Zhou Haojie unleashed the Nine Heavens Star-Plucking Pavilion's supreme technique, the Nine Heavens Star-Picking Sword Technique.
Sword Qi stretched like a rainbow, capable even of cleaving stars!
His Sword Qi extended far, like a slender thread.
Zhang Junbao met sword with sword.
Thunderclap!
His Sword Qi shot out like a thunderous explosion, the blast cleaving the air with a sonic boom.
Crack!
The hair-thin Sword Qi snapped at the sound. Immediately afterward, Zhang Junbao appeared before him and brought his sword down, separating Zhou Haojie's head from his body.
Three of his eight great guards were dead, and the remaining five had already lost their nerve. At some unknown point, Zhang Qingyuan had appeared beside them.
"Thunder Ultimate, Lightning Dance!"
Dozens of lightning arcs shot out in an instant, erupting around the five men like whips.
Their deaths came suddenly, because they, too, had never expected Zhang Qingyuan to appear beside them.
There had been over a hundred people over there. He couldn't possibly have killed them that quickly, could he?
Of course, those hundred-odd people had not all died.
Instead, they had long since lost the will to keep fighting, so they surrendered.
The boss paying them was dead.
The manager leading them was dead too.
We're just hired hands. Why fight so desperately?
One after another, they dropped their weapons, knelt, and begged for mercy.