Character School Little Hand

That evening, Jiang Kui brewed Su Ziyang another dose of medicinal broth to disperse blood stasis and strengthen his muscles and bones.

After drinking it, Su Ziyang was able to get out of bed the next day, though his whole body still ached.

Su Ziyang got up early in the morning. When he came out and saw Jiang Kui doing his morning exercises in the courtyard, he didn't dare disturb him and watched from the side.

Finally, Jiang Kui finished his practice. He saw Su Ziyang standing nearby and smiled. "You're up! We'll eat in a little while!"

"Good morning, Master Jiang." Su Ziyang really didn't know what to call Jiang Kui, so he addressed him as a disciple who had come to learn from him.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Kui frowned. "Ah! Don't call me master. Your master is an expert like Mr. Mengfei. A country fellow like me can't be the master of a top student like you."

"Master Jiang, my master sent me here to learn from you. I ought to call you master. There's nothing wrong with that!" Su Ziyang thought Jiang Kui didn't want to teach him. He understood that family arts were generally not taught to outsiders.

Jiang Kui laughed heartily. "Hahaha! What? Are you afraid I won't teach you anything, kid?! Let me tell you, your master, Mr. Mengfei, is a benefactor of our Jiang family. I have to do my utmost for anyone he sends here! But don't call me master. Call me uncle, just like Xiaotian does!"

Su Ziyang understood the connection, and his face suddenly turned red. He had measured a gentleman's heart with a petty man's yardstick. "Haha, all right. Uncle Jiang."

"That's right, that's right. Uncle sounds good! It sounds good! Come on, let's eat!" Jiang Kui laughed heartily again.

At the dinner table.

"Old Jiang, you're still making Xiaotian kneel there! Let the boy have something to eat!" Auntie Jiang said to Jiang Kui as she set out the food.

Her words left Su Ziyang completely bewildered. "Auntie, what did you say? Where is Xiaotian kneeling?! Why?"

Su Ziyang hadn't seen Jiang Tian since waking up, so he had assumed Jiang Tian had gone back to his own home. After all, Jiang Kui was only Jiang Tian's uncle.

Jiang Kui took a sip of porridge and put down his chopsticks. "I told Xiaotian to kneel before the founding master's statue. Yesterday, someone struck your acupoints with the Character School's Little Hand. If I hadn't come back in time, your life would have been in danger. By rights, Xiaotian has studied under me since he was little, so he should have noticed your acupoints had been struck the moment he saw you. But that brat actually failed to notice! How could I not punish him?!"

Jiang Kui seemed to grow angrier as he spoke. He slammed the table with a bang, and Auntie Jiang, who had been about to say something more, was so startled that she fell silent at once.

Auntie Jiang gave Su Ziyang a meaningful look, asking him to plead for Jiang Tian.

Su Ziyang already felt guilty enough that Jiang Tian had picked him up and run around taking care of him. Now Jiang Tian had been made to kneel because of him. If he still didn't plead for him, he would be less than human.

Su Ziyang smiled at the angry Jiang Kui. "Uncle Jiang, look. It's not as if Jiang Tian deliberately ignored me. A skill like that is so subtle, it's only natural he didn't notice. Please, don't make him kneel anymore. Xiaotian picked me up and ran around taking care of me. How guilty would I feel if you made him keep kneeling?!"

Su Ziyang's words worked. The anger slowly faded from Jiang Kui's face.

"For Ziyang's sake, I'll let him off this time! Wife, go call him up here. Tell him to get his butt up here and eat!"

Auntie Jiang was about to get up when Su Ziyang quickly stood. "I'll go, I'll go! The east wing in the courtyard is where the founding master is enshrined, right?"

Jiang Kui nodded.

Su Ziyang hurried to the east wing. He pushed the door open and found Jiang Tian kneeling ramrod straight before an altar.

Many offerings were laid out on the altar. The image depicted a burly man who looked exceptionally heroic.

Su Ziyang didn't stop to look. He hurried over to Jiang Tian. "Xiaotian, get up. Let's go eat."

Jiang Tian looked at Su Ziyang, but remained kneeling straight and didn't move.

"Oh, come on. Uncle Jiang said you don't have to kneel anymore. Let's go eat." Even after Su Ziyang said that, Jiang Tian remained unmoved.

Seeing that Jiang Tian wasn't budging, Su Ziyang continued, "Xiaotian, you ran around taking care of me, and then you spent the whole night kneeling here because of me. How could I not blame myself? Stop kneeling. I just pleaded with Uncle Jiang, so you don't have to kneel anymore."

Hearing this, Jiang Tian spoke. "This isn't your fault. My skills aren't good enough, and I'm willing to accept the punishment! You don't know how dangerous your condition was yesterday. If my uncle had come back fifteen minutes later, you would have died! Mr. Mengfei is a great benefactor of our Jiang family. If anything happened to our benefactor's disciple in our home, I could only atone with my life."

Hearing Jiang Tian say this, Su Ziyang felt even guiltier and didn't know what to say for a moment.

What age were they living in? How could anyone still talk about atoning with their life?

"Tian, listen to me. How could I feel at ease with you like this? Come on, let's go eat!" Seeing that he couldn't persuade him, Su Ziyang stepped forward to help Jiang Tian up.

Jiang Tian looked tall and thin, but he had practiced internal martial arts since childhood and had profound skill. Su Ziyang wrapped his arms around him, but couldn't budge the ramrod-straight Jiang Tian.

Su Ziyang strained again, trying to lift Jiang Tian up, but Jiang Tian still didn't move an inch.

Even though he didn't exercise much, Su Ziyang could still lift something weighing over a hundred jin. Seeing Jiang Tian like this, Su Ziyang was both surprised and helpless. He had no choice but to return to the house and find Uncle Jiang.

When Jiang Kui saw Su Ziyang return alone, he asked, "Where's Xiaotian?!"

"Uncle Jiang, Xiaotian says he's willing to accept his punishment and won't get up no matter what I say. I tried to help him up, but who knew it was like he'd grown roots in the ground? I couldn't lift him. Please go tell him to come back and eat!"

At Su Ziyang's words, Jiang Kui's eyebrows bristled again. "That little bastard, let him kneel! He'd better never get up!"

Seeing Jiang Kui bristling with anger again, Su Ziyang hurried to persuade him. "Oh, Uncle Jiang. I know you and my master are close, but even I don't blame Xiaotian, so why are you punishing him? Please go call him to eat yourself. How can I feel comfortable with him kneeling here?!"

Jiang Kui looked at Su Ziyang and sighed.

The two of them went to the east wing together.

The sight of Jiang Tian kneeling ramrod straight sent Jiang Kui's anger soaring again. He kicked Jiang Tian in the shoulder. Strangely enough, Jiang Tian, whom Su Ziyang hadn't been able to budge no matter what he did, was knocked to the ground by Jiang Kui's kick.

"What are you putting on an act for? Didn't you know I told you to go back and eat?! Did I have to come back and invite you myself?!" Jiang Kui shouted.

Seeing that his uncle had come, Jiang Tian lay on the ground, not daring to speak.

Su Ziyang hurried over to help Jiang Tian up. "Uncle, what are you doing? Why did you hit Xiaotian?!"

Jiang Kui glared. "When I tell you to go back and eat, you go eat! What are you acting so tough for here? You've grown up, so I can't control you anymore? Your wings have hardened, have they?!"

Jiang Tian said nothing and kept his head down.

Hearing Jiang Kui say this, Su Ziyang didn't know what to say for a moment either. It was like visiting a friend's house and finding your friend beating his son: it felt wrong to intervene, but wrong not to as well.

The thing was, if this had nothing to do with him, it would have been easier to handle. But Jiang Tian was being punished because of him, which wasn't right by any measure!

Just as the atmosphere grew tense, Jiang Kui's phone suddenly rang.

"Hello! Old Jiang, has Xiao Su arrived? This kid's a little unreliable. I told him to call me today, and he still hasn't called. Straighten him out for me and give him a beating! These days, when you're teaching a disciple, he just needs a good beating. The kid really is unreliable!"

It was Mr. Mengfei's voice on the phone, and he immediately launched into a round of complaints about Su Ziyang.

Jiang Kui, who had just been angry, beamed as soon as he heard Mr. Mengfei. "Mengfei, hahaha. He's here, he's here. We're having breakfast, and we were just about to call you after we finished! We hadn't called yet, and you've already called us!"

Su Ziyang couldn't make out what Mr. Mengfei said next.

Jiang Kui pointed at the two of them, gesturing for them to go inside and eat. Seeing that his uncle was angry, Jiang Tian didn't dare continue kneeling there. Su Ziyang helped him into the house, his legs numb from kneeling.

Auntie Jiang had gone off to attend to something and was no longer at the table.

Afraid Jiang Tian felt bad, Su Ziyang apologized to him again. "Xiaotian, I'm really sorry. You got scolded and punished because of me!"

Su Ziyang had thought Jiang Tian would be unhappy, but Jiang Tian grinned. "Haha, we're grown men. What's all this about being sorry? I was kneeling there because I really did regret that my skills weren't good enough. If I'd noticed earlier, you wouldn't have coughed up blood. I'm telling you, I'm not trying to scare you. This really can kill people."

Su Ziyang believed Jiang Tian, because yesterday he had clearly felt that he was close to dying. If not for Jiang Kui and Jiang Tian, he figured he would already be in a box.

"You don't have any enemies here, do you?" Jiang Tian suddenly asked.

Su Ziyang shook his head. "How could I? I used to go to school in Northeast China, and then I worked there too. I've never been to the south. Forget enemies, I don't even have any friends in the south. I heard this kind of skill is passed down secretly within a locality!"

Jiang Tian nodded. "It is a secret art. Not many people can practice this acupoint-striking skill to the point of perfection. Of the people I've met, my uncle is the only one with that kind of skill. Hey, Ziyang, didn't you run into any strange people or strange things on your way here?"

Su Ziyang put down his chopsticks and thought back carefully. Strange people? Strange things? What counted as strange? Could it have been that middle-aged man who had lent him a power bank? It seemed he had only spoken to that one person on the whole journey.

So Su Ziyang told Jiang Tian about the middle-aged man who had lent him a power bank.

Jiang Tian thought for a moment and nodded. "Nine times out of ten, it was him. Judging by the acupoints that were struck and your description, it should be him!"

Jiang Tian's assessment left Su Ziyang even more puzzled. Wasn't acupoint striking usually like in the movies, smack, smack, jabbing someone with a finger? In some interview documentaries Su Ziyang had watched, those masters also struck people with a smack, as if they were fighting.

Su Ziyang voiced his confusion.

Jiang Tian suddenly laughed. "Haha, Ziyang, what kind of acupoint striking have you been watching? Let me tell you, our skill is called Little Hand, also called Yin Hand. In some places it's called Character School Fist, and in others, Five Hundred Coins. It's different from acupoint-striking methods like striking or sealing acupoints. Why is it called Yin Hand? Because you send qi force into the other person's acupoints through a touch. When you're hit with this skill, you feel no pain or itch. The symptoms vary depending on which acupoints are struck. For example, your lung meridian was sealed, so you had a fever, coughed and coughed up blood. The symptoms were like a cold!"

After hearing this, Su Ziyang couldn't help sighing inwardly. What a sinister skill!