Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 33: A mutual understanding

“So there are hoodlums even here, just what does it take to put an end to them?”

Wang Chao had been listening to what Zhao Xinglong was telling him with a keen interest. This wasn’t a world where a regular high school student could come in contact with.

There was a small amount of regret in his heart, but there was also ambition burning within him. In his mind, even more notions of “Within the large depth of society, there lies hidden dragons as numerous as the clouds”.

Zhao Xinglong was not a weak person by any normal means, but he was still considered a third or second-rate fighter and was unable to enter the bigger fighting scene.

“Those who reached the Hidden Jin level are not any regular persons.” Seeing how sis Chen’s martial arts had reached a perfected stage, Wang Chao had thought that it would be easy. It was only after he started practicing for real that he knew how painful and bitter the path was.

Sis Chen’s Jin had already reached the Transforming Jin stage. He himself had only practiced for two painful years almost, and the farthest he had reached was the basis of the Clear Jin stage. At the very most, he could make a crisp sound when he attacked, and his strength was stronger than most people.

But those that used Hidden Jin to fight could strike like lightning with needle like precision. They were also capable of bending steel, but Wang Chao was still a far distance away from such a feat.

Hidden Jin and the art of offense and defense were two different things. The art of offense and defense was separated with different skills, but Hidden Jin was derived from perseverance and effort.

Wang Chao knew that he was diligent and enthralled with martial arts; he also knew that he was quite talented and comprehended the world of martial arts to a good extent. But in the end, his knowledge was still superficial and not enough to carry him to success.

But he was still very curious about Zhao Xinglong’s coastal experience. After all, the rich and powerful gathered over there. He wasn’t even 20 years old yet, and while reading books had matured him, he was still eager to fight against the fighters there.

Yet Wang Chao wasn’t so eager and rash to run to the coastal area to fight those experts.

It was after Wang Chao had listened to Zhao Xinglong that he understood. The fearsome were not the ones that were strong in Chinese boxing or had a good amount of achievements, it was the ones with power.

For those who practiced martial arts and had no financial backer or support, then they would not go far. Even if one had a strong amount of power and won against one of the experts, if they were to say anything too excessive, they might find themselves vanished by the second day.

It was only in the hands of the rich and powerful that strength could be seen.

Even the Taichi master Yang Luchan and Xingyi master Guo Yunshen had to rely on the capital officials in order to spread their teachings of their predecessors for their successors.

Even the number one master of the Republic of China era, Sun Lu-tang had been the master of Duan Qirui, the commander of the Beiyang Army.

Even if one was an unmatched paragon, it was all in vain. This was especially true in today’s society.

Wang Chao had studied the true life experiences of the past Guoshu master as well as Zhao Xinglong’s personal experiences. Thinking back to his own life, he then thought about Cao Yi, Li Wanji, Zhang Tong, and how even the Taekwondo dojo operated as a business.

After such a comprehensive study of all these aspects, Wang Chao had a good understanding of the reality of life.

But just as he was having this minor revelation, his train of thought had been interrupted by the commotion downstairs. With a dampened spirit and unhappy face, he spoke to Zhao Xinglong, “Let’s go see what’s happening downstairs.”

By this point, Zhao Xinglong was already at the stairwell and was peering down. With a final chug of his beer, he spat out a mouthful into his cup and followed Wang Chao down after wiping his mouth.

Pa pa pa! A bald male with a gaudy looking tiger tattoo on his chest began to slam down onto the table with a solid black rod. With the entire group blocking off the entrance to the restaurant, the shop owner and waiters were hiding in the kitchen along with the rest of the staff.

The other eaters had already disappeared without a trace.

“Tch!” Seeing the onlookers, two of the youths walked to the door and began to strike at it with the rods in their hands, “What are you all looking at?!”

The two men immediately slammed down the gate, isolating the restaurant from the outside world immediately.

“Call the cops if you want, but you’ll still end up paying us. After cursing and then hurting our brother, why haven’t you given us the money for his medical bills? If I, brother Lei were not around, how would our brothers fare?” The bald headed tiger tattoo person looked as if he was the boss. When the gates had came crashing down, he slapped the table with a rod once more.

Needless to say, when the gates came down, the entire restaurant went quiet in fear.

Even the female student who had spoken at first began to tremble as her three friends shrieked and huddled closed together. The two male students with them had started to go gray in the face.

“These gangsters know how to put fear into people. With the gates closed, are they going to commit a crime?” Wang Chao thought as he looked at the commotion with a small smile.

“What are you planning on doing?” The female spoke, despite her trembling, she had managed to maintain a calm demeanor. “This is a university, do you really dare to try and blackmail us?”

“Fucker!” Brother Lei slammed his hand on the table fiercely, forcing the group of 6 people to shake. “You’re still speaking crap, your dad must have abandoned you! Will you pay or not?!”

“Speak then, how much do we owe you?” The female knew that arguing would get them nowhere.

“First, take out 10,000 RMB. Second, the males can stay here while the females will accompany us to the Golden Era KTV to singe some karaoke. After this, we can say this is your apology, got it?”

“Fuck that.” Zhao Xinglong immediately walked downstairs the moment he heard the conditions, bringing attention from the entire restaurant onto him.

“Zhao Xinglong!” The female’s eyes sparkled with relief, “What are you doing here?”

“Yao Xiaoxue, what’s going on here?” Zhao Xinglong clearly knew the girl and asked.

“We came in here to eat, but they dropped their chopsticks on purpose to take a peek underneath the table. When we yelled at them, they immediately called over a lot of people to stop us from leaving.” One of the males spoke to Zhao Xinglong as if he was their savior. In a single breath, he had explained the story.

Wang Chao had instantly understood what had happened. With the females wearing light clothing because of the heat, the gangsters had pretended to drop their chopsticks and tried to look underneath their clothing. But when they were caught, they instantly brought out their weapons.

“Eh?!” The one named brother Lei instantly grinded his teeth and gave a look at the men at his side before encircling the group.

“Peh!” Zhao Xinglong spat out a glob of spit before instantly rushing forward to strike with the “Leaning Mountain”. Straight away, brother Lei had been catapulted to the floor along with his chair. With a follow up kick, brother Lei had let out a mournful shriek of pain.

Grabbing a nearby tool, Zhao Xinglong slammed it into the chest of another nearby gangster. These two actions had been done in quick succession and in silence; quick and efficient.

“Kill him!” The other dozen gangsters immediately rained down on him with their steel rods. Some of them had even took out knives from their pants.

“Ah!” Seeing the fight, the female students shrieked once more while the other two males swiftly climbed under the table.

By this point, Wang Chao had climbed downstairs as well. Seeing the three of the gangster run towards the female students, he immediately slammed a fist down onto the nearest gangster. Following the crisp sound of his fist impacting, the gangster was instantly blown backwards and crumpled to the ground, blood spilling from his lips.

Without even looking, Wang Chao’s other arm grabbed onto the throat of the second gangster and lifted him up. Throwing him into the wall, the arm he had made the first punch with grabbed onto the third gangster and sent him flying into the gangsters that were fighting Zhao Xinglong.

These three gangsters had been dispatched as easily as if they were water flowing through a sieve, causing the four females to be utterly stupefied.

“Aren’t you the Taekwondo instructor?” Suddenly, one of the females asked Wang Chao.

“Oh, you’ve seen me before?”

“Of course! When you and Zhao Xinglong fought, I was watching from the sidelines.” She said as she pointed at Zhao Xinglong.

“Aren’t you going to help him?” Suddenly, Yao Xiaoxue’s voice broke through as she pointed at the six or seven people Zhao Xinglong was fighting while evading their weapons.

“No point.” Wang Chao laughed, “Zhao Xinglong can beat those guys no problem.”

Sure enough, Zhao Xinglong managed to evade all of the gangster’s weapons before finishing off the majority of them with his elbows. Then, he managed to punch the rest of them in the ribs, causing them to all end up on the floor groaning.

In a single moment, the eight men had all fallen by his hands.

“Hurry up and go!” Wang Chao spoke to the group of 6 and Zhao Xinglong.

Zhao Xinglong immediately opened the door.

“Wait, you there. Don’t go.” Suddenly, the boss that had been hiding in the kitchen reappeared. At his urging, one of the waiters immediately barred the doors, “You can’t go, wait for the police to come and sort this out.”

“Eh?!” Wang Chao turned to look at Zhao Xinglong before signalling at Zhao Xinglong with his eyes.

“Your mom can’t leave!” As if there was a silent connection with Wang Chao, Zhao Xinglong understood his words. With a single swear, he kicked at the person blocking their path, causing them to kneel down in pain. Throwing open the gates again, the eight quickly ran out.