I sighed deeply, "How tragic!"
Lu Junyi stood up, his face flushed, and said, "Xiaoqiang, stop talking..." He turned around, patted the table, and drawled, "During the competition, I have a few requests. First, no drinking. Brothers with a drinking problem, please restrain yourselves and set a good example—especially remind Zhang Shun and the Ruan brothers; second, during this period, everyone must spend at least 15 minutes each day familiarizing themselves with the competition rules, and if necessary, gather all the questions and give them to Xiaoqiang so he can find someone to answer them; third, listen to Xiaoqiang and don't let him get injured. As you can all see, this brother is a good brother. If he wants to get a certain place, we'll help him fulfill his wish. After that, no one should object to who wins or loses. Does everyone agree?"
Since their second-in-command had spoken, and the heroes all felt guilty, they all said, "That works!"
Ah, I finally feel a little relieved. Our Xiaoqiang finally showed his might and exuded his domineering aura. Actually, I don't care about the results of the individual competition. The biggest gain is that we managed to earn their attention with two defeats.
Duan Jingzhu suddenly panicked and said, "If I lose this afternoon, you won't scold me, will you?" A group of people stared at him without saying a word.
Duan Jingzhu said with a sob in his voice, "It wasn't my own choice to go up there."
Dong Ping said, "Don't go up this afternoon. Let your opponent and my opponent fight me one-on-one. We'll decide the winner in one match."
Lu Junyi looked up and asked me, "Is it okay?"
Me: "How tragic..."
Lu Junyi: "...Jingzhu, take a good look at the rules at noon, you're going to lose this afternoon—" Lu Junyi said through gritted teeth, "We won't blame you!" Liangshan suffered two consecutive defeats, and he, as the leader, felt the most humiliated.
Without saying a word, Duan Jingzhu grabbed a copy of the competition rules, covered his face, and ran out, his resentful expression just like that character in "Autumn in My Heart".
Then, Yang Zhi, Zhang Qing, and Zhang Shun, who felt they had a good chance of competing, quietly took a copy of the competition rules and looked at them.
Seeing that the situation was very favorable, I picked up the binoculars again and looked down with great confidence. I looked at one arena, but it wasn't there. I looked at another, but it wasn't there either. I searched patiently, when Wu Yong leaned closer and said understandingly in a low voice, "The Crescent Moon Girls' School had three matches this morning, and they're all over..."
Chapter Seven: The Giant Whale Gang
I stared at Wu Yong for a while, and just as I was about to speak, Wu Yong immediately said, "That beautiful female leader didn't show up in person."
Therefore, I came to this conclusion: a good strategist must first be a good psychologist.
I said, "Then..."
Wu Yong sighed and said, "Only one person has advanced. The referee's decision was problematic."
My eyes sparkled with gossip: "Could there be some kind of unspoken rule?" But then I immediately thought that if there really were unspoken rules, the Crescent Moon team's performance wouldn't be so dismal.
Wu Yong shook his head and said, "Actually, it's not the referee's fault. When girls are fighting on stage, they inevitably hug and kiss. The further they go, the more awkward things will happen. So when there is an ambiguous situation, the referee always sides with the male contestants more. I guess you could call it a special favor."
On this point, we can't completely believe it. Wu Yong, after all, has an old-fashioned feudal mindset; the dregs of over 900 years have bound his way of thinking. It's certain that a girl will be at a disadvantage when fighting a man. I'm not worried about the two who were eliminated, but I am quite concerned about who will be defeated by the remaining beautiful woman. How will that man face the world afterward?
I glanced across the street. The beautiful team leader wasn't in the audience; everyone else was calmly going about their tasks, seemingly accepting the morning's results. It suddenly occurred to me: we were actually worse off than them. At least one of them had genuinely advanced, while on our side, Duan Jingzhu was likely to fail miserably, and Dong Ping might make the same mistake as Li Kui…
At this point, someone from the organizing committee approached me and said that the organizing committee had invited me. When asked what it was about, he said with a blank face that he didn't know.
Regarding the organizing committee, Secretary Liu had no say. Ultimately, they held the most power; they used your resources and personnel because they were paid, so they had every right to do so. Secretary Liu's subordinates were merely there to do odd jobs.
My heart skipped a beat, wondering if our affair with the certificates had been exposed. I was filled with anxiety; the person who came to see me was waiting for me like a prisoner being escorted away. Lin Chong stood up and said, "I'll go with you." I felt a little relieved. Actually, I knew the chances of a fight were slim. With such a large institution like Yucai School, I couldn't be completely reckless, especially since the other side represented the authorities. But having a seasoned and prudent expert like Lin Chong with me gave me some peace of mind.
The chairman of the judging panel and the chairman of the organizing committee for this martial arts tournament are the same person—the president of the Chinese Martial Arts Association, who was buried alive along with four other judges. The old man seems to wield great power, but his actual influence is limited. The other judges, too, only reach the pinnacle of their power during exhibition matches. Once the competition begins, with established rules, they become mere figureheads. The nation's priority this time is finding martial arts training bases; discovering hidden masters is not the immediate concern.
Lin Chong and I followed the staff member to the chairman's office, where the four judges were also present, along with several other familiar faces, including the beautiful team leader from Crescent Moon. I felt somewhat relieved, and upon closer inspection, I realized that these people were all team leaders or responsible individuals.
The chairman was slurping up a cup of scalding hot tea. Seeing me enter, he smiled slightly and said, "Please sit down." I noticed the glass in his hand was steaming, yet he held it steadily with one hand, seemingly unconcerned. This old man is quite something. Judging from his demeanor, it was probably just a habit, with no intention of showing off. He asked the staff member, "Is anyone else here?"
The door opened, and Tiger came in. He looked around, saw me, and just smiled. Although he was a江湖人 (jianghu person, a person of the martial arts world), he was also a true lover of martial arts, and dared not be the slightest bit reckless in front of the five masters.
The staff member told the chairman, "Everyone's here," and left, closing the door behind him.
We team leaders and martial arts masters exchanged bewildered glances, completely clueless. The chairman hadn't said anything yet, but we could already sense the tense atmosphere. Was this martial arts tournament just a pretext, and the government had gathered us "masters" for some special mission? Heh, that was too much of a fantasy. Usually, these kinds of teams would randomly include a bunch of beautiful women, and then we'd be spending the government's money, driving foreign cars, to carry out an impossible mission… The beautiful team leader was practically a vase (or something similar) with "dedicated to the protagonist (Xiao Qiang) causing trouble" written all over her forehead. I sat down and glanced at her intermittently, but this time she didn't squint at me—a bad sign.
Then we stared expectantly at the chairman, waiting for him to reveal the earth-shattering secret. Normally, stealing the "Raptor" manufacturing process or assassinating Abu might not require us; it would require at least discovering a portal to another world at the border of Latvia, Estonia, Russia, and Belarus in the Eastern European Plain…
The chairman put down his water glass, rubbed his hands together, and said in a deep voice, "Most of the more capable people at this conference are here."
See, they got straight to the point!
"I have a problem I would like to ask for your help with."
We're about to get down to business!
At this point, the chairman paused, as if unsure how to continue.
I couldn't help but say, "Grandpa, please feel free to speak. I think everyone here is a patriot. Whether we can help or not, we won't go around making a fuss about it."
The chairman smiled slightly and said, "There's nothing wrong with talking about this. You probably saw it this morning; the order in our meeting room is absolutely chaotic. To the point that our staff have to lie and say they've soiled their pants to get in and out—I don't know where they learned that from. We're already short-staffed, and those few security guards are just a drop in the ocean. So I'd like to borrow some people from you all to mainly maintain order. It won't take more than a few days, at most a week, and eight or nine out of ten people will be heading home. At that time, I guarantee that everything will be returned to its rightful owner, and I will absolutely not embezzle anything."
His last sentence made everyone laugh. I slapped my thigh and said, "Is that all? Can't you finish telling me all this by yourself?"
Clearly, the lineup wasn't arranged by the chairman himself. He glanced at me, then hesitantly asked the other four judges, "And this is...?"
The old monk raised an eyebrow and said, "From Yucai Martial Arts School."
The chairman was still confused: "Isn't there five Yucai schools...?"
The old monk's eyes flashed with a sharp light: "It's the school flag with a sunflower on it." It seems the monk is a sunflower proponent, and I'm grateful he didn't say it was a demon or evil spirit.
The chairman suddenly realized, "Oh, it's that school with the messy drawings on its flag."
The old Taoist priest next to him subconsciously pulled his hat down over his head and said, "I have a deep impression of that."
I stood up, paced around the room a couple of times, and said, "These kinds of small things can be handled by my students. There's no need to trouble others. Besides, you've come from afar and are busy preparing for the competition. How could I, as the host, bear to let you worry about other things?"
The unspoken message I'm saying is: even a powerful dragon can't suppress a local snake; none of you should try to steal my thunder.
Some people in the room didn't want to get involved and remained silent. Others were not convinced. A burly middle-aged man with Bruce Lee's logo on his shoulder said in an unfriendly tone, "Do you think your family can handle such a big place?" Judging from his voice, he must have been a thug in his younger days, and might still be doing it part-time now.
I retorted without hesitation, "There are more of us!"