Martial Arts Master

After lingering for a while longer, Lou Cheng decided to not waste any more time being amused and annoyed.

In all fairness, Master Zhu was not a complete fraud. His kungfu foundations were decent, and he was probably a step away from attaining the Dan stage in his prime, but now his age had caught up to him and made any hopes of making the breakthrough impossible. Though his invention— the Dragon Punch— was nothing particularly spectacular, innovative or eye-opening, it did include a good mix of techniques from different countries, and could be said to be simple, effective and beginner friendly.

For someone like him, it wasn’t all that hard to make a good sum of money before retirement by erecting a dojo in the vicinity of the University of Connecticut and near Chinatown. But making the big bucks— fighting his way to fame, establishing his own brand and setting up chain outlets— was way out of his reach. That’s why he attracted attention with over the top demonstrations, and used deception to make up for the insufficiency of his martial arts. His main targets were people from the same origins as him, and locals who esteemed the mysterious martial arts of China.

For a matter of fact, Master Zhu was wildly successful and raked in fat bucks and prestige.

Much of this had to do with his sensibility and astuteness. Not once had he clashed against the domestic giants such as the Geruga Sect, or tried competing for “resources”. He only took in those they rejected. On the other hand, the average Dojo challenger was not a problem to him, and sometimes his muscular disciples who had “internalized the essence of his teachings” took them on in his place. As to whether his students could master his kungfu, he always told them “A teacher introduces the kungfu to you(but most importantly), only you yourself can decide how far you will go”. This way, even if the student fizzled, he would have ample excuses at his disposal, and no one could actually find fault with the reasoning, since even the Msasi Martial Arts Gym produced lots and lots of failures.

Shaking his head gently, Lou Cheng waited for the hubbub to reach a climax— the exact moment when the “demonstrating pupils” adjusted their centre of gravity. Retracting and unreleasing, he silently directed his Qi and blood into his leg leg which swelled and expanded.

Lou Cheng sunk his foot into the floor and kicked forwards. The arena suddenly began shaking violently, then came to a sudden stop!

The lofty white man towering before Zhu Hong immediately lost his balance and plunged forward, crushing towards the Master like an avalanche.

Master Zhu’s expression changed as he immediately aligned his feet, bent his knees, lowered his hips, and held out his tensed arms. He barely withstood the impact.

But, as the pupils in the back fell down like a stack of dominoes, piling on him one by one, he couldn’t hold out any longer. He lost his balance, reclined and reeled backwards, plopping onto the ground butt-first.

Plop! Plop! All six pupils toppled over in a pile, getting into a confused stare off with Zhu Hong.

The cheers and shouts came to an abrupt stop. Everyone exchanged confused glances.

What just happened?

This must be what people call a “demonstration accident”… Lou Cheng snickered. Amid panic and confusion, with everyone’s attention focused on the interior of the arena, Lou Cheng grabbed his phone, snapped a picture, then jostled his way out of the “wall of people”. He smoothed his clothes and sauntered off.

The crowd began coming back to their senses after a while. Among them, two white males exchanged glances. They realized it was a fraud.

“George, let’s go back to lessons,” a freckled youth with brown hair said disappointedly. In the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Zhu Hong doing a kip up in panic.

The timing of the quake was extremely close to the timing when the pupils fell down, which made it easy to confuse the order of the events and think that the latter occurred first.

“Okay,” sighed a blonde youth with large arms and vivid devil tattoos. “Even in China, there aren’t many martial artists who are as powerful as Peng and Lou.”

Not to mention among those that were willing to go abroad!

…

After leaving the Dragon Punch Dojo, Lou Cheng wandered aimlessly along the nearby roads. He shared the incident with Yan Zheke through text, along with the picture he took.

She replied with an emoji of [tears of joy].

“Poor Master Zhu, he must be glumly drawing circles on the ground with his fingers, wondering whom he offended. He’ll probably direct his suspicions to enemies of the past or Dojo competitors. He’ll never be able to guess that it was the work of someone who had nothing better to do.”

“I’m not sure if he’ll even realize someone was pulling his leg. Maybe he’ll treat it as one of those ‘demonstration’ accidents.” Lou Cheng said emphasizing “demonstration”.

The scene of Lou Cheng and Joseph’s conversation came to Yan Zheke’s mind.

“Haha. So, I was thinking, if that person knew your intention was to eliminate all threats before they could harm me, and that he wasn’t even an immediate threat, I wonder what his expression will look like?” she mused.

Imagine if someone didn’t reply with “I had nothing better to do” and gave an honest answer instead: “I am eliminating all potential threats for my wife’s safety.”

How would Joseph have reacted?

If it was me, I’ll probably have demanded: “Who is your wife?” and receive the weird answer: “You don’t know her.” After more odd exchanges like “Do I have any ties with her?” getting the response of “Probably not”, he would have probably been extremely baffled and inconsolably livid…

“Probably the expression of someone dying with bitter regret. [snickering]” replied Lou Cheng.

Yan Zheke replied with [laughing behind a clasped hand], before she made herself focus on class again.

Rest in peace, Mr Joseph, you are just unlucky that I came to Connecticut to study.

The exchange reminded Lou Cheng of his Operation Connecticut Criminal Extermination. He began to leisurely filter through the list for more potential targets.

“Nightmare” was stronger than Joseph, but there were no likely suspects linked to the name, so even identifying him was a problem to Lou Cheng, much less finding the resources to pay him a visit. Also, his crimes were all committed in the ghettos— that makes it possible to effectively avoid him.

Out of the others, some were no match for Aunt Du, and the rest— except for two of them— couldn’t threaten Ke in any way.

The first was a Polish descendent named Maszewski, whose combat capabilities were merely passable. He was the boss of a Connecticut mafia that was involved in smuggling firearms and large-scale drug deals. He worshipped “spirit cultivation” and loved throwing raves, where he would manipulate young girls with drugs and lure innocent people, and under some circumstances, high combat capabilities wouldn’t be enough to keep you out of trouble.

Maszewski was arrested a few times, but he always took precaution and managed to deny being involved in those crimes. His trusted underlings took the fall for him and rotted in jail while he walks a free man to this day.

The other was Pavel, a member of the church whose combat capabilities was that of a martial artist. When his alleged crimes of sexually assaulting children and young girls surfaced, he went off the grid. According to rumors, he was hiding right inside the renowned Holy Top Church, but without evidence, no one— not even superheroes— dared to search the place.

After contemplation, Lou Cheng unlocked his phone and sent an email asking Smith to feed him more information for his reference to an inconspicuous email address.

If a good opportunity arose, one that wouldn’t leave any loose ends, he was willing to give it a shot. If not, he would drop the idea. After all, it would be best for him to keep a low profile while the Butcher case was still the talk of the town…

…

Smith pushed the car door open and exited the car. He stretched before heading towards the cafe.

At that moment, he heard a notification. He took out his phone, and wriggled his way into an email account that didn’t belong to him. He saw Lou Cheng’s “mail”.

He read through the content. Disquieted, he brought his hands to his face.

God, is there no end to this?!

However, if we do pull this off a few more times, the public will no doubt shift their attention from the Butcher case to the newer cases, and the truth will remain buried. No one will bother finding out about my ties with the Deliveryman…

Of course, if we overdo it we will eventually be exposed…