Madman!

Chapter 3: Inferring Three from One

Over the next few days, Chen Wuhong didn't dare come home.

Although one arm and one leg had suffered hairline fractures from the beating, he was a local fixture around here and would certainly find a way to get by.

Chen Wujun's nightly wandering range also began expanding from inside the Walled City to the areas beyond its boundaries.

To the north of the Walled City lay an airport under construction. To the northeast were parks and schools. To the southeast was Red Incense Burner Bay, a new development zone where towering buildings were being erected alongside a university.

Rumor had it that many wealthy tycoons were buying land and property to the south.

To the southwest, however, lay a slum even more chaotic than the Walled City itself.

The interior of the Walled City was perpetually sunless, reeking of filth, and crawling with rats. Its residents were the lowest rung of society.

Yet the southwestern slum, sprawling around Garbage Mountain, was even more wretched and lawless. Every day, the urban districts would dump their refuse onto Garbage Mountain.

Then the slum dwellers would scavenge for anything still edible. Even bones already gnawed clean by others would be processed and resold to those same impoverished people.

Still, the Walled City's residents had little contact with that place, and the people from there weren't allowed inside the Walled City to make a living.To the west and northwest lay the civilian districts. Carpenter Road and Gao Senlong Road served as buffer zones between the Walled City and these neighborhoods, and both streets were actually quite prosperous.

One gold shop and one watch shop in particular caught Chen Wujun's attention. He circled that area several times.

But circling was all he did.

After all, what kind of mischief could a teenager really be plotting?

Back home, dinner had been left on the small cabinet beside the sofa.

Chen Wujun set a stool in front of the sofa, placed the plate on it, then cradled his rice bowl and ate while watching television.

The screen was currently showing a breaking news bulletin: "A gold shop robbery occurred on Nathan Road today. Three suspects held up the Baifu Gold Shop on Nathan Road at approximately two-thirty this afternoon. The Federal Police are appealing to the public for any information..."

Chen Wujun sat on the battered sofa, shoveling food into his mouth while staring fixedly at the news broadcast.

As he watched, something suddenly clicked in his mind. If he wanted to borrow some startup capital from a gold shop, doing it alone was out of the question.

You'd need people to load the gold from the display cases, someone to keep the staff in line, and someone outside driving the getaway car. Otherwise, even if you grabbed the goods, you'd never escape...

In other words, three to four people minimum.

Inferring three from one, the same logic applied to banks and watch shops.

...

That morning, Chen Wujun followed his father toward the dental clinic as usual, but halfway there, he noticed his father wasn't heading toward the clinic at all. They were going in an entirely different direction.

'Has he figured me out? Is the old man taking me to see the boss?' Chen Wujun's mind raced, but his face remained perfectly composed, betraying nothing.

Contrary to his expectations, however, his father turned several corners and stopped before a building.

Unlike the cramped, dilapidated hovels of the Walled City, this structure was visibly spacious even from outside, and sharp shouts could be heard emanating from within.

His father, Chen Hanliang, turned back and smiled at him. "You wanted to learn martial arts, didn't you? This is where you'll train from now on. Go ahead inside. I've already paid your tuition."

"Practice martial arts every morning, then come help out at the clinic in the afternoon."

'Already paid?' Chen Wujun felt a flicker of surprise.

He knew how the dental business was doing.

It looked like his old man had borrowed the money.

But this martial arts hall wasn't the Hetu Martial Arts Hall, nor was it the Dongsheng Martial Arts Hall.

This left Chen Wujun somewhat disappointed. His original plan had been to use a martial arts hall as his entry point into a gang.

He wanted to make serious money. He wanted to rise above everyone else.

And in the Walled City, the fastest path to serious money was joining a gang.

Chen Hanliang had chosen this obscure, tucked-away school for precisely that reason.

It satisfied his son's desire to learn martial arts while keeping him away from any gang connections.

The last thing he needed was for his second son to go down the same path as those street punks and "learn bad habits."

Chen Wujun's mind churned, but anticipation ultimately won out over disappointment.

He pushed open the door to reveal a space roughly a hundred square meters, with ceilings just over three meters high. The floor was laid with bluestone slabs, and along one wall stood wooden dummies, sandbags, and wooden stakes wrapped in hemp rope.

On the wall opposite the entrance hung a sign: Zhou Qing Martial Arts Hall.

On one side, four students sparred with each other, their footwork solid and grounded, their strikes vicious, favoring elbows and knees.

On the other side, five students held a peculiar pose. Each balanced on a single leg, body sunk low, the knee of their other leg raised high, like a fighting rooster coiled to strike.

Every muscle in their bodies was taut, sweat trickling from their temples.

A young man in his twenties circled among them, scrutinizing their form and occasionally giving one of them a shove.

One of the students spotted Chen Wujun's entrance and flashed a look of surprise before quickly averting his gaze.

Chen Wujun raised an eyebrow when he recognized him. The student was Lin Zetao, a classmate, though they'd never been particularly close.

At that moment, the young instructor extended a hand and shoved Lin Zetao. Lin Zetao stumbled immediately, lurching forward several steps, nearly crashing to the ground.

"Where's your focus wandered off to?" the young man scowled and landed a kick on him.

"The Wolf Fist stance is a combat stance, not a pose for you to strike! Drive your strength into the ground like you've grown roots. Otherwise, the second an enemy shoves you, you go flying. What's the point of fighting then?"

Lin Zetao scrambled back into position.

"You've earned an extra twenty minutes today! No resting until you've stood for a full ninety minutes." After reprimanding him, the young man swept his gaze over the others:

"One lapse in focus and your spirit scatters. Once your spirit scatters, your power floats. Once your power floats, you're nothing but a living target! The rest of you, add ten more minutes of stance training as well."

Only after finishing his lecture did he walk over to Chen Wujun and look him up and down.

Chen Wujun stood a hundred and seventy centimeters tall with a reasonably sturdy build. He weighed about seventy kilograms, his skin a bronzed hue, and his expression projected honest simplicity. This earned a slight nod from the young man.

His gaze drifted past Chen Wujun to acknowledge Chen Hanliang with a nod before saying, "Chen Wujun? Follow me, let's get you registered."

"I'm your senior. Surname's Li. I'm also your coach. At your current stage, I'll be the one teaching you."

Chen Wujun eagerly followed Senior Li to register, then went to the back to collect a training uniform.

Beyond the main hall in front, the martial arts school had several rooms in the back.

When he emerged after changing, the other stance-training students had already begun resting. All except Lin Zetao, who remained standing in position.

"The first style taught at the school is called Wolf Fist. It was originally a battlefield fighting art. Though it's straightforward, its practical combat effectiveness is outstanding," Senior Li explained, bringing Chen Wujun to one side.

"The first step in learning Wolf Fist is mastering the stationary stance."

"Wolf Fist's stationary stance is called the Combat Stance, also known as the Charge Stance."

"As I mentioned, Wolf Fist is a battlefield art. Think of yourself as a soldier on the front line, weapon in hand, waiting for the commander's order to charge."

"The Charge Stance is Wolf Fist's foundation. It trains your spirit, your focus, and it also builds raw strength."

Senior Li first assumed a horse stance position, breaking down each element for Chen Wujun piece by piece.

The moment he settled into the stance, every hair on Senior Li's body stood on end. His gaze turned razored and lethal, like a soldier poised to spring into a killing charge at any instant.

This was nothing like the martial arts training Chen Wujun had imagined.

This school taught Old Arts.

He had classmates studying New Arts, and their schools had them start with strength training from day one.

This left Chen Wujun a bit deflated. He'd rather train raw power. Greater strength meant you wouldn't lose in a fight.

Sure, Senior Li claimed the Charge Stance also developed strength, but it surely couldn't match the equipment used in New Arts schools.

Still, his father had already paid, and even learning Old Arts was better than learning nothing. So Chen Wujun gritted his teeth and followed Senior Li into the horse stance.

Senior Li corrected his form repeatedly.

"Root your feet into the ground! Sink your frame lower! Shift your center of gravity forward, as though you're about to lunge at any moment!"

"I told you, you need to stand as if facing a great enemy! Enemies surround you on every side. Every hair on your body should be standing on end!"

"Relax your shoulders, but keep your muscles taut! Shoulders loose, otherwise you'll exhaust yourself before the first clash even holding a blade or spear... Body muscles wound tight, like a coiled spring, or an arrow about to fly from the bow, ready to slam a knee, bite with your teeth, do whatever it takes to kill your opponent!"

"Chest in, back straight! Sink the shoulders, drop the elbows! Brace that neck of yours upright. Imagine a thread pulling you up from the crown of your head!"

Senior Li merely poked him with a finger, yet it felt as if an iron rod had struck him. Half his body went numb.

Chen Wujun was deeply shaken.

"When you can hold the stance for thirty minutes without swaying or tiring, when you can raise your body hair at will following your intent, and when a single thought can plunge you into a killing readiness, that's when your Charge Stance will be considered at the beginner level."

Forget thirty minutes. After just one minute, Chen Wujun felt like his legs were being eaten alive by acid. He clenched his jaw and endured.

After all, it was paid for.

By the two-minute mark, every stray thought had been purged from his mind. His entire being was locked in war against the searing pain in his legs.

He held for a full five minutes, by which point his legs no longer felt like they belonged to him, before Senior Li finally told him to rest.

Chen Wujun dropped straight to the ground.

"Exhausting, isn't it?" Senior Li stood nearby, watching him, then remarked casually, "That's what happens when you do it wrong."

Chen Wujun's face went blank with shock.

"Do it wrong, and you'll only get more exhausted the longer you stand."

After resting for about fifteen minutes, Chen Wujun was called back up to resume the stance. Senior Li corrected his form once more.

This time felt slightly better. Still grueling, but not the same agony as before.

...

At noon, Chen Wujun's legs felt as though they'd been filled with lead. Spotting Lin Zetao heading for the exit, he quickened his pace, threw an arm around Lin Zetao's shoulders, and walked him out.

Lin Zetao instinctively shrank his neck, then caught himself with a jolt. He'd been here a whole month longer than Chen Wujun. The present couldn't compare to the past. He was different now.

"What's the rush? You trying to dodge me?" Chen Wujun was leaning most of his weight on Lin Zetao's shoulders.

Chen Wujun played the obedient son well enough at home, but outside was a different story entirely.

This was the Walled City. If you weren't fierce enough, people walked all over you.

Even kids lived by that rule.

"How'd you end up here?" Lin Zetao had just been psyching himself up internally, but he still felt uneasy around Chen Wujun and steered the conversation elsewhere.

"Family sent me. Didn't expect to find you here too. So tell me, what's the deal with this school?" Chen Wujun pressed for information.

Privately, he was calculating whether the money his father had paid could somehow be refunded.

"I've been training here a month already. Our school's no joke. Don't let the Old Arts label fool you, the actual combat is fierce. There are a few other Old Arts schools in the Walled City, and they all have to pay protection money to Hetu or Lidong. But our school doesn't!" Lin Zetao puffed up with pride as he spoke of the hall.

"Though the master doesn't exactly advertise. Most people don't even know this place exists."

The way Lin Zetao beamed with pride, you'd think he'd been training there for years rather than weeks.

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Chen Wujun's fatigue receded noticeably, and his mood brightened considerably.

"Plus, if you train New Arts and want to actually get somewhere, you need Flowing Firefly Ointment. One small jar costs five thousand dollars, and you burn through one jar a month. Later on, you might even need two jars a month..." Lin Zetao continued.

"Old Arts doesn't need any of that!"

This was news to Chen Wujun.

"How much is tuition at our school?" he asked suddenly.

"You don't know? Fifteen hundred a month."

Chen Wujun ran the numbers in his head. A New Arts school charged three thousand in tuition, plus at least one jar of ointment per month. That totaled eight thousand.

His family's dental clinic brought in about five thousand a month, maybe six thousand in a good month. From that, they had to feed the entire family and cover his younger brother Chen Wuqi's school expenses.

Old Arts cost only fifteen hundred a month.

He suddenly decided that learning Old Arts wasn't bad at all.

"Hey Tao, how long do you have to do this stance training?" Chen Wujun asked.

"It never stops. When I first joined, I spent seventeen straight days on the Charge Stance. Even now, every morning starts with thirty minutes of it before moving on to the Golden Rooster Stance and Seven Step Stance..."

"Apparently that was already considered fast. Most people take four weeks before they're taught other stances. That's why the school has so few students. Most people can't endure it and quit..." Lin Zetao boasted.

"Since our school's so impressive, we should celebrate. Your treat," Chen Wujun's eyes spun with a quick scheme.

"Huh? But I don't have any money!" Lin Zetao deflated instantly.

"Just messing with you, dummy!" Chen Wujun slapped Lin Zetao on the shoulder and burst out laughing.

...

That afternoon at the dental clinic, whenever he had a free moment, he would practice the Charge Stance off to one side. He replayed Senior Li's instructions in his mind while carefully monitoring every part of his body, correcting his form bit by bit.

'Power rises from the ground. Both feet must root into the earth like an ancient tree!'

'Imagine yourself facing a great enemy. Every hair on your body should stand on end...'

'Your body is a compressed spring, ready to pounce and kill at any instant...'

After all, it was paid for. He was going to get his money's worth.

The faster he mastered the Charge Stance, the sooner Senior Li would teach him the next technique.