Chapter 16：Difficult Family Circumstances

Yang Sheng?

Ling Chen instantly thought back to the ruffians that came to bother him the night at the bar. Didn't they say they were Yang Sheng's underlings?

"Is this Yang Sheng very influential?"

"He's the boss who's been around the longest and has the greatest influence in the area. Now he has started some businesses, managing bars and hotels, wanting to go legitimate."

"No matter how wide his influence is, they're still a bunch of hoodlums at the end of the day. After I teach you some moves, I guarantee that you can beat them black and blue."

Ling Chen said this with absolute confidence. Although he was just teaching them a few simple moves, it was the coalescence of his entire fighting style and experience.

These few actions were straightforward, not even half an hour later, the people around him managed to pick up most of the moves. Even Nanrong Hao was able to put up a somewhat convincing display.

"Jiang Hao, you must remember the three principles when fighting on the streets: Vicious, venomous and swift. As long as you are more vicious, more venomous and swifter than the other party, you will always be undefeated."

Listening to Ling Chen's comprehensive explanation, the underlings nodded and engraved his words into their hearts.

Right at that moment, Jiang Hao's phone suddenly rang. He put the call through, and though it seemed like only a few sentences had been said to him, his face darkened considerably.

"Fuck, that Yang Sheng bastard sure has some guts!" After putting down the phone call, he started to cuss viciously.

"Bro Chen, Yang Sheng's men are on Five Mile Street and have already trashed quite a few stores."

Ling Chen curled his lips into a contemptuous sneer. "That's great. Let's put what I taught you into practice. What I've taught all of you is only theory, but you still need actual combat experience to grasp the essence of my teachings. Since people are serving themselves up to be your punching bags, then you must use them well!"

"Bro Chen is right. Brothers, let's go fuck them up!"

The boisterous gang of hoodlums rushed to Five Mile Street, a dense murderous intent rolling off them, what greeted them when they arrived was more than thirty ruffians waving steel batons. They were busy smashing the arcade and billiard hall, the primary sources of Jiang Hao's revenue.

Upon seeing this sight, Jiang Hao did not say anything else, merely picking up a brick lying on the ground and charged towards the ruffians. The rest of his underlings quickly followed his lead, charging towards the ruffians as well.

Ling Chen folded his arms and looked on with interest, occasionally offering a pointer or two, seemingly having a lot of fun.

"Oi oi, what are you dreaming for? Hurry up and hit him!"

"Yes, that punch was good! You just need to change the angle a little."

"You… I say, what good are your two legs if you don't use them?!"

As the esteemed young master of the Nanrong Family, Nanrong Hao had never experienced a real street brawl before. He watched the entire proceedings with fiery eyes, feeling his blood boiling with excitement, he fidgeted on the spot, seemingly wanting to join in on the action as well.

Ling Chen smirked knowingly, "If you want to fight, then fight! A real man should be steadfast and decisive!"

Listening to Ling Chen's words, the last vestiges of Nanrong Hao's hesitation faded and he immediately charged in as well.

PENG!

As he lashed out his fist, a ruffian's nose started to bleed profusely.

After a while, with the help of Jiang Hao's underlings, he managed to take down quite a few of the attackers.

Ling Chen was astonished. It didn't look like it, but this brat was quite fierce, his ferocity was even more than some of these thugs! Moreover, Nanrong Hao was a pretty decent fighter; the few moves that Ling Chen taught him were swiftly absorbed by him and even put to use in actual combat.

Under the coordinated effort of everyone, the bunch of disruptive ruffians were quickly sent fleeing with their tails behind their legs.

"Bro Lil Hao, you're formidable!"

"Just now, without Bro Lil Hao's aid, I reckonwe'd be the ones sent running instead!"

Jiang Hao patted Nanrong Hao's shoulders heavily and laughed. "Lil Hao, I've always thought that you were just a sissy who only knew how to hide behind others. To think that you were actually so ferocious and courageous when in action. I say you should just partner up with me, forget about being some lousy young master!"

"If that happens, I think my sister will murder me for sure." Nanrong Hao gave a bitter smile.

"Boss Chen, how was our performance just now?"

Everyone looked at Ling Chen expectantly, hoping to receive his acknowledgement.

"Still passable, continue to work hard. I'll be heading off."

After walking off a few steps, Ling Chen stopped and turned his head. "Lil Hao."

Nanrong Hao obediently rushed to Ling Chen's side like a child. "Bro Chen, is there something else?"

"Do you really want to learn kung fu?"

"Of course, do you still need to ask that? Bro Chen, could it be that you..."

"Stop talking nonsense. Follow me."

The two moved away from Five Mile Street to an empty, abandoned lot.

Standing in the middle of the lot, Ling Chen shot Nanrong Hao a glance.

"Watch closely. I'll only demonstrate this thrice."

With that said, he began a dance starting with his fists, his movements as fierce as a tiger, alternating between fast and slow. Sometimes, he was like a mountain, full of power and vigour, but then his movement would become like running water, soft and flowing. His set of fists repeated thrice, and there was no pause in between each set, all done within a single breath. 

By the side, Nanrong Hao was entranced by his movements, not daring even to blink, afraid of missing any details.

"Did you watch closely?"

Nanrong Hao nodded his head frantically, before pausing and shaking his head, seeming to be extremely muddled.

"At this time tomorrow, come find me. I'll see how much you've comprehended."

Leaving Nanrong Hao pondering alone in the empty lot, Ling Chen spiritedly walked home.

From Nanrong Hao's past performance, his quality was quite good. Although it was a little late for him to start, it shouldn't affect his prospects by too much. He wanted to explore the depths of Nanrong Hao's potential before considering whether or not to teach him.

As for the reason why he was willing to teach Nanrong Hao, it was because he felt that Nanrong Hao had a pretty good character, not possessing the spoilt temperament of a rich, pampered brat. Moreover, seeing that he was able to ignore the difference in status to become friends with Jiang Hao, it went to show that Nanrong Hao was someone worth making friends with.

Back at home, Ling Chen pulled a chair to his balcony and was ready to enjoy the cool breeze, as well as to finish off the two bottles of beers in his refrigerator.

On the adjacent balcony, he saw Tang Shiyun standing there with her hands cupping her cheeks, the rims of her eyes extremely red, looking like she had just cried.

"Lass, what's wrong? Who bullied you?"

Tang Shiyun seemed as though she did not notice Ling Chen's arrival and jumped with shock at Ling Chen's sudden words, before hurriedly wiping the tears in her eyes.

"Lass, what's going on here exactly? Give me an explanation."

Tang Shiyun chewed on her lips and perhaps remembering some sort of sad event, her eyes started welling up with tears again that streamed down her face.

The thing that Ling Chen was most afraid of was women crying in front of him, he hastily comforted, "Lass, tell me who bullied you. I'll go give him a good beating!"

"No one bullied me." Tang Shiyun sniffed.

"Then, why are you crying?"

"I..."

After coaxing her for a long while, Ling Chen finally understood why she was crying.

Tang Shiyun's family circumstances were average. Both her parents were immigrants, and their hometown was pretty poor. Hence they came to Donghai City to find work. After toiling away for many years, they finally managed to scrimp and save just enough money to send Tang Shiyun to university.

Just a few days back, when Tang Shiyun received the letter of acceptance for Donghai University, it was supposed to be a joyous event. Alas, one can't predict the heavens and their family fell into a dire predicament.

Despite working too much and his health not being too rosy in the first place, for the sake of sending his daughter to college, Tang Shiyun's father kept putting off going to the hospital. Yesterday, when her father went to work, due to over-exhaustion, he was found unconscious on the ground. Fortunately, he was rushed to the hospital in time, and they managed to save his life. The hospital's diagnosis revealed that to cure her father completely, they would need to pay at least tens of thousands of dollars in hospital fees.

For this family that was already in dire financial straits, the hefty hospital bills were no small amount of money. The money that Tang Shiyun's parents initially put aside to send her to college were used to cover the medical fees, even saddling them with a debt of twenty thousand dollars.

Now, Tang Shiyun was only left with one month before school started, and the school fees were upwards of tens of thousands of dollars, leaving their family's financial straits even more dire.