Chapter 13. Bai Zhe’s Decision

    Bai Zhe woke up to shower and practice his qi as usual. When his parents came out of the bedroom, the boy stopped his practice and told them he had something to discuss with them.

    “Go ahead and tell us, son,” said Bai Qing Yun. Bai Zhe handed him Chen Feng’s business card.

    “T…this is…” Bai Lian Hua was extremely excited. She knew Chen Feng really well. The woman was a fan of many TV dramas of which Chen Feng was the producer. When she saw that Chen Feng’s card had been given to Bai Zhe, she could guess that her son had been given a chance to work in show business.

    “What is this card, honey?” Bai Qing Yun asked his wife because he did not know who Chen Feng was.

    “It’s Mr. Chen Feng. He’s a famous TV series producer. He works for the LSA agency, the number one agency in this country. He owns 30 television stations. He has more than 100 online programs under him. The spy series that you like is his work as well,” Bai Lian Hua explained without stopping, making her husband’s jaw drop. Bai Zhe was speechless as well. Who would have thought that Bai Lian Hua knew more about Chen Feng than him?

    “In short, Dad, he asked me to work in the entertainment industry,” Bai Zhe told him straightforwardly. If he did not do that, Bai Qing Yun might not understand. Bai Lian Hua jumped up to hug the boy happily the moment she heard his words. In contrast, Bai Qing Yun looked rather displeased.

    “What’s wrong, darling? Our son is going to be a celebrity,” Bai Lian Hua asked him with a frown.

    “What about your education? No matter what, I will not let you leave school,” Bai Qing Yun said in a displeased tone.

    “I will not start working immediately. I only have to go to LSA’s training centre for an acting class. Besides, the centre is not far. I could go there to train after school. It will not affect my education,” said Bai Zhe.

    “The income is not stable. What if you do not get famous? What will you do if you don’t have a job?” Bai Qing Yun shouted at Bai Zhe.

    “Honey, if one doesn’t give it a shot, one will never know. What about your labourer job? Is it stable?” Bai Lian Hua started to raise her voice. She did not like that her husband was being unreasonable and using his own opinions to block their son’s future opportunities.

    “If someone hires me, I will definitely get money,” said Bai Qing Yun.

    “If someone does not hire you, you will not get any money. How does it differ from our son getting famous and getting work, and not being famous and not having any work? I don’t care. If you disagree, don’t even think of playing Hide the Sausage with me again. I will change my sleeping arrangement to stay with our son.” Bai Lian Hua rose and walked to the kitchen immediately. She shouted from the kitchen, “You don’t get to eat today. I will not cook for you. Come talk to me after you think about what you have done.” Her words made Bai Qing Yun’s face turn pale.

    “Please, wifey...erm…honey! Don’t be mad at me. I am just thinking for our son. If you want him to be a star, I will not go against you, darling. But please, don’t be mad at me. Please don’t stop playing hide the sausage with me.” Bai Qing Yun even went to cling to Bai Lian Hua’s leg. Bai Zhe could not help but think that the bearded, bear-like face was not suited to wheedling in the slightest. The boy had asked his mother why his dad did not shave his beard. The answer was easy. It was because Bai Zhe’s father was handsome, so she made him grow out his beard so that women would not flirt with him.

    After watching his parents making up for a bit, Bai Zhe got dressed and went to school. He had to submit the P.E. report today; if one chose to do a report on a martial art, Mr. Jang, the P.E. teacher, would conduct a test. Bai Zhe wore a t-shirt under his shirt for agility.

    According to the original Bai Zhe’s memories, Mr. Jang knew kung fu. But knowing kung fu and being good at kung fu were totally different things, in his opinion.

    Bai Zhe’s school

    The moment he set foot in school, the female students ran to him, making the boy jump. It was not only his classmates but also the girls from other classes and years as well. This made the boy run to find a hiding spot.

    ‘What the heck just happened?’ thought the boy.

    “He’s so fast. Where did he go?” The girls could not keep up with Bai Zhe. They stopped, looking left and right, trying to find the boy.

    At the moment, Bai Zhe was on the rooftop. And he waited until the first bell rang before he went to his class.

    At lunch break, Bai Zhe hid up on a treetop and practiced his qi until the afternoon class started.

    In the late afternoon, he came down from the treetop and walked to the school’s sports field to attend the P.E. class. At this time, the field had only male students.

    The male students still looked at Bai Zhe negatively. Plus, the girls were interested in Bai Zhe lately; it made the boys jealous of Bai Zhe and not like him even more.

    Apart from the boys, Mr. Jang, who was in his tracksuit was standing there, as well.

    He was a middle-aged man, but he was 190 centimetres tall and had a very muscular body. It was clear that this man had been taking good care of himself.

    While Bai Zhe was observing the teacher, female classmates came out of the building because they had changed their clothes in their classroom. That was the reason why Bai Zhe had headed to the field without going to his class.

    “All right, the head girl has submitted your reports to me. Starting from now, I will call on you to present your work in front of the class. Let us start with Bai Zhe because you are the only one who did a report about martial arts. Bai Zhe, you remember that I told the class to demonstrate the sport of their choice, right? Are you sure that you can do that? Because if you cannot present it to the class, you will only get the score from your report,” Mr. Jang warned Bai Zhe.

    “I still insist on presenting it, sir.” There was still a smile on Bai Zhe’s face. His demeanour was calm, not at all nervous that he would not do well. The boy stood up to go stand in front of the teacher. With the great difference in their heights, his classmates thought that Bai Zhe would be at a disadvantage.

    “Come on then, Bai Zhe.” Mr. Jang prepared for the attack. His back was straight up, one hand behind him. The other waved at Bai Zhe, telling the boy to attack.

    Bai Zhe had his hands behind his back, which made the teacher confused about what the boy was planning to do. In the blink of an eye, Bai Zhe came to stand in front of Mr. Jang with a fist that made contact with the teacher’s stomach.

    Though Mr. Jang had strictly built his abs, the punch from Bai Zhe, who was smaller than him, made the teacher’s face drain of colour, because he had had the wind knocked out of him. He staggered back before throwing up all of this lunch.

    “Ewww.” The girls’ faces filled with disgust, and they looked away immediately.

    Mr. Jang was astonished and rather embarrassed after he vomited his lunch because of Bai Zhe’s attack a moment earlier.

    “Martial arts are a kind of art. There are many key movements, depending on the orders and the sects. Focusing only on how to move and giving all the attention to the beauty of the movement is not martial arts. It’s just dancing. Martial arts use movement as a foundation and use experience and resourcefulness to prepare for an attack, protect oneself, and launch a counterattack. It all depends on having trained the body enough. All of this is called martial arts.” Bai Zhe paused momentarily before he continued.

    “The reason why I had my hands behind my back as though leaving a space for attack was to make you interested in my upper body. At the same time, I walked close to you in the blink of an eye, without you noticing my legs moving. Then, I threw my fist at a close range like how a boxer throws a hook. And because the punch was in close quarters, my arm didn’t fully stretch out. Thus, the force of my fist was much stronger. For a person who is smaller like me, this is the most efficient technique to strengthen my punch. This is what I call martial arts,” Bai Zhe said, presenting his thought process and the technique that he had used to Mr. Jang.

    All of his classmates were surprised. Who would have thought that the boy who usually got last place when running and had the physical ability of a sick person would have enough force to make a 190-centimetre-tall, muscular person like Mr. Jang stagger backwards like this? They might have had to go to the hospital if they had been the ones who got punched.

    At that point, they realised that if they bullied Bai Zhe after this and Bai Zhe punched them, their situation would be worse than Mr. Jang’s. These thoughts were different than those of the girls, who lately had begun to see Bai Zhe in a better light; seeing him like this, in particular, had made them start to look at Bai Zhe as a boy they could rely on.

    “Ahem. Well done, Bai Zhe. I give you a full score for both the report and the presentation.” Though Mr. Jang felt embarrassed, he had his morals because his teacher had taught him to respect those who were stronger than him, even if that person was younger.

    “Thank you, sir.” Bai Zhe bowed before going to sit in line with his classmates.

    Presentations about various kinds of sports were given after that. During the demonstration about basketball where boys and girls started to play, an accident happened when the ball was being slam dunked into the hoop. The highly rusted metal screw that connected everything together broke, making the basketball backboard fall onto the students who were standing under it.

    Bai Zhe saw everything in slow motion. He dashed forward to push away Da Tong, who was the one dunking the ball. Then, he pushed a girl who was standing under the basketball hoop to the floor. He spread out his arms to prepare himself for the impact of the falling backboard with his own back.

    [Calm like Bodhisattva.] He used this trick again. The moment the basketball backboard fell onto his back, it bounced, then fell onto the floor next to him. Dust flew everywhere, keeping everyone from seeing the condition of Bai Zhe and the girl.

    The female students screamed. Mr. Jang hurriedly ran over. His footsteps stopped when he saw Bai Zhe standing and using his body to shield a girl.

    “Bai Zhe, are you all right?” The teacher swiftly came over to check the boy, only to discover that there was just a stain from the rust on his back, no wounds or bruises from the accident of a moment ago.

    “I’m all right, sir. What about you? You’re okay…right?” he answered the teacher and turned to question the girl that he had saved.

    He saw her tightly gripping his shirt with both hands, her face at his chest, sniffing him. He instantly pushed away from her like a cat when it was splashed with hot water.

    Many of the girls who were in time to see his reaction giggled. They had put him in the herbivore category: a person whom they could approach safely.

    “It’s good that you are all right. That’s it for the basketball group. I’ve already scored you. Bai Zhe, you come to the hospital with me. You need to get a thorough check-up. Class dismissed.” Mr. Jang told Bai Zhe to wait for him in the nurse’s office. He went to make a report on the broken basketball backboard accident and then, came back to take Bai Zhe to the hospital.

    The hospital

    Bai Zhe got his body checked thoroughly and the result was that he did not even have a scratch, which made Mr. Jang feel relieved. Because if anything happened to Bai Zhe, he would have been the one responsible for that.

    ‘This boy is far too strong for a human. A basketball backboard of that weight fell onto his back, but he doesn’t even have a scratch.’ Mr. Jang looked at Bai Zhe who was walking in front of him.

    “Bai Zhe, you can go home now. It’s the time for the last class to be over already,” said Mr. Jang.

    “Yes, sir,” the boy turned back to answer his teacher before he started to walk out of the hospital.

    “Make way, please. Make way.” The voice of a male nurse sounded from the hospital’s entrance.

    Bai Zhe immediately stepped back to stand near the wall. He saw a woman in her eighties lying on a hospital bed that the nurse was wheeling forward. To the side of the bed were familiar figures half-running, half-walking together. They were the old man and the boy whom he had met at the herbalist shop.

    ‘That old woman has sky qi. Guessing from her state, her yin power is dangerously unbalanced. They brought strong yang herbs because they wanted to heal this woman. But the reason why she didn’t get better is that they used an incorrect concoction method. They must have boiled them, so the effectiveness decreased to 1 in 1000. That only helps relieve the symptoms for a short while,’ thought Bai Zhe.

    He was deciding whether he should help them or not. It would surely have both pros and cons. The pro was that he would be someone to whom the woman was indebted, and she might protect him. The con was that there were numerous risks. They might not let him help her, because they did not trust him, or the woman might not be grateful for his help. Also, he had to expose himself as a martial artist. But of course, Bai Zhe decided to help her in the end.

    “Mr. Jang. Let us part here,” said the boy before following in the direction that the woman was being taken to.

    The reason why he chose to help the woman was that he believed in Tai Si Kong’s teachings: [ As you sow, so shall you reap.] So, his good action might lead to a good result, more or less.

    …………..

    After the punishment scene

    Yi Han: Master, you are too cruel.

    The senior: You cannot take back that which has been lost

    Yi Han: No! Sniff, sniff.

    Lao Lao: Han Han, if you do not stop crying and making those irritating noises, I will take you until dawn.

    Yi Han: 0x0………

    The senior: =[]=……..