Chapter 144 - As a new comer (1) (1/2)

Translator: Lionwwang  Editor: Lionwwang

There are two doors in the back of the warehouse. I follow Papa 8 out of the back door, here is a big parking garage. There are many vehicles, big and small, but they all look old. To my surprise, some repairmen don’t seem to be doing repairs.

They’re basically dismembering parts of the cars.

As we pass through there, Papa 8 does not stop, but keeps walking ahead. Whenever he passes the repairmen, they just stand up and stoop silently to him, looking respectful.

We walk out of the garage and into a courtyard where there’s a revolving staircase. Papa 8 leads me going down, pushing open a door with some paint peeling off. There come the sounds of fighting.

The sounds are so familiar. There are shouts, exhalations, footsteps and punches. As soon as I walk in, I almost think we have entered a gym.

There are some simple fitness equipments on both sides of the room. Although they are relatively simple, but should have all the major types. Some men who look very strong are practicing with bells; some cushions in the middle of the floor, making of a bigger field. Some people practice boxing in pairs. They are wearing the boxing gloves, not the big one in a boxing match, but the small one with half of the fingers out of it. And they are all wearing the headgears.

Papa 8 looks at the surprised expression on my face and smiles slightly with satisfaction.

The door behind us closes silently.

The people are practicing here, most of them are in their thirties. The oldest might be probably nearly fifty, and the youngest men look just a little older than me.

“How is it?” He asks me with a smile.

I don’t understand what he meant by asking, so I answer vaguely: “Good.”

“I’m asking you, how’s this place?”

I nod: “Very good!”

My eyes are sweeping round the people who are practicing. These people are very agile in their hands and movements, and they are very skilled in their fists and feet. It seems that they are not showy postures of martial arts. What stricks me is that there are almost half of them, from the action point of view, all have slight traces of coming from the army.

Looking around, I’m sure these people are good, but they’re just good, not the excellent. At least, none of them can compare with Jim.

Finally, my eyes are falling on the corner beside the room. A man, barefoot, wearing a pair of shorts, is pounding at a sandbag.

That man’s action is very fast and the strength is also good. He obviously has fighting skills, punches, elbows, knees, legs, all of which are skillfully used. He is hitting the sandbags like a storm and making the loud banging noises.

Finally, after one side kick, he takes a breath, then yelling in a deep voice, and with a heavy blow from the back hand, the sandbag is slammed high and swaying violently.

Papa 8 notices that I’m looking at the young man, saying with a laugh: “That’s the best person here. How do you feel of him?”

I nod and say calmly: “Pretty good.”

“He’s good.” Papa 8 sighs suddenly. He touches his nose with his palm, which is only three fingers left, “Unfortunately, my generation is old. There are too few young people who are willing to bear hardships nowadays. I have seen many young people who think they are already good. Most of them are flower shelves. Real kongfu is practised by wrestling and beating. Where are the young people willing to suffer hardships nowadays?!” He points to the young man who’s practicing, “He’s quite good! But still can’t compare with those old masters.”

I don’t speak, I’m just a new comer and not familiar with here. What he says in lamenting, I can’t anwser it rashly. So, I’m just standing by and listening to him with a slight embarrassment.

He closes his eyes and thinking for a while, then he opens his eyes and slowly saying to me: “Little 5, I understand what you just said to me. But you don’t want to go this way just by making up your mind! The food of this industry, without some skills, is not eatable! Although you are introduced by Ocean, at least I need to know what you are available to do. If you don’t have the ability, you can only do small business. Favor is favor, but I will not break the rules because of the favor! Do you understand?”

“Understand.” I nod, “It’s fair… I like fairness.”

“Well, then I won’t explain much.” He’s looking me up and down and says, “7 said you are good at fight. You also said you were fighting with one dozen of people with a knife before.” There’s a slight smile on the corner of his mouth, but it smells of mockery, “I didn’t see it with my own eyes. Believe it or not, I can’t say it. I have seen a man who could chop a dozen, but it was many years ago. Most young people nowadays have hard mouths and soft hands. Besides, Here’s not the mainland. North American gun management is very loose. It’s the different world. Even you can really cut down more than a dozen, here also can not walkable. If someone holds an AK47, even you are the real Bruce Lee, still useless.”

“I don’t know how to use the gun. I haven’t learmed it at home.” I say lightly, “But I know myself that my fighting ability is not bad. I have practiced Kongfu for ten years.”