I'll Take On All of You Alone!

Liang Qu returned home, found clean clothes to change into, and jogged toward Pingyang Town. The layers of fallen leaves lining both sides of the road grew thicker, red and yellow on top, dark brown beneath. The wind sliced into him like icy blades, yet Liang Qu felt boundless vigor. Neither cold nor hot, what burned within his chest was sheer passion. He raised his head. The massive setting sun sank bit by bit, casting a dazzling iridescent gold across his pupils. The dusk slowly drained the sunlight from the earth, turning the deep red woods into a dark crimson. Night would fall soon; this was the day's final glimpse of twilight. He suddenly thought this world wasn't half bad—no pollution, no concrete cages, and the air was remarkably crisp. A brief spell of destitution was no misfortune. As long as the direction was right, roasting and stewing were just ways to bring out flavor, and so was fueling the fire with hard effort. The day would come when he made his mark. "Ho-oh!" Liang Qu roared at the top of his lungs. A mule pulling a cart by the roadside was startled, lurching toward the woods. The driver lashed his whip several times to steer it back onto the path, muttering a low curse, "Dumbass." *Did that word exist this early?* Liang Qu paused, but took no offense. He simply smiled back. At the sight, the driver grumbled and drove on, convinced he had crossed paths with a true lunatic. Upon reaching Pingyang Town, Liang Qu figured Li Libo and Chen Jiechang were probably hungry. He bought several steamed buns along the way and took his familiar shortcut to the Yang Family Martial Hall. The martial hall's main gate was brightly lit. Inside, a large oil lamp burned every few paces, and a lantern hung every ten meters. Carrying the oilpaper package, Liang Qu navigated the corridor with practiced ease. There were considerably more people on the training ground today—roughly fifty or so. Many apprentices returned home to practice on their own after learning the forms and only gathered at the end of the month, so the thirty he had seen on enrollment day had not been the full roster. Curiously, there seemed to be no proper martial masters among the crowd, only apprentices. Liang Qu assumed the masters might have errands to run, or perhaps had gone early to pay their respects to Master Yang, so he gave it little thought. Yet in secret, many turned their eyes toward him, deliberately or inadvertently. *Strange. Why is everyone looking at me?* Liang Qu was puzzled. He was poor, and usually no one paid him any heed, much less wanted to make friends, but there was no reason for them to stare like this. *Am I late?* He recalled an incident in high school when he had overslept and was caught red-handed by his homeroom teacher inspecting early morning self-study. Many close classmates had pretended to read while secretly watching the drama unfold—it was the exact same look. Liang Qu simply pretended not to notice and made his way alone to the corner by the flowerbed to find Li Libo and Chen Jiechang. Hearing footsteps, the two looked up, but upon seeing Liang Qu, they hung their heads in unison. Even so, there was no hiding the bruised eye sockets and swollen cheeks. Knowing the two loved to bicker and annoy each other, Liang Qu assumed they had taken a joke too far. "What happened? Did you two get into a fight? How could you hit each other so hard?" The pair exchanged a glance, both silent. Realizing something was wrong, Liang Qu crouched down and asked in a low voice, "What really happened?" After a moment of silence, Chen Jiechang broke the quiet. His swollen cheek made his voice slurred. "After you left, Lu Tingcai brought a gang over to demand money from us. He claimed we stank and ruined their practice, demanding two taels of silver each as compensation. We couldn't stomach it, so we fought them." *Two taels?!* Liang Qu was shocked. Was that asking for money? That was demanding their lives! "What about that Lu fellow?" Liang Qu felt not a shred of respect for Lu Shaohui, and fury flared in his chest. "And Senior Brother Xiang—didn't you look for him? Surely Senior Brother Xiang would have helped!" "That bastard Lu didn't even look us in the eye." Li Libo gritted his teeth. "He turned on his heel and walked away! We couldn't find Senior Brother Xiang either. From noon until now, only us apprentices have been left in the martial hall." Liang Qu could hardly believe it. How could there be such a coincidence today? "At first, I managed to knock one of them senseless. With Brother Chen, two against three, our odds weren't bad. But then three more came over to back them up, and we lost." Chen Jiechang let out a cold snort at those words, deeply unreconciled. He could have severely injured Xue Dingyi, but the scoundrel had reinforcements; in the end, he had only managed to claw a few bloody gouges into Xue Dingyi's neck. "Now they want us to scrape together ten taels of silver, or else they'll come 'spar' with us every single day. Heh..." Chen Jiechang laughed mockingly at himself. He did not regret fighting, only that the reinforcements had arrived too quickly, robbing him of the chance to strangle Xue Dingyi to death. At this stage, words were useless. He sighed. "The two of us talked it over. The fight broke out because of us, so we'll cover the extra four taels." Li Libo nodded. Both felt guilty, believing that because they had insisted on brawling, the burden had surged to over three taels per person. Liang Qu's family circumstances were already wretched, so they naturally intended to cover the extra deficit. The corner by the flowerbed fell into silence. With the human voices gone, the cricket in the flowerbed felt safe again and resumed its intermittent chirping. Its song was not crisp, sounding frail and aged instead. It was already early winter, less than half a month from midwinter, and the cricket could barely sing anymore—it was on the verge of death, likely to freeze in the bitter chill of some sudden freezing night. On the training ground, those chatting and sparring frequently cast glances toward that neglected corner by the flowerbed. Some looks were derisive, some indifferent, and some found it amusing. Dressed in splendid silk garments, Third Young Master Zhao gazed at the flowerbed, then toward the opposite corner. Over there, Lu Tingcai and his gang were equally silent. Having blown the matter up to this scale, could they truly gain anything from it? Impossible. Zhao Xueyuan knew full well that they would be punished—and severely at that. In the past, when this gang extorted protection money, they relied on their victims being too terrified to utter a peep. Moreover, they had always made their moves outside the martial hall. Today was different only because none of the martial masters were present. Commoners at the bottom were accustomed to feeling inferior, born with an ingrained fear of those of higher status. Fooled by Lu Tingcai's intimidation tactics, they never dared seek help from the martial masters. Most people who suffered a loss wouldn't dream of reporting it to the authorities, would they? Relying on their routine of deceit and violence, the gang had met with success at every turn, never expecting to run into two stubborn nails today who immediately swung a brick. He only wondered whether the final apprentice from that same village had a spine of iron or one of clay. Zhao Xueyuan was curious. Right now, Lu Tingcai and his cohort felt only regret and fear. But when one of their sworn brothers had his head split open, their blood had boiled, and in the heat of the moment, they hadn't cared about the consequences. Now, resigned to despair, they were like red-eyed gamblers backed into a corner—more dangerous than ever. The only difference was that the dupes were still kept in the dark. Everyone was waiting for the show to begin. The hard-packed dirt of the training ground was bathed in orange light from the oil lamps. Liang Qu stood up. The light stretched his shadow long across the wooden partition wall, flickering faintly. Li Libo and Chen Jiechang looked up to find two oilpaper packages held out before them. "Take them." "This is..." "Take them!" The cricket in the flowerbed went dead silent. Li Libo and Chen Jiechang reached out to take them. Feeling the warmth and catching the aroma wafting from the wrappers, they realized there was food inside. Liang Qu turned and strode toward the center of the training ground. Every pair of eyes turned toward him. Liang Qu looked left and right. He had never stood in this spot, nor had he ever enjoyed the privilege of being the focus of every gaze. Tired. He was truly exhausted. Back when he worked overtime until midnight, dog-tired, he had never felt this exhausted. Rascals and scoundrels could live; thugs monopolizing the water source could live; crooked clerks who kicked the grain-measuring tubs could live. Yet! Those who merely wanted to live an honest life were denied the chance! The entire society was like an airtight web, trapping everyone who tried to climb upward. Every soul attempting to squeeze through those narrow meshes was crushed until their faces were mangled and their flesh torn away. Those spiders, venomous insects, and centipedes hung from node after node of that great web, waiting for their bloody prey to exhaust itself through futile struggles before swarming to fight over the flesh. Liang Qu looked toward the far corner. They were all there: Lu Tingcai, Xue Dingyi, Yu Weilong, Xiang Quji... These... vermin! Liang Qu's gaze suddenly changed, turning terrifyingly tranquil. He raised his hand and pointed directly at the seven of them. "I want to fight you!" The training ground fell dead silent. *Pfft.* Someone let out a snicker. Liang Qu remained expressionless, staring unblinkingly at them. *Ahem...* The atmosphere stiffened into silence once more. Under the piercing pressure of that gaze, Lu Tingcai and his gang were forced to stand. The crowd slowly parted, opening a path between them. Even if they felt regret, sitting still in the face of such blatant provocation was simply too cowardly. "Just you alone?" Lu Tingcai looked comical with white gauze wrapped around his head, but backed by the six men behind him, no one dared laugh. "You really don't know your own—" "Shut your mouth, you dumbass!" Lu Tingcai froze. Everyone froze. They were like roosters seized by the neck, veins bulging on their foreheads, yet unable to summon a single curse foul or fierce enough to fling back. *What despicable trash.* Liang Qu felt a heavy tightness in his chest. That feeling of roiling fury with no outlet was like a volcano smothered inside his heart. He drew a deep breath, his chest heaving as he reined in the volcanic wrath, until even the sound of the wind seemed to quiet down. "Just me is enough! I alone will defeat all of you!"