Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 26: Principles of Chinese boxing being applicable to the way one talks

Liu Wenjun had been the strongest black belt instructor at this dojo. As a sixth degree black belt, his ability and experience with Taekwondo had been the best quality. But at his defeat, not a single instructor had dared wanted to fight against Wang Chao, making him feel disappointed. His fiery temper had just been activated and was itching for a fight, but now, he couldn’t even show his strength.

With no one coming forward, he couldn’t make a move either. This type of feeling was similar to being a drunkard that had only just finished half a bottle of wine before it was snatched away from him.

“Little brother, what is your name and how old are you?” Zhang Tong had called out before gracefully walking onto the ring. Her voice had been melodically sweet as if it was rice wine.

Wang Chao looked at Zhang Tong and her elegant nodding of her head of approval once before giving her his name. Right now his strength was still growing and so was his confidence. Not only were his fists and words confident, but even his attitude. Chinese boxing raises the Qi and spirit which is both transformed to change one’s personality. This was also the very same argument that martial art masters Song Shirong and Sun Lu-tang had both said.

Those who were adept at raising Qi did so for their inner body, those who were not would do elsewise for their outer body. Learning Chinese boxing would require the Qi to become spirit and transform both outer and inner. One’s nature would follow the Dao of Yin and Yang and be born anew as one who would not hold back, yet not offend others. This profoundness was what it meant to be called an inner practitioner. Otherwise even if one’s skill was high, but the temperament was explosive, sinister, cruel, cowardly, gentle, or even too tolerant, then it would be seen as being an outer practitioner.

This was what Tang Zichen had meant by being lenient, but not standing to be disgraced.

Wang Chao’s skill was decent, but his nature had not yet reached the pinnacle of being born anew. But, he was still slowly tempering himself with his martial arts.

Zhang Tong had been so pleased with Wang Chao’s reply to her question to such a degree that even Li Wanji could see it.

“President Li, have I passed all your tests?” Wang Chao asked.

Li Wanji had called for someone to bring out Liu Wenjun to be carried out first before speaking to the rest of the instructors, “Which person wishes to go next?”

The other black belt instructors had already seen Wang Chao’s skill for themselves however. After he had beaten both a fourth and sixth degree black belt, they had no objections. Actually, there had been three girls that were looking at Wang Chao with interest.

“Good,then as the Asia branch representative of the International Taekwondo Union, I hereby hire you as our dojo’s high ranking instructor. Come with me and we’ll sign the paperwork.” Li Wanji spoke.

“This is good. Let’s see what conditions are on this paper. In today’s age, the words from the mouth can’t be relied on. It all depends on what is written.” Wang Chao thought to himself before turning to Zhang Tong with a smile as he bade farewell.

“One moment, little brother, once you sign your papers, would you like to eat a meal together?” Zhang Tong extended a hand out to Wang Chao gracefully.

“Of course.” Wang Chao had won two battles after practicing martial arts rigorously. Even his words were growing more skillful and carried a small amount of elegance to them.

After shaking hands with Zhang Tong, Wang Chao followed Li Wanji back to her office where she had taken out a document for him.

Taking the papers, Wang Chao gave it a look only to discover that the contract was rather simple to understand and not at all filled with technical jargon. There were only a few conditions like how to treat the visitors and protecting the reputation of the dojo. It wasn’t required to work everyday, but they must be available to come into work at any time for at least two hours.

Other than that, there was one more condition. If the contracted person were to damage the reputation of the dojo at any given time, then the contract would be instantly terminated. Any of the damages to the dojo would then be calculated by the Taekwondo Union and be billed.

Wang Chao knew that this condition had basically meant that if there was a challenger that he couldn’t beat, then he wouldn’t be able to be paid and would have to compensate the union instead.

Looking over the conditions, Wang Chao noticed that the salary was printed below as well. Evey month, the salary would be 45,000 RMB excluding room and board.

TL Note: About 6800 USD a month.

“Was this condition here before uncle Cao had the job?” Wang Chao asked as he pointed to the condition about compensating for a loss.

“No.” Li Wanji replied, “Officer Cao had a special reason. But because he didn’t have this condition, his salary was only 30,000 RMB a month. Now that we’ve this extra condition, it’s only natural to add more money to your salary. Is there any dissatisfaction with these conditions? Being a high leveled instructor is not an easy job. If you don’t have any confidence, then you don’t need to sign this. We’ll just need to find someone else.”

“Not bad. With this condition, there is an increase of salary, that is fair enough. The most important thing is that I can fight and earn money. This type of job is a hard to find thing, I’ll sign this.” Wang Chao thought to himself before grabbing the pen to sign the papers.

“One form is for you to keep.” Li Wanji took the papers and signed it with the official seal of the Taekwondo Union before handing a copy back to Wang Chao. Then, she handed him proof of him being an instructor before saying, “Starting from tomorrow, the contract will come into effect. You are now officially employed, Keep in mind that when you are working, you should keep your certification on you.”

Wang Chao walked out of the office afterwards and rode the elevator down to the lounge. A luxurious red sports car suddenly came into view before the windows rolled down automatically, revealing Zhang Tong.

“Get in.” Zhang Tong’s hair fluttered gently in the wind like water cascading downwards.

Opening the door, Wang Chao took a seat inside where he was instantly struck by a sweet fragrance within.

“Little brother, your technique is excellent, who was it that taught you?” When the car went into motion, Zhang Tong asked the question straight away with curiosity.

“This is….” Wang Chao gave a small laugh as an embarrassed look appeared on his face.

Zhang Tong was an astute girl and had instantly understood the meaning. Without asking again, she had switched to another topic, “When it comes to martial arts from China, I know a decent amount. My bodyguards were trained in some of the disciplines as well. Which discipline might little brother have learned?”

“I study the discipline of Guoshu.”

“What is Guoshu?” Zhang Tong asked curiously.

“Chinese boxing that is meant to kill and not performing, that is Guoshu.” Wang Chao recited Tang Zichen’s words, feeling a sense of intimidation and power in the words himself.

“Oh!” Zhang Tong’s eyes blinked rapidly a few times before stepping on the accelerator hard, sending the car into a frenzy.

The car eventually arrived at the province’s most luxurious Star City restaurant where Zhang Tong led them both up 28 floors. Arranging for a table, she ordered a few dishes before asking Wang Chao, “Little brother, what did you wish to drink, would wine be fine?”

Wang Chao had long since thought about the proper answer to this question. So when he had heard this question, he smiled and spoke with a half serious expression, “Alcohol is the poison that spears through one’s intestines, and women are the steel knives that scrape away at the bones. For those who practice the ways of the fist, they should avoid these taboos.”

Zhang Tong had been stunned for a moment at first before smiling in return, “Then that’s fine. I won’t try and coerce you with either of the two. Waiter, two cups of ginseng and oolong tea.”

The meal was neither too hot or too cold, and Wang Chao had expertly replied to each one of Zhang Tong’s questions when a bright idea popped into his head. Saying a few jokes and then some words that were purposely laced with meanings that meant otherwise, Wang Chao continued to eat and chat with Zhang Tong.

“Where does little brother live, I’ll drop you off.” Zhang Tong spoke.

“I live in the closeby Tianxing district, there’s no need.” Wang Chao spoke.

“Eh!” Zhang Tong had been clearly amazed. In her experience of business trading around the world and after talking with Wang Chao, she had never thought that he belonged to a high social class. But when she had heard Wang Chao lived in the Lake Tianxing district, she was dumbfounded.

“All of the houses in the Tianxing district are villas where the price is almost just as large, could I have judged him wrong?” By now, Zhang Tong couldn’t help but feel doubt.

But she would never dream that Wang Chao was actually using Tang Zichen’s property as his disguise.

“That’s fine, my house is in the same area. I didn’t think that we would be neighbors on the same way.” Zhang Tong had a house in the district as well, meaning that she could take him home.

“Okay then.” Wang Chao nodded his head. After the meal, the two climbed back into Zhang Tong’s car. Not too long later, they had arrived at the district, “I live in the 18th villa, where might Zhang Tong live?”

“I live in the 24th villa facing the lake.”

Sure enough, Zhang Tong saw that when they had arrived at the 18th villa, Wang Chao took out the electronic card for access and invited her inside. By this moment, her doubts had been dispelled.

“No need, I’ll come in another time.”

Wang Chao watched Zhang Tong’s car leave before furrowing his eyebrows together. “Truth and deceptions, fake or real, hot and cold. Even when talking to people, there are still the principles of Chinese boxing applied to it it seems.”