Chapter 8: Stealing Heavenly Secrets
“Kid, who are you looking for?”
In the afternoon, at another casino, Chen Wujun had just entered when a young man standing by the door with his arms crossed glanced at him and asked.
“Brother, is Lan Du Hong here?” Chen Wujun took out a cigarette and skillfully offered it.
“You sure know how to handle things!” The young man smiled and casually pointed inside: “Lan Du Hui, Lan Du Hua, Lan Du Qiang… there are so many, I don’t know which one you mean!”
“Find him yourself!”
Chen Wujun stayed in the casino for twenty minutes before coming out.
This was already the sixteenth place, and he still hadn’t seen those loan sharks.
However, Chen Wujun remained patient and wasn’t anxious at all.
Three days, thirty places. If he didn’t find them, he would search again.
As he was thinking and walking towards the next location based on his memory, a person approached him. Chen Wujun’s eyes narrowed immediately upon seeing the other person.
What a coincidence.
It was one of the four people from last time, specifically the one in the floral shirt. Chen Wujun remembered him clearly.
Chen Wujun moved to the side, waiting for the person to pass before slowly following.
The person didn’t go to the casino but left the Walled City, heading towards Carpa Da Road, and finally entered a Hot Pot Restaurant.
Chen Wujun squatted at the entrance of the alley opposite the Hot Pot Restaurant, waiting for the person to come out.
He waited for two hours.
“He’s inside eating and drinking heartily, while I’m freezing outside,” Chen Wujun mocked himself, simultaneously contemplating if there was anything improper about his tracking.
If it were himself, how would he try to avoid being followed? At least he would detect the person tailing him.
Reflect on oneself thrice daily.
After waiting for another twenty-odd minutes, he saw the person emerge from the Hot Pot Restaurant, leaning unsteadily with half his body on a woman.
He even turned back to say goodbye to his friends after coming out.
Chen Wujun took note of the friends he had eaten with; they weren’t the same people who came to collect debts that day, so he paid them no further mind.
Instead, he waited until the unsteady person had walked further away before crossing the street to follow.
He followed them all the way back to the Walled City, finally trailing them into an alley next to a casino. Seeing several people inside, he stopped following.
He then glanced at the casino and the alley before heading back.
Chen Wujun guessed that the loan shark probably stayed in the alley next to the casino, keeping someone in the casino to bring people over or facilitate loans as soon as someone borrowed money.
As for whether this was true or not, he would know in a day or two if he came by again.
Chen Wujun didn’t go home along Long Jin Road. Instead, he ducked into an alley not far from where he was, wanting to familiarize himself with the surroundings.
While weaving through the small alleys for over ten minutes, he suddenly kicked something soft, tripped, and almost fell.
Chen Wujun almost swore out loud. He steadied himself by gripping the nearby wall with one hand and turned to see what had tripped him.
He then realized it was a man wearing dark pants and a T-shirt, sitting against the wall. A stack of wooden boxes next to him had blocked him from view, with only his legs exposed.
He hadn’t seen him at all.
Moreover, even after bumping into him, the person made no sound.
Chen Wujun’s heart stirred. He took out his lighter and lit it, revealing a man with dark circles under his eyes and a pale complexion, thin as a skeleton. His eyes were tightly shut, and half his body was slumped in the corner formed by the wall and the wooden boxes.
The posture looked rather strange.
Chen Wujun reached out to check for breathing.
“He’s cold!”
Chen Wujun cursed irritably, “Damn it, what bad luck! The ground is so cold, you’re bound to get cold lying there!”
Then he got up and walked away.
In the Walled City, people often died in alleys like this; several bodies were carried away daily.
Chen Wujun had seen it many times since he was young, so he wasn’t surprised.
When daylight came, people from the Welfare Association would naturally transport the bodies to the collection point next to the public toilet outside the Walled City, from where municipal workers would collect them.
As Chen Wujun walked home, he told himself, “I will never be like this person, dying anonymously without anyone caring! I must make a name for myself!”
“I want to buy a luxury house, drive a luxury car, and marry a female celebrity!”
Then, as if venting, he let out a loud roar in the alley.
“Ah—!”
“Who’s acting crazy over there? Screaming like that in the middle of the night, trying to scare people to death?” Someone from a nearby house immediately yelled from a window.
…
“Why are you so late again? Where did you go all afternoon?” When he returned home, his parents were waiting for him to eat.
“I went to see Lin Zetao. He’s in the same martial arts school as me, but he joined a few days earlier,” Chen Wujun lied casually.
At the dinner table, Chen Wujun paid close attention.
Today, his mother Huang Meizhen’s complexion looked better, and her movements had returned to normal, which put his mind at ease.
After eating, Chen Wujun went out again to the rooftop.
His father, Chen Hanliang, said to his mother, “There’s no need for you to sell blood. We’re not short of that little bit of money. How much can you even earn selling blood? I plan to mortgage this house to borrow some money. We can tighten our belts for the next few months, and we’ll be able to repay it. As long as that prodigal son doesn’t cause any more trouble!”
“That won’t do. The interest on loans is very high! And what about Second Son’s martial arts school?”
“Also, Aunt Liu said my blood is too hot and that drawing some blood would be healthier.” His mother, Huang Meizhen, had a gentle nature and a consistently calm voice.
Most of the houses in the Walled City were built illegally. Although they could be traded internally, banks outside wouldn’t recognize them.
Therefore, they could only go to organizations like He Tu, a gang, to sign street papers, with interest rates as high as 10%, which was impossible to repay.
“I won’t borrow from gangs. I have a way. The monthly interest will be at most 3%, and we can recover in half a year!” Chen Hanliang gritted his teeth.
What else could they do if they didn’t borrow money?
“As for Second Son’s martial arts school, I’ll tell him in a few days to postpone going for half a year.” Chen Hanliang also planned to ask Chen Wujun to find a job, which could earn 1500 a month in the Walled City.
With the whole family working together, they could pay off a large portion in half a year.
Then Second Son could go to the martial arts school.
“Second Son has always been sensible; he’ll understand!”
In fact, Chen Hanliang and Huang Meizhen still felt uneasy. What if the eldest son gambled again and incurred more loan shark debts…
Neither of them dared to think about it, so the thought only flashed in their minds before being immediately suppressed.
…
At this moment, Chen Wujun was gazing at the distant brightly lit skyscrapers from the rooftop. After a moment, he agilely climbed onto the guard wall.
As soon as he stood up, a gust of wind blew, causing him to sway slightly. His heart immediately began to beat violently.
A slight sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead.
He quickly dug his toes into the ground, spreading his arms to maintain balance.
Before coming up, he felt that there was nothing to fear on the guard wall. As long as he didn’t fear it, it was no different from the ground.
But once he stood on it, his body involuntarily tensed up.
Soon, Chen Wujun cast aside all distracting thoughts. In his eyes, there was only the abyss before him and the guard wall beneath his feet; nothing else existed.
His senses became extremely sharp.
On another rooftop in the distance, a short-haired woman in a T-shirt and shorts was sitting on the edge of the guard wall. She turned her head in surprise towards Chen Wujun.
In the darkness, the woman’s eyes were terrifyingly bright.
Chen Wujun couldn’t see her, but everything he was doing was perfectly clear in her eyes.
“Charge Stance… from a martial arts school? Where did the kid learn Stealing Heavenly Secrets? Or did he come up with it himself?” The woman’s gaze shifted from surprise to great interest as she watched Chen Wujun.
The so-called Stealing Heavenly Secrets, also known as “Grasping Skill,” was about putting oneself on the verge of life and death at all times, focusing all one’s energy and tightening the entire mind and will.
Each practice session was equivalent to a transformation between life and death, leading to rapid progress in Kung Fu.
“If he doesn’t fall to his death, he’s a good prospect!” The woman watched with great interest for a while.
After all, at such a young age, he dared to use this method for Standing Meditation, which was rare.
He could be considered extremely bold.
Moreover, even people who practiced martial arts using Stealing Heavenly Secrets did so gradually. Why was he standing on a rooftop like this?
With her discerning eyes, she could tell at a glance that Chen Wujun showed no signs of long-term martial arts practice, indicating he had only recently started.
A moment later, footsteps could be heard from behind.
“Sister Sha Jiu, you’re in such a good mood, coming up here to enjoy the view?”
“It stinks down there. It’s more comfortable up here. What do you need me for?”
“Prince Kai drank too much and caused trouble at the establishment!” the person behind her said.
“Doesn’t he know that’s my establishment?” Sha Jiu turned her head.
“He knows it’s my establishment and still dares to cause trouble there? Didn’t breaking his leg last time teach him a lesson?” Sha Jiu grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth, her eyes becoming extremely dangerous.
Her mouth was filled with sharp teeth, like those of a shark.
Combined with her gaze, her relatively pretty face was filled with cruelty and ferocity.
Sha Jiu turned and walked towards the rooftop entrance, her subordinate quickly following behind.
“I’ll see who gave him the guts this time!”
“If he can’t give me a good explanation, I’ll break the middle leg he uses to find women today! So he can only use his fingers to find women from now on!”
…
Ten minutes after Sha Jiu left, Chen Wujun climbed down from the guard wall.
A look of joy appeared on Chen Wujun’s face as he glanced in a certain direction.
It felt like someone had been watching him from there just now.
If he hadn’t been practicing Standing Meditation on the edge of the rooftop, fully concentrating his spirit and mind, he wouldn’t have detected it.
But when he looked now, he saw only darkness.
He couldn’t see anything.
“It must have been a hallucination!”
Chen Wujun quickly dismissed the matter and leaned against the guard wall to rest, his face full of joy.
He had practiced for 20 minutes this time, and his progress was astonishingly fast.
Standing for 20 minutes on the edge of a 40-meter-high building, where falling would mean being smashed to pieces, consumed more stamina and mental energy than standing for two hours on level ground.
“As long as I can stand for 30 minutes, I can try the Golden Rooster Stance.”
