“Stop right there!”
Zhou Chun walked over. His tall stature and imposing presence immediately intimidated everyone present.
“This is a student from Minglun Martial Arts Academy. Why are you attacking him?” Zhou Chun questioned loudly, then turned to Su Jie. “Don’t be afraid, come stand behind me.”
Su Jie obediently moved behind Zhou Chun.
“Coach Zhou, your student attacked someone. He beat up Brother Qiang like this! Look, he’s even got Brother Qiang’s blood on him. What do you plan to do about it?” A motorcyclist stepped forward, his voice even louder, almost a roar.
This group of people all looked tough and well-trained, seemingly fighters from a boxing gym.
“You really hit Brother Qiang?” Zhou Chun turned to Su Jie. “Who told you to attack people? Even though you’re a temporary student, you still have to follow academy rules. If outsiders bully you, the academy will stand up for you. But if you assault someone without reason, the academy won’t protect you.”
Su Jie remained calm. “Coach, I only helped someone up, but I was framed.”
“Framed? Do you have proof? There are no surveillance cameras here, and all these people are pointing fingers at you. Even if you go to the police station, you won’t be able to explain yourself clearly. You might even get detained. Why don’t you just take a step back? I’ll negotiate with them, and we’ll treat this as a lesson learned. Otherwise, if you’re detained, your parents will be notified, and so will your former academy. This will turn into a big mess.” Zhou Chun deliberately tried to intimidate him. An ordinary student would have been scared out of their wits.
“Then, Coach, please talk to them,” Su Jie said quickly. “I guess I was just unlucky for helping someone.”
“That’s more like it.” Zhou Chun stepped forward, walked a short distance away, and had a discussion with the group. Then he returned and said to Su Jie, “Good thing I have some influence. These guys don’t want to make trouble with Minglun Martial Arts Academy. But they also refuse to leave empty-handed. Since you’re a student, you probably don’t have money to compensate them. Here’s the deal—they all belong to the same boxing gym. You’ll sign a contract with them and fight in competitions to pay off your debt. Once that’s done, this matter will be settled. Otherwise, you’ll be detained, maybe even sent to prison, and your future will be ruined. It’s not worth it.”
“Oh, really?”
Su Jie looked at Zhou Chun for a moment before suddenly laughing. “Coach Zhou, that boxing gym—it’s either owned by you, or you have a stake in it, right?”
“What did you say?” Zhou Chun’s expression darkened, his face twisting into a sinister look. “I went out of my way to settle this for you, and now you’re accusing me of orchestrating this whole thing? Do you think you’re some big shot worth all that effort? Since you don’t appreciate my help, go ahead and get detained!”
“Coach, do you know what this is?” Su Jie raised his wrist, showing an electronic watch.
“What are you trying to say?” Zhou Chun’s face turned grim.
“This is a watch with a hidden camera. It records in high resolution. I bought it online for just 998 yuan. From the moment I helped that person up, I recorded everything. Why don’t we take this to the police station and see for ourselves?” Su Jie spoke as if he had just woken up from a nap, completely at ease.
Smack!
Suddenly, Zhou Chun lunged forward, trying to smash the watch.
Su Jie quickly pulled his hand back and said, “Coach, when was the last time you used the internet? This watch connects to my phone’s mobile hotspot. The footage is automatically uploaded to the cloud. Even if you take my watch now, it won’t do you any good. Unless you’re a hacker who can break into a major company’s servers to delete the video, I’m afraid you’re out of luck.”
“You little b*stard,” Zhou Chun snarled, his expression revealing that Su Jie had hit the nail on the head. This whole setup had indeed been his plan—to trick Su Jie into signing a contract with his boxing gym and fight for him.
He had assumed that Su Jie was just a student who would cave under a little intimidation. But he never expected Su Jie to remain so composed, handling the situation even better than most adults. Instead of being scared, Su Jie had turned the tables, making Zhou Chun suffer a major setback.
“Coach, you thought I was just some high academyer who could be easily scared into compliance. But I’m not just any student. I was the top scorer in the high academy entrance exam and got into the province’s top academy. Right now, I’m ranked among the top three students there. Even without this camera watch, do you really think the academy leadership would let you get away with this scam?” Su Jie looked at Zhou Chun as if he were a fool. “You might be a professional fighter, but your brain doesn’t seem to work very well. Don’t get angry, though. Calm down. If you hit me now and I upload this video online, what do you think will happen to you?”
“You got lucky this time. What will it take for you to delete the video?” Zhou Chun narrowed his eyes, exuding a murderous aura. But it was just for show—Su Jie had already seen through his bluff.
“I’m not deleting the video. If I did, you’d just try to frame me again later.” Su Jie waved dismissively, not wanting to waste any more time with Zhou Chun. Every minute and second was precious—he needed to focus on his training.
“Stop right there!” As Su Jie tried to leave, the group of motorcyclists shouted again, attempting to block his way.
Su Jie didn’t even look at them. Though they seemed aggressive, he didn’t consider them a threat. Even if they all rushed him at once, he was confident he could escape without a problem. And if he really fought back, he might even seriously injure a few of them.
This was the confidence that martial arts training had given him.
“I’ll count to three. If you don’t step aside, I’ll post it online immediately,” Su Jie said to Zhou Chun.
“You little b*stard!” Zhou Chun was so furious that he nearly exploded. “I want to see how you leave today. Never mind whether your watch’s pinhole camera is real or fake—even if it is real, you’re here, and once we catch you and make you sign the contract, do you think you can just walk away? Put your fingerprint on it now!”
“Sorry, but I’m leaving.”
Suddenly, Su Jie exerted force, darted outward, hooked his foot, and then pushed. The three men surrounding him were sent flying and collapsed onto the ground. He then broke through the encirclement and sprinted away.
Immediately, everyone shouted and chased after him.
However, Su Jie’s speed and endurance were beyond what these people could handle. After a few minutes of pursuit, he was already nearing the academy. Zhou Chun hurriedly signaled for the others to stop.
“Brother Chun, what do we do?” asked the middle-aged man who had staged the accident, known as ‘Brother Qiang.’ “That kid is way too cunning. Should we chase him into the academy?”
“Are you stupid?” Zhou Chun almost slapped him. “If that kid really recorded us and this blows up, we’ll be in serious trouble.”
“I think he’s just bluffing. He probably didn’t record anything. We shouldn’t let him fool us,” said a well-built man wearing Sanda shorts, his tone vicious. “But I have to admit, that kid is impressive. I’ve been practicing Muay Thai for five years, and he took me down with just one kick. Brother Chun, you were right—if we can trick him into signing a contract with our boxing gym, he’ll be a gold mine for us.”
“At first, I thought it was overkill for you to go to such lengths for a kid, but now I see he’s no ordinary person. What do we do next?”
Hearing their discussions, Zhou Chun waved his hand. “Go back to the gym and don’t say a word about what happened today. I’ll handle this. I need to find out if he really recorded anything. If he didn’t, I’ll make him pay.”
After saying this, a new scheme formed in Zhou Chun’s mind.
“What a hassle,” Su Jie muttered as he returned to academy. He took a shower to wash off the blood on his body. “Zhou Chun is supposed to be a professional fighter who has competed in numerous national-level tournaments, yet his character is this rotten. But I guess it’s not surprising—he’s not actually part of the national team, just a club fighter.”
The modern fighting scene was divided into official national tournaments and large-scale commercial competitions.
Official national tournaments were rare, and members of the national Sanda and fighting teams were formal athletes. According to regulations, they couldn’t participate in commercial matches and were only allowed to compete in sports events. However, after retirement, they could enter commercial competitions.
Commercial fights, on the other hand, were thriving. Many corporate-sponsored tournaments, like the “XX Cup” or “King of Kings,” offered lucrative prize money and even attracted global participation.
Several major corporations in the country organized free-fighting tournaments, with championship prizes exceeding five million yuan.
Of course, this was still nothing compared to international boxing. Top international boxing champions could earn hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars from a single fight.
Nie Shuang from Minglun Martial Arts Academy saw Su Jie’s potential and wanted to sign him, but Zhou Chun had also set his sights on him and resorted to underhanded tactics to scare him into signing.
“Looks like I’ve become a hot commodity,” Su Jie chuckled, twisting his watch. He wasn’t bluffing—his watch really did have a pinhole camera, and the footage was already uploaded to a cloud storage server.
After Gu Yang warned him about Zhou Chun last time, Su Jie had stayed on alert and bought this device online. Sure enough, it came in handy. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to clear his name, no matter how justified he was.
In reality, there had been many cases of people helping elderly folks only to be falsely accused.
Not to mention, this incident had taken place in a remote area without surveillance cameras. The injuries and blood on those men were real, and he had gotten some on himself as well, making things even harder to explain.
“The world is a dangerous place,” Su Jie, a high school student, sighed. “Luckily, I spend a lot of time online and have seen all kinds of things. Better safe than sorry—I need to be even more cautious from now on.”
Shaking off the unpleasant encounter, Su Jie had breakfast and prepared for another full day of training.
His current training regimen was immense—at least three times the intensity of what Odell had gone through in his time. But he enjoyed it. A day without training felt unbearable.
Now that he had money, he could afford plenty of nutritional supplements to keep up with his regimen. On top of that, Uncle Mang’s acupuncture, massage therapy, electric stimulation, and internal fortification wine had significantly improved his physical condition.
He assumed his stance and trained for about an hour, sweating profusely. That morning, in the wilderness, he had gained insight into the essence of “unity of heart and mind” in martial arts. His execution of the “Hoe Strike” technique had reached a near-mastery level, aligning with the old manuals’ description of “true intention arising from unintentional movements.”
He repeatedly refined this move, his body naturally flowing into countless variations.
The eighteen freestyle combat techniques Gu Yang taught were indeed masterpieces. Anyone with real skill who practiced them thoroughly could seamlessly integrate them into actual combat.
Su Jie, having real battle experience, understood their depth and value.
“Good.”
Just as Su Jie was practicing, a voice came from the side.
It was Nie Shuang.
At that moment, Nie Shuang’s eyes sparkled with excitement. She was an expert, and she could clearly see the state Su Jie was in.
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