The Empress’s Gigolo

Renren Martial Arts Center, Jingan, Shanghai

Inside the center, two students were sparring on a stage with more than ten people watching. Slightly further away, seven or eight people were hitting punching bags.

“Coach, I heard that a new martial arts center is opening nearby today.” The person talking was a young man with a bare upper body who wore shorts.

Another man, refined, physically strong, and in his mid-thirties, sat in a chair and looked at the two trainees occasionally.

“Oh.” The refined man nodded casually. “They will teach their skills, and we will teach ours.”

There were 80 to 100 reputable martial arts centers in Shanghai. The total was even higher if the karate and taekwondo centers were added, not to mention those small centers that opened one day and closed the next.

There were many reputable martial arts centers in the vicinity, and they didn’t interfere with each other.

It wasn’t like before when the people from established centers would come to the newly opened centers to challenge them.

Nonetheless, in this business, breaking the signboard of someone else would cut off their income and create grudges. Generally, there was no enmity because nobody would do such things anymore.

At most, there were occasional challenges between trainees at the same level.

“Still, this martial arts center is rather strange. Most centers will do some advertising before opening, but this one didn’t do any publicity. It occupies three floors, so the rent is about two to three million yuan a year. I wonder how they are going to make money,” the young man said casually.

“That’s their business. What is your reason for telling me this?” The refined-looking man turned to look at him. As he blinked his eyes, a brilliant ray was emitted, which made the young man nervous.

“Coach, it seems that Xue Yi and some others have gone there to make trouble,” the young man mumbled.

The refined-looking man frowned. Xue Yi’s group consisted of five people between the age of 17 and 20 who came from good family backgrounds.

Xue Yi had been practicing here for five years and had been here the longest. He liked to show off his bravery and had exchanged views with various taekwondo and karate coaches. However, those that he interacted with were disciples that came from big centers who were opening their own smaller branch centers to teach small kids. The strength of these coaches was therefore limited.

He was growing overly bold to challenge others on their home turf just because he had won a few times in the past.

A center that could afford a rent of a few million yuan wasn’t the same as those small taekwondo centers that were tens of square meters in size. One or two randomly selected instructors should be more than a match for him.

“Coach, do you want to take a look? He’s from our center and would disgrace us if he loses,” the young man said.

“What’s there to see? If he loses, it means he loses face because he isn’t good enough,” he refined-looking man said. He didn’t feel that even a talented member who had been training here for a few years could beat a coach from a big martial arts center.

It wasn’t an equal playing field to begin with.

…

Two blocks away from Renren Martial Arts Center, there was an ancient-looking martial arts center with an external wooden fence.

There were small words that said “martial arts” on the bottom of the signboard, but the word on top was unrecognizable. It was probably written in a calligraphy style used during the Qin Dynasty, but the busybodies staying nearby who studied it for a long time couldn’t decipher it.

It was discovered that the word was “Yao” after someone asked the people in the center.

However, nobody knew which dynasty or era this word came from, so they assumed it to be self-created, which was laughable.

At this moment, a few refined-looking youths were laughing boisterously as they walked into the center. Surprisingly, in addition to a hall on the first floor that was decorated luxuriously, there was a front stage, some rooms, and even a dining room.

“Is this a martial arts center or a restaurant?” the young man in front asked insolently.

“Of course it’s a martial arts center. The other area is a place for members to eat their meals.” Two pretty girls that were about 20 years old were graceful and polite in answering them.

“What does your center teach?” the young man asked again before laughing derisively.

“Right now, we are only teaching [Boxing of Death],” the two girls answered.

“[Boxing of Death]? The name is scary. Will it kill people?” The young men beside him laughed. “However, we haven’t heard of it before. Can we experience it?”

“Are the few of you intending to register?” the two girls asked.

“Let’s see your capability before we decide to sign up. Sister, get your instructors to come out and spar with us. If they win, we’ll sign up. How about it?” asked another young man. He was tan, big in stature, and fierce-looking.

…

On the third floor, Ren Baqian was sitting and listening to reports from Ren Wannian and Ding Jie when he heard with surprise that visitors were here.

“Some people are here to cause trouble.”

Ren Baqian, Ren Wannian and Ding Jie were surprised and puzzled. Coming here to challenge… Why were these people so narrow-minded.

“Yes, they said they are here to exchange views, but it’s more like a challenge,” the receptionist reported. She was quite nervous as it was her first time meeting the big boss.

The main reason for her anxiety was that the big boss didn’t look like a good person. She felt that he was as intimidating as the two senior instructors.

“Does this kind of thing still happen?” Ren Baqian found it ridiculous.

“Based on my inquiries, this type of incident is rare now. Furthermore, we have just opened and didn’t advertise. It’s impossible to affect others or attract hostilities,” Ding Jie said. After more than half a year of hard work, Ding Jie had matured a lot.

With martial arts training, he was getting stronger, looked like a promising young man in his twenties, and no longer looked like a bean sprout.

This change was clearly visible to him. As he wasn’t superior to others in any way, Ren Baqian could pick people who were better than him off the street. Although he didn’t know why the boss chose him and gave him such an opportunity, he made a resolution to redouble his efforts.

Consequently, Ding Jie strived to do everything to the best of his abilities.

“Bring them to the second floor and call for some instructors to go there.” Ren Baqian laughed, stood up, and walked out of the door. He wasn’t busy, and it would be fun to watch this show.

A short while later, Ren Baqian and the others saw the five youths that were brought up.

They were about 17 to 18 years old and looking for trouble.

Ren Baqian almost lost his interest when he saw these people.

The five young men saw seven or eight men standing there when they came up, and the presence of two bear-like humans was especially frightening. These youths might not be able to move that bear-like pair even if they were allowed to hit those two as they stood there.

However, since the youths were already here, they couldn’t just admit defeat.

To a person who was 17 or 18 years old, pride was more important than anything. To maintain their pride, they would even stab their own gang members. Moreover, a few of their good friends were also witnessing this incident now.

A young man came forward and proclaimed loudly, “Who’s the coach here? We are from Renren Martial Arts Center and would like to exchange views with you.”

“Boss, let me handle this,” said Liu Chengwu, the younger of the Liu brothers.

The salaries of the two brothers were rather high, but they didn’t do much despite having the title of consultant. They had always wanted to show their value and immediately volunteered upon seeing this situation.

Ren Baqian nodded.

“Are you here to exchange views?” Liu Chengwu asked.

The other party was relieved to see Liu Chengwu coming forward. It was fine as long as it wasn’t those two guys.

Liu Chengwu was about 40 and didn’t look strong or vigorous, so the chances of winning had greatly increased.

“Yes, we are from Renren Martial Arts Center,” the group of young men replied loudly.

Liu Chengwu nodded and silently walked to a row of punching bags. He casually punched a bag in the middle, pointed with his finger, and asked, “The punching bags here range from light to heavy—which type can you punch?”

“Hitting punching bags?” Those guys laughed contemptuously because they felt that the people here were kind of low level.

The young man in front, looking relaxed and confident, went toward the heaviest punching bag, inhaled, and raised his leg to kick it.

Bang! The punching bag only shook slightly.

Crack!

The sound of a bone fracturing was heard. Next, that young man clutched his leg as he fell to the floor wailing. The rest of them were shocked as they didn’t expect to see this happen at all.

“What’s inside that punching bag?” Ren Baqian turned his head to ask.

“Steel ingots…” Liu Chengwu move forward to tell him.

“…” Ren Baqian was speechless.

He hadn’t expected the Liu brothers to be so devious!

This was how Liu Chengwu goaded a hot-blooded young man to use all his strength to kick a bag filled with steel ingots! This kick might make the young man wonder what life was all about.

What a talent!

Ren Baqian looked at the two brothers with a completely new perspective. He liked such talents!

He immediately turned to pat the older brother, Liu Chengwen, on the shoulder and said, “Not bad. I like it very much.”