...

"Fuck! This little punk's got some nerve!" Brother Black Panther, enraged that Wei Zhao dared speak to him in that tone, lunged for his collar.

Wei Zhao's left hand shot out and seized Brother Black Panther's right; then his right hand came up, pinched the man's cheeks, and with a flick of the fingers sent the half-smoked cigarette on his lips straight into his mouth.

"Awooo—" Brother Black Panther howled as the burning butt dropped into his throat and raised a blister there on the spot.

Wei Zhao's left hand pulled and pushed, and the thoroughly rattled Brother Black Panther went staggering off to one side.

Mouth gaping wide, Brother Black Panther fanned at it frantically with his hand, wheezing like a little dog with its tongue hanging out to cool itself.

Zou Ruoming had lain in the school infirmary for half a day, and only after repeated kneading and massage did he finally come to. With a band-aid stuck across his nose, he was helped out by his underlings, his head still ringing.

"Motherfucker, what class is that kid in?" Zou Ruoming said hatefully. "Find him for me. I'll beat him so badly his own mother won't know him."

"We don't know either..." Zou Ruoming's men had no idea which class Wei Zhao was in. There were far too many ordinary students in school uniforms; the sort that drew no attention whatsoever.

"Damn it, he's from our school, that much is certain. You go and find him. After class, search class by class, and once you've got him, beat him to death!" Zou Ruoming said viciously.

"Don't worry, Brother Ming!" several underlings answered at once. They had been frightened by Wei Zhao's skill earlier, but now they had numbers on their side—surely they needn't fear one man?

When they came out of the infirmary, they found the school in the middle of morning exercises. One of Zou Ruoming's men had sharp eyes, and catching sight of Zhong Yongliang, Brother Black Panther and the rest walking in through the gate, he pointed and said, "Brother Ming, look—isn't that Zhong Yongliang and his bunch? The ones trailing behind them don't look like students from our school!"

"Oh?" Zou Ruoming lifted his head and looked where his man was pointing. Sure enough, Zhong Yongliang, Gao Xiaofu and Zhang Naipao were striding into the school grounds, puffed up with self-importance, and behind the three of them came three burly men. Zou Ruoming recognized the leader of the three—the bare-chested, tattooed brute! It was Brother Black Panther, a well-known figure in the underworld, notorious for his fighting. Zou Ruoming's elder brother had drunk with the man and had brought Zou Ruoming along once, so he remembered him clearly. He said to his men, "That's Brother Black Panther, a big name in the underworld, famous for how he fights. I wonder how Zhong Yongliang got him here?"

"Are they going after a student at our school?" one of Zou Ruoming's men guessed.

"I don't know. But isn't that making a mountain out of a molehill? Do you need Brother Black Panther to deal with a student from our school?" Zou Ruoming shook his head, unable to fathom Zhong Yongliang's intentions.

Being in the mood for a show, Zou Ruoming sat down with his men on a bench in the schoolyard to watch how things would unfold. He was curious, too—just who had made Zhong Yongliang go to such lengths?

Suddenly Zou Ruoming recalled how, the night before, Zhong Yongliang and his whole group had been beaten black and blue. When he had asked what had happened, Zhong Yongliang wouldn't say. Could it be that someone had given them a beating, and today they had come for revenge?

The more Zou Ruoming thought about it, the more likely it seemed, and he could not help but find it funny. Zhong Yongliang was going from bad to worse—getting worked over by students from his own school, and then needing outsiders to settle the score. What was even funnier was that the fellow had insisted the bruises were from their own roughhousing.

"Hey? Brother Ming, doesn't that kid look familiar?" one of Zou Ruoming's men suddenly cried, pointing toward Brother Black Panther.

"Holy shit! Isn't that the little bastard who hit Brother Ming with the basketball?" another man recognized Wei Zhao at once.

Zou Ruoming hurriedly looked hard—and sure enough, it was the very kid who had hit him with the basketball that morning!

"Brother Ming, what do we do now?" Zou Ruoming's men were already itching to move, eager to earn themselves some credit.

"Hold off. That kid seems to have crossed Zhong Yongliang. Since that's the case, let Brother Black Panther take care of him just the same. No need for us to rush in," Zou Ruoming said mildly.

Calm as Zou Ruoming's face was, a storm was churning in his heart! Zhong Yongliang might not be the fighter he was, but his two underlings, Zhang Naipao and Gao Xiaofu, were no pushovers either. If they could come off worse against Wei Zhao—and had to call in men from the outside—then this Wei Zhao was truly no simple matter!

He had taken the basketball to the head as a fluke, but now it seemed otherwise. If Wei Zhao didn't have real skill, he could never have stirred up Brother Black Panther.

So Zou Ruoming was in no hurry to go looking for trouble with Wei Zhao. With Brother Black Panther stepping in, he would just let Brother Black Panther give that brat a beating first and deal with him later.

But what happened next left Zou Ruoming and the others utterly dumbstruck. Before they could even work out what was going on, they saw Brother Black Panther clutching his own mouth, howling and hopping about on the ground...

When had Brother Black Panther ever suffered such a loss? To be made a fool of by a mere student sent his lungs close to bursting with rage. Forgetting the pain in his throat, his eyes went red, and he swung his fist straight at Wei Zhao.

Wei Zhao could tell by now that Brother Black Panther was the sort of man with a hard-trained body and immense brute strength. Not that Wei Zhao was afraid of him, his fists least of all. Old Man Wei had often smashed him with an iron rod, and it had never done him any harm. But Wei Zhao did not want to show off too much at school. After all, if he took a punch like that and came out of it completely unharmed, it was bound to draw attention.

So Wei Zhao dodged aside in a flash, and Brother Black Panther's fist met empty air. Then Wei Zhao's body moved with extraordinary speed until he was behind the man, and he lifted his foot and drove it hard into Brother Black Panther's backside.

This, of course, was the very move Wei Zhao had used on Zhong Yongliang before starting school. Wei Zhao meant to defeat the man before him with just such a simple technique, so it looked more like a street punk's brawl, with not a trace of form or method about it.

Wei Zhao did not want to expose his skills in front of a crowd. After all, most of what Old Man Wei had taught him was meant for assassination, so he was reluctant to let too many people learn his true depths, and he resorted to crude, brute-force technique instead.

Brother Black Panther was far heavier than Zhong Yongliang, but a kick from Wei Zhao could punch a hole through a car, let alone through Brother Black Panther. Still, Wei Zhao did not want to cripple a man in public and earn himself a charge of grievous bodily harm. A lesson was enough. He had no intention of shattering Brother Black Panther's pelvis right here and leaving him unable to walk for the rest of his life.

Without a doubt, Brother Black Panther let out a miserable scream and pitched forward face-first onto the school's concrete playground, instantly smashing himself bloody...