Chinese martial arts: From human punching bags to martial arts mastery

The setting sun, carrying the smoke from the chimneys of the shantytown, gently seeped into the cramped partitioned houses of Swallow Nest, the dim yellow light slanting across the mottled walls.

"Creak—!"

As Chen Feng entered under the last rays of the setting sun, he found Lin Sao sitting on an old bamboo chair, mending tattered clothes in the dim light. Her needle and thread moved swiftly between her fingers, a testament to her long and arduous life.

"mom!"

Chen Feng quickly stepped forward, first handing the fritillaria bulbs wrapped in layers of oil paper to his mother, then taking out a heavy cloth bag from his pocket and gently placing it on his mother's lap.

The cloth bag loosened, and eighty shiny silver dollars rolled onto her lap, dazzling Lin Sao so much that she couldn't see clearly for a long time.

"mom--!"

Aunt Lin hurriedly covered her mouth, lowering her voice to a whisper: "I've lived most of my life and never seen so much money before..."

Chen Feng pressed down on his mother's trembling hand, the calluses on his fingertips brushing against her rough palm. His tone was calm and firm: "Mom, please put it away first. Just focus on your treatment!"

His gaze darkened as he swept across the densely packed, low rooftops of the shantytown outside the window. He said, slowly and deliberately, "Only by earning enough money will we have the connections to find Dad and then move out of this damned shantytown!"

Lin Sao's eyes instantly reddened, and she gripped the silver coin tighter and tighter. Hot tears fell onto the cold silver coin, leaving a small, damp stain.

"Ah Qiao!"

Chen Feng turned his head and called softly. A Qiao lit the small oil lamp, and the dim light outlined A Qiao's slender and delicate profile. Her long eyelashes fluttered gently like butterfly wings.

He handed over a delicate little wooden box, his voice soft: "This is donkey-hide gelatin, it's good for women's blood and energy, remember to take it on time!"

He then took out a beautifully packaged jar of face cream and shoved it into her hand: "Take this!"

Xiao A's cheeks flushed slightly, and she muttered stubbornly in a low voice, "What a waste of money..."

But as Chen Feng turned away, she quietly unscrewed the cap, dipped her fingertip in a little milky white cream, and gently smeared it on the back of her hand. The delicate fragrance of the snow cream lingered in her nose, making her lips involuntarily curl upwards.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking.

"Knock knock knock—"

A crisp knock on the door broke the tranquility of Swallow Nest, and Hu Sanzhen, the famous doctor from Hu Qing Yu Tang, walked in carrying his medicine box.

His hair and beard were all white, and he was quite old, but his eyes were still as sharp as an eagle's. He was a well-known figure in Shanghai who could "bring the dead back to life with three needles," and his medical skills were extremely superb.

As soon as Hu Sanzhen entered the room, his gaze fell on Xiao Aqiao.

He raised an eyebrow slightly, about to speak, when Xiao Aqiao quickly shook her head, a pleading look in her eyes.

Hu Sanzhen understood immediately and swallowed back the words that were about to come out.

He first took Lin's pulse, placing three fingers on her wrist, concentrating for a moment, then withdrew his hand and said, "Lin's health is better than many people in Fangua Lane, but her chronic lung problem needs to be treated slowly!"

He paused, his tone becoming more serious: "Your tuberculosis stems from your years working in the silk reeling factory, constantly inhaling cotton dust—a chronic condition that accumulated over time!"

After saying that, he picked up a pen and wrote down a prescription for recuperation, handing it to Chen Feng. His tone was sincere and straightforward: "Young man, to tell you the truth, this prescription is expensive! But for this kind of illness, traditional Chinese medicine can only strengthen the body's foundation and nourish its vital energy; it can't cure the root cause. To completely cure it, you have to rely on Western medicine surgery!"

Chen Feng's heart tightened suddenly: "Dr. Hu, that foreign hospital..."

"The entry requirements for foreign-run hospitals are extremely high!"

Hu Sanzhen sighed, a hint of unspoken difficulty in his eyes: "Without strong connections, even if you have money, don't go in easily. There are many hidden tricks inside; you'd better plan ahead!"

The two major foreign-run hospitals in Shanghai have different focuses: Guangci Hospital is good at harvesting organs from living people and is also known as a human slaughterhouse; St. John's Medical School focuses on research and is best at starving people to death and then boiling their corpses in alkaline water to make scientific specimens.

What Chen Feng didn't know was that the even more terrifying Japanese "beast training camp," now known as the "East Asian Ergonomics Research Station," which gamblers in the Zhabei shantytown called "the beast cage," would bare its fangs in the summer of 1930.

Chen Feng was unaware of Hu Sanzhen's unspeakable secret, and even less aware of the immense danger that was about to befall him!

He pondered for a moment, then pointed to Xiao Aqiao, who was sitting on the edge of the bed: "Dr. Hu, could you please take a look at her as well, and see if there's any underlying illness that needs treatment?"

Hu Sanzhen glanced at Xiao Aqiao, then looked at Chen Feng, and sighed softly.

Then, pulling Chen Feng outside, he lowered his voice and said, "This little girl is very healthy; she doesn't have any of those unclean or rotten diseases!"

His eyes held a meaningful look: "She's a good girl, pure of heart and body. You must treat her well!"

At the time of parting.

Hu Sanzhen patted Chen Feng's shoulder solemnly, with a firm but not too heavy touch, and in a serious tone.

"Young man, you practice hard qigong, do you know that training the muscles, bones, and skin externally is most likely to damage the internal organs?"

"You must take herbal decoctions regularly for conditioning; otherwise, you will definitely develop hidden illnesses in the long run!"

"Once it erupts, it can easily cause a surge of qi and blood to attack the heart, at which point even a god couldn't save you!"

"Even if you don't cultivate your mind in the future, these long-standing ailments will be your biggest obstacle when you transition from external to internal cultivation!"

After seeing Hu Sanzhen off.

Chen Feng returned to the house with a heavy heart. He saw his mother sitting on a small stool weaving straw hats, while Xiao Aqiao sat beside her, learning by doing. Her fingers moved nimbly between the lamp wicks, and she was doing a very good job of imitating her mother.

As Lin Sao taught her, she smiled and praised, "Ah Qiao is so skillful; she learns so quickly. But you should only do this occasionally; you can't overwork yourself!"

Xiao A smiled gently, her eyes and brows radiating warmth.

Looking at the harmonious scene before him, Chen Feng felt a long-lost sense of peace.

These days, he has been busy traveling around, and his biggest concern is his mother. Now that he has another caring person by his side, he no longer thinks about those worries.

So he simply moved a small stool over, sat down, picked up a lamp wick, and started learning from the two of them. His clumsy and awkward movements made Aunt Lin and Xiao A laugh continuously.

As he wove lampwick, he chatted with his mother about everyday things. Little Aqiao would occasionally chime in with a few words. The small partitioned room was filled with warm laughter, which overpowered the noise of Swallow Nest and temporarily eased the lingering heaviness of the shantytown.

Before we knew it, the sun was setting, and the magnificent sunset painted half the sky a warm orange-red.

But just then...

"Waaaaahh ...

A heart-wrenching wail suddenly shattered the brief tranquility, emanating from the alleyway.

The three of them quickly got up and went out of the house. They saw several poor people from the shantytown carrying a simple wooden plank. Lying on the plank was Old Li, who usually drove a rickshaw.

He was bound hand and foot with thick ropes, his clothes were soaked, and black mud dripped down his clothes. His face was bloodless, and he was already lifeless—this was the most cruel method of the Green Gang, "planting lotus flowers," which involved drowning a person alive in the Suzhou River.

Several menacing-looking thugs from the Green Gang followed behind, brandishing clubs and shouting, "Listen up, all of you! Anyone who dares to resist taxes will end up like this old Li!"

One of the thugs, his face covered in scars, stepped forward and roared, spitting as he spoke, "This month's taxes must be delivered to the Green Gang's alleyway by tomorrow afternoon! If I don't see the money, don't blame us for being ruthless!"

As he spoke, the scarred man deliberately lingered his gaze on Xiao Aqiao for a moment, then coldly snorted twice, his eyes filled with unspeakable malice.

Chen Feng immediately stepped forward, firmly protecting his mother and Xiao Aqiao behind him. His eyes were cold as he stared at the departing figures of the Green Gang thugs, his fists clenching silently in his sleeves until his knuckles turned white.

The afterglow of the setting sun fell on his face, half warm and half gloomy.

He knew better than anyone else that although Swallow Nest was currently under Xiang Gongpi's name, it wasn't yet up to the Green Gang to interfere. But in Shanghai, the ruling class was always changing hands, territory changed hands three times a day, and power was as fleeting as the wind.

The current peace is merely a brief respite before the storm.

Chen Feng wants to protect his mother and those around him, find his missing father, and make a name for himself. He must become stronger!

But doubts also arose in his mind—why did that scarred man specifically target Xiao Aqiao? And even though he clearly didn't know the other person, the other person's last murderous gaze made him feel as if he were being stared at by a venomous snake in the dark, sending chills down his spine!

Xiao Aqiao always deliberately avoided talking about the past, so he didn't ask too many questions. He also didn't quite understand Hu Sanzhen's vague words.

Chen Feng made up his mind and went to scout out the area near the Green Gang that very night—"to sneak around at night!"

No sooner had the Green Gang members left than a commotion erupted at the alley entrance again, as the Axe Gang stormed in.

They were all bare-chested and had gleaming axes at their waists. They pushed, shoved, and cursed each other as they went, their arrogance even more overbearing than that of the Green Gang.

"You worthless bastards, you'd better remember this!"

A bald, burly man roared at the top of his lungs, "Anyone who doesn't pay their taxes by noon tomorrow will have three fingers chopped off! Not a penny less, not a word more—it's all the same rule!"

The poor people in the shantytown were trembling with fear, each of them shrinking their heads, and no one dared to make a sound.

Chen Feng stared in the direction where the thugs had disappeared, a cold and ruthless glint flashing in his eyes, and a deep roar echoed in his heart.

"You're trying to pressure me again... aren't you?"