As a youth, Gao Guang had dreamt of Kung Fu and being a hero.
But ever since his master had been KO'd by a visiting Sanda coach with a single punch, Gao Guang's dream had ended.
It was a sad story.
Here's what happened: Gao Guang had a master who had won second place in a provincial competition, and he ran a martial arts gym nearby Gao Guang's home.
The gym had been around for many years, coexisting peacefully with nearby Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and various after-school Sanda classes.
In hindsight, those years truly were a blissful, peaceful era.
Until an ambitious Sanda coach emerged, shattering the tranquility of the martial arts community.
A champion, a Sanda bronze medalist of city competitions, sought to dominate the martial training market of Gao Guang's primary school, thus launching his bold challenge.
The first to be challenged was the Taekwondo gym, and after the Taekwondo instructor conceded defeat following a couple of kicks that sent him sprawling on the ground, it was the Sanda bronze medalist's turn.
The second challenged was the Muay Thai Gym, where the Sanda bronze medalist beat up a so-called Thai fighter until he cried out in Mandarin, which then revealed him to be merely a dark-skinned person from southern Yunnan.
The third challenge was posed to Gao Guang's own martial arts gym, and in retrospect, Gao Guang felt that if his master had known the Sanda medalist had already taken down two other trainers, perhaps he wouldn't have accepted the challenge so rashly.
A martial arts silver medalist was knocked out cold on the ground by a single punch from a Sanda bronze medalist, just one punch, and the most infuriating part was that it was thrown with gloves and protective gear on.
Gao Guang, having unfortunately witnessed the entire ordeal, then understood a hard truth: techniques were just techniques, martial arts routines were meant to look good, to be flashy, and being aesthetically pleasing was enough.
As the student who had practiced the longest and best under the master, Gao Guang was the most heartbroken of all.
Gao Guang also understood another truth, that a martial artist should win people over with virtue and reasoning, and never mind actual combat—to mention it would only sour relationships.
But while Gao Guang's Kung Fu dream had woken up, John's Kung Fu dream had not, and on top of that, John held an inexplicable faith in Kung Fu.
Now back in Los Angeles, with the money still not in hand and Arturo's fate uncertain, John was eager to see Gao Guang show off his skills, disregarding the important issues and obsessing over Kung Fu—it was utterly unreasonable.
Since reasoning failed, it was time to shatter John's Kung Fu dream with action!
Clad in a white silk martial arts uniform, with a pair of Little White shoes on his feet and a long stick in hand, Gao Guang stood composed and relaxed, exuding a sense of unworldly detachment.
The stick was a willow branch, uneven in thickness, and slippery to the touch since it had just been stripped of bark, but it couldn't be helped—without an appropriate martial arts staff available, the willow branch's excellent flexibility would have to do.
One could see Gao Guang lightly tap the stick, then smoothly raise it overhead, adopting the starting pose called "Lifting the Flames to the Sky," and proclaimed loudly, "Watch carefully, I'll only do this once."
No sooner had his words faded, the stick began to whirl, impenetrable and seamless like a fog rising from the ground, enshrouding Gao Guang within. It truly appeared as though a dragon soared and a tiger roared, captivating and mesmerizing the onlookers.
As the stick dancing reached its climax, Gao Guang flung it from his hands, rolled on the spot, and skillfully caught the falling stick, sweeping it to the left and then to the right. Leaping into the air, he brought the stick down in a powerful, mountain-splitting strike, showcasing the proficiency of years of practice.
The martial arts competition routine with the stick ended, but unfortunately, since the grass was too soft, the final strike lacked a resounding impact, leaving a slight sense of regret.
Gao Guang stood straight, holding his stick, as enthusiastic applause broke out.
"Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful!"
John let out a whistle and continued clapping vigorously, looking around with pride as if sharing in the glory, and said, "Who dares to challenge this? Who can challenge this?"
Frank clapped earnestly, George looked on in astonishment, and Rubber, although applauding, couldn't help but protest, "We agreed to spar, how can he compete with a stick?"
John immediately retorted, "Forget the stick, teach him a lesson with your fists!"
Gao Guang frowned; John, who was the one deeply convinced of the power of Kung Fu, was insisting that he spar with Rubber.
But John had his reasons for doing so—the reason being that Rubber was close to Gao Guang in weight, whereas he himself weighed too much more than Gao Guang. However, Gao Guang wasn't fearfully concerned about the weight disparity; he simply wished to have a private sparring match with John.
Unfortunately, he had reached a point of no return, and backing out of the fight wasn't an option.
"If we're going to spar, let's move inside. We don't need to do this outside."
Because the stick routine wouldn't fit in the fitness room, Gao Guang had performed his set outside first—not for show, but to lay the groundwork for being able to lose later. This was called not engaging in an unprepared battle.
Once back in the gym, Rubber took a deep breath, clenched his fists, and confidently asked, "Do we need protective gear?"
"Of course we do," replied Gao Guang calmly as he picked up the gear, "Wear all the protective gear, and let's stop at the touch. You know what 'stop at the touch' means, right?"
There was a full set of MMA protective gear in the gym. Gao Guang put on a helmet and donned armor, while John picked up boxing gloves, looking expectant as he said, "Does that mean we can't use boxing gloves? Kung Fu can't truly be manifested with gloves."
"The gloves are a must."
Slipping his hands into the gloves and having John tighten them, Gao Guang raised his gloved hands in front of his eyes and called out to Rubber, "Come on!"
Rubber also donned full protective gear, and upon hearing Gao Guang's taunt, he lunged forward with a straight punch aimed at Gao Guang's face.
Gao Guang stepped back, dodging the punch, but then a left hook from Rubber came flying his way, and Gao Guang felt like his head had been struck by a hammer.
At least he was wearing protective gear.
As Gao Guang fell heavily onto the mats, one thought crossed his mind: "Thank goodness for the gear." But Rubber, who had only thrown a probing punch, stood frozen on the spot.
"Stop!"
Frank shouted to stop and immediately stepped forward to separate Rubber, who opened his hands and said innocently, "I was just testing, I haven't... I haven't even thrown a heavy punch yet!"
Just one punch, just one punch, and Gao Guang felt as if he saw stars. As the stars in his eyes dispersed, he saw John.
John's face was filled with astonishment and loss, a look that reminded Gao Guang of his younger self.
The light in his eyes vanished, and his lips tightened.
Yes, that's it, that's what it feels like when dreams are shattered.
Gao Guang looked at John with pity, and then said in his mother tongue, full of mockery, "Fuck your Kung Fu dream."
John now understood that routines couldn't really be used in combat, and Gao Guang wasn't being modest, he was truly not up to par.
With a long sigh, John shrugged his shoulders, then pointed at Gao Guang, who was lying on the mat unable to get up, and said indifferently, "You see, he... he really isn't good at fighting, but it's obvious he's more skilled with weapons, you know what I mean? He's good at using weapons, like if he had a knife, the result would be different."
Gao Guang was stunned for a moment, then said urgently, "No... shut up!"
John continued, "I saw it last night, he stabbed a guy to death with a gun; you two were there too, so hand-to-hand combat isn't fair. I think we need knives!"
Gao Guang said angrily, "Shut up, do you want to get me killed? Do I have any grudges against you, why must you have me killed?"
Rubber nodded and said, "His skills with weapons are indeed more impressive, if sticks count as weapons, but I don't have a problem with practicing knife fighting, we have training knives here."
After removing his gloves, Rubber walked over to pick up a rubber training knife, fiddled with the fake knife for a while, and smiled, "It's quite soft, come on, don't be afraid, let me see how you do with a knife."
Gao Guang was definitely going to refuse, but then John gave him a fierce look as a warning.
They were starting to build an understanding; Gao Guang thought that John meant for him to refuse, but not outright, meaning John wanted him to stall.
Gao Guang wasn't going to let John get his way, so he immediately said, "No!"
Right then, Frank's phone rang. He signaled everyone to be quiet and then answered the call.
"Hello, yes, thank you."
Frank hung up and then said excitedly, "Good news, the last payment arrived, guys, we've got all our money now!"
"Yay!"
"Awesome!"
Everyone cheered, and after Rubber danced around celebrating for a moment, he turned to Gao Guang and said, "Don't just lie there, let's compare knives!"
Gao Guang shook his head, "No, I mean, not right now."
Under John's fierce gaze, Gao Guang finally changed his tune, but he needed a reason.
Thinking of an excuse, Gao Guang said quietly, "I need to rest properly, I'm not in good shape right now, um, I need time to rest."
"Then you get half an hour, that should be enough, right?"
Rubber was impatient, but just then, Frank's satellite phone rang again.
The ring startled everyone, who were clearly sensitive to calls on the satellite phone. Frank took the satellite phone out of his pocket and said, "Hello."
He only said hello, not another word.
After listening for a moment, Frank suddenly said, "Oh, I understand, no problem, I'll come to see you right away, see you in a bit."
With the satellite phone down, Frank turned to Gao Guang with a smile, "Unfortunately, today's match has to be cut short now, come outside with me."
Rubber, surprised, asked, "What for?"
Gao Guang was curious too, "Go outside now?"
Frank smiled, "I said I would take care of your identity and passport issues, and now's the time, let's go."
Gao Guang was delighted, "Let me change my clothes, and I'll be right there."
Frank nodded, gestured with his hand, "Break it up, we'll divide the money when we come back, dismiss for now."
Rubber shrugged, tossed down the training knife and left. George looked at Gao Guang, smiled, and also departed. At that moment, John reached out and grabbed Gao Guang's arm, pulling him up forcefully while saying fiercely, "Get up!"
Gao Guang stood up, complaining, "I told you before, look how swollen my face is."
As John helped Gao Guang remove his gloves, he said fiercely, "Listen to me, I know you can't beat Rubber with a knife either, but we cannot let that bastard Rubber mock us! Him mocking you is disrespecting me, is disrespecting Kung Fu! I cannot allow anyone to disrespect Kung Fu, do you understand?"
Looking at John, at the man desperately protecting the dignity of Kung Fu, living in a Kung Fu dream unwilling to wake up, Gao Guang said with some shame, "But what else can we do?"
John said fiercely, "I'll teach you the Short Dagger Fighting Technique for real combat. Rubber is nowhere near me with a knife, you can do it, you must stab Rubber with a knife, because this is about our dignity!"