Chapter 7: Shot While Lying Down

  Xia Dade was indeed not to be underestimated, with the knife at his throat he didn't flinch, and with a "heh heh" smile said: "Your moves are faster than mine, I lost, but I'm not willing to admit defeat." After finishing speaking, a cold glint flashed in his eyes, and his body lowered to dodge the knife at his throat. Lu Bing unconsciously swung his knife to chop, but was a step too late, and only managed to cut off a layer of Xia Dade's hair. Lu Bing didn't feel frightened, earlier if Xia Dade hadn't dodged quickly, this person would already have lost their head.

  Is this guy an idiot or a madman, still wants to resist. However, there's no time to think about it now, Xia Dade has already rushed forward, threw away his weapon and hugged Lu Bing with both arms, suddenly knocking Lu Bing to the ground, Lu Bing only felt like he was hit by an angry rhino.

  Lu Bing and Xia Dade rolled out in a circle, crashing into an earthen wall, which instantly collapsed, making Lu Bing want to vomit blood. Finally, the two stopped rolling, and Xia Dade turned around to attack from behind, grabbing Lu Bing's neck from behind. It seems that Xia Dade is most skilled at close-range grappling. Lu Bing's current body was no longer that of a high school student before crossing over, but stronger than before, strong enough to kill an ox with one punch, yet still not quite up to par when facing Xia Dade.

  The strategy against the enemy is to use one's strengths to overcome the enemy's weaknesses. However, Lü Biāo was not good at this and was now being tightly restrained by Xià Dà Dé, unable to move. All he could hear was Xià Dà Dé shouting in his ear: "Little brother, do you admit defeat? If you surrender, I'll let you go; otherwise, you'll be strangled to death."

  The voice was like a thunderclap, making Lu Bing's ears ache. Lu Bing didn't respond, to be exact, he was choked and couldn't make a sound. His heart was filled with anger, and with great force, he struck Xia Dade's ribcage repeatedly. However, Xia Dade was tall and sturdy, holding Lu Bing high up, making it impossible for him to use his full strength. With great difficulty, he managed to land a hit, but it felt like punching a wall.

  Lu Biao's breath was gradually running out, and his body had also softened a bit. This was a sign of hypoxia. Moreover, even if he wasn't hypoxic, it was possible that Xia Dade would exhaust him to death in a little while. Was he really going to die like this? Damn, it was too tragic.

  Lu Biao suddenly remembered a TV series he had seen before called "The Legend of Bruce Lee", which mentioned a Jujutsu technique. Lu Biao strained to recall the moves in it. His current body was extremely developed, and as long as he could think of it, his body could basically do it. So, he suddenly grasped Xia Dade's thumb and bent it backwards, causing Xia Dade to feel pain and loosen his grip slightly. Although Xia Dade quickly tightened it again, this brief gap was enough.

  Lu Bing took a deep breath of fresh air, although it was still mixed with Xia Dade's bad breath. Then Lu Bing suddenly turned his hand into a claw and grabbed at Xia Dade's face. Xia Dade dodged to the side, and Lu Bing kicked up with his leg, hitting Xia Dade right on the head.

  Xia Dade relaxed his grip on Lu Bing, who retreated backward. Lu Bing grabbed Xia Dade's hand and punched his wrist, then the curved part of the joint, and finally the shoulder well point. Under the continuous blows, Xia Dade's arm suddenly went numb and he couldn't exert any strength for a moment. Lu Bing shouted loudly, exerted force with both arms, tripped Xia Dade with his foot, and threw him to the ground. Then he locked Xia Dade's legs and twisted his palms backward.

  Xia Dade shouted loudly and then said: "Let go, let go, this time I really admit defeat."

  Lu Bing felt that he had let Xia Dade suffer enough, so he let go of him. Xia Dade got up, but took a few steps back and assumed a defensive posture. Xia Dade also stood up, swinging his arms and said: "You're really formidable, I thought you were just good at knife fighting, but it turns out that your punching skills are also impressive. May I ask where did you learn from, little brother?"

  Lu Bing saw that Xia Dade had no intention of attacking again, so he relaxed and only kept his eyes fixed on Xia Dade, having been deceived once, fearing that Xia Dade would suddenly erupt and hurt someone. Lu Bing replied: "The knife method is passed down from my ancestors."

  "What about close combat?" Xia Dade asked, Lu Bing's moves were something he had never seen before.

  Lu Biao proudly said: "Bruce Lee!"

  Xia Dade was taken aback for a moment before speaking in a pretentious tone, "It seems there is such a master, I seem to have heard of him, he's quite impressive."

  Lu Biao almost burst out laughing, thinking "what have you heard", could it be that you also crossed over from somewhere.

  Xia Dade's next sentence was truly enough to make Lu Bing cry and laugh at the same time: "Brother, my brain isn't good, I'll ask you something, why did we fight just now?"

  Lu Biao also had nothing to do, so he told the whole story from beginning to end. Xia Dade nodded and said, "Lend me your knife for a look." Lu Biao burst out laughing, how did it come full circle again? He walked over to the collapsed courtyard wall, picked up his own knife and handed it to Xia Dade.

  Xia Dade watched the perfect return of Zhao, and couldn't help but think that Lu Bing's whole body ached: If I had known earlier, I would have lent it to him early, why bother getting to this point.

  However, not fighting is not acquaintance, Xia Dade let Lu Bing follow him back home to rest. As for how to clean up the mess, pick up the weapons and compensate for the damaged courtyard wall of the family, this will be temporarily unspoken. The two arrived at Xia Dade's home.

  Xia Dade's home was not small, but it couldn't compare to the Xing Wang Fu. After all, that was a royal palace, and its scale was naturally different. Xia Dade arranged for Lu Bing to sleep, Lu Bing had been tired all day, and earlier he had fought again, so he was already exhausted, lying on the bed and falling asleep immediately. Xia Dade also felt at ease, and couldn't help but secretly give a thumbs up to Lu Bing, thinking: "He's really a straightforward and honest man with no ulterior motives."

  Lu Bing woke up and Xia Dade took him to meet his family. To be honest, Xia Dade didn't have much family, just a few apprentices who slaughtered pigs, each one sturdy and strong, clearly smaller versions of Xia Dade. Next were the robust men that Xia Dade had recruited. Lu Bing had some doubts in his heart, but Xia Dade laughed and said that he had always admired Zhang Fei, so he also wanted to recruit some strong men to do something big.

  You're either going to start a rebellion or become a bandit, it seems I can use you as the prototype to write "The Water Margin and Three Kingdoms".

  Immediately afterwards, a grand feast was laid out and everyone ate and drank merrily. The wine had gone through three rounds and the dishes had been served five times, but Lu Bing, who couldn't hold his liquor, had already been made tipsy. After all, young Lu Bing spoke the truth after drinking, recounting in detail how he had acted heroically and kidnapped the young master of the Jiang family.

  "After hearing this, Xia Dade slammed his hand on the table and shouted: 'Damn it, that's great! Jiang Bin is a treacherous official who deserves to be killed by anyone. It seems that his family members are not good people either. This is also what Lu brothers want. If I were him, I would have damn well killed him already.'"

  The crowd scolded the treacherous party in the court for a while, and also said that the current emperor Zhu Houzhao did not care about state affairs, only indulging in his own pleasure. Lu Bing got drunk and didn't interrupt because more than half of the people mentioned by the crowd were unknown to him, so he just kept eating and drinking, then knew nothing else.

  When Lu Bing woke up, he found himself lying on the bed, with a slight headache and dry mouth. After getting out of bed to drink some water, he couldn't help but break into a cold sweat as he thought about what he had said the night before. What if someone with malicious intentions betrayed him while he was drunk? That would be disastrous. Although Lu Bing was only half past his youth, still in the innocent and naive stage, having grown up in modern society, he had seen too many human cruelties and watched too many movies and TV dramas. His heart was more mature than that of his peers in the Ming Dynasty, and he knew not to trust anyone easily.

  Isn't there a saying that after watching "The Shawshank Redemption", you can't trust brothers anymore? After watching "Lust, Caution", you can't trust women anymore. After watching "Infernal Affairs", you can't trust organizations anymore. Lu Biao sighed and muttered to himself: "Trust Spring Brother, maybe you'll get eternal life."

  Just as they were talking, footsteps sounded outside the door, followed by loud shouts: "Lu Xiaodi, get up quickly, we're coming in!" The door was pushed open, and it turned out to be several big men who had eaten and drunk together with Lu Biao the night before. Those robust men were so boisterous that they insisted on dragging Lu Biao out for a stroll. Originally, Lu Biao felt that Dongqiao Town was still too close to Anlu and Chenjiatai, so he thought of going further away to avoid causing trouble for Zhu Houzhen and his own father.

  But on the one hand, this group of people were reluctant to part with their hospitality, and on the other hand, they had originally planned to bid farewell to Xia Dade after leaving. Now Xia Dade was nowhere to be found, and when asked, it was learned that Xia Dade had gone out to do something and would not return for about two or three days. Lu Bing had no choice but to temporarily put off his plan to bid farewell and wait until Xia Dade returned before leaving.

  Apart from Dongqiao Town's Zhenkou Village, where Lu Bing was beaten to death and refused to go, he would drink and spend money with anyone who came. Many strong men laughed at Lu Bing for being a novice, but Lu Bing didn't think so. Originally, he was a virgin himself and couldn't give his precious first time to the small town's salted meat warehouse. If he were to go, he had to go to a high-end entertainment club, if such a thing existed in this era.

  Lu Biao's gold and silver were not a few, plus his generous nature, in just a few days' time, this group of big men all became as close to Lu Biao as if they were born from the same mother. Lu Biao thought he couldn't wait any longer, or else changes would occur, so he left a letter wanting to bid farewell, but didn't think that at this moment, Xia Dade had returned.

  Xia Dade handed over the package to Lu Bing, who opened it and took a look. He couldn't help but jump in fright as inside the package was a human head. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be the Taoist priest who had come to their home to swindle money earlier.

  Lu Bing was perplexed and asked: "Xia Ge, what's going on?"

  "Things are like this, I've been worried about you for the past few days, so I went to Anlu and Chenjiatai to investigate what happened to you. As a result, I found out that you're still wanted, with your arrest warrant posted everywhere. At the time, you and Xing Wangye were masked, so no one recognized you, except for the small shop owner who had seen your faces when you tied up your horses. However, you did things too perfectly, and the people of Chenjiatai all hated Jiang Xiaoshuai, so no one betrayed you. Moreover, although the Jiang family was heavily injured and seeking revenge, everyone knew that this was just an empty promise, and the Jiang family's money wasn't easily earned. Reporting you wouldn't necessarily be rewarded, and might even offend you, a heroic figure in the jianghu. So, everything was fine. The problem lies with this evil Daoist, who was invited by the Jiang family to perform a ritual, saying that the Jiang family had been unlucky lately and needed to get rid of the bad luck. He pretended to calculate and listened to the description of the young master of the Jiang family, then falsely accused you of being the murderer and identified you. I reckon you must have offended him before, and he's been harboring a grudge against you, which is why he's making such false accusations."

  Lu Bing cried and laughed helplessly, this was a case of being shot in the back, but it wasn't unjust, after all, it was a lucky hit.