After the meeting, I asked Officer Liao if I could see the dead bodies. Before he could reply, Bai Yidao interrupted him.
“Sir,” said Bai Yidao, “I would like to bring the guests to the morgue myself!”
“Go ahead,” said Officer Liao. He then pulled Bai Yidao aside and whispered, “Don’t cause anymore trouble, do you understand?” His voice was very low, but it still didn’t escape my sensitive ears.
Then Bai Yidao, Luo Weiwei and a few other police officers led us out of the police station.
“Shouldn’t the morgue be inside the police station?” I asked.
“Just follow me and you’ll see,” Bai Yidao answered.
We stopped at the parking lot outside the police station. They couldn’t have been so incompetent as to keep the dead bodies outside, could they? I knew that Bai Yidao was on to something, but at the same time I was curious about what kind of childish game he wanted to play with us now.
Sure enough, Bai Yidao stopped walking suddenly and turned around to face us. While slowly stroking his chin, he said, “I’ve looked into your backgrounds. Apparently one of you used to be a drill instructor in the PAP. I practiced with them for a few days some time ago. Why not show me some of your moves? Maybe we can learn a thing or two from each other!”
I sneered. Bai Yidao was clearly trying to intimidate us, but he didn’t know that he was biting off more than he could chew!
I turned to Wang Yuanchao and saw his lips curl up into an ominous smile.
“Sure,” he said monotonously, but I could sense a trace of excitement hidden underneath his breath.
“Great! Then let’s warm up our bodies and get down to it!” He then stretched his neck and his wrists, then cracked his knuckles and move into a fighting posture. “Come on, then, Instructor Wang!”
Wang Yuanchao walked up but didn’t go into any kind of special posture at all. He merely stood there and lit up a cigarette.
“Don’t beat him up too much, okay?” Huang Xiaotao commented.
The other police officers broke into laughter when they heard her say that.
“This old man? Beating Bai up?” said one of them. “You’ve gotta be joking! Our Bai was a Sanda champion for three years in a row!”
“Come on, that was many years ago,” said Bai Yidao. “Instructor Wang, here I come!”
Immediately after saying that, Bai Yidao shot through the air like an arrow. He looked like a tiger pouncing on its prey as he headed towards Wang Yuanchao. But at that moment, Wang Yuanchao was lowering his head to light his cigarette. Wouldn’t that count as cheating on Bai Yidao’s part? I wondered. Whatever it was, he certainly didn’t seem to show much sportsmanship.
“Look out!” yelled Dali, who noticed that Wang Yuanchao was still busy with his cigarette while Bai Yidao’s fist was almost hitting his face.
But Wang Yuanchao didn’t even bother to lift up his head, he just casually leaned his head a few inches to the side, dodging Bai Yidao’s punches. At the same time, he shoved his shoulder against Bai Yidao’s body, pushing him back a few steps even though Bai Yidao had been moving in with tremendous momentum.
Bai Yidao lost his balance and almost fell over, but there was someone there who quickly propped him up, saving his face.
Huang Xiaotao, Dali and I erupted into a cheer. It was clear that Bai Yidao was no match for Wang Yuanchao.
“Yidao!” cried Luo Weiwei with concern. It was clear to me then that the two were a couple, so it now made sense why they were both so equally prone to childish tantrums and arrogance.
Although I was practically clueless about martial arts, I had read some wuxia novels before, so I knew that the move Wang Yuanchao used was called Tie Shan Kao. After pushing Bai Yidao away, Wang Yuanchao continued lighting up his cigarette and, once that was done, he took a long huff and stood there as if nothing had happened.
Bai Yidao pushed the people who were helping him up away and gritted his teeth in fury. He took off his jacket and flung it aside, revealing a muscular body. He took a few steps forward then exploded in speed and ran towards Wang Yuanchao again.
His movements were swift and agile, making a whistle in the air like a wind. I was shocked to see that he was aiming his kick at Wang Yuanchao’s head! Was he trying to kill Wang Yuanchao?
However, Wang Yuanchao merely took a step back and dodged the kick effortlessly. Bai Yidao’s foot was caught in the air and fell swooping to the ground, but he soon regained his footing and kicked Wang Yuanchao with his other foot, aiming at his heart. Wang Yuanchao dodged that kick without any problem, but he took a final huff at his cigarette and tossed it away, then moved into an offensive posture.
The two were now in a proper fight, both sides throwing kicks and punches at each other at such a high speed that it was almost impossible to make out their movements with the naked eye. I didn’t know much about fighting, but I could still see that every time Bai Yidao threw a punch, Wang Yuanchao countered it with a hit at the wrist; each time Bai Yidao threw a kick, it was met with Wang Yuanchao’s kick in the leg. And that was how the fight went—Bai Yidao on one side, continuously throwing kicks and punches, yet not making any contact on Wang Yuanchao’s body; on the other side was Wang Yuanchao, who barely moved at all, but managed to block out all of Bai Yidao’s attacks.
Without context, I thought it looked as if Wang Yuanchao was the master of martial arts who was teaching his rookie student how to fight!
The other police officers who were initially cheering on began to fall silent. By then even an idiot would understand the gap of skills and power between the two—each move by Bai Yidao was so effectively countered by Wang Yuanchao that he was rendered practically useless!
Only the three of us were the ones cheering now.
Long after the event, Wang Yuanchao told me that the moves he was using was that of Jeet Kune Do, which was a form of martial arts developed by Bruce Lee. Everyone might agree that the words Jeet Kune Do sounded cool, but few actually understood what the words meant. ‘Jeet’ meant ‘intercepting’, thus, according to the philosophy of Jeet Kune Do, one must intercept the opponent’s attacks before the attack happened by anticipating the opponent’s next move.
The fighting style that Bai Yidao was using was the standard fighting style taught in the police academy. As a drill instructor in the PAP, Wang Yuanchao could see through Bai Yidao’s next move from a mile away. On one hand, he knew exactly which moves in this style of fighting could effectively counter Bai Yidao’s attacks without wasting a lot of his energy; but on the other hand, if he fought back using the same fighting style, they might be fighting for a long time. Wang Yuanchao thought of how Bai Yidao played a trick on me earlier with the handshake, so he decided to use Jeet Kune Do to cut the farce short and teach the arrogant bastard a lesson!
Jeet Kune Do was regarded as a fighting style that could easily defeat the military and police styles of fighting. It was for this reason that Wing Chun, the martial arts that was the predecessor of Jeet Kune Do, became a banned form of martial arts in the seventies and eighties.
After a period of intense fighting, Bai Yidao seemed out of breath and nearing the end of his stamina. Meanwhile, Wang Yuanchao looked like he could go on forever.
Suddenly, Bai Yidao and Wang Yuanchao’s fists collided mid-air at full force, making a sound that thundered through the air!
Bai Yidao was so beaten up he could barely lift his arms. All he could do was block Wang Yuanchao’s kicks with his hands. Yet Bai Yidao had been kicked so many times now that his whole body was covered in Wang Yuanchao’s footprints. In contrast, it didn’t look like Bai Yidao was able to touch even the corners of Wang Yuanchao’s sleeves. In fact, it didn’t even look like Wang Yuanchao even broke a sweat.
“Holy shit, that was awesome!” cried Dali. “Old Wang, you are without a doubt Lin Chong the Panther Head reincarnated!”
Wang Yuanchao actually cracked up at Dali’s comments, which was a rare thing to see. He turned around and was about to walk away when I saw Bai Yidao make a move towards Wang Yuanchao when his eyes had turned away.
“Look out behind you!” I shouted.
Bai Yidao still wouldn’t give up. He sprung up and tried to ambush Wang Yuanchao from behind!
Wang Yuanchao merely turned around and did a quick roundhouse kick, sending Bai Yidao flying a few feet backwards. He landed on his butt, and I thought I heard the sound of bones cracking.
The police officers rushed towards Bai Yidao. He tried to get up on his own, but no matter how many times he tried, he just fell back on his butt.
“You… You injured me!” he yelled. “My father will hear of this! You’ll all be in deep trouble! I’ll make sure none of you will have a future!”
Wang Yuanchao was completely unperturbed by the threats. He calmly reached for another cigarette and lit it up.
“How old are you? Five?” Dali scoffed. “You clearly were the one who started it! Yet now that you’ve got a taste of your own medicine, you’re crying for daddy to help you? Well, guess what? Your daddy’s not here, so no one can help you now!”
“I’ll kill you, bastard!” yelled Bai Yidao. He finally managed to get on his feet, then said to the few people surrounding him, “You all saw it, didn’t you? Those bastards ganged up on me and injured me! Weiwei, you saw it all, didn’t you?”
They all hesitated for a while, then reluctantly nodded. It looked like none of them dared to speak up to the bastard because of his father’s high position.
Bai Yidao seemed satisfied by this obedience, and a little confidence returned to him. He got up and smoothed over his sleeves, then unabashedly proclaimed, “All of you, just wait and see! I don’t care if the Director-General sent you here! I’ll show you what happens to people who mess with me!”
I laughed in his face.
“Aren’t you a policeman, Officer Bai?” I jeered. “If you really are a police officer worth his salt, then you should know that material evidence holds more water than witness account.”
As I spoke, I pulled out my phone from my pocket and replayed every word that Bai Yidao said when he was threatening us. This was a lesson I learnt from my experience with Dr. Qin. To deal with people who could never stoop too low to save their own skin, one should always remember to keep the evidence of their conniving threats!