Fanatic!

Chapter 8 Stealing the Secret

"Kid, who are you looking for?"

In the afternoon, at another casino, Chen Wujun had just entered when a young man standing at the door with his arms crossed glanced at him and asked a question.

"Hey bro, is Lan Du Hong here?" Chen Wujun pulled out a cigarette and casually offered it to him.

"You're quite the smooth talker!" The young man chuckled, casually pointing inside: "Gambling Hui, Gambling Hua, Gambling Qiang... so many, I don't know which one you're referring to!"

"Find it yourself!"

Chen Wujun stayed in the casino for twenty minutes before coming out.

This is the sixteenth one already, and I still haven't seen those loan sharks.

However, Chen Wujun remained calm and not impatient at all.

Three days, thirty stores; if you still can't find it, search again.

As he pondered and walked towards the next house according to his memory, a person came towards him. Chen Wujun's eyes narrowed immediately when he saw the person.

Skillful.

He was one of the four people from last time, the one in the floral shirt, Chen Wujun remembered very clearly.

Chen Wujun stood aside and waited for the other person to pass before slowly following them.

The other party did not go to the casino, but left the Walled City and went to Kabingda Road, eventually entering a hot pot restaurant.

Chen Wujun squatted at the entrance of the alley opposite the hot pot restaurant, waiting for the other party to come out.

The wait lasted two hours.

"He's eating and drinking to his heart's content inside, while I'm starving outside," Chen Wujun thought to himself with a self-deprecating smile, while also reflecting on whether he had done anything inappropriate in following the other man.

If it were you, how would you try to avoid being followed, or at least identify the person following you?

I examine myself three times a day.

After waiting for another twenty minutes, I saw the other person with half of his body on top of a woman, swaying as he came out of the hot pot restaurant.

After coming out, he turned around and said goodbye to his friends.

Chen Wujun glanced at the friends he was having dinner with, and since they weren't the same ones who had gone to collect debts that day, he stopped paying attention.

Instead, he waited until the other person had staggered away before crossing the road to follow them.

He followed them back to the walled city, eventually ending up in an alley next to a casino. Seeing a few people inside, he stopped following them.

Instead, he glanced at the casino and the alleyway a few times, and then turned back.

Chen Wujun guessed that the loan shark usually stayed in the alley next to the casino, leaving someone in the casino so that he could bring the loan whenever someone needed it, or take the person to the back to borrow money.

As for whether that's true or not, we'll find out by coming over tomorrow or the day after.

Instead of going home along Longjin Road, Chen Wujun went into an alley after walking a short distance to familiarize himself with the surroundings.

After wandering through the alley for more than ten minutes, I suddenly kicked something soft, tripped over it, and almost fell.

Chen Wujun almost cursed out loud. He steadied himself by holding onto the wall next to him and turned around to see what had tripped him.

Then I realized that it was a person wearing dark pants and a T-shirt sitting against the wall, with a stack of wooden crates next to him blocking his view, only his legs were showing.

I didn't see it at all.

And even if the other party bumps into you, they don't make a sound at all.

Chen Wujun's heart skipped a beat. He took out a lighter and lit it. He saw a man with dark circles under his eyes and a pale face. He was so thin that he was like skin and bones. His eyes were tightly closed, and half of his body was leaning against the corner between the wall and the wooden box.

The posture looked a bit strange.

Chen Wujun reached out and checked his breathing.

It's cold!

Chen Wujun cursed irritably, "Damn it, what bad luck! The ground is so cold, you'll definitely get cold lying there!"

Then he got up, turned around, and left.

In the walled city, people often die like this in the alleys, and several bodies are carried away every day.

Chen Wujun had seen this many times since he was a child, so he was not surprised.

After daybreak, welfare workers will transport the body to the collection station next to the public toilet outside the walled city, where municipal workers will collect it.

As Chen Wujun walked home, he thought to himself, "I must never end up like that person, dying in obscurity with no one caring! I must make something of myself!"

"I want to buy a luxury house, live in a luxury car, and marry a female celebrity!"

Then, as if venting his anger, he let out a loud roar in the alley.

"what--!"

"Who's going crazy over there? Howling like a ghost in the middle of the night, trying to scare people to death?" Several people from nearby houses immediately shouted from their windows.

……

"Why are you so late again? Where did you go all afternoon?" When he got home, his parents were waiting for him to eat.

“I went to find Lin Zetao. He goes to the same martial arts school as me, but he went a few days earlier than me,” Chen Wujun said casually.

At the dinner table, Chen Wujun paid close attention.

His mother, Huang Meizhen, looked better today, and her movements returned to normal, which put his mind at ease.

After finishing his meal, Chen Wujun went out to the rooftop again.

Father Chen Hanliang said to Mother, "There's no need for you to sell your blood. We don't need your meager earnings. How much money could you get by selling your blood? I'm planning to mortgage this house to borrow some money, and I can pay it back in the next few months by tightening my belt. As long as that spendthrift son doesn't cause any more trouble!"

“This won’t do, the interest rates on loans are very high! And what about the second son’s martial arts school?” “Also, Aunt Liu said I have hot blood, and letting some blood out will make me healthier.” Mother Huang Meizhen was very gentle, and her voice was always very calm.

Most of the houses in the walled city were illegal; although they could be traded inside, banks outside wouldn't recognize them.

Therefore, they could only sign street papers with gangs like Hetu, where the interest rate was as high as 10%, which they simply couldn't afford to pay back.

“I have a way to borrow from gangs, with a maximum monthly interest of 3%, and I can recover in just six months!” Chen Hanliang said through gritted teeth.

What can we do if we don't lend money?
"As for the second brother's martial arts school, I'll talk to him in a few days and we'll go there six months later." Chen Hanliang also had another plan: to have Chen Wujun find a job, where he could earn 1500 a month in the city.
With the whole family working together, we can pay off most of the debt in six months.

The second brother will go to the martial arts school then.

"The second child has always been sensible; he'll understand!"

Actually, Chen Hanliang and Huang Meizhen were still a little uneasy. What if their boss went gambling again and incurred more high-interest loans...

Neither of them dared to think about it, so the thought only briefly crossed their minds before being immediately dismissed.

……

At this moment, Chen Wujun was gazing at the brightly lit skyscrapers in the distance from the rooftop. A moment later, he nimbly climbed up the protective wall.

He had just stood up when a gust of wind blew by, causing his body to sway slightly, and his heart began to pound violently.

A little sweat started to appear on his forehead.

He quickly gripped the ground with his toes and spread his arms to maintain his balance.

Before coming here, I didn't think there was anything scary about this wall. As long as I wasn't afraid, there was no difference between this place and the plains.

But once I stood on it, my body started to tense up uncontrollably.

Soon, Chen Wujun cleared his mind of all distractions. In his eyes, there was only the abyss in front of him and the protective wall under his feet, nothing else.

One's senses become extremely acute.

On another rooftop in the distance, a short-haired woman wearing a T-shirt and shorts was sitting on the edge of the railing, turning her head to look at Chen Wujun with some surprise.

In the darkness, the woman's eyes shone with an eerie light.

Chen Wujun couldn't see her, but everything he did was crystal clear to her.

"Charging stance...from a martial arts school? Where did this little guy learn to steal secrets from heaven? Or did he come up with it himself?" The woman's gaze towards Chen Wujun changed from surprise to keen interest.

The so-called "stealing the secrets of heaven," also known as "grasping the power," means putting oneself on the edge of life and death at all times, raising all one's spirit, and tightening all one's heart and mind.

Each practice session is like undergoing a transformation between life and death, leading to rapid progress in kung fu.

"If he hadn't died from the fall, he would have been a good prospect!" The woman watched him with interest for a moment.

After all, it's quite rare to see someone so old daring to use this method of standing meditation.

That's incredibly audacious.

Moreover, even if ordinary people use the secrets of heaven to practice martial arts, they do it step by step. How could someone stand on the rooftop like him?

With her eyes, she could tell at a glance that Chen Wujun showed no signs of long-term martial arts training, and that he had obviously only recently started practicing.

A moment later, footsteps came from behind.

"Sister Shark, you seem to be in such high spirits, coming all this way to enjoy the scenery?"

"It stinks down here, it's more comfortable up here. What can I do for you?"

"Prince Kai is drunk and causing trouble in the club!" someone behind him said.

"Does he know that's my territory?" Shark Nine turned his head.

"Knowing it's my territory, you still dare to cause trouble there? Didn't breaking his leg last time teach him a lesson?" Shark Nine grinned, revealing a set of white teeth, and his eyes became extremely dangerous.

Her mouth was full of sharp teeth, like those of a shark.

Coupled with her gaze, her otherwise pretty face was filled with cruelty and ferocity.

Shark Nine turned and walked towards the rooftop entrance, his subordinates quickly following behind.

"I'd like to see who gave them the guts this time!"

"If he can't give me a coherent answer, I'll break his middle leg today! So he'll only be able to find women with his fingers from now on!"

……

Ten minutes after Shark Nine left, Chen Wujun finally came down from the parapet.

Chen Wujun looked at a certain direction with a happy expression.

It felt like someone was watching me from there.

If he hadn't been standing in a meditation posture on the edge of the rooftop, focusing all his energy and tensing his mind, no one would have noticed.

But looking at it now, all you could see was pitch black.

Nothing can be seen.

"It might be your imagination!"

Chen Wujun quickly put the matter aside and leaned against the wall to rest, his face full of joy.

This time I stood for 20 minutes straight; the progress was incredible.

Standing on the edge of a 40-meter-high building, where a fall would mean certain death, for 20 minutes is more physically and mentally taxing than standing on flat ground for two hours.

"If you can stand for 30 minutes, you can try standing on the Golden Rooster Pole."

(End of this chapter)