SK 9

(9: I Don't Slap)

The profit of that day's escapade was over 1200 wen, tied in twelves stings each. This is more than one silver Liang.

[Author Note: didn't mention it before but the Wen Cash coins (aka Copper Cash) are the rounded coins with a square hole in them used for common day trade while the Liang is a tael of silver. Tael of Silver is 37 Grams and equals 1000 wen.]

Having this amount of money may be very average in comparison to the other members of his clan from the same age group but judging by his progression, he can multiply that amount of money if he puts his heart and soul to it. After all, he started today from zero in the morning to 1200 in the afternoon. Who knows what opportunities tomorrow may hold.

Either way, the moment Dai Jin approached the Clan residence, he heard a commotion not too far from the main street. His curiosity got the best of him leading him to an alleyway where a bunch of thugs were holding down a young man and beating him.

With him looking towards them, the four thugs noticed him as well.

"What're you looking at? Get the hell away from here. I'll beat you!" One of the thugs shouted at him with hostility.

Dai Jin wasn't usually the kind to involve himself in difficult situations so he smiled signaling with two hands for then to calm down and backed away without a word.

"Master… Young Master Jin… Young Master… Please help me."

Yet all of a damn sudden, the kid kneeling on the ground started calling his name.

And here came trouble.

"Young Master Jin? You mean that trash Dai Jin? Catch him!"

Without even sparing him the trouble, the youngest of the thugs who also seemed to be their leader pointed for the three to chase Dai Jin.

"Tsk, I was leaving you guys alone. What problem do you have with me?"

Seeing that he was surrounded before he could even escape with his back against a wall. Dai Jin felt extremely annoyed seeing three brutes and one wretched shortie among them eyeing him like hungry mongrels.

"Leaving us alone? Dai Jin who runs and cries to his granddaddy for help? Hahaha! Bastard, you think I'd let you off?" The short guy among the thugs spoke.

His face was young indicating that he is the same age as Dai Jin as his voice was that of a teenager. Other than that, Dai Jin didn't spot anything Familiar with that guy.

"You know me?" Dai Jin asked.

"Know you?" The short guy seemed confused, "Don't you recognize who I am?"

"You don't even look familiar." Dai Jin denied.

For some reason, the short young man seemed to dislike being treated with such a nonchalant attitude so he held Dai Jin from the collar of his robe.

"You don't recognize your daddy Gong Bao, you fool."

And that when the eyes of Dai Jin turned serious.

"Gong Bao… Gong Clan you say?" The serious look on Dai Jin's face caused Gong Bao and his lackeys to mistake him for someone else for a moment there but, "Nope, I don't have any memory of a shortie like you."

Dai Jin was truthful with those words. There was no Gong Bao back on Earth. He knows the Gong Clan very well and they didn't have such a shortie in their ranks. Still, the words Dai Jin just spoke infuriated Gong Bao to the max.

"What did you just call me?"

Gong Bao shouted and launched his free left fist towards Dai Jin's face who saw it coming from a mile away. All Dai Jin needed to do was to move his face to the side and the poor fist of Gong Bao landed right on the wall with all its (the wall) glory.

*crack*

"AAAH!"

It doesn't take a genius to imagine how much force Gong Bao put in his fist in order to harm Dai Jin and how painful it was for that hit to land on the wall as well as what it did to Gong Bao's left hand.

Seeing their leader reduced to a sorry state just from missing one punch, two of the thugs held Dai Jin to the wall with all their weight while the third checked on Gong Bao.

"FUCK! How dare you block my attack! AAH! It fucking hurts." Gong Bao kept rambling and shouting then murderously looked at Dai Jin, "Beat that son of bitch up!"

Dai Jin simply slid down without resisting the two thugs holding him and escaped their lock by retreating further into the alley. Seeing the boy who was getting beaten up a while ago still crawling on the ground and crying, he sighed in annoyance.

"So you put me in this trouble and now you don't wanna even help, I'll get you for this you little shit." Dai Jin swore at him but he had no time to vent his anger as the three thugs were closing in on him.

"Remember your training!"

He whispered to himself and took a stance raising his hands up in a boxing guard watching the first thug arrive at him. The first impression that came to his mind was how slow and clumsy this thug was. He didn't even move properly to begin with.

With the principles of martial arts deep in his mind, Dai Jin applied all his knowledge as follows. He switched his stance to right ahead and raised it to a low straight kick targeting the knee of the first thug at the moment his hip and foreleg were in a straight line.

*snap*

The knee made an awful sound as the thug completely fell out of view. The second thug had a dumb look in his face as the narrow alley didn't allow him to run shoulder to shoulder with the first so when he fell, he didn't know what to expect at all. While moving ahead in a big step, Dai Jin delivered a straight jab to the face of the second thug which felt like the stone digging into his face and breaking his nose causing the second to completely go dark.

The third thug saw what happened to the first two clearly and he seemed to have a better head than those two which led him to go against Dai Jin with his arm covering his face and charging ahead with his body to ram Dai Jin down but…

"Ugh!"

Dai Jin was pushed back barely one foot almost effortlessly holding the third thug back with his arms.

"Wha… what the?"

The third thug found himself under the complete mercy of Dai Jin out of the blue. His weight advantage didn't even do him any good. He looked right to the clear eyes of Dai Jin who was looking at him with the most disturbing of poker faces. The next thing he knew was his arms held sideways by Dai Jin, a knee to his chest then to his chin and it went dark.

Dai Jin didn't stop with that, he held the large-bodied thug up and threw him on the first with whose leg had taken the wrong turn.

"Phew!"

Dai Jin exhaled strongly and looked at the mess he made. Such a thing was clearly not like him but he somehow felt the power inside him and decided and it told him how much he long endure, how much he can move, and how strong he can hit.

He looked at his hand not really understanding how he became so much accustomed to power but the next thing he noticed was the sight of Gong Bao, drop on his ass.

"You… you trash… how could you…"

Dai Jin finally smiled in total confidence with his ability. It felt good beating those assholes so why should he stop now?

"Dai Jin… stay back, I am warning you." Gong Bao recognized the difference between him and Dai Jin knowing that he can't beat those three as violently or as strongly as Dai Jin did.

"Warning me with what?" Dai Jin questioned as he walked to Gong Bao.

"If you touch me… my father… my uncle will…"

"Will what exactly?" Dai Jin arrived at Gong Cho and crouched down to his level making the face of a street thug himself, "Will they let me go for harming your hand or your goons?"

"I… I won't say anything!" Gong Bao said in complete cowardness.

"And do I look like I believe you? I would have run and cried to my granddaddy if I was in your shoes after all." Dai Jin said as he reached his hand forward towards Gong Bao.

"No! Not my face." Gong Bao covered his face but Dai Jin held him from his hair.

"Don't worry, I don't slap people on the face." Dai Jin's words caused Gong Bao to calm down but, "A man must never slap like women, a man must hit with pride and get hit with pride as well."

Gong Bao lost all the power in his legs all of a sudden.

"Wait, Dai Jin. My family won't…"

"Exactly! After all, it is better to go down for a Bull rather than going down for a chicken." Dai Jin said as he dragged Gong Bao from his hair, "Brother Bao, I sense a strange fate between you and the wall over here. It took your hand so I suggest you know… TO KISS!"

***

"What? Haven't seen anyone french kiss a wall before?" Dai Jin asked the servant boy which got him into trouble with Gong Bao.

"N- No, young master. Forgive me, young master." The servant boy bowed.

"You little shit, you called for me just to get someone that can share some beating with you." Dai Jin held the boy from his ear.

"No! N- Never crossed my mind. I swear, young master Jin. I only heard that young master Jin is strong and capable and…"

"Fucking shameless lier!"

Dai Jin kicked the boy on his butt and pushed him forward.

"Why were the Gong bastards picking up on you in the Dai territory anyway?" Dai Jin asked.

"Young Master, they just… they just wanted to take something from me. Young Lady Dai Zhenzhen sent me to the book store to pick this item and all of a sudden, those Gong hooligans want to take it from me because they arrived late." The servant boy said.

"Wait! You mean the [Eternity in Love] book?"

"Y- Yes."

"Tsk tsk tsk tsk tsk…" Dai Jin shook his head and decided to let things go, "What is your name?"

"Zhi… Zhi Xiang.*

"Hmmm…"

There are indeed many names and faces different from what he knows. If his grandfather is also here in this world and some other people, he wasn't sure about the other characters he used to know but it seemed that even the Dai Clan and Gong Clan have some individuals he will meet for the first time. Zhi Xiang, Gong Bao and that lately mentioned Dai Zhenzhen.

There are similarities with both his lives and differences then there is a point where everything is very similar and places where things become barely similar.

"Ah, forget it!"

Overthinking was one of Dai Jin's bad traits but at least it got home out of a few situations before. The situation in front of him, on the other hand, was simply not something he wanted to go through.

The moment he appeared in front of the Dai Clan residence, things felt as if he had tripped some alarm. Each bodyguard in the vicinity was simply surrounding him.

"Not sure if I can be all that up." He felt ominous seeing them all come in one go.

"Young Master Jin, the Grand Elder has been looking for you since the morning. You date loiter around all day and show up at sunset?" A distinguished member of the bodyguards shouted at Dai Jin emitting the Aura of a high leveled individual. Somehow, this guy felt as dangerous as Viper from the Game World. A Peak Martial Novice Warrior.

From the situation, Dai Jin realized how unfavorable he is among the guard which was no news.

"Lead the way."

Dai Jin didn't really intend to make a scene and since the grand elder is calling for him, he better go and see what that grand elder has to…

"Jin'er, where have you been all day?" And the grand elder happened to be Dai Mo, his grandfather.

"Grandpa, I…"

"Reporting to Grand Elder Mo. We found young master Jin loitering around the town so we brought him here at once." The guard reported.

Dai Jin wanted to curse the ancestors of that lying dog but he just smiled and acted like an idiot.

"The town was so big, I went out exploring everything." Dai Jin said innocently.

"Oh, Jin'er. Your grandpa should have shown you around the town himself more often." Dai Mo was moved by the childish excuse feeling that his grandson was still as pure as ever.

Seeing his claim backfiring, the guard continued.

"We also heard about a conflict between young master Jin and some of the townsmen." He said.

"Jin'er, did you really?" Dai Mo asked.

"I just saw a thief harassing a Dai Family servant, how could I leave them alone?" Dai Jin briefed the whole Gong Bao's situation.

"Oh, that's my brave boy." Dai Mo patted his shoulder proudly.

Dai Jin smiled splendidly while flipping the bird to the guard behind his back. The guard wanted to find trouble with him for some reason but that seemed futile now that Dai Mo dismissed them with a glare.

"Fufufu…"

And yet from the side of this whole scene, there was a witness to the mischievous side of Dai Jin.

"Little Jin has a naughty side now."

This was none other than Xiao Yuyan who seemed to be present in this place from the beginning alongside the tea-sipping Xi Ming.

"Big sister Yuyan!" Dai Jin cleared his throat and bowed respectfully before being guided by Dai Mo's gesture to sit on his side.

This place was Dai Mo's courtyard and there was a big difference between the courtyard of the Grand Elder which was filled with plants, decorations and a few things that he collected through the years compared to the barren yard which Dai Jin has.

"Little Jin, you have been acting naughty in town, huh? You just woke up so you can't get yourself into trouble again." Xiao Yuyan said.

"And he smells of alcohol."

The one who added the unnecessary comment was Xi Ming.

"Alcohol?" Dai Mo looked at him.

"Ah! So that was alcohol." Dai Jin played dumb while avoiding eye contact, "I have got some spilled on me when I entered a restaurant after smelling some delicious chicken. I had no money so I was told off. Must have caught that then."

"You are hungry? Why didn't you tell us earlier? The servants will bring you food right away." Dai Mo said, "And you shouldn't leave without any money once again. You need to learn not to get swindled but at least come ask for money whenever you go out."

Dai Mo may have just said those words without thinking but it almost caused Dai Jin's head to malfunction.

"Swindled? Ask for money?"

He mumbled to himself remembering that instead of going on his own swindling escapade this morning, he could have just simply asked for money like all young people do. He didn't worry about the money back when his grandfather was alive and he wasn't wasteful either but it didn't feel like him now to ask for money. The second word he thinks about after hearing the word "money" is "trouble" as he has to go through a ton of trouble the first year his grandfather died in order to keep himself fed.

He may have turned into a shameless person but the fault was that of those monsters from the Dai Family… and now the Dai Clan is just the same thing.

"Right, I should have asked."

Dai Mo seemed to have ordered his servants to bring food and drinks for the people present and no one had any objection about eating now. Dai Jin was also in a good mood after making money on his own and beating the Gong thugs so he looked forward to another meal.

"Little Jin." Xiao Yuyan called, "If you were present this morning, I could have had the chance to treat you at the restaurant this afternoon but you arrived just now."

"So, big sister Yuyan had plans. I truly am a fool to miss them" Dai Jin replied.

"No worries, let's go tomorrow then." She said as the four present individuals moved to the dining table in the yard and were invited to sit, "I almost thought you ran off to that External Martial Arts teacher of yours."

Seeing her open that subject again, Dai Jin had no choice but to play along.

"No, I didn't speak to him today, sadly." He replied.

"And why didn't he visit you when you were bedridden?" Xi Ming asked the accurate question once again causing Dai Jin to almost break his chopsticks.

"I don't think he even knows what happened to me but I'll go find him when I am ready." Dai Jin tried to close the conversation.

"Jin'er, tell me about that mysterious teacher of yours. What is his name?" Dai Mo seemed to be interested causing Dai Jin to lose hope on finding a leeway.

"Well… I call him Master Sage like I heard him go by." Dai Jin said, "He's old, strict, wears a light green robe."

"And how does he teach you?" Xiao Yuyan asked.

"He is great." Dai Jin spoke truthfully, "He speaks too little and only guides my movements with his cane. His instructions are like… they go straight to my brain. So far, I have only learned Stances, Footwork and the Basic Attack movements."

He didn't mind the way he told them about what he learned but the three almost paused at the same instant. Dai Mo returned his chopsticks down, Xiao Yuyan stopped what she was doing and Xi Ming put down her soup spoon.

"He taught you all that? In that order?" Xiao Yuyan asked.

Dai Jin felt something may have gone wrong but he just nodded.

"Hmmm… I didn't expect much to be honest but this sounds like the real deal to me." Dai Mo said.

Dai Jin didn't understand what Dai Mo was thinking and following his original plan, he didn't continue this conversation hoping it diverts.

"Jin'er, make sure to invite him here some time. We should pay him our thanks for teaching you." Dai Mo said.

"Of course." Dai Jin replied then forcefully diverted the subject, "Big sister Yuyan, how are you doing these days?"

He intended to move the conversation towards her since the moment it all started.

Xiao Yuyan, he has no idea who that woman is. She just appeared like an angel and clearly looked like one but both her temperaments, clothing, manner of speech and overall charisma transcend above this Tianlong town. A childhood friend or whatever, Dai Jin had a lot of those back in the day and they all abandoned him the moment he was forsaken by his family. There was no Xiao Yuyan to take care of him or a miracle-making doctor named Xi Ming. These two are a blessing and all but they act on their own pace and have something in mind that even Dai Mo isn't questioning.

Indeed, Dai Jin is indebted to both of them but he needs to know who he is indebted to. That's how things go as far as he knows. Also, he was more than just curious now. What is the true purpose of this girl that looks kind and all?

Xiao Yuyan didn't expect the usually silent Dai Jin to initiate a conversation about her on his own but she should at least expect some curiosity towards her now that his mental condition is no more.

"I am doing great, Little Jin. Thank you for asking." She looked to Xi Ming who was staring to remind her not to say anything unnecessary.

"And how is your business in town?" Dai Jin decided to ask boldly.

"I don't have any particular business in this town." Her reply came with a calm smile as if she had figured him out, "I was only near the town for a tomb discovery appointment from the Mount Yu Academy."

Dai Jin clearly didn't understand what this meant but Dai Mo was already coughing violently and Xi Ming was shaking her head.

"Mount Yu… *cough* The Great Mount Yu Academy? Such an honor." Dai Mo felt greatly taken by surprise, "Is… is Doctor Xi an instructor from the academy as well?"

Xi Ming shook her head.

"Senior Sister and I are apprentices from the Academy." Xiao Yuyan replied.

"How great is the Academy?" Dai Jin asked.

Xi Ming snorted in mockery for his ignorance but Dai Jin replied at her with a shrug of his shoulders indicating that he remembers nothing.

"Jin'er, the Great Mount Yu Academy is the Yu Dynasty's top Academy. It only graduates Officers and Generals who work directly under the Emperor." Dai Mo explained quickly, "The entry requirements of that academy are simply… ridiculous."

Dai Jin wanted to cough violently like his grandfather to avoid the embarrassment from his confidence from a while ago.

"Don't worry, Little Jin. I am sure you will meet those requirements one day soon." Xiao Yuyan tried to say something but Xi Ming laughed.

"Heh! You wish."

Dai Jin didn't mind Xi Ming's bothersome attitude as she was harmless but he really felt the good intentions of Xiao Yuyan for a second there.

And who knows… he may come to meet those requirements one day… one day very soon.