Golden Scale [EN]: Chapter 104

The Gentleman’s Agreement

“Feng Yun?” Hou Longtao walked over dejectedly. “I don’t have the energy for this right now. Just get it over with.”

“Get in the car.” She was wearing casual clothes today, not her police uniform. She pointed to a police car with a “京OD” license plate [a Beijing license plate indicating government or police vehicle] next to her.

“Where are we going?”

“Somewhere deserted.”

“Sorry, I don’t have time.” Hou Longtao pressed the remote and reached for his car door.

Feng Yun grabbed his wrist. “What? Are you scared?”

Hou Longtao turned to look at her provocative eyes. “I’m scared of *you*, okay? I’m in a very bad mood right now and don’t want to argue. Let me go.”

“We have to settle this. You can avoid it today, but not tomorrow.”

“Fine, I’ll settle it with you today.” Hou Longtao turned and walked to the passenger side of the police car. He seemed physically and mentally exhausted. He really didn’t want to waste any more words. What’s coming is coming.

The police car drove out of the hotel parking lot. He leaned back in his seat, staring aimlessly out the window. Images of his beloved wives kept flashing through his mind, including Yuqian, but the feeling of being so close yet so far was unbearable.

“Was that my sister who came to see you just now? Hey! I’m talking to you! Are you hurt!?”

“Huh? What?”

“Was that my sister who came to see you just now?” Feng Yun asked impatiently again.

“Yes.” If it were any other time, Hou Longtao would never have answered such an obvious question so readily.

“What did she say to you?”

“Nothing.”

“What do you mean, nothing? Didn’t she say *anything*?”

“What do you want, Feng Yun!? What else can your family want from me now!? Wouldn’t you know!? Are you pretending to be hurt!? Are you deliberately trying to piss me off!?” Hou Longtao suddenly roared. The psychological pressure he had been under lately was too much, and he had no way to vent it. Today, this nemesis had delivered herself to his door, and after only a few words, his long-suppressed frustration exploded.

“Oh?” Feng Yun didn’t back down at all. Her eyebrows shot up. “You dare to yell!? Do you think you’re in the right!? You think you’ve suffered some great injustice?”

“No,” Hou Longtao’s stiff neck seemed to break, and his head drooped. He was like a deflated balloon, and he leaned back in his seat. “Aunt Feng didn’t say anything to me, just that I should carefully consider how to handle my relationship with Yuqian.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all.”

“Really nothing else?” Judging from Feng Yun’s expression, she seemed a little disappointed.

“Are you kidding me!? Is your brain different from normal people!?” Hou Longtao shouted again. Clearly, his emotions were very unstable right now.

Feng Yun hadn’t studied psychology, and even if she had, she wouldn’t care. “There is something wrong with my brain, otherwise I wouldn’t be here looking for you now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hmph, if Yuqian hadn’t begged me to stop, I would have come to teach you a lesson the moment something happened. Now that I see you have no intention of turning back for her sake, I can’t stand it anymore.”

“You don’t need to stand it. It’s not too late today. What do you want to do?”

“What do I want to do? If I don’t beat you half to death, I’ll consider myself useless. Today, I’m going to vent this anger in my chest.”

“Hmph,” Hou Longtao snorted dismissively. Although he knew that she had received strict military training, he had never taken her threats seriously. The more someone shouted about fighting, the more he looked down on them. “You’re really something. I’d like to see how capable you are.”

“You’re arrogant. I’ll tell you straight, beating you up today won’t be the end of it. I’ll beat you every time I see you in the future. When I’m in a bad mood, I’ll drag you out and beat you up to vent my anger. When I’m in a particularly good mood, I’ll drag you out and beat you up to celebrate.” Feng Yun grew up in a military compound and hung out with a bunch of military kids all day long, so these words came naturally to her.

“Hahaha,” Hou Longtao laughed. How ridiculous these words sounded coming from a beautiful woman. “You want to play? I’ll play with you!”

The police car drove out of the unfinished Fifth Ring Road [a major ring road encircling Beijing], and the surroundings were noticeably more desolate than in the city. Feng Yun drove the car into a protective forest, got out, walked around to the passenger side, and beckoned to him, who was lighting a cigarette inside the window. “Get out.”

Hou Longtao got out of the car with a cigarette in his mouth. Facing Yuqian’s aunt, the ferocity he had mustered earlier seemed to dissipate again. “Are we just going to start fighting like this?”

“Why not?”

“Isn’t this a little strange?”

“What’s strange about it? I’m beating you, not fighting you.”

“Okay, okay,” he began to unbutton his shirt. “I’ve always wanted to see the skills of a reconnaissance soldier.”

With a “whoosh,” Hou Longtao only felt a blur before his eyes, and a gust of wind brushed his face. She clenched her fists, one in front and one behind, her left leg supporting her, and her right leg raised high to the side, almost 130 degrees, her right foot right in front of his face.

He didn’t panic. He reached for the cigarette butt. “What kind of crazy…” He didn’t finish his sentence. Only the filter of the cigarette butt remained in his mouth, and a wisp of smoke slowly rose from the ground five meters away to his left.

“What are you waiting for? Come on, I’ll let you make the first move.” Feng Yun was expressionless, but her bright eyes were burning with flames. She had been waiting for this day for too long. The first time she saw this man, she wanted to give him a good beating.

“Ptooey,” Hou Longtao spat out the filter, took off his glasses, and threw them aside. Then he reached out to grab her ankle.

In a street fight, everything depends on four things: speed, strength, ruthlessness, and the ability to take a beating. Hou Longtao possessed these qualities, so he had never lost in a one-on-one fight, and even in a one-on-two or one-on-three situation, he rarely lost. But today, his opponent was not an ordinary thug, but a retired soldier who had received the most rigorous training in the Chinese military.

Feng Yun’s movements were surprisingly fast. As soon as his body showed a tendency to charge forward, she began her counterattack. She thrust her right foot forward and gently tapped him on the forehead. Because of her previous posture, she couldn’t use much force; it was purely a feint. In the instant he was stunned, she bent her right leg and then kicked out hard, hitting him hard in the abdomen.

Hou Longtao staggered back two steps and crashed heavily into the side of the police car. Since he was already weakened, his legs gave way, and he knelt on one knee on the ground. But he immediately endured the pain and jumped up, swinging his fist at Feng Yun. The damage to his self-esteem from that blow far outweighed the physical damage. Although he knew that men weren’t necessarily always stronger than women, he couldn’t help but feel incredibly humiliated.

Feng Yun dodged slightly, deftly avoiding his attack. She reached out with both hands and clamped down on his wrists, using her body weight and the strength in her arms to twist his arm behind his back, forcing him to bend over. First, she kicked him in the face from behind, causing his nose to bleed profusely, probably even breaking it. Then she turned sideways and, with unimaginable speed, kneed him in the abdomen a dozen times, causing him to jump up and down. Finally, she pushed forward with her left hand, while freeing her right hand to chop him on the neck and sweep his shin with her right leg.

Hou Longtao flew out three or four meters and landed flat on the ground with a “thump.” He felt dizzy and his eyes and nose were completely numb. His stomach burned with pain, as if his intestines were stuck together. Even so, he gritted his teeth and didn’t cry out. He wanted to get up again, but his arms were weak, and he only managed to lift himself up a few centimeters before collapsing again.

Feng Yun wasn’t finished yet. She stepped over, bent down, pushed his right shoulder with her left hand, and supported his upper arm with her right hand. With a gentle twist, without even a sound, his right arm was dislocated. Hou Longtao was in a state of shock. He had seen these moves on TV before and always thought they were fake, but today his own body had proven his ignorance.

Feng Yun’s eyes were filled with excitement. The killer instinct within her had been awakened. She pressed her right knee into his back, grabbed his hair with her left hand, pulled his head up, and used her right hand to pry open his chin.

“It’s over!” In a flash of lightning, only these two words popped into Hou Longtao’s head. He really hadn’t expected that she actually wanted to kill him.

A cold smile appeared on the corner of Feng Yun’s mouth. The force had already exceeded her wrists, but she didn’t move her hands. She seemed to have suddenly remembered something. She reached into her pocket, took out a tape recorder, pressed the record button, and then supported his chin, lowering her upper body. “Hou Longtao, if I move even slightly, I’ll take your life, do you believe it?”

“Believe… I believe it.”

“After I kill you, I can still get away with it, do you believe it?”

“Believe.” Hou Longtao instinctively felt that she didn’t really want to kill him.

“Do you want me to give you a way out?”

“Yes.”

“As long as you…”

“Wait,” Hou Longtao interrupted Feng Yun. “I love Yuqian, but if you want me to leave them, then forget it.”

“Do you want to die!?”

“No.”

“Then tell me honestly, from the beginning, were you deceiving Yuqian’s feelings? You never loved her, did you!?”

“I love her, why… why does everyone in the world believe it, except you… you Zhang and Feng… Feng family members?”

“Believe it? How can anyone believe it? You can leave Yuqian for other women, but you can’t leave other women for Yuqian!”

“I haven’t, I haven’t left her, I will never give up on her… her.”

“You still want to have it all!? Do you think women are your toys!? What do you think you are!? You bigoted pig!” Feng Yun used her arm to lock his throat, slowly tightening it. “When you decide to admit that you were deceiving Yuqian’s feelings, clap your hands on the ground.”

Hou Longtao immediately felt difficulty breathing. His trachea seemed to be slowly closing, and golden stars were popping up before his eyes again. But his left hand, which could still move, was just gripping the dirt on the ground harder and harder, his fingernails digging out blood, but he showed no intention of giving up. Although “a wise man doesn’t fight when the odds are against him” was Hou Longtao’s usual style, he would never surrender to this woman. Moreover, after telling Shi Long that he didn’t love Chen Qian, he had secretly vowed that as long as anyone asked, he would never hide his feelings for his beloved wives again.

Feng Yun felt his tense body lose its strength, and the fingers stuck in the dirt also relaxed. She released her arm, pinched his philtrum [the vertical groove between the upper lip and the nose], pressed it hard, and woke him up. Then she strangled his neck until he fainted again, repeating this four times.

“Just end it already, have the guts to kill me.” Hou Longtao was extremely weak, and his mind was not clear. Otherwise, he would never have provoked her like that.

“You’re pretty tough.” Feng Yun really didn’t expect this young master to be so resilient. Giving him a shot would only take a second, and any reckless man could do it with a bit of willpower, but to be able to remain so arrogant in the face of approaching death was not something an ordinary person could do.

With a “crack,” Feng Yun put his right arm back into place. She stood up, stepped on his face. “That’s it for today. In a few days, after you’ve recovered, I’ll give you another round. You love Yuqian, right? Whenever you make her happy, I’ll stop beating you up.”

Hou Longtao lay on the ground for more than twenty minutes before he finally recovered a little. He staggered to his feet, spitting out a mouthful of saliva mixed with blood and dirt. His nose was no longer bleeding, but his mouth and nose were still dark, making him look terrifying.

“Trash, can you move?” Feng Yun leaned against a tree, looking disdainfully at his miserable and disheveled appearance.

“Ah…” Hou Longtao held his right arm, which was still sore and weak, unable to exert any strength. He bent down, blinking hard, still feeling a little dizzy.

“Do you know how powerful I am now? Do you still dare to look down on women?”

Hou Longtao turned his head and saw her arrogant eyes that looked down on everyone. He felt extremely annoyed, his head almost exploding, a thousand times unwilling. “What are you showing off? Just because you can fight, you’re something special? You’re a reconnaissance soldier, if you can’t beat me, then what the hell are you good for? Hmph,” he snorted with incomparable contempt. “If you hadn’t been trained, or if I had been trained, hmph.”

“Explain yourself clearly.” Feng Yun approached with a stern face.

“The truth is the truth, once is enough. Actually, you know it yourself, men are stronger than women, it’s written in the genes of humanity.”

Feng Yun stared at him through gritted teeth, her eyes almost spitting fire. She suddenly raised her hand and slapped him hard across the face. Before he could react, she slapped him again with her other hand. “The first slap is for Yuqian, the second slap is for my sister.”

Hou Longtao hadn’t intended to fight back anyway, and fighting back would be futile. Hearing her words, he felt even more wronged. The slap for Yuqian was understandable, but why was there a slap for her sister? If it was because he had hurt Yuqian, then it should be a slap for her whole family. One slap for each person, wouldn’t he turn into a pig’s head? If it was because he had offended Feng Jie, that hadn’t happened either. In short, he couldn’t understand what she meant.

Feng Yun extended a finger and gently traced it down his nose. “Hmph, not bad, your bones are hard enough. Get in the car.”

“Are you going to take me back?”

“Do you want to walk back?”

“You’re being so kind…”

“I originally wanted to leave you here, but I have other plans now. But if you want to walk back yourself, I have no objections.” Feng Yun finished speaking and got into the police car herself. Hou Longtao picked up his glasses from the ground and followed her. He found that his disgust for Feng Yun hadn’t deepened because he had been beaten up by her. On the contrary, he had a tiny bit of respect for her skills.

On the way back to the city, both of them were silent. Hou Longtao was fixing his bruised face in the mirror, and Feng Yun seemed to be thinking about something. When the car reached the Aerospace Bridge, Feng Yun finally spoke. “Three days later, bring a few changes of clothes and come with me on a trip out of town.”

“What for?”

“Didn’t you say that besides fighting skills, you can beat me in everything else? Let’s go verify it.”

“Where are we going? How are we going to verify it?”

“Kuandian [a county in Liaoning Province, China], target shooting, standing at attention, fifty-kilometer mountain jungle trek. If you can win in one of those, I’ll consider you capable.”

“I don’t have time to satisfy your twisted sense of pride.”

“Then I’ll beat you up every three days.”

“Damn, am I scared of you? If you have the guts…” A thought suddenly flashed through his mind. “If I lose, then what?”

“Then what?” Feng Yun originally just wanted to prove herself. Hearing him ask this, she felt that she should take this opportunity to win something. “If you lose, I want you to leave…”

“Impossible, I won’t use them as a bet, anything else is fine.”

“You know you’ll lose.”

“You can think whatever you want, I won’t use feelings as a bet.”

“Fine, fine, besides that, whatever I want you to do, you’ll do it?”

“Okay.”

“It’s a deal.” Actually, Feng Yun hadn’t thought about how to deal with Hou Longtao, but she wasn’t in a hurry to decide.

“What’s this about a deal? What if I win?”

“Don’t even think about it.”

“People make mistakes, horses stumble, even the wisest person is bound to make a mistake.”

“Fine, if you happen to win, whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it.”

“I want you to guarantee the safety of my family, including my relatives, friends, beloved wives, and concubines.” This was Hou Longtao’s biggest worry recently. He hadn’t even thought about including himself.

“I promise you.” Feng Yun also noticed the loophole in his request, but she didn’t point it out. She still wanted to take advantage of this.

“This society requires a good man to keep his word, but there’s no such requirement for women. Women can issue empty promises at will. Is that what you call gender equality?”

“Hmph, if I promise you, I’ll do it, as long as you can beat me.”

“Okay, it’s a deal.”

“It’s a deal.”

“Phew…” Hou Longtao let out a long breath. “How is Yuqian now?”

“Would you care?”

“You can think of me as heartless, ungrateful, and a wolf in sheep’s clothing, I don’t care what you think.”

“Didn’t my sister tell you?”

“She did, but you live with Yuqian, maybe you know a little more clearly.”

“She’s still a girl, harboring unrealistic fantasies about men. Hmph, Hou Longtao, if she does something stupid because of you, you’ll never be able to atone for it. You better burn incense and pray every day that she can forget you.” Feng Yun’s words were actually aimed at two people…

Kuandian is located in the southeast of Liaoning Province and is a county under the jurisdiction of Dandong City. Whether it was during the Anti-Japanese War, the Liberation War, or the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea [Korean War], or even during the Sino-Japanese War, there have been relatively famous battles here. Now, an armored division of the People’s Liberation Army is stationed here.

“Why do we have to go there?” On the plane to Dandong, Hou Longtao complained. “If you want to shoot targets, there are plenty of shooting ranges in Beijing. If that doesn’t work, there’s still the Eighteenth Army. If you want to stand at attention, we can just stand on the street. If you want to do a mountain jungle trek, there are plenty of mountains in Mentougou [a district in Beijing].”

“You talk too much,” Feng Yun sat on the other side of the aisle, her eyes closed, gently scratching her pointed nose. “We’re already on the plane, if you want to jump, I won’t stop you.”

“You served there, right?”

“Yes.”

“It’s been a long time since you’ve been back, right?”

“Yes.”

“You want to take this opportunity to go back and take a look, right?”

“If you don’t speak, no one will think you’re mute. Be quiet for a while, don’t bother me.” Feng Yun turned her head away in disgust…

When they arrived in Dandong, a company commander and political instructor from a reconnaissance company came to pick them up. They were going to the company’s garrison. The company commander’s surname was Hong, and he had only been transferred to this unit a year ago, so he didn’t recognize Feng Yun. But the political instructor, whose surname was Dong, was a platoon leader in this company when Feng Yun was in the army, so both of them knew her background. “We have already received a notice from the division and will meet all your requirements.”

“We may be staying for three or four days, I hope it won’t cause you too much trouble.” Hou Longtao offered the two men cigarettes, and also gave one to the private driving the car.

“This guy is quite eloquent, people from big cities are different. Feng, you have good taste.” Political Instructor Dong used to have a decent relationship with Feng Yun, so he didn’t hold back when speaking.

“He’s not my boyfriend.” Feng Yun replied coldly.

“She’s not my girlfriend, I don’t have that kind of luck.”

“Hahaha, your loss,” because the other party didn’t use a special tone, Political Instructor Dong didn’t hear his true meaning. “Back then, Feng’er was our division’s flower.”

“The division’s flower!? Her!?” Hou Longtao turned his head in disbelief.

“What are you looking at?” Feng Yun glared at him fiercely…

When they arrived at the garrison, the two threw their luggage in the guesthouse. It was a company-level guesthouse, and you had to walk ten minutes to get hot water yourself, so you can imagine the conditions.

“Do you want to start now?”

“The sooner the better, after I win against you, I still have to go home and be with my wives.”

“Hmph, hmph.” Feng Yun sneered twice. She had Company Commander Hong lead them to the shooting range, while Political Instructor Dong took people to the ammunition depot to collect guns.

The only time Hou Longtao had touched a rifle was during military training in high school. At that time, he used the newly issued Type 86, and scored 49 rings with five bullets, so he had some confidence in target shooting.

Today, they were using the Type 87. With 30 bullets, he scored 292 rings, which was quite good for an ordinary person. Unfortunately, his opponent was Feng Yun, and her score of 300 rings made him admit defeat.

Just like that, in less than an hour, Hou Longtao had already lost the first round…(The Golden Dragon is Not a Thing in the Pond)