Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 41: Awareness of being a shield

“Learning martial arts originated from the predecessors trying to understand life itself. This is what sis Chen first taught me when I was learning the horse stance. It seems that any particular detail in life can be used to understand Chinese boxing. This is the true attitude towards learning martial arts and its true meaning.”

Just as Wang Chao was comparing the Presence from Transforming Jin to Zhu Tianglang’s might, an inharmonious sound suddenly made its way into Wang Chao’s ears.

“Jia Jia, so you came here. I just came back here from Beijing and tried calling your phone, why haven’t you picked up my calls?”

It turned out that there was a single 25 year old youth that was accompanying Zhu Tianlang. The moment when he had seen Zhu Jia, his eyes lit up and crossed over the distance to talk to her.

Wang Chao couldn’t help but to cast an eye over at him to measure the youth. The youth was dressed in a westerns suit made to match his tall form. His skin was fair and his facial features flawless. On his aquiline nose, there was a pair of gold frame glasses that did nothing to hide his face.

But sometimes his eyes had shifted downwards for a brief moment. There was also a quick flash in his eyes that Wang Chao felt to be both sinister and dark.

After this first impression, Wang Chao began to compare him to Zhu Tianlang before immediately concluding, “This is a man who has lived like a prince and is both elegant and refined. However, his personality is not at all perfected yet and lacks the shrewd but ruthlessness of an upper class individual.”

“Zhao Jun, in the future, please do not always call me when I’m working. Right now I have plenty of work. Also, please pay attention to how you call me, this is a public place.” The moment when Zhu Jia saw this man, her previously cheerful demeanor had instantly soured and transformed into a cold gaze.

After seeing such a change, Wang Chao had felt shocked. From the look of things, there was a sour relationship between Zhu Jia and this man.

“Jia Jia, don’t complain so much.” Zhao Jun seemed as if he was already accustomed to Zhu Jia’s cold words. He had a helpless look on his face, but when he saw Wang Chao who was next to her, his eyes flashed with suspicion, “Who might this person be?”

“This is my friend!” Zhu Jia rushed to answer with a smile on her face as she inched closer to him. The word for friend had been stressed in such a way that anyone that heard it would have thought it to sound very vague.

“What?” When Zhao Jun saw her actions, his eye had involuntarily twitched before a flash of frost could be seen.

“Could Zhu Jia really be using me as a shield, is she an idiot?” Wang Chao had a sharp eye and was an expert in reading body language. He had clearly seen a vein on Zhao Jun’s neck pulsate; this was a sign of anger and when blood would begin to flow at an accelerated rate because of the heart.

In the case this were to go on, then the face would turn red and the eyes would become bloodshot.

However, this youth named Zhao Jun was great at covering up his emotions and instantly stifled his body. Yet, in that instant, Wang Chao had already seen enough to deduce that he was angry.

“Just who is this Zhao Jun? Why didn’t Zhu Jia mention this person at all while talking yesterday? Seeing how closely they talk and how close the two are, was there a reason for her not to? Does she hate him? It seems that this convention will be quite messy.”

He had seeked her out for business originally but was then dragged into this by her. To Wang Chao, he couldn’t accept this and so he turned to give Zhu Jia a quick look.

When Zhu Jia saw the look, she had instantly took notice of the rebuking meaning behind it. Promptly giving a pitiful look for help, she secretly pulled at his clothes.

But when Zhao Jun saw the conduct between the two, he had mistaken it for the amorous eyes of a couple. Aso Wang Chao immediately took notice of the bulge that swelled up in Zhao Jun’s neck before transforming his entire face with a slight red hue.

“Jia Jia, I heard you were out interviewing last night? A news reporter with a concealed firearm, what a troublesome act!” Just at that moment, a deep voice had broken the awkward atmosphere.

It was Zhu Tianlang that had broken the silence.

Zhu Tianglang was the focal point of everyone’s eyes, so when he came over, everyone in the room had looked over as well and began to talk amongst themselves.

Wang Chao’s ears had picked up the slight murmuring of people trying to guess his identity, “Just who is that youth?”

“He seems to be quite close with the niece of secretary Zhu.”

“I have no idea what background he’s from, but I hope it’s nothing minor. I haven’t seen the young son of governor Zhao look so deflated before…”

Yao Xiaoxue and the other three females were huddled together. When they heard the chatter regarding Wang Chao, even they began to feel that there was a mysterious question to him.

“An overseer of the Taekwondo dojo with great skill and has some sort of relationship with the niece of the municipal secretary. He’s even friends with the public safety bureau chief….Could he be the son of some big official and is trying to pass off as a lower class person? Or did he see someone he liked in our group and wanted to get with us?”

Although Wang Chao had formed a partnership with them, he had rarely gone to see the company so the four of them hadn’t a single detail on his life. But, these females had read many romantic novels and seen many Taiwan and Hong Kong dramas so their minds had instantly drawn out a picture regarding Wang Chao’s true identity.

“En, uncle Zhu.” Seeing Zhu Tianlang, Zhao Jun instantly restrained his emotions. “I heard that Jia Jia had came across some dangers while chasing an interview yesterday before coming today. Who might this be?”

The final sentence had been directed towards Wang Chao, but there was a hint of hostility mixed in.

“Uncle, I’m fine. I’ve told you before, my dream has always been to be a war reporter. Yesterday it was only a small scale version, you don’t need to worry.” When Zhu Jia heard Zhu Tianlang’s critic, she had tried to explained herself.

Zhu Tianlang looked as if he had accepted this and revealed a helpless smile before turning towards Wang Chao.

“Youngster! I heard from chief Cao that you protected my niece Jia Jia yesterday and even shot down an important criminal! Not bad, not bad at all! It seems that the youngsters of today are becoming more and more outstanding.”

Zhu Tianlang’s tone had been soft, allowing people to feel as if they were being bathed in a gentle wind.

“Secretary Zhu praises me too much.” Wang Chao had been neither submissive or asertive and had only smiled politely.

“Good, what courage you have, your future seems bright!” Zhu Tianlang slapped Wang Chao on the shoulder before walking up to the main floor.

Although it had been a simple clap on the shoulders, the action did not escape anyone’s eye.

The next event to happen was the start of the convention with the feast following right after it. However, Zhu Tianlang hadn’t drunk much at all. Stepping onto the podium, he had only given a small toast before saying, “Everyone please continue to drink, I still have work to do, and so I shall be leaving.”

After the municipal head had left, the secretary had followed suit, leaving the party to go on strong.

Wang Chao had been pulled by Zhu Jia and was used as her shield while Zhao Jun remained on the other side of the feast. As he talked to the other officials, he and Wang Chao never talked to each other again.

“Just who is this Zhao Jun?” In between a time of rest, Wang Chao had managed to ask her quickly.

Zhu Jia’s nose wrinkled her nose before responding, “Governor Zhao’s second child. He just came back from studying abroad, He’s a heartbreaker.”

“Ah!” Wang Chao nodded his head and asked no more.

Then came Zhu Jia to become curious, “Are you not going to ask anything else? Like just why he’s so fixated on me or why I used you as a shield?

“If you didn’t say so earlier, then you must have your reasons. We’re friends, so helping each other should be a must.”

“You are really full of ideas!” Zhu Jia nodded her head before narrowing her eyes as she remembered something, “Zhao Jun is a rather narrow minded person. In the future you should take care of yourself, I’ve given you a headache to worry about.”

“It’ll be nothing much.” Wang Chao’s eyes flashed once before fading away.

After the feat, Wang Chao had remembered the problem at hand and immediately searched out for Yao Xiaoxue and the others only to find them talking to another official passionately.

“How is it?”

“There’s no problems. These three government projects are currently at 80,000. We’re currently bidding, but when we said you were our boss those men instantly folded.”

When Yao Xiaoxue was pulled aside, she had a bright red face intoxicated from wine, indicating that she had already many cups of it.

Wang Chao’s eyes narrowed before suddenly pinching at a specific place on her hand. Wa! A mouthful of wine was spat out of Yao Xiaoxue’s mouth, instantly shaking her from her alcoholic stupor, but she had given Wang Chao a grateful look anyways.

“Be careful.” Wang Chao spoke.

“I will.” Yao Xiaoxue looked more awake than before. “I heard some people say that next year they will be trying to connect all of the city, towns and villages to the internet. The nation will be funding well over several hundred million. This is a good business opportunity, if we can recruit some more people, we will be able to increase our business.

“Good, you have the experience so you can deal with that.” Wang Chao though, “I’ve pulled Zhao Xinglong along to be the security guard. With the business growing, he’ll prevent anyone from acting on the company harmfully.”

“En, a good thought. The company nearby us once tried to encroach on the business of another. As a result, the owners of the other place called on some gangsters to smash up the place.” Yao Xiaoxue spoke with a nod.

Wang Chao nodded as well before noticing that Zhao Jun had somehow managed to talk to Zhu Jia once more. Zhu Jia’s angry voice could be heard before she stormed towards Wang Chao,

“Take me home!”

With that, she pulled Wang Chao away from the room without any further explanation.