Chapter 104: Punching Bag

“Close your eyes! Relax your whole body!” Coach Pang did not bother with any lecture. He gave Hong Tao two direct orders.

“Uh? Relax? Close my eyes?” Hong Tao did not understand what the coach meant.

“Close your eyes! Relax your body!” Coach Pang repeated.

“Oh, I... ah! ... Ow...” Hong Tao still did not get it, though he did shut his eyes. Just as he was about to ask how to relax, he felt a kick on his calf, and then his body flew sideways and crashed heavily onto the mat. It was barely even a mat, just a thin, hard layer, almost like the floor itself.

“You all saw that, didn’t you? From now on, anyone who breaks discipline gets this kind of punishment! All right, back to your places!” Coach Pang roared at the remaining nine children, pointing at Hong Tao, who was still on the ground clutching his rear and grimacing in pain.

After that blow, Hong Tao immediately became obedient. He had finally understood that the refined trick of being smooth-talking and reasonable did not work here. These people did not talk to you at all; they went straight to their hands. It was a case of the scholar meeting the soldier. To avoid further pain, Hong Tao decided to keep his tail between his legs and at least try not to get punished too much during the four hours of training.

After the etiquette and rules were explained, they finally reached the more interesting part: changing into training uniforms, one set each. Hong Tao thought the uniform was made of canvas, and not just a single layer either. It was heavy, thick, and extraordinarily durable, designed so that both sides would have something to grip in a match. The trousers were very loose, with a drawstring at the waist to tighten them. The top was the same style as the clothing used in modern-day saunas: no buttons, the two front panels overlapped, and a belt of the same material was tied around the waist.

Once everyone had changed, the first lesson officially began. Coach Pang announced that for the next week, the main lesson for Hong Tao and the other nine children would be summed up in just two words: taking falls.

Whose falls? It was not fixed. Whichever senior judo class happened to be training at the same time, they would be the ones doing the throwing. Boys and girls alike. For that week, they were the senior class’s free punching bags.

“You. What’s your name again?” After delivering this deeply depressing verdict, Coach Pang pointed at Hong Tao.

“Report, Coach, my name is Hong Tao!” This time Hong Tao did not dare act flippant. He quickly answered loudly.

“Oh, Hong Tao, is it? Come out here and demonstrate the basics of taking a throw for your classmates.” Unfortunately, after behaving properly for so long, he still could not escape the fate of being thrown.

“What are the essentials of taking a throw? I already told Hong Tao just now. Do you remember?” Coach Pang grabbed Hong Tao by the collar of his judo gi and lifted him straight to the front of the line, then asked.

“Close your eyes! Relax your whole body!” Hong Tao understood at once. So that was what the coach meant when he told him to close his eyes and relax.

“That’s right. I’ll do it again for everyone. Ready?” Coach Pang lifted Hong Tao one-handed and brought him in front of him.

“Come on then... it’s the same either way...” Hong Tao immediately shut his eyes and tried his best to relax every muscle in his body.

“Ah... smack...” Sure enough, the moment his eyes closed, Hong Tao felt his body fly up again and then hit the mat. This time it did not seem quite as painful. The coach must have shown mercy.

“You see? When you are thrown, you must keep your whole body relaxed. Never reach out with your arms or legs, or you can easily get injured. Before you learn how to throw others, you have to learn how to be thrown. This is to help you get familiar with the feeling of judo. Once you can be thrown without making a sound or shutting your eyes, we’ll move on to the basic movements. Oh, and Hong Tao did well; for a first throw, staying obedient like that is very good. From now on, you are the class monitor. Each time you come to train, you will take attendance and check everyone’s uniforms. If you cannot do it, you know what happens, right?” As he spoke, Coach Pang thought of Hong Tao again and once more lifted him in front of him.

“Close your eyes, relax!” Hong Tao thought, what else could you possibly do? Could you recite poetry? You were just going to throw me anyway!

“All right, you lead them in relaxing for ten minutes first. We’ll start training in a little while!” Coach Pang was very satisfied with Hong Tao’s answer. At the very least, this child could understand what was meant without him having to waste words. He thought that choosing this class monitor had been a good decision.

For the remaining more than two hours, Hong Tao rested for only about fifteen minutes. The rest of the time, he kept switching back and forth between the air and the mat. At first, the ones throwing them were a group of female students, all around fifteen or sixteen. Every one of them had broad, rough features and acne all over her face. The older sister who kept throwing Hong Tao also had a bit of body odor. She especially liked pulling Hong Tao into her arms before using all sorts of techniques to hurl him away from every part of her body.

“Damn it! Referee! That’s a foul! Does competition come with hidden weapons now? That smell is way too deadly! If she pinned an opponent to the ground and just buried his face in her chest, he’d absolutely surrender on the spot! If he slapped the mat too late, he’d be knocked out from the stench!” Hong Tao could no longer even feel the pain in his body. He had already managed to take the falls without closing his eyes, but after Coach Pang’s four-word mantra, he had added two more of his own: close your eyes, relax, and hold your breath!

At long last, he endured it until five o’clock, when Hong Tao finally found relief. Five children in the class had already been thrown up to the point of vomiting, and one had been sent straight to the clinic. He had not listened to the coach’s warning and had struggled at the last moment; as a result, his wrist struck the mat first. Counting Hong Tao, only four students were still more or less able to stand.

“All right, everyone did well today. Now, as I taught you at the beginning, use the judo etiquette to say goodbye to the coach. Class monitor, remember this will also be your responsibility next time. Don’t wait for me to remind you.” Even at the end of class, the coach did not let Hong Tao off.

The judo uniform could be taken home. When Hong Tao first got it, he had planned to show it off a little after going home, but now he no longer had the heart for that. After being flung around like a torn sack for more than two hours, he really had no face left to boast about it. Besides, while changing clothes he had discovered that both calves were already bruised purple. Those were from the senior students kicking him. When he got home he would have to check his back and buttocks too. Right now, even touching his own rear felt numb.

Hong Tao did not dare tell anyone about the bruises on his body, not even his beloved grandfather, who adored him the most. The more someone cared for him, the more likely they were to oppose his continuing training at the sports school because of such minor injuries. If he wanted to learn some real skills, there had to be a price. Hong Tao felt he could still bear it, and besides, he was not the only one being put through this. The other nine kids in his class probably were not doing any better, not to mention the unlucky soul whose wrist had been injured.

Moreover, Hong Tao had already made up his mind: he would study this at most for one or two years, and then he would not put any more effort into it. He did not intend to become a peerless martial arts master. He only wanted a skill for self-defense, something that would let him avoid being at a disadvantage in one-on-one trouble. That was the original reason he had insisted, from the very beginning, on exercising every day and taking cold showers. For a person who had been reborn, his brain was more than enough. The only thing to worry about was his body and illness. Getting hit less and falling sick less were his most basic demands right now.

“Xiao Tao... come out... come out...” After Hong Tao got home and finished bathing, he had only just arrived at his grandmother’s house and had not yet even lifted his rice bowl when his aunt’s half a head appeared at the doorway. She made faces at him and waved him over.

“If there’s something to say, come in and say it. You’re already such a big girl, and still so restless!” That old habit of his grandfather’s favoritism toward boys over girls flared up again. He would not say anything when his younger uncle stood on the threshold cracking sunflower seeds, but when his aunt made a few silly faces, he became unhappy.

“I’m going to eat at Auntie’s place.” Seeing his aunt’s expression, Hong Tao knew something must have happened at the shop again, or she would not have come back specifically to find him.

“What happened? Say it slowly!” Once Hong Tao stepped outside, his aunt tugged him and started running toward the yard gate.

“Two Russians came to the shop! Brought there by that fox spirit. They’re waiting for you. Hurry up. They look terrifying, their eyeballs are green with hunger!” While pulling Hong Tao along, his aunt panted and gestured wildly, trying to describe how frightening the two Russians looked.

“What do you mean, fox spirit? Who told you that? Don’t listen to those gossipy shrews and their loose tongues. Are they any better? Would they even be willing to pay thirty yuan for a hairstyle? Ask them to alter a pair of pants and they get stingy and fussy. You should stop giving them any good face. How many times have I told you, we need to transform. We need to move upmarket...” Hong Tao knew exactly who the “fox spirit” his aunt meant was: the married woman in the white suit. The middle-aged women who often came to the shop loved nothing more than talking about people behind their backs. They did it not only in the hair salon but also at the tailor shop. In their mouths, anyone prettier or richer than they were could not be a good person.

“Oh, but she brought two Russians... that should mean she isn’t a good person, right?” His aunt was still not entirely convinced.

“What do you mean, Russians? They’re foreign guests. Their eyes aren’t green because they’re starving; that’s just how they were born. What are they coming to the shop for? Clothes or hair?” Hong Tao could not explain any more to his aunt. If he said more, she still would not accept it.

Although this was the capital, his aunt had seen very few foreigners. Most of those encounters had been thanks to the Soviet embassy. If the embassy had not been not far to the east, she probably would not have seen a single foreigner. In older times, people generally called Soviets “Russians.” Older ones were called old Russians, younger ones little Russians. Because they looked rather different, ordinary people had all sorts of suspicions about them, such as that they ate people or came out at night to snatch children. In any case, the uglier the rumor, the more they said it. They would often use such ghostly and supernatural tales to frighten their own children and keep them from going near the Soviet embassy.

“That fox... Ms. Jiang... she didn’t say... she just said for me to come get you...” His aunt tried to correct herself this time, but she was still very unaccustomed to the way Hong Tao had taught her to address her.

Thanks to the generous support of our readers, this book has finally earned a strong recommendation and will be put on shelves. On Friday, the twelfth of this month, around noon, friends who like this book are warmly welcome to come and support it, maybe with a subscription or two, to make the numbers look a little better. Of course, the only thing I can give back to everyone is one thing... more updates, and lots of them!