Chapter 17 A Man's Tears

"Brother, brother."

Li Mao turned back to look at Manager Zhang, who was standing at the edge of the ring, his expression puzzled.

"Let's keep this short," said Manager Zhang, "I know a bit about your situation. Your mother is gravely ill, and you've borrowed quite a bit of money for her treatment. How about this, you are not likely to win anyway, even if they count the points in the end. I have one hundred thousand here, you just take a fall during the match, and the money is yours."

As Manager Zhang spoke, he opened the briefcase filled to the brim, revealing the cash inside.

Li Mao: "You..."

Manager Zhang did not wait for him to speak and simply placed the briefcase at Li Mao's feet: "If you're not reassured, you can count it again. I've already notified the referee to delay the rest time a bit."

Li Mao's mouth fell open, then he looked down at the briefcase on the ground, his expression complex.

Seeing Li Mao waver, Manager Zhang hastily struck while the iron was hot: "After it's done, I'll give you another fifty thousand!"

Ding! The bell still sounded, and the referee couldn't blatantly delay the time for too long.

Manager Zhang quickly picked up the briefcase, placed it in the corner of the ring, and said, "Brother, think it over carefully. I'll leave the money here."

With those words, he left in haste and found the person filming with a smartphone, "Make sure the camera doesn't pan over to that corner later."

"Understood."

...

The match began, and both competitors approached each other again.

Ren Donglai had just noticed Manager Zhang talking with Li Mao on the side and handing him a briefcase. He had a good idea of what was happening and felt much at ease.

After all, even under normal competition rules, scoring is based on valid strikes to the scoring regions, plus controlling the rhythm of the match and the number of attacks. Ren Donglai had the upper hand in the first two rounds. Even if the third round ended in a stalemate, he would win in the end, especially when the referees were on his side. It would be hard for Ren Donglai to lose.

But the opponents Ren Donglai had faced before were all defeated in a crushing manner, knocked out and not even making it to a second round, let alone knocking Ren Donglai down.

Now, the match with Li Mao had reached this state. If the third round ended in a stalemate, or Ren Donglai was on the back foot, even if the referee declared Ren Donglai the winner in the end, it wouldn't look good. That's why Manager Zhang had directly offered money to settle it. He not only wanted Ren Donglai to win but to win beautifully, as that would attract more fans.

The one hundred thousand was prepared in advance by Jia Li, just in case, but they didn't expect it to be actually needed.

On the ring, both Ren Donglai and Li Mao were not in a hurry to strike, sizing up each other in their fighting stances.

Li Mao's gaze was a bit distracted, internally struggling fiercely.

The reason he had come to challenge Ren Donglai was that of his master.

His master had been challenged and defeated in public by Ren Donglai, leading to his disgrace and the closing of their martial arts hall.

Li Mao had trained under his master for many years. After getting married, he became busy with work and family and slowly lost contact. When he learned the news and rushed to visit his master from a thousand miles away, he found his master had aged a decade overnight.

Li Mao knew that the spirit that had sustained his master was gone.

That's why he decided to challenge Ren Donglai, to avenge his master.

After the second round, although he had knocked Ren Donglai down once, the inexperienced Li Mao was also greatly depleted in strength. He knew well that he was unlikely to win this match; he could only hope for a chance to knock his opponent down a few more times in the third round to avenge his master.

But Li Mao hadn't expected someone to come with a hundred thousand in cash asking him to throw the match. With his mother ill, his family had spent quite a bit, and to Li Mao, a hundred thousand was not a small amount.

While Li Mao was distracted by these thoughts, Ren Donglai tried to punch him. Because his attention wasn't focused, Li Mao reacted a beat too slow and took a punch in the face from Ren Donglai.

Fortunately, it wasn't a heavy blow. Li Mao shook his head, came back to his senses, and Ren Donglai's fist came at him again.

Instinctually, Li Mao used a Flat Hand to parry.

"After it's done, I'll give you another fifty thousand!"

Manager Zhang's words echoed in Li Mao's mind, causing his movements to lag for a moment.

Bam! Ren Donglai's second punch hit Li Mao's head again, and he was pleased, feeling from these two punches that the opponent was not himself; it seemed Li Mao had been persuaded by Manager Zhang.

Ren Donglai did not hesitate and confidently attacked.

Left Hook, Right Hook, Uppercut... Ren Donglai launched a beautiful combination of punches that connected with Li Mao's head, forcing him to retreat continuously.

"Good!"

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

The cheers from the crowd grew louder, and everyone was excited.

Manager Zhang smiled with satisfaction, turning to Jia Li beside him, "See? Money is the most powerful thing in this world!"

Jia Li looked at him coyly, "I got it, you're amazing."

"Hahaha." Manager Zhang glanced around, noticing no one was paying attention, and gave Jia Li's bottom a light slap, eliciting a soft coquettish complaint from her.

On the stage, Li Mao was beaten black and blue by Ren Donglai's combination punches, and as the final Jab hit his face, he fell backwards, crashing heavily onto the ring floor.

"Ten!"

The referee hurried over to count.

"Nine!" The audience joined the referee in the count.

"Eight!" The viewers in the live stream were spamming the comment section.

"Seven!" Li Mao opened his eyes, looking blankly at the ceiling.

"Six!" Ren Donglai pumped his arms in celebration, showing off his muscles at the edge of the ring.

"Five!" Li Mao turned slightly to look to the side, beyond the camera's view, to a black briefcase by the corner of the ring.

"Four!" The image of his mother in a hospital bed flashed through his mind.

"Three!" The sight of expensive medicine on the prescription, his wife's worried face, her secret tears, and the countenance of relatives and friends when asking to borrow money... scene after scene played in Li Mao's mind.

"Two!" The final image that surfaced was his master, back towards him, touching the Wooden Dummy in the room, silent for a long time.

"One!"

Li Mao closed his eyes, and a tear trickled down his cheek.

"I declare, the winner is Ren Donglai!"

The referee raised Ren Donglai's arm high.

"Ren Donglai! Ren Donglai! Ren Donglai!"

The crowd was shouting his name like crazy, the live chat was flooded with gifts.

"Awesome!"

"Another Traditional Martial Arts practitioner bites the dust."

"Traditional Martial Arts isn't up to it. What's the point in competing?"

"What Wing Chun? This guy has watched too many movies, thinking he's Yip Man."

...

Ren Donglai's live room at that moment had two hundred and eighty thousand viewers, and the comment section was full of praise for him and disparagement for Traditional Martial Arts.

Wu Li watched the entire match with an expressionless face, recalling a certain image he had seen earlier. He took out his phone and sent a message to both Wang Xuecheng and Chen Dong.

"I'm going out of town this week. If they call roll for the professional classes, answer for me."

(Seeking recommendations)