Back to 1978

Chapter 181: One Punch Man

It was not until Song Tiesheng and Dongzi walked out of the Dongcheng Branch that they understood why their third brother Xie Hushan and Han Hongbing praised Cheng Yunfei as a master at the dinner table.

The fight between the two of them and the hooligans was easily resolved. The letters of introduction and work permits they carried with them, as well as the people at the public station, could testify for them that it was the hooligans who started smashing the glass of the bus first, and the two public security comrades stepped in to stop them. The reason they didn't send them a banner and a letter of thanks right away was that the Dongdan Branch was short of time and unprepared.

Song Tiesheng and Dongzi had just been escorted out by two colleagues from the Dongdan Branch when they saw a man in his twenties riding a 28-meter manganese steel bicycle into the branch compound from outside.

The two policemen who were escorting Song Tiesheng and Dongzi out did not bother to say goodbye to them and went straight to meet them:
"Brother Fei, why are you back again after just a short while? Did you leave something behind? Don't go in. If you forgot something, tell me and I'll go in and get it for you."

The first words the other party said stopped Song Tiesheng and Dongzi, who were planning to go to the Cultural Palace by car:

"A peasant comrade named Xie Hushan was brought back by you?"

"Cheng Yunfei? Brother Cheng?" Hearing the policeman calling the other party Brother Fei and the other party saying Xie Hushan's name, Song Tiesheng turned around and asked tentatively to the injured young man who was riding on the bicycle.

Cheng Yunfei looked at Song Tiesheng and asked in confusion: "Brother, who are you? Do you know me?"

"We are brothers of Xie Hushan. We came to Yanjing with him. Because we dealt with a thief on the bus, we were brought back to understand the situation. The third brother said that he was waiting for us to meet up at the Cultural Palace." Song Tiesheng explained to Cheng Yunfei.

Cheng Yunfei nodded in understanding: "That's right, but you two don't have to go to the Cultural Palace. Hu Saner has been transferred here from the Cultural Palace."

"What do you mean?" Song Tiesheng looked at the courtyard of Dongdan Branch and asked Cheng Yunfei.

Cheng Yunfei pointed at the office building and said, "I just left the police station. I went to the Cultural Palace to look for Hu Saner. I heard that Hu Saner had stabbed four robbers at the entrance of the Cultural Palace in order to protect public property. I asked around and found out that the robbers were brought here, so I rushed over. You know what happened? We were all imprisoned in the same place for three unrelated crimes. Have you two solved your problems?"

"Ah? Third brother stabbed someone?" Song Tiesheng was stunned, then he looked at Dongzi and walked back into the police station:
"I have to explain to the leaders here that Third Brother was indeed protecting public property. The money on him was stolen money recovered by the Tianjin Railway Public Security Bureau. Because we were catching a thief at the time, I asked him to help put it away. We couldn't let Yanjing arrest him for fighting. He was definitely protecting public property."

"My brother Da Men'er is in trouble. He goes out without Han Lao Er and has two public security comrades as bodyguards? They are public security comrades from the railway system." Upon hearing Song Tiesheng's words, Cheng Yunfei showed a surprised expression on his face.

The last time he met Xie Hushan, Xie Hushan and Han Hongbing were still young and ignorant people who only knew how to go to Hong Kong Island to steal dogs and run away after stealing them.

Looking at the present, although he has not met Xie Hushan in person, after listening to what he said, the two brothers under him have already thought of how to solve the whole matter, and it sounds well organized and reasonable.

Although Cheng Yunfei is a big guy at the train station, he is familiar with the ins and outs of various systems. If Xie Hushan is taken away and saved by the two people from the railway public security system, the local public security will have no chance of intervening. Even if they want to intervene, they have to go through the procedures and get the stamp.

Who can blame him for being the boss of an independent system but also a group? Besides, he works in the railway system and is half a railway person. He knows that when the railway boss encounters something, he can really make a big deal out of it and scare people. All he says is that the state has allocated emergency tasks. Anyway, if you don't hand over the people, he can push the blame to the local government if something happens in the railway section.

Apart from the local garrisons, which ordinary local unit dares to say that it will bear the losses of the country? So generally they take a step back and everything will be calm.

"Brother Cheng, we can make friends later. I'll go first..." When Song Tiesheng heard that Xie Hushan was taken in, he didn't bother to say any more nonsense and prepared to go back to the police station to inquire about Xie Hushan's situation.

"No, no~ I've done it. He stabbed those four people lying in the hospital and confessed it to the police. The whole thing has nothing to do with Hu Saner. They were just playing around and accidentally injured each other. You two wait for a while. I'll go in and bring the people out for a drink." Cheng Yunfei got off the bicycle with one leg and motioned Song Tiesheng to wait for him in the yard. Then he walked towards the Dongdan Branch building as if he was going home.

The two policemen who were originally escorting Song Tiesheng and Dongzi immediately turned around, and walked inside with Cheng Yunfei on the left and right, as if Cheng Yunfei was a spy who might sabotage the police station.

Song Tiesheng was a little nervous, but luckily he and Dongzi had just paced in the yard for no more than five minutes when they saw Xie Hushan, whose right eye was a little black and blue, being strangled by Cheng Yunfei and led out of the building. He also waved to the policemen who came out:
"Don't send me off, Lao Zhang. Oh, there's one more thing. Can we settle the accounts next time? The fine is fifty yuan. Don't let my wife pay the fine. Your subordinate told my wife that the fine was twenty yuan. He hid thirty yuan in private money, so my wife scolded me."

The old policeman who sent him out smiled helplessly:

"Don't expect us to lie for you. Just don't cause trouble. Why did the country ban boxing? Isn't it because it is too dangerous? There were many deaths in the competitions. If you like it, just practice some martial arts routines. Haven't you learned Dachengquan? Don't manage a group of people to play boxing. It's worth it to waste your money on this. Wouldn't it be nice to buy some clothes for your wife and some meat buns and dumplings?"

"Sooner or later, the country will have to allow everyone to practice boxing. Everything will be open, and foreign devils will be able to come to China. If even this kind of sport is stopped, our descendants will easily see that foreign devils are cowardly." Cheng Yunfei smiled and said, "Your bureau should also set up a..."

The old policeman walked them to the door:

"No need. How about I take the electric baton and you put on the gloves, and let's have a fight? After the fight, we can decide whether it's necessary for us police officers to practice boxing with you? Get out of here quickly, stop doing any underground activities, and take good care of your dad for me."

"Third brother, what happened to your eye socket? Who did it?" Song Tiesheng ignored Cheng Yunfei and the police, looked at Xie Hushan's eye socket and asked:
"Did I offend those bastards? I'm sorry, this is all my fault, Third Brother, I'll make you suffer. Wait for me."

Song Tiesheng's face was full of apologies. He was just being vigilant when he shouted to everyone on the bus to watch out for the thief. He didn't expect that in the end, Xie Hushan, a good citizen who had not been involved in the whole thing and had only wanted to come to Yanjing to attend the lecture, had a black eye. How the hell was he going to explain this to Han Laoer and his brothers?

Han Laoer must feel that he and Dongzi did not handle things properly. Third brother took you two to travel to Yanjing, but you two got into trouble and nothing happened to you, but third brother got hurt instead?

"It's okay. The other party is more seriously injured than me." Xie Hushan took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. He looked at Cheng Yunfei and asked curiously:
"Brother Fei, why did you come here with my two brothers? And you yourself have been arrested, how come you are so confident to get me out?"

"How can I have the face to save you? Didn't you see that I was released because you lent money to pay the fine for my wife?" Cheng Yunfei hit Xie Hushan's shoulders twice and the leader laughed:

"I want the group of people who fought with you to tell the police that it has nothing to do with you. It's OK as long as they agree that you didn't hurt anyone. There are so many things going on in the police station that they can't handle it all. Since both parties are not making trouble, the police are eager to let you go. If they really don't let you go, the police comrades are also afraid that the gang of hooligans will be as disgusting as toads."

"Are the police afraid of hooligans?" Xie Hushan asked curiously.

Cheng Yunfei pushed his bicycle back to the branch guard duty room, then ran to a nearby cold drink stand to buy a few popsicles, and handed one to Xie Hushan to apply to his eye sockets:
"This group of bastards claim to be important people all day long, but in fact they are all stinking shit. They smashed the glass of the police's house with bricks in the middle of the night, and then threw feces and worms into it. Or they bullied the children of public security colleagues who were in school, and snatched the walking sticks of the elderly at home when they were taking a walk and broke them. It's not a big crime. Ordinary police officers really can't do anything with these low-class people. They can't find out who did it, and it's useless even if they know who it is without evidence."

"Then how do we solve this problem?" Song Tiesheng and Dongzi, two railway police officers, frowned when they heard this.

They have been catching thieves on the railway for so long, but no thief dared to go to their home to retaliate.

Cheng Yunfei gave Song Tiesheng and Dongzi a popsicle each, and bit one himself:
"Come find me. Everyone in the police station knows me. They basically guess who is capable of doing this kind of thing and then ask me to deal with them."

"Are the gangsters in Yanjing so despicable?" Xie Hushan held a popsicle in his left hand to put on his eye sockets, and started to eat the popsicle in his right hand.

Cheng Yunfei asked back, "What kind of hooligans are not bad? The last time we met in Yangcheng, weren't they the same kind of people?"

"Then how did you get these scumbags to tell the police that their injuries were not caused by me?"

"A bunch of useless people who are still trying to save face. I'll just use provocation to provoke them. I'll go to the hospital to find them and tell them that they've really made it. I'll ask the police to file a case and arrest them. Do you still have the nerve to brag about it in this city?" Cheng Yunfei chewed on a popsicle.

"This bunch of scumbags have a sense of self-esteem. They almost finished recording their statements at the hospital, but they immediately changed their statements, saying that their injuries had nothing to do with you. So I went in and asked you to tell the police that no one robbed you of your money, which means there was no conflict between the two parties. That's it. As for how to solve it later, go to the Cultural Palace. I told you, you are not convinced. Wait for me at the Cultural Palace. I will definitely bring people there. If you have the guts, we can have another fight."

Hearing that he would have to practice again, Xie Hushan said with a grin: "Brother Fei, I think that since I am still young, I must not go down the path of crime and must rely on the law..."

"Where is the law? It will be dark by the time we get there. The policemen maintaining order at the gate will have withdrawn. All the hooligans in the city will have arrived. We don't just want to watch the fights. There will be a fashion show tonight. We are waiting to see the show. Besides, you don't have to fight. Let them come at me." Cheng Yunfei glanced at Xie Hushan and said:

"I've already said it. If they can get close to me, you and I can do whatever they want."

Xie Hushan smiled and stepped back: "Then I won't go either. If you fail, I will fall into the hands of this gangster. This group of people are interested in me. They want to take advantage of me and even threaten to kiss my uncle..."

"You're afraid that the hooligans in Yanjing City will take advantage of you, but aren't you afraid that I, your brother, will crush you to pieces?" Cheng Yunfei said with a smile, "Don't worry, anyone over 25 years old wouldn't dare to fight me, your brother. Even if a young guy does, he'll just be beaten to a pulp."

Xie Hushan wasn't really afraid of Cheng Yunfei fighting. Just kidding. Cheng Yunfei was able to handle such a big situation in Yangcheng, so he couldn't handle a group of little hooligans from Yanjing.

As the four of them strolled towards the Cultural Palace, Xie Hushan listened to Cheng Yunfei talk about the reason why he was arrested.

Cheng Yunfei loves boxing, a competitive sport, but unfortunately boxing has been banned twice since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The first time was at the National Ethnic Sports Performance and Competition Conference in 1953. The lack of professional boxing referees led to a situation where boxers "fought to determine the winner and the loser, and also to decide life and death" at the boxing match.

Many boxers were seriously injured in the boxing ring because the referee was unable to suspend or end the match in time. A boxer from Guangdong Province was even killed by his opponent's continuous heavy punches on the head. This led to the sports department banning boxing-related events for three years.

After three years of difficulty, the competition was resumed in 1956. However, just two years after the ban was lifted, tragedy struck again at the 1958 Yenching National Twenty Cities Boxing Championship, when a boxer who was a factory worker in Shanghai died during the competition.

Many peace-loving spectators believed that this sport was too bloody and dangerous, and criticized it in newspapers many times, which eventually attracted the attention of the country. After research, it was considered that the conditions for domestic boxing competitions were not yet mature, and the boxing competition was temporarily withdrawn.

This ban lasted for more than 20 years.

Boxing has become an underground niche sport. No one cares if one person practices against a target. However, if two people practice against each other to decide the winner, if they are reported and it is found that they do not have special approval documents from the sports department, the person involved will be arrested and imprisoned for two days for education and fined to teach him a lesson.

Cheng Yunfei practiced boxing just like he practiced martial arts when he was a kid. He had a proper master to teach him, not just waving his fists and calling himself a boxer. His master was Mr. Wang Guojun, the last national champion in the 68kg class before boxing was banned, who now works in the sports department as a document writer.

Master Wang, who had been unemployed for more than 20 years, secretly taught two apprentices, one of whom was Cheng Yunfei.

Cheng Yunfei has been arrested four times this year, all for boxing, and it was not unfair at all. He went to Mr. Wang to practice boxing and have meals at least three times a week. The master and apprentice have a good relationship and can talk about anything. Mr. Wang said that after the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, he felt that the country was changing its previous chaotic situation, and sports must also put things right and get back on track.

Therefore, Mr. Wang took some time to start writing a book called "Boxing Skills", hoping that if there is a chance to resume boxing competitions, there will be at least one introductory book in China that systematically introduces this sport that has been banned for more than 20 years and has caused a generational gap in boxing players.

The master said that it is very likely to recover, but he was not too sure. But Cheng Yunfei heard that it would definitely recover. He thought that if boxing competitions were resumed, it would be like the time in 1958, with each unit setting up a boxing training team and participating in various boxing competitions every year.

He wanted to set up a boxing training team at the railway station loading and unloading team where he worked, but he estimated that the higher-ups might not agree, because boxing training is very expensive. The players' diet, protective gear, practice, and medical care all require money. If the higher-ups do not allocate funds, it would be difficult for the loading and unloading team to raise funds on their own.

So he thought of organizing an underground boxing match to let everyone get a first-hand understanding of how exciting this sport is, and at the same time raise some funds for his future boxing training team for stevedores. By then he would have money in hand and would not need to apply to his superiors, and at most he would just need a formal status.

This old man dared to think and act, and he directly organized the Yanjing Underground Boxing Championship.

They acted as the organizer and referee of the competition, and set up prize money: 100 for the champion, 80 for the runner-up, and 50 for the third place. Anyone could sign up, and there was no registration fee.

For a while, no matter whether people in Yanjing City knew about boxing or not, as long as they were young men who had practiced martial arts for a few days, even workers with brute force, and even some gangsters and veterans who thought they could fight, all received the news and ran to him to sign up.

The venue was arranged in Ditan Park, and the time started at 10 o'clock every night. No tickets were sold, but if you wanted to go in and watch the game, you had to buy a monthly bus ticket sold by his wife at the stall at the entrance of Ditan Park in the middle of the night. The normal price of a monthly ticket was four yuan, and his wife Chen Min sold it for four yuan and twenty, which was equivalent to twenty cents for a ticket.

The reason why they sell monthly bus passes instead of directly selling tickets is because they are afraid of being reported for speculation and profiteering.

It’s true that business is pretty good, with two to three hundred tickets sold every night.

Because there were no boxing matches in the country and there was nowhere to buy protective gear, Cheng Yunfei could only barely get together four sets of decent protective gear. As a result, the schedule was very long and he could only have two three-round matches a night. He also had to act as the referee himself.

Before the top eight were decided, he had been arrested four times. The situation is unclear now, and there is no word on whether boxing is open or not. The police have no serious charges when arresting people.

First, people who just watch the fun should not be arrested. It is not illegal for people to take a walk in Ditan Park at night and watch the fun.

Second, it is not illegal for Cheng Yunfei's wife to sell bus monthly tickets. She is a ticket seller. Why do you care where she sells tickets? She does not sell fake tickets. She sells genuine bus company monthly tickets.

So they could only arrest the organizer Cheng Yunfei, criticize and educate him, and detain him for two days, and then release him after paying a fine.

The branch also knew that this guy would definitely continue to organize after being released, but there was nothing they could do. All the police officers who had worked in the bureau for more than ten years, from the director to the clerks, had long known about Cheng Yunfei's deeds and did not dare to provoke him too much. In their view, Cheng Yunfei was just boxing in private and not doing anything else. He cooperated when he was arrested, so he was already a good citizen with very good performance and had already given face to the Public Security Bureau.

"What exactly have you done?" Xie Hushan asked curiously when he heard Cheng Yunfei say that everyone in the branch gave him face.

Cheng Yunfei smiled and looked at him. He didn't say anything but changed the subject: "Take the popsicle down and eat it. It will melt if you don't eat it now."

When the four people strolled to the Cultural Palace inconspicuously, it was already dark. There were many more people on the Cultural Palace square than in the afternoon. Some of them came to take a walk in the square in front of the Cultural Palace after work, and a large number of them were waiting in line to enter to watch tonight's fashion show. Finally, there were hooligans and ruffians who gathered on the railings around the square, smoking and laughing. The self-proclaimed cool hooligans kept searching among the young girls in the square, thinking about the good thing of taking pictures of the old ladies and making friends.

Just as Xie Hushan and his four companions arrived at the square in a low-key manner, someone from a group of people sitting on the guardrail in the distance suddenly whistled, and twenty or thirty people nearby jumped off the railings and surrounded the four people.

This group of people were wearing work hats with the brims pulled down very low, and they had masks on their faces. This look was shameful and despicable.

Dongzi stretched out his hand to pull out the electric baton, but Xie Hushan held his hand down and said calmly:

"Don't take it personally. They're all wearing masks. You can tell at a glance that they're cowards who are afraid of being shot. They don't even dare to show their faces in a fight. They're planning to put me down and run away. They want to run away before they even hit anyone. Just based on their mentality, they're not cut out for a living."

As soon as Long Saner, whose head was wrapped like an Indian Sikh, walked out of the crowd, Song Tiesheng exploded and pounced on Long San without saying a word.

Although he never mentioned it again on the way, he always remembered that Xie Hushan's eyes turned blue because of the trouble he caused.

Long San'er didn't react, but a well-proportioned young man next to him reacted quickly. He reached out and pulled Long San'er, then got into a wrestling stance, and put his hands in a tiger-catching stance to let Song Tiesheng pounce on him. He could tell as soon as Song Tiesheng took a step that this big guy had never practiced fighting and relied purely on his physical fitness to fight. He was sure that as long as the opponent got close to him, he would use a mountain-breaking move to knock Song Tiesheng down before the opponent could stand firm.

99% of his analysis and judgment were correct, except for one thing: Song Tiesheng was too aggressive in fighting.

He let Song Tiesheng get close to him, put his hands on Song Tiesheng's body and exerted force. A normal person would have been panicked and stunned at this time, but Song Tiesheng reacted slowly and felt nothing, and instead hit the opponent's nose with his head!

As soon as he succeeded, Song Tiesheng was thrown out and fell heavily to the ground!

When he got up from the ground after being hit by the mountain-breaking blow, the mask of the person who hit him was already stained with blood. He covered it with his hands, lowered his head and shook it vigorously, in unbearable pain, with tears streaming down his face!

"Stop, stop, stop~" Cheng Yunfei opened his mouth and wanted to call out to Song Tiesheng, but Song Tiesheng didn't give him face and walked straight towards his opponent with a nosebleed:
"Give me another one! Come on!"

Cheng Yunfei looked at Song Tiesheng shaking off his hand, and smiled at Xie Hushan without taking it as an offense: "Brother, you are too fierce, your temper is worse than Han Laoer's."

"Tiesheng, come back." Xie Hushan called out to Song Tiesheng who was about to go up and fight. Song Tiesheng looked at Xie Hushan, then at Long Saner: "Third brother, you let me..."

"I asked you to come back." Xie Hushan said.

Song Tiesheng nodded, pointed at Long Saner and the opponent who had just knocked him down, and retreated back to Xie Hushan.

The conflict just now attracted many stubborn hooligans who had gathered near the square to come over to watch the fun. Some of them knew Cheng Yunfei, some knew Long Saner, and they discussed it out loud from time to time.

"Long Saner, what did I say this afternoon? I told you to find someone to practice with me. If you can hit me with a punch, I and this brother of yours will be at your disposal." Cheng Yunfei lowered his head, took out a box of cheap osmanthus cigarettes, lit it, and put it in his mouth, and said to Long Saner:

"If you can't beat me and I've put you down, then just go back to your Dongdan and exploit thieves and don't show up again. You called in so few people, but none of them can fight. You're not as respectable as your two gangster brothers. When your brother beat me up a few years ago, he was able to call in two trained athletes from the sports school to help out, but all the people you called in are just weaklings."

"Fake flower boy, you are so old and yet you are still acting like your uncle! Fuck, I have wanted to deal with you for a long time!" Hearing Cheng Yunfei's harsh words, a tall figure rushed out of the team and punched Cheng Yunfei without saying a word:
"Why are you so arrogant? I won't accept it!"

Cheng Yunfei stood still with a cigarette in his mouth, showing off his beautiful boxing skills in front of everyone.

His feet were like they were welded to the ground, not moving at all, but his upper body twisted flexibly to dodge. The masked young man on the other side threw more than ten punches in a row, but Cheng Yunfei's upper body swayed left and right like noodles to dodge. After fighting for a long time, Cheng Yunfei didn't even touch a single hair of his body.

"Are you tired already?" When the other party slowed down and gasped, Cheng Yunfei asked lightly with smoke in his mouth, "You can't even fight with your physical strength. You'll have to wait for your wife to be a cuckold to you before you can get married. You're just getting started. It's my turn."

While saying "It's my turn", Cheng Yunfei punched the opponent hard in the face!
That punch made Xie Hushan's eyelids twitch!

He had fought in countless fights since he was a child, and he had punched his opponents in the face countless times, but he had never been able to knock out his opponent's teeth simply by relying on the force of his fists, and he had never seen anyone else do it.

But today, he saw it.

Cheng Yunfei punched the opponent on the left cheek, and the opponent immediately spat out a mouthful of blood and two teeth spurted out of his mouth!

It's more ferocious than an ordinary person swinging a hammer to hit his head!
The opponent's whole body was twisted on the spot by the punch, and he spun two steps diagonally like a top, and then fell to the ground with a "bang". He looked like a dead person, without any reaction, only blood oozing from the corners of his mouth, and he became incontinent on the spot.

In his previous life, Xie Hushan watched a Korean action movie starring Ma Dong-seok, in which he played the protagonist of One Punch Man, who often knocked down his opponents with one punch. It might have been beautified in the movie, otherwise judging from the scene alone, Cheng Yunfei's punch was even scarier than Ma Dong-seok's.

After the fist fight in the movie, the audience can feel that the protagonist has won.

But Cheng Yunfei's punch gave Xie Hushan the feeling that he now suspected that his opponent was beaten to death by Cheng Yunfei.

"Don't worry, you won't die. I'm holding back my strength." Cheng Yunfei looked around at the silent surroundings, flexed the fingers of his right hand that had just punched, and took the initiative to ease everyone's tension.

Then he looked at Long Saner:

"Next one, I'll say the same thing again. If you touch me, you win."

(End of this chapter)