Rebirth 1977 Great Era

Chapter 1027 Encountering a Fellow Traveler While Exercising on the Balcony, at Chunfang Hall in Hong Kong (Bonus Chapter for Monthly Tickets: 3K Chapters)

Representative Huo chatted here until a little after seven o'clock, and then left. There are still many things to do before the wedding, and there is also a party tonight to entertain some friends.

Because of his dialect-speaking identity, Representative Huo didn't let him go with them.

After Representative Huo left, it gradually got dark outside.

Fang Yan then remembered that he needed to send a telegram to Lao Hu in Beijing.

However, since someone is looking for him now, sending a telegram would easily reveal his whereabouts, so he has temporarily put aside his words. Anyway, he will be in Guangdong on Tuesday, so it won't be too late to send the telegram then, or he can tell Lao Hu when he gets back to Beijing.

That evening, Fang Yan and his friends didn't go anywhere; they just stayed upstairs and watched the night view of Victoria Harbour.

If I get bored, I go back to my room to watch TV.

To be honest, the TV programs here are quite novel.

This also broadened the horizons of Li Chong and Deng Cai.

Deng Cai leaned over and pointed at the screen:

"Young Master Fang... Young Master Lin, the women in this advertisement are dressed very scantily!"

The screen then transitioned to a soap advertisement, showing a blonde model in a bikini running on a beach, with waves splashing up tiny silver sparkles, accompanied by an upbeat English song.

Li Chong reached out and changed the channel. The next channel was showing a martial arts documentary. The camera panned across a martial arts school in Causeway Bay, where an old master was demonstrating Hung Kuen routines with a rattan cane. The wooden dummy made a dull thud, and the traditional Chinese characters "工字伏虎拳" (Gong Zi Fu Hu Quan) on the subtitles were powerful and vigorous.

When the screen switched to the educational television, a chemistry experiment was playing. The teacher was holding up a test tube and explaining the acid-base neutralization reaction, while the periodic table of elements was written on the blackboard behind him in chalk.

Switching channels again, the scene shows the British Royal Navy cruiser that entered the harbor during the day slowly approaching the shore, with sailors on deck busy under searchlights, and the camera sweeping across the ship's side bearing the number "HMS Belfast".

The anchor's voice was serious:
"It is understood that the ship will participate in the event held in Tsim Sha Tsui tomorrow night..."

Deng Cai muttered to himself, "These British people are really persistent..."

Then I kept changing channels and found a martial arts movie.

The opening credits of the period martial arts film, "Raging Sword and Wild Flower," burst forth with a blood-red filter, while the stirring background music, a blend of pipa and gong, instantly filled the room.

The camera cuts in from a steep cliff, showing a woman in a white outfit leaping across plum blossom stakes, her clothes fluttering in the wind, and a red ribbon in her hair drawing a sharp arc.

"This move looks like our Tai Chi stance." Li Chong leaned closer to the screen, gesturing with his fingers along with the image. The female lead spun around and lashed out with her nine-section whip. The sound of the chain cutting through the air was amplified into a thunderous boom by the sound effects. The moment the whip tip wrapped around the villain's collar, the camera cut to slow motion, revealing the woman's cold face reflected in the villain's wide pupils, with beads of sweat clearly visible on her temples.

The bamboo forest in the background was tinged with bluish-gray by the moonlight, and the details of the trembling bamboo leaves were clearly visible, making it much more exquisite than the set design of the Northern Theater Company.

The scene shifts, and the two leap onto the eaves of an ancient temple. Amidst the sound of tiles shattering beneath their feet, the woman suddenly uses the "Swallow Through the Curtain" movement technique.

"The action choreography in this film is quite interesting. The breakdown of the moves is even more sophisticated than that of martial arts performances in Peking Opera, but it's a bit rigid," Li Chong said.

Fang Yan seemed to see the shadow of a martial arts master who had been chased away by Lao Hu. It wasn't until half an hour later, when the end credits of the martial arts film were rolled, that Fang Yan saw "Martial Arts Director: Liu Jialiang".

I was right.

It was almost 9 p.m. when we finished watching the movie.

I'm bored, so I'm going to take a shower and then go to sleep.

I've been busy all day and I'm exhausted.

For the sake of the dialect's safety, Deng Cai and Li Chong planned to take turns keeping watch in the main hall at night.

When Fang Yan came out after taking a shower, he saw the two people in the main hall watching a new martial arts movie on a different channel.

"I'm going to sleep now," Fang Yan said to them.

The two agreed:
"Okay! Don't worry, we've got our eyes on things outside!"

"Don't worry, Young Master Lin!"

Fang Yan returned to her master bedroom, lay down on the bed, and fell asleep shortly afterward.

I was running around all day and I'm exhausted now, so I slept very soundly.

When he got up again, it was just getting light outside, and he could still see the lights of Victoria Harbour. Fang Yan checked the time and it was already 5:50 a.m.

My biological clock is really powerful. Even after traveling from Beijing in the north to Hong Kong in the south, I still woke up at this time.

Fang Yan opened the door to the master bedroom and walked into the living room.

At this moment, Deng Cai suddenly stood up from the sofa.

Li Chong, who was resting on the side, immediately opened his eyes.

They breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that it was dialect.

"Master Fang... Young Master Lin is up so early?" Deng Cai said to Fang Yan.

Fang Yan was both amused and exasperated by this form of address, and said to them:

"Well, I usually get up around this time. You guys go to bed and get some sleep. We don't leave until 10 o'clock, so we still have time."

Deng Cai and Li Chong exchanged a glance and nodded.

After keeping watch all night, it was really tough. Today, they also need to protect the dialect, so the two of them can't afford to be out of energy.

So one of them went to the second bedroom, and the other lay down on the bodyguard's bed in the main hall. Fang Yan didn't disturb them, and went out through the French windows of the balcony.

The sea breeze at six in the morning, carrying a salty mist, hit me, feeling a bit cooler than the wind from last night.

Under the grey-blue sky before dawn, the runway of Kai Tak Airport was already lit up with navigation lights, resembling a silver ribbon spread across the sea.

In the distance, a cargo ship flying the Portuguese flag is slowly entering the port.

Fang Yan stretched and started to stretch his limbs on the balcony.

In the distance, Victoria Peak was shrouded in a pale purple morning mist, and a few lights were scattered across the luxury residential area halfway up the mountain. From one of the colonial-style villas, a warm yellow light shone through.

The skyscrapers on the north shore of Hong Kong Island have not yet fully awakened, with only the top of the HSBC Building flashing a red warning light.

Taxis occasionally drive by on the street downstairs facing the sea.

In the harbor, the silhouette of the British Royal Navy cruiser HMS Belfast was faintly visible in the morning mist.

The first Star Ferry had just departed the shore, and the neon sign at the bow, "Star Ferry Tsim Sha Tsui - Central," flickered in the fog.

After standing on the stake for a while, Fang Yan smelled a sweet aroma of bananas and pineapples mixed with the scent of the sea.

It turned out that the tea restaurant in the distance had already lit up its signboard. The neon tube of "Lan Fong Yuen" was missing a corner, and the last vertical stroke of the character "Yuen" was flickering.

Then he started boxing on the balcony.

Master Lu Donghua and Deng Tietao, whom I met last time, can both attest that practicing martial arts can indeed slow down aging and prolong life. It's a pity that I can't eat Zhu Liangchun's health-preserving porridge here in Hong Kong.

Otherwise, it would have been a perfect morning.

Just as Fang Yan was practicing with great enthusiasm, his Xingyi Quan and Bagua Zhang movements creating powerful sounds on the balcony, a burst of applause and exclamations of praise came from above.

"What amazing skills!"

Fang Yan paused, looked up, and saw an old man with white hair clapping and laughing on the balcony of a room upstairs.

His accent sounded distinctly Northeastern, which surprised me, so I quickly cupped my hands in greeting.

The old man smiled and asked in dialect:

"Young man, who is your master? Your Xingyi Quan looks quite good!"

Fang Yan did not answer, and the other person said:
"Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to probe your abilities. I also practice Xingyi Quan, let me show you a set!"

After saying that, he made a starting gesture in a place where the dialect could be seen.

Fang Yan was taken aback, and then saw him slump his shoulders and elbows, twist his hips slightly, and plant his feet firmly on the balcony floor tiles as if they were rooted to the ground.

Then he began to practice the "Splitting Fist" from the Five Elements Fist. When his right palm slashed down like a knife, the sound of the wind whipped up by his sleeves was even louder than when Fang Yan had just practiced his fist, and there seemed to be a metallic humming between his arm bones.

The second move was the "Drill Fist." The old man suddenly lowered his head by half a head, his body leaping forward like a cheetah. His knees were slightly bent but as steady as an iron tower. When his fist thrust forward, it trembled slightly, as if a real drill was spinning.

Fang Yan could tell at a glance that this was the "hidden strength" skill. On the surface, the moves were no different from those of ordinary martial artists, but in reality, every punch was filled with internal strength that resonated through the muscles and bones.

When the old man unleashed the "Crushing Fist," his entire body suddenly erupted with fierce power. His right fist struck out in a straight line, and his back undulated like waves, causing his fist to produce a short, sharp vibration. This was the ultimate mastery of the "unity of waist and stance," just like the "inch power" of a trembling spear tip.

Looking at the Xingyiquan performed in the local dialect, because it is for health preservation and also incorporates Baguazhang, the starting posture is more gentle.

His "splitting fist" emphasizes the extension of the arm, with the wrist slightly rotating when the palm strikes down, carrying the roundness of Baguazhang; when he lunges forward with the "drilling fist", his steps are as light as a cat, with a slightly larger angle between his knees, more like the "stepping like a cat" of Tai Chi.

When delivering the "Beng Quan" (a powerful punch), Fang Yan slightly turned his body and used the rotation of his waist to deliver the punch. Although the punch was fast, it lacked the "hard-hitting" ferocity of the old man's punch. Instead, it had more "skillful force," like using skillful force to pry open a wedge of a boulder.

The old man suddenly stopped and said to Fang Yan, "Alright, you should have figured out my style by now, right?"

I'm speechless. What am I supposed to know? I'm not just looking for people to fight, how am I supposed to know so many different styles?

The old man spoke to the dialect:

"The style you just used, was it a combination of Xingyi Quan and Bagua Zhang?"

“That’s interesting! When I was learning boxing from my master in Shenyang, the principle was ‘better to advance with one thought than to stop with one thought.’ Every punch had to be bone-cutting.”

"Your approach... is like wrapping an iron fist in silk, soft yet firm!"

"The old man can't tell which faction they belong to, young man, can you tell me?"

Fang Yan smiled and cupped his hands in greeting, saying:
"Figure it out yourself and practice to improve your health."

"May I ask your esteemed name, senior?" Fang Yan wanted to find out more about the other party before making any further inquiries.

At this moment, a boy of about seventeen or eighteen years old walked over and said to Fang Yan:

"You don't know my grandfather? He's from out of town?"

"..." Fang Yan was speechless. Who was this kid?
The other person raised their head and said:
"My grandfather's name is Li Chunfang. He is the owner of Chunfangtang Clinic, a disciple of Shang Yunxiang, the honorary president of the Hong Kong Chinese Medicine Orthopedics Association, and has a long-term private room at the Peninsula Hotel. He only sees ten patients a day!"

Fang Yan was taken aback when he heard this. Good heavens, he'd run into a fellow professional!
PS: After finishing this chapter, I still owe everyone 82000 words.

That's all for today, please come early tomorrow.

Lao Feng is working hard to write tomorrow's code.

(End of this chapter)