STRIKING DOWN A LOCAL CHIEFTAIN
As Sifu Lee Wei Joo thrusts a right punch, Grandmaster Wong responds with a Butterfly Palm strike.
Luk Ah Choy thought to himself that if he returned to the Shaolin Monastery now and told the Venerable Chee Seen that he could not find Lai Fu, Chee Seen would be suspicious. So he decided to stay outside for some time before returning.
When he left the monastery, he brought along 5 taels of silver. After about half a month searching for Lai Fu, he found that he had about 1 or 2 taels left. Thinking for some time, he came out with a plan. He had learned some thiet-da, i.e. kungfu medicine for injuries due to falling or being hit. So he decided to sell some thiet-da medicine, like medicated pills and medicated plasters, to support his livelihood while staying outside the monastery.
He went to a medical shop to buy some medicine, and prepared some medicated pills and medicated plasters. He also bought a gong. Then we went to town to sell his medicine.
Luk Ah Choy had not been in streams and lakes before (i.e. in society), so he did not know society rules. Whenever an artist came to a new area, he had to pay respect to a big brother (or leader of the gang controlling the area), otherwise the artist could never be able to stand on his feet (i.e. to survive in his trade as he would be beaten by the gang). While Luk Ah Choy was demonstrating his kungfu before selling his medicine, a group of gangsters came forward to destroy his sales apparatus.
“Stop!” Luk Ah Choy shouted at the gangsters. “What are you doing?”
A person who appeared to be a leader of the gang shouted back, “How dare you start selling medicine without first paying respect to our big brother?”
“Who’s your big brother?”
“He’s called Iron Hand Four, because his hands are hard like iron, and he is the fourth in his family. Everyone is scared of him.”
But before he completed the sentence, he and his gang started damaging the sales apparatus. Luk Ah Choy went forward, gripped the gang leader’s band and bent it backward, causing him much pain.
“Let go of my hand, let go of my hand,” he screamed. Luk Ah Choy gave him a gentle push and he fell many feet away, groaning on the floor. The other gang members were stunned, and dared not move.
Just then, the crowd separated into two sides, and a tough man came forward. He was huge and dark, and his hands were big and rough.
“I’m Iron Hand Four,” he howled. As he spoke, he rushed forward with his right hand coming at Luk Ah Choy’s head.
Luk Ah Choy retreated a small step to avoid his chop. “This is the first time I let you attack,” Luk Ah Choy said.
Iron Hand Four moved forward to execute another chop with his left hand. Luk Ah Choy dodged to his right side to avoid the second chop, saying “This is the second time I let you attack.”
Iron Hand Four was furious. This time he threw his body forward and executed a right punch. Luk Ah Choy adroitly moved to his back. Smilingly he said, “This is the third time I let you attack. If you attack again, I shall strike back.”
Iron Hand Four was enraged. He turned around and executed a right punch again. As the punch was approaching, Luk Ah Choy moved forward with a butterfly palm strike, his arm brushing away the coming punch and hitting the opponent on the chest. This was a high-level move, using the tactic of no-defence-direct-counter, and employing the principle of “when there is a bridge, go along the bridge”.
Iron Hand Four was thrown many feet backward, landing on the ground. In a second or two, he vomited blood.
Luk Ah Choy threw a few medicated pills at him, saying “Take a pill with warm rice wine everyday for the first three days, then take a pill after three days.” His gang members picked up the medicated pills on the ground, and carried him away.
A lot of people rushed forward to buy the medicated pills. Luk Ah Choy sold all his medicated pills that night and made a lot of profit.
Wong Kiew Kit
14th January 2018, Sungai Petani
LINKS