A Jun IV

This article was written on October 19, 2013

Author: Lü Jianfeng

A Jun IV

——In memory of the reckless years of youth

When A Jun was twenty, he was fond of Jin Yong, Gu Long, and martial arts novels, valuing chivalry and boldness.

One day, A and a friend took a minibus in Beijing. The minibus had one driver and one conductor. A passenger, possibly without money, took advantage of the crowd boarding and claimed he had paid. The burly conductor dragged him off and slapped him hard. A Jun's blood rushed to his head, and he shouted, "If you don't drive now, I'll beat you to death!" The whole bus fell silent. The conductor stopped hitting and exchanged a look with the driver, speechless. The bus started moving.

Another day, at the roundabout under the North Fourth Ring Road, A saw some people gambling on chess. He casually said, "They're cheating." Immediately, three or five men rushed at A. A kicked the front one and turned to run, escaping swiftly.

Once, A's fellow townsman was beaten by a pork seller at a market. So he gathered A and over a dozen fellow townsmen, carrying iron rods and cleavers, and chased the vendor, slashing at him. Several surrounding butchers made loud noises but dared not move. The vendor was covered in blood, and A and the others left calmly.

Another time, another fellow townsman of A had beaten a watermelon seller in the suburbs, who was a member of a gang, all local thugs from nearby rural areas of Beijing. The gang leader brought men with long watermelon knives to search everywhere for A's fellow townsman. By the weekend, A took his fellow townsman and went directly to the leader's residence. Over a dozen thugs immediately surrounded them, waiting for the leader's order. The beaten man, holding a watermelon knife, thrust it at the fellow townsman behind A. A grabbed the blade with his bare hand, and like in a Hong Kong gangster film, the knife couldn't move. The leader quickly ordered, "Everyone, stop!" A said slowly, "We are all outsiders. If it really comes to a fight, we're not afraid. We'll beat you and run; you'd have no way to catch us." The leader said it couldn't end without compensation. A agreed to host a banquet to apologize. Probably the local snake fears the roaming dragon, and that settled the matter.

A was beaten and slashed more often. Space is limited; details will be given in the next installment.