Romance of Dragons and Snakes

The nurse stared at Wang Chao with some surprise for a moment as if thinking that Zhang Tong was the mistress nursing a young gigolo before giving a wink and walking out. Wang Chao’s lip twitched as if he wanted to explain but instead explaining, he gave a smile.

“Feeling better? The doctors said that the cut on your back had nearly struck the spine. If it was serious enough, then you would be paralyzed from the waist up and would be confined to the bed your entire life.” Zhang Tong pulled up a chair and twisted open the thermos to pour some hot soup for him and placing some food on the table.

“I’m feeling fine, well better than yesterday. The doctors always love to exaggerate so they can scare out even more money from people. There’s no need to listen to them.” Wang Chao sat up and shook his arm, but he didn’t feel as much pain from when he woke up.

“Is that right.” Zhang Tong had a gentle smile before handing a pair of chopsticks to him, “This some of the specialized medicinal cuisine I’ve ordered along with some black-boned chicken and ginseng soup. Your body was already quite well, so it shouldn’t take long to heal.”

Suddenly feeling hungry, Wang Chao nodded his head and picked up the chopsticks. “Ah, it smells great.” Then with gusto, Wang Chao quickly finished off the three plates and soup on the table.”

After seeing Wang Chao finish the meal, Zhang Tong called out for a nurse to come and clean up the plates and bowl.

“Ah, leave the chopsticks here please.” Zhang Tong suddenly spoke out as the nurse was cleaning up.

After the nurse had left, Zhang Tong walked over to the sink and began to wash the chopsticks under the faucet. After wiping them off, she handed one of the sticks to Wang Chao and kept the other.

“What are you doing?” Wang Chao asked in confusion.

“If a martial artist is confined to the bed and doesn’t exercise, then their blood vessels will become rigid. After several days, the effects would be disastrous. Your back has a heavy wound, but your arms are fine, so I’ll help you practice.” Zhang Tong laughed in the same manner as a mischievous woman giving a wink.

“Help me practice?” Wang Chao looked at the stick in his hand. Zhang Tong had already sat on the bed, and with a rapid movement of her hand, the chopstick had been like a poisonous snake flying out of its hole and stabbed Wang Chao on the wrist!

“Fast!” Wang Chao blanched as he saw the chopstick in Zhang Tong’s hand fly at him with a deadly precision. Quickly responding, he brought the chopstick up in his own hand to block.

What he didn’t expect to see was Zhang Tong’s chopstick to intertwine with his own. Almost like stirring up water, the chopstick came down with a motion that made Wang Chao feel like he was about to lose his grip on his own stick.

“My god!” Wang Chao sighed out his admirations mentally as he tried to clenched the chopstick so that it wouldn’t fall from his hand. But because of Zhang Tong’s swift and consecutive movements, his wrist was stabbed into.

“I’ve told you before I know the art of the sword.” Zhang Tong smiled, “There are thirteen powers to a sword: whip, deflect, block, strike, stab, poke, burst, stir, brush, press, and chop. What I just did was the burst, poke, and stir. If you haven’t learned how to use a sword, then you naturally wouldn’t be able to block it.”

“Ah, which style of sword did you learn?” Wang Chao asked with interest.

“This is the sword style passed down by Li Jinglin when he was in Nanjing. My teacher was the subordinate of Li Jinglin that fled to Taiwan when the Nationalist Party fell. Then he moved to France and taught me what he learned there.” Zhang Tong spoke.

“Li Jinglin…” Wang Chao thought. During the time of the Republic of China, Li Jinglin was the commander of the Northeastern army and then later became the administrator of the Hebei province. He had been interested in the Wudang sword style and practiced martial arts himself. Later on, he and several other key members of the Nationalist Party formed the Central Guoshu Institute. Within the Wulin circles, his name was as famous as Sun Lu-tang and was often times called the “God of the Sword”, or the “Sword Immortal”.

When Li Jinglin had opened the Central Guoshu Institute, his disciples were countless. But after the collapse of the Nationalist Party, he had been forced to go overseas.

Wang Chao knew that Zhang Tong had learned how to use a sword before, but he had thought that she had merely learned the style of fencing where it was meant for fun. He had no idea that the sword style she learned was an extremely influential one.

“No wonder you like watching people practice martial arts, you yourself came from a martial art background.” Wang Chao thought back to the time he and Zhang Tong met– it was at the Taekwondo dojo.

“I’m not so much from such a background. I only know fencing and not any other martial art. In a real fight, if I don’t have a sword, then there would be no way for me to win. Ah, a woman in nature avoids fighting in such dire scenarios.” Zhang Tong shook her head, “My master at time knew of the limitations of the sword, but it was still peerless amongst all else.”

“Who said a woman’s nature is like that?” Wang Chao instantly thought about sis Chen. “Come, let’s try again. Let me see just how great your sword art is.”

Zhang Tong laughed, “Don’t make your wrist swollen in an attempt to see it.” With that, she lashed out with the chopstick again.

“A sword is like a small spear; meant to stab and kill. There are some similarities with some each other though.” Wang Chao hurriedly put up a guard and treated the chopstick like a spear in order to defend against Zhang Tong.

The two continued to stab and lunge nimbly and quick, but because of Wang Chao’s endurance and fighting experience, Zhang Tong had been taxed in energy. Her face began to grow red as her wrist began to grow slower, but Wang Chao had been completely engrossed in this exchange. His chopstick lashed out quickly like a dragon ascending into the sky and brought down her chopstick.

With a startled cry, her body subconsciously drew back in order to avoid the strike.

But in her state of carelessness, she hadn’t realized that there was a water spot from when she washed the chopsticks. She was also wearing high heels, so when she stood up, her body began to lean backwards as if ready to fall.

However, thanks to her training, her body immediately forced itself forward to fall onto Wang Chao’s bed.

“Aiii! Ow! Ow! Wang Chao instantly cried out, with her pressed against him, the pain had been more than Wang Chao could take.

At that moment, a frantic footstep could be heard as the door to the room was blown open as a sound called out, “Wang Chao, how were you harmed? With your martial arts, you could still be injured to such an extent?”

The person who came in was Zhu Jia.

“What…what are you…two doing?” Zhu Jia eyes widened as wide as dinner plates with her mouth open. Her finger shook as if ready to go into a seizure as she pointed at the bed, “It’s still daytime in the hospital….”