Evil Awe-Inspiring

“… One punch… Only one punch blows the sandbag up!”

 There are whispers and screamings of surprises behind me, and I turn around. Many people have surprises on their faces that I have expected. My face is very indifferent. I stoop and pick up the glove on the ground. Then I slowly come over and give it back to that young man.

He is staring at me, and suddenly a question is jumping out of his mouth.

 “You can punch so hard without warming up?”

 His words immediately remind the others, and as a result, the surprises on everyone’s face are deepening.

 As everyone who has ever punched knows, punching hard is skillful. If we do a more detailed statistics, we will find that in all professional boxing competitions, the general boxers with heavy punches to knock down the opponent players are rarely in the first round.

 Why? Because in the first round, the boxers are testing each other. More importantly, they should adjust their body to their best conditions, strengths and speeds. Only when the body is active can the strongest punch be produced in the best condition!

 In professional basketball matches, players usually have to wait for several shots to find the best feeling, which is the same truth.

 I used the abstruse principle of fighting. When I was punching, I have mobilized all the strengths of my whole body. Only when my waist, legs and arms are working at the same time, I just can blow the sandbag to be broken with one punch.

 This young man’s eyes are fixed on me. They are no longer so cold, but with some moxibustion heat! He slowly takes over the glove. Looking at it, suddenly there’s a strange look is flashing in his eyes. He throws the glove on the ground, clenching his teeth and says: “I will not wear this thing in the future too.”

 “Ha! Ha! Ha…” Standing behind, Papa 8 is suddenly laughing loudly. He comes over and pats me on the shoulder, saying gently with the smile, “Little 5, your fighting skill is well practiced. It’s the real good skill. Hmm, now I understand why that fat fellow introduced you. I’ll ask someone to teach you how to practice the guns, and then you’ll be a good horse!”

 Honestly. A trace of confusion is flashing through my mind. There are more of… Well, it’s a bit more of hidden annoyances.

 A good horse?

 I understand. Maybe he means I’ll be a very good fighter, or a very good head horse.

 But, do I still have to rely on fighting to earn the future?

 This used to be the case at home, but now it’s still the same abroad?

 I don’t show anything unusual on my face. After all, I’m new here, and I’m not familiar with this place, so I can’t ask for anything. At least now I can settle down here, which is what I need most at present.

 Live in the present and look at the present first.

 Then Papa 8 finds a middle-aged man in the group, who looks very steady, and says to him: “Arrange a room for him.” Then he looks at me and says, “Little 5, you live with them first.”

 He does not say the future arrangment for me. I don’t ask either, just nodding.

 The middle-aged man seems to be the leader of these men here, tall and powerful. Looking at his walking posture, he should be in the army before. He looks at me with some admiration in his eyes and says with a smile, “Come with me, young man. Find you a place to live. Silo, he’ll live with you.”

 Within his words, I hear a slightly surprised voice: “Hmm? All right!”

 I find that it is so coincidental that Silo happens to be that young man. He is still staring at the sandbag that I blew up.

 The middle-aged man thinks for a while, then says to me with the smile: “By the way, do you have any further questions?”

 I scratch my back of the head and give him a bitter smile: “Hmm… Yes, there are… When do we eat dinner? I’m hungry! To tell you the truth, I was just jumping out of the ship and landed two hours ago. I’ve been floating on the sea for more than half a month. Now my feet are still soft!”

 My words make everyone laughing. The atmosphere here is good, these are all very straightforward men, everyone laughing for a while and coming up to say hello to me and welcome me to join. Papa 8 leaves directly.

 I have said hello to more than a dozen people, and I can’t remember so many names at a time at all, just remember the name of the young man who will live in a room with me. His name is Silo.

 Then I finally get the food. A big bowl of rice covers with two pieces of red-roasted meet, very greasy, bite off full mouth of oil, teeth full of meat fragrance! In addition, there are several green vegetables, which are very fresh.

 I’m just sitting on the floor of the gym, grabbing the bowl to eat. The rice is a little hard and the food tastes a little light, but I eat it very sweet.

 As I’m eating, I can’t help crying inside my heart. God sees pity! I thought myself is about dead many times when I drank rainwater and breeze on the sea. Now I can eat the rice and meat again.

 A whole bowl of rice, I do not wast any grain. After eating, I even want to lick the wall of the bowl.

 The middle-aged man looks at me and sighing: “Come on, you look very thin. How can you eat like a hungry tiger?”

 I grin bitterly: “Hungry for several days, no food in my stomach…” Then I’m ashamed to ask him, “Is there more?”

 “No.” The middle-aged man apologizes, “There’s no food in the kitchen and dinner hasn’t been cooked yet. These are the rest of the lunch. We’ll fill you up in the evening!”

 I laugh and stand up, return the bowl to him. Then I pat my stomach and sigh, “Stomach, stomach, we can’t imagine we can stay up till the day of eat meal again!”

 Middle-aged man has some doubts, looking at general feeling does not seem to pretend. He can’t help frowning: “Is it so hard to stowaway now? Nothing to eat on board?”

 I shake my head: “I don’t know. But I met pirates halfway, then got on a life raft, floated for days without food.”

 Speaking of this, I can’t help but think of Phoenix. Such a strange woman! I am feeling a little pain and sad in my heart.

 Middle-aged man wants to ask more questions. Silo has already packed up his things and coming. He put on his jacket and trousers, also the garage uniform, but pretty clean: “Let’s go. I’ll take you to where we live.”

 I follow Silo to go out, walk through the garage. I just find out that the garage is Papa 8’s private industry.

 According to Silo, this is the biggest garage in Vancouver, and everyone here is “our own men”.

 “Eat, wear and live, basically Papa 8 takes all these costs and we are free of charge. He’s very nice to his staff.” Silo jokes, “Your salary can be all saved! Basically, you don’t have to spend any penny. But if you want to find a woman, you have to pay for it yourself.”

 After a pause, he hesitates for a moment and staring at me: “You’re new here. I can take you around. Well, there’s really nothing near here. It’s quite remote and no commercial area nearby. But if you want to look for a woman, you can go to Hestin Street, where there are prostitutes!” Looking at me. He has a bad smile on his face, “Do you want it?”

 “Thank you. I don’t have such a need at the moment.” I politely refuse, and then hesitate to ask him, “Is there a convenience store near here? I want to buy some cigarettes.”

 Silo immediately pulls out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and hands it to me. I look at it. It’s a famous brand cigarette in mainland! It’s rare to see such a thing abroad!

 “The cigarettes are made of mixed tobacco; we cannot get used to. This is much better. I brought it from the crew. They smuggled it here. You take it first.”

I take it from him with the smile.

 When he talks about the crew, don’t know why. I immediately remember the lovely bastard, Captain Wick, who took two bags of dollars from me.

 I live in the same room with Silo, in a small building on the street next to the garage.

 As soon as I enter the small building, I feel a little intimate at once. Really!

 It’s like dormitories in schools or factories. There are three floors, each with a long corridor and many rooms on both sides.

 “The brother who used to live together in the room went to Toronto. Now the room is empty. It’s just time for you to stay together.” Silo seems to be very enthusiastic to me. I guess it’s probably because of the shocking effect of that heavy punch.

 There’s nothing to say in the room, messy and dirty. There are cigarette butts in the corner, dirty underwears on the sofa. The room is not big, with two beds, a small living room outside, a few dumbbells, and a very old TV.

 To my surprise, there’s an old record player here! It’s a very old-fashioned LP record player!

 I look at Silo in surprise. He’s smiling and showing his white teeth, which have not been stained with nicotine: “This is mine. I like this stuff.”

 I put my bag on my bed without collect. I have nothing to collect anyway. I’m interested to see Silo fiddling with his record player. I ask him: “Do you really like this? Who’s still using this nowadays?”

 Silo suddenly looks a little serious. He gives me a deep look and says in a low tone: “This is the only thing my parents left me! This is my father’s. He liked it best in his life.”

 “You… You escaped here, too? Or are you the local?”

 “I was born here.” Silo is smiling. He’s really a handsome, tall, white man, but his eyes are somewhat melancholy, “My father came to Canada at the same time with Papa 8, but he died early.”

I’m silent. Then I say: “Sorry!”

 Silo is blinking suddenly: “Want to hear something interesting?”

 “Well?”

 He turns on the record player, pushing the window open, adjusting and pointing the loudspeaker at the street outside the window, and turns the volume to the max!

 In a few moments, the loudspeaker of the record player is letting out very vigorous and heroic music!

 Then a very pleasant and full baritone begins to recite in a tone full of infinite affection.

 …

 I’m shocked!

 It’s an antique music poem recitation record!

 So, in this sunny afternoon, the music poems are resounding through this street in Vancouver.