Chapter 4: You Are the True Hero
Fortunately, Xia Shang was in the City Center, where taxis were quite numerous. If he were in a more remote area, he might have to wait half an hour for a taxi to pass by, which is one of the reasons why most American families choose to buy cars.
"Hey, heading to Chinatown?" An orange-yellow taxi stopped in front of Xia Shang. The driver appeared to be Chinese.
"No, directly to this address."
Xia Shang showed the driver the address on his phone.
"OK, we'll be there in half an hour." The driver was clearly familiar with the geography of New York.
"Are you Chinese?" The driver asked as soon as Xia Shang got in the car.
"My family moved to the US over ten years ago."
"Your Chinese is pretty good then." Being talkative is perhaps a characteristic of most drivers, and the one next to Xia Shang was no exception.
The driver chatted with Xia Shang while driving, which Xia Shang didn't mind.
"Wow, you're actually a Vought International employee? My son really likes Homelander from your company, Homelander is his idol. Oh, right, do you have Homelander's autograph? I'll buy it for 200 dollars."
Xia Shang saw many superhero stickers inside the car. Vought International's marketing ability was truly formidable. In New York, traces of superheroes were almost everywhere, whether on street billboards or beverage packaging. Superheroes were practically ubiquitous.
"I don't have Homelander's autograph, but I do have a ticket to one of his fan meetups."
These tickets were an internal benefit for Vought employees, usually given to their relatives' children, but Xia Shang had no use for them. So, he took out a ticket and handed it to the driver. The driver initially wanted to pay for it, but Xia Shang refused.
He could get one of these every few days; Homelander's tickets, in particular, were plentiful.
Honestly, Homelander was pretty good to his fans, provided he was in a good mood, of course. He seemed to really enjoy being worshipped.
"And you, my friend, you are the true hero." The driver drove with one hand, mimicking Homelander's catchphrase.
Xia Shang got out of the car, and the driver didn't even charge him the fare. Instead, he gave Xia Shang his phone number, telling him to call directly next time he needed a ride.
The Sword Master was an old man with a grizzled beard. His Dojo's layout was somewhat similar to a Taekwondo studio, and it was very clean and tidy inside.
After changing clothes, Xia Shang waited with over a dozen other students for the arrival of Sword Master Johnson.
The next second, gasps of surprise came from the students around Xia Shang.
"Queen Maeve!" Many of the students were Queen Maeve's fans, so they were very excited when they saw her appear at the Dojo. Many of them even screamed. In contrast, Xia Shang appeared quite calm.
The tall Queen Maeve enthusiastically took photos with her fans, clearly at ease with such small crowds.
"Master Johnson was once my teacher, so I specially came to visit him." Maeve explained the reason for her appearance here.
Behind her, cameras were constantly clicking. It wasn't hard to see that this was just a premeditated marketing event, especially since Vought International held a significant stake in this Dojo.
"Maeve, the noisy world has crushed your heart that yearned to constantly grow stronger. You've disappointed me somewhat." Sword Master Johnson, though short in stature, stood ramrod straight. Just standing there gave off an extremely strong sense of pressure.
Johnson's words caused the smile on Queen Maeve's face to instantly freeze. She awkwardly smoothed her auburn hair.
Seeing this, her staff immediately led people away from the Dojo. Xia Shang vaguely remembered that Queen Maeve's personality wasn't actually bad, but having spent so much time with those superheroes, she had inevitably picked up some bad habits.
"Let me see how much of the sword arts I taught you is left." Master Johnson tossed the wooden sword in his hand to Maeve.
After Maeve took the wooden sword, she thrust it towards the rubber target.
In an instant, the extremely tough rubber target was pierced through. This display of strength made Xia Shang, who was watching from the side, quite envious.
"It stopped half an inch from the heart. Piercing the dummy was only possible because of brute force. Your control over your own strength is not as good as a student who's been here for less than a month." Johnson reprimanded her mercilessly.
"How is that possible?" Queen Maeve frowned, completely unwilling to believe that a student who had only practiced for a month could surpass her.
Oh no!
As soon as Master Johnson finished speaking, Xia Shang, who had been trying his best to minimize his presence, felt a bad premonition.
Sure enough, Johnson's hawk-like gaze quickly found Xia Shang in the crowd.
"Xia, come demonstrate your sword technique."
Facing his proud student, Master Johnson's attitude was clearly much better, and even his expression softened.
There was nothing he could do, so Xia Shang had to bite the bullet and step out of the crowd.
"Have I seen you somewhere before?" Queen Maeve looked at the Asian kid in front of her, finding him somewhat familiar, as if she had seen him somewhere.
"A month ago, I played a robber in the short film you shot."
"Oh, it was you." Well, even with Xia Shang saying that, Queen Maeve still didn't remember. Just as Asians might have trouble distinguishing Western faces, Westerners often couldn't tell Asian faces apart.
Seeing the confusion in Queen Maeve's eyes, Xia Shang knew she had definitely forgotten who he was.
Xia Shang picked up the wooden sword, stepped onto the soft mat, casually performed a sword flourish, and then continuously slashed and thrust at the dummy several times. His movements were so fast that most people couldn't even see them clearly, only catching glimpses of sword light flashing through the air.
Only Queen Maeve, with her extraordinary dynamic vision, could fully see Xia Shang's movements.
"The brow, the throat, the heart... all fatal points. The control over force is just right," Queen Maeve murmured softly, her eyes serious.
"Good, your movements are very fast and clean. The only thing you lack now is actual combat experience." Master Johnson nodded in satisfaction. To be honest, he felt that the current Xia Shang was like Maeve from a few years ago. His talent in sword arts was just as astonishing, and Xia Shang's lethality was even stronger, making him more suitable for actual combat.
"Your sword arts are indeed very good."
Maeve extended her left hand to Xia Shang. "Are you interested in participating in the superhero selection competition?"
Xia Shang hadn't expected Maeve to extend an olive branch to him. His scalp immediately tingled, and he even pictured someone next to Homelander introducing how fast his sword was, only for Homelander to shoot him through with a laser and say, "I believe nothing is faster than a laser."
"No, I don't have that idea for now," Xia Shang quickly refused.
(end of chapter)