Chapter 17: Belt Soaked in Povidone-Iodine
The police inspected Ning Qiaoqiao’s equipment and, to avoid any further complications, shut down her livestream first.
They didn’t make things difficult for the young woman. Instead, Xiang Yu pulled Ning Qiaoqiao aside and asked her a few more questions. Worried that the stream might have captured Shen Jiu dodging bullets and using his crutch to stop the van, she also specifically asked Liu Bo—who had arrived with Ning Qiaoqiao—what exactly he had seen.
“I saw how awesome you were, Boss.” Liu Bo was completely won over, looking at Xiang Yu with nothing but admiration.
“Boss, you were freaking amazing! Damn, you and Brother Shen—one using a staff, the other using a whip—you beat those traffickers senseless! Holy crap, that was incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it!”
“Oh, by the way, what’s up with Brother Shen’s leg? Does his crutch actually count as a regulated weapon?”
Xiang Yu let out two dry chuckles and turned to look at Shen Jiu. After the villagers had rushed in, he’d quietly retreated to the back. Now he stood there as if nothing had happened, casually leaning on his crutch.
The man was standing off to one side, looking as calm and elegant as a chrysanthemum, pretending to be crippled. But after seeing him alter the trajectory of bullets and force a speeding van to a stop, even his silent, low-key presence now radiated an overwhelming “B-King” aura.
So this is what a true powerhouse feels like… so dazzling.
She had countless questions for him. How exactly did his ability work? Did all Special Employees possess supernatural powers? Were there limits to using them? What kind of job had he actually come here to do?
What a ridiculous day. The new employee hadn’t even finished introducing himself before helping her fight an all-out brawl.
As if sensing her gaze, Shen Jiu turned toward Xiang Yu and slightly curled the corner of his mouth.
Although his expression barely changed—a smile made up of perhaps a single pixel—he really was smiling. Xiang Yu caught it immediately and couldn’t help smiling back.
Somehow…
…this felt like the classic case of “no acquaintance without a fight.”
The moment a fight starts, he joins without hesitation. Acts decisively. Actually listens when people talk. Yeah… this guy’s someone worth keeping around.
She was thinking exactly that while, on the other side, everyone was busy processing the crime scene. The ambulances had already arrived, but the condition of several of the criminals left even the medical staff at a loss as to where they should begin treating them.
The medical staff eventually put on thick protective suits and, pinching their noses, dug the manure back out of the unconscious traffickers’ mouths.
The water Liu Bo had brought finally came in handy. Bucket after bucket was poured over them, and before long, the fire truck he’d called in also arrived. The firefighters had rushed over with high-pressure hoses expecting to put out a fire. They found no flames—but the hoses didn’t go to waste.
Standing atop the truck, they sprayed the traffickers down one by one. Once the filth had been washed off, those with severe injuries were taken to the hospital, while those still able to walk were escorted to the police station.
Sun Quanyou had already been tortured into a delirious state. As he was about to be loaded into a police car, he caught sight of Xiang Yu and suddenly shrieked,
“It’s her! It’s her!”
Using both his hands and feet, he tried to lunge at Xiang Yu. His mind was no longer clear. Even while being restrained by two police officers, he kept baring his teeth and waving his arms at her.
“She jumped out halfway through! She’s the one who killed them! She beat all of us to death! And that man—he’s a ghost! A ghost! Aaaah!”
If that woman and that man hadn’t suddenly shown up, we would’ve gotten away!
Ji Gang was so fed up with him that he roared,
“Even if she had beaten you to death, it’d still count as a righteous act!”
He had manure splattered all over himself too. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to switch off his body camera and slap the trafficker across the face.
But instead, he had to patiently escort the ringleader of the trafficking gang, investigate the identity of the little girl found in the trunk, send the half-dead traffickers to the hospital, and later return to take statements and write reports. The entire village was in the middle of funeral arrangements—whose family, after having their child kidnapped, would be in the mood to cooperate with the investigation and follow the police back to give a statement?
Afraid Pingping’s mother might splash him with another ladle of manure, he simply turned to Ji Kailang.
“Teacher Ji, could you come with us and give a statement?”
Then he looked at Xiang Yu, his tone becoming much gentler.
“Miss, they say you were the first witness at the scene. Would you mind coming along too? It won’t take too long.”
Xiang Yu agreed. She told Liu Bo to stay behind and help clean up the aftermath before climbing into the police vehicle herself. Then she took a deep breath.
“…Can I ride in Director Ji’s electric cart instead?” she asked awkwardly. “The smell in here is… pretty intense.”
They had no idea what this hastily improvised livestream would become once the power of the internet got hold of it.
Ning Qiaoqiao wasn’t a famous streamer. She was a journalism and media student who had only recently started creating content. She was still an amateur—unsigned by any MCN agency—and at the stage where she was making up for inexperience through sheer hard work.
The night before, she’d seen a post on her university’s campus forum about a hot spring that supposedly had “a mysterious aura.” So early that morning, she headed over to film. After shooting the exterior, she moved inside. The hot spring resort turned out to be much nicer than she’d expected, and she figured this video might do reasonably well.
What she hadn’t expected was to stumble into the chance to go viral.
The moment the owner arrived, she started shouting that there was a fire and told the manager to call the police and get help.
Sensing a story, Ning Qiaoqiao followed without hesitation. The muscular store manager had initially tried to stop her, but then figured having another person to pass buckets of water would be useful. Since the livestream camera she’d been using around the hot spring was hanging from a lanyard around her neck, she never turned it off. Wearing the camera the whole time, she helped fill buckets, loaded them onto the vehicle, and charged straight to the scene.
She never imagined she’d capture so many unforgettable moments.
It started with a whip and a staff beating up human traffickers, followed by the “Lightning Five-Hit Whip,” a funeral procession stepping in to help with weapons drawn, manure literally raining down on the criminals, and firefighters blasting everyone with high-pressure hoses…
Not a single moment lacked entertainment value.
The only problem was that her livestream was far too obscure. Without the platform pushing it to more viewers, even excellent stream quality couldn’t save it. By the time she ended the broadcast, she’d only attracted one or two thousand viewers.
But then she met the person who changed everything.
Among those viewers was a content creator who specialized in making clipped videos from livestreams. They downloaded the recording and uploaded it to Xyin. Whether they were too busy to edit it or simply thought every second was entertaining, they posted the entire recording completely uncut, exactly as it had happened.
For the first hour, almost no one watched it.
Then, because it happened to include one of the platform’s promotional exposure hashtags, more and more people started clicking on it. Somehow, a major account on Weibo picked it up and drove traffic to it under the title:
“[You Won’t Believe All of This Happened in a Single Day]”
Soon, the barrage comments and comment section outnumbered the likes. As viewers began enthusiastically recommending it to one another, the recording exploded in popularity.
Still shaken after everything she’d experienced, Ning Qiaoqiao finally returned to her dormitory and opened her account.
She was greeted by 999+ notifications for mentions and likes.
Her inbox had been flooded with private messages.
Following the links people had sent her, she opened the recording on Xyin.
The moment she saw it, her vision went black.
198,000 likes. 88,000 comments. 6.4 million views.
It had reached #1 on the local trending list and #5 on Xyin’s overall trending chart.
With trembling hands, Ning Qiaoqiao tapped on the video.
A flood of bullet comments immediately covered the screen.
[The place where it all began.]
[A timeless classic.]
[There’s no escaping this one.]
[The most righteous episode.]
[A new holy scripture has appeared.]
[Stay tuned.]
As an internet veteran, she knew exactly what comments like these meant.
They meant explosive traffic.
They meant fame and fortune.
They meant that the vast, eldritch horror that was the internet hivemind had glanced in your direction—and that single glance was enough to shower you with countless “Cullinan fragments” (enormous wealth brought by viral fame).
Ning Qiaoqiao’s hands shook so badly she could barely hold her phone.
Amid the internet’s jubilant celebration, the video began with that ordinary country road where the now-legendary incident had taken place—a road that countless netizens would later visit as if making a pilgrimage.
Her filming equipment was professional. Hanging around her neck, it had produced remarkably stable footage, and the audio quality was excellent. Although the action was distant and somewhat blurry, viewers could still clearly make out a man and a woman in the middle of the frame, fighting a crowd with exhilarating abandon.
The man’s staff moved like a black dragon bursting from the sea, sweeping through enemies with unstoppable force.
The woman’s belt danced like a soaring dragon, its long leather strap striking like a venomous serpent. Every time the heavy brass buckle came crashing down, it landed with overwhelming power—one hit, and another trafficker went silent.
Both displayed extraordinary footwork. The staff flowed with the man’s movements, seamlessly blending offense and defense. One fought with hard, direct force; the other with supple precision. Their coordination was flawless. Wherever they passed, people fell in heaps. Despite being surrounded, they cut through the crowd as effortlessly as a general deploying his troops, felling enemies one after another.
Not to mention the immensely satisfying spectacle of “lifting them up and whipping them.”
The bullet comments streamed across the screen in perfect formation:
[Chinese kung fu.]
[Human Beyblade King.]
[First strike the legs so they can’t run.]
[Second strike the mouth so they can’t beg.]
[Third strike the head so they can’t resist.]
[Power in every whip crack, precision in every kick.]
[Raise your hand with confidence, swing your whip with perfect angle.]
[Every lash has conviction; every move has style.]
The barrage of comments had practically become an organized army marching in lockstep.
The comments section below was even more entertaining.
[This combo is insane. The guy knocks one down with a staff, then the woman lashes them back onto their feet with the belt, they spin around, and then—bam!—another staff strike…]
[Is it really this smooth? Sis should consider teaching ballet. Even the Dance of the Little Swans doesn’t have this many spins.]
[Is the skinny guy in black the leader? Look at his expression. Doesn’t he look like the friend who tags along in every group fight but has never actually enjoyed any of them…?]
[Can someone who knows martial arts analyze this? Did these two come down from Wudang Mountain? They’re taking on eight people with just the two of them like it’s nothing.]
[I don’t know martial arts, but I do know physics. Watching those guys get whipped into spinning tops is making Newton’s coffin lid rattle.]
[Holy crap, how far has this spread? My Nepali roommate watched it and insisted I demonstrate the whip technique for him.]
[These two are so ridiculously strong that everyone forgot they’re fighting with a belt and a crutch.]
[The belt I get… but what’s the crutch for?]
[To beat someone lame, then let them use it to hobble home? Very honorable martial ethics.]
[These have to be stunt actors, right? The guy’s hair is so long—they must be filming something. If this is real, I’ll eat my phone.]
[I think they’re stunt actors too. They’re way too good-looking. The woman’s got to be around 175 cm tall, and the guy totally looks like an actor. Two traffickers stacked together still wouldn’t be as tall as him.]
[Who cares if they’re stunt actors? Even if they are, pulling off a fight scene like this takes real skill. Did the actors playing the traffickers get spun around on wires? This is incredible.]
[No idea. But if they’re actors, somebody tell me who they are so I can follow them. Every single person in this scene, from the leads to the extras, is amazing.]
The comments section was in complete chaos.
Some argued it had to be a staged production.
Some were fixated on the pair’s looks.
Others wanted to know where Xiang Yu had gotten the belt.
Still others couldn’t stop asking what was going on with Shen Jiu’s crutch.
Amid the lively discussion, a new wave of bullet comments suddenly began flooding the screen:
[Teacher Xiang, what happened?]
[Teacher Xiang, what happened?]
[Teacher Xiang, what happened?]
[You’re a fake Yu Ji, I’m the real Xiang Yu.]
[Introduce yourself!]
[Say the line! Say the line!]
[Here it comes—!]
In the video, Xiang Yu switched to a different whipping technique. Reusing her previous “Five Consecutive Whips” move, she cupped her fists in a martial salute toward the trafficker in front of her and said:
“I am Xiang Yu, head of the Mixed Whip Xingyi Sect. Just now, a friend asked me, ‘Teacher Xiang, what happened?’…”
Then she shouted with each strike:
“First whip! Second whip! Third whip, then fourth whip!”
“Fifth whip!”
“Followed by Flash!”
(The last line is a reference to Flash, the teleport ability from games like League of Legends, used jokingly because she suddenly darted forward.)
The Five Consecutive Whips routine was so ridiculously catchy that the bullet comments marched across the screen in perfect unison, as if in a military parade, echoing every count:
[First whip! Second whip! Third whip, then fourth whip!]
The chant appeared not only in Chinese, but also in English, Japanese, Spanish, and several other languages. Some viewers even used special bullet-comment effects to draw whip-shaped patterns across the screen. The entire thing looked as festive as Chinese New Year.
After Xiang Yu finished her Five Consecutive Whips, Liu Bo and Ning Qiaoqiao’s little three-wheeled utility vehicle finally came roaring into view. Moments later came Xiang Yu’s exasperated shout upon seeing them:
“Why did you bring the customers here?!”
The bullet comments erupted again:
[I swear, when the boss yelled, “Why did you bring the customers here?!”, her entire mental state collapsed.]
[But if they hadn’t brought the customers over, we wouldn’t have gotten to watch this masterpiece. LMAO.]
[So what was actually going on? Weren’t they supposed to be putting out a fire?]
[Obviously not. “Put out the fire” meant “go get more people.” Our video crew really did bring several buckets of water, though.]
[The young guy and the streamer may be a little dumb… but they’ve got good hearts.]
Then came the funeral procession joining the fray, swinging pickaxes like a torrential downpour, followed immediately by Pingping’s mother arriving with her ladle of manure.
The bullet comments reached their absolute peak.
After finishing the video, viewers flocked to the comment section:
[Is this in this year’s Lunar New Year movie lineup? If not, I’m not watching.]
[I’ve never seen a video with zero dull moments—it’s nonstop highlights.]
[I refuse to watch it a second time. I’m saving it to watch during the Spring Festival Gala.]
[Even if it’s scripted, I don’t care. Whoever wrote a script like this is a freaking genius.]
[If it is scripted, how did they convince the actors to let themselves get drenched in manure? They really opened their mouths and swallowed it?]
[When I first saw the ‘two-person performance’ (actually: two people fighting while a whole crowd spins around), I thought they were filming a staged video. The moment the manure ladle came out, I knew it had to be real.]
[Holy crap, I think the police officer searching the van is my cousin!]
[Seriously? Isn’t this just a skit?]
[A skit? Go ask the film crew how much they’re paying. Then you’ll have your answer to “How much would someone have to pay you to eat manure?”]
[If this is real, that’s horrifying… My God, these are actual human traffickers.]
[Near the end, when the camera shakes a few times, I think there’s still someone inside the van.]
[??? We’re all just here to have fun on the internet. Don’t scare us like that.]
[Then… that chubby little boy they carried out at the beginning was real too?]
[I was laughing when his mom knelt to thank the police and when his great-grandfather told him to kowtow to the coffin… Wait, are you telling me that was real? That’s way too dark.]
[Stop laughing… I think I spotted my uncle too. Holy crap, was this video filmed in cooperation with the police?]
No one had ever seen a video packed with so many twists.
At first, the accounts reposting clips had given them lighthearted titles such as:
“The Human Spinning-Top King”
“Chinese Kung Fu”
“Sea of Manure, Swarming Maggots”
“A Belt Dipped in Povidone-Iodine—Every Beating Is Extra Disinfected”
Since the situation had been successfully resolved, the “hostages” in the video had all been rescued, and the good guys had taken control of the scene, viewers on Xyin instinctively assumed it was just another comedy video.
Then more and more people started recognizing acquaintances in the footage.
As one of the people actually present, Ning Qiaoqiao immediately sensed the shift in public opinion.
The account that had reposted the clip was decent enough to pin a comment tagging her, and her own account quickly gained a huge amount of exposure.
Watching her numbers climb higher and higher, she suddenly tossed her phone aside, sat down at her computer, and opened a blank document.
She knew exactly what she needed to do.
Other than the people who had been taken away by the police, she was the only firsthand witness at the scene.
Every piece of information she possessed could bring her an overwhelming flood of traffic.
Whatever the internet wanted to know…
…she could answer it.
Of course…
Of course she had to put everything she’d learned to use—and add a little emotional punch to the information she held.
Half an hour later, the person who had filmed the “Human Spinning-Top King Incident” published a long post.
Its title read:
“Please, everyone, help the hot spring owner who bravely stood up to the human traffickers. She might be facing prison.”
<< _ >>
**TN
“Teacher Xiang, what happened?” is a meme adapted from the viral “Teacher Ma, what happened?” internet clip featuring martial artist Ma Baoguo. Whenever someone displays unexpectedly impressive fighting skills, netizens often spam this phrase.
“You’re a fake Yu Ji; I’m the real Xiang Yu” riffs on Xiang Yu’s name (向榆, Xiang Yu), which is pronounced the same as the famous historical warlord Xiang Yu, while Yu Ji was his legendary consort. It’s another layer of internet wordplay built around her name.
Mixed Whip Xingyi Sect 浑扁形意门 (Hún Biǎn Xíngyì Sect) is a parody of 混元形意门 (Hunyuan Xingyi Sect), the fictionalized martial arts school associated with the internet-famous Ma Baoguo. The author replaces 元 (yuan) with 扁 (biǎn, “to whip/flatten”), turning it into a joke about Xiang Yu’s belt fighting style.
