Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My Master died while performing a Chongsha.

Chongsha is a rule in the heavy-duty trucking industry.

Whenever a new road opens, a veteran driver with a sufficiently “hard” horoscope must be the first to drive through it. Only after they have cleared the way can other trucks use the road.

Drivers who perform Chongsha receive many red envelopes and sometimes commissions from freight companies, but they also take on considerable risks.

Because you never know what you might encounter on a road during a Chongsha.

My Master used to perform Chongsha frequently when he was young, and I learned the skills for it from him.

But the old man was already sixty-one this year and had stopped driving big rigs long ago. How could he have gone to perform a Chongsha again?

I was utterly perplexed. When I rushed to my Master’s funeral hall, I heard a chaotic commotion coming from inside.

“Don’t think just because the old man is dead, you don’t have to pay back the money!”

“Where’s your son? Don’t tell me he’s dead too?”

Several thuggish-looking men were surrounding my Master’s Wife.

My Master’s Wife was clutching my Master’s funerary portrait tightly to her chest, her frame looking frail and thin.

“Damn it, you planning to play us?”

The leader of the group gave my Master’s Wife a hard shove.

“Old whore, I’m talking to you!”

I rushed over in a few strides and grabbed the leader by the collar!

“Motherfuck-”

Before he could finish his sentence, he was already airborne, hoisted up in front of me by his collar.

I am built like a tank-tall, burly, and with a face so intimidating that people have said since I was a kid that I look like Zhang Fei or Li Kui.

These punks, who acted so high and mighty in front of the old and weak, turned into whimpering puppies the moment they saw me.

“You… you… brother, which path do you walk?”

The leader kicked his legs a few times, but his feet couldn’t even touch the ground. His voice began to stutter.

His lackeys stood by dazed; not one of them dared to step forward.

“Changdong…”

Master’s Wife looked up and saw me, tears finally streaming from her clouded eyes.

“My name is Long Changdong.”

I spoke coldly to the man I was holding.

“Whatever money my Master owed you, come to me for it from now on. If you dare trouble my Master’s Wife again, I’ll skin you alive!”

I threw the men out of the funeral hall. They only dared to gesture aggressively from a distance.

The moment I took a step toward them, they vanished without a trace.

I returned to the hall and quickly supported my trembling Master’s Wife.

She placed the portrait back on the altar and pulled at my sleeve.

“Changdong, light some incense for your Master. He was always thinking of you.”

I knelt before the altar. My Master’s face in the portrait looked exactly as I remembered.

My Master was a very righteous man who lived his whole life with integrity.

The first time I met him was out on the road while driving.

Back then, I was new to the industry and knew nothing.

On my very first job, I was tricked onto a new road that hadn’t undergone Chongsha yet.

I was driving along in high spirits in the middle of the night when I suddenly heard the sounds of opera singing and street hawking coming from outside the window.

Thinking a nearby village had set up a stage, I wanted to pull off the main road to see the excitement.

But just as I was changing lanes, a large truck overtook me from behind.

“Pull over to the side ahead and get out of the truck!”

The driver of that truck leaned out of his window and roared at me.

I didn’t know him, and seeing his exasperated expression, I didn’t think he was a good person.

I didn’t want to pay him any mind, but he kept cutting me off and blaring his horn until I was irritated.

Finally, I pulled over and stopped. Although I was young then, I was already nearly 1.9 meters tall; I wasn’t afraid of him.

But I didn’t expect that as soon as I stepped out, the driver would grab my arm with a hand like a steel claw and drag me toward his truck.

“Where did this reckless kid come from? Do you have a death wish? Is this a road you should be driving on?”

“If you can drive on it, why can’t I?”

I wasn’t about to back down and tried to reason with him. “The road is wide enough for everyone!”

“I just wanted to go watch the opera. You’re the one who cut me off!”

“Watch the opera?”

The man turned and gave me a cold sneer. “This is the middle of the desolate wilderness. Where exactly are you going to watch an opera?”

At his question, and with the cold night wind blowing against me, I suddenly shuddered.

The opera singing and shouting that had been ringing in my ears instantly dissolved into the whistling of the mountain wind.

It was as if everything I had just heard was nothing more than a hallucination.