The shock of the princelings
“What? An expert of Hidden Jin in Guangdong? And you say he killed Qin Maojiao?” Chen Aiyang’s surprised voice could be heard through the phone. He was neither slow nor rushed and spoke each word with a clear pronunciation and tempo.
“Qin Maojiao is Xu Zhen’s disciple. I met him in Taiwan when he had only just learned the White Ape styled Tongbei. He was a person of talent and a hard worker. I even once put him on the spot to see what he was like, unfortunately he was a little arrogant and ignored my guidance. But despite his personality, I didn’t think that he would die.”
The voice through the phone had been filled with regret. As a Taichi master, their vision was both grand and head high expectations for people.
“Ah, big brother, when are you coming to Guangdong? I heard one of the princelings has pulled in Zhang Wei to fight some mainlander on the fifth of next month. Didn’t he ask you to to oversee it?” Chen Bin asked.
“I’ll be there in a few days. Have you met that youth yet? You said he is an expert of Xingyi and the art of the sword, correct?” Chen Bin asked.
“He’s about 20 years old and is quite rustic. That should have been his first fight and is with a small time company it seems. However his words and mannerisms are pretty seasoned without any of the youthful impulses. I’m willing to bet this person isn’t any regular person.” Chen Bin spoke of her personal opinion before saying, “Big brother, I can’t hear you well over the phone. Why don’t you come over so we can talk face to face? Ah, hurry up actually, maybe you can take a look at Qin Maojiao’s body to see if you can learn something from it? Right now his body is with Xu Zhen.”
“En, I’ll be over to take a look.”
Three days ago while Wang Chao had been observing the snake and cat fight, within a private villa near Guangzhou City’s Pearl River, a specially made freezer coffin could be seen with Qin Maojiao’s body in it.
Outside the lounge, there was a black suited solemn looking man. Inside the lounge, a gold-rimmed glasses wearing man around 1.8 meters could be seen standing with a grieving look in his eyes.
This man was one of the Three Tigers of Guangdong; expert of Tongbei, “Little Arm Saint” Xu Zhen.
Behind Xu Zhen were several other youngsters both male and female. They were evidently his disciples.
The males and females were clearly grieving and furious, but they did not say anything in an attempt to keep up a calm demeanor.
Xu Zhen’s disciples were mainly filled with the sons and daughters of merchants and even high ranking officials. This way, many people were closely connected with each other, and even a princeling with control of many things would not be able to sell their own honor.
And when Xu Zhen had retired from the Jianghu and became a commercial businessman, his Tianle Corporation had became strong and powerful. Thus, he became a person that could not be ignored.
Xu Zhen’s disciples had came from the white and black roads of life. But who would had known that one of his disciples would be killed by one of the minor gangs in a fighting match. This was such a shock that no one had expected.
Furthermore, Qin Maojiao had been his most talented disciple. At the mere age of 26, he had reached the pinnacle of Clear Jin. Qin Maojiao had been extremely hard working as well; his White Ape style Tongbei had already reached the realm where the “sound follows the fist” after observing an ape for a year. Although he had not yet reached a high enough mastery, he was only a paper thin margin away from the next stage. If he could only polish his mind and get rid of his arrogance to become calm, then he would have been able to reach the Hidden Jin stage and become a master of martial arts.
Those who practiced martial arts had a deep emphasis on who they imparted their martial arts to. Even the most skilled practitioners had regarded those that would receive their legacy as highly important.
There was another very important reason.
That reason was that once one grew old, their body would grow weak and their arms and legs would atrophy in both strength and speed. If they were to be challenged by another challenger, then they could have their disciple represent them in a competition.
But not a single disciple that came across such a situation would not have their names become widespread after such a competition.
For any martial artist, even the most famous one, it didn’t matter how famous one was. If they were to lose in a competition even once, then it would be an unbearable shame they could not live down. Even death would sometimes be the better alternative.
Within the world of martial arts since the ancient times, this was a common occurrence. At the same time, that was why every martial artist had treated competitions highly.
To many martial artists, their own reputation was far more important than their own lives.
An outstanding disciple’s most important mission was to protect the reputation of their master.
Many disciples would often wait on their masters hand and foot, resulting in a deep father-son relationship to form. So when a disciple died, it was like the master’s son had died.
Xu Zhen had been in the middle of an important business deal in Hong Kong, but the very instant he had heard of the news, he came rushing on over. In his heart, he was feeling grief, sadness, pity, shock, and even fury.
He was already 40 years old, which was what most martial artists regarded to be the peak of their youth. After several years like 50 or even 60 years, the road of degeneration awaited them. So Xu Zhen had been urgent in trying to bring up a promising disciple in order to help protect his own reputation.
Qin Maojiao had been the prized disciple he had chosen, but he had unfortunately died.
This had caused a feeling to well up inside of him, one that he hadn’t felt in a long time. Although his business had millions, one’s reputation within the martial arts world could not be bought.
“Master Chen, have you seen my disciple’s wounds? This is the Chopping Jin of Xingyi Quan’s tiger stance. His chest has been broken up and the Hidden Jin has permeated his inner organs. Sister Chen had seen the fight with her own eyes, so what truly happened? Could you help clear things up?”
Despite being in grievance, Xu Zhen still remained the refined manner he had built up over the years.
Aside of Xu Zhen’s disciples, there was a male and female standing right next to him by the coffin. They both stood right in front of Xu Zhen’s disciples, clearly indicating that the two of them were on equal grounding with Xu Zhen.
Within the martial arts world, the most qualitative masters had set customs amongst each other.
The female was Chen Bin while the male was the one that had shook the Southeastern Asia world by storm. Even amongst the foreign martial arts world, he had a well known reputation, the Taichi master Chen Aiyang.
There were rumors within the martial arts world that Chen Aiyang’s Taichi and Hidden Jin had already reached his heart to the stage where “a fist could strike out from any part of his body.”
The meaning of this had meant that Chen Aiyang’s Hidden Jin had reached everywhere in his body.
Chen Aiyang had once paid a visit to the martial art scholar Xue Lianxin in Taiwan.
When Xue Lianxin had met Chen Aiyang, he had once prophesized, “Within 20 years, your Taichi will reach such a height where even Yang Luchan cannot compete.”
These words of scholar Xue Lianxin had meant that within 20 years, Chen Aiyang’s Taichi would rival even Yang Luchan.
This was a high quality assessment!
Thus everyone’s reaction to him was that he was a master of martial arts and a genius.
Xue Lianxin had once been taught by Xue Dian of the Republic of China era’s Tianjin Guoshu Institute. His skill with Xingyi had reached such a realm of perfection that he had reached the Transforming Jin stage. He had many disciples and had often many experts come by to hear his guidance.
Even Ma Hongjun of Hong Kong’s Yuxing Corporation, Taiwan’s Sanlian Corporation’s Liu Jiajun, and many others had been guided by him.
Not only was Xue Lianxin’s martial art strong, his personality, reputation and virtue were all well respected. So even when he had grown older, no one dared to compete against him despite knowing his strength was not as strong as before.
Combined with the fact that Chen Aiyang had never lost in a competition and could circulate his Hidden Jin everywhere, no one had doubted Xue Lianxin’s words.
Even the Eight Extreme Fists master Zhang Guangming who had ruled the Vietnamese martial arts world had been struck down by Chen Aiyang.
Zhang Guangming had been 40 years old at the time, meaning his strength was at his peak and could use the “Heng Ha” sounds to temper his body to reach the peak of Hidden Jin.
TL Note: In Chinese, they are called the 哼哈二将 (Heng Ha Er Jiang). They are called the Nio, or the Kongōrikishi. The left guardian represents the “Ah” (Ha in this case), while the right guardian represents the “Un” (Heng in this case) sounds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nio
It was that battle that had cemented Chen Aiyang’s figure as the number one expert.
The most notable thing was that Chen Aiyang did not use Taichi to kill Zhang Guangming. Instead, he had used the Hidden Jin of Xingyi Quan’s tiger stance.
Afterwards, many experts of the martial arts world had began saying that Chen Aiyang could be the second coming of Sun Lu-tang. An expert that came once every three hundred years.
“What a strong Chopping Jin. This skill of the martial artist has already reached the Fist and Spirit stage where the essence is learned. My sister said this practitioner was only 20 years old I believe? How inconceivable. Xiao Qin’s movements is something I am familiar with. This isn’t something any regular Hidden Jin expert could predict and would most likely lose against. To be able to keep up with Xiao Qin’s movements would be saying he is a top quality expert. I am not familiar with the experts of the mainland, but a person capable of this would be well known and not an unknown figure.
Chen Aiyang’s words were mature for his age, but he looked like a scholarly youth at the height of 1.7 meters. At a glance, he looked more like an intern studying to be a doctor and not a figure that was well known in the underground fighting world.
He was 29 years old, but as Xue Lianxin had predicted, before he reached the age of 40 or even 50, he would reach the realm of Yang Luchan.
Advancing forwards, Chen Aiyang began to probe around Qin Maojiao’s chest with his fingers to observe it.
Xu Zhen’s disciples had looked at Chen Aiyang with a venerated look. Despite some of the disciples already 30 years old, they were all looking at Chen Aiyang as if he was a senior martial artist.
Some of the disciples were even dressed in a classy like uniform as befitting a high class daughter of an official and/or merchant. Their eyes had stars in them as if they were infatuated with him.
“That opponent had only joined the Daxing Corporation three days ago when he fought my disciple in a competition. Ai, how arrogant my own disciple was. He had wanted to earn his own money and did not want mine.” Xu Zhen sighed.
“Oh, you’ve looked up that person’s background?” Chen Aiyang asked.
“I have not. Last night, the Daxing Corporation’s car factory was invaded by some hired guns. Lu Chengwen and his men were all killed in an explosion and that fighter disappeared mysteriously. Funnily enough, Boss Wu had even thought that it was my revenge and sent some people to interfere. Many others are saying the same thing, but am I, Xu Zhen, a man that would do such a thing?”
“Mercenaries…what type of mercenaries?”
“Judging from the trails they left behind, they crossed over from Vietnam. However, I don’t wish to butt heads with Boss Wu; after all, he is a government official. Thus, I came to you for advice and your help in investigating those mercenaries. I wish to know whether or not the one that killed my disciple is dead or not. If he is dead, then all is well, if not, then how could I not take revenge?”
“Ah, we are friends, of course I would help you out.” Chen Aiyang nodded his head. “In a few days I’ll be heading for Chaozhou. Wu Yingda, Wang Xiaolei and Zhao Jun have organized a competition with some expert from the S Province in the mainlands. They want me to bear witness.”
This was what had happened in the three days after Wang Chao had killed Qin Maojiao.
Needless to say, Boulder’s expertise in pinning the blame on someone was was extremely strong. They had even tricked the truth from the princelings and made them think that Vietnamese mercenaries were hired by Xu Zhen had done the job.
But because the Daxing Corporation was such a small company, Wu Yingda did not wish to butt heads with Xu Zhen. But he had given a word of warning since the use of a rocket launcher was far too drastic of an action to take for him to overlook.
Half a month later, Wang Chao had trained the tiger and snake stance to the point of having both spirit and form. On the last third of the month, he and Boulder had secretly staked out at Chaozhou.
The Ike Corporation had been stationed at Chaozhou as well.
There was still 10 days left until the competition between Wang Chao and Zhang Wei. Within the giant building of the Ike Corporation, three sets of footsteps could be heard as the princelings convened within it.
“My word, Ah Jun, just what has gotten you to be so worked up? That Tianxing Corporation is just a small company with several ten million RMB in assets. What is so important about this competition?”
Wu Yingda spoke.
“No, it’s not the Tianxing Corporation, it’s that Wang Chao. He has a special relationship with Zhu Jia and even Zhang Tong of the French company Chanel. He’s not just any regular person, he even has Cao Yi as a friend.Myfather is the governor, so this group unsettles me. That Wang Chao is young but he is talented, just who is his master? And who sent him that villa in the Tianxing district? I’m quite lost.”
“We can’t say for certain that he didn’t find some sort of secret training manual in the Wulin. Maybe it was from his own personal merit?”
“Impossible, without a master to teach, a secret manual is of no use.” Zhang Wei spoke up from the side of the table.
Suddenly, a man came walking in with a sheaf of papers.
“Chief Zhao, Chief Wu, Chief Wang, the 18th villa of the Tianxing District’s property rights have been found.”
“What! Hand it over!” Zhao Jun spoke up as he grabbed at the papers.
“What’s so secretive about this?” Wu Yinda spoke up before looking over. In the next second, his eyes widened in surprise!
The shock of the princelings
“What? An expert of Hidden Jin in Guangdong? And you say he killed Qin Maojiao?” Chen Aiyang’s surprised voice could be heard through the phone. He was neither slow nor rushed and spoke each word with a clear pronunciation and tempo.
“Qin Maojiao is Xu Zhen’s disciple. I met him in Taiwan when he had only just learned the White Ape styled Tongbei. He was a person of talent and a hard worker. I even once put him on the spot to see what he was like, unfortunately he was a little arrogant and ignored my guidance. But despite his personality, I didn’t think that he would die.”
The voice through the phone had been filled with regret. As a Taichi master, their vision was both grand and head high expectations for people.
“Ah, big brother, when are you coming to Guangdong? I heard one of the princelings has pulled in Zhang Wei to fight some mainlander on the fifth of next month. Didn’t he ask you to to oversee it?” Chen Bin asked.
“I’ll be there in a few days. Have you met that youth yet? You said he is an expert of Xingyi and the art of the sword, correct?” Chen Bin asked.
“He’s about 20 years old and is quite rustic. That should have been his first fight and is with a small time company it seems. However his words and mannerisms are pretty seasoned without any of the youthful impulses. I’m willing to bet this person isn’t any regular person.” Chen Bin spoke of her personal opinion before saying, “Big brother, I can’t hear you well over the phone. Why don’t you come over so we can talk face to face? Ah, hurry up actually, maybe you can take a look at Qin Maojiao’s body to see if you can learn something from it? Right now his body is with Xu Zhen.”
“En, I’ll be over to take a look.”
Three days ago while Wang Chao had been observing the snake and cat fight, within a private villa near Guangzhou City’s Pearl River, a specially made freezer coffin could be seen with Qin Maojiao’s body in it.
Outside the lounge, there was a black suited solemn looking man. Inside the lounge, a gold-rimmed glasses wearing man around 1.8 meters could be seen standing with a grieving look in his eyes.
This man was one of the Three Tigers of Guangdong; expert of Tongbei, “Little Arm Saint” Xu Zhen.
Behind Xu Zhen were several other youngsters both male and female. They were evidently his disciples.
The males and females were clearly grieving and furious, but they did not say anything in an attempt to keep up a calm demeanor.
Xu Zhen’s disciples were mainly filled with the sons and daughters of merchants and even high ranking officials. This way, many people were closely connected with each other, and even a princeling with control of many things would not be able to sell their own honor.
And when Xu Zhen had retired from the Jianghu and became a commercial businessman, his Tianle Corporation had became strong and powerful. Thus, he became a person that could not be ignored.
Xu Zhen’s disciples had came from the white and black roads of life. But who would had known that one of his disciples would be killed by one of the minor gangs in a fighting match. This was such a shock that no one had expected.
Furthermore, Qin Maojiao had been his most talented disciple. At the mere age of 26, he had reached the pinnacle of Clear Jin. Qin Maojiao had been extremely hard working as well; his White Ape style Tongbei had already reached the realm where the “sound follows the fist” after observing an ape for a year. Although he had not yet reached a high enough mastery, he was only a paper thin margin away from the next stage. If he could only polish his mind and get rid of his arrogance to become calm, then he would have been able to reach the Hidden Jin stage and become a master of martial arts.
Those who practiced martial arts had a deep emphasis on who they imparted their martial arts to. Even the most skilled practitioners had regarded those that would receive their legacy as highly important.
There was another very important reason.
That reason was that once one grew old, their body would grow weak and their arms and legs would atrophy in both strength and speed. If they were to be challenged by another challenger, then they could have their disciple represent them in a competition.
But not a single disciple that came across such a situation would not have their names become widespread after such a competition.
For any martial artist, even the most famous one, it didn’t matter how famous one was. If they were to lose in a competition even once, then it would be an unbearable shame they could not live down. Even death would sometimes be the better alternative.
Within the world of martial arts since the ancient times, this was a common occurrence. At the same time, that was why every martial artist had treated competitions highly.
To many martial artists, their own reputation was far more important than their own lives.
An outstanding disciple’s most important mission was to protect the reputation of their master.
Many disciples would often wait on their masters hand and foot, resulting in a deep father-son relationship to form. So when a disciple died, it was like the master’s son had died.
Xu Zhen had been in the middle of an important business deal in Hong Kong, but the very instant he had heard of the news, he came rushing on over. In his heart, he was feeling grief, sadness, pity, shock, and even fury.
He was already 40 years old, which was what most martial artists regarded to be the peak of their youth. After several years like 50 or even 60 years, the road of degeneration awaited them. So Xu Zhen had been urgent in trying to bring up a promising disciple in order to help protect his own reputation.
Qin Maojiao had been the prized disciple he had chosen, but he had unfortunately died.
This had caused a feeling to well up inside of him, one that he hadn’t felt in a long time. Although his business had millions, one’s reputation within the martial arts world could not be bought.
“Master Chen, have you seen my disciple’s wounds? This is the Chopping Jin of Xingyi Quan’s tiger stance. His chest has been broken up and the Hidden Jin has permeated his inner organs. Sister Chen had seen the fight with her own eyes, so what truly happened? Could you help clear things up?”
Despite being in grievance, Xu Zhen still remained the refined manner he had built up over the years.
Aside of Xu Zhen’s disciples, there was a male and female standing right next to him by the coffin. They both stood right in front of Xu Zhen’s disciples, clearly indicating that the two of them were on equal grounding with Xu Zhen.
Within the martial arts world, the most qualitative masters had set customs amongst each other.
The female was Chen Bin while the male was the one that had shook the Southeastern Asia world by storm. Even amongst the foreign martial arts world, he had a well known reputation, the Taichi master Chen Aiyang.
There were rumors within the martial arts world that Chen Aiyang’s Taichi and Hidden Jin had already reached his heart to the stage where “a fist could strike out from any part of his body.”
The meaning of this had meant that Chen Aiyang’s Hidden Jin had reached everywhere in his body.
Chen Aiyang had once paid a visit to the martial art scholar Xue Lianxin in Taiwan.
When Xue Lianxin had met Chen Aiyang, he had once prophesized, “Within 20 years, your Taichi will reach such a height where even Yang Luchan cannot compete.”
These words of scholar Xue Lianxin had meant that within 20 years, Chen Aiyang’s Taichi would rival even Yang Luchan.
This was a high quality assessment!
Thus everyone’s reaction to him was that he was a master of martial arts and a genius.
Xue Lianxin had once been taught by Xue Dian of the Republic of China era’s Tianjin Guoshu Institute. His skill with Xingyi had reached such a realm of perfection that he had reached the Transforming Jin stage. He had many disciples and had often many experts come by to hear his guidance.
Even Ma Hongjun of Hong Kong’s Yuxing Corporation, Taiwan’s Sanlian Corporation’s Liu Jiajun, and many others had been guided by him.
Not only was Xue Lianxin’s martial art strong, his personality, reputation and virtue were all well respected. So even when he had grown older, no one dared to compete against him despite knowing his strength was not as strong as before.
Combined with the fact that Chen Aiyang had never lost in a competition and could circulate his Hidden Jin everywhere, no one had doubted Xue Lianxin’s words.
Even the Eight Extreme Fists master Zhang Guangming who had ruled the Vietnamese martial arts world had been struck down by Chen Aiyang.
Zhang Guangming had been 40 years old at the time, meaning his strength was at his peak and could use the “Heng Ha” sounds to temper his body to reach the peak of Hidden Jin.
TL Note: In Chinese, they are called the 哼哈二将 (Heng Ha Er Jiang). They are called the Nio, or the Kongōrikishi. The left guardian represents the “Ah” (Ha in this case), while the right guardian represents the “Un” (Heng in this case) sounds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nio
It was that battle that had cemented Chen Aiyang’s figure as the number one expert.
The most notable thing was that Chen Aiyang did not use Taichi to kill Zhang Guangming. Instead, he had used the Hidden Jin of Xingyi Quan’s tiger stance.
Afterwards, many experts of the martial arts world had began saying that Chen Aiyang could be the second coming of Sun Lu-tang. An expert that came once every three hundred years.
“What a strong Chopping Jin. This skill of the martial artist has already reached the Fist and Spirit stage where the essence is learned. My sister said this practitioner was only 20 years old I believe? How inconceivable. Xiao Qin’s movements is something I am familiar with. This isn’t something any regular Hidden Jin expert could predict and would most likely lose against. To be able to keep up with Xiao Qin’s movements would be saying he is a top quality expert. I am not familiar with the experts of the mainland, but a person capable of this would be well known and not an unknown figure.
Chen Aiyang’s words were mature for his age, but he looked like a scholarly youth at the height of 1.7 meters. At a glance, he looked more like an intern studying to be a doctor and not a figure that was well known in the underground fighting world.
He was 29 years old, but as Xue Lianxin had predicted, before he reached the age of 40 or even 50, he would reach the realm of Yang Luchan.
Advancing forwards, Chen Aiyang began to probe around Qin Maojiao’s chest with his fingers to observe it.
Xu Zhen’s disciples had looked at Chen Aiyang with a venerated look. Despite some of the disciples already 30 years old, they were all looking at Chen Aiyang as if he was a senior martial artist.
Some of the disciples were even dressed in a classy like uniform as befitting a high class daughter of an official and/or merchant. Their eyes had stars in them as if they were infatuated with him.
“That opponent had only joined the Daxing Corporation three days ago when he fought my disciple in a competition. Ai, how arrogant my own disciple was. He had wanted to earn his own money and did not want mine.” Xu Zhen sighed.
“Oh, you’ve looked up that person’s background?” Chen Aiyang asked.
“I have not. Last night, the Daxing Corporation’s car factory was invaded by some hired guns. Lu Chengwen and his men were all killed in an explosion and that fighter disappeared mysteriously. Funnily enough, Boss Wu had even thought that it was my revenge and sent some people to interfere. Many others are saying the same thing, but am I, Xu Zhen, a man that would do such a thing?”
“Mercenaries…what type of mercenaries?”
“Judging from the trails they left behind, they crossed over from Vietnam. However, I don’t wish to butt heads with Boss Wu; after all, he is a government official. Thus, I came to you for advice and your help in investigating those mercenaries. I wish to know whether or not the one that killed my disciple is dead or not. If he is dead, then all is well, if not, then how could I not take revenge?”
“Ah, we are friends, of course I would help you out.” Chen Aiyang nodded his head. “In a few days I’ll be heading for Chaozhou. Wu Yingda, Wang Xiaolei and Zhao Jun have organized a competition with some expert from the S Province in the mainlands. They want me to bear witness.”
This was what had happened in the three days after Wang Chao had killed Qin Maojiao.
Needless to say, Boulder’s expertise in pinning the blame on someone was was extremely strong. They had even tricked the truth from the princelings and made them think that Vietnamese mercenaries were hired by Xu Zhen had done the job.
But because the Daxing Corporation was such a small company, Wu Yingda did not wish to butt heads with Xu Zhen. But he had given a word of warning since the use of a rocket launcher was far too drastic of an action to take for him to overlook.
Half a month later, Wang Chao had trained the tiger and snake stance to the point of having both spirit and form. On the last third of the month, he and Boulder had secretly staked out at Chaozhou.
The Ike Corporation had been stationed at Chaozhou as well.
There was still 10 days left until the competition between Wang Chao and Zhang Wei. Within the giant building of the Ike Corporation, three sets of footsteps could be heard as the princelings convened within it.
“My word, Ah Jun, just what has gotten you to be so worked up? That Tianxing Corporation is just a small company with several ten million RMB in assets. What is so important about this competition?”
Wu Yingda spoke.
“No, it’s not the Tianxing Corporation, it’s that Wang Chao. He has a special relationship with Zhu Jia and even Zhang Tong of the French company Chanel. He’s not just any regular person, he even has Cao Yi as a friend.Myfather is the governor, so this group unsettles me. That Wang Chao is young but he is talented, just who is his master? And who sent him that villa in the Tianxing district? I’m quite lost.”
“We can’t say for certain that he didn’t find some sort of secret training manual in the Wulin. Maybe it was from his own personal merit?”
“Impossible, without a master to teach, a secret manual is of no use.” Zhang Wei spoke up from the side of the table.
Suddenly, a man came walking in with a sheaf of papers.
“Chief Zhao, Chief Wu, Chief Wang, the 18th villa of the Tianxing District’s property rights have been found.”
“What! Hand it over!” Zhao Jun spoke up as he grabbed at the papers.
“What’s so secretive about this?” Wu Yinda spoke up before looking over. In the next second, his eyes widened in surprise!
