White belt vs. blue belt

As Ben experienced his first blue belt class, the differences were apparent right away: the warm-ups were more intense, the lessons taught by Valentina more advanced, and the stares from the other blue belts—more aggressive...

Watching them, Ben shook his head with helplessness. 'It's only a matter of time before these fools run into my windmill hands…Should I play it by the book?' He was considering a stratagem he'd run into before: to feign softness, so he could faceslap with hardness…

48th stratagem of web novels: Play the pig to eat the tiger.

After thinking about it though, Ben chose not to go this route. His palms needed a rest too… 

However, even if he didn't want to use the trope, that didn't mean others wouldn't force him to. As the teaching portion of the class ended and the time for paired practice arrived, when a dozen blue belts approached Ben, he looked at the ceiling and sighed. 'Daddies, forgive them…they know not what they do…'