Martial Arts Master

Brother Lou? Did Brother Rui just call Lou Cheng, Brother Lou? Qi Yunfei who was feeling at a loss, blinked in disbelief.

This was wrong!

Could it be because they were in a close relationship such as classmates and were happy to poke fun at each other?

Well, that must be the case!

Next to her, Ding Yanbo also with looked perplexed. He had entered Gushan Martial Arts School for nearly a month, and had not seen Brother Rui call someone else brother!

The friendship between him and Feifei’s cousin must be close. So close that they could joke like that.

“Brother Lou sounds weird. It makes me sound so old.” Lou Cheng took the cup with a smile. He raised the pot of buckwheat tea on the table and poured two half cups, “I heard you’ve got Amateur First Pin? You know I don’t drink, so in place of alcohol, I’ll use tea to give you a toast. Congratulations.”

Qin Rui immediately sat down, took the cup, and touched Lou Cheng’s. After he finished and wiped his mouth, he smiled and said, “There’s no need to congratulate me. I can’t compare with you. I’m strong and tall, as long as I practice diligently enough and learn something, Amateur First Pin is relatively simple to get. Huh. Anything more will be difficult.”

Can’t compare with you? Qi Yunfei was once again confused, then she found thought of another reason for this.

Brother Rui meant that his Amateur First Pin could not compare with the diploma from Songcheng University?

Ding Yanbo was stunned, Brother Rui always appeared serious. Only when he was facing Senior Brother Dai would his expression be more relaxed. But now he was smiling so gently and sounding so sincere.

So is this his other side?

It was not like the Brother Rui he knew!

Are they best buddies?

In the face of Qin Rui’s sigh, Lou Cheng poked fun at him, “Don’t be modest. No kidding! I don’t know how many people want to get to Amateur First Pin. So in the future, you have to eat bite by bite. You have to walk step by step. Man, you’ll always find a way.”

“I mean it, I thought you might get the certificate at the end of April. So I searched on the Internet. After searching, gosh, it scared me. I didn’t dare to call to congratulate you. Feels like we’re not in the same world,” Qin Rui sighed and said with a smile. “And now how long has it been? Within a blink of an eye, you’ve gone past what I could have imagined!”

While he listened to Qin Rui’s ramble, Ding Yanbo rubbed his eyes, suspecting that he had a case of mistaken identity.

Isn’t this Brother Rui?

When did Brother Rui behave and nag like a 30 or 40-year-old drunkard?

He had not drunk anything yet, right? How could he be drunk!

Just as he was looking around, Qi Yunfei pulled his clothes, winked at him and then said, “They’re so busy. There’s no one serving us. I’ll go up to order food. Brother Lou Cheng, Brother Rui, what would you like?”

“Ten sticks of chicken wings, ten sticks of chicken butt… ” Lou Cheng ordered his usual dishes. “Most importantly eggplant, six sticks. Qin Rui, what do you want to eat?”

Qin Rui shook his head and said, “I ate at 7 earlier, so I’ve no appetite now. I’ll just pick some food off your plate. Uh, give me a can of coconut juice. I’ve also quit drinking.”

“Haha, yes, nice job quitting!” Lou turned to Qi Yunfei, “I want a can of herbal tea, the rest you can order yourself.”

“Sure.” Qi Yunfei pulled Ding Yanbo and walked towards the barbecue grilling area.

While waiting to order, she lowered her voice and scolded, “Liar!”

“What liar?” Ding Yanbo was not too sure why he was being scolded.

“You said Brother Rui was very cool and serious!” Qi Yunfei glanced at her boyfriend. “He doesn’t seem like it when I met him earlier. He was laughing and smiling so much like a sunflower under the sun. How loving and warm!”

Ding Yanbo held his chin, smiled and said, “I don’t understand, either! Maybe he gets along well with your brother… Feifei, you said your brother was also practicing martial arts and was quite powerful. Did Brother Rui say how we could find his profile on the Internet?”

“How would I know? I have never searched him before!” Qi Yunfei was also full of curiosity, urging, “Quickly! Google him!”

“Ah.” Ding Yanbo took out the phone, opened the page APP, and entered two words “Lou Cheng”. He thought this might not be too accurate so he asked, “Is your brother in Songcheng University?”

“Yes, I’ve told you several times!” Qi Yunfei said gruffly.

With “Lou Cheng, Songcheng University” as a key word, Ding Yanbo clicked on search. The page refreshed with new topics. Top of the list was the introduction of various subjects.

“Hey, there are people who have created a wiki page of your brother!” Ding Yanbo excitedly pointed. He found that the editors were “Eternal Nightfall”, “Brahman” and “Unparalleled Dragon King” among others.

“Name: Lou Cheng”

“Age: 19”

“Height: 1.75 ~ 1.77m”

“Weight: unknown”

“School: Songcheng University”

“Martial Arts Rank: Professional Ninth Pin”

Seeing the term “Professional Ninth Pin”, Ding Yanbo’s heart skipped a beat. With a shake of his hand, he almost threw out the phone.

Professional Ninth Pin?

There was no Professional Ninth Pin in the entire martial arts circle of Xiushan…

No, everyone could edit or add anything to the wikipedia, it was not credible… Ding Yanbo scrolled down the page and saw a photo. He determined that it was Lou Cheng, his girlfriend’s cousin. At the same time, he also found some links. Some were fans forums, others were videos of his fights.

Videos never lie. It would be obvious whether it was CG or not! Ding Yanbo clicked on one and quickly dragged the progress bar forward.

Pop!

His cell phone dropped and hit the ground hard.

“What happened?” Qi Yunfei quickly checked on her boyfriend, and saw his mouth half opened.

Ding Yanbo shuddered and quickly bent over to pick up his phone. The flash of broken bricks amidst a spider web of cracks and crazy double arm slashes seemed to be truly hitting his soul.

That was scary!

That was frightening!

Was this really Feifei’s cousin?

“What’s wrong?” Seeing that her boyfriend did not answer, Qi Yunfei’s tone became concerned.

Ding Yanbo passed the phone to her, “Watch it for yourself… ”

“What’s there to see?” Qi Yunfei’s chubby face was filled of suspicion. She took the phone, clicked play and dragged the play bar forward a few times.

Pop!

The poor cell phone once again fell onto the ground, cracking the surface of its tempered glass film protection.

Qi Yunfei’s mouth slightly opened. Her eyes were filled with confusion.

To her, the shock she had just received was much bigger than Ding Yanbo. After all, this was the cousin whom she spent all summer vacation chatting with.

She took a breath and with dazed eyes, she said,

“I might have met an imposter of my cousin… ”

Their eyes met and remained transfixed until it was their turn to order food.

…

After ordering, they took the coconut juice, herbal tea and other beverages back to the seat, quietly. Then they overheard Lou Cheng telling Qin Rui how to upgrade from Amateur First Pin to Professional Ninth Pin.

“Focusing and improving meditation is the best. This saves you a few years or even more of body refining.” Lou Cheng imitated his master’s way of talking. “Think about it. You can only visualize properly after you know the concealment of spirit. And all the ‘inner practice’ needs visualization. If not, to polish by the accumulation of physical tempering will be very hard.”

“‘Inner practice’ ‘is the core of the body refining state. With higher ranks, it would help practitioners quickly reach the physical quality of Professional Ninth Pin and even be promoted to the peak of body refining. But it is inherited, so not every martial arts club would have it.”

Qin Rui thoughtfully nodded his head. “I understand. Without supernatural ability, visualisation meditation is at the core of how to improve martial arts.”

Speaking of which, he smiled. “But our martial arts club doesn’t have internal training methods.”

This was not just any general stance training!

“Where there is a will, there is a way. As long as you can meditate, there are always ways to get internal training methods, such as from awards from competitions, exchanging at the martial arts association or buying any that are available on the market.” Lou Cheng comforted Qin Rui.

The Martial Artist Association would often be referred to as the Martial Arts Association, so that it would appear closer to the people.

Qi Yunfei was silently sitting after she took the drinks to the table. She was behaving well — all quiet and cute. Her eyes constantly glanced back and forth between Lou Cheng and Qin Rui. She noticed that although her cousin’s facial features had not changed much, but his face and jawline were increasingly angular, exuding masculinity.

She did not look carefully before, but now Brother Lou Cheng seemed to have become more handsome, with a special and charming aura around him.

Lou Cheng could feel Qi Yunfei staring. He touched his face, slightly worried. He said,

“Is there something on my face?”

Did Keke leave lipstick marks on my face again?

“Nothing!” Qi Yunfei was sitting up straighter and more still than she would in front of her mother. Ding Yanbo was trembling, afraid to take a loo or to speak.

Lou Cheng took the drinks. He helped Qin Rui open his and handed it to him. He laughed,

“Here! This drink is for you… Ding Yanbo thanks for the taking the trouble.”

He did not know what to say to his cousin’s boyfriend.

“What is this? I said no trouble!” Qin Rui and Lou Cheng gave a cheer and drank happily.

Qi Yunfei’s eyes turned. She pulled up the perplexed Ding Yanbo, urging, “Didn’t you say you wanted to perform a toast to Brother Lou Cheng and say ‘thank you’ to him?”

“When did I … ” Ding Yanbo wanted to refute this, but the little girl stared back at him. So he picked up the soy milk bottle nervously. “Brother Lou Cheng, thank you for your help.”

Lou Cheng touched his jar and drank. When he was about to speak, Qin Rui interrupted, “Ding, meeting Cheng is your luck. Some skills he casually teaches you are stronger than ours. Don’t waste this opportunity.”

“Yes, Brother Rui.” Ding Yanbo was not a fool. He could hear Qin Rui’s sincerity from that advice, so he quickly said, “Brother Lou Cheng, a toast to you again.”

This time, he downed the whole bottle of soy milk.

“Practice martial arts hard. Don’t let Feifei worry.” Lou Cheng smiled, and made his point as a cousin. And then along the same topic, he asked, “Qin Rui, does your martial arts club have part-time coaches?”

Qin Rui paused for a moment, then he laughed. “Yes! We are just worried that we do not have enough staff! Do you want to come?”

“I’ve nothing to do during this holiday. Practicing martial arts also costs me a lot of money. Ah, I don’t want to trouble my parents on this matter, so I was intending to find a martial arts part-time job.” Lou Cheng calmly said.

“Great! We want experts like you!” Qin Rui answered with great surprise. “Every summer vacation, many junior high school students would be sent by their parents to practice at least two months of martial arts. In order to improve their physical fitness. Huh, we have more than a dozen summer classes every year. It’s very easy. They don’t want to achieve a formal rank, it is just exercise.”