Martial Arts Master

“Are you insane?” Lou Cheng was shocked, his lips twitching. He burst into an ironic laugh, completely puzzled.

Is this the so-called generation gap?

It’s almost impossible to understand what’s on Fei’s mind.

He shook the matter off his head and walked into the bathroom to complete his washing up.

Back in the living room, he turned off the light and lay down on the couch under a thin duvet, entering his chatting mode with Yan Zheke on his mobile as usual. He finally found peace and joy in his heart, like the dim moonlight shining through the window.

“Poor me… I’m sleeping in the living room on my first day home…” Lou Cheng added the pitiful emoji his girlfriend loved to use. Be a rascal among rascal.

“Ha-hah. I’m rolling and rolling in my massive bed after such a long separation!” Yan Zheke chuckled.

Lou Cheng sent a table smashing emoji and complained, “You don’t comfort me at all!”

“There, there. Let big sister give you a hug. You can sleep in bed soon.” Yan Zheke loved to call herself a big sister in front of Lou Cheng recently though she was actually one year younger.

“Sleep in bed? Together with my big sister?” Lou Cheng went on to tease her with a sneer.

Yan Zheke used a yelling emoji. “Phew! I won’t sleep with the pervert! You just teased me with the photo of a BBQ eggplant!”

“I was trying to seduce you. Seduce you to eat it with me one day.” Lou Cheng smiled.

Yan Zheke asked while stroking her chin and rolling her eyes, “What if I want to eat it now?”

“I’ll order one and deliver it to you now.” Lou Cheng offered.

“Never mind. My parents are both at home. You come here now is like a sheep going to a tiger’s mouth. It’s already past 10. You should sleep so you’ll have the energy for tomorrow’s morning exercise. Entering the Dan stage is the most important thing right now, understand?” Yan Zheke lay on top of a teddy bear’s belly, smiling.

“Understood! Coach Yan, don’t worry!” Lou Cheng was between seriousness and a joke.

Before I reach the peak of the body refining stage, my future brother-in-law is already a capable Professional Eighth Pin martial artist in the Dan stage. I have this target to catch up with. Not to mention the devil Peng Leyun!

“Err… Cheng, speaking of morning exercise… I have one piece of good news and one bad. Which one do you want to hear first?” Yan Zheke added an emoji sitting there in a trance.

“Bad news… We can’t do exercise together tomorrow morning?” asked Lou Cheng, very sensitive.

Yan Zheke clinched her fist and cried. “Unfortunately yes. And not only tomorrow… The Queen Mother has put on a few pounds recently and is also thinking about doing some morning exercise. So we’ll be doing it together to improve our relationship and she wants to teach me a little bit. I can join you only when she’s away for business or feels sleeping in.”

“Damn! Queen Mother, you must be doing this on purpose! I didn’t know you sometimes want to sleep in!” Lou Cheng could not afford to resent it. He swallowed his disappointment and tried to comfort her. “Queen Mother is too busy to stick to the morning exercise. Your parents both go to work. They can’t lock you up as if you were still a young child. We’ll find time to date.”

“Yes!” Yan Zheke sat elegantly and nodded along. “Cheng, I thought you would be really disappointed.”

“I’m disappointed indeed. Feels like the beautiful mornings I’ve been looking forward to are no longer beautiful. But what can we do? She’s your mother after all,” replied Lou Cheng honestly. An idea flashed in his head and he added, “Don’t eat too much breakfast tomorrow.”

Yan Zheke’s soft dimples appeared reading Lou Cheng’s words, her eyes gentle and caring. This strange line out of the blue confused her. “Why?”

“Secret!” Lou Cheng would not tell her he was to send the rice dumplings she’d been longing for to her tomorrow morning.

“Secret? You asked me to eat less tomorrow morning. I bet you’re to send some food. What breakfast am I longing for in Xiushan?” Yan Zheke sent a “there is only one truth” emoji before continuing. “You’re to deliver the rice dumplings to me?”

Lou Cheng replied a stunned dog. “How smart! You got me!”

It supposed to be a surprise!

“He-heh… I’m a reputed detective.” Yan Zheke in her white sleeping gown turned around in bed with her mobile, and her lips pursed and eyes curved with an obvious smile.

She was so very pleased with this compliment. It sounded better than the rice dumplings.

It’s thanks to my reasoning power and our mutual understanding and tacit.

She sat elegantly after an over ten-second laugh. “But my dad will cook breakfast for me tomorrow. I haven’t had his cooking for almost a year. And tomorrow night we’re going to my grandparents’ home. I’ll be having breakfast with them the day after tomorrow. Your surprise will have to wait until the day after…”

She started to feel guilty, wanting to make up.

“Deal. Breakfast in three days.” Lou Cheng heaved a sigh. “As expected, I can’t see Ke every day.”

A flush alongside a smile came to Yan Zheke’s face. “I’ll come to find you whenever I can.”

“I can also come to see you.” Lou Cheng adjusted his mood and sneered. “Hey, what’s the good news?”

“The good news?” Yan Zheke chuckled, leaning towards a cushion.

There’s light in her eyes and redness on her cheeks, her teeth gently biting on her bottom lip as her fingers slowly typing.

“The good news is…”

“Cheng, I have started missing you…”

Lou Cheng’s heart was beaten, becoming very soft. He carried a very light smile and replied,

“I’m also missing my Ke.”

At that very moment, he felt the moonlight tranquil and the dark night gentle.

Time flew fast while they were chatting. The clock was turning 10:30. Lou Cheng said goodnight to Yan Zheke unwillingly and shared a photo taken during the BBQ dinner earlier.

The first meal back in Xiushan!

He wasn’t very keen on this kind of stuff. He would update once every ten days or two weeks.

He logged out his QQ and put his mobile away, tasting the peaceful night and the sweet love in Yan Zheke’s message, falling asleep with a satisfied smile.

He woke up naturally the next morning, washed up quietly, changed into his navy blue martial arts suit and logged on his QQ to send Yan Zheke a laughing emoji with hands around its waist.

“The handsome one is up!”

“The beautiful one is sitting on her bed, in a trance…” Yan Zheke replied an emoji with circles in its eyes.

They chatted a little bit before Ke finally struggled to get up. Lou Cheng checked replies to his new post.

The first one was from Fatty Jiang. “Cheng, your first meal back in Xiushan was not home-made? Is Aunt not around? He-heh… My train arrives tonight. Don’t forget to treat me to a meal. Those with a girlfriend must take me out to a big meal!”

Lou Cheng attempted to tease him on his weight, asking him not to think about big meals considering his weight before he noticed other replies.

Cheng Qili was in shock. “What? Cheng, you’ve got a girlfriend?”

Qin Rui replied with astonishment, “Cheng, when did you get a girlfriend? A classmate from your university?”

The class monitor Qiu Hailin laughed with a hand covering her mouth. “I didn’t see this coming. Cheng, you have solved a big problem in the first year, without telling anyone.”

His previous desk mate Cao Lele laughed along. “Neither did I. This is not the Lou Cheng I know! When are you going to show us your girlfriend?”

“Holy crap! Brother Lou, barking dogs don’t bite. I’m still single!” Tao Xiaofei followed.

Lou Cheng looked blankly with only one thought in his mind.

Damn you, Fatty Jiang! You and your big mouth!

…

Lou Cheng consolidated the peak status of the body refining stage through exercises, recalling his conversation with his master before leaving school.

“The meaning of withdrawal requires all forces in your body to mingle together in a solid one. Otherwise, it’ll be a tree without roots or the water without a source. This is why one can’t jump onto it early and must wait until the peak of the body refining stage to try it.” Geezer Shi took a sip of the wine.

Lou Cheng was very impressed. “Master, you said it so well…”

Sounds so well educated…

Geezer Shi continued with a proud smile, “It was from my master. Hey, boy, can’t you focus on the key point? You’ve mastered meditation and gained the inward vision but you shouldn’t underestimate the Dan stage. This is the very first threshold in professional martial arts training after all.”

“I won’t talk too much. Here are the words for you: the human body’s grand Dan is round and bright. The rest is you to explore and recognize. Come back when you have no other ways.”

“That’s it?” Lou Cheng felt his master was not a real one.

“What else do you want? Everyone has his own characteristics and personality. Relying on the master won’t take you very far unless you’re fine sitting under me all your life. Besides, don’t you want to mix Taoist practice into your training? I can’t help you there. From now on, you must learn to feel and explore on your own.” Geezer Shi sounded more serious than usual. “All in all, call me when you need me but don’t always expect an answer from me.”

“Yes, master.” Lou Cheng nodded with his mind in deep thoughts.

A gentle breeze caressed his cheeks. The early morning in June was not hot but Lou Cheng didn’t add anything new to his morning training because he hadn’t bought medicines to start to mingle his forces into one yet.

After his exercise, Lou Cheng returned home and had breakfast without Qi Yunfei who would usually sleep until noon. He took the list of medicines his master gave him and went straight to Jishan House, the best traditional Chinese drugstore of the city.

..

Outside Jishan House, Lou Cheng was interrupted by the ring of his mobile.

He saw Qin Rui’s name and picked up.

“Hello, Cheng. My master is very glad you’re interested in working part-time for us.” Qin Rui got right to the point. “He proposed two types of work for you to choose from.”

“Name it.” Lou Cheng was pleased.

Qin Rui thought it over and adjusted his tone. “The first one you’ll become part of our advertisement as a part-time instructor for two months. There won’t be a monthly salary but you get 30% from our profit from the summer camp. Cheng, let me be honest with you. I was scared when I first heard of it. I’ve never seen my master being this generous with anyone! On average we’ll have 20 summer classes. The profit in these two summer months after deducting staff salary, utilities, equipment depreciation and site abrasion will be at least one million!”

“At least one million? 30% of it will be at least 300,000?” Lou Cheng had never heard such a big amount of money. He felt stunned and excited.

300,000… 300,000! It’s enough to buy a flat in Xiushan where the average price per square meter is only 3,500.

“Could this be real?” Lou Cheng held himself back from saying yes and stabilized his breath. “What about the second one?”

“The second one we won’t use you to promote. You’ll just take one VIP class. You know, those classes are usually advertised as instructed by my master in person. The tuition fee will be 5,888 and there’ll be ten of them in your class. All their tuition fee will be yours. The equipment and site aren’t a concern for you. If you see anything off in our training and practice, correct us.” Qin Rui explained in details patiently. “Moreover, there’ll be an individual tutoring fee. The more you make, the more you earn.”

“What individual tutoring fee?” asked Lou Cheng, confused.

“Think about it. Except for VIP classes, other classes each will have 30 to 50 students. How could one instructor guide so many? Instructors teach students and check on their progress in general, correcting one or two from time to time. This won’t be enough for some students, and they’ll approach you for one-on-one tutoring, paying extra to get a better result. Instructors at my level charge 300 yuan per hour.” Qin Rui laughed out. “You can set your price later. Honestly, I’m tempted to pay for a few sessions of yours already!”

“Ha-hah. For you it’s free.” Lou Cheng smiled.

Qin Rui continued, “This kind of tutoring fee we need to give a certain percentage to the martial arts club but you don’t need to.”

“The latter one was apparently not as good. A small class of ten students needed no more one-on-one instruction…” Lou Cheng was very tempted by the bonus, but he understood that it was a bit too much for a Professional Ninth Pin martial artist…

Abnormality indicates trouble!

“Don’t be blinded by the greed. I’d better consult my master. After all, this old dog still has a few tricks…” Lou Cheng said with a smile, “Qin Rui, I’ll think about it and let you know.”

“Sure. Call me,” answered Qin Rui generously.