Martial Arts Master

“They are too hospitable to even postpone it for one day. My mouth is drooling at the thought of the food you make,” Lou Cheng blurted out as he flattered her.

Qi Fang smiled, proud of herself. “Is that so? I’ve bought all of the ingredients. Don’t say it now, wait until you come home and then you can say it again. Wait for your father, and both of you can come back.”

“Okay, okay.” Lou Cheng hung up the phone and turned his head to look at his wife, no, his leader, and laughed. “My mom.”

“How coincidental, me too!” Yan Zheke bent her eyebrows as she shook her phone. “Empress Dowager is standing over there in front of the plaza.”

Thoughts swirled in Lou Cheng’s head, and he snickered. “There’s no need for me to avoid them now. Now I can take you directly to them. Ke, what do you think, should I change it and call them ‘Mom and Dad?’”

Yan Zheke’s mouth abruptly half-opened. She pursed her lips inward and good-naturedly looked Lou Cheng in the eyes as she lifted her chin up and said, “If that’s your idea of being on good terms with them, I don’t care!”

As the two of them bantered flirtatiously, the high speed rail came to a stop. Lou Cheng rose up and used one hand to take down Yan Zheke’s luggage as if it were a light children’s toy.

Carrying a backpack, lugging a suitcase, and also leading his wife along, Lou Cheng whisked out of the train in high spirits, entering the arrivals lobby.

After being away, seeing the bursting sun and bright and beautiful sky upon their return along with the rising summer heat, he and Yan Zheke subconsciously looked at each other. In their hearts and their minds, they both seemed to sigh.

These couple of days, which had passed like some kind of crazy dream, were coming to an end…

As fragments and moments of that time flashed through their minds, the two of them became silent, but they gripped each other tighter and leaned closer to one another.

Exiting the lobby and turning to the road, it was suddenly bright and spacious before Lou Cheng’s eyes. The final splendid golden red hues of the setting sun covered the square. The scholarly and refined Yan Kai and the mature and beautiful Ji Mingyu were waiting a few steps ahead, holding hands in the same way and also holding parasols.

“Your mom and dad seem so happy!” Lou Cheng broke the silence, complimenting them sincerely.

And this was after being together for more than twenty years!

Yan Zheke raised her head with pride and said with a smile, “You best work hard, young man’ this is the model example you need to achieve!”

“All goals are meant to be surpassed,” Lou Cheng responded with a chuckle.

While talking, the two of them had entered within earshot of Yan Kai and the beaming Ji Mingyu. Lou Cheng, somewhat lacking in confidence, said loudly, “Uncle, Auntie.”

“Mom, Dad,” Yan Zheke said, not releasing Lou Cheng’s hand as she coquettishly announced these two words.

Ji Mingyu was about to speak as her eyes glanced over her daughter, but her mind suddenly came to a halt.

Even though there was some exhaustion hidden in Ke’s expression, her entire being radiated with beauty. She was positively glowing, and it was enough to make any mother a feel a bit afraid…

Putting the pieces together, with her going abroad very soon and the imminent fact that she would then have to part with her boyfriend, Ji Mingyu, with her experience, could guess what had happened.

However, she did not blame Lou Cheng in any way. As he had entered the Dan Stage and became the Youth Tournament Champion, she had thought that these two young people would taste the forbidden fruit soon enough. In light of this, she has subtly hinted to her daughter to take the necessary precautions. She hadn’t expected this boy to be able to restrain himself for long.

Recalling once again how her daughter had not given up on her dream because of this, and how it was obvious that her boyfriend was being understanding and supportive of her, Ji Mingyu viewed Lou Cheng in a higher light, and she was pleased.

“So now that you’ve got a boyfriend, you can’t give your mother a kiss?” she joked as she glanced at her daughter, lifting her left arm.

Yan Zheke’s face blushed. She released Lou Cheng’s palm, took half a step forward, and gave Empress Dowager an intimate embrace, saying delicately, “Of course not!”

Due to her own private lifelong matters, she still felt ashamed in the face of her mother and father.

Ji Mingyu turned and looked towards Lou Cheng, laughing warmly as she said, “Where is the Lou family’s home? Let’s go, we can drop you off on the way. Getting another car is too much of a pain.”

“Okay. Thank you, Auntie.” As his mother-in-law had extended an olive branch, Lou Cheng didn’t conceal anything.

After talking, he silently mouthed towards Yan Zheke, expressing that he what wanted to say was “Thank you, Mom.” This caused her to wrinkle her nose and stare at him softly.

The Yans’ car was parked outside of the square. Along the way, Ji Mingyu and Yan Zheke propped their parasols. Yan Kai and Lou Cheng walked alongside each other, listening to the mother and daughter chat, occasionally chiming in with a few sentences.

After putting the luggage in the SUV, Lou Cheng and Yan Zheke sat in the back row, fastening their seat belts together.

After starting the vehicle, Yan Kai turned his head to look at his daughter and laughed. “Ke, your grandma and grandpa have invited you to go to Zhengque County for a while to keep them company. They’re afraid that after you go abroad, it’ll be hard to see you again until you come back after a year.”

“How’s that possible? Of course I’ll come back for the National Holiday, it’s basically the same as it is now!” Yan Zheke subconsciously explained herself.

“Your grandma and grandpa’s thinking is that calling on the phone isn’t very convenient.” Yan Kai smiled warmly.

Yan Zheke looked up as she said, “Then we can video call online! That way they can see me directly. That’s right, this time I need to teach Grandma and Grandpa how to use that!”

Listening to their conversation, Lou Cheng suddenly felt a kind of loss. Ke was gonna go to live with her grandparents for a few days, which meant that they would have to be apart for a while. Their time together before she went abroad was quickly becoming shorter and shorter…

Just then, Yan Zheke turned her eyes and glanced at him. With her face blushing, she said firmly,

“Dad, wouldn’t Grandma and Grandpa like to meet Cheng? When it’s time, I will go together with Cheng.”

Ha… Ji Mingyu, who was driving, laughed despite herself, half out of disdain and half out of pride.

She didn’t know if her daughter coming into her own was a good thing or bad thing…

Yan Kai was silent for a moment and laughed with mixed emotions. “That’s fine.”

Upon hearing this pleasant surprise, Lou Cheng’s melancholy disappeared and he was unable to help himself from pulling his little fairy’s hand towards his side.

As they looked and smiled at one another, Yan Kai was already asking, “Then when are you going to go?”

“We’ll wait a few days. I need… I need to take a trip to Cheng’s family….” Yan Zheke glanced around nervously, and the more she spoke, the lower her voice became.

The disgraceful daughter-in-law must meet her in-laws…

Also, she’d gone from a theoretical daughter-in-law to becoming an actual daughter-in-law….

Even though Yan Kai had prepared himself, he still felt a particular kind of melancholy. In his mind, his daughter was still young. How could time fly so fast that his daughter was already going to see her in-laws?

“Then you’ll need to prepare well. I remember I didn’t quite understand all of it in those years, and there was no one to teach me, so I made a bit of a fool of myself on the first visit,” Ji Mingyu said “angrily”, full of remembrance of those times.

Yan Kai mumbled, “Send my greetings to Lou’s parents.”

In Xiushan, unless it was a blind date of two youths, the parents of both parties should not meet with each other when it was time for the younger generation to meet the elders. They had to wait until the younger couples solidified their relationship and were prepared to discuss marriage. Only then could they professionally arrange a few set times to meet in order to determine the wedding date and other details.

“Thank you, Uncle Yan.” Lou Cheng hurriedly sent a greeting in the place of his mom and dad.

After a short while, according to his directions, Ji Mingyu parked the car on the opposite end of the street.

The real-life daughter-in-law, mother-in-law, and father-in-law all waved goodbye as Lou Cheng entered the familiar yet somehow unfamiliar neighborhood.

The overall layout of the area and the arrangement of the buildings had not changed. Ten years had passed as if it’d been one day, like being frozen in time. The passersbys coming and going were the same as well. They were just a bit more mottled, had more grey hairs, and there were more fresh newly-born faces.

The new Lou family home that they’d purchased at the end of April was finished with its renovations, but they still had to wait for a while. According to Qi Fang, they had to wait until October and then could choose a day to move in.

As Lou Cheng walked down the road, some people called out, some sent their greetings, and others asked their children to take him as example, causing him to smile endlessly.

He briskly stepped up the stairs, took out his keys, and opened the door. He still hadn’t entered when he saw his mom come over and welcome him, laughing as she said, “So fast!”

“Uncle Yan and them gave me a ride,” Lou Cheng answered calmly. Looking at the living room, he asked, “Where’s Dad?”

“Him?” Qi Fang responded gruffly, “Ever since he became the factory director, he’s been busier than before. He insists on saying he can’t let down others’ trust in him, and every day when it’s 6:30, he’s still not home!”

“Don’t mention your father.” She turned and said with a smile, “When is Zheke coming over? You need to remind your mother so I can be well prepared!”

Her daughter-in-law was on on the verge of paying a visit, so she had taken the initiative by taking Yan Zheke and omitting it to become Zheke.

“Ke can come anytime over the next few days, it depends on you both!” Lou Cheng responded hastily.

“How about tomorrow? No, no, if I prepare some food for you, I don’t know what she does and doesn’t like. I still have to do a big sweeping and get everything in order around the house again. Can’t see my daughter-in-law with the house in such a state…” Qi Fang said to herself, “Also, I need to give your aunt a call and make her bring over some of the vegetables from her garden. The Yan family’s very well off, so they’re probably sick of eating expensive things. They need to try something new…”

Listening to his mother prattle on, he could feel the importance she attached to her daughter-in-law, and Lou Cheng’s heart warmed. He was unable to keep himself from laughing.

“What are you laughing at?” Qi Fang had just grabbed the phone but hadn’t had time to dial.

“I’m happy for Ke,” Lou Cheng answered humorously.

Qi Fang beamed. “I asked around; Zheke is a good girl. Refined and beautiful. Certainly better than you were before. Didn’t you yourself tell me how great she was before?”

In the middle of bringing this up, she suddenly sighed.

“Cheng! When you were in high school, I was so worried that you still hadn’t found a girlfriend…”

Gah…. Wasn’t I tight-lipped and introverted in high school? Lou Cheng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and he was speechless.

A doubly violent attack coming from his mother!

Once Qi Fang had communicated with Qi Yan and settled on two days from now, Lou Cheng hurriedly took out his phone and sent a message to Yan Zheke, whom he’d already made a note to change into “Dear Wife”.

“My mom says two days from now. She really thinks highly of you. She was especially asking me what you like to eat; she’s going to go back to the market to buy some things and she’s making our aunt bring some vegetables over from her garden. She has also made a plan on sweeping the entire house, going to get her hair done…”

For the sake of harmony between the two families, he wasn’t the slightest bit stingy when it came to telling the other party what the other had said.

Yan Zheke blushed and laughed. “Auntie’s a good person.”

“You need to call her ‘Mom!’” Lou Cheng snickered.

“Get out of here, I don’t have a husband like you!” Yan Zheke said, sending an emoji that was blowing a whistle and holding up a red card. She nervously and timidly said, “I’m still not used to calling people out like this. When I was just typing, my face was burning hot. How shameful!”

“But you’ve already called me out once or twice over these few days,” Lou Cheng responded, sending an emoji smiling wickedly and raising its eyebrows.

“That’s when I was only half-conscious…” After sending this message, Yan Zheke abruptly came to her senses. Her face became red and hot as fire, and her face was full of regret as she replied, “I don’t understand you!”

After a moment, Lou Zhisheng called, asking Qi Fang and Lou Cheng to directly come down, saying that Erzi had driven over specifically to pick them up.

“Not bad!” Qi Fang said, tugging her son along as they went out the door and down the stairs, arriving at the entrance of the neighborhood.

This time, Erzi was driving a Mercedes. He was outside smoking and chatting with Lou’s father, Lou Zhisheng. Seeing Lou Cheng come over, he immediately put on a smile and came up to welcome him.

“Cheng, finally I can see you. You’re the pride of the Lou family!”

The day was getting slightly dark. Lou Cheng glanced at him, and found that he closely resembled their cousin Lou Yuanwei. He smiled modestly and said,

“No, no, Brother Erzi, you’re also quite impressive.”

Why call him “Brother Erzi?” Because up until now, I’m still not sure what his real name is…