Martial Arts Master

Yan Zheke wrapped up her remaining assignments before eight. Stretching her arms, she turned towards Lou Cheng.

“Want to have some cake?” she asked cheerily.

Her sparkling eyes and eager expression made Lou Cheng chuckle.

“Of course!” he answered immediately.

“Okay! I’ll make some for you. About time I show off my skills!” declared Yan Zheke, nodding happily. She stood up and secured her hair with a hairclip.

But before that let’s observe a minute of silence for the wasted ingredients from the night before…

She walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. Then she gathered a few eggs and broke them into two seperate bowls— one for the egg yolks and another for the egg whites.

“Need a hand?” volunteered Lou Cheng who tailed behind her.

“Eh…” Yan Zheke looked up in thought, then passed the large glass bowl with egg whites to Lou Cheng. “Beat the eggs for me.”

Since Cheng earnestly wanted to help, I can do without the eggbeater~

“Gotcha.” Lou Cheng whipped out a pair of chopsticks and poised his wrists for intense vibration.

But he had a query.

“How do I know if it’s properly beaten? When do I stop?”

I never made a cake before, and when I beat eggs in the past, it was for Mom to use in her omelettes, so the requirements must be different right?

“Hmm…” Yan Zheke blinked and hesitated. Swinging around, she opened a drawer in the kitchen, from where she retrieved a book. She flipped through it. “You stop when thicker bubbles starts appearing. Mhm, that’s it.”

Somehow it didn’t sound very convincing, thought Lou Cheng with a twitch of his mouth.

Sensing his gaze, Yan Zheke raised her chin quickly.

“Actually, It’s all in my memory! I only flipped the book to be doubly sure!!” she announced.

“I know, I know,” Lou Cheng replied, smiling. Flicking his wrist joints, he brought the chopsticks to a high-speed vibration that went tap tap.

Yan Zheke watched him, stunned. After a long time, she said,

“Cheng, you are a human eggbeater…”

The speed of his hands… the control over his strength…tut-tut (She made the Chinese sound to express her awe)…

She looked up in thought, then asked Lou Cheng to slow down as she put on an apron and began to work on the egg yolks.

When thick bubbles began rising in Lou Cheng’s bowl, she hastily weighed out some sugar and dumped it inside, then told him to mix it at a faster speed.

In the process, the girl was busy as a bee, dancing back and forth, at times brushing past or touching hair with Lou Cheng. Sometimes, their eyes met, and they exchanged glances of happiness. The warmth between them radiated.

When they were finally done with everything— the baking tools returned to their containers, cake in the oven with the timer set— they leaned against each other, chit-chatting and flirting as they waited.

“30 seconds left…” Yan Zheke said as she stared at the number displayed on the oven, her eyes sparkling.

“Haha, I’m sure it’s going to taste great,” encouraged Lou Cheng.

They kept talking until the oven chimed. The cake was ready.

“It’s done, it’s done,” Yan Zheke swung around merrily to take the oven gloves.

But when she turned around, Lou Cheng had already opened the oven and was taking out the cake in mold with his bare hands, as if he was merely grabbing utensils before a meal.

Yan Zheke was nonplussed. Then she giggled. “You know what phrase you are reminding me of right now…?”

“What?” Lou Cheng asked as he worked the cake out of the pan and into a plate. A sweet aroma wafted through the air.

“Warning, do not try this at home!” Yan Zheke replied, deadpan.

“Haha, I did wear gloves though,” Lou Cheng explained as he laid down the mold and lifted his right palm— enameled in crystal-clear ice as steam rose from it.

“…” Yan Zheke was speechless for a moment. She turned her attention to the cake on the table, taking a whiff of the fragrance, then nodded. “Cheng, I’m so envious of you!”

“What are you envious of?” Lou Cheng asked, dumbfounded.

“Envious of your amazing… wife!” Yan Zheke announced as she raised her arm, trying to stifle her laughter.

She set Lou Cheng off too, and they laughed a great deal.

Ke has taken to my sense of humor…

Yan Zheke passed him the spoon, her expression eager and timid at the same time.

“You try it, Cheng. Tell me how it tastes…”

“Okay.” Lou Cheng carved a spoonful, put it into his mouth and chewed.

“It’s good! The sweetness is perfect!” he praised with a blissful expression.

He extended his arm as he spoke, hovering the spoon before his little fairy’s lips.

“Really?” Yan Zheke’s eyes lit up with delight. Stretching her neck, she edged towards the spoon and took a small, graceful bite. She sampled it carefully.

A few seconds later, she heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness, I didn’t mess up!” she said with a smile.

Though it wasn’t as good as what Cheng made it out to be…

Well, I’m in a good mood today, so I shall not call him out for his overreaction~

“Here, have some more…” she prompted. “Cheng, did I ever mention that the desserts in America are cloyingly sweet? It’s as if sugar doesn’t cost money to them! And as you know I’m not a person with a sweet tooth…”

They talked and laughed and finished up every bite of the cake. Of course, Lou Cheng devoured four fifths of it. In the end he felt guilty to increase Aunt Du’s workload, so he volunteered to clean the table and wash the dishes.

Yan Zheke watched as Lou Cheng donned his apron and scrubbed away using a rag in front of the sink. She leaned by the entrance of the kitchen, eyes gleaming.

After a while, a dimpled smile surfaced as she snuggled up to him.

“Let me help you, Cheng!” she declared confidently.

Afterwards, sounds of laughing and happy chatter drifted from the kitchen, with Lou Cheng’s resigned complaints mixed in between—”You naughty girl, you are not trying to help, are you?”

In the ebullient atmosphere, they cleaned up the mess, returned to the second floor and freshened themselves up. Then they laid on the bed.

Yan Zheke seemed to have forgotten that Lou Cheng was supposed to stay in the next room.

“Cheng, remember when you told me that your Ice Mirror is now at a stage of “Encountering Gods In The Void, Self Reflection”? What does it do?”

“My detection radius increased by at least 50 percent, and my control over the insides of my body is meticulously precise now. If I sustain any internal injuries, the time taken to heal is sharply reduced. Correspondingly, I can stimulate my Qi and blood to use a simplified version of the Fighting Formula. Combined with the Asura Path I visualized from before, the power of my bursts will increase, and so will the number of times I can use it…” Lou Cheng enumerated, partly describing it to his wife and partly as a self diagnostic. “Control over strength and movement mastery barely have any impact now. Right, Ke, starting from tomorrow I’ll be teaching you the Fighting Formula. Tonight, we sleep on time and get some good rest.”

“Okayy!” Yan Zheke answered happily.

Lou Cheng’s enumerations made her eyes sparkle.

Then she paused, remembering something.

“No words on the Wholeness Formula yet?”

“Nope. It’s the secret art treasured by the Extreme Hadou Sect. It wouldn’t be easy to get a hold of it, even for the military. They have to take many things into consideration,” sighed Lou Cheng.

He suddenly laughed when he remembered something.

“I actually found out another use for my advanced Ice Mirror, haha, but I’m going to leave it as that…”

Just know that it’s not suitable for kids…

Yan Zheke grew immensely curious and pestered him for the answer, deploying her hands and feet at the same time as she threatened and threw tantrums.

After playing around for a while, Lou Cheng threw in the towel and came clean.

“Remember how you complained that it took too long for me to finish last night? Well, that was because the condom made it less sensitive. But now, with my Ice Mirror advancing to the Self Reflection stage, I have gained a certain degree of control over it and can, um, self-adjust the sensitivity. Coupled with my Listening Skills, it should work out great…”

Yan Zheke blushed at first, but by the end of the speech she was completely thunderstruck.

“Cheng, how do you end up thinking about such things while practicing kungfu?”

“Applying what I learn is…” Soft punches greeted him before he could finish his sentence.

Their playful fight lasted for a while, but when the mood began to take a weird turn, Yan Zheke quickly turned her back to Lou Cheng and buried her face in the pillow.

“I’m asleep now!” she mumbled.

Lou Cheng chuckled. He felt a pain at his heart when he recalled that she hasn’t slept for a day and only lasted through the day with the Swordsman formula. Suppressing his urges, he embraced her from behind and pecked her lightly on the cheeks.

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” A dimpled smile spread across her face.

…

The next morning, the two woke up refreshed and invigorated. Lou Cheng fetched a brush and paper to inscribe the Fighting Formula.

After training and breakfast ended, he tagged along to the Connecticut University campus again, where he waved goodbye to Yan Zheke and went on his way to the Msasi Martial Arts Gym.

When he passed by a street, he heard a gunshot. Two armed robbers— one black and one white— wearing balaclavas dashed out from the bank ahead.

“Huh, is this an opportunity to fight crime?” Spirited, Lou Cheng couldn’t wait to give it a go.

Just as he was about to strike, a silhouette flew past, knocking down one of the criminals with a loud bang.

Before the silhouette in superman costume could parry and deal a glancing blow to the other robber, nets of thread descended from the sky and binded his target.

Vroom! Two other silhouettes made their entrance. Lou Cheng stood bewildered.

“Aren’t there too many superheroes in America?”

“Three of them just for a measly bank robbery…?”

In the neighboring district, Smith chuckled at the surveillance screen.

“How unlucky for these two scoundrels that three “superheroes” happened to be dining nearby…” he mused. “And a bypassing a danger-grade monster…”

With the morning episode ending abruptly, Lou Cheng shook his head as he left the scene.

If America citizens are these enthusiastic about acting out their superhero fantasies, I wonder if there would people acting out, no, or rather, imitating those notorious, twisted criminals? Well… that sure seems to be the tradition here…”

I better gather some information later and see if there are criminals that fit the bill in Connecticut, and whether they have any chances of endangering Ke. Eliminate the threat before damage is done!

Sigh, sadly this place is completely foreign to me. No information, no resources, no clues, no evidence. One misstep and I’m out of America. Otherwise, I could commence on Operation Connecticut Criminal Extermination and root them all out, one explosion at a time…

Lou Cheng’s imagination ran wild, and before he knew it he was already at the entrance of Msasi Martial Arts Gym.

PS: Criminals of Connecticut: What the f*** did we do?