Martial Arts Master

Lou Cheng found everything so beautiful, every student coming in and out so lovely, even noises so pleasant to listen and damp air so sweet to smell. The bright moon close to the full indicated perfection and satisfactory.

Yan Zheke responded to his loving promise immediately with a silly but cute emoji. “What are you talking about? I don’t get it. My account was hijacked… Yeah, it was hijacked!”

Phew… Lou Cheng almost burst into laughter. He could see Yan Zheke shy and haughty, trying to be serious. “Bad person hijacked my Coach Yan’s account… I’ll write down all these words in my notebook and read one hundred times every day to recollect this memory and denounce the bad person!”

After this confession, he felt less constrained and more comfortable talking to his loved girl.

“…” Speechless, Yan Zheke sent an apostrophe. “Forget about it. Delete it! Are you already planning on recollecting memories shortly after your love confession?”

“Okay, okay. I’ll forget about it right now!” Lou Cheng laughed before continuing, “But I will never forget what I just promised.”

Yan Zheke used the sitting at a loss emoji. “… Did you have many relationships before? Why are you so good at this? I’m a square…”

“These days cute girls love to say square whenever they are flustered…” Lou Cheng hurried to explain himself. “No, you are my first love! I’m not good at it, just sharing with you the sincere thoughts of mine. Be honest and frank with no decoration.”

“First love…” Yan Zheke chuckled. “What a pity I didn’t go to your classroom often as I was afraid of being watched in high school. I missed the Lou Cheng arriving at puberty, sillier and cuter.

Lou Cheng’s joy was spilling out. “That’s true. I was sillier back then and had very little confidence. I drew back from everything other than study and games. I’m glad you didn’t notice me, or it would become part of my dark history…”

He talked about his past frankly, revealing the most real side of himself to Yan Zheke.

“I was the same at that time, very self-abased as everyone else was fine but only I was congenitally deficient. I was very interested in martial arts but could only watch it enviously…” Yan Zheke didn’t seem to mind Lou Cheng’s uselessness in high school but found some sympathetic response.

Lou Cheng changed the topic as he didn’t want Yan Zheke to soak in the past sadness. “I was so happy earlier… I wanted to shout but was afraid of scaring others… So I dragged Little Ming and ran all the way back at the speed of hundred-meter dash. He’s still catching his breath… I still want to cry out my joy…

“Phew… Poor Little Ming.” Yan Zheke chuckled. “Don’t show off in front the single. They will kick your ass!”

“Little Ming is not poor. One day I’ll give him a fat red envelope for teaching me, guiding me and answering my questions.” Lou Cheng put on a smirk. “To be honest, I was so tempted to go to your building just to have a look at you… Err… When I saw the messages sent from your hijacked account, I realized it might scare you so I held it back. We have a long journey to go. No rush…”

Again he was impressed by his talents in sweet talks. “Is it men’s instinct or my gift?”

Yan Zheke replied a shy smile. “This is the good Cheng!”

Lou Cheng was very glad for the compliment. He asked out of curiosity, “Did you notice my fondness of you long, long time ago?”

“Err… A little bit…” Yan Zheke used the emoji with rolling eyes. “I was all like what is wrong with this friend… Why does he talk to me every day? Why every day? Yes, we have a lot to talk about. However, dare he confess his love for me, I’ll say no crudely!”

“Thank god I am making progress in a stepwise manner!” said Lou Cheng after the emoji of wiping cold sweat off.

Thank you, Little Ming for your persuasion and contrivance!

My good teacher and helpful friend never fails me!

“I was too silly, fooled by your innocent looks. Hmm!” Yan Zheke sent an emoji in tears.

“I’ll fool you for the rest of my life…” Lou Cheng was too shy to say it. Abruptly his shoulder was tapped. Cai Zongming had recovered from the long run, pointing at the time on his mobile and then looking at their dorm.

“Holy cow! Already past ten! Time flies when you are having fun!” Lou Cheng felt melancholy.

The evening class ended at 9:35. He wasted some time in the classroom and chatted with Yan Zheke for a good while. It was actually pretty normal to be past 10 o’clock.

But 10:30 is my bed time… I hate to do it! How disappointing!

He thought about it and revealed her true feeling to Yan Zheke. “It’s already 10 something… I better go to bed now so I can get up early tomorrow for my training. I wanted to stay up until midnight, but Little Ming’s advice just came to my mind. I shouldn’t hold back my feeling for her as I’m not good enough. Instead, I should improve myself to become a suitable match for her.

“I want to become a man that deserves your love so I can’t spare myself from my training.”

They were not his exact words but pretty much the same.

Yan Zheke replied a shy smile. “I would urge you to sleep if you didn’t volunteer. Go and wash up. Say goodnight to me after.”

“Yes!” Lou Cheng agreed gladly.

Yan Zheke sent another message.

“Hmm… Err… That… I like the silly Cheng. And the Cheng focusing on martial arts training…”

“Ahh… How annoying! My account was hijacked again! Don’t reply!”

Lou Cheng’s eyes curved with joy and his heart warm and tender. He couldn’t hold back his smile at this adorable Yan Zheke. He liked her very much.

“Hmm… I didn’t see anything and I didn’t reply.” He tried to sound serious.

Putting the mobile back in his pocket, Lou Cheng raised his head, seeing Cai Zongming shaking his head with a bitchy sneer. “Look at you. Your face reminds me of myself in my first relationship back to my primary school days…”

“Say whatever you like. I’m in a really good mood!” Lou Cheng responded in a merry tone.

Cai Zongming chuckled. “Well, let me tell you some brutal truth… In a relationship, the one that confesses first will become the provider and lose the initiative and the position of prominence.”

Lou Cheng looked at him, puzzled.

“Why do I need to seize the initiative and the position of prominence over her? I like her more than she likes me. So I cherish her and spoil her. Isn’t it good?”

Cai Zongming appeared speechless, his lips twitching.

“I need to vomit… That’s gross!”

“He-heh…” Lou Cheng wasn’t offended at all. He went back to the dorm room and washed up quickly. He wanted to climb up to his bed without chatting with Zhao Qiang and Qiu Zhigao but decided to back up his messages with Yan Zheke in his laptop and on several cloud servers.

This is worth looking back for the rest of my life!

How would we feel when we reread this in each other’s arms when our hair is gray and teeth are loose?

After turning off his laptop and taking off his clothes, Lou Cheng went up to his bed and sneered. “I’m lying in my bed now. Can’t sleep until you say goodnight to me!”

Slowly it will become a hug goodnight and then a kiss goodnight!

Yan Zheke used the emoji of laughing behind its hands. “OK. Goodnight. Sweet dreams. I’m going to bed myself soon. Today has been intense. I’m pretty tired.”

“Goodnight. Dream about me!” Lou Cheng threw a bold flirt.

“Bah! No way!” Yan Zheke felt shy from embarrassment.

The night was drawing on. Lou Cheng fell deep asleep with a sweet smile, just as happy in his dreams.

…

The next early morning he showed up at the lake on time. Gazing at the foggy dimness, he was hit by a sudden pity that he couldn’t do better as a boyfriend like those in fictions delivering breakfast to their university girlfriend because of the morning training.

Suddenly, an idea came to his mind.

“I can totally make some time. If I start my training 20 minutes earlier, I can finish it 20 minutes earlier. During the endurance training, I can run far to buy breakfast for Yan Zheke from some restaurant other than the school canteen. He-heh… That’s what I’ll do once I figure out what breakfast she likes in Songcheng.”

Having his spirits raised, Lou Cheng trained harder and harder. Geezer Shi was very impressed and confused if his student had taken any stimulant.

Between punches and kicks, Lou Cheng visualized thunder clouds vibrating to pull his throat and chest and drag his five viscera and six bowels, giving out a low thundering sound matching with the tremor force. Little by little his bones and marrow shook and those corners in his body that couldn’t be reached usually were one by one touched.

Before he noticed it, the morning training was over. He quickly finished his breakfast and ran to the martial arts stadium to see Yan Zheke!

As he walked in, his eyes found Yan Zheke instantly like a radar. Four eyes met.

Yan Zheke quickly moved her eyes away, her long eyelashes flapping and her face flushing. She took a quick glance at Lou Cheng before turning her head away with a look of pretended annoyance. Unconsciously Lou Cheng’s face also turned red.

Knowing girls were shy and she needed more time to adjust, he didn’t recklessly run up to say hi. Instead, he went straight to his spot, frequently checking on her.

Every time he had his eyes on Yan Zheke, she had hers on him briefly, which filled up his heart with sweetness and tacit understanding.

The pair glanced at each other like that the whole morning. The training soon came to the final pair exercise part.

Geezer Shi coughed to clear his throat.

“The schedule of the preliminaries has been confirmed. Over 20 teams have signed up in Songcheng. Together with a few neighboring cities, our division will be divided into four groups of eight or nine teams. One round of single cycle home-and-away competitions settled by lot. The best top of each group will advance to have home-and-away elimination matches with each other, fighting for the two places of our division.

“We are in Group Three with other seven teams. So we have seven matches to attend no matter we can advance or not. Our first opponent will be the Hongluo Martial Arts School from Songcheng on the afternoon of 17. An away competition for us. I’ll send all videos and materials to our members who will attend the preliminaries. Have a good study in the next couple of days.”

Lou Cheng pulled himself together and itched to have a go.

Friends from the Hongluo Martial Arts School! Feel my joy and excitement!