Martial Arts Master

“I miss you too. That’s why.”

Yan Zheke’s jog came to a pause once more. Her eyelashes quivered, and her gaze instantly turned blurry.

There were just too much emotions bursting and blossoming inside her heart right now. She wanted nothing more than to turn around immediately, running under the street lamp and jumping into the embrace she had missed so much!

She cast a glance at her grandfather jogging in front of her and bit her lips with her white and orderly teeth. She forcefully suppressed the turmoil of emotions swelling inside her heart, typed on her cell phone’s keyboard and sent Lou Cheng a message,

“Idiot, you nearly make me cry just now!”

Phew. She exhaled and felt herself calm down a little. Then she texted again immediately,

“Hmph. Your elder sister’s inviting you for morning training. You’re not allowed to turn me down~!”

The smile on Lou Cheng’s face blossomed as he replied briefly,

“Sure!”

He stuffed his cell phone into his pocket and began slow jogging while carrying his backpack. He followed his girlfriend from afar, turning right and entering a boulevard behind her. He followed her into a place that had been reforested beautifully.

“Grandpa, I’ll be heading over there to train~” Yan Zheke greeted her grandfather with a cheerful tone. She was feeling unusually happy and expectant right now.

Her grandfather understood that most martial arts’ training and fighting style couldn’t be shown to outsiders, and his granddaughter had gone to a secluded area nearby to train since a few days ago. Suspecting nothing, he waved his hand and joined the group of elderly people practicing tai chi and smoothed out a posture with familiar faces.

When Lou Cheng saw this, he instantly quickened his footsteps and followed the delicate figure before him into a small path. The path led to a place that looked a little like a botanical garden just a wall away from the center of Zhengque County.

After Yan Zheke had jogged into the fork of the road, she slowed down and stopped under a dewy tree. She waited with pursed lips as she watched her boyfriend running closer and closer towards her.

Lou Cheng was just about to hug her when he saw her holding her hands behind her back and looking to the side. She pouted and said,

“Stand there, don’t move! Close your eyes, come on, close them already~!”

Lou Cheng couldn’t resist against Yan Zheke’s coquettish act at all, so he smiled and said,

“Alright, alright.”

He stood where he was and closed his eyes. He listened to her familiar, gentle footsteps walking towards him.

He wouldn’t be teased this time, would he?

After Yan Zheke got close to him, she paused for a moment and examined Lou Cheng’s closely with eyes that looked as gentle as water.

He looks a little tired. He probably didn’t sleep too well last night…

His facial hair is showing. It must be because he had no time to shave them…

His hair looks a little messy. Hmph, he definitely didn’t have a chance to bathe last night…

The girl’s heart grew softer and softer and she took half a step forwards and circled her arms around Lou Cheng’s waist. When she buried her face into his shoulder and felt his familiar scent, warmth and heartbeat transmitting from his body into hers, she felt that the longing and frustration she had been feeling for the past few days slowly melting little by little.

“Don’t open your eyes~!” she acutely noticed Lou Cheng’s attempt to open his eyes and return her hug. Therefore, she chided him in a playful voice.

“Alright.” Lou Cheng let out a laugh and kept his eyes closed tightly, looking a little hopeful at what was about to happen.

Yan Zheke’s eyes rippled with emotion as she moved her hands up Lou Cheng’s neck, clung onto it, stood on her toes and kissed the corner of Lou Cheng’s mouth and the protruding facial hair with a blush on her face.

The corner of his eyes, his face, his forehead… In this regard, she was Lou Cheng’s good student. She landed many, many gentle kisses on his face before finally, she closed her eyes and kissed onto Lou Cheng’s lips with an expression that looked like was heading towards a noble death, but was immeasurably happy and bashful at the same time. Then, she timidly stuck out her tongue and clumsily drew circles with it.

Lou Cheng returned her hug tightly and her kiss passionately. He wished he could melt into her arms.

A long while later, Yan Zheke struggled free from her boyfriend’s embrace while panting. Looking sideways with eyes that looked like they were drunk with emotion, she said with feigned nonchalance and a red face,

“Your older sister has given you your morning kiss! Now you should train hard, get it, little boy?”

“Yes, sister Yan~” Lou Cheng answered while feeling soothed to the core. He hung his backpack on a tree branch and assumed a stance.

Yan Zheke cocked her head in confusion and asked, “Aren’t you going to drink the healing soup?”

“I drank them since a while ago. I’ve even finished a round of training. Didn’t you see that I’m wearing my martial arts suit?” Lou Cheng pointed at his own body with a wide smile on his face.

He had to admit that the public toilets nearby were pretty clean.

“Oh, right. My brain went poof for a second there. Hmph, I must’ve gotten it from Cheng!” Yan Zheke shot a glare at Lou Cheng and refused to admit that she completely missed the details because her emotions ran too high just now.

The duo didn’t let themselves get wrapped up in sentiment, nor did they neglect their training. They took up a spot each and cultivated their own martial arts. From time to time booms would resound over the wind as limbs cut through the air.

During this process, their eyes would occasionally meet one another. They exchanged unsaid words with each other through their eyes and felt sweetness and happiness seeping through every inch of their body.

Time passed in the blink of an eye, and before they knew it was already 7.30 a.m. Normally, Yan Zheke would leave around this time and meet up with her grandfather to return home for breakfast. However, she dillydallied this time because she was reluctant to part ways with Lou Cheng.

“Cheng, how goes your training for the past few days?” she looked up and smiled faintly.

Lou Cheng withdrew his stance and embraced the girl.

“Ew, you’re dirty and smelling all over! Dirty Cheng who doesn’t bathe~!” Yan Zheke punched his chest lightly, but didn’t struggle. She chose to lie quietly in his embrace.

Lou Cheng let out a mischievous laugh and answered, “It’s pretty effective. It’s only been a few days, but I feel like I’m training the finer details of my martial arts already. I was thinking, the seniors who practiced martial arts at the very beginning must not have any healing soup to support them. So how on earth did they manage to succeed?”

“The very first seniors who successfully mastered martial arts must be the kind of person who are so talented they didn’t need healing soups to train their skills to go deep into the finer details. Plus, it is thanks to the summary of their experiences that we juniors are able to skip all the detours and achieve twice as much with just half the effort.” Yan Zheke said smilingly.

For some reason, not only did she not find Lou Cheng’s sweat unpleasant to smell, she even found herself liking it.

Oh my god, I’m finished. I must be sick!

My nose has gone awry!

An unconscious blush rose to her cheeks once more as she said hurriedly, “What about your comprehension on ‘Withdraw’?”

“Nothing on that yet. I feel like I can’t find the right direction.” Lou Cheng sighed faintly, “The reactions of my muscles and fasciae are getting faster and smoother. My energy is flowing smoother and smoother too. It feels as if the impurities that are preventing me from exerting my strength properly are being chipped away bit by bit. But this has nothing to do with the meaning behind ‘Withdraw’, is there?”

His fake master had only given him nine words: “a human body big dan is round and bright”. He couldn’t learn anything from them at all!

Yan Zheke pursed her lips into a smile and said, “Call me Coach Yan, quickly! Then I’ll tell you what you should do~!”

I had purposely consulted several relatives for this, you know!

“Please, Coach Yan, please teach me what you know! Seeing that I have nothing to repay the great favor I owe you, I shall dedicate this humble body to you for life!” Lou Cheng joked while feeling relaxed.

“In that case I’ll have to reconsider for a moment~” Yan Zheke rolled her eyes at him before recalling what she had learned, “I’ve asked my brothers, uncles, aunties and sisters, and I found a common point after combining all of their explanations — ‘Will’.”

“Will?” Lou Cheng mulled over the word.

“‘Withdraw’ did not represent just the withdrawal of force alone. It also included the withdrawal of qi and blood, aura, and spirit. It may be that one must find their own path and their will of martial arts before they can control all these.” Yan Zheke made her deduction seriously, “Their explanations are largely different. It matches what I’ve read in the written accounts of certain scriptures: ‘The Dan stage differs with every person. It cannot be imitated by other people’. Er, it’s probably because every person is unique, and thus no one’s will is exactly the same… ”

The words made a great splash in Lou Cheng’s mind. He remembered that his master once told him that the reason he couldn’t give him guidance that were too in-depth, was because he wanted to walk a path of martial arts that blended it the elements of cultivation.

But I seriously know nothing about cultivation…

What would my path of martial arts, and my will of martial arts look like, I wonder…

I guess I should start from the Jindan then?

“Your cousin found his will of martial arts because he got hurt that one time, am I right?” Lou Cheng asked.

There weren’t many people in this world who could communicate effectively with his brother-in-law. His girlfriend was one of them.

“Mm. My brother said that he never really saw the true face of his own will earlier because he was overly reliant on martial arts and hard work. It was only when he hurt himself and was unable to practice or train for a very long time, that his emotions cleared up and enabled him to slowly figure out his own will of martial arts. You can’t copy his method though, Cheng, no two persons are the same… ” Yan Zheke’s phone rang before she could finish.

When she picked up her phone and gave it a look, she withdrew her neck and smacked her lips. Then, she chose to accept the call,

“Grandpa… I was a little engrossed in training today… mm, mm. I’m coming over right away.”

The girl hung up the call and looked at Lou Cheng. She said reluctantly, “I have to go back to eat breakfast. What, what are you going to do later?”

“I’ve seen you and held you in my arms, haven’t I? It’s time for me to go home, and it’s not like you can come out even if I stayed here, can you? Plus, you’re going back to Xiushan by latest tomorrow, right?” Lou Cheng smiled faintly and said this while catching a whiff of Yan Zheke’s scent.

His original plan was to ask the girl to make some sort of excuse to visit her relatives and meet him for a brief date along the way. But since they’d already trained in the morning together, there was no need to trouble her anymore.

Yan Zheke stared quietly at Lou Cheng for several tens of seconds before she finally bit her lips softly and said,

“In that case, wait for me at the opposite side of the estate’s street for a bit~!”

“What is it? Are you treating me to your grandfather’s breakfast?” Lou Cheng ventured a guess.

Yan Zheke pursed her lips and smiled faintly, “Yeah! Wait for me~”

She left Lou Cheng’s embrace, turned around and jogged away slowly. She met up with her grandfather and returned to the house.

While she was helping setting down the utensils, she inhaled deeply, gathered her courage and smiled sweetly with dimples on her face,

“Grandpa, grandma, I’m going back to the university later. Song Li is looking for me about something!”

I’m going back to Xiushan together with Cheng!

“Why so sudden? Is it urgent? Aren’t your parents coming tonight or tomorrow to fetch you?” Yan Zheke’s grandma asked in astonishment.

“Yeah, I’m not going to wait for me. I’m an adult now; I went back and forth Songcheng myself so there’s nothing to be afraid about ~ Why don’t you two come over Xiushan and stay for a few days? Grandpa, grandma… ” Yan Zheke unleashed her charm skill and amused them until their moods were completely lifted and they agreed to her request.

“Hurray!” She cheered on the inside before charging into her room, took a quick bath and put on a new set of clothes. Then, she packed her things but left the clothes that hadn’t dried yet on the drying rack. She would come back for them in the future.

She made short work of her belongings and filled her suitcase to the brim with lightning speed. Then, she hastily got out of the door.

“Silly girl, you should at least finish your breakfast before you leave!” her grandmother stopped her.

Several thoughts flashed across Yan Zheke’s eyes at once before she nodded weakly and said, “Okay!”

She took a few tasteless bites and barely forced down a steamed bun down her stomach. Then, she drank a glass of milk.

“I’m done! Bye bye, grandpa, grandma~” she clapped her hands once like a kindergarten student, put on her shoes and ran out of the door towards the estate entrance while dragging her luggage.

I’ll call Empress Dowager later!

Her long hair streaked across the wind as she ran quickly amidst the clattering noise created by her suitcase. She couldn’t wait to see him.

Lou Cheng patiently waited patiently beneath the shadow of a tree on the opposite side of the street. His gaze never left the estate entrance. Suddenly, he saw Yan Zheke appearing with her long hair dancing in the air. She looked like a little fairy who had descended from the heavens as she dragged the familiar-looking suitcase behind her.

Er… he was a little caught off guard by this.

What’s going on?

Yan Zheke looked left and right, crossed the road and paused in front of him. While staring at the dumbfounded Lou Cheng, she pursed her lips and smiled, “Idiot, what are you still staring blankly at? Get my luggage and hail a car already!”

“You, you’re coming back with me?” Lou Cheng came to joyful realization as he hurriedly took over Yan Zheke’s suitcase.

Yan Zheke looked sideways and didn’t answer his question directly. Instead, she waved a hand coolly and let out a humph,

“Let’s go. Your older sister is treating you to breakfast!”

…

The duo leaned against one another on the middle-sized bus back from Zhengque to Xiushan. For a while they said nothing and simply smiled at each other as they clasped their fingers and joined their shining rings together once more.

It was at this moment the bus started and began playing a tune,

“The warmth of spring’s blossoming flowers take away winter’s pain,”

…

“Listen to me,”

“Hand in hand, come with me and create a happy life,”

“Yesterday is too late, tomorrow will be a shame,”

“So marry me today alright?”