Martial Arts Master

“What idea?” The Azure Dragon Squad’s leader, Mo Zicong, turned back from the front seat and stared at Deng Hua in shock.

Lou Cheng had mastered the Tremor Punch, and Lin Que was going to return, which seemed that we were doomed to lose. What other ideas could there be?

Deng Hua touched his Mohican hair and exhaled. “We can apply for special competition format!”

“Deng, are you dumb? We don’t know how to do formations!” Zhu Tao, a baldy with short stubble, looked at his friend like his friend was an idiot.

Special competition format meant that the team could claim that they fought in formations, and applied for the permission to have three people enter the ring at one time. The opponent could also use formations to fight, or put in up to six people to use numbers to match formations.

The Azure Dragon Squad was made up of a collaboration of several martial arts club. Even if they did have formations, the four professional fighters mastered entirely different skills, how could they execute any formations?

Xu Zheng, who was driving could not hold and started to scold. “Deng, stop thinking about the impossible. Damn, something went into the heads of the Songcheng University team right! Do they have nothing better to do? Why are they in these preliminaries? Now, we have to wait till next year!”

When they first formed the squad, they were confident. They were sure that they would come out tops in any division or group. Who would know, Songcheng University would come up as a black horse. In addition, Pan Chengyun from Hongluo Martial Arts School had already attained the Professional Ninth Pin level. Jiang Guosheng and Fang Tong, both, could not be overlooked!

This was completely a “death” team that you would only come by once in a decade.

Deng Hua had already planned out the details. He smiled and said, “Yes, we don’t know how to make formations, but the substitutes of the Songcheng University Martial Arts Club are very weak!”

“Tsk, share more details.” Mo Zicong took a deep breath and kind of grasped what Deng Hua was trying to hint at.

Deng Hua sniggered and said, “We can’t beat Lou Cheng’s Tremor Punch, and we also can’t beat Lin Que who is about to return. But, we can be considered as strong Professional Ninth Pin fighters right, and if we can predict what’s going to happen, we wouldn’t just fail right? We can probably hold them up for a while. For example, Brother Cong, you can try to fight Lin Que. Wouldn’t you be KO-ed within a couple of seconds right? If we intentionally put in the effort to defend, we probably can hold two to three minutes at least?!”

“I have some confidence in this area you’re talking about.” Mo Zicong nodded lightly, somewhat understanding what Deng Hua was thinking about.

Deng Hua looked at baldy senior, Zhu Tao, and chuckled. “Brother Cong will take care of Lin Que. I’ll handle Lou Cheng, the rest of Songcheng University team are no-professionals. Maybe not even One-Pin, do you think you can beat the rest of them within a short time?”

“Many mosquitoes can kill an elephant. I can only say the chances are 50-50.” Zhu Tao answered cautiously.

“That’s it, isn’t it?” Deng Hua raised his voice. “Wait till you’re done with those non-professionals, you can come and join hands with us to attack Lin Que or Lou Cheng. I doubt they’ve more than a pair of hands and legs. If they get flustered, they’ll probably make more mistakes!”

“Deng is right. If we don’t do it this way, we wouldn’t even have a 10% chance of winning. We can only hope that Lou Cheng and Lin Que don’t perform well, and with the special competition format, we would have at least 50% chance of victory!” Mo Zicong agreed readily. “Let’s apply quickly. If we’re late, it’ll be difficult to get approval.”

Once the special competition format was used, there would be a huge crowd and mess on the ring. One referee was not enough at all, even if there was a competition supervisor, it was also not enough. A specific arrangement was required, so the earlier you applied the higher chances it would be approved.

Of course, the Azure Dragon Squad themselves had some connections and could persuade the committee to “believe” in their saying of formation play.

“Great!” Zhu Tao and Xu Zhengqi shouted in agreement together, recovering the lost passion and fighting spirit.

…

Yan Zheke closed her laptop and was just about to do laundry when she heard her phone vibrate.

She picked it up to see and found that it was a call from Cheng. Unknowingly, a smile appeared on her face and she walked back to the balcony and shut the sliding door that separated the balcony from the room.

“Sorry, the number you are calling is engaged. Please try again later.” Yan Zheke’s eyes sparkled with mischief and said these words as formally as she could.

Why would Lou Cheng not be able to recognize his girlfriend’s voice? He laughed and said, “Which telephone company would play the recorded message after a few rings?”

Yan Zheke pursed her lips and smiled. “I’ve always thought that you’re dumb right? So maybe you’ll believe when I say such stuff like caller’s engaged or something!”

Her bright tone and liveliness infected Lou Cheng, making his mood better. He gently laughed and said, “I saw the video you posted on the forum…”

He spoke with tenderness and as Yan Zheke heard his voice, her dimples surfaced again. Bashfully, she said,

“What’re you talking about? How come I don’t understand!”

She decided to upload the video to the forum and not send it to Lou Cheng because she was too shy. She would never tell her boyfriend that she had specially asked her friends, Dirty Tong and the other all, to help him record a video of the match so that he and his fans could see it in advance.

That would be so embarrassing!

Of course, if Lou Cheng did not check the forum in the afternoon, she was all prepared not to do any explanation and sent it to him directly. Then she would say, “Quick, praise me!”

After hearing her pretending not to know what he was referring to, Lou Cheng burst out laughing, his heart warmer than ever. He asked, “What price did you pay to get this?”

Yan Zheke did not deny any further. She leaned against the window ledge of the living room and said with a small smile, “A meal.”

Then, she said proudly, “I feel that “Lou Cheng’s whatever” such IDs would be in high demand soon. So many people registered just now!”

“Pfft, what’re they called?” If it was not because he was using the phone to speak to Yan Zheke, he really wanted to send a lovingly spoilt emoji.

Yan Zheke pressed her lips together and looked toward the sky. In slightly high-pitched voice, she said,

“Not telling you!”

After talking about random stuff for a while, she thought about something important. She took a deep breath and said,

“Cheng, my mum may be coming over these couple of days…”

Lou Cheng was shocked. “Mother… I mean auntie, why is auntie coming over on such short notice? ”

About “Mother-in-law”, this living species, most men feared them. It was like facing a “Queen Mother”.

“It’s all because of Uncle Xie! ” Yan Zheke pushed all the blame to Xie Chengzhen. “That day, not only did Xie Tianque see us holding hands, his dad saw us too. We were all not aware. In the end, two days back, when he went to visit my grandpa, he spilled the beans. So, my mum found out. Good thing my brother covered us up. He said that it was because I was trying to shoo away the pesky Xie Tianque, so I asked someone to help…”

After explaining, she had no more energy to speak. She made a mental note to herself. “Those were words of Cousin, not mine…”

Luckily, Yan Zheke finished explaining in one breath. Hence Lou Cheng’s did not beat too fast. He said carefully, “It’s all my fault. I couldn’t bear to waste time that I could spend with you… Will your mum really come and make her rounds?”

Upon hearing her boyfriend’s first sentence, Yan Zheke’s frown disappeared. With a serious tone, she said, “Believe me! My mum is the kind of person who would do what she says! I suspect she’s probably on her way to the airport already!”

The explanation would not satisfy her intelligent mum! She would not believe!

“Huu…” Lou Cheng exhaled deeply. With some disappointment and regret, he said, “So, that means we have to keep a distance these few days?”

Yan Zheke’s pearly white teeth bit her lower lip. She thought about it and replied, “It’s not that serious. As long as we’re careful at a couple of places Iike from the martial arts arena to the class building, from the conference hall to the bridge, the start of the pathway to my dormitory. My mum probably can’t follow me all around, right?”

“Oh yes. During meal times, there’re so many cafeterias, so many people, and so many tables. The chance of meeting her is really small.” Lou Cheng was rejuvenated and said admirably, “But, how did you narrow down to these three “risky” places?”

“Just a guess…” Yan Zheke suddenly blushed. She looked demure and beautiful.

It was because of this matter, Dirty Tong had teased her that her mind was now corrupted and would never be pure again!

After a couple of exchanges on this topic, she worriedly asked, “Cheng, would you be unhappy? Would you feel that we have to play hide and seek and be secretive about us?”

Lou Cheng answered sincerely,

“No. In fact, I feel rather guilty myself. I feel that I’m not good enough yet, and I’m not good enough for you. In fact, I wouldn’t have the guts to meet your mum. I don’t have much confidence. I’m afraid I wouldn’t leave a good impression. If the first impression is no good, it’ll be difficult to change it, and it’ll be even more challenging to be together in the future…”

“I’ve been trying hard to improve myself. Hoping that I’ll be good enough eventually. Then, I would meet your parents and give them the first impression that I’m a reliable person, and they could give their daughter to me, with confidence…”

“Moreover, I know that I’ve confessed my feelings for you too abruptly. You probably haven’t got used to it or accept it fully yet. If there’s any pressure, I’m afraid that you’ll feel that this relationship is too troublesome, too restrictive. So, there’s nothing bad about being a little secretive now…”

Yan Zheke quietly listened to Lou Cheng’s somewhat clumsy words, and thoroughly felt the sincere but somewhat clumsy love. With a warm and fuzzy feeling, her eyes reddened and she said softly,

“Cheng…”

Actually, I already like you very much…

“Hmm?” Lou Cheng asked.

Yan Zheke bit her lip again and smiled. She said,

“Nothing just wanted to call your name…”

About me liking you very much, I’ll tell you when the time comes in the future…

…

“Mother-in-law is coming to visit…” After he put down the phone, Lou Cheng was still a little distracted. He felt that he needed to do something, but after thinking through, he concluded that not doing anything was probably the best strategy. The more he did, the more room there would be for mistakes, and the higher possibility that he would be found out.

“Ay, can’t believe that though I’m only 19, I can already understand the awe of mother-in-law…” He laughed at himself. He couldn’t understand how his high school and middle school classmates, those who started dating early, managed to face the “mother-in-law” pressure, or rather, didn’t they meet at all?

After spending some time to calm down and straighten his thoughts, he refreshed and rechecked the forum. He saw how the Road to the Arena and the Unparalleled Dragon King had led discussion through a train of related topics: “Lou Cheng, himself-Songcheng Martial Arts Club-coach”. They started to discuss his master.

“Old Dragon, you’re my most respected human encyclopedia. Do you know the background of Coach Shi of the Songcheng University Martial Arts Club?” the Road to the Arena asked curiously. “I asked around before and also searched online, but I just cannot find any relevant information. He has skills from the Ice Sect, he has a last name, plus he seems to possess physical invulnerability, it should be easy to find out about him.”

The Unparalleled Dragon King sent an emoji with a bitter expression. “I had searched before, but like you, I found nothing… Even his name in the list on the preliminaries website is “Coach Shi”. I’m even wondering if he’s really called Coach Shi! But, to have the last name, Shi and the skills of the Ice Sect, I feel that he must be related to Shi Yuejian of the ‘Wuyue Club’. Of course, he could be using a fake last name…”