Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
Wuyue Province, Moshang City.
Shi Yuejian was trying out new culinary methods, carefree, when she heard her phone vibrate.
“Dad, why aren’t you picking up your phone?” She raised her voice to ask loudly.
“Probably harassment,” Geezer Shi replied simply.
When the vibrating stopped, he unlocked the screen and clicked into the settings to change it to “Do not disturb” mode.
“Luckily I just learned how to do this. Otherwise, that stinky brat would be showing off to me!” Geezer Shi mumbled to himself.
He was still very up to date with the happenings around him.
At this moment, Shi Yuejian walked out from the kitchen with her phone in hand. She said doubtfully,
“Martial Junior called my phone, too...”
He had said he couldn’t get into contact with her father and wanted to know if everything was okay.
He still cares a lot about his seniors!
Geezer Shi’s face turned dark. He stretched out his hand and took the phone.
...
After hanging up the phone satisfactorily, Lou Cheng left the military base and arrived at Heishui Airport of Huacheng. After which, he took a direct flight to Xing Province, Gaofen.
When he landed, Yan Zheke happened to have woken up. After seeing his message, she began asking enthusiastically about his creepy encounters with the Witch King.
Lou Cheng was wearing a pair of black-framed spectacles that covered half of his face. As he spoke casually over the phone, he booked a private car and headed towards Gaofen city.
He had already made plans with Jiang Fei and Qin Rui in Huiyuan to have a meal together before the holidays. When the holidays started, he would fly to America. Lou Cheng treasured these opportunities to go to America, as he could only do so every six months. As he got more and more well-known, he might not even be able to enter America in the future. Luckily, Ke only had a year and a half of her program left, which meant he only needed three more entries.
Before the traffic jam in Gaofen started, Lou Cheng arrived at the restaurant Jiang Fei told him about, Laoleng Barbeque Sticks. He met up with his seemingly fatter and vitalized best friend.
“It’s not easy! It’s not easy to ask you out for a meal nowadays!” Jiang Fei smiled heartily and stood up. He pulled the chair back to let Lou Cheng put his bag down.
“Fatty Jiang, that’s not true. If you come to Huacheng, I’ll always be free to grab a meal.” Lou Cheng teased him a little before asking casually, “Qin Rui isn’t here yet?”
“He got stuck in traffic. The west road leading here is super jammed, and he thinks it’ll be another five or six minutes.” Jiang Fei pointed to the fridge with all kinds of goods and said, “Take whatever you want. Let me teach you. In Gaofen, don’t go to those big restaurants or fancy places. You have to visit small shops along the roads like these. As long as you find a good one, the taste will leave you with no doubts. This store just opened and I’ve tried it out. It’s much better than those chain restaurants out there, especially their beef and celery. Hehe. You can try it later.”
Lou Cheng glanced at the oily but clean environment before asking with a faint smile,
“Do they go for sticks or weight?”
For a barbeque business like this, they would charge either by stick or by weight. For the latter, the shop would measure the overall weight before dividing by a standard weight to get a rough number of sticks. It wouldn’t be very accurate, but was much more convenient.
“Number of sticks,” answered Jiang Fei without knowing the purpose of the question.
Lou Cheng giggled and joked,
“Won’t the waiter have fun counting all the sticks later?”
Jiang Fei then understood what he meant and couldn’t help but sigh,
“Tell me why? You eat much more food than me. Why don’t you get fat?”
“If you had the same level of intense training as me, you wouldn’t be fat either,” joked Lou Cheng.
Jiang Fei’s face twitched a little before saying in a self-deprecating manner,
“But I’d die...”
After finishing his sentence, the two of them broke into laughter. They moved and got a large metal plate, after which they took all the celery beef, coriander beef, five spices beef, spicy beef, and other types out from the fridge.
“Can you guys finish all those?” The waitress standing to the side looked at them with shock.
They have at least six or seven hundred sticks!
The kitchen can’t possibly keep up!
“We have a large group, but they haven’t arrived yet,” answered Lou Cheng seriously.
“Oh...” The waitress suddenly understood.
Laoleng Barbeque Sticks was a hot-pan restaurant, so they would have to cook for themselves. Lou Cheng and Jiang Fei had just managed to prepare a batch of sauces when they saw the 1.9 meters tall Qin Rui walk into the store.
“Latecomers will be punished with three cups!” Jiang Fei nagged.
As they were both in Gao Fen, Jiang Fei and Qin Rui, each single men, had been meeting up for dinner frequently over the past few months. Because of this, they had gotten to know each other well.
“Uhm, can I have tea instead of beer?” Qin Rui pulled up a chair and asked sincerely.
“Tea? We’re all drinking from cans!” laughed Jiang Fei.
“In that case, I’ll drink three cans of herbal tea as punishment.” Qin Rui relaxed instantly.
Lou Cheng noticed that his breathing and vitality was at a certain level. He asked curiously,
“Have you been trying to reach the Dan stage recently?”
Sigh. “Let’s not talk about it. I can’t find a direction at all. I’ve been increasing how often I fight in the rings, but I still don’t feel a thing,” answered Qin Rui with a little bitterness and a little anticipation.
Since coming to Gaofen, he had joined a martial arts gym that was affiliated with his master. He had been taking part in select competitions with a group of like-minded people. Despite losing each match, he continued fighting. Bit by bit, he had slowly become a professional ninth pin martial artist. This year, he even took part in several small scale individual competitions and won prize money for the first time.
Lou Cheng pondered for a while and said,
“You can try to change your approach. Don’t overwhelm yourself with competitions. Find some free time to take a vacation. It would be best if you go somewhere open, spacious, and beautiful. You could also pick up fishing in your free time or learn how to cook. To sum it up, try something different to experience a different life. Then you can find the strength deep in your heart to support you in your journey ahead. That way if you feel something, you can focus on it and design certain ways to hone your will.”
“When I was at your stage, my master gave me seven words. Let me give them to you too: human body big dan, round and bright.”
“Hmm. I’ll give it a try later...” Qin Rui nodded his head despite not being too clear about what Lou Cheng had said. Nonetheless, he decided to do as Lou Cheng suggested.
After chatting about martial arts for a while, Lou Cheng lifted the tongs, picked up the beef and swirled it in his sauce a few times before putting it in his mouth. All he could feel was that the meat was tender and smooth. The taste of the celery masked the imperfections of the beef. Together with the chilli and spices, it was delicious.
“Not bad! Jiang Fei, you’re still really good when it comes to food!” Lou Cheng complimented. After which, he asked, “How are you? How have you been doing in the factory recently?”
“It’s still the same. How different can it get for those of us who studied engineering?” Jiang Fei suddenly said angrily. “Starting out, I thought joining a factory would allow me to meet girls working part-time there. Turns out our industry is super male-heavy. Feels like I’m going to be single for a while.”
“I think I’ll remain single and lonely for life...” Qin Rui sang to him.
“Don’t worry. In just a few years, your parents will be trying to matchmake for you.” Jiang Fei didn’t know if Lou Cheng was comforting him or agitating him. “Even if there were girls working part-time in the factory, you probably wouldn’t be into them.”
“That’s true. We probably wouldn’t have much in common to talk about after marriage...” The single-for-life Jiang Fei had thought about his hypothetical married life seriously. He sighed and said, “The work in the factory is pretty boring and I don’t see any progression short-term. Amongst our training group, there are already a few who have left. My mentor has been praising me that I’m mature and composed enough to do my work. The truth is that I’ve been flustered and thinking about going for my masters degree or starting my own business. But I forget about those ideas quickly.”
“Since the day we met, I’ve always been impressed by that characteristic of yours. You have a good attitude and don’t mind troubles.” Lou Cheng said sincerely, “When you’ve thought about the direction you want to go in, feel free to tell me if there’s any way I can help.”
This was the main reason why his friendship with Fatty Jiang had lasted for so long and not faded as time passed.
Some people could be friends forever, while others only for a certain stage in life.
Jiang Fei’s eyes lit up and he said,
“Great! I’ll remember that!”
Lou Cheng broke into laughter and said teasingly, “Fatty Jiang, I was just being courteous and you immediately agree to it?”
“Hehe. Those with thicker skin would live a better life!” laughed Jiang Fei satisfactorily.
As they ate, Qin Rui remembered something and laughed,
“Cheng, the area outside your house has nearly become a performance venue during holidays.”
“Why?” Lou Cheng was completely lost.
“During each holiday, parents bring their children who practice martial arts to practice in front of your house and perform tricks. They hope that some Physical Invulnerability expert might happen to return home, happen to be interested in their children’s potential, and accept them as disciples,” explained Qin Rui simply.
Lou Cheng broke into laughter and said, “Are they thinking too much into it?”
All of his neighbours knew about the area where his family lived. However, with the government and military looking out for them in the light and dark, harassment wouldn’t occur.
“I’ve heard about that, too. When I passed by your house before, I even saw a man with a monkey. I’m not sure if he was trying to earn some money in the crowd or hoping you might take his monkey as a disciple.” Jiang Fei laughed out loud.
Lou Cheng was amused as he said, “I could try to teach it some Cultivation tricks.”
Since reaching the Physical Invulnerability stage, he had not returned home during holidays, only when he was free.
They continued on this topic for some time before Qin Rui asked curiously,
“Cheng, I haven’t seen you participating in the most recent title competitions. Are you conserving your strength and preparing to surprise everyone in one go?”
“I can’t say that I’m going to surprise everyone in one go. It is just that I’m trying to focus. After the new year, my goal is to do well in the professional league competitions and try my best in the Warrior Sage battle in May and the Battle of the Kings in December. As for the other title competitions, I might give up on them or just take them as an opportunity to understand my opponents better and try out my moves.” Lou Cheng pondered as he answered, seeming full of ambition.
When it’s May, I will have been at Physical Invulnerability for almost a year. In December, it will be a year and a half!
“In that case, here’s to you achieving a good ranking!” Jiang Fei and Qin Rui lifted their drinks and said.
The next day morning, Lou Cheng said his goodbyes and took the high-speed train back to Xiushan. Ominous clouds filled the skies and the weather wasn’t great.
When he arrived in his hometown, he walked out of the high-speed train station and happened to see snow floating down the skies.
Since Lou Cheng was born, Xiushan had only seen snow on three occasions. This was the fourth!
“A timely snow symbolizes a fruitful year!” A smile appeared on Lou Cheng’s face as he said emotionally.