On Monday morning, my dad was still sleeping soundly. Based on the red glow on his face, he must have secretly drank some beer while I wasn’t watching him.
I woke up at five in the morning. I was deeply worried about future developments, so I ran dejectedly to the lakeside to practice with gramps.
Gramps who bailed on me on Sunday had his hands behind his back while gazing at the bluish-green lake.
I’m not saying the lake is bluish-green because of the scenery, but rather, there’s a vegetable market nearby. The vendors would sometimes dump their rotten veggies into the lake. So, the main reason the lake is bluish-green is due to the spinach leaves.
My complexion probably looked just as bad as the spinach leaves. When gramps saw me, he frowned and said:
“Why do you look so worried at so young? Did you get AIDS?”
“No, no….”
“Then what are you worrying about?”
I couldn’t tell him my dad did it with my classmate’s mom and I don’t really want to face her.
Besides, this is personal. Gramps isn’t related to me and we don’t even know each other’s names. Even if my dad and Auntie Ren did it four times in a row, it has nothing to do with gramps.
“Since you don’t have an incurable illness, we can continue practicing.”
Perhaps gramps was still pissed I bailed on Saturday, but his hits seemed much harder. I shot onto the trunk of the tree multiple times and it left bruises on my body.
Plus, my entire body was sore from the battle with young master Xu TianMing the other day. That’s why the results against gramps was even worse than usual.
Gramps played with me for a bit in high spirits. Then he watched me as I sat down in front of the tree to catch my breath and said with curiosity:
“I never expected your Hua Jin skills to improve even more when you didn’t come to practice for two days.”
“Eh.” I was astonished, “I was clearly beaten terribly.”
“Hmph, that’s because I usually only use twenty percent of my strength, but today I used forty percent. I can only say you’re learning at lightning speeds if you are already able to withstand forty percent of my strength.”
So you were planning on pushing me into the lake and covering my entire body with spinach? How much do you hold a grudge?
Does my quick developments have anything to do with the battle yesterday with Xu TianMing?
Wait, that doesn’t make sense, since I couldn’t use Yin Yang Sanshou due to his fast kicks.
Maybe it was because of the battle with He Ling on the stage at the dojang? At the time, I could only depend on Yin Yang Sanshou because I had used all my strength. Did I accidentally level up in that instance?
Wahahaha, I’m a genius! Based on how fast I’m learning, there’s no one else who can learn martial arts like me! Gramps, you should hurry up and come to a realization so you can pass on Fa Jin to me too. I might be willing to accept if you beg me to learn it while hugging my legs.
Gramps clicked his tongue as if he read my mind and said:
“You don’t have to come here to learn from me anymore.”
“Huh?”
“Even if you come, I might not even be here.”
“Huh?”
“Take your time to understand the thing I’ve taught you.”
“Huh?”
“The most important thing is don’t tell anyone that I’m your master.”
I suffered a huge shock. Is gramps trying to break off our relationship? I haven’t even learned enough yet!
“Master, master, I was wrong. Please don’t chase me away.”
I hugged onto gramps’s legs and yelled while sobbing..
Gramps’ face turned purple as kicked me aside and shouted furiously:
“I already said don’t call me master! There’s a reason why I won’t train you every day anymore.”
“Huh?”
“If we’re only talking about Hua Jin, your skills in Yin Yang Sanshou is almost on par with my daughter…”
“Even though I said my granddaughter is a genius and there’s a huge difference between you and her, she completely refuses to learn. She keeps saying learning Yin Yang Sanshou with me will make her legs shorter. But I’ve already tricked her into learning a lot when she was a kid.”
“Martial arts is like rowing a boat upstream. If you stop moving forwards, you’ll be pushed back. At that time, you may actually surpass both of them.”
I felt a bit depressed after hearing his words. Does this mean gramps doesn’t want an outsider’s skills to surpass his family?
“More importantly, the smell of vegetables in the summer is awful…”
Wow, you really changed the topic really quickly.
“I recommend that you shouldn’t run every day. According to the mayor, they’re planning to build a slew of resting pavilions around the lake to attract tourists. That means you would be breathing in a lot of dust and dirt when running around the lake, and that could lead to lung cancer.”
“Are you perhaps…” I was touched, “Do you want to change a location to teach me because you’re worried about my health?”
“You really have no sense of shame. I’m obviously worried about my own health.”
After fuming at me a bit, gramps said:
“A master can teach you the basics, but the rest of the work depends on yourself. Besides, I’m not even your real master. Just slowly try to experience the profound nature of Yin Yang Sanshou while construction is underway. The most important thing you should remember is don’t rashly use it against other people. Your skill in Hua Jin may have reached new heights, but Hua Jin and Fa Jin are both integral components. If you suddenly discover Fa Jin and use it without the proper experience required to handle it…..”
“What’s going to happen?” I was in a panic, “Am I going to go mad with power? Are my veins going to burst?”
“The hell, I already told you not to read that many wuxia novels.” Gramps hit me on the head, “It’s even worse than going mad.”
Gramps said with a worried expression:
“Fa Jin is a common occurrence in martial arts. Even the best boxers in Europe use Fa Jin, but obviously they call it something else.”
“When my ancestors created Yin Yan Sanshou, it was still during the Warring States Period. That’s why they prioritized destructive power for the Fa Jin in Yin Yang Sanshou… if you use it on a regular person near their vitals, they can easily die.”
I didn’t really believe him, but had to agree to be careful because of his solemn expression.
Besides, you never even taught me Fa Jin! How would I even discover it myself?
“Then, when the construction ends, do I still come here to look for you? What if you don’t come?”
“That’s an easy problem to solve, just give me your phone number. I’ll give you a call when the time is right.”
After I told him my number, he said he can’t remember it and he didn’t bring any paper.
“I’ll tell you my number, but don’t call me randomly. You can only call me when you get stumped during training.”
I was elated and shocked: “Gramps, you have a cellphone?”
“Why won’t I have a cellphone? Do you think I’m an old fossil? Not only do I have a cellphone, it’s also a 5th gen iPhone my son bought me. I also hold the highest Fruit Ninja record in my martial arts association.”
After separating from gramps, I felt a bit disappointed I won’t be able to see him for a while, but I was also secretly happy to know my skills improved.
I was late to school since I got held up in the morning. I couldn’t attend the morning flag-raising ceremony and had to sneak into class. I found Xiao Qin sitting in class with tears running down her face while holding a thick math problems textbook.
Damn, there’s no need to be that sad even if you can’t even do a single problem.
Wait, there’s no way Xiao Qin would care about her own grades. It would make sense for Gong CaiCai, but Xiao Qin wouldn’t feel guilty even if she scores a zero. So, there’s no way she would cry over math problems she can’t solve.
Is it because of something else? Did you coincidentally remember something when you opened the textbook? What made you this sad?
Shoot, don’t tell me you found out about Auntie Ren and my dad? You were still telling me a few days ago how I shouldn’t get any dirty thoughts about my own sister and incest is gross, but are you getting sad now that we’re about to be step-siblings?
It’s fine if my dad didn’t keep it a secret, but why did Auntie Ren tell her daughter? Is it something to be proud of? Is four times a night something amazing?
I walked over awkwardly, but found Xiao Qin reading a novel that had the cover of a math textbook. There wasn’t a single formula, it was only filled with words.
“Sob sob, Ye Lin classmate…”
I thought she would say, “How could our parents do that?”, but she said:
“This book is really moving.”
“I’m reading books to gather inspiration for manga, and this novel is really touching.”
“The female protagonist is so brave. She’s willing to kill all her rivals in love to stay with the male protagonist. Why did the Nobel prize in literature go to Mo Yan, this novel is clearly better.”
“Isn’t that right? Hey, why are you shaking? Is it because you like Mo Yan and I made you mad?”
Shit, if you don’t know about our parents, don’t cry randomly! Also, stop trying to send me warnings while reading these violent novels.