Returning to the men's locker room and entering the shower area, drenched in the spray of warm water, Lou Cheng couldn't help but hum a tune to himself as he washed away the exhaustion from his heart and mind.
He changed into some better clothes. He used a towel to dry his hair, and as he walked out, Cai Zongming was the only person left.
"Not bad, you're positively beaming." the impatient classmate Little Ming said.
"Hehe." For Lou Cheng, laughter had replaced every other response.
Cai Zongming tsked and sighed, "Man, in life this kind of purity only comes once. A burning fire from the bottom of one's heart, leaving you unable to consider any other kind of emotion. You have to treasure it completely! When you date again, it won't have that same emotion to it, so you can't hold back at all or have any reservations.
Lou Cheng furrowed his brow, "Why do you say after dating again? If you take this kind of pure feeling and continue to preserve it for forever and forever, is that a bad thing? Or is that you don't want to have a girlfriend for the sake of marriage?"
Cai Zongming laughed, "Feeling these kinds of emotions isn't simple in any way. To get a grasp is the beginning, there's no shortage of conflict and twists and turns. This is an era brimming with temptation. To want your first love also to be your last, this is difficult! I'm only giving you a heads-up. Two people's interactions with each other aren't always beautiful."
"I believe that as long as both people work hard to communicate with each other, and learn to forgive one another, it's possible." Lou Cheng said with sincerity.
Cai Zongming mouth twitched, and he clapped his shoulder.
"I think there's something in the way of our communication here..."
Leaving the cafeteria with a somewhat filled stomach, Lou Cheng checked the journey ahead of him as he stepped on.
After taking a window seat on the bus, he took out his phone as if he was the only person in the world and logged onto QQ.
"Have you left?" Yan Zheke sent him an emoji with its hands covering its mouth.
"Just got on." Lou Cheng replied with a gentle face emoji.
Yan Zheke didn't mention it again and sent an emoji with tears flowing and fists clenched, "I feel super tired today, even more than after training yesterday. My waist is sore and my back aches..."
Oh...Lou Cheng quickly sent an emoji patting someone's head, "Maybe it's because you got up so early to train."
"That's right, I'm not only merely doing the special training..." Yan Zheke replied using a "Who am I, where am I, what am I doing" emoji.
Lou Cheng laughed upon seeing the emoji, and said with concern, "How about you stop getting up so early for more training? For the sake of your body, having four hours of special training is already enough. Having any more is actually not that good and will make you get injured from fatigue. I'm not saying that your body isn't good enough, I'm just saying you don't have the kind of abnormal endurance that I have and you're not able to take it. A half hour of still stances in the morning to raise your spirit, that would be best."
Yan Zheke used an emoji with its right hand to scratching its chin in thought and said, "This is true...Hey, I can get more familiar with my covers instead! Hmm, tomorrow I'll start to get up at 7 am, and do some still stance for a half hour in the dorm balcony. Otherwise, I'm really afraid that I won't be able to be able to listen to any afternoon or evening classes."
"Coach Yan, you really do accept advice readily."Lou Cheng praised, then turned around and said, "I've noticed my appetite has gotten bigger again. Today I ate 50 cents worth of rice, and it felt like I hadn't eaten anything at all...Although it's necessary to keep your stomach in check, I reckon after eating 1.5 yuans worth of rice I still wasn't full, and this isn't even counting the other food!"
Yan Zheke sent an emoji of someone crouching in the corner miserably, "Me too...I only ate enough food suitable for a delicate and fair maiden, but now, now I have to go to several windows in shame. I'll go to one and order 30 cents worth of rice, then go another and order 30 cents more, and finally I'll go another window and order another 20 cents worth. No less than 80 cents worth of rice, it's like I'm a total chowhound..."
"Then what am I? Two chowhounds? Some kind of food receptacle?" Lou Cheng replied, smiling from ear to ear and ignoring the looks and stares from those beside him.
While chatting, time flew, and he hadn't even raised his head to look out at the scenery going by. Arriving at the Songcheng University old campus, he hailed a car online to find the first order of business: Dingshang Sautéed Crab in Hot and Spicy Sauce
Now it was getting later in the day, and the rush hour had already finished, so Lou Cheng did not have for long as he took his place in line.
Seeing that he was by himself, the waitress was slightly surprised and blurted out, "Sir, how many are with you? Do you need to wait for everyone and come back?"
"Just one." Lou Cheng laughed awkwardly, but not shrinking back in the slightest. After all, this was this was his "Divine Mission".
The waitress was unable to look at Lou Cheng in the face; it seemed like she was looking at a desperate single person. She didn't probe any further and said politely, "What kind of crab would you like? We have a few different kinds of quality. The cheapest is 99 yuan for half a kilogram, and the most expensive is 499..."
Lou Cheng was still fairly frugal. As he looked at the stickers on the water tank, he said, "The 199 yuan one, just give me two."
According to what Qin Mo had said, this place was also half composed of a hot pot restaurant. You'd first order some glutinous rice, lotus root, and some spicy crab and toss it all into a hotpot. To cook all of the meat, boiling hot broth would be added to cook it, and you could boil some Steamed Shrimp Dumplings, beef, handmade noodles, and other things. They didn't just depend on the crab to fill you up.
After ordering, he was led by the waitress to his seat. Along the way he sized everything up, taking in and observing the environment. According to what his classmate Little Ming had said, during the first time you take a girl out to eat, if you're not sure what her favorite kind of atmosphere, you at least need to find a place that's not too noisy, chaotic, or messy. Otherwise the great flavor of the food won't be able to counteract the terrible impression created by the environment, unless it was truly divine.
Right, two person and four person tables big difference with the larger tables was that on both sides, inbetween there was a block. This environment wasn't too bad...Lou Cheng nodded his head satisfactorily as he waited for the fresh spicy lobster to be brought over.
In this moment, he ate happily. The crab was cooked fresh, the spiciness was ingrained with a little sweetness, and it really hit the spot. After cooking the handmade noodles in the hot pot, as well as the 'Vitality Meatballs', it could be considered a great meal.
"She should enjoy it..." Lou Cheng thought happily as he compared it to a different person's tastes.
After paying, he hurriedly went outside and looked through the surrounding stores as he still had to try out two other places. He was strapped for time and couldn't afford the luxury of casually and carefreely wandering around. Instead he ran, ignoring the staring of passerby as he glanced left and right.
It's commonly said that, if you run in this way, it's impossible to avoid running into other pedestrians or telephone poles, but he was all eyes. All of his energy was focused in his footsteps as he avoided everything just in time, running through flower shrubs and not walking away with the smell of flowers on him afterward.
"Is this like some kind of alternative martial arts training?...." he thought to himself, amused.
300 meters outside, behind the shopping area, Lou Cheng found a secluded coffee shop that seemed to have some character. He sat down and carefully sampled the beverages and pastries.
Yan Zheke has said before she didn't like coffee, but she seemed to love milk tea really, and there were several kinds offered here...Lou Cheng looked at all of the cups in front of him. Suddenly, he felt that there was a lot of pressure in his bladder.
He was delighted with the environment here. It didn't seem like a Starbucks at the main entrance of a shopping mall where there were tons of people and the seats were arranged in a way that there was no privacy, like a McDonalds or KFC. Those were absolutely not acceptable for a date, and this place also didn't feel the least bit pretentious.
100 meters to the left of the coffee shop, Lou Cheng discovered a cake shop.
He walked to and fro, looking out for different pieces of bread, and chose a few that Yan Zheke usually mentioned. After buying them, he immediately sat down and began to eat.
"The quality is really nice!" he patted his stomach with a sense of gratification.
Lou Cheng took the elevator to the mall's fifth floor and surveyed the posters of the newest movies that were showing. He asked the employees about the characteristics of each film, as well as whether it would be easy or difficult to purchase a ticket for each.
"If it turns out we want to watch a movie then, I can directly give her a recommendation, make it seem like I'm confident and have my own opinions. It'll leave a good impression", he fantasized the scene playing out during the date.
Afterwards, Lou Cheng again researched the local bus routes nearby. This way he could avoid not being able to find a car online or a taxi. It wouldn't be acceptable to make a lady standing waiting with nothing to do, would it?
He had bustled around like this for the entire afternoon, running here and running there, While his stomach was ready to burst, his spirit was incredibly excited. Finally he'd chosen two other restaurants close to the Dingshang Sautéed Crab in Hot and Spicy Sauce that had the perfect flavor, and that they could go to afterward during the date.
The next morning, Songcheng University's Martial Arts Club first class of the semester officially. The people who came weren't numerous, but they were all even more serious.
During the bitter training of the Ice Mirror's 'Thunderous Roar Zen', Lou Cheng, rather than training in the same way as the fellow members, instead acted as Geezer Shi's assistant. Other than his own physical training, he also would point out advice to his surrounding classmates.
When Geezer Shi told the group to go to the Strength Training Gymnasium to train, a sea of people came through the entrance. There was a man carrying a video camera on his shoulder, a female reporter holding a microphone, as well as staff members of the school.
"Hey, Cheng, do you see this? It's that reporter from last year! Shu...Shu Rui!" Cai Zongming eyes sparkled as he stopped training and slapped Lou Cheng's shoulder.
Lou Cheng past had followed him. Here he was looking the source of his own black history. This Shu Rui, whose name was carved in the pit of his stomach, didn't seem nearly as mature as she looked in her videos. Her dainty face had already been rid of any trace of seeming like a student, and her eyes glowed with energy and vigor.
Due to the weather, she had a black down jacket this time, which set against her skin made it seem all the more white and dainty. Her thigh high boots accented the curves of her long and straight legs.
"An interview..."
"There's a reporter for an interview!"
All of the voices of the Martial Arts Club Members remaining could be heard whispering together.
Shu Rui's gaze swept through the ranks of the Martial Arts Club, then brightened suddenly as she quickly headed over. She directly approached Lou Cheng and Cai Zongming, smiling sweetly as she said, "Fellow classmates, do you remember me?"
"I remember." compared to the last time he'd accepted the interview, Lou Cheng wasn't that nervous or uneasy.
Cai Zongming followed suit, nodding his head. "I remember, that was my first time being on TV."
Shu Rui said with a smile, "Before I set off earlier, I looked through the footage one more time. I still have a strong impression of you two, so it only took a quick glance to recognize you both. How do you feel about accepting another interview today?"
"Sure." Lou Cheng answered concisely.
To be honest, he wasn't all that excited about an interview on the local TV station, but he had to take into account making sure not to have his teacher lose face.
"No problem!" Cai Zongming was always pumped.
Shu Rui nodded, "Then I'll interview you one by one. Classmate, okay if I start with you?"
She fixed her gaze towards Lou Cheng.
"Go ahead." Lou Cheng replied politely.
Shu Rui suddenly broke into soft and delicate laughter. "I can see that you've changed a lot! Last time when I interviewed you, you were incredibly nervous and stiff. But today, today....how to say...in a novel they'd say cool and collected."
"Because I've got experience now." Lou Cheng casually blurted out.
Shu Rui nodded her head slightly, "Then I'll start the interview proper. According to the information given to me by your Propaganda Department, your Martial Arts Club plans to join the preliminaries this time around. Did you know this information?"
Upon hearing this, all of the Martial Arts Club members around them burst out in a din of sound. After listening to this, there was an indescribable excitement.
The Preliminaries? The Martial Arts Club would organize a group to join the Preliminaries?
"I know." Lou Cheng finally realized why the reporter had come.
Shu Rui gave an encouraging smile, "Then how do you feel about this? What kind of expectations do you have?"
"Hmm, I think it's a really good thing. There is no official match this semester, so to fill in the gap and get some practical fighting experience and training in, joining the preliminaries is the best method. That way we can exchange blows with real experts. We'll all surely be able to improve by a lot." Lou Cheng replied honestly.
Shu Rui furrowed her brow, feeling that this answer was a little strange. However, she couldn't say exactly what was strange about it, and could only reply teasingly, "Classmate, don't you think your response is a little too formal? It feels like you're the official spokesman for the Martial Arts Club."
"I'm a Martial Arts fan, but I also watch a lot of news and news reports." Lou Cheng explained humorously.
Shu Rui chuckled, "Fine, next question. When I was on the way I took a quick look at the list of names that your Propaganda Department gave me. I noticed a strangers name on there, called Lou Cheng. Last year, he at the start hadn't joined the district contest of the National University Martial Arts Competitions, but this year he's lept ahead and become the preliminaries leading player. Is there any story behind this?
"Do you know what kind of person Lou Cheng is? Is he a private person? Last semester did he or did he not join the Martial Arts Club. What level is his strength at, is he a Professional Ninth Pin?"
Lou Cheng faltered, and then forced a smile, "I can't really answer these questions that well."
Beside him, Cai Zongming painfully kept himself from smiling.
Shu Rui furrowed her brows further, then relaxed and chuckled, "Fine, in that case can you point out to me who Lou Cheng is? I'll go and interview him directly."
Ha! Cai Zongming was unable to contain himself as Lou Cheng pointed at himself and helplessly said.
"I am Lou Cheng..."